"You saw them swimming!" Mina cried her doe eyes wide with awe.

"I just sat in on their practise, it was nothing," I dismissed chewing the end of my paintbrush irritably.

"Try blending the colours of the sky again," Mina suggested. That was what was off! "And I don't think it was nothing, guys and girls can't be that close friends especially when they're straight and attractive."

"We can," I insisted, "besides there's four of them I can't be interested in all of them. Besides I would never pick."

"Trust me," Mina waggled her eyebrows playfully, "you can be interested in more than one guy."

"You're the one with the boyfriend here," I tutted concentrating on blending blue into grey in the background of the landscape scene I'd been working on all week.

"Not now obviously," Mina rolled her eyes, "but in the past I've had my eye on several possibilities at once. It's human instinct to test out a wide range of suitors until you find the right one."

"Human instinct is it?" I chuckled. Mina just rolled her eyes, she had a long smudge of blue paint across her cheek.

"Absolutely," she nodded confidently.

"What are you suggesting?" I didn't like the path this was taking.

"All I'm saying is that you should try playing the field," Mina held up her hands defensively, "spend some quality time with each of them and find out more about them. Explore the possibilities, what's the harm in that?"

If only she knew how much there was at stake here.

"I guess," I sighed.

"You're not still thinking about that ex are you?" She looked shocked.

I tried to tell myself it's because she didn't understand, she didn't know how intense and raw and fast paced our relationship was. But I couldn't convince myself because I knew she was right, I should be well over it by now.

"No," I denied forcefully, the less she knew about Jackson the better anyway, "it's about the boys, I'm scared if anything happens with one of them I'll lose the friendship of the others and four friendships means far more to me than one romance."

"I like that," Mina tilted her head to smile at me warmly, "okay I'll stop pestering you about it as I can see that you're doing this for unselfish reasons so you do whatever makes you happy."

"Thanks," I nodded tucking my paintbrush behind my ear and leaning back to look at my painting in a better light.

"Your sky looks a lot better," Mina added with a grin, "looks like everything's going your way now, eh?"

***

"Cara!" Grey caught up with me on my way to my dads office for dinner, "I was just looking for you."

"Whatever it is I didn't do it I swear," my voice was only slightly sarcastic.

"Nothing bad," Grey chuckled mussing up his hair absentmindedly, "there's a swimming gala this Friday, a last minute fixture, please say you can come."

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world," I smiled, why did he have ask me I would've heard about it around school and surely everyone at Kings Bridge was going anyway?

"Great," Grey beamed. He strolled away with a satisfied swagger to his walk.

I dismissed my confusion easily, of course he was just asking to be polite nothing more. That was until I was ambushed by Nico when leaving my dads apartment, my stomach full of who would believe it, pasta.

"Cara!" Nico leapt right in my way.

"Shit!" I jumped back in shock, "don't you know not to jump up on people?"

"Nope," Nico swung his arms proudly as he fell into step beside me.

"What do you want?" I sighed, "and no before you ask I'm not rematching you at anything, just accept I'm the winner."

"Not quite, this time I'm going to be the winner," Nico had his infamous devious look that forecast bad weather to come, "swimming gala on Friday, be there or be square."

"Sure," I sighed, my curiously making me dig , "I'm sure the whole school is going."

"So?" Nico shrugged casually, "you're the only one I want to see me win."

"Well I'll be there just to watch your arrogant ass get beat," I smiled sweetly.

"Knew I could count on you Vegas," Nico pointed a finger at me as he veered away towards the common room.

This was getting weirder by the minute, Nico was easier to read than Grey and I could tell from his badly hidden glee something more than met the eye was going on here.

"Cara!" I didn't even flinch as I was pounced on right next to my bedroom door.

"Let me guess," the eye roll came out automatically, "I was just the person you were looking for?"

"Exactly," Mitchell smirked, "I wanted to ask you something?"

"Yes I'm coming to the swimming gala on Friday," I completed for him.

"Who already asked you?" Mitch's grin was swiped straight off his face and replaced by a scowl.

"Grey and Nico, you're going to have to be quicker on your game Mitch," I mocked.

"Did I beat him?" Of course Nico was here, of bloody course he was.

"Yep," I folded my arms irritated and leaned back against my door waiting for what I was sure was going to come next.

"Please tell me I beat them," Grey strutted round the corner right on cue his hands stuffed in the pockets of his designer jeans.

"Congratulations you're the winner," I huffed, "now who wants to tell me what of?"

"I told them it was a bad idea," Sawyer interjected sticking his head out of his bedroom door, "I had no involvement."

"Just because you're too afraid of losing," Nico objected.

"Losing what?" I demanded.

"Our competition," Mitch admitted albeit slightly bashfully, "who could ask you out first."

"Seriously?" I was incredulous.

"And I won," Grey insisted.

"Think again," I hissed, "I'm not anyone's prize to be won," I spun away from his fiery gaze towards Sawyer who was quietly observing the scene, "want to go to this swimming gala this Friday with me Sawyer?"

"What?" Sawyer stumbled, I noticed his cheeks flush an appealing pink.

"This Friday?" I repeated, "you see I couldn't find the right guy to go with but then I realised the least obnoxious one has the most potential."

"Sure," Sawyer didn't have the arrogant, proud grin of a competitor on his face. He had the pleased flush of a winner and that showed me I'd made the right decision.

"See you then," I beamed before turning back to the other boys and dealing out a large dose of sass along with a wink, "better luck next time yeah?"

With that I swished into my bedroom and flicked the door shut behind me, I felt infinitely powerful. Maybe it as all going to my head a bit being around their constant interest and gorgeous faces and intelligent eyes but I was just doing what any girl would.

I was finally enjoying myself.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I whipped it out expecting to see a comeback from Nico or insult from Grey or apology from Mitch on my screen.

It was none of the above.