Backfire

As Kenny was cooking away and the others gathered at the table for some ahort conversation, Mindy and Brian stole away for a minute, ready to make their first move. "Alright, so we go in, and I just grab you and kiss you in front of everyone! That'll get their attention," Mindy suggested with a grin,

"Okay, yes, it would but that's not the best way to go about this," Brian replied with a short chuckle,

"What do you mean? Kenny won't be able to ignore that!" Mindy replied with a shake of her head, "Anna either, they see us kissing and they'll get jealous,"

"They might get jealous," Brian corrected, "We want to make sure they do. So what we're gonna do is play along with a slow burn. We act like we don't care about anyone else. I'll ignore Anna, and you ignore Kenny. They'll start to wonder why and then later, I'll come up with a plan for today, something outside for all of us to do, and then we'll continue with more of the same. By the end of the day they'll be so lost as to why we're suddenly all buddy buddy, and that's when we hit them with the kiss. By morning, things will be moving in our direction," Brian explained with a grin,

"Whoa, didn't think of that," Mindy softly replied, "You're good at this, Bry,"

"I like to think I understand people, you know?" Brian easily replied. In truth he didn't have half a clue if this was gonna work out in his favor. Sure, it was possible that maybe Kenny did like Mindy and this would cause the teen to break off from Anna but Brian felt it unlikely, which was fine. He already had a few other uses for Mindy that she could provide later.

"I think you do, I mean, you understand me and my situation and you seem to understand Ken too, he's gonna be so jealous when he sees me with you," Mindy said with a large smile as she and Brian headed into the kitchen.

After placing their orders with Kenny, the pair took a seat and Brian pulled Mindy into a conversation separate from the others, it was mostly nonsense talk, but he only needed it to last until Kenny joined them at the table. The minute the teen did finally sit down, Brian wasted no time in playing up some deep infatuation with Mindy and brought up some plans for the day, "You know what could be really fun? You and me, skating on the pound up the mountain," Brian warmly said,

"That sounds great, I just want to be with you today," Mindy replied, smoothly following Brian's lead,

"What's that now?" JJ asked with a jump of his brow,

"Skating," Mindy replied while reaching over and placing her hand on Brian's shoudler, "Bry's idea, but it sounds perfect to me,"

"Or we can stay inside, make sure we both stay nice and warm," Brian teased, though Mindy only let out a playful giggle,

"Now there's a fun idea," Mindy agreed, giving Brian a long, deep gaze,

"Uh, skating though, that sounds good," JJ interjected, "Nikki, doesn't skating sound good to you?" JJ rapidly asked, his eyes flicking over to Mindy in concern,

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah sure," Nicole nodded, pulling herself out of confused thoughts, wondering why and how Brian was all over Mindy this morning and she on him.

"Settled then, we're going skating," JJ affirmed with a nod as well, "When do you guys want to go?"

"Whenever you four are ready," Brian said with a shrug,

"And afterwards...we get warm. right?" Mindy suggested giving Brian a quick wink,

"Nikki, I think we should go get ready, right? We're all pretty much done here, Anna, Ken, come on," JJ jumped up, looking over at the pair only to realize they were still in their own world, having missed everything, "Kenny!"

"What's going on?" Kenny asked with a confused half laugh as he looked over to his friend,

"We're all going skating? Didn't you hear what --" JJ tried to ask only for Anna to interrupt,

"Oh that's great guys, I'm sure you'll have fun, but Brian I was wondering, you think Kenny and I could hang back and use the hot tub?" Anna sweetly asked,

"Uhhh, you two don't want to come with?" Brian merely replied,

"Not really, I hope that's okay, but don't hold off on our account," Anna replied as she gave Kenny a quick glance, "I think we were gonna be doing our own thing today anyhow," Kenny lowered his head, trying to hide his pleased smile from Anna's words,

Nicole looked to Brian seeing his hesitation, "Oh let them have their fun Brian, what's the harm, right?" She tacked on, giving the teen an expectant look,

"Yeah..." Brian reluctantly agreed, realizing he was now completely pinned in, a no wouldn't only piss off Nicole but Anna too, and that would do no good at all, "Sure guys, enjoy," He nearly gritted out with the fakest smile,

"Awesome, thanks Brian," Kenny sincerely said as he and Anna both stood up, "Have fun out there guys,"

"Yeah...thanks," Mindy mumbled back as JJ and Nicole stood up as well, grabbing their plates. Looking over Brian and Mindy shared the same irritated expression and the Asian girl crossed her arms, muttering, "Told you I should have just kissed you,"