A/N: I'm back from a very long hiatus! Sorry I couldn't post any sooner, my laptop broke down on me for a while and my dad had to fix it. But the good news is that I just graduated from high school and I have a long summer ahead of me, so I have a lot of time to post more upcoming chapters (well maybe not A LOT of time, because I just started Driver's Education class a while back and I still have to finish preparations for college.)

Before we get on with the story, I would like to give out a big thank you to those who read, alerted, favorited and reviewed this story. Kudos to you all :)

With all said, enjoy the next chapter of Pinky Swear, and if you want cookie dough ice cream this time, be sure to leave reviews :p

November 1985...

Gilbert Hardy slouched back on his chair and chuckled inaudibly as he watched his eleven-year-old son Matt wrestle a losing fight against his best friend Katie in their backyard, with his younger son Jeff interfering in the brawl now and then. Although his wife Ruby completely forbid the children from wrestling with each other, especially since she wasn't very fond of her sons beating up on a girl, Gil went to bat for the idea of weekly scraps in the backyard while Ruby was away at work or had a doctor's appointment.

Honestly, Gil could not catch the concept of his wife's point of view. To him, wrestling was a normal part of a boy's daily routine and although he didn't want his boys to spend their lives picking on girls, Katie in no way defined a girl. Not only did her personality show this, but also her appearance, because she preferred wearing baseball caps and baggy clothes on a daily basis, and wasn't particularly fond of wearing dresses or fancy clothes unless it was necessary. This didn't surprise a lot of people, because she'd practically lived with the Hardys ever since the day she first met Matt on their first day of kindergarten, so she has learned and developed their habitual ways of living. Also, much to the chagrin of her parents, Katie had begun to bring these habits over to their house. Her room hasn't been cleaned in weeks, and afterschool, she would head over to the Hardys' household forthwith, therefore falling behind in school since she did hardly any of her homework.

Matt was actually a pretty good student in school; getting academic awards, taking slightly more advanced classes and so forth, so he wasn't to blame for Katie's lackadaisical studying habits. Heck, even Matt was somewhat bemused by Katie's unusual behavior compared to the other girls in the neighborhood and at their school, but he wasn't complaining about it, and neither was Jeff.

"Super Vixen wins again!"

Katie whooped as she ran up and raised her arms victoriously. Gil rolled his eyes playfully at Katie's nickname for herself.

"No!" Matt vociferated, "Jeff was supposed to be the referee, but you two ganged up on me. I want a rematch!"

Gil raised an eyebrow at his younger son, who had come running behind Katie,

"Jeffrey, were you cheating?"

Jeff shook his head violently, "Nuh-uh Daddy. I wasn't cheatin'."

Matt snorted contemptuously, "Daddy, Jeff's a full of crap. Don't listen to him."

Katie pointed a finger at Matt, "Maybe your wrestling skills are a full of crap!"

Completely ticked off by her statement, Matt lunged forward, tackling Katie into the grass. The struggle continued until it was abruptly interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Gil and the children all looked up and became wide-eyed at the sight of Ruby crossing her arms to her chest with a disapproving look on her face.

"I want all three of you in that bathroom washing up for supper," the raven-haired woman pointed to the staircase inside the house.

"But Mom..." Matt protested before he was cut off.

"Now!"

"Yes ma'am," the children all replied as they quickly made their way into the house and up the stairs. The sound of the adults' voices arguing back and forth were very audible to the children as they made their way to the bathroom. However, they were too busy having a dispute of their own to even care.

"Get the hell outta my way, stupid!" Matt spat irritably as he pushed his younger brother away from the sink to wash his dirt-covered hands.

"Leave him alone!" Katie exclaimed, shoving the aggravated boy's shoulder, but that only provoked him even more.

"Shut up!" Matt hollered for practically the entire household to hear, "You always side with Jeffrey! What about me, huh? I thought I was your best friend!"

Matt pushed Katie, causing her to almost lose her footing and fall into the bathtub. At this moment, if it weren't for Ruby and Gil coming by to put an end to the commotion, it would have been the start of World War 3. After the adults calmed the kids down and had them take their baths, they headed to the dining room, where they proceeded to separate the children to avoid any more spats.

The household was awkwardly silent throughout supper, although a few times, both Matt and Katie would constantly glance up at each other while wearing scowls on their faces. This continued until Ruby gave both children the 'warning' look.

After supper, the children were usually allowed to watch a film before bedtime, but since there was so much tension between them, they just headed straight to bed. Katie could not go back to her house, because her parents were away on a business trip and she usually stayed with the Hardys on days like these, so she just decided to sleep on the couch, since she was not in the mood to deal with neither Matt nor Jeff.

During the later hours of the evening, Ruby woke up with a sudden headache, so she got out of bed to take some of her medication. As she strode past the hallway and down the staircase, she could have sworn that she heard grunts and moans coming from what she assumed was Matt's bedroom. After she took her medication along with some water, she headed back down the hallway and found out that the sounds were indeed coming from her eldest son's bedroom. Feeling a little uneasy by this, Ruby slowly opened his door and crept inside of his room. Matt was repeatedly tossing and turning, and muttering words that were barely possible to hear or understand.

"But...you...pinky swore..." Ruby heard her son mutter before he suddenly began to turn wildly on his bed, saying the word "no" repeatedly and hitting his head against the rim of his bed. This was when Ruby decided to wake Matt up before he did any more bodily harm to himself.

"Wake up. It's only a dream, Matthew," Ruby whispered a few times before she saw her son's big brown eyes flutter open, only to widen up when he saw his mom kneeling by his bed.

"Ma...what are you doing here?" Matt inquired with sweat trickling down his forehead.

"What were you dreamin' about just now?" Ruby questioned, ignoring Matt's previous question.

Matt sighed and sat up, throwing both of his legs to the side of the bed, "It was nothin'..."

Ruby shook her head, "I don't know about that, bud. Not a lot of dreams can make you toss and turn like that, y'know?"

Matt exhaled again, before peering down at his lap, "I dreamt...about Katie..."

Ruby sat on the bed next to her son, "Mmhmm?"

"And she said...she didn't want to be my friend anymore...then she just disappeared..."

Ruby nodded, though not really understanding why Matt would dream about such a thing, "When did you start havin' dreams like these?"

Matt shrugged, "I don't remember. I've had them so many times."

Ruby held in a gasp. Was this why Matt got jealous so quickly when Katie paid more attention to Jeff? Ruby had a hard time wrapping her mind around this whole situation, because there was no reason for him to feel so uncertain about their friendship. Regardless of how much they fought or had disagreements, Ruby knew without a doubt that Katie adored Matt with everything in her.

Ruby wrapped an arm around her son and lightly squeezed his shoulder assuredly,

"Now you and I both know how close you really are to Katie. She's like family to us. And from what I know, when she makes a promise to someone, she could never back out of it, even if she wanted to."

Matt nodded, feeling comforted by his mother's encouragement, "Thanks Ma. I think I'll get some more shut-eye now."

But before he pulled the blanket over himself, he eyed Ruby cautiously,

"You won't tell anyone about my dream..will you? Not even Dad?"

Ruby shook her head, "Nope. Your secret's safe with me, bud."

Just to reassure himself that his mother could be trusted, he held up his pinky finger, "Swear on it?"

Ruby nodded before interlacing her finger with her son's.

Matt gave her a closed-lipped smile before huddling underneath his blanket. However, before Ruby took one step out of the room, she glanced over her shoulder at Matt.

"Just promise me that you'll be nicer to your brother from now on."

Matt rubbed his eyes tiredly, "I promise, Ma."

Ruby nodded, "Alright. Goodnight bud. I love you."

"Night Ma. Love you too."

The raven-haired woman smiled back at her son before shutting his bedroom door. Matt watched his mother's figure slowly disappear with heavy eyelids. Once there was no trace of her anymore, he allowed his body to relax while his mother's words continued to replay themselves in his head. Maybe she was right. Both he, Katie, and Jeff shared a unique kind of sibling-like bond that not everyone understood nor could ever deter. Though, he sometimes wondered if things would ever change as time passed on. Although he did not want to continue living off of false hope, he kept convincing himself to believe that his bond with Katie will remain firm throughout their future endeavors.

After making a mental note to himself to apologize to both Jeff and Katie for his earlier actions, and hopefully make amends with them in the morning, Matt slowly allowed himself to drift off back to sleep.

The Next Morning...

Katie yawned sleepily as she made her way over to the dining room to get a little bite to eat. Jeff was already there, pouring orange juice into his bowl of cereal instead of milk, something he usually did when he woke up in a daze. Neither one of them muttered a single word to each other as they went about their businesses. A bit of the tension from the previous day was still there, although they weren't really upset with one another. It was just too awkward.

Matt, however, entered the dining room with an ecstatic grin that caused Jeff and Katie to exchange looks.

"Mornin'!" he chirped, grabbing a bowl from the dish rack and placing it on the table.

The other two kids glanced at Matt briefly with their eyebrows raised before diverting their attention away from him and back to whatever they were doing. Matt sighed before grabbing the cereal box along with his bowl and moving into the seat that was in between Jeff and Katie's.

"Look guys, I don't blame you for being mad. It's just that I wanted to apologize for being such a goof."

Katie smirked, while Jeff snickered a little, "And?"

Matt rolled his eyes, knowing what they were trying to get him to do, "And a giant banana-head."

"And?"

"And a fat, ugly hog."

Katie, along with Jeff, busted out laughing,

"C'mere!" she exclaimed. Then what she intended to be a friendly hug turned in a pig pile when Jeff decided to tackle them to the floor. Their laughter grew even louder as they made up in a very odd way.

Ruby poked her head into the room to see what all the commotion was all about and chuckled at the sight in front of her. Matt was the first to acknowledge her presence and smiled appreciatively at her, which she gladly returned before leaving them be to go about her business for the day. A lot of people say that a mother knows best. That just may be true in Matt's case, because she did help him to realize how much he should really cherish those who are closest to him.

After all, you will never know what the future may hold.

A/N: So that concludes the second chapter of Pinky Swear! Honestly, this chapter was somewhat hard to write, mostly because of writer's block. I was originally going to write about them having to cope with their mother's death, but then I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead, I decided to write about her interactions, relationships, and so forth. I will try to update this story on a weekly basis, and maybe I'll update Crisis sometime. Let me know what you think and feel free to point out any mistakes that may have gone by unnoticed.

I guess I'll go to bed now, since it's like 12 in the morning(yeah, I'm an owl, haha!). Don't forget to press the review button on your way out :)