A/N: Well, for a while now I've been writing a whole lot of fanfiction, but I've decided to take a break from that, and after numerous failed attempts, finally start some serious fiction-writing.

Yay.

Anyway, I won't blather on, so enjoy!

Full Summary: Every girl wants to meet the boy who makes her feel light, happy – who makes her feel weightless. I met a boy who made me feel like a ten-ton elephant – too bad he was my only ticket to getting the man of my dreams.

Weightless

Things To Do:

-Make my bed
-Clean my room
-Aidan Hamilton

I snorted in a horribly unladylike manner to myself and crossed the last option off the list with a heavy stroke of my pen. I wish.

Sigh. Unrequited love. Yeah, that was exactly what it was, and it had been that for the last year. Aidan Hamilton walked (no, practically floated) the hallways of Jefferson High School like a god, and girls swarmed after him, worshipping the ground he walked on. They stared discreetly – or not so discreetly – at him during lunch; they twittered amongst themselves and ogled and giggled during his basketball practice sessions; in class, the lucky one whom he was sitting next to would lend him pencils regardless of whether he needed them or not – just so she could have his fingerprints on some object of hers.

Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating. Just a teeny, tiny bit. But really, once you witnessed the rabid sea of girls constantly on the prowl for someone who they deemed a 'suitable man' for them, you'd have known exactly what I meant.

Sure, Aidan wasn't Most Wanted of the year, but I definitely wasn't the only girl infatuated with him. Plenty of other prettier, more confident young women would be completely ready to latch onto him like bloodsucking leeches if they had the opportunity.

Me?

I didn't have a bloody chance.

Me – little old Olivia Whitfield. Asian, plain, and hopelessly in like with one of the school's most popular jocks. Height – short enough that I don't feel like mentioning it. Shoulders – too broad. Hair – shoulder length and jet black, recently brightened up and dyed in a streak of bright orange running down one side. Skin – tanned. Eyes – dark blue. Figure – NONE.

Okay, so maybe the last one wasn't exactly true. I was seventeen, at least I was curvier than I'd been three years ago. At least now I didn't get mistaken as a boy by stupid little sixth graders, and at least I had a chest (if a modest one) and a … ahem, posterior (equally modest). That was satisfying enough for me.

Well, not really. I wasn't even near good enough to catch Aidan's eye, damn it. I sighed again and rested my chin in my palm, leaning my elbow against the table.

"LIVVIE!"

The shriek made my elbow slip, and I ended up banging my chin painfully on the edge of my desk. Hurriedly, I scrabbled around and shoved my 'Things To Do' list out of sight – you could still read Aidan's name even though I'd crossed it out – and turned to greet my best friend just as she barreled straight into me.

Thank god for swivel chairs.

Instead of toppling us both over onto the carpeted floor, my beloved chair slid backwards a few feet from the force of Alyssa projecting herself practically into my lap, but remained upright.

"Hey Lyss, what's up," I groaned from under her weight. She bounced off me happily and grinned blindingly before filling me in (in a louder than necessary voice) on everything – seriously, everything – she'd done that day.

That was Alyssa. Beautiful, charismatic – she was the one the guys always paid attention to. Back in eighth grade, when I hadn't held a boy's hand yet, she'd filled me in on all her escapades. It was always her who shot into the classroom, grabbed my hand and yanked me outside, only to whisper excitedly something like: "Ohmygosh Livvie guess what this weekend I madeoutwithAdam!"

Or Alex or Brandon or Ed or freaking-Zoot or whatever their names were.

Now, at seventeen and a month younger than me, she was curvy and attractive – even more so than she'd been before, which seemed impossible. Her hair was red, long and wavy, her eyes a sparkling pale green flecked with gold.

And what's more?

She was Aidan's girlfriend.

Yes, I know. I shouldn't even be thinking about liking him when my best friend was (quite happily) together with him. But that was always how it had been. Alyssa would be oblivious as to who I was crushing on at the moment, but would always seem to get together with that very guy, while I bore it and contented myself with looking morose whenever they pranced around holding hands or slipped off to make out in some obscure corner – or didn't even bother slipping off at all.

And when she dumped them, or they dumped her, it was always me who comforted her, and told her what jerks they were – and if necessary, got revenge for her. For her, I would shut them out and turn them away. I'd forget them, all for her.

Sure, she repaid me. Lyss gave me plenty of laughs; countless nights spent together giggling and talking; but it wasn't enough. For what I always gave up for her, it wasn't enough. But I didn't care. I was the kind of person who liked to take it without complaining to anyone but myself. I was the type who would do anything for someone who would do nothing at all for me. I didn't care – Lyss was my best friend, and that was that.

"Livvie?"

Her uncertain voice pierced my ponderings, and I looked up from where I'd been absentmindedly picking at my shorts. "Huh?"

"I just asked you whether you were coming down to watch the movie with me and Aidan," She grinned. "So stop spacing out."

I smiled back wearily. "Sorry, Lyss. I'm just… kinda tired. Go back downstairs first and join Aidan – I'll be down soon."

"Okay." She turned and exited my room; soon enough I heard her footsteps thumping down the stairs and her voice chirpily greeting Aidan, her boyfriend.

Yep.

He was downstairs.

I felt my heart lurch, then I reprimanded myself firmly. I couldn't. This crush would pass, just like all the others had. I just had to give it time.

Reluctantly hauling myself out of my chair, I examined my reflection in the wall mirror. I'd slept in these clothes. When I invited Lyss over, I thought it would be just her, but she'd brought Aidan too. I didn't mind seeing Lyss in the clothes I'd slept in, but Aidan? That was different. Grabbing a change of clothes, I shot into the bathroom, changed in record speed, and was out again in a matter of seconds and staring apprehensively at the stairs I was about to descend down.

Relax, Oliva. It's not like you're going to make some kind of grand, dramatic entrance.

I bit my lip, glanced down, and realized that I was still holding my dirty clothes. Groaning, I returned to my room, fully intending to open the door (when did I shut it anyway?) and toss my clothes in, then zoom down the stairs and join my best friend and her boyfriend on the couch before they noticed I had even appeared.

I opened the door.

And screamed.

A stranger looked back at me, about as surprised as I was. (Except there was no girly scream emitting from him, thank god)

Without even hesitating, I threw my clothes at his face and backed into the hallway, pressing myself up against the opposite wall.

The stranger pulled my dirty clothes off his face and tossed them behind him, then regarded me with an amused look on his face. He had light blue eyes and dark brown curls, and a vaguely annoying smirk that was currently pasted all over his face. Okay, it was really annoying.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my room?" I said in my best get-out-before-I-bash-your-brains-in voice, brandishing a sock I'd picked up randomly from the floor of the hallway.

He eyed the sock with trepidation (probably more scared of the stench it emitted rather than my sock-wielding skills), but stared me in the eye anyway and answered me as best he could.

"I was invited. Did I get the wrong place?"

"Invited?" I swung the sock menacingly. "Who invited you? I don't even know you!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't exactly recognize you either." He retorted.

"I'm not the one who barged into your house and snuck around your bedroom!" I shouted back.

The stranger-dude rolled his eyes. "In my defense, I wasn't exactly 'sneaking' around your room. I was just passing through."

"Through what?" I asked scathingly. "The walls? How'd you even get in here?" Lyss and Aidan were downstairs – they would've seen this stranger creeping around, wouldn't they?

"Well, I came in the window, actually, but-"

"WHAT?!" I screeched, whipping the sock around as I pointed at him in anger. "You actually had the NERVE to climb in through MY WINDOW!?"

"Look," He took a step forward; arms outstretched to grasp my shoulders. "Just let me expl-"

"AGH!" I whacked him with the sock repeatedly (though it didn't seem to be doing much damage.) "LYSS! AIDAN! HELP! RAPE! RAPE!"

Stranger-dude looked exasperated and amused at the same time. "Jeez, would you-"

"WHO'S RAPING MY FRIEND!?" Lyss bellowed, storming up the stairs. At the sight of me against the wall, sock in hand, with stranger-dude holding my shoulders, she stopped short. "Oh."

"What d'you mean, 'oh', Lyss?" I hissed angrily, "Come here and save me!"

"Uh, actually, Livvie-" She started guiltily, but was interrupted by Aidan thundering up the stairs.

"What's going on?" He asked everyone in general, staring at the scene before him.

I whacked stranger-dude's face with the sock again, just for emphasis. "Aidan. Help."

Aidan started forward (I felt a sudden rush of gratitude towards him), but Lyss stopped him with one arm. "Wait," She said. "I can explain."

"Oh, hi, Alyssa." Stranger-dude suddenly said. "Please, explain why your rabid friend here saw fit to maim me with a sock."

"HEY!" I turned, ready to shoot an insult back, but Lyss shrieked 'STOP!' and we all fell silent, ears momentarily stunned.

"Matthew, let Livvie go." She ordered.

Stranger-dude (whose name, apparently, was Matthew) released me. I gave him one last derisive flick of the sock and glared.

"Livvie. Stop it." I stopped, and dropped the sock. Lyss could be really authoritative sometimes. She continued on with her explanation. "Look, Liv, I invited Matthew here."

"WHA-!" I started, forgetting about being quiet, but Lyss shot me a look and I descended back into sulky silence. She resumed calmly.

"I told him to climb in the window and then proceed straight to the living room, downstairs because Aidan and I were a bit… preoccupied to answer the door." She blushed at this. I had no doubt exactly what they'd been preoccupied doing, and I flushed too, though for slightly different reasons. "Anyway, you must've gone to change or something and then come back and seen Matthew here in your room, so you completely freaked out."

"Damn straight I completely freaked out," I muttered angrily, glaring at Matthew (who quirked an eyebrow at me, the nerve of that jerk!)

"It's all right, Livvie," Alyssa soothed with a small grin. Then she grabbed Aidan's hand (I let out the smallest of involuntary twitches at this) and headed back down the stairs – but not before instructing us as to exactly what to do next.

"Look, Aidan and I are going back down to watch the movie, so Livvie – c'mon, Livvie, don't look so stubborn. Fine, be that way. Matthew, if Livvie refuses to come down, pick her up and bring her down forcefully." She shot us a crooked smile, then dragged Aidan back downstairs.

"Yeah, sure, go watch the movie – because you two were definitely doing so much movie watching before stranger-dude got here," I grumbled.

"It's Matthew," He corrected. "And I can actually hear you, you know."

"Well, you're standing about a foot away from me. If you couldn't hear me I'd be surprised."

He sighed and rolled his eyes, then motioned with a jerk of his head that we follow in Lyss and Aidan's footsteps. "Well, come along, then."

"Nope," I shook my head stubbornly and crossed my arms. "Livvie is staying upstairs, thanks. I have no intention of spending an awkward two hours watching a movie with you while my friends attempt to suck each other's faces off."

Matthew sighed again. He seemed to sigh a lot. I was pondering this when he stepped closer and motioned with his arms.

"Huh?" Was my intelligent response.

"I'm picking you up and bringing you downstairs forcefully," He quipped cheerfully, still beckoning.

"No way!" I squealed, sliding away from him along the wall (and towards the stairs, incidentally). Grabbing the banister of the staircase, I lifted myself onto it and started the slide down. "I can make it down by myself, thanks."

"Fine by me," Matthew mumbled, making his way down beside me (though he actually used the stairs). "I wasn't looking forward to carrying the ten-ton elephant."

From my place on the banister, I realized that I could still reach up and whack him.

WHACK.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"I'm not an elephant."

"Yeah, well, you didn't look pretty light when you attempted to heft your weight onto that banister-"

"I lifted. I gracefully lifted myself onto the banister and slid down like a feather, you dolt."

Staring at me with his piercing blue eyes, Matthew eyed my progress dubiously. "Yeah. The banister's definitely not cracking under your 'feathery-light' weight, elephant girl."

Being the idiot that I was, I actually checked to see if he was right.

Needless to say, he wasn't.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and alighted as gracefully as I could manage (which wasn't graceful enough, apparently. I heard Matthew cough something that sounded suspiciously like 'Elephant') and flounced into the living room, throwing myself down on a beanbag chair and proceeding to engross myself in the movie that was currently playing – Terminator Salvation.

Cackling slightly, I rubbed my hands together happily and sat back to enjoy the show.

About an hour or so later (or was it an hour and a half?), just when Christian Bale and the terminator and several hydrobots were wrestling around in the water, I fell fast asleep.

"Hey, Olivia. You don't look too good." Said a voice (with a distinctly British accent) from the desk next to mine.

"Shut up," I groaned, raising my head from where I'd dropped it onto my desk with a loud 'thunk'. My dark blue eyes made contact with lighter, piercing ones. "I'm only like this because I fell asleep in front of this stupid movie the other day, so I couldn't sleep last night, so now – hey. What are you doing here?"

Matthew grinned. "I go to this school."

I frowned. "No you don't."

"Yeah, I do actually. I'm even in your class. You just never bothered to notice me, because I sit right in the back of the classroom." He jabbed his thumb at said area, and I turned, to see several girls giggling around a table that I assumed was his.

"Huh. Those girls waiting for you to go back there so they can jump you?" I raised an eyebrow. Hey, so I'm grumpy when I need sleep. Who isn't?

He chuckled. "Pretty much."

"Go on, then." I made little shooing motions with my hands, as if I could waft him away on a light breeze, like one of those seeds – you know the nifty little things you always see in documentaries because apparently the trees were so clever they built little gliders for them and stuff – Okay, never mind.

Another chuckle emitted as Matthew slung an arm casually over my shoulder. I stiffened, and let out a small growl as I heard the girls at the back start tittering away. "Get off."

He only leaned closer. "Hey, come on. The girls back there think we're good friends already. Maybe now they'll stay away from me."

"Yeah, and come after me, with murder on their ditzy little minds," I muttered, pushing his arm off me. "Look, we're not good friends. I barely know you."

"Fine." He held out his hand. "Hey, I'm Matthew Alex Patterson. Nice to meet you."

I couldn't help but smile and follow suit. "Olivia Whitfield."

"What, no 'nice to meet you' for me?"

"Nice to meet you," I lied through gritted teeth.

"Didn't sound very genuine." His smile was teasing.

"It's absolutely lovely to make your acquaintance!" I squealed, about an octave higher, my voice sugary sweet.

He winced a bit, but laughed anyway. "Yeah, that's so much better."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear the sarcasm there."

"What sarcasm?" Cue the innocent, blinking look.

I scoffed. "Oh, you mean there was no blatant sarcasm practically dripping from your every word?"

"I don't know what you mean," He raised his eyebrows smoothly. If I wasn't so cunning and clever (yep. Cunning. Clever. That's me.), then I might've fallen for it.

But nope, I was a cunning and clever individual, so I just settled for cunningly and cleverly rolling my eyes, and shooing him back to his seat (where he was immediately swarmed by the tittering fangirls).

It was at that moment that Lyss chose to shoot into the room and latch herself onto my arm.

"Hey, Livvie."

"Hey, Lyss."

"C'mere."

And she yanked me into the hallway. This was practically our routine in the morning, since we were in different classes, and Lyss always felt it was necessary to 'update' me every morning. But today, instead of practically bubbling over with gossip and energy, my friend looked unusually somber. She just stood there, playing with one of her red locks of hair, staring at her feet.

"Lyss?" I put my hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just, I mean… Aidan and I broke up."

"What? But why?!" I ignored and stuffed away the little bit of me that went 'yay!', and focused on being The Worried Friend. "Lyss, did he do anything, because if he did-"

"Relax, Livvie." She smiled. "I'm fine. We parted on mutual terms."

"Yeah, well, I thought you two were good." I meant that. Lyss and Aidan fit. Her red, wavy hair next to his black, messy locks were a perfect contrast, when they held hands they looked like the perfect couple, they were both gorgeous and right for each other. I'd accepted that I couldn't compare, and I'd been happy for my friend – now I was just confused.

"We were, Liv. But, we both agreed there was nothing but platonic feelings between us anymore. It's over."

I bit my lip. "Okay. You sure I don't need to give him a good whack on the head or anything, just to remind him what he's letting go?"

She laughed. "I think he'll be fine, Livvie, but thanks. You're awesome."

"I know, right?" I responded modestly. Then, laughing, we headed off to our separate classes.

I wish I could say this day ended on a friendly, happy note like that. But the way it ended was more… confusing. And a bit bothering, I must admit.

Having endured four eighty minute blocks of pure torture, I trudged to my locker, thanking the lords above that I didn't have anything after school that day, and that I could just go home and curl up and die, like the norm.

But as I was fishing my math textbook out of the locker, two arms appeared at either side of me, boxing me in. I turned instinctively and whacked the person who was intruding my personal space with the heavy book.

"Ow!" Matthew complained loudly, drawing back one hand to rub his forehead. "You didn't have to hit me."

"Sorry," I answered sincerely. "But I thought it was some weird molester person out to get me."

"What, in the crowded school hallway?" He raised an eyebrow at me, staring pointedly at all the people bustling around.

"Yeah. Then, you see, after he'd harassed me or whatever, he could just slip off and disguise himself in the crowd." I reasoned.

He thought for a moment. "That actually makes a bit of sense."

"… You're not here to molest me, are you?"

"God no. I'm here to ask you something."

"Yeaaaah? Get on with it, please. I have to go home and die."

He grinned, but it was a nervous one. Retrieving his arms from either side of my locker, he ran a hand through his hair and fidgeted. Then played with his hair again. And fidgeted.

"OUT WITH IT, YOU FREAK!" I shook my math textbook in his face.

"Okay, okay. Look, I know you like Aidan, all right?"

I felt my mouth drop open. Realizing that, I shut it quickly and blurted out a hurried 'I don't like Aidan!'

"Yeah, sure you don't, Livvie," He rolled his eyes at me.

"H- how do you know?" I gave up all pretense of hiding it (I wasn't a very good liar anyway).

"Because of my superior people-reading skills, and – OW!"

I'd hit him with the textbook again. "Tell me the truth, you moron."

"Fine. I found… I found your 'To Do' list thing in your room, okay?"

I gaped. "So you were snooping around, you little creep!"

He dodged the hits that I sent at him with the textbook. "No, Olivia, it wasn't – stop hitting me with the damn thing! It wasn't like that, I just found it on the floor and wanted to put it on the table again or whatever, and I just read it automatically."

Putting on my best 'furious' expression, I glared at him. "I'm furious."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But that's – it doesn't matter. I wanted to offer you a deal."

"A deal," I repeated, eyeing him warily. "What's the deal?"

"Since Aidan and Alyssa have broken up, I propose that I'll help you get Aidan."

"… What?"

"I'll help you to get Aidan, as in, I know him – so I can tell you about him, and I can help you to help yourself to help him like you."

It was a bit of a mouthful (and a brainful) to get around, but the meaning was pretty clear to me.

"I… I… what's the catch?" – Okay, I couldn't help myself. But, I mean, here was the golden opportunity, and I'd damned if I didn't take a hold of it. Anyway, Alyssa and Aidan weren't together anymore, and I was hopelessly infatuated. Hopelessly.

"The catch," he sighed. "The catch is…"

He ran a hand through his hair.

"Stop it with the hair!" I snapped. "And tell me what the stupid catch is!"

"Fine. The catch is that you help me to get Alyssa, okay?"

For the third time in the span of five minutes, my jaw dropped.

A/N: So that's it for chapter one! I hope you guys liked it.

Please review. I don't mind constructive criticism, and I hope you guys have some opinions about this story.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Celia.