---

"But I didn’t mean to, miss Bennet!" I said.

"Young lady, pigs will fly the day you come up with an acceptable excuse to hit someone."

"But I DO have an excuse!"

"I don’t want to hear another word from you about that. You've always been such a good girl! What on earth would make you go and do a thing like that is what I would like to know!"

"Miss Bennet! Miss Bennet!" I felt the tears coming, but I would not cry. "Please, let me tell you what happened!"

---

Chapter three: "I'll miss you"

I was wondering what was the matter with him. He didn’t talk much or joke around anymore. He didn’t even seem to enjoy arguing with me. I seriously said "good morning" to him so I wouldn’t seem so kid-like around his solemnity.

"Good morning to you, too." He responded!

"So what's up?" More kid-like

"Same as always." Ryan liked to play video games. Usually every morning he would blab on about how he defeated some enemy or completed a level, and I would pretend to pay attention, because I had no idea what he would be talking about.

"So how far are you now on your video game?"

"Same as last time. I didn’t play it last night, is all.” I was shocked.

"What do you mean you didn’t play it? I thought that is all you ever do!"

"I was doing this instead. Here, just take it. It's for you."

He handed me a folded note. I thought only girls wrote notes, but I didn’t say that to him. We were at school now, so I decided to read it later.

I found Allie. We ran to each other and gave a little squeal when we met. We both knew what was on the others' mind.

"Allie's got a boy-friend, Allie's got a boy-friend!" I chanted to her, but not so anyone could hear. That would be embarrassing.

"Shh!" Allie covered my mouth with the sleeve of her sweater. "Don’t tease me, that’s mean!" She said this with a smile on her face. She wasn’t mad. She was embarrassed.

"This is going to be so cool!" I said, not mentioning what had happened the other day. I decided that I would give that guy another chance because he was new.

"What do you mean?" Allie talked quietly.

"I mean,” I said, "that it’s going to be so cool that you have a boyfriend!"

"Well I don’t have a boyfriend- "

"Yet" I added.

Allie looked at me funny, then. She also looked rather doubtful of what I just said. I knew absolutely nothing about boys, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.

"Kate, I don’t think he even likes me. He doesn’t even know that I am in his class."

"Nonsense. He probably looks at you all during class! How could anyone miss your hair?"

Allie frowned at me then. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I meant that how could anyone miss her hair because it was so shiny and blonde and beautiful? I tried my best to look like a dog with its tail between its legs. But she laughed then. She knew that I loved her hair and I wouldn’t say something like that. She pulled all of her hair in front of her. "Maybe you are right," she said, "but I don’t think that he likes me." I didn’t say anything else or give any more advice. I didn’t know if he liked her either. I didn’t even really know him.

I hadn’t thought anything particular about Mitchell when he joined our class. Just that his arrival interrupted one of the movies we were watching. We watch a lot of movies in our class. Today I studied him. He had dark brown hair, and very blue eyes. That’s all I got. I knew nothing about what to look for in boys, and I didn’t care, either.

I noticed that Allie didn’t speak much today in class. She seemed to be looking at Mitchell all day. When the school day was over, she looked pretty sad about it.

I walked home with Ryan. He still seemed just as serious as before, and now, even a little sad. I didn’t ask him any questions, because if he was having some kind of emotional break down, I didn’t want to be part of it.

When I walked in the door, my parents were sitting at the table. They never did that. They had serious looks on their faces. I was motioned to sit down, so I dropped my backpack and sat at the table.

"Honey, we've got something to tell you." My father said.

"Daddy has been offered a bran-new job, and is very happy about this, because he has been waiting for this." My mother added.

I didn’t get it. This was good for my dad, but what did it have to do with me?

"The only problem is, honey, that it's in Oregon."

"What's Oregon?" I asked.

"It is another state, dear." My father answered.

I was shocked. "So daddy's moving away!?"

"No," my mother replied, "we're all moving to Oregon."

This wasn’t fair! They didn’t even ask me first! I couldn’t move away! I wouldn’t! I couldn’t leave all my friends! But looking into their faces, I knew I had to.

"No! I don’t want to move away!" I burst into tears and ran for my bedroom. I opened the door, and found that the things that were once on my shelves were already put into boxes. The room looked absolutely barren, and this was something I had never even thought I would ever see. This made me cry even more. When I sat on my bed, I felt something in my pocket. I then remembered Ryan's note, and I was anxious to read it. I unfolded the small crumpled paper and read the messy tear-stained writing.

"Dear Kate. I'll miss you. - Ryan"