A budding romance

Charlie was reading one of his books in the sunroom over at the East wing of the house, when little feet started approaching him. The little girl stood in front of him and looked at him questioningly. "What are you reading?" Charlie glanced up for a brief moment before replying back, "Nothing you would understand." But this cold answer didn't stop Eva from asking a second one. She just replied with "Hmm. I see.". After agreeing with him she asked him the question she wanted to ask him. "Won't you come to the other wing and play with Eva and I?" By phrasing the question like this, insinuating she was Anna, while trying to keep her voice as normal as possible, she continued her and Anna's long standing tradition of testing him. With him barely looking at her and with Anna currently not being her for him to compare her to, she wondered if she would finally be able to make him slip up. But somehow, deep down inside, she hoped that he would never slip up. That he would always be able to tell that it was her no matter how much she tried to trick him.

Charlie looked up again and peered into the bright eyes of the adorable girl in front of him. The girl that had filled his mind with unanswerable questions each time they met. Because no matter how much he though about it, he couldn't figure her and the sister out. He didn't understand why they would always come find him and why they always pretended to be each other. Even though he always saw through their ploys. Especially the one in front of him was someone he could not understand. Not only was she often the culprit in these ploys, she was the instigator in all of them. Despite his internal reaction, on the outside he looked thoroughly unaffected by her presence and with a look not far off from boredom he said, "You can tell Anna that I will be right there. I want to get a bit more reading done." Eva's eyes grew wide a bit from surprise before she quickly tried to revert her eyes back to normal. "What do you mean? I am Anna."

Without a second blink Charlie said, "Yeah, yeah. Of course. I will be right there." With a vexed little pout, Eva turned around and walked back with the feeling of defeat. As soon as she turned around, her pout turned into a smile and she hurried off in the direction she had come from, while Charlie looked at her leave. This was yet another thing he couldn't figure out. He couldn't understand why this particular twin would always manage to catch his interest. Though she was like any other girl, in a way she seemed different. Always drawing his eyes to her, no matter how busy he was or what he was working on. For a girl who was supposed to be like any other girl, why did he like teasing her in particular so much. He liked seeing that pout, he liked the smile he knew would follow shortly after and he liked that he had such a hard time figuring her out. She was a mystery but at the same time an open book. A puzzle he couldn't seem to solve. But he wouldn't be his father's son if he didn't like a challenge.

While there was a budding romance growing on this side of England, over in another corner, not too far away, Sam was experiencing the beginning of a romance himself. The one who had caught his eye was the younger sister of none other than who most endearingly knew as little James. Though this sister was seven years younger than James, she was two years older than Sam. They had met a few times at parties that he had attended with his parents and it only took one of those meeting for him to develop a crush. Though she didn't seem to be interested at all and no matter what tricks of his father he used, she wouldn't even turn his way. But lucky for him he had also inherited his fathers tenacity and just like his friend, he too wasn't shy of a challenge.

So, while his parents and sisters were over at the Westwood residence, he was over at a music school downtown. He had convinced his parents to let him attend piano classes. In particular, the piano class that James's sister went to. Providing him with a reason to meet her on a regular basis and give him a chance to notice his existence in another way than the child of someone her parents knew. With Nick as his biggest supporter, Sam had been working at his crush for a few weeks now. By using his wits, hard work and his skills to absorb knowledge, which he usually didn't like to use outside of school, he had managed to catch up to Fiona's playing level. Causing him to end up in her class and his next objective was to score a duet with her. That way they would have to meet up outside of class as well in order to practice and he would be able to show her more of his good side.

Like this the time had come for another generation's romance story, with both friends being on different sides of an unrequited first love. One being unaware of the feelings of the person with the crush and the other being the one with the crush and chasing someone who is unaware.