1. Words

"Ahem. There are decent people up here who are trying to get some well-deserved sleep."

"That so, fruitcake? You and what army?"

Those were the first words the two of them ever exchanged, he staring listlessly down at her and Ezekiel from his hotel window, she smirking and not even looking at him.

2. Grill

"Five bucks says you can't."

"I could too! Just watch me!"

His jaw dropped open when she picked up the grill and threw it into the pool.

"Well?" Eva snapped, whirling on him, fists clenched, shoulders trembling.

"You win," he managed, and sank a little lower behind his book.

3. Manage

"Wow, have you ever considered taking anger management classes?"

The words were on the tip of his tongue almost constantly, but he knew better than to say them aloud.

4. Likewise

Likewise, she stopped teasing him about the ear-kissing incident once she realized how much flak about it he was getting from everybody else, the copy-cats. She could find more creative things to tease him about.

5. Onions

It worried him slightly that Eva's eyes didn't water when she was slicing the onions.

6. Respect

Eva didn't really like admitting it, but Noah had definitely earned her respect after the whole crayfish incident.

7. Pretty

Noah followed Eva's gaze, then scoffed and said, "He's a self-absorbed jerk. He hardly ever looks away from his own mirror. He has shifty eyes."

She knew he was right, but she still found it difficult to look away from Justin.

"But he's so pretty."

8. Lessons

Now that he'd been separated from his dog, he needed to keep his throwing arm in shape.

Noah spent most of that third night in the tennis court, throwing the balls aimlessly, and eventually, tentatively, he even took a racquet and tried hitting them, though with little success.

"Do you want me to show you the proper grip?"

He whipped around before she'd finished, startled more by the sudden words in the silence than because it was her. "How long have you been watching me?"

"The whole time," Eva said honestly, her racquet over one shoulder. "Didn't wanna make you leave. Want me to show you?"

Since he'd already been caught red-handed, he rolled his eyes and gave in.

9. Thunder

They heard the thunder before the rain even started. Noah about jumped out of his pool chair. With a yelp of alarm he dropped his book- and immediately clapped his hand over his mouth.

"Are you-?" Eva began, raising one brow at him.

"No," he blurted out too quickly, picking up his book again. "Shut up."

10. Barrier

Yesterday she might have punched him for the comment, but somehow, it seemed, in some sort of silent mutual agreement they had crossed the teasing barrier.

11. Exercise

"Let me out, let me out!" he screamed, pounding on the glass door with his fist, but she only laughed as she held it shut.

"Not until you do a hundred push-ups, Fruitcake!"

He stayed in there for twelve hours.

12. Music

There were exactly two hundred and thirty-seven songs on her MP3 player. Why did that one have to come up every freaking time he got near her?

13. Dark

It had been a week, and she was still pining over Justin.

"Well, maybe I just like guys with dark hair," she said defensively, and an awkward silence followed her words as he slowly looked up at his own.

14. Name

She had given everyone at Playa Des Losers a nickname. Homeschool, Feathers, Pigtails… His was Fruitcake.

Sure, why not?

15. Origin

The real origin of his nickname? No one she knew actually liked fruitcake, and no one she knew actually liked him.

Duh.

16. Hot

Eva scratched her head. "I… I think Justin may be so hot that he actually grilled my cheese sandwich just by being near it."

"You're exaggerating," Noah told her flatly, but he trailed off when Katie bounced over, gnawing a grilled sandwich of her own and grinning her signature devilish grin. "… Where did you get that?"

17. Feet

Though Noah may have disagreed with her if he knew, Eva didn't think it was weird that she had noticed he always walked on the insides of his feet. She was an athlete, after all.

18. Dragon

In the eyes of the others, at least, he had successfully tamed the dragon.

19. Friend

She'd had a boyfriend before - two of them, actually, and both long gone now - but this was the first time she had really befriended a guy as an actual friend, and that was something very special that she intended to keep for the rest of their lives.

20. Love

Inevitably, one of the others brought up the 'L' word. It was probably the only topic that ever made Noah actually try hitting one of them, and it really didn't help their case that Eva was the one who most often ended up holding him back.

21. Stargazing

"I feel like I should be pointing the constellations out to you or something."

"Do you know the names of the constellations?"

"Nope."

"Huh. Me neither."

22. Challenge

Even when she offered to give him a head start, it was never a challenge to put him in a headlock.

23. Worm

"I found a dead worm."

She raised one eyebrow at him. "Why are you telling this to me?"

"No reason. I just thought you should know."

24. Sweet Tooth

Eva swore that Noah grew less intelligent every time he was around candy corn.

"That was mine!" he whined when she took the bag away. "Mine, Eva! Mine!"

25. Eyes

Sometimes it was fun to simply drop everything and have a staring contest. They were both really good at those.

26. Toothpaste

Eva opened her door just as Noah had been about to knock on it, casting them into an awkward pause.

"Here," they said simultaneously, holding out their tubes of toothpaste and looking away from each other. "Izzy switched them again."

27. Shoulder

"May I turn the page now?"

"Um," she said a bit awkwardly, furious that she'd been caught reading over his shoulder. Again.

28. Proof

It took them three days to prove to the others that Izzy had Photoshopped the picture of them kissing.

29. Question

"Fruitcake, do you… I mean, would you consider yourself… a bit of a masochist?"

He started a bit in shock, though he didn't drop his book. He didn't exactly look up either. His eyes moved first down, then to the left, then right, apparently thinking the question over, before he finally looked up at her.

"Where the heck did you get an idea like that?"

30. Slap

Noah stared at his red wrist in horror. "I am never playing Slapjack with you again."

31. Nothing

"So," she said, sliding smugly into the seat across from Izzy, "it turns out Fruitcake was right after all when he said he was afraid of nothing. He really hates to sit and do nothing."

Izzy raised her eyebrows when she saw Noah's book in Eva's hands, but she didn't say a word.

32. Hatred

Noah knew that some of the others - Cody especially - suspected that his hatred for Justin stemmed from Eva's crush on the self-centered model. In all honesty the actual reason was far less petty than that, but no one really believed him.

33. Carried

Since he hadn't walked until he was four years old, Noah had always harbored a love of being carried.

Since as a child she had once been teased about her strength, or lack thereof, Eva had always harbored a love of carrying things even when not necessary.

It was always a little difficult to explain this to the others, though.

34. Wrestle

Sometimes even Eva had a hard time wrestling the video game controller away from him.

35. Dump

She was biting the inside of her lower lip, and it was taking all her strength - of which there was a lot - not to burst out laughing. Here Noah was, trying to "dump" her, when they weren't even "going out".

The best part, of course, was that he didn't even seem to realize he was doing it.

36. Burn

"Youch!" she cried, shoving her burned fingers in her mouth.

Noah only looked at her strangely, the second metal cookie tray in his own hands.

37. Religion

"Don't you think this cake is disgusting?"

His chin was in his hand, his eyes half-closed, and when he spoke it was in a monotone. "It's against my religion to insult food."

"Why is that?" she asked, genuinely curious, and it took a puzzled moment before he answered her.

"I… don't… remember."

38. Probably

Katie raised an eyebrow as she looked at the sleeping Noah. "Is he trying to cuddle you?"

"Eh, probably," Eva said, pushing him away again. "Maybe he wasn't hugged enough as a child."

39. Push-Over

"He does too," Eva insisted, "Watch." She leaned across the picnic table and called down the line to him, "Hey, Fruitcake! Today you and me and Feathers are going hiking."

"No, we're not."

"Yes, we are."

"Ugh, fine. Carry me."

She turned back to the others, a smirk on her face.

40. Flower

"Fine, we'll decide it this way." Eva leaned back in her chair and tore the nearest flower from the ground. Then, facing Noah, she began tearing off the petals. "Fruitcake is right, Fruitcake is wrong. Fruitcake is right, Fruitcake is…"

"I win," he said, and she irritably tossed the flower away over her shoulder.

"That one was just a test to see if you were paying attention. Let me try again."

41. Ponytail

One morning she decided to leave her hair down. When Noah hesitatingly told her that he thought it looked nice, Eva put it back up just to spite him.

42. Officially

Noah held up a finger in his infamous One moment, please sort of way. "Because they won't stop teasing me about 'liking' you, I am officially not talking to you today."

Yeah, that didn't last very long.

43. Cling

Trent raised his eyebrows when Eva marched across the plaza, Noah clinging to her ankles and pleading with her to 'Save him', Sadie clinging to his ankles and chanting, "Please, please, please!", Katie clinging to her ankles and wailing, "Give it up already, Sadie! He said no!" and Izzy clinging on the end, "Because it looked like so much fun."

"Please just don't ask," Eva said, giving Trent a tired glance.

44. Unallowed

Noah found it extremely annoying that, according to the others, he "wasn't allowed" to be in the card room alone with Eva, even to play Go-Fish. Seriously? Seriously?

45. Hero

He was looking pointedly up at the clouds, his arms outstretched, as he said to Tyler, "She won't just fall out of the sky."

There was a heavy thump behind him, and Noah spun around.

"My hero," Eva said sarcastically, rubbing her injured shoulder.

46. Ticklish

She gave a slight Izzyish cackle as she grabbed his foot and began tickling him, but when she realized he wasn't laughing, wasn't even reacting, she abruptly stopped and looked up at him.

"I'm not ticklish," he said, just in case she had somehow failed to notice. This caused her to glance a few times between his foot and his face.

"Um… This is awkward."

47. Itch

"Ugh," Eva muttered, tightening her grip on the table. "Stupid bug bites."

Hearing this, Noah tossed Izzy an evil grins and began scratching furiously at her arms.

48. Exactly

She was only half-surprised to wake up with Noah's head on her stomach that night they'd crashed after chasing the fireflies. With a roll of her eyes she turned to look at Cody, who was sleepily blinking at them from his section of the grass.

"Unfortunately," she said, "this is probably exactly what it looks like."

49. Warmth

"Noah. Hey, Fruitcake." She tried shaking him awake, which was surprisingly difficult to do. "You're cuddling me."

"Am I?" he asked, not opening his eyes, not even moving. "That's okay… You're warm."

"Yep," Eva said, rolling her eyes a second time, "he's definitely still sleeping."

50. Picnic

They were just unpacking the basket at the Total Drama Reunion Picnic, but Noah still made a very, very strangled noise when Eva's father handed him the yogurt and honey. Another Hindu thing, Eva was sure, and he looked so darn funny when he was flustered that way.