Hey, guys. I'm really sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I just had two weeks for spring break, and I barely even got online during that time. Thank you to everyone who reviewed - you guys are awesome! I hope you enjoy this chapter. I kind of stopped writing the British accents the way they sounded, because then I started thinking of then as New York accents for some reason...dunno. If you really liked that I wrote them the way they sounded, then say that in your review. If enough people liked it, then I'll go back to doing it that way.

Enjoy!

-

“Gin,” Cally announced happily as she placed her cards down on the floor in front

of her.

“Damn you,” replied Jack. “That’s the third time in a row.”

“What can I say?” Cally asked with a sarcastic sigh. “I’m just a natural.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jack mumbled with a smirk. “That’s enough cards for one afternoon.”

“You’re just angry because you lost,” Cally announced as she pushed herself up off the floor and stretched.

“Well I guess we can’t all have useless talents like you,” he said with a grin, following suit and putting the cards down on the coffee table.

“I resent that,” Cally said, giving him a light punch in the shoulder.

He laughed before plopping down on the couch. Jack was at Cally’s house for the day. He’d showed up with his father who was going to a conference with Mr. Williams. The two men had left about an hour and a half ago, leaving their children to fend for themselves.

“What time is it?” Cally asked with a yawn as she sat down next to Jack.

“11:30,” he replied, catching her yawn.

“Man, this is one boring Saturday,” she said with a sigh.

“Tell me about it,” Jack agreed.

Suddenly Cally had an idea and jumped off of the couch, causing Jack to look at her quizzically. “Wanna see something really cool?” She asked, grinning.

“What is it?”

“Follow me,” Cally demanded before turning on her heel and leading Jack through the glass porch doors and out into the backyard. They slowly made their way over to the old barn. It sent shivers up Cally’s spine just being near it again, but she ignored them. She wanted to stay composed.

“You have a barn in your backyard,” Jack said, looking the structure up and down. “So what?”

“It’s not just any barn,” Cally explained. “It’s haunted.” She waited for a reaction from Jack, but nothing came.

“Haunted,” Cally repeated. “As in ‘BOO!’.”

“It’s not haunted,” Jack stated, his expression remaining the same.

“It is so haunted,” retaliated Cally, somewhat offended.

“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“I’ll prove to you that it’s haunted,” said Cally. She turned around and slowly opened the door. Silently, the two crept into the old structure. Cally got that same eerie feeling that she’d gotten the first time she entered the old barn. The dim rays of light were shining through, just like before.

“If this is supposed to prove your point, it’s really failing,” Jack said. Although he said it in a normal tone of voice, it sounded way too loud to Cally.

“Shhh!” She told him, putting a finger up to their lips as they walked deeper into the barn. Suddenly she heard it – the whinny of a horse. It sounded distant. Not like the horse was far away physically, but like it was coming through from the past.

Cally’s heart raced. Next, she heard the clip-clopping of horse hooves on cobblestone. She whirled around and practically fell on top of Jack, but he caught her. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before coming back into reality and immediately separating.

“Did you hear that?” She quickly asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

“Hear what?”

“The-the horses,” she said.

“Cally,” he said slowly. “There aren’t any horses. This barn’s been empty for hundreds of years.”

“No, there’s…something.” She gave a frustrated sigh before turning around and running her hands through her hair. Her heart was still pounding. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped.

“Are you alright?” Jack asked her with concern in his eyes.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said with a smile. He absentmindedly took her hand and led her out. They separated once they were out of the barn.

“I don’t understand,” Cally said as they made their way back towards the house. “Why couldn’t you hear it?”

Jack looked at her skeptically, but could tell from the look in her eyes that something was wrong, and decided not to be difficult. “I don’t know,” he replied.

“Weird,” Cally stated.

“Very.” He held the door open for her as they walked back into the house.

“I have another idea,” she said, turning to him with a smile.

“Does this one involve haunted barns, too?”

“No.”

“Then shoot.” The sparkle in her eyes caused him to smile.

“How about some take-out?”

He nodded his head. “Sure.”

“And a movie?”

“As long as I get to choose.”

Cally scoffed. “Hell no, you’ll choose some stupid movie.”

“And you’ll choose a chick flick,” he reasoned.

“Will not!”

“We’ll see about that.”

-

Half an hour later, the living room floor was littered with Chinese food containers. “But ‘The Notebook’ is a classic!” Cally said, holding up the DVD case.

“But it also falls under the category of ‘chick flick’.”

“Fine, but if ‘The Notebook’ is out, then so is ‘Shanghai Noon’,” she said, tossing both DVDs aside.

“Hey! Talk about classics. ‘Shanghai Noon’ is a great movie,” Jack said, reaching back for it.

“This is all about compromise,” Cally replied, grabbing Jack’s arm away from the movie. She stuffed a piece of sesame chicken into her mouth before scanning their movie cabinet for another prospect.

“Oh! ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’,” she said quickly, holding up the case excitedly.

“Are you insane?” Jack asked. “No way.”

“Why not? I mean, it takes place in England.”

“Because Bridget is kind of annoying,” he reasoned.

Cally mulled over the accusation before nodding her head. “She kind of is.” Putting the DVD back, she continued to look through.

“‘Spiderman’!”

“Alright, ‘Spiderman’ I’ll watch,” Jack said.

“Awesome.” Cally hopped up and placed the DVD into the player before sitting back down next to Jack and munching on some rice.

“Y’know,” she said as the movie began to play. “You kind of look like Harry Osborn.”

“So I’ve been told.”

-

It was Sunday. Boring, old Sunday. Cally groaned as she lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling. “I’m so bored,” she mumbled to herself. Yesterday had been so much fun, but Jack was gone now. Gabby got Sundays off, so she wasn’t there either. And God only knew where her father was. He was always in and out of the house. She didn’t even know if he was home. She could call Mandy for the…third time that morning. It was only 11:00 and she wanted to jump off the roof just to rescue herself from boredom.

Pushing herself off her bed, she grabbed her water bottle and decided to go look for some lunch. Sure, it was early for lunch, but she was incredibly bored. Just as she opened the refrigerator, the telephone rang. She quickly closed the door and walked over to the counter where the cordless phone sat.

She glanced at the caller ID. Nelson…as in Matthew Nelson? Why is he calling me? She picked up the phone and pressed the ‘TALK’ button. “Hello?”

“Cally? It’s Matthew.”

“Hi. What’s up?” She asked, walking across the foyer and into the living room where she flopped down onto the couch.

“Not much. How ‘bout yourself?”

“I’m so incredibly bored, it’s not even funny,” Cally explained, causing Matthew to chuckle.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he condoled.

“I even did my homework. That’s how bad it is.”

“Well, that makes one of us,” Matthew said.

Cally chuckled. “Not very studious?”

“Couldn’t care less, really.”

“Really?” Cally asked him, slightly surprised.

“Nope.”

“So you don’t care about your future?” Cally nestled back into the comfy pillows of the couch and took a sip of water as she awaited the answer.

“I care; I just think that school is boring.”

“Well I can’t disagree with you there,” she reasoned. “But don’t you want to go to a good college?”

“If you ask me, education is what you make it. You don’t have to go to a good college just to get a good education.”

“True, but from what you’re telling me, you’re not making the best of it. So how does that fit into your master plan?”

There was a pause as Matthew thought it all over. “I’ve never really thought of it that way,” he said. “You’re smart, Cally, did anyone ever tell you that?”

Cally laughed. “Well, I like to think that I am.”

“What about you? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Cally sighed. “I have absolutely not idea. I mean, it’s a new thing every week. Sometimes I want to be a lawyer, but then my mood completely changes and I want to be an actor…it’s so confusing thinking about the future.”

“Agreed,” Matthew said. “Sometimes I wish I could just be a kid forever.”

“Tell me about it,” replied Cally, taking another sip of water. Looking outside, she saw that it had begun to rain. “Is it raining at your house?”

There was a muffled sound before he replied. “Yes, it just started.”

“Does it always rain here?”

“You learn to get used to it.”

-

Cally drummed her fingers on the kitchen table later that night as she waited for her father to get home. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was 11:00 PM. Okay, so it was a lot later that night. She sighed and was about to go upstairs when she heard the front door open.

Jumping up, she rushed into the foyer and saw her father walking towards his office. “Dad,” she said loudly.

He jumped slightly, and turned around to face her. He looked horrible. His eyes were red and his whole posture looked fatigued.

“Where have you been all day?”

“I’m sorry, Cally,” he said tiredly. “I’ve just got a lot of work.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” She couldn’t help but be somewhat angry. She’d been able to see her father every night back in Chicago, but now it was like they didn’t even live in the same house anymore. They’d only been in England for a little under two weeks, but already their relationship was suffering.

“Cally, please,” said Mr. Williams. “I don’t have time for this right now.”

“Time for what?”

“Good night.” With that, he went into his office and shut the door behind him. Anger burned inside of Cally, and she quickly turned on her heel and raced up the stairs. She picked up her phone and quickly dialed Mandy’s phone number. It was only 6:00 PM in Chicago.

Mandy picked up after two rings. “Hello?”

“Mandy! Oh, thank God.”

“Cally, this is the third time you’ve called me today. Is everything alright?”

“Well it was,” Cally said. “It’s just that…ugh, my dad has been so aggravating lately. He’s never around. He just got home and it’s eleven o’clock at night here.”

“Ouch,” Mandy said sympathetically. “That really sucks, Cals.”

“And he won’t even talk to me about it. I met him at the door when he got home, and all he said was ‘I don’t have time for this right now’.” Cally mocked her father’s voice in reciting his words.

“Maybe he just needs to get settled into his new job,” Mandy reasoned. “He’s probably just working really hard to prove himself. I’m sure things will smooth out as time goes on.”

“I hope so,” Cally mumbled, leaning back on her bed.

“So what did you do today after calling me twice?”

“Matthew called me,” Cally said.

“Really? What did you guys talk about?”

“Everything,” Cally replied. “Just random things, y’know?”

“Yeah. What about Jack?”

“What about him?”

“Well, is it Jack or Matthew?” Mandy prodded.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there. I’m not choosing a boy right now. They’re both just friends. I’m not looking for a relationship,” Cally explained.

“Uh-huh,” Mandy said, completely unconvinced. “So which one is it?”

“Mandy, I’m serious. I don’t want a boyfriend right now.”

“Whatever you say. And you really need to e-mail me pictures of these guys. I’m dying to see them.”

“I need to send you pictures of everyone and everything. It’s so beautiful here.”

“The boys?”

Cally scoffed. “The country!”

“Oh, that, too,” Mandy said jokingly, causing her friend to laugh. “Speaking of boys, I forgot to tell you earlier, but I talked to Tyler Ashton again.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes. I saw him in the halls on Friday.”

“Well, what happened?”

“We chatted for a few minutes about school and hockey and all that good stuff. Oh my God, he’s so hot, Cally.”

Cally chuckled and shook her head. “Mandy, you think every guy is hot.”

“But not as hot as Tyler – that’s impossible,” Mandy replied. Jack popped into Cally’s mind and she was about to disagree with Mandy, but decided to let her friend have this one.

“I guess you really like him then,” said Cally.

Mandy sighed dramatically before replying. “I do. I really do.” A knot grew in Cally’s stomach. She missed Mandy so much. She missed Chicago. She missed the United States in general. She felt so excluded from everything in moving to London. She just wished that she could be there for everything that was going on in her friends’ lives instead of hearing about it over the phone. “Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“Alrighty, Cals,” Mandy said. “I’ve got some homework to finish up, and it’s almost time for dinner. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah, later.”

“Bye.” With that, Cally hung up the phone before falling back into her pillows. A tear fell down her face, but she quickly brushed it away. She couldn’t cry. She didn’t have enough to cry about. Sure, things were a little tough right now, but it was just the adjustment. Things will get better. Things have to get better.

-

Please review! Thanks for reading!