Cori froze and stared at Nicky, a nervous sensation rising up her body.

"What?" her voice cracked, but Nicky only continued to look at her. Then, wordlessly, he began to slowly lean in.

Heart beating in her ears, Cori gulped, struck motionless with an odd fluttering feeling.

"What is he doing?" Cori panicked as Nicky moved closer. "This is just like my dream! Wait... Am I dreaming again? Did I fall asleep?" Cori squeezed her eyes shut tight and opened them again, but only to find that Nicky was now even closer.

Cori took a deep breath and watched dumbly as Nicky's face neared her own, for some reason unable to take her eyes off of his approaching face- especially his lips.

When he was just inches away, to her surprise, Cori found herself closing her eyes again. This time, however, she opened them to find Nicky's hand brushing her shoulder.

"Huh?" she looked at Nicky with a strange mix of relief, confusion and disappointment.

"I found the spider," he said, now eyeing the pillow behind her.

"What?!" Cori screamed, turning to see the furry arachnid crawling onto her sleeping bag. "It was on me???" she squealed, unknowingly springing from her seat and right into Nicky's lap.

Nicky gazed down at her, surprise flashing momentarily in his eyes.

"It's okay," he whispered, arms tightening protectively around her.

Staring up at him, her heart pounded harder than before. Nicky was looking at her face, a serious expression on his own. Cori's breath caught in her throat as she slowly returned to her senses, taking in the scene. Nicky's intent green eyes were flecked with gold, his pink lips were slightly parted, and although his hair was still wet, it felt extremely soft.

"Wait," Cori froze again.

Glancing upward, she nearly shouted again. In her fright, she must have grabbed Nicky's hair, because her hand was now tightly clutching his damp, brown locks.

Too bewildered to do anything, Cori could only remain paralyzed, feeling her cheeks heat up. Her hand tingled as she continued to grasp his hair and her stomach burned with an extremely anxious jolt as if she had just plummeted down the hill of a roller coaster.

Despite her inability to let go of him, Nicky also made no move to separate. Silently, intensely, he gazed down at her, and then-

"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING IN THERE?!" Kole's voice was as shocking as lightning.

"Nothing!" Cori jumped away from Nicky in a flash as both Kole and JM poked their heads into the tent. As they shifted the flap, Cori caught a glimpse of Tanner standing behind them.

"We all thought you were kissing or something," Kole eyed them mischievously.

"Yeah, your silhouettes looked really weird from out there," chuckled JM.

"We weren't kissing!" Cori flusteredly glanced past the curious members to Tanner as Nicky awkwardly ruffled his hair. "There was a spider!"

"Spider?!" Kole recoiled. "Where?!"

"Relax," Nicky chuckled. "I got it," he added, crawling past Cori and scooping up the spider from the wall of the tent where it had now migrated. "Watch out," he told the guys as he squeezed past them and out of the tent.

"Ew, I hope there aren't any in our tent!" Kole frowned, making to leave, too.

"You coming, Cori?" JM paused before following. "Kole found a can of sardines. He's gonna try roasting them before we go to bed!"

"Uh, no thanks," said Cori, still breathless. "I'm good," she nodded towards the dish of crackers, but was mortified to see it was now half-spilled. "You, uh, want some?" she chuckled embarrassedly as she scooped the crackers back onto the plate.

JM laughed and shook his head.

"Alright. Well, see you in the morning then," he stood up, and as the tent flap swayed closed, Cori got a brief shot of Tanner, who was still standing there and looking at her strangely.

Finally alone, Cori grabbed her head and stared at the floor. She was still spinning, and not from the surprise of the spider.

"What would have happened if they hadn't shown up just then?" she wondered, noticing the magazine still spread out on the blanket. Picking it up, she frowned down at Tanner's mud-smudged pin-up. "I hope he's not upset..." she worriedly turned the page. "We weren't kiss..." Cori faltered, looking at the photos on the next page. It was a collage of Miracle 10, but one image in particular unavoidably caught her eye- Nicky U was squeezing an oversized teddy bear and kissing it on the cheek.

Cori gulped, suddenly seeing herself in the place of the bear.

"How come I never noticed this picture before?" she inhaled as she continued to survey the snapshot, strongly reminded of not only what had just happened, but also her recent dream. "It's kind of ironic," she thought wryly, recalling how she had woken up to find she was hugging a teddy bear herself. "Okay, enough," she said at last, once again turning the page, but to her chagrin, the next page was flooded with pictures of Nicky- shirtless.

Cori gasped. Quickly flipping back to Tanner's pin-up, she heaved a sigh, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she could not rid herself of the images of Nicky U.

~~~

"You're seriously gonna eat that?" Axel's disgusted voice carried through the camp.

"It's good!" Cori could hear Kole assure him. "Especially if you squirt some of this spray cheese on top!"

"You're sick," Tanner's voice was next to scoff. "I'm going to bed."

At this, Cori quickly tossed aside the magazine and climbed into her sleeping bag.

"Hi," she smiled tentatively when Tanner entered the tent.

"Hey," he said lowly, grabbing his rolled up bag and not looking at her.

"So, Kole's roasting sardines?" Cori tried to make conversation, but Tanner's eyes remained on his sleeping bag, confirming her worry that he was upset. "Umm... Listen," she began slowly, and Tanner continued to avoid her gaze. However, feeling less pressured out of his sight, Cori went on. "When Nicky and I were in here," she began, and finally Tanner turned to her, face serious. "Well..." Cori momentarily faltered, nerves increasing under his intent eye. "Uhh... Nothing happened," she finished at last.

Tanner said nothing, but his expression immediately seemed to thaw, and Cori let out a small, relieved breath.

No sooner had Cori pleaded her case, than Nicky crawled through the tent flap.

"Hey, guys," he yawned, picking up his own sleeping bag and setting it down next to Cori's. "I'm getting pretty tired," he added, glancing at her unsurely before unrolling it and laying down.

Cori gulped, quickly turning away from the nearby idol, only to see Tanner heft up his own sleeping bag and drop it directly on her other side.

"Night," he said, shooting Nicky a fast, almost irritated look, before clicking off the flashlight and laying down himself.

Cori's chest pounded as she squinted from side to side through the darkness, the sounds of the other guys and the crackling fire outside muted compared to her own booming heartbeat.

"How in the world did I end up between them?" she panicked, still sitting upright.

Finally taking a staggered breath, Cori slowly lowered her head onto her pillow, much too aware of who her neighbors were on either side.

"And I was nervous about sleeping in Tanner's room," she thought, glancing to her right at the outline of Tanner's body. "At least in there I only had to sleep next to his teddy bear."

Cori continued to sweat, clasping her hands tightly over her stomach, too afraid to sleep. However, after many minutes of laying rigidly curled up, frightened that something might happen, she at last began to relax.

"Okay," she breathed. "We're just going to sleep. That's all. It's the same as if I was sharing the Daffodil Bunk with Dezarae and the girls. Except it's with Miracle 10," Cori couldn't help but grin. "If only Dezarae knew," she beamed, finally easing up and sprawling out- but when she stretched her arms, her hand accidentally landed on Tanner's.

"Hey!" he whispered, grabbing her hand before she could pull back. "What are you doing? Trying to hold my hand?" Cori could not see his face in the dark, but she was sure he was smirking.

Embarrassedly horrified, Cori could not even formulate a response. Tanner let out a soft chuckle, still holding her hand, but despite his apparent amusement, he did not let go.

"All you had to do was ask," he said finally, giving her hand a small squeeze and falling silent again.

"Is this for real?" Cori held her breath, her hand enclosed by Tanner's. His palm was soft, and she could feel the rings he was wearing on his slender fingers.

Jubilantly closing her eyes, she tried to commit the feeling of his warm hand to memory, but a worrisome thought suddenly crossed her mind.

"I wonder if Nicky's asleep," she peeked through the shadows to her left. "Or did he hear?" She couldn't see much, but there was no apparent movement coming from Nicky's sleeping bag. "Oh well," she decided at last. "Who cares? Tanner Lee is holding my hand!" Cori had to stop herself from squealing. "And Dezarae said Tanner and I would never work," she grinned in scornful satisfaction. "Then what do you call this?" Cori smiled again, and ecstatically enjoying Tanner's hand, she blissfully drifted off to sleep.

~~~

Falling asleep in such pleasant conditions, Cori would have expected her dreams to keep with the theme- and for a while, they did. She and Dream Tanner were walking though the woods... then sitting by the lake... then sharing a picnic together on the dock and feeding each other berries. They were even still holding hands, which felt extremely real because their sleeping selves actually were. It was a perfectly lovely dream, the kind she wished for every night. However, only moments later, none other than the dream version of Nicky came breaking into her sleepy realm once again.

"Why does he keep showing up?" Cori was partially aware she was dreaming, but was still shocked by the following events.

"Hi, honey!" Nicky rushed down the dock, and jumping up so abruptly, Cori leaped towards him, letting go of Tanner, and knocking him into the water in the process.

"Nicky!" she shouted, wrapping her arms around him just as she had the night before, a sudden surge of excitement washing over her.

"Baby," Nicky was just beginning to tightly hug her back when Cori woke up, the bright light of morning making her keep her eyes shut.

For a moment, Cori tried to wake up, still half-asleep and processing her most recent dream.

"Why did I dream something like that again?" she thought, the feeling of the embrace still lingering on her arms.

However, when the feeling failed to subside, Cori realized she really was still hugging something.

"Probably Tanner's teddy bear again," she yawned, but finally coming to her senses, she realized. "Wait! I didn't sleep in Tanner's room last night!" Cori flung her eyelids open and almost screamed.

She was tightly hugging a still-sleeping Nicky U.