A/N: Hi! So, this is my first attempt at writing a one-shot, and if you like it, please follow or favourite or review (preferably review) xD!

(And just to clarify a few points: Year 11 is the equivalent of the American 12th grade (or something); Mr Wilson is the principal of the two main characters' school; although this story is written in third person, it switches points of view between the two main characters, but does it quite implicitly, and the horizontal line that's used to break up the text usually signifies a change in perspective (so from one character's POV to another's); and this one-shot is a sort of standalone/ prequel for a story my friend is planning - more about that later.)

Yeah... that's all. Sorry if it was long :/

- The Problem with Eavesdropping -

There's nothing like fifteen years of continually trying to beat your childhood nemesis to drive you to do insane things. Like sneaking into the principal's office without permission after school to look for strictly confidential information.

Avery shut the door behind her and turned to face the room. Was that a - did she hear a slight creak? She frowned. No, it must have been her paranoia, she decided, as she headed straight for the computer.

It was switched on. That was a promising start. And, even better, she thought with a smile, Mr Wilson appeared to have been looking at the school's online voting system before he had left. This was almost too easy.

Just as she was about to click on the Year 11 section, she heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

A panicked glance around the room told her that there were few potential hiding places: under the desk (which would lead to a very uncomfortable situation if the footsteps were of the principal, who would most likely sit at said desk); behind the curtains (which would involve a tricky manoeuvre where she would have to climb onto the windowsill and balance there - not to mention, there would be a noticeable bulge behind the curtains, and her shoes were likely to stick out from under the curtains); or inside the principal's cupboard (which would require a mad dash to the opposite end of the room before the man in question walked in).

Cupboard it was, she decided, as she made a frenzied run towards it and hauled herself in, barely managing to shut the door before she heard the footsteps enter the office.

And she was halfway through letting out a sigh of relief when a hand clamped down onto her mouth firmly and an arm wrapped itself around her from behind before she could lash out at her attacker.

She could feel someone's breath on her neck, and her stomach lurched as two barely audible words were breathed out slowly onto the nape of her neck.

"Don't. Move."

Oh, wonderful. She should have picked the curtains.

Cole winced inwardly as he felt blunt yet forceful fingernails dig into his arm, and slackened his grip on the girl's waist (her sides were very soft, he decided), allowing her to reach up and extract his hand from her mouth roughly. Why did her body feel so familiar?

An almost inaudible groan escaped her mouth. "Please tell me that's not you, Reynolds."

He smirked at the unmistakable voice. Well. This was interesting. "That's not you, Reynolds," he replied automatically, feeling her stiffen in his arms at her response.

"It really is you," she sighed and turned to face him, pushing his hands away. "Such an immature response could only be elicited from your mouth."

"A mouth which you secretly lust for," he whispered back, enjoying the flush that spread across her cheekbones, visible even in the dark. Her discomfort always amused him, especially in such unexpected situations. "Now what would a girl like you be doing here, Aves?"

"It's Avery," she snapped, evidently struggling to keep her voice down. "Firstly, I do not lust for your mouth, or any other part of your anatomy while we're discussing the matter. And as for your question, I could ask the same thing of you."

"No, as a matter of fact, you couldn't ask the same thing of me, because I'm not a girl, Aves," he explained, as his eyes dropped down to her lips.

All he had to do was lean down a few centimetres and they'd be - he stopped that thought before it got out of control. This was Avery Jones, the girl he'd despised for fifteen long years. He blamed his sudden impulse on the lack of oxygen in the cupboard. It was messing with his thoughts.

"I'm su-" He stopped speaking (or rather, whispering) as footsteps started outside again, but the person, presumably Mr Wilson himself, seemed to have walked over to the office door to let someone else in.

"Edgar," a very feminine voice greeted the principal.

Avery exchanged a look with Cole. The principal's visitor was none other than Miss Smith, the teacher who was supposedly in love with Mr Wilson. The two were known to have been privately seeing each other for a long time - before Avery herself was born - but they'd never expressed any intention to publicise their relationship.

"Jane, please, make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back." Mr Wilson (Avery refused to think of him as Edgar) sounded somewhat nervous, although what about, she wasn't sure of.

When Mr Wilson's footsteps had receded, Avery's mind was inevitably brought again to the boy who had already been in the closet when she'd jumped in. Honestly, it was agonising enough to have to put up with him everyday at school, but being forced to share a space that was a grand total of five feet wide with him was pure torture. Ghastly memories of her childhood experiences with Cole Reynolds flooded into her thoughts. The boy was created especially to make her life a living hell, she decided.

Mr Wilson's approaching footsteps brought her back to the present, and she heard a small click that informed her that he had locked the door to his office. Why - ?

"It seems like we have, inadvertently, stumbled onto a secret rendezvous, right while having our very own rendezvous," the irritating boy in front of her stated, as he pulled Avery closer to him with a jerk around her middle.

Her breath hitched as he did that, and she suddenly became all too aware of the space - or lack thereof - between them as her eyes finally adjusted to the dark.

"We are not having a rendezvous," she jabbed a finger into his chest to punctuate her sentence, nearly jumping out of her skin when it caused a spark of static to jolt down her finger.

Cole's eyes glittered in the dark as he shrugged, and she felt the movement more than saw it, as his shoulders rubbed against hers in a way that caused her breath to catch even more. Cole didn't miss it, and a slow smirk spread across his face. The idiot had always taken some perverse form of pleasure in making her uncomfortable.

"Whatever you'd like to call it. Rendezvous, secret meeting, tryst, intimate extra-curricular union - " He began.

She cut him off before he could launch into one of his (admittedly extensive) vocabulary lists. "Don't you dare start the how-many-synonyms-can-I-think-of-to-annoy-Avery game right now," she seethed.

He raised his eyebrows at her, his smirk growing even wider. "Why ever not? It's one of my favourite pastimes, and now's as good a time as any."

She ignored him, and continued. "Besides, I doubt the principal is having a rendezvous in his office ."

Of course, the kissing sounds had to start at that very moment.

Cole leaned down, angling his face so that his mouth moved slowly against the tip of her ear as he whispered. "You were saying, sweetheart?"

She felt her heart beat faster, and took a step back (albeit an extremely small one - which she decided to blame on the limited space in the closet, and not on any reluctance she may have felt to move away from his touch).

The kissing sounds intensified, and she shuffled so that she was next to Cole instead of opposite him, letting her back slide down until she was sitting on the floor of the cupboard with her knees pulled up. This could take some time, so might as well get comfortable.

Cole mimicked her move, and she felt his elbow brush her knees as he sat down beside her. Damn it, why was he sitting so close to her when there was enough space for them to be sitting without touching?

Her heartbeat started to get a little erratic, and she decided it was high time that one of them spoke. She really couldn't take the kissing sounds any more.

"So, 'don't move'?" She whispered to Cole, scoffing at his earlier words when she remembered the arm that had wrapped itself. "That was a very redundant command, seeing as I couldn't move anyway, even if I had wanted to."

He didn't deign to reply, instead looking at her shrewdly, as if he knew exactly why she'd started speaking, the arrogant bastard. Was it just her, or were his eyes somehow more intense now?

She ignored the look on his face, and continued. "I mean, I should have known it was you in the cupboard. I'd recognise that infuriating voice anywhere."

His eyes shone with silent laughter. "Well," he mused. "I recognised you almost immediately. I should have known only you would be so... chubby? No, soft."

She allowed a low growl to escape from her throat, positively glowering at him when she felt a finger make it's way to her middle and prod around as if he was trying to feel her softness. "One more fat joke," she warned him. "And I will castrate you right now."

The finger brushed lightly over her midriff, inching its way up, and Cole turned to face her, leaning down to whisper directly into her ear.

"Mhm," he breathed in acknowledgement, and she felt her stomach turn. It was because of the claustrophobia, she decided. The fact that she was trapped in such a small space with Cole was enough to make her nauseous, she thought, even as his finger induced a light, almost pleasant, tingling between their skin. "But how do you plan on depriving me of my virility at this very moment? You'll need an exceptionally sharp object, so there's nothing you can use to emasculate me in this cupboard... unless you use your abnormally sharp tongue, of course." And just to demonstrate, his lips pressed down onto the tip of her ear again, and his tongue pressed swiftly against it, before his mouth moved away.

Wha- ? Use her tongue? To cut off his - ?

"You - " She nearly shrieked, but before she could yell a few choice words about him, his hand was firmly pressed against her mouth, reminding her of their predicament.

"Shut up," he whispered urgently, and they both waited in silence to see (or more like hear) what would happen.

The kissing noises paused. "Did you hear something, Edgar? It sounded like it came from the cupboard," Miss Smith's voice floated through the room.

Avery felt Cole give her a withering look, but continued looking straight ahead, as Mr Wilson spoke. "I'll check the cupboard later, Janie."

Huh. His voice sounded strangely breathless.

Avery turned her attention to the hand that covered her mouth, and spat on it viciously. The hand immediately flew away, and she smiled vindictively. He deserved it after all.

"Come on, Reynolds, 'shut up'?" She quoted. "Again with the redundancy. How did you expect me to speak if you were already blocking my mouth?"

He brushed off her words, and instead shot her a dirty look, wiping his hands onto one of the textbooks that were piled on the floor next to them. "You disgust me."

She bristled at him. The nerve of him, calling her disgusting when he was the one making crude remarks. "You're the disgusting one, making lewd comments when - " She hissed, breaking off when she felt his hand grip her knee.

"As much as I would love to hear how that sentence ends, we really should be shutting up now."

Which, Avery grudgingly admitted, was the only good suggestion he'd made, because the kissing noises had stopped.

She heard Mr Wilson's voice, sounding out of breath again, as he said, "Shall we get on with what we came here to do?"

And then there was some noisy ruffling, before she heard the distinctive sound of a zipper being pulled down.

Oh my. Just when she thought situation couldn't get any worse.

Cole looked at Avery, and he saw her face flame up with embarrassment. She looked like she'd rather be anywhere but here, and he nearly laughed out loud when he practically read the thoughts running through her head. The minx had a dirty mind, and he liked it.

"Wow, it's... um... longer than I expected it to be," he heard Miss Smith's nervous voice from outside.

Cole watched as Avery's eyes grew wider, and resisted the urge to do a few unthinkable things to her. Since when was he attracted to Avery? She had been his rival since childhood, and they'd been at each other's throats for so long, he couldn't even remember the inciting incident that began their rivalry. Maybe it was that time when she'd pushed him into the rock pool and dumped the bucket of the crabs she'd caught onto his body during that seaside trip in Year 1. No, she'd done that in retaliation to his directing her to the boys' toilets on their first day of primary school.

Ah, she'd been so gullible back then, he thought fondly. But actually, it had started in nursery, he remembered now, when he'd called her fat and pulled her pigtails, causing her to sucker-punch him in the stomach. They'd been bickering ever since, often resulting in them rolling around trying to punch the hell out of each other while the teachers tried to separate them. Once they'd become older, the physical fights had been minimised, but the verbal sparring and fierce competitions still hadn't ceased, and he'd come to realise that he actually enjoyed disagreeing with Avery over petty matters, watching that red blush spread over her cheekbones.

He wouldn't mind a good old rolling around with each other again to take out their frustration, he thought, and that that thought, inevitably, lead to the realisation that he wouldn't mind a roll in the proverbial hay with Avery either. She'd always been quite enticing (and just a little endearing) when she was flustered, even though feisty, stubborn and slightly plump wasn't his type.

Of course, that was out of the question anyway, since they were running against each other for school president in their final year of high school.

"Hey, Aves?" He said softly, but she appeared to be so distracted that she nodded absent-mindedly, not even bothering to correct him.

He vaguely registered Miss Smith's hesitant voice saying, "Can I touch it?", as he watched the girl whose side he was pressed up against redden even more, before he asked the question that had been on his mind for some time now.

"What were you doing in Mr Wilson's office before he returned?"

She seemed to welcome the distraction, as she turned to face him. "I was... " She sighed, then reluctantly admitted, "I was looking for the online voting system on Mr Wilson's computer. You know, to see who got elected as school president."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You were? And... you weren't planning on changing the statistics if you lost to me?" He added, making her bite her lip. Guilty and caught.

"No, of course not!" She protested quickly - almost too quickly - and looked away from him. "Okay, fine, maybe. I don't know what I would have done," she mumbled, before turning back to him accusingly. "And what were you doing in this cupboard when I came here?"

He smiled at her amusedly. "Great minds think alike."

She grinned at him, as understanding dawned on her. "You too? No wonder the page I needed was already open on Mr Wilson's computer whe-"

She broke off as Miss Smith's voice piped up again. "I like stroking it. The skin is so smooth... and it's so hard."

There was a low hiss, and Mr Wilson spoke, sounding relieved and quite eager. "I'm glad you like it."

Cole saw Avery's cheeks turn crimson again, and he let his finger trace patterns on her knee as Mr Wilson's disappointed voice added, "Oh, but look at the time. You really must get going; we've been here long enough. Why don't you come back again tomorrow, and you can... get acquainted again."

Avery scrambled up to her feet again, and Cole languidly did the same, standing next to Avery as he realised they would probably be able to get out of this amusingly awkward situation soon.

Footsteps started again, and he heard the clicking sound of Miss Smith's heels as the door was unlocked and she walked out of Mr Wilson's office. A noise indicated that the principal had shut the door behind her, but Cole realised with a start that Mr Wilson was still in the room.

And his footsteps were heading towards the very cupboard in which they were hidden.

I'll check the cupboard later, Janie.

The headteacher's earlier words echoed in his head, as he was reminded of the sound that Avery had made to give away their position.

Shit.

He looked at the girl next to him, and saw panic flash in her eyes as she understood what was happening. He had to do something. So just when Mr Wilson had reached the cupboard, he turned to face her completely, shot out a long arm, and pulled her closer to deftly press his lips against hers.

Avery froze. What the hell did Reynolds think he was doing? She thought, even as she felt her own lips respond to his demanding movement. Her body seemed to react of its own accord, as her arms reached up to entangle themselves around his neck and pull his head closer, almost as if it was a challenge.

And then the door of the cupboard opened, and they sprung apart.

Mr Wilson's jaw dropped as he realised that Avery Jones and Cole Reynolds had been kissing in his cupboard, and he stood there for at least a minute, before gesturing for them to step out of cupboard.

As they made their way into the bright light in his office, Avery understood why Cole had kissed her. It was so that they had a believable excuse to be found in Mr Wilson's cupboard, although in what world Cole thought the idea of the two of them being in love was plausible in, she wasn't sure.

Mr Wilson seemed to have finally comprehended the situation at hand, so he asked, "Would you two please care to explain what you were doing in my cupboard after school?"

Cole raked a hand through his hair, making it even more dishevelled than it usually was, so that Avery felt an inexplicable urge to touch it again.

"We were kissing, sir. I thought it was rather obvious," he said, seeming completely unfazed.

Mr Wilson swallowed. "Kissing?"

Cole let out a prolonged sigh. "Yes, sir. Kissing, mauling each other, engaging in a pleasurable activity that couples usually partake in, grop - "

Avery cut him off before he could humiliate (and irritate) her further. "I think Mr Wilson doesn't need the definition of kissing."

He smirked at her. "Oh yeah, the two of us are certain about that sir." Oh God, did the boy just wink at Mr Wilson?

Avery looked around the room hurriedly in search of a distraction, when she realised that there was a cage lying on Mr Wilson's desk that hadn't been there before. It would have been impossible to miss under usual circumstances, but she'd been too preoccupied with the moron standing next to her.

"Is that a snake?" She asked hesitantly, squinting to look at the animal inside the cage.

Mr Wilson beamed at her proudly. "Yes, it is in fact, a rare species that I managed to obtain for the Year 10 biology class investigation. I was just showing it to Miss Smith, because, as you might be aware, she's a little afraid of snakes, so I thought they could get acquainted."

Acquainted? The word rang a bell in her ears.

Mr Wilson continued, unaffected by her lack of response. "Coincidentally, now that you two are here, I suppose I might as well tell you the results of the vote for school president." He narrowed his eyes at them. "Wait a minute, why were you two... er, kissing, inside my textbook cupboard?"

"Because we thought it was very comfortable," Cole drawled sarcastically. Avery saw the look on Mr Wilson's face, and was just about to interrupt before Cole could cause even more damage, when he added, "Just a joke sir. We actually came to see you about the results of the election, and one thing led to another, and we were, as you might call it, making out in your office. And then we heard your footsteps, so we - well, it was Avery, in fact, not me who decided to instigate this -" He shot her a look telling her that he was enjoying this way too much, and she decided she was going to strangle him as soon as they were out of there - "- and she dragged me into the cupboard for privacy."

Mr Wilson looked like he was at a loss for words."So you heard - ?"

Cole grinned. "We heard sounds that sounded suspiciously like kissing, and then a bit of feeling up, bu - "

The principal cut him off with an appalled look.

"Feeling up? I was trying to rid the woman of her fear and touch the snake!"

Cole stared at Mr Wilson. Now wasn't this a strange misunderstanding?

Of course, all of Miss Smith's comments about it being long, hard and smooth - and even the sharp hiss - made sense again, but who would have thought she was referring to a snake?

Mr Wilson's face was turning red, and the effect was quite fascinating with his shiny, bald head, as its entirety appeared to be colouring with embarrassment. Funny, it resembled a rather large, unshapely tomato.

"You thought - We got a little sidetracked, and we may have kissed, but we didn't - Gah!" he exploded, pacing up and down the room. "You Reynolds children are going to be the death of me," he muttered. "Always assuming the worst. And you!" He turned to Avery. "I would have expected it of Mr Reynolds, but surely not you as well, Miss Jones?"

He took one look at her face, and shut his eyes with a groan, pinching the bridge of his nose. His voice was strained when he spoke again. "What I wanted to tell you was, you both tied for student president. Now I'm giving you five seconds to get out of here before I do something I sincerely regret."

They made it out in less than three.

Outside the office, Avery turned to look at Cole uncertainly. "So, we tied, huh?" She walked with him as they made their way outside, neither of them mentioning the kiss or the weird aftermath.

He looked at her brown hair, curling over her shoulder, and pushed a long lock back so that it was out of her eyes, noting that her body stiffened slightly at his gesture. "How about I do you a deal? Let's split the control, 75-25." He paused, and then added, "With 75% being my policies for the school, naturally." Just in case, because knowing Avery, she'd probably need the clarification.

He was being generous, of course, with that little deal, because his first offer would have been 80-20.

They were outside now, and the rain was pelting down on the two of them, which wasn't unusual for London, but something about the dark clouds above them made the atmosphere seem electric.

Avery turned on her heel to face him. "What?!" she burst out, and he sighed heavily. He should have expected this. She crossed her arms mutinously. "I'm not settling for that."

He stepped towards her, and she immediately stepped back, her confidence wavering. Hm, so his proximity affected her. He stepped forwards again, slowly backing her into the wall behind her, and his eyes drifted down to the raindrop that was rolling off her lips.

"60-40 then," he suggested, and that little spark of defiance entered her eyes again as she unfolded her arms.

"No way. 50-50. I'm not prepared to negotiate any further," she said, even as her own eyes glanced at his lips.

The air around them felt heavy, almost tangible, and Cole realised that for once, he didn't want to argue with her, so he decided to let this one go.

He bent his head and pushed her against the wall, looking down at her gleaming brown eyes. "Fine," he murmured, allowing his lips to brush the tip of her nose, before moving even further down. "50-50 it is." There was barely a centimetre between their lips now.

"Okay." She sounded breathless, and he nearly smiled.

"And while we're negotiating, how about we let this hostility that we've had for each other go now?" he whispered, almost, but not quite, touching her lips, which prompted another nervous "okay" from her mouth. His lips curled from the corners. "We can't continue this if we'll both be leading the school council in a coalition. Let's find a... more creative use for our mouths than insulting each other," he suggested.

She let out a sigh of frustration at his leisurely pace, pulling his head closer to press his lips against her in a move that surprised him, and he finally smiled against her mouth as she kissed him greedily. He moved his arms to encircle her waist, and pulled her closer until her body was pressed flush against his, deepening the kiss. His fingers traced patterns on her midriff lightly, causing a small moan to escape her, and she reached around his waist, letting her hand dip into his back pocket.

And then she pulled out his phone and abruptly tossed it into the fountain behind him.

Cole pulled away from her, stunned."What was that for?"

He'd been thinking of nothing other than her lips, and how much he wanted her, and then she had to go and do that.

Her eyes gleamed and a mischievous smile slipped onto her face. "For that prank you pulled on me last week. I never got back at you, and, as you've always loved telling me, now's as good a time as any."

He narrowed his eyes at her. He was going to make her pay for that, he thought, as he pushed her up against the wall again and inhaled her scent.

Just in a way he'd never have imagined before.

A/N: Okay, yep, so that's it. If you liked it, or have any pointers for improving my writing, or even made it to the end of the story, please review (even if you just write 'I made it to the end')! It means a lot to me! (Excuse any typos, I kinda just planned and wrote this in less than two days, so it was a little rushed).

Also, the story (not a one-shot, a proper story) that my friend plans on writing is a story about how Cole's parents fell in love - it'll be much better than this, I can tell you for sure - and it's like a fairy tale with a twist, in a modern world. So yeah, the whole idea is pretty cool. She doesn't have a FP account yet, so I can't tell you who she is, but she's planning on writing the story in the summer holidays (British summer holidays start in July), so keep an eye out for it!

If someone is actually reading this, and would like me to update this story to tell you when she writes that story, I'll do exactly that :) So it would help for you to follow this story ;D

Actually, this one-shot was just an idea we came up with, and then, because she didn't want to write the slightly dirty (but come on, it's not even actually dirty - just a few inappropriate thoughts from Avery and Cole) moments, I volunteered to write it for her, because writing it meant a break from studying, and as any Year 11, 12 or 13 student living in London knows, these few months are pretty much all about studying, because we all have important exams coming up!

At first, I wanted to make Cole and Avery older, but then I settled on Year 11, because they're running against each other for school president and Year 11 is the last year of high school in England.

Anyway, if you read this, thanks for reading it, you lovely person! And I hope you enjoyed it! (And leave a quick review if you did!) Thank you!

A/N Update: I corrected the typos now, and thanks so much for the reviews!

To my very first reviewer: Guest. I'm glad you made it to the end of the story! xD

And also my second reviewer: thebluepig08: Thanks so much for the heartfelt review! :* Any author would be lucky to receive a review from you :) I'll PM you a reply as soon as I can!

And (you guessed it) my third reviewer: SnowflakeSoup: Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it, and I'll PM you a reply too!

Thanks to all the followers/favouriters (okay, I'm aware that isn't a real word) too for the support :D

Thank you all for taking the time to click on this, and read and review, follow or favourite the story if you did, and if I get any more reviews, I'll PM you a reply!

Don't forget, you're awesome!