Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with any of the cast members of In A Heartbeat, nor do I have anything to do with the producer or anybody related to the show.

Val: Heartbreak

            "Val? Val!!!" My best friend Caitie screamed in my ear.

            "Huh? What?" I quickly snapped out of it.

            "Could you get off Cloud 9 for a second? I mean," she looked around then whispered, "he's not even around." She was talking about Tyler Connell. The guy of my dreams. Or so I thought. Yesterday, he asked super-cheerleader Casey Montgomery out. It's not to say that Casey isn't nice because you she is. And it's not that I'm not happy for him because I'm very happy that Tyler found someone he truly likes. No, I guess it's more a sense of loss, yeah, that's it. I've liked Tyler ever since the 9th grade! I sighed, "I know, Caitie, but haven't you heard?"

            "Heard what?" she asked me with concern, "Are you alright?"

            "Me? I'm fine, well not really. But haven't you heard about him?"

            "Heard what about him? I mean, hello? This is mister jock we're talking about. There's talk about him everyday. Like, this morning, Benny told me he heard Tyler was going out with Casey Montgomery! Yeah right. Like he would ever do that!"

Before I could answer, Jamie Waite came over to us, "Hey."

            "Hey Jamie!" Caitie said. They were best friends too.

            "Hey," I greeted him.

            "Listen, I can't stay around for long because Benny has something to show me underneath the bleachers, but I just wanted to know if you're going to that thing of Tyler's tomorrow."

            "Um, I'm not sure. I'll get back to you at work, ok?" I told him. I really didn't really feel like discussing it at the moment. Tyler had asked us all at the station yesterday to go his house for a barbeque the next day. Casey was invited and I wasn't sure if I could handle it.

            "Yeah sure. See ya, bye Caitie." Jamie ran off.

            "Bye." Caitie turned back to me, "So what didn't I hear about him?"

            "That he's going out with Casey Montgomery."

            "I told you, Val, it's just a rumor."         

            "It's not. He told us yesterday. At the station."  

            "He WHAT?!" Caitie yelled. It was true. I remembered every single detail of the day before. We had just finished all our "chores" and Tyler was late. It was weird because Tyler was never late. It was like a sin for him to be late.

            Anyways, so I was laying on the couch doing my homework and Jamie was playing gameboy on the floor across from me and Hank was sitting at the table doing some paperwork.

Tyler comes running in like the entire Kingsport cheer squad is after him and dreamily throws his back-pack on the chair next to Hank and plops down at the table and sighs this huge sigh. I turn around from my math problems, Jamie looks up expectantly from his game and Hank finally asks, "So?" Tyler looks at us weird and is like, "What?"

            "Why were you late?" Jamie asked matter-of-factly.

            "Oh, sorry about that guys. But I was…busy."

            "Doing what?" Hank asked.

            "Um…"

            "Well, it couldn't of been practice could it?"

            "No, I was there too. So was Jamie. Cheer practice ended right before yours did and I saw you there, Tyler," I pointed out, "So it couldn't of been at practice."

Tyler looked at my uncertainly, "No, it wasn't practice. It was…well…I was with some of the cheerleaders and well, I asked someone to the dance."

            "Finally! Who was it?" Hank asked forgetting about being late. My heart sunk. I remember thinking that it was ok because it was just the dance.

            "Casey Montgomery. I….I asked her to wear my letter jacket too."

Jamie whistled, "You just couldn't help it could you, Connell?"    

            "No, I couldn't." Hank congratulated him too and when Hank and Jamie looked at me expectantly to congratulate him, I didn't know what to do, so I stuttered, "Uh, that's great, Tyler! I-I'm really happy for you." I told him trying to be cheerful. It probably worked because it was then that Tyler brightned up and asked us to go to the BBQ on Saturday and told that Casey would be there. I was heartbroken.

            That's what I told Caitie and said looked at me with sympathy, "I'm sorry.  But you know, he's not worth it then. You know there are like a million guys jumping at the chance to go out with you. Go to the BBQ and smile. That's all you have to do."

I knew Caitie was right, but what could I do? I couldn't smile for that long and facing Casey wasn't going to be easy at cheer practice. She was so nice though and I guess if Tyler's happy, that's good. As long as he's happy. Right? RIGHT?