Secret Singing Superstar

Fourteen ~ ♫♪♫

A few things had changed ever since the small party at Claire's house. The first thing was that Leanne, Caitlin and Claire were back to being best friends that didn't keep any secrets from each other.

Well, there was still one secret. Leanne kept thinking about how Anna was alone in the library, on her laptop. She wanted her to join them, but she didn't know how to. For now, she would settle on just visiting her by herself in the library until she thought it was the right time to ask her.

Second thing was that now at recess and lunchtimes Leanne, Caitlin and Claire were joined by Helina and Cailyn. At first they had visited only for Cailyn to talk to Leanne about the singing concert, but in the end they had sat together ever since Claire had invited them to sit with them every break.

Caitlin was challenging Claire to a competition to see who could remember the most kids' TV shows from their childhood, and every single time they said a TV show Cailyn and Helina would either nod or exclaim, "I remember that! I used to watch it all the time!"

Amazingly, the only show that they had all watched was Sesame Street.

"I love Elmo," said Caitlin. Claire rolled her eyes.

They were so engrossed in their competition that Leanne decided that they wouldn't miss her that much if she left. "I'm going to the library for a bit," said Leanne to Cailyn, who was the only person to notice that she was leaving.

"Alright, but come back or these two aren't going to go anywhere." Cailyn pointed at Caitlin and Claire, who were now yelling the TV shows at each other. Leanne nodded and walked to the library. She knew where Anna would be every time - in the corner at the back of the library, where the librarians couldn't see her - and sure enough, she was there, but this time a boy was with her. He looked like he was a few years older than both Anna and Leanne, and Anna was laughing at something that he had said. Leanne wondered if Anna had made a new friend, and was about to go back outside when Anna looked up and saw her.

"Hey! Oh, this is Leanne," she said to the boy. "My friend."

"You have friends now?" said the boy, amused.

"Shut up!" Anna rolled her eyes. "Leanne, this is my brother."

Leanne remembered how Anna had mentioned that she had two brothers, one older and one younger. This must've been the older brother.

Anna's brother gave her a wave. "We were just talking about how Anna would react if I got a girlfriend."

"I told him I would murder him first, and then I would squeal like a little girl and be happy for him." Anna laughed as she said it.

"Well, is he going to ask some girl out?" asked Leanne.

Anna turned to her brother. "Are you?"

"Um..." her brother looked a little uncomfortable. "Maybe. Sort of. Not really."

"You are!" said Anna. Her eyes widened and she hit her brother on the arm really hard. "Why didn't you tell me? Who do you have a crush on?"

"You don't know her," her brother said quickly. "Now can we change the subject?"

Right at that point, Caitlin came up behind Leanne and tapped her on the shoulder. "I noticed you were gone and went to look for you," she said. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes rested on Anna and her brother and she turned pale. Extremely pale.

"What's wrong?" Leanne said quietly so that Anna and her brother wouldn't hear.

Caitlin shook her head. Her hands were shaking slightly. "It's nothing."