Becky slowly led Star into a walk. Tai grabbed the horn of the saddle, and
Becky immediately stopped the horse.
"Don't hold onto the horn, hold on with your legs, but not to tight," she
explained as she showed him how to hold on properly.
Becky led Star back into a walk and then into a trot. Everyone watched as Tai
easily controlled the mare and miraculously hung on at the same time.
Sora was laughing and crying at the same time, Becky gave a triumphant jump,
Matt's smile grew even larger then when Becky said she'd go out with him, and
Tai had tears of happiness streaming down his flushed cheeks.
He slowed the horse in front of Sora and she helped him off. He could only
smile at her and she could only hug and kiss him.
Matt watched as he saw Becky smiling at the couple. Maybe we could be like
that someday, he thought. And little did Matt know that Becky was thinking
the same thing.

Becky's little sister, Nicole, and Kari were in the stable's office playing
with the toy horses when a boy of their age with cute ruffled blonde hair
entered. "Kari, it's time for you to go home, your brother says," he reported.
"Okay, TK," she answered, "Oh, this is Nicole Williams, Becky's sister."
"Hi," TK said giving her a shy wave.
"Hi," the other girl replied. "Well, bye then Kari, see ya later," Nicole
said.
"Bye," Kari replied.

Sora listened as Tai played catch with his little sister. Sora was all alone
sitting on Tai's bed, just about ready to leave his house. Today was good for
him, she thought, thinking of Tai, It got his spirits up.
Sora glanced at his disarrayed room and sighed. She thought that maybe she
could pick up his room a little bit before she left. That's when she saw his
old school notebooks lying in a heap. Totally forgotten in the confusion that
was there lives. She didn't know what made her look but she grabbed the first
notebook, the one labeled Social Studies.
She opened it and flipped through, reading brief notes,
    "In 1776…"
    "Connecticut, Delaware and Virginia are part of…"
She flipped through some more and big capital letters caught her attention.
Endless pages of 'SORA IS HOT,' 'TAI AND SORA,' and '<heart>SORA<heart>SORA'
coated the pages.
"I wonder what he got in this class," she whispered, laughing to herself. She
read on but nothing else interested her. She'd hate to snoop, but she
remembered something Tai had told her a long time ago. "I keep a journal, NOT
a diary," he had corrected quickly, "a journal!" Maybe it was in his
nightstand.
She went into his nightstand and found a small cloth- covered book.
"This must be it," she whispered while she opened it to a more recent date.
She opened it to the day where he had thrown his crutches across the room
scaring her and Kari half to death.
    "Today I was such a jerk. I'm taking out my feelings on Sora and Kari.
I'm hurting them and pushing them away. I hope that Sora's not mad at me, or
that she doesn't think less of me…"
She stopped reading and put the book back in the drawer. She looked up; tears
welled up in her eyes.
"Never, Tai- chi," she said, "never."

Tai walked down the hall, listening. He had heard whispers coming from his
room.
"…never," he heard.
"Sora? Are you okay?" he asked. She quickly stood up and wiped her eyes.
"Oh, Tai," she said hugging him. "Don't you ever think I dislike you."
He stared at her with an odd look on his face.
"Okay," he agreed. Where did this come from? he wondered. Returning her hug
as best as he could.

Matt hated babysitting, and only Becky could have suckered him into it. The
Little Mermaid was hardly up his alley, but that was what Nicole was into and
he had agreed to watch her while Becky went to go grocery shopping while her
parents were out of town.
"…so," Nicole explained, "she left the ocean to live on land for a little
bit, just like we're leaving, but we're moving to Canada…" she went on to
continue but Matt stopped her.
"Leaving?" he asked.
"Yup," she said