Hey guys, just thought I'd do a little story for you all. This takes place during the Late Bus episode of Ned's Declassified, by the way. I sorta stole the beginning and changed it up a little at the end. I'm not going to spoil it by telling you how, but I will tell you that it's different at the end. If the quotes are off a little, I'm sorry. This was supposed to be Moze/Suzie centric, not Ned/Loomer centric, but it focuses almost totally on Moze and Suzie toward the end. You'll understand when you read.

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NED'S DECLASSIFIED FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!


"I thought this week would never end," Jennifer said, following the end-of-the-day traffic-jammers to the bus lot with Ned and Cookie in tow, giving a small sigh of relief.

Ned perked up, piping, "Yeah; the only thing standing between us and the weekend is a sweet ride on bus number nine!"

"Bus number nine broke down," came Sweeney's voice, startling the group of middleschoolers. He continued, "A replacement bus will be sent as soon as one can be found; it may take ten minutes . . or two hours!" He cackled, closing the window he had popped out of.

The teenagers sighed and went outside, hoping for the best. Ned sat on a nearby bench, keeping his things near him, not wanting to become a target for the people playing pie-kick fieldgoal.

Nearby, Coconuthead screamed, "It's good!"

A pie soared over his head. Seconds later, another hit him in the face. Ned sighed, Jennifer had left a few minutes ago, saying she had some reading to do. He looked up. Seeing Suzie coming, he stood and straightened his shirt. It was the perfect time for him to apologize to her and he didn't plan on blowing it on the pretense of being a sad lump on a log.

"But I was trapped at a locker!" he yelled. It was true; he hadn't stood her up after all. It had been the Loomer's fault. To his dismay, however, Suzie merely rolled her eyes and walked off, heading over in the direction of the popular kids, as always. "It was true!!" he screamed desperately, reaching for her in vain.

He sat down, crestfallen, deciding to do homework, when he was interrupted by Loomer.

"Tell me somethin' Bigby," he said, with a tinge of desperation in his voice. He continued, changing his tone, "How come Jennifer hangs out with you, not me? Can't she see what a great guy I am?" He raised his hands slightly and made a face.

"That's like me with Suzie!" Ned exclaimed, "I like her, but she won't talk to me anymore! I mean, I was trapped at a locker!"

"But how is this about me?!" Loomer interrupted, wanting his answer badly.

Ned quickly replied, "Sorry . . but one reason Moze might avoid you, and I'm not saying that I agree, but uh . . it might be that you scare people . . "

"You got a problem with that?!"

"No, no problem . . hehe," Ned whimpered.

"Could you help me?"

"Help you scare people?"

"No! Look, I won't bully you for a full year if you get Jennifer to like me and go to the mall with me. I had Claire write up a contract." Loomer said.

Out of nowhere Claire appeared, handing Ned a contract, which he eagerly accepted.

"You won't bully me for a whole year?" Ned asked.

Loomer nodded.

"Deal!"

Meanwhile, over on the benches, Seth, Coconuthead, Lisa, Martin Quirrely, and another girl were sitting, bored out of their minds, when Cookie appeared, holding a giant yellow megaphone and yelling loudly. When all was said and done, Simon had them following after him for his ridiculous after hours tour, getting Gordy to let them inside the school, and even watching Coach Dirga knit sweaters while she cried her eyes out to soap operas.

While all the hullabaloo was going on, poor Jennifer Mosely sat at an outside table, reading one of her favorite books, "The Orchids and Gumbo Club," sitting across from a girl who looked strangely similar to herself.

"Isn't the Orchids and Gumbo Club awesome?" The girl asked.

Not knowing what else to say, Jennifer replied, "Uh, I've read it before; I'm re-reading it for fun now."

"Me too!" The asian girl said, scooting closer and continuing, "I thought I was the only one who re-read books."

"I've never seen you on the bus," Jennifer stated.

She replied, "I don't take the bus; my dad picks me up. He's late." The girl chuckled slightly.

"My name's Jennifer," Moze said, smiling and scooting a tad closer to her new friend.

"I'm Jennifer too!" the girl exclaimed, "Uh, 'T.U,' not 'too' . . "

Jennifer smiled. She could tell that they were going to be the best of friends.

Standing by the exit, far away from Jennifer and Moze, were Loomer and Ned. Desperate to win Moze's heart, Ned said to Loomer, "First thing, clothes. Your outfit needs to say, 'Hi, I'm a nice guy,' not 'Hey, give me your lunch money.'"

Loomer deadpanned, "How am I supposed to buy lunch?"

Ned thought for a moment, but gave up. "See, look at that guy," he said, gesturing at a guy with a white, pinstriped shirt and a pair of pants on, "You need to lose the jacket and dress like him."

Loomer threw down his bookbag, walking up to the boy. Ned looked away.

"Maybe I didn't word that correctly," Ned said, when Loomer returned, dressed in the other boy's clothes. "Come on," he said, gesturing for Loomer to follow. They walked to a different area of the school.

Ned said, "Now lets work on expression."

"What expression?!" Loomer barked.

"That one." Ned said, "Try to give the impression that there's someone nice in there who cares. How about a nice humorous laugh?"

Loomer laughed cruelly.

"No, no, not an 'isn't suffering, funny' laugh, a happy laugh." Ned laughed . . until Suzie came. Within seconds, he was whimpering pathetically.

"Why do I take advice from you? Girls don't even like you!" Loomer said.

"I WAS TRAPPED IN A LOCKER!" Ned yelled.

"Whatever. Come on, crybaby, teach me how to get Moze to like me already."

"Alright," Ned said, pathetically, leading Loomer back to where they started. Somewhere along the way, Loomer had picked up a white flower. Ned said, gesturing to the surroundings, "Flowers, dancing, horses, girls like that stuff, so try and show some appreciation."

Loomer bit off the bloom of the flower cluelessly.

"Glad there weren't any horses around." Ned said, jokingly.

"Here she comes! I'm not ready!" Loomer said, gesturing at Moze, flower petals falling from his mouth as he talked.

"Okay, wait here, practice your laughing." Ned said, tapping him on the shoulder and heading off to meet Moze. Loomer obeyed, petals spewing from his mouth as he laughed in a giddy fashion, watching Jennifer as Ned approached.

"Okay, Moze, I'm giving Loomer a makeover and--"

"Ned, meet Jennifer Tu. She's into math!" Jennifer began, spurring on her new counterpart's incessant chatter about math class and their favorite teacher, Mrs. Morrison. The asian girl was gesturing to her friends, Ted and Mookie, who myseriously looked like inverted versions of Ned and Cookie, with the exception of hair, which Ned barely registered in his mind before he found himself glancing between Moze and the geeky two some that her counterpart was exchanging distant greeting gestures with.

Seeing Suzie in view, Ned promptly went back to Loomer. Hopefully, coaching him would keep him away from disrupting the natural order, just hopefully, he mused.

Jennifer and Moze went back to sitting at the table they'd previously been occupying, and were enjoying eachother's company, when they were interrupted by the sound of a car horn. Jennifer glanced over her shoulder and her mouth dropped slightly for a second.

"That's my dad," she said, offering a sad smile to Moze. "This is the most fun I've had all year," she added as the two stood.

"Me too," Moze said, smiling. "I'll see you Monday."

Jennifer looked to the side, "Well," she said, reluctantly, "No . . Today was my last day."

"What?"

"My dad got transferred to Paraguay."

"Paraguay?" Moze spat.

"But we can still chat online!" Jennifer quickly added.

Suzie chimed in, coming to stand beside her friend, "Have a good trip, Jennifer!"

"Thanks Suzie!" She paused, "You should hang out with Suzie; she likes everything we do . . except Ned. You'll be best friends in no time!" she said, as she made her exit.

"Crabgrass." Moze said, watching Jennifer walk to her car.

"Mosely." Suzie copied. They hadn't called each other on a first name basis since they were young.

Moze waved her fingers slightly, fidgeting. "Hey," she said simply.

"Hey," Suzie copied, a slight smile on her lips.

"Nice . . shirt." Moze said awkwardly.

Suzie smiled, blushing slightly, "Um, thanks. Nice, um, little clip thingy . . I like that."

"It's, it's purple . . cause it matches."

"Yeah, I see that." Suzie said.

"Yeah," Jennifer replied.

"Because they match the jacket . . Yeah."

"Yeah." Jennifer said.

"The purple." Suzie nodded, pointing.

"Yeah." Jennifer glanced to the side and then to Suzie. She wasn't used to talking to her this way. Their relationship was supposed to be based entirely on hate. How was she supposed to compete with her if there wasn't any hate? Jennifer sighed inwardly and looked at the ground for a few seconds. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Loomer and Ned. Loomer smiled at her and kept looking back to Ned, and Ned kept nodding to him and pointing at things. She shook her head.

'What's with those two today?' she thought, inching closer to her long-time foe, despite their near total silence becoming almost unbearable.

"What's up with Ned and Loomer?" she asked Suzie.

Suzie sighed and crossed her arms, "I don't know, but they've been following me around since that creep Mr. Sweeney told us about the bus being broken down. It's kinda creepy."

"Well, it's not like they're going to come from behind you and rape you, is it?" Jennifer asked.

"Um . . sort of. Well, not Ned though . . Um, can I tell you something?"

"Uh, sure. Tell me what?" Jennifer asked, leaning toward Suzie.

Suzie sighed, "In private."

"Yeah. The girl's bathroom sound like a good place for this?"

"Yeah." Suzie said, taking Jennifer's hand and leading her past Ned and Loomer and into the school. From there, they went to the hallowed bathrooms and past the wall. They were standing closer than they were when they were outside, face to face. Suzie was looking anywhere but at Jennifer, biting her lip semi-frantically. Jennifer had a look of concern on her face. She'd never seen her arch-rival so tense before. Talking to girls wasn't exactly something she was used to either, so the situation was just plain awkward to begin with.

"Jennifer?" Suzie said.

"Yeah?"

"Um, what I wanted to say to you was . . was that- that I like you." she mumbled quickly.

"What?" Moze said, stunned. That was the last thing she expected to hear from Suzie. She was expecting to hear a sob-story about how she loved Ned so much and only wanted to be with him, but how she had cast him away, not this. It was then that she realized what Jennifer Tu had meant when she said that Suzie liked everything they did 'except Ned.' Perhaps it wasn't her last day at all, and maybe Ted and Mookie weren't even her real friends, and maybe, just maybe she might like Suzie too.

It was all too soon for Jennifer's logical mind. When she came back to reality, what she saw was a sad Suzie, tears trailing down her face like train tracks. Jennifer's mouth hung open.

"Suzie . . "


A/N Well, what do you think? I know it's sad at the end, but that's why I'm continuing it for those of you who like happy endings! (like me!)