thumbtacking speechmarks

"C'est stupide!" Matthieu yelled defiantly, staring at his creation, "why on earth would your deflector work better than mine?"

"That's simple!" Corin retaliated, his hand stroking his valuable creation, "mine has a bigger surface area, so it will work better than yours!" He cocked his head at the boy, a confident smirk on his face.

The other Frenchman rolled his eyes and walked away, so Corin Rousseau deduced mentally that he had won a small victory. Mattheiru was such a pain in the ass sometimes, that he knew, but if he wasn't such a good chemist the two of them wouldn't be friends - or rivals - in the first place.

The blonde boy walked back home from the garden of the Dupuis household, his mind focused solely on dinner.

Bridget had been outside on the porch of her house even though it was night time. She was dressed in a white summer dress and had an open book about plants on her lap. She tucked a hair behind her and blinked as she heard someone from the next house yell. "Probably Matthieu and Corin" she muttered to herself.

She grinned when Corin Rousseau stepped out of Matthieu house thus proving her deductions. "Corin!" she called out at him "I heard someone yell?" she immediately said, questioningly raising an eyebrow.

Corin jumped when he had heard someone called his name. His body tensed, wondering who on earth would call him. Thank Merlin for the science of deduction. Right, he knew that the voice was a girlish voice, which meant that it probably belonged to a girl. God, he hoped that it was someone he knew...

... and his wish came true. Indeed, the girl was Bridget. He resisted every urge to beam at her presence, so the best he could do was smirk back, and turn around to face her. Gods, her dress... it was beautiful...

"That might be me," Corin called.

Bridget shook her head at him as she leaned on the rail of the porch "And why were you yelling?" she asked him, her piercing intelligent black eyes locking on at him. She sighed and shook her head at him. "One minute" she said then went inside, ran down the stairs, opened the front door and ran up to him, practically throwing her arms around the boy. "Hello by the way" she said, smiling slightly

Corin gave Bridget an exasperated roll of his eyes. "Matthieu est penible," he began, as if it was some sort of brand-new statement. It wasn't; everyone knew that towards the Rousseau boy, he was a pain in the neck. Yet it was that irritation that brought the two boys together. "You should know that, out of all people," he had added abruptly.

The feeling of Bridget's arms around him gave him a funny warmth he was experiencing. He couldn't remember the last time he had hugged someone... not really. Hesitantly, he hugged the brunette back. "I missed your graceful presence," Corin admitted.

Bridget had the grace to blush at his words "Eh Corin? Allez-vous fou?" she asked him jokingly before having the courage to press a kiss to his cheek. She unwrapped herself from him then a light rose blush still coating her cheeks.

"I know he is but he is a good chemist" she pointed out before smiling "How are you?"

"Moi?" Corin questioned, as if he was incredulous. Of course he wasn't. "Je suis fou, my dear, but even someone as crazy as I have my limits." He felt the warmth escape as Bridget let go, and he tried to hide his shiver with much success. At least there was something on his cheek, and once it spread throughout his body he was going to feel alright again, or so he had hoped. She looked pretty with that blush on her cheeks.

"He is, indeed," agreed the Frenchman, staring steadfastly into the brunette's eyes, "but he is a terrible person. You know that." His urges overpowered him, which meant that he took Bridget by the waist and held her close towards him.