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DAY 2…

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TWO TURLE DOVES…

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Casey's POV:

I was supposed to meet him at the mall near his favourite music store or something, but I, not really wanting to see in the first place, decided to rebel against his plan and just stay at home, when really, I should be at the music store now.

If my luck stays strong, I'll just continue to avoid him for the whole twelve days, then he'll be gone and I won't have to worry about him asking me out again, or being near him at all. Even the thought of that prospect makes me smile. I'm normally nice I swear…

The only problem with that is I still have to try and avoid him for the remaining eleven days. I would've disagreed to his plan like my first thought told me too, but after weighing up the scales, with him annoying me for the rest of my life and being distracted by his pitiful attempts at asking me out during university and when I have a job, cpmpared to just seeing him for twelve days straight now, not like I have anything better to do anyway, then not seeing him ever again. The latter wins, by a mile.

I still couldn't see, after all these years, why he couldn't just leave me alone. I've reject him at every opportunity. Every opportunity that I didn't even want in the first place. I avoid him whenever possible, and I try not to talk to him at all.

I haven't tried being down-right mean to him yet, only because I think that being cruel to someone just to get what you want is wrong. Still, that's no reason for him to continue to chase after me.

Thinking about it, I guess I did blow up at him once, or twice, maybe more…

The first time was when he asked me out while I was already dating someone else. Did he really expect me to say yes when I had a boyfriend? Did he really expect me to sink that low? Obviously he at least hoped so, which resulted in me screaming at him a while or two about his stupidity and expectations of me.

The second time was when I had just witnessed him break up with a girl, who just happened to be a good friend of mine at the time, rather poorly.

The break up consisted of him randomly catching my eye, which he held for rather a long time I admit, then he faced my friend and said the words, "You're really starting to annoy me, the kissing is great and all, but I'm dumping you." Then he left my friend in shock and the beginning of a nervous breakdown. He walked over to me and then proceeded to ask me out. Stupid boy. I think he learnt his lesson though after I yelled at him once again, which consisted of mostly sticking up for my friends feelings. Not that it did anything; she refused to talk to me after that.

I had such a bad taste in friends back then. Still do, if you want to get right down to it.

Which is why, I have the next twelve, eleven now, days free for Anthony, which is something I thought I would never say, because I have no one who I want to hang out with anyway.

Still in my pajamas, even though it's close to lunchtime, I make myself some scrambled eggs for brunch. At least I attempt to, I end up accidentally dropping one of the eggs onto my foot where it exploded. Why must I be so clumsy?

Unexpectedly, impatient knocks start up on the front door. Somehow forgetting that I have exploded egg on my foot and that I'm in my pajamas, I run to the door feeling thoroughly irritated at the sound of the tit-tatting.

Upon opening it, my irritation grows. Looks like I'm not so lucky after all.

"You were supposed to let me avoid you!" I shout at Anthony who is now surveying my appearance. On second thought, I add, "How do you know where I live anyway?"

As he doesn't reply straight away, I try and answer myself by saying the first thought that comes to mind, "You're not stalking me are you? Stalking is bad." I have a talent when it comes to being blunt don't you think?

Anthony laughs. "Don't worry my turtle dove. I have no intention of stalking you. I offered to take you home that time you got really drunk, remember?" I shake my head. "Didn't think so. You should be proud of me though, I didn't try to kiss you, even when I knew you wouldn't remember it. Aren't I just the perfect knight in shining armour? And I have no intention of letting you avoid me either, and you better remember that."

It made sense I guess. Except… "Turtle dove? And no, you are not my knight in shining armour."

"For now, my turtle dove, for now."

"Oh, whatever. Anyway, about that, what's with the new nickname?"

"Well, my dear turtle dove, it was a toss up between turtle-klutz, which doesn't really make sense and makes you sound like a 'total' klutz which you're not, or turtle-dove, which I like better anyway. Don't you?"

With a motion of my hand, I urge him to continue.

"Turtle dove be patient," he all but orders, "It's because you are wearing turtle pajamas," Looking down I see that he is telling the truth, which, I might add is rather embarrassing. "And because you were looking quite the opposite of a dove, you know how it's the symbol of peace and all. So, it's sarcasm." His voice starts trails off before he adds, "You do realise your foot is covered in egg right?"

Well that certainly got me in a good mood. "Yes I do know thank you oh-so much. And I don't like the nickname. It reminds me of my embarrassing pajamas that you've caught me wearing. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to go change, you can wait in the living room or whatever, my parents are at work. Pr you know, you could wait at the music sore some more," I shout most of that over my shoulder as I head towards the bathroom to wash my foot.

Thank God I had a shower last night. I mean, sure I don't care if he thinks I smell, maybe it will get him to back off a bit, but I do like knowing that I have a good sense of hygiene. Besides, taking a shower takes time, and who knows what he could be getting up to out in the living room.

That thought still in mind, I rush to my room and start changing at top speed. Ending up in old jeans and an old top; okay you got me, I'm trying to make him not like what his seeing. If I can't do it by smell, than I do it by looks. Why give him any more determination than he started off with during these twelve days?

Coming out into the living room, which to my surprise is vacant, I head to the kitchen where I hear the crackles from the frying pan coming from.

What I see stops me in my tracks. He is cooking in the kitchen.

I repeat, he is cooking in the kitchen.

"Are you insane? You couldn't have blown something up! Are you trying to poison me? How do I know you can actually cook? Hell, how do you even know you can cook?" I all but scream at him.

He looks at me unimpressed. "Calm down turtle dove, I can cook." To demonstrate, he gives the frying pan a flick, and the stuff that's in there, (it just looks like a pile of mush to me) flips over and lands safely back into the pan like it is the easiest thing in the world.

I am amazed. My jaw drops. I've only ever seen that done on T.V, and even then I always just thought that was the special effects.

I am in no way about to praise him though, instead, I go for a, "I never knew you could cook."

To this, he smirks, hopefully not because he knows I'm amazed, we wouldn't want his head to grow any bigger do we?

"Turtle dove, did you ever think that there are a lot of things you don't know about me? I don't think so. It only goes to prove that once you actually get to know me you'll see the prince charming I really am. Isn't that right turtle dove?"

"Uh, no. Well, I mean, maybe I'll get to know you better and all, but that won't make me like you any more."

"I doubt that, turtle dove, I doubt that."

I knew he had a big ego and everything, but all this knowing the future type stuff is annoying me.

"Anthony, don't you presume to be right." I point my finger at him accusingly. "You can't tell me what I will do, or what I will think, or what I will feel. And I most definitely will not start to like you once I get to know you better!"

He sighs and opens his mouth to speak, but I haven't finished. "It will not happen! So you may as well give up now. Because believe it or not, I have gotten to know you better in the past two days, and all I've learnt is that you are more annoying, conceited, tall, annoying, egotistical, and stupid than I remembered you to be before this stupid plan!"

"Tall?"

You're kidding me! That's the only thing he paid attention to in my outburst!

"Yes, tall. And inconsiderate. And, just… Unbelievable!"

"Unbelievably tall?"

"And an idiot!"

"I have my moments I do admit turtle dove. But you can't tell me I'm that bad. You can't tell me I'm annoying, twice, when I know for a fact you had a good time yesterday."

So he did pay attention to my words other then 'tall'.

"Well, you've obviously got your facts wrong Anthony, because I did not have a good time yesterday. How could I when I was hanging around you?"

"Liar."

To be honest, I was lying. I surprisingly did have a good time yesterday. But it wasn't because of him. It was just that he got me to climb a tree, something I used to love doing when I was younger, and something I haven't done since I was younger. That was the only reason. It had absolutely nothing to do with him. Now that is not a lie.

All we really did yesterday was argue about how long this 'plan' of his was going to go for and about the partridge in a pear tree model he gave me, (which I actually think is a beautiful piece of artwork, it is homemade after all,- which is also something I won't be telling him).

We spent the rest of the time climbing the tree, well, we raced to the top of the tree. Then we sat up there a while and talked about being glad school's over for the year. That's all.

I won the race by the way, but I think he waited until I was half way up until he actually started, which was a bit unfair if you ask me. I'm not going to complain though; I won a bag of lollies, a bag of lollies that he has yet to give me.

Remembering this, and being thankful that it's a change of topic, I say, "You owe me a packet of lollies. Where are they?"

"Patience, turtle dove. I thought you were usually patient?"

"I was, I mean, I am, but you are the exception."

"Or because I was right about you having a good time yesterday."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's because you're annoying. Now, where are my lollies?"

"Hang on, hang on. Eat this first." Picking up my plate, he produces an omelette.

Taking a bite, all I can think is, 'Why must he continue to pleasantly surprise me with his hidden talents?'

Luckily, he isn't in the room so he doesn't see me smiling. All I can say is that it's truly delicious. I actually think I'm jealous on his cooking abilities. And his sculpturing talents.

When he does come back into the room however, he is holding three packets. One containing M&Ms, another containing the everyday party type, and the last being jellybeans. I can't help but smile at the latter.

"Enjoyed your omelette I see."

Dang, he got that? "Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. But I was hungry, so I couldn't have noticed if your cooking was bad anyway. I'm just thankful you didn't poison me."

"If you say so, turtle dove. What did you want to do today anyway? If you can't think of anything, I've come up with a brilliant idea! Originally I was going to take you to the movies, but that's only because I didn't think you would want to come over to my place and it's raining outside, so we can't go to the park again."

I look out the window and see that yes, it is in fact raining. I didn't even notice. I guess I was too focused on shouting at him when I opened the door earlier.

"So spare me Anthony," I say after a pause of silence between us. "Tell me what this brilliant idea is." I say the word 'brilliant' in obvious sarcasm.

"Well, seeing as though we now have lollies, and you don't know how to cook-"

"I can cook! You just saw the evidence of one of my worse attempts at cooking." I defend myself.

"Of course you are my turtle dove. Either way, we have decorating lollies, we have a kitchen, and I looked in the cupboard earlier to see if you had enough ingredients, which you do. So, are you up for making cookies? Then decorating the cookies?"

It's tempting, very tempting. One of my favourite things to do is eat, or nibble, on good food. Not that it shows, I have a very good metabolism.

Making cookies I guess is a win-win thing. I get to make edible food, (because Anthony is helping me, and I am in fact a terrible cook), I get to decorate food, and I get to eat food.

"I think that this is definitely one of your better ideas Anthony, that's for sure."

"Awesome, lets get to work. I think you're physic though, how else would you know to wear older clothes? You never know what can happen in the kitchen. Can you get the eggs out of the fridge?"

Great, my bad dress sense backfired. Sighing I get the eggs, only, being the turtle-klutz I am, yes I said turtle-klutz instead of total klutz, I stumble on my way back to the bench and I drop an egg or two. And yes you guessed it, it landed on a foot. Not my foot, but his foot. I am thankful.

"Ah, sorry?" I try to apologize, only it coming out as more of a question.

"Maybe I should have called you turtle-klutz after all turtle dove," he mumbles, mostly to himself, before adding to me, "It's okay turtle dove number one, it was only an accident, I hope. Can you show me where the bathroom is? I'm still trying to work out if it's better that I'm wearing thongs or not. This way, I can wash the egg off easily, but it's still on my foot. If I wore actual shoes then the shoes would be ruined. Hmm, I reckon I might have got the better end of the deal. Unless of course I had been wearing shoes I didn't like."

"Do you ever stop talking? Don't answer that, the bathrooms this way," I say before leading the way. "Um, just to let you know, I prefer turtle dove, to turtle dove number one, whatever that means…" I let my voice trail off as an indication for him to explain.

He apparently gets my drift. "Well, I may not be wearing turtle pajamas, or was the one to spill an egg on my foot, but I do still have an egg on my foot, which makes me turtle dove number two. We can't have you being a different species to me anyway, how will us being soul mates work out then?"

"No idea," I mumble under my breath, "Hopefully not at all."

"So, for today, we are two turtle doves. Doesn't that just sound nice turtle dove number one? We are two turtle doves."

Not seeing anyway out of it, I say, "Yeah, whatever, but call me by my name, you know, Casey," I remind him. "At the very least turtle dove, none of this number one crap."

"Will do turtle dove,"

"I change my mind, you can only call me by my name, no turtle dove what-so-ever."

"But, I like calling you turtle dove. Just for to today turtle dove, promise."

"Okay fine, whatever, today only."

We did end up making cookies, having a flour fight in the process (guess wearing old clothes was good in one way), it started when I got annoyed at him for not letting me stir, and we did end up decorating the cookies with M&Ms and the party lollies, though half of them disappeared into our mouths. We then settled down on my couch, ate the jellybeans, and played this new card game I hadn't heard of.

Once we realized the time, three long card games later, Anthony departed.

Just as he went out the door though, he was suddenly back inside, announcing that, "Tomorrow we're going to my place, I need to baby-sit my little sister. Is that okay?"

"Well no, but seeing as I don't have much of a choice, yes, as long as I'm not forced into reading princess stories all day."

"What's wrong with princess stories my dear turtle dove?"

"Absolutely nothing, but reading it for hours on end is completely out of the question."

"Good, how will turtle dove number two get to spend time with turtle dove number two if that happened?"

"What did I say about calling me that?" I accuse.

"To not to." He hung his head down trying his best at looking miserable. It didn't work. I could only giggle at his failed attempt. "You'll let me get away with it won't you? It's only for today after all."

"How could I no to a fake miserable face like that?" I tease.

"Exactly," He smiled. "Okay, my dear turtle dove, I shall be off, try not to miss me too much."

And with that, he left, well, after calling out one more time, "Till tomorrow my sweet little turtle dove."

It wasn't until after he left that I realized with surprise that I had once again had a good time, and I had, once again, forgotten to dislike him like I usually do.

I didn't think it was possible, but here I was, smiling at the great day I had had, and I said great day, not just good.

Realising this, my smile turned into a frustrated frown.

I would actually think it was possible for me to like him in that way, if I kept this up; which, just to assure everyone, won't happen! I refuse to allow myself to let that happen. I'll just end up like every other girl who has dated the incredible Anthony Jansen, heartbroken and miserable.

'Incredible' was definitely sarcasm.

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A/N: Once again, WE CONTINUE… (that's after you've dropped a review pretty pretty please)