Dude and Dudette

Chapter Three

Jude watched as Jen rushed back and forth following Coach Halder's orders, attending to the customers and banging her head on various hard surfaces once in awhile when she caught herself staring at him. "...you need to chill, bra." he told her when she was carrying a bunch of equipment past him.

"Jude, I don't have time to chill. That mess you made earlier set me back and now I have all this work piling up non-stop." Jen grumbled frustrated.

"I told you to never startle a juggler, anyway as soon as I'm outta here, I'll help you out, I swear."

Jen blew a strand of hair out of her face, "No thanks, you're too distracting."

"How about a massage then? I've been told I'm pretty awesome at those." Jude cracked his knuckles for effect.

"I can't, these equipment aren't gonna stack themselves."

"Dude, I won't take no for an answer." Jude pulled a surprised Jen into the penalty box and sat her down in front of him.

"Jude! What do you think you're- oh... that's good..." she sighed and closed her eyes as Jude started massaging her shoulders.

Jude smiled, "Told ya so. Think of this as a much needed lunch break, hmm, that reminds me, shouldn't I be at Stick It right about now?" he added thoughtfully.

Jen wasn't even there. All she felt was Jude's wonderful hands kneading all the stress and tension away. She was pretty sure she was moaning. He was running his hands along her back, up and down her neck and across her shoulders.

"You ok there dudette?" he whispered while stroking the small of her back.

"Mmm..." she purred and drifted off as he continued his ministrations.

"I don't get it, what happened?" Caitlin asked.

"I don't know, he was just being typical Jonesy... and flirting with the clones." Nikki answered with distaste at the last part.

Caitlin gasped, "No!"

"Yeah! I mean, please, anyone but the clones. Then I just got so angry I blew up big time on him." she grimaced at the memory of their huge fight.

"Ouch, then what happened?"

"He said I was short! What the hell? That just pissed me off even more."

"Well... you are kinda on the short side..." Caitlin giggled.

Nikki glared at her before continuing, "He just gets me so mad sometimes, I don't even know why."

Caitlin sat and thought quietly about it for awhile. "Maybe you're... jealous?"

Nikki opened her mouth and closed it, then opened it again, "Jealous? Me? Hah, that's funny. No. I don't get jealous. There's no reason to. Why on earth would I be jealous?"

"Because! You like Jonesy and you don't want him flirting with other girls, especially not your mortal enemies." she blurted out.

"Who told you that? That is a filthy lie." Nikki looked around as if to see if there were people listening.

"Come on Nikki, it's obvious. Everyone knows you like him and that he's crazy about you. This is something that has been developing between you two since like, kindergarten, or so I'm assuming. I think you both need to face the fact that you care about each other and move on from there."

Nikki shifted uncomfortably, "Wow, you actually sounded kinda smart saying all that."

"I read a lot of Cosmo. This is like the classic story where best friends realise they've fallen for each other." Caitlin replied dreamily.