GREGORY’S POV:

Girls.

I can work out girls easy. They’re all airheads. I’ve yet to see a girl serious about anything. Wait, yes I have. Just not about anything important, that’s all.

What do you think of when you think of girls? Sleepovers, secrets, gossip? Boys? Is it just me, or is that all girls seem to think about: boys boys boys. One-track minds. Pink. Fluffy. Designer clothes. Everything by the latest designer. Their hair. Looking cute. Looking perfect. Having perfect nails, perfect teeth, perfect EVERYTHING… Shallow. Narrow-minded. Feminist. Think they’re as good as guys, even thought they sit about looking all pretty, waaay too much to have an interest in anything remotely useful for society, or even BE remotely useful to society.

That’s girls.

Brian dared me. Get a girl, he said. Nothing unusual. I could do THAT in ten seconds flat. Girls, you can wrap them around your little finger. You just gotta know what to do, and they’ll follow you like a little puppy dog. Like anything, you’ve just gotta have the knack for it. And I’ve got the knack. Girls buzz about me like bees. It can get quite tiresome, but never annoying. So I was fine with this dare. Easy peasy. Just another girl.

Then he added some more criteria. See, Brian and I view things differently. He sees girls different to me. As mates or something. Kinda stupid. How can a girl and a boy be a mate? What are they meant to do? I mean, how many girls are fond of footie, and how many boys will play with dolls? Come on. How can a friendship work? They should just be couples. Snogging. Not friendship. Sorry, but friendship between us lads and them girls just doesn’t cut it with me. We have nothing in common. It’s like, they’re all from another planet or something.

Anyway. I have to have a decent conversation with a girl. And absolutely no snogging, he said. Talking. Give friendship a chance. He’d gave dating a chance (he’d failed miserably, no doubt, seeing as he said nothing about it), he said, so I had to give friendship a chance.

Course, that knocked off several girls straight away. Some who are just downright slutty, some who wouldn’t be able to resist getting their hands on a guy.

So. Who to choose. I’m nervous. Not ‘cause I’m with a girl, don’t get me wrong, I like being all alone with girls, but the talking part. I’m not the world’s greatest talker, and like I said, girls are just… complete airheads. I don’t really wanna have to waffle on about all THEIR interests as it won’t be done in the next five years, but maybe I could explain to them a game of footie or something? It’s worth a shot, yeah?

Well, I really dunno who to go with, to be perfectly honest. I really couldn’t care less either, I mean it’s not like I WANNA hang out with a girl and chat about nothing important and waste my time. Why couldn’t I just have picked ‘truth’ over ‘dare’? It would’ve been a hecka lot less of a disaster than this.

Ah, what am I talking about. It won’t be a disaster. I’m there, so there won’t be a disaster. Duh. There are times when I doubt my own brain…

The doorbell just rang. Mum answered. It’s Steve. Oh, ace! It’s seven already! We arranged a game of footie at the field a couple of streets walk away from here. Beats worrying about this stupid ‘friendship date’, yeah?

Besides, it’s just asking a girl out and talking, yeah? I mean, come on. It’s not like he’s asking me to run a marathon. They’re just GIRLS for Christ’s sake. How hard can it be…?

Okay. Maybe this is gonna be a bit harder than I thought.

So yeah. Time’s ticking away and I STILL haven’t done it. Girls! They’re such idiots! Can’t think of anything else other than having a snog, can they? Talking’s easy. Talking to girls? Nah. That’s hard. They’re like another species or summat.

This sucks. I ain’t gonna lose this dare, I tell ya. This is something I can’t lose. I’ll at least TRY, however much I doubt that this is gonna work. No snogging, right? Easy peasy. Piece of cake. Besides, he didn’t say anything about not doing it if we didn’t have a second ‘date’, right? Twisting rules is awesome.

Still, the problem is girls WANNA snog. I don’t have any problem getting ‘em to come with me, but they ‘spect a snog, and I wanna snog. I can do anything with girls. Anything that is, ‘cept talk.

Damn that Brian, I thought, never had any trouble getting girls before. You’re turning this into a chore rather than leisure…rather than PLEASURE.

What does he ‘spect me to do anyway? Random selection? It’s like, he thinks there’s the lingering thought in the back of my head: oh, look at , I have to be friends with her! Well, I don’t feel like that. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: friendship and girls don’t mix. Not even between their own kind. They’re always falling out.

Ah. Stuff this.

Okay, the panic’s OVER. Yeah, I had been panicking slightly about finding a girl. Scared I was losing my touch or something. Apparently not. I’m just as handsome and charming as ever, and girls… were just as airheaded as ever. Well, not quite. Think I may actually have gotten myself into some trouble with THIS girl.

Funny thing is, I don’t even know her name. She did tell me, I just kinda forgot. I haven’t seen her around here before. She was cute, very cute. So I asked her on this date thing. Didn’t MENTION anything about no snogs, cuz she’d just stare at me then or something. And she said yes! Oh yeah. Play it cool. Told her it was great. Told her I’d see her at the park on Saturday. She smiled.

I was in this little bubble. I mean, I knew I had a knack with girls, but HER? She’s hot. Then the happy police rang. Can’t bear to see me happy, can you Brian? And I spoke to him about her. Told him her name, what she looked like, how HOT she was. And so he told me. She’s his cousin.

My first thought was ‘no way!’ I mean, she’s so cute and he’s just NOT, all the girls can see that. They can’t possibly be related.

Then my brain started ticking. Hmm. Is it just me, or does this seem like a setup to you?

He swears it wasn’t. She’s just come over to see him. Geez, if I lived that far away, I probably wouldn’t even bother to visit him cuz he’s kinda boring and I’m his BEST FRIEND for Christ’s sake.

Anyway, now I’m on a date with his cousin. Still, she IS hot… Ah well. It’ll be fine. It’s just a DATE. Why am I so nervous…? I’ve been on fifty million dates in my life! Apparently most people get nervous when it comes to the snogging, but not me. The thought of NOT snogging is what terrifies me.

Hm. Is that normal?

Oh well. What am I worrying about? It’ll be fine, for Christ’s sake! FINE. Jesus, I really need to calm down. Really.

Saturday. Saturday’s tomorrow. Got over the nerves now. Can’t wait.

LOUISE’S POV:

My mother and I arrived here a couple of days ago. She’s gone back to London now, but I’m staying at my aunt’s house. My aunt’s a lovely woman; plump, always pleasant and jolly and very… protective. Brian, my cousin, hates it, but I think it’s lovely. My mother is lovely too. She’s not directly related to my aunt (she’s my father’s sister) and they look very different. Mother’s very pretty, but very thin and has a lot of work to do at her job in an office. She’s always busy with some job or other, and rarely has time to see me or the rest of the family, so it’s nice to FEEL like a family for once.

Brian’s a nice kid, but he hates being ‘smothered’ as he calls it. I wouldn’t call it smothered, she gives him space to breathe, but he really does want to be independent and she lets him (albeit, reluctantly). Brian’s happy I’ve come over as it gives his mother me to fuss and frolic over, leaving him free to do as he wishes. It’s not that there’s very much difference though; I know for a fact that he always sneaks off whenever he can, and his mother knows too. He thinks she doesn’t, but she’s smarter than he gives her credit for, perhaps because she has no job, and just works like a housewife. She wishes dearly that she could be something else, but nobody gives her a chance.

It’s my belief that everybody should have at LEAST one chance, but she hasn’t even been given that one. There are lots of things she could be, but no one listens. She’s not brilliant at many things, I must say, but she is very handy with her hands. But that’s where we hit on the problem: she’s a woman, and some people just seem to reckon that women aren’t as good as men at craftswork, and, even if they saw her work, as wonderful as it is, would just dismiss it and push her aside, for a much less worthy MALE candidate.

Life is unfair sometimes.

Brian thinks the same as I do. I know that under all that hard attitude, he knows how good his mum is, and pities that it seems that chances aren’t going to come her way and that fairness really doesn’t come into play in the real world. I spoke to him about it, and he confirmed this thought.

He told me that although he can’t see where all these ‘men are greater than women’ feelings came about, he has a friend who shares them. A kid who thinks that girls are just toys, obedient little toys that you can wrap around your little finger and play with when you feel like it, then are expected to wait in the toy box until called for. That really angered me. How can somebody think like that?! Women are just as good as men!

I hurried over to my rucksack and picked out a copy of Jane Eyre, and beckoned to Brian to come over. He obliged.

“What’s that?” He asked, taking it. “Looks kinda boring. Jesus, I see you’re still into the waffle in those great thick novels.”

I smoothed my hair back behind my ears, a habit when I become embarrassed. I was also slightly annoyed. “You’ve never heard of it? It’s a classic.”

He looked at me like I was mad. Evidently he didn’t think that classics made interesting reading material. I did. The great thing about classics, too, is that they’re not all straight fiction. Some, like Jane Eyre, where used for politics. To bring the public’s attention to certain issues, and by doing this to make improvements in society for future generations. That’s what makes them so interesting; in the times that the book was written, that was how things were really like. Quite a scary thought, if you’ve read the novel. “It’s a feminist novel,” I muttered, handing it to him. Perhaps you should show it to your friend. Show him how things where. Maybe he’ll change his mind.”

He took the book, but laughed. “Feminism? He won’t read it. For one, it’s almost as thick as his thick head.” Odd, I thought, because it’s not usual for me to think ill of my friends or them me, so why does Brian seem to do it? Does this other boy act like this, too? “And for another, he’d probably agree with everything against feminism anyway. Don’t go giving him any more ideas, he already has too much time where he’s unbearable.” Odd friendships over here. I smiled and agreed with what he was saying, but my mind wasn’t really on it.

“I promised your mother I’d do some shopping, and I think I’d better go now unless you want a really late dinner.” True enough, I’d promised her this and wanted to get down to the shops. We were going to make the meal together. However, that was just convenience. I needed a little chance to clear my head after this little talk with Brian, and this just so happened to be the perfect opportunity presenting itself to me, perhaps seeing as I’d offered to help my aunt, who Brian, no doubt, seldom helped.

I’m about a week into my stay here now. I can’t be sure, there’s just been so much to help out with that I’ve lost track of the days. It’s been a pleasure staying here and, as much as I want to see my own mother again, I’m hoping this won’t end. It’s lovely. A true family.

I wanted to stay and help out with breakfast this morning, but my aunt wouldn’t let me. She said I’d come here for a little break, too, and it wasn’t exactly her idea of a break. Oddly enough, Brian agreed. When had he ever previously been particularly concerned about my welfare? Basically, she told me to come down to the town to buy some things, and gave me thirty pounds. She really is a lovely woman. I’d been planning to check out the town sometime anyway, so I caught the next bus and came down here.

I bought some stamps, and books. Lots of books. I love reading. I’d brought my rucksack with me, and shoved them in there (after paying, of course) and wandered off to get something to eat.

After I’d eaten, I came here. Now I’m reading one of the new books I just purchased. It’s called Wizard’s First Rule and is about 700 pages wrong. I can just about see Brian having a heart attack at me bringing all of these home to his house. My rucksack is really heavy now, too, and I can bet he won’t forget to pass comments about elephants being lighter and such, because I know my cousin and that’s him. Spot on. Anyway, this book is really interesting! One of the best I’ve ever read, I think. The pages were almost completely absorbing me in, until-

“Hi,” said a voice. I jumped and looked up kind of angrily. There, standing before me, was a boy. He had brown hair, brown eyes and looked about thirteen or fourteen. He was watching me casually. He was obviously thinking about something, as he didn’t seem like he was totally… there.

“Hi.” I repeated warily. This big goofy grin came upon his face. It was actually kind of cute, and I found myself smiling. “What’s your name?” I asked curiously. It was about time I got to know somebody around here.

“Gregory, but most call me Greg,” replied the boy. “What about you?”

I blinked, slightly taken aback for some reason. I mean, it was the obvious response, but somehow I wasn’t expecting it. Perhaps I was just getting weary. But there was a look in his eyes, like he wasn’t just being friendly, like he was there for a real purpose. It was quite creepy, actually.

“I’m called Louise.” He nodded. I doubted if he was even listening really, he seemed far more interested in me: my body than me: myself. I hate it when boys get like this. The occasional few do, but most don’t. Thankfully.

He seemed to be scrutinizing me, trying to figure me out. He also had that really annoying cocky look about him, but this didn’t really annoy me too much as he wasn’t actually acting cocky. After all, I told myself, looks can be deceiving.

“How old are you?” Typical question.

An odd, random conversation. “I turned twelve a couple of weeks back.” I said, frowning slightly. I know that I hadn’t said that much, but even this limited information seemed almost too personal. I don’t know why, but I was really uneasy around the guy, which was a shame as he didn’t seem like a bad apple at all.

He raised an eyebrow. I know that look. I get it all the time. It means: ‘twelve? You look about ten!’ I look young for my age, big deal. But no, apparently this guy thinks differently. He nodded at the book. “Twelve and you read books THAT thick? I’m fourteen, fifteen in a couple of months and when I read, which isn’t really that often, the books are about a quarter of the size of that! Christ, how long does it take you to read?”

I shrugged. “A couple of days. Perhaps a week or so. Why?” He stared at me. He muttered something under his breath. He didn’t seem to intend me to hear, but I did anyway:

“Christ. I couldn’t read that much in three months…”

I smiled. Not many people could. I just so happen to read quickly. He looked like he was going to ask a question, but thought better of it. I wonder what that question would have been had he asked me, but the fact remains that he didn’t and I’ll likely never know. “So,” he said. I watched as he scuffed his trainer against the dirt pavement, and knew he was embarrassed about something. At least this much isn’t different here. He didn’t say anything else though. I wished he would, it made me feel uncomfortable, but he fell silent. I sighed.

“Just say whatever you’re going to say. By saying nothing you make me feel really uncomfortable.”

He didn’t really look that bothered. He did seem to have quite a list of faults and I’d only known him for five minutes. I felt like I was scribbling on a little notepad in my head: doesn’t appear to care about other people’s feelings. Seems very self absorbed. I could almost hear myself GRADING him on his behaviour. Wow. Being here sure changed my attitude, and in some ways, the way I speak. It’s… odd.

His next words came out in a rush. “Wanna go the park on Saturday? About three o’clock-ish?”

I blinked. What? I was so confused. Was he having a joke or something? I had only known him for five minutes and he was… asking me out? Something was severely wrong with this situation. Plus, I was just twelve and he was near fifteen. This really didn’t make much sense… I was about to tell him no, but then I looked at the eyes. Brown eyes. Pleading. I don’t know why, but this seemed really important to him. I hadn’t the heart to let him down. “Yes,” I sighed resignedly. He didn’t seem to notice this. His whole face lit up like a Christmas tree, and then the excitement factor went down. I almost giggled as I watched him struggle to maintain himself.

“See you then, then!” He said. I smiled weakly. He grinned, and went off back to wherever he came from. I blinked and then sighed. Today sure was being odd. Rolling my eyes, I went back to my book.

I was in my room (make that the spare room at my aunt’s house) when Brian barged in. Now Brian’s not a rude boy, and he wouldn’t just barge into my room without having a good reason. However, this good reason might be really stupid to me, I’m referring to what he finds a good reason, which to be perfectly honest, usually makes little sense to me.

I looked at him. His blue eyes were wide open, staring at me. For once, something he deemed important actually seemed to involve me in some way. So why was I dreading hearing it? “You’ve only been ‘ere a few days and you’ve already got a date?!” He shrieked in a high voice, nothing like the one I was used to. I blinked. This was odd. How the heck did he know?

“Yes,” I said, picking the short answer rather than explaining that I didn’t want to let the poor guy down, he’d looked so desperate.

“Oh, but this is gonna be hilarious!” He sounded almost like a maniac now. I still wanted to know how he knew. He seemed to read this and grinned. “You know the guy I told you about before? The one who thinks girls are toys to play about with at his own convenience?” I nodded wordlessly. “He’s about average height, average build, brown hair, brown eyes…” A picture was forming in my mind. Somebody I’d seen about, although I couldn’t fully recall who they were. My memory never has been brilliant.

Brian turned to go. “Oh, and his name? It’s Greg.” With that, he shut the door with a goofy grin on his face almost identical to the other boys. To Greg’s.

Greg. The profile slid into my mind. Greg. The penny dropped. It was HIM.

GREGORY’S POV:

When I got there, she was sitting on a bench. Reading again. For Christ’s sake, does she ever do anything other than read? I was really nervous because she was so… different. She was a girl, but like a different breed of girl if you catch my drift. After all, when had I ever seen a girl READ before?

Answer: Never. Well, unless they were forced to, but that’s another story innit?

I said hi. She looked up and smiled. It looked kinda icy actually but hey I don’t know her, maybe that’s just how she smiles all the time. No way was I gonna let it put me off. Now come to think of it, thanks to Brian this conversation actually had a starting point!

LOUISE’S POV:

“So,” he said. What an enlightening conversation this would be, I sighed to myself. This had better be over soon. “You’re Brian’s cousin.”

Another penny dropped. He’d told Brian he’d got a date. I hadn’t seen him around the house (and I doubt Brian would bring his friends there as he believes that his mother would suffocate them), so he must have rang. Agh, why hadn’t I thought of this before…?

“Yes, I am.” I was torn between being rude or being nice, and decided on nice. He hadn’t been particularly offensive to me, and maybe Brian was wrong. He does tend to get the wrong end of the stick on quite a lot of things, actually. “And you’re his friend, Greg,” I decided on, removing the three words I originally intended to use: male chauvinist pig. Well, this might not have led to any good conversation or good feeling, anyway. Perhaps it was best left this way. But… I couldn’t just leave it at that.

“Why do you think girls are just like… toys?”

GREGORY’S POV:

That was a real weird question. I guess that good ol’ spoilsport Brian told her about it, in some odd kind of attempt to ‘convert’ me or something. Tell ya what, this sure made me mad.

I told her that I was mad. Told her that I didn’t think they were toys. Just airheads who care about nothing but their looks. Her face darkened.

LOUISE’S POV:

I felt like screaming at him! Stop judging girls, they’re not ALL like how you think they are! Sure, some are, but that’s a vast minority! That’s what my head screamed. I, instead, laughed. “You don’t know girls at all, do you?”

From what Brian had said about him, I could see this nice guy fitting the mould. It was awful. I was actually surprised he didn’t try to do anything. He seemed like that type. Well, he had seemed to throw caution out the window by offending me and all fellow females, so I decided to as well.

GREGORY’S POV:

It was terrible. She asked why I wasn’t trying to snog her. True she didn’t word it that way, but I knew what she meant. So I told her. Told her about the dare Brian had made. Talk to a girl, not snog her. To my shock, she laughed and got up.

LOUISE’S POV:

I was shocked. I laughed crazily. Yes, this did actually seem like Brian’s working to me. I wonder if he intended this to me out here with this… animal. I sure hoped not, as my estimation of Brian would have plunged down the toilet if so.

“You’ve just failed,” I grinned. “Regardless of whatever rules you and my cousin made behind my back, let me tell you I’m not sitting here to be offended by you. You’re offending me and all the other girls in the world. You’re offending us by putting us under your mould, and a mould made very blindly at that!” I couldn’t stay anymore. As nice as he looked, he wasn’t nice. He was rotten. Rotten apple. Bad to the core.

I stormed off.

GREGORY’S POV:

When she marched off, I was in shock. A girl going off on… me? Impossible! I felt kinda horrible when she rattled on about judging. Seriously, she sounded like a female but somehow more intelligent version of Brian – certainly not someone I’d have chosen to go on a date with. Still, maybe it’s a good thing, maybe I’ll think different. Maybe I won’t judge ALL girls.

A girl from my class at school walked past and winked. Ah, stuff the other girl. She was too young for me anyway. I asked her if she wanted to come with me and have a wander about. She agreed. Yeah, this is the life. I’m not judging all girls, but I sure am judging her because she fits the ‘mould’ exactly!

LOUISE’S POV:

I’d felt rather bad seeing him left on his own, so I hung around. He looked like he was thinking, then a girl walked over. And would you believe it, they walked off together! Talk about a quick worker. It shouldn’t be him judging, he should be judged. In my opinion he’s the lowest of the low, but I’m way above him. I don’t judge all boys like him, in fact he’s in a very vast minority this time. There can’t be that many idiots who think like him, can there?

I watched him lean in to kiss this new unknown girl. I turned away. Well, something I’d have to tell Brian: however much you want them to, some things will never change.