34. Ch 34- Dodging The Question

(A/N: Hey, guys. I want to talk about the future of this fic real quick. Now, I've been writing this as I go, and this story has changed vastly from what I had originally envisioned. There are many things about this story that have turned out differently than my original plan, but the most noticeable change that I've noticed is just how long this story has become! Had you told me when I started this fic that, by chapter thirty, it wouldn't even be halfway through, I might have laughed. Now, while I know what certain events will be and what the broader timeline looks like, I have no clue how many chapters this will take- at this moment in time, I know what the next eighteen chapters are. Other than that, however, your guess is as good as mine, so thank you all for sticking with this as long as you have. If it weren't for the fact that you guys read my work, I might have packed it in.

Also, just as a heads up, I return to university for my third year in a couple of weeks, and since this is the most important year for me, that will likely take up a fair bit of my time. I'll do my best to keep uploading at the same rate, but I will need to prioritise my studies.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Thank you for reading, and enjoy!)

The next morning, Jordan had woken up, gotten dressed and ready and ate breakfast with her family as usual, before beginning to walk to school. Along the way, she met up with Mollie, Sadie and Kat, before they arrived at Joy's house, where they waited for their friend. Eventually, they saw the front door open and Joy stepped out, shrugging her bag strap over her shoulder while holding a slice of toast between her teeth. Shutting the door, she grabbed hold of the toast and took a bite out of it, then walked over to catch up with her friends. "Sorry I'm late," she said once her mouth was empty, "I overslept."

"That's fine, Kat did too," Mollie replied, prompting the raven haired girl to slap her on the shoulder.

"Nothing new there, then."

Kat merely scoffed and retorted by saying, "oh, yeah, because you're a picture of punctuality!"

Joy rolled her eyes as she gulped down another bite of her toast, the five of them resuming their walk towards school. "So, what's new with you girls?"

"Well, Jordan's taken up a new hobby," Sadie teased, the girl in yellow groaning at the 'joke'.

"I told you," she argued, "I don't want to do this, but I don't really have much choice." Looking at Joy's confused face, Jordan sighed before she explained, "my sister Jen is making me model for her stupid fashion show next Saturday."

"What's so bad about that?" Joy asked. "I mean, your sister's good at fashion, right? What, are you afraid she's gonna make something you won't look good in?"

"No, of course not. I'm worried I'm gonna look like an idiot up there. What do I know about modelling?"

"Just think of it like you're walking on the balance beam," Mollie suggested. "A really wide balance beam where you don't really have to balance."

Her friends giggled at the joke, while Jordan offered a sarcastic "har, har" to her friend, but did smile. "I guess you're right. Plus, Lincoln said he'd help me."

"What does the girl guru know about modelling?"

"First of all, are you really still mad at him about that?"

The deadpan expression Joy gave her said it all, but she still reminded her friend, "he convinced Papa Wheelie to put a frog on my head."

"I'd take that over a Dutch Oven any day." She shuddered a bit at the memory. "I had to bring in an air freshener to get the smell out of my locker." Realising she was getting off track, she shook her head. "Anyway, Lincoln's sister got him to agree to model for her as well, and he's coached his little sister for pageants before, so he said he might be able to help show me what to do. Still, I doubt he wants to do this anymore than I do, so that'll be fun." She gave a small chuckle at the thought of it, but when she didn't hear anyone respond, a quick glance at her friends saw them giving each other knowing glances. "What?"

Mollie, grinning from ear to ear, decided to be the one to break the silence. "You sure seem to be hanging out with Lincoln a lot more now. First inviting him to gymnastics, then to sit with us at lunch, then for the trip to the mall and the Halloween party. Now the two of you are gonna be modelling together."

"Woah, woah, hold on a second. We are not modelling together, we're modelling separately at the same show."

"Sounds the same to me," Kat joked, making the rest of Jordan's friends laugh as well. "But, yeah, you two are hanging out a lot more than we figured you would when you told us that Lincoln was gonna join us at gymnastics. Is there… something else going on there?"

Jordan, being someone who was actually quite smart for age, didn't need even a second to figure out what she was getting at. "Please tell me you aren't suggesting I'm crushing on Lincoln."

"… well…"

"Oh my god, really?! You're as bad as my sister!"

"Come on, Jordan, it's not as if you're denying it," Sadie pointed out. "For one thing, you're the one who defends him whenever Markus tries to bother him."

"Yeah, what's his problem, anyway?" Joy asked.

"Honestly, I don't know," Jordan admitted, giving a small shake of her head. "Something to do with football, I think? But, yeah, I stick up for Lincoln. So what? Markus is a jerk."

"Yeah, but that's not the only thing that makes us think you might like Lincoln more than a friend," Mollie spoke up. "For one thing, you defended him when Joy called him Girl Guru a second ago, and then there's this." She pointed at the scarf around her best friend's neck. "You've worn that every day since he got you it for your birthday."

"Well, it is autumn."

"Jordan, it's not exactly cold at the moment. In fact, the weather guy's been saying it might get hotter in a couple of weeks- hardly scarf weather, is it?"

She merely rolled her eyes at this. "Whatever, I like the scarf! It goes with my outfit! And yes, it was sweet of him to get it for me, and that he remembered me looking at it, but that doesn't mean I like him like that."

"And that right there is the third reason why I think you're lying to us." Mollie even went as far as to hold up three fingers to put exclamation to her point. "Why else would you be getting so defensive right now, unless you do have a crush on him?"

"I'm not…" Letting out a frustrated breath through her nose, she looked at her friends once more. "Look, girls. I appreciate what you're trying to say, but me and Lincoln…"

"… we're just friends!" Lincoln refuted, having unknowingly had the same conversation as the girls as he walked to school with Clyde, Rusty, Zach and Liam. "Why are you guys saying that I like her all of a sudden? I have to deal with this from my sisters, I don't need to deal with it from you guys as well."

"Linc, we ain't trying to make you uncomfortable," Liam told his friend. "We just thought, since you two have been hanging out so much, that maybe you did like her."

"We also thought that Stella hanging out with us meant that she liked us, and look how that turned out." The boys' faces turned sour as they recalled what had happened. "Guys, I know you mean well, but you've got it all wrong."

"Hey, guys!" They heard a familiar voice call to them, and looked to see Stella crossing the road to catch up to them. "Whoa, you guys okay? You look like someone told you your puppy died."

"Yeah, we're fine," Lincoln explained. "Just these guys are trying to say I like Jordan because I've been hanging out with her more."

Her face fell. "Seriously? This again? I thought you guys learned after we started hanging out, that's not how things work!"

"Well, it isn't JUST that," Zach pointed out. "She seemed pretty happy with the scarf you got her- she's worn it every day since you got it for her."

"Plus, after the Halloween party, you've stopped calling her 'Girl' Jordan," Clyde added.

"That was because she asked me to stop calling her that," Lincoln explained, "and I agreed to because she's my friend. And I've been hanging out with Jordan more since I started going to gymnastics, sure, but it's not like we've been dating. I've just been hanging out with her and the others."

"But what about the fashion show?"

Stella blinked, surprised by the statement Rusty made. "Wait, fashion show?"

Lincoln sighed, rubbing the back of his arm. "Yeah, my sister Leni asked me to model for her next fashion show, and Jordan's modelling for her sister as well. Since Leni and Jordan's sister are working together for it, I had to go to Jordan's house after school so I could get measured." His cheeks heated up as he remembered how embarrassed he felt the day before. "Still, I'm only doing it because Leni's my sister, and I agreed to after she said she would make my Halloween costume for me."

"Well, that sounds sweet of you," Stella offered. "Shows how much you care about your sister." She then looked at the other guys and said, "still, just because he's hanging out with a girl doesn't mean that he likes her, and same goes for her. If he says they're just friends, then just leave it."

Lincoln gave a smile to the girl. "Thanks, Stella." After another few minutes of walking, they eventually reached the school, joining the crowd of students entering the building so they could reach their lockers. Lincoln opened his locker and threw his gym bag inside. "I still can't believe we have to do gym today."

"Dang it!" Zach complained. "I knew I forgot something this morning."

"Why are we even doing gym today, anyway?" Rusty asked.

"They're holding a mathletics competition in the gymnasium tomorrow," Clyde explained. "That's why."

"Right. I forgot you were involved in that." Clyde smiled proudly in response. "Still, couldn't they give us a free period instead, or any class other than gym?"

"Relax, Rusty, it won't kill you," Stella chastised. "It's just happening a day earlier than usual."

Lincoln chuckled, thinking, 'I wouldn't be surprised if it did, to be fair. Still, who am I to talk? I've only been doing gymnastics for about a month, and I'd probably be complaining more if I didn't.' As he shut his locker door, he turned around and saw Jordan down the hallway, talking with her friends, when he remembered something. "Hey, guys, I'm gonna talk to Jordan for a moment. I forgot to ask her something yesterday."

"Okay!" Stella replied as he walked away.

While he approached the girl, Jordan was tapped on the shoulder by Kat, who then pointed at the white haired boy, directing her attention to him. "Oh, hey, Lincoln!" She greeted.

"Hey, Jordan."

"What's up?"

"Can I talk to you quickly?"

Curious, she nodded before turning to her friends. "I'll catch you in class." They nodded back to her and walked away, allowing the two to be relatively alone in the hall. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I just remembered, because Lori picked us up, I never got to thank you yesterday. You know, for convincing Jen to not rat me out to Leni."

She smiled at the boy. "It's okay, Lincoln. You don't need to thank me for that."

"Yes, I do. For one thing, I kind of got the feeling that was why you agreed to model for her."

A sigh escaped from her lips, the girl's shoulders drooping a bit. "Yeah, she never actually said that was why she wanted me to, but I kind of figured that was why."

"So, why did you?"

Blinking, she gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" He raised his hand, using it to scratch the back of his head. "I want you to be honest with me- the fact that I haven't told my sisters the truth yet. Do you think it's stupid?"

"Oh… that." She grabbed her wrist and looked to the side for a moment, before giving him a sincere look. "I'll be honest, Lincoln. I don't get it as much as you do. If it was me, I'd want my sister to know that I'm proud of doing gymnastics."

He looked down in shame. "I thought so."

"Wait a minute, Lincoln." He looked back up, making her feel a little bit guilty when she saw that his eyes looked a little bit sad. "I don't get why you haven't told them, but… at the same time, I also don't get what it's like to have ten sisters, especially ten sisters that are as different from each other as yours are." He couldn't help but give a small laugh at that, knowing full well that she was right. "What I'm trying to say, Lincoln, is I don't judge you for not telling them, and if I can, I'll try and help you keep it secret until you're ready to tell them."

"Really?" She nodded, and saw that a smile grew on his face. "You don't have to do that… but I appreciate you trying to help all the same."

"No problem. So, since you asked me something, can I ask you something?" He nodded. "When do you think you're going to tell your sisters the truth?"

He felt his blood run slightly cold, instinctively looking over his shoulders to make sure that his younger sisters weren't in sight, before looking back at his friend. "Honestly, I'm still figuring that part out. I know that I can't just tell them all at once, because that would just end up being a disaster. It's about figuring out who to tell when."

"I see…" The two were interrupted by the bell ringing, signifying that it was time for class. "Lincoln… I don't know your sisters as well as you do, so… all I can say is, don't leave it too long, you know? It'll only get worse the longer you leave it."

"Yeah… I know, you're right." He gave her a smile. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Now, come on, class is starting."