"Bye!" Blythe called out to Sunil as she waved. It was the end of the day, and the pets had all gone home by now. The Nevla's, as was usual, were the last ones to pick up their pet. Fortunately, Sunil didn't really seem to care about that.

"That was that, then," Mrs. Twombly sighed. "Time to close up. This day has been a more than busy enough as it is."

"Not for me," Blythe said. "It is time for my S.M.W.O.S time!"

The old lady looked surprised. "What?"

"Studying Math With Other Students, of course! We've got a lot of homework to get done for the big test tomorrow!" Blythe explained to Mrs. Twombly.

"Of… course…" Mrs. Twombly replied, not knowing how to respond to the strange acronyms of the girl.

"I'll need to get going! They're probably already waiting for me!" Blythe said, "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Mrs. Twombly!" with that, she went to the dumbwaiter to get up to her bedroom.

"Have fun!" Mrs. Twombly replied.

She's a strange young girl, but she's always there to help me out with the pet shop. I don't know what I would've done without her, she thought. And with that, she went back to her own apartment.

After spending two full hours on her computer screen - eating dinner while she was at it, since she had it so busy - Blythe sighed from relief. It seemed like she understood the math problems that was necessary to easily pass the test. That's better than I expected, she thought. Hopefully I won't black out tomorrow.

"Should we meet up after school time?" Youngmee asked over Skype. "It is just that test and a few classes! For the most part tomorrow afternoon we'll have nothing to do anyways! It will be so much fun!"

"Sure! What do you guys think of that really cool skating course downtown? You'll love it!" Jasper said.

"Jasper!" Youngmee and Sue said at the same time.

"What? I thought it would be fun…"

"Let it go, Jasper," Blythe said. "We'll figure something out that we'll all like. You see. But for now…" she yawned, "I'm going to hit the hay. I'm tired."

"See ya!" Sue said.

"See you tomorrow!"

And with that, she closed off her computer and got into her pajama's. Then, out of tiredness, she collapsed onto the bed.

Boy, am I tired, Blythe thought. And half an hour ago I was still so lively… guess that math problem really was more taking than I thought… well, it's not like Russell or Sunil could help me with it, I have to figure that out myself.

O boy… the pets…it's so weird. A thought struck her head. Why can I actually understand them?

Blythe has thought about trying to find out why she can talk to animals. However, for some reason she had never done that. Perhaps I should do that one day.

Blythe began thinking. Why could she talk to animals? What was the purpose? Would it change? Would, one day, she suddenly forget how to talk to animals, like what happened when she got ill and had to take that medicine? She couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Blythe?"

She turned around and saw that it was her father standing in the doorway. "Hi dad. What is it?"

"My colleague got sick so I've got to cover for him. I'll need to leave tomorrow for a very long trip." He scratched his head. "I don't think I'll be back before next week."

"Dad, it's monday."

"I know. But you have never been alone so long before in your life. I'm not sure if - "

"Dad, I can handle myself, don't you worry," she interrupted him. "It'll be fine, don't you worry."

"Are you sure? I don't have to do it, you know, but I wanted to talk to you about it first," he asked, worried.

"No dad, really, I'm okay. You can just go on that trip of yours. I will be fine. I promise," she assured him. "I can do the shopping and all that myself. And the household. I've done this before."

"If you say so!" He said, "And I take it you're off to bed now?"

Blythe nodded. "Yeah. I've got a big test tomorrow and I want to be certain I'm not tired."

"Okay, that sounds that something that is really important. You go girl!"

"...what?"

"I mean, go for it, girl!"

"You see, now it starts to make sense," Blythe replied.

"Anyway, good night, Blythe! I'll see you in the morning!" Roger Baxter answered.

"Sure thing, dad! See you tomorrow!"

Roger Baxter left out of the doorway and went back to the living room. Blythe sighed and went to sleep. She would need the rest.

Blythe felt herself running. It was like she was almost flying through the air, her momentum steadily gaining. She had her eyes on her target.

She just kept running after the small menace that she was pursuing. It thought it was smart, it thought it could outrun her by running under boxes and garbage cans. T was so wrong. With a mighty smack, Blythe pushed the boxes away with her arm.

It looks so tasty….

"AAAAHHH! Don't kill me, please!" the small menace said.

Blythe didn't respond, but instead went for the kill.

"AAAHHHH…. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

Blythe was abruptly woken up by her alarm clock.

What the huh?

"Wasn't that a weird dream…" she mumbled as the turned off her alarm clock." Alright. Clothes on, breakfast, pets, math test. Come on, Blythe, you can do this."

She was very quickly done with what she needed to do. In fifteen minutes she was already heading downstairs to feed the pets.

As usual, the pets had already arrived on the scene. Normally Blythe would talk to them, but this time she just put the food there and left as quickly as possible, only saying 'hi' and 'bye' to the pets. The pets could sense she was nervous.

"I never saw her leave that quickly!" Vinnie said.

But Zoe had the idea that something was amiss.

"There is something odd though about Blythe," Zoe said.

"Nah, I think she's just nervous for that test of hers," Sunil replied.

"No… it's not that. Something about her rubs me the wrong way. I can sense it."

"Sensing she is scared?" Vinnie said, "Ye… we all sense that. There wasn't even a personal goodbye for me!"

Zoe ignored the two. No, it isn't the nervousness, she thought. There is something else about her. But what?

Blythe stepped on it. She had to make it in time!

She arrived at school, only to discover that…

…it was deserted.

What the huh?

Blythe pulled out her phone, looked at the time and saw it that it was…

…60 minutes before the test would actually start.

Oops. Maybe I am a bit over-reacting… she thought. She looked around for a bit. Maybe Youngmee, Sue and Jasper are here already…

But what she saw then in her eye-corner was something that let her feel butterflies as well as fear; it was Josh Sharp.

Blythe had not forgotten the fact that bad things would happen whenever he was around. Omygosh. I have to hide before I do something embarrassing with a stupid laugh afterwards again…

She looked around, found a bush and immediately hid behind it. Luckily for her, Josh had not seen her and just walked by.

What she didn't know, though, is that Josh had begun to feel something for her. Granted, this was mostly because Sugar Sprinkles had put him under his love spell, but there was something genuine in there that really liked Blythe, even though she could behave weird sometimes.

As he walked by, Blythe looked at him from the bushes. She really had a crush on the guy – she just didn't know what to do about it. Should I approach him, maybe? Or just leave him be? But no matter how much she thought, she knew that she didn't have the courage to ask him out anyway. But still, he's such a nice guy…

As she thought about him, she started to make some noise. It came up from her vocal chords and up her nostrils.

She was purring.

She did it quite loud, and Josh took notice of it.

"Oh, hey Blythe."

Blythe immediately stopped purring, and looked up at him.

"I thought I heard something. Are you looking for a cat? I thought I heard one nearby…"

Blythe looked up, surprised, and mumbled while putting her weird smile on. "Uh… eeh….. yeeah… I'm looking for a weird cat."

Josh looked around. "Looks like the cat isn't here anymore. Strange, I thought he was close a second ago…"

Then he began thinking.

"Why are you looking for this cat, anyway?" He asked her, wondering.

"Because… I needed…" Blythe didn't know how to answer it. "…to find… it for the daycare!"

"Uhm… sure…" Josh responded. I don't think this is a good moment to ask her out… maybe later… he thought. She is a really cute girl, though. I really should ask her out. Maybe after she found that cat of hers… or something.

"Well, anyway…" Josh wanted to ask, but when he looked up he noticed the girl was already gone. Weird.

In the meantime, Blythe already had gone into the school building. Despite it being early, the school was already opened. The early classes would start half an hour before hers did anyway, so that wasn't strange.

Blythe leaned against the wall. That was close.

She took a moment to take in what just happened. Josh said it - was I really making cat sounds? What is wrong with me? She didn't know what to think of it, and of course, being Blythe, that would only frustrate her more.

And frustration was something she couldn't really use right now, with the math test and everything.

She sighed, and went in the direction of the hall where she would be having the test. I still have 50 minutes left, but I've nothing else to do anyway... and I don't want to face Josh again.

It took a while before Blythe saw her friends, and even more before the test actually started. She was quite nervous at this point; not only because of the test and the fact that she made weird cat noises, but also what Josh would think of her. The stress was almost too much for her, but she was brave enough to face it anyway. First things first. Let's handle this test, and then I can think about why I'm acting so crazy and feeling so weird.

She walked inside, behind Youngmee, and took a seat almost at the front row of the class.

"Alright, everyone," the teacher announced. "There will be around 25 questions on this sheet. You can leave when you are ready."

Youngmee, who was sitting right next to her, had not yet unpacked her stuff and was desperately looking for her pen. "어디 그 펜은 괜찮습니까?" she mumbled under her breath. She had her bicycle keys and her mobile phone in one hand, and her etui in her other hand. It looked pretty clumsy.

Blythe, who already had picked up her pen, turned around to see what the commotion with Youngmee was about.

But when she looked, it was like a whole new world opened up for her. It was like everything she ever knew didn't mean anything anymore. In Youngmee's hands were her bike keys... and they were just so beautiful to Blythe. She just kept staring at it. I need that.

She kept staring for a good moment. "알았어요!" Youngmee said, finally grabbing her pen. She then looked at Blythe. "Uh... Blythe... you okay?"

That got Blythe out of her hypnosis. She just sat upright again, and simply said. "Uh, yeah, I'm okay." She then stared at the test papers in front of her.

What is wrong with me? She thought.

She didn't think about this anymore. This math test was her first priority. She reckoned that her own insanity could come later. She picked up her pen, and after the sign was given, started the test.