Chapter Four

Hollyleaf felt light as a feather. That is, she would if she weren't held down to earth with her heavy book bag.

She was one moon into her first year at Warrior High, and homework was worse than ever. She had an essay for history, an essay for literature, a project for science, three pages in her book for geometry, and several other assignments for art that she didn't even want to think about.

Still, Hollyleaf was ecstatic, and not even homework could dampen her spirits. Her grades were higher than ever, and she thought that she just might have a tom-friend. Hollyleaf smiled, thinking back to the day she came to that realization…

* * *

"Hollyleaf, what is the square root of one hundred twenty-one?" Mousefur asked her new favorite student. Hollyleaf, unlike the other mousebrains in her class, made a noticeable attention to pay attention to what the dusky brown elder was saying and turned in work at a higher quality than any of the other students; her geometry grade averaged at a C+.

Hollyleaf, as usual, looked nervous to answer. Mousefur knew it was all just an act. The intelligent black she-cat always had the right response. It just took a small intervention on Mousefur's part. Mousefur turned her back on the class, and began writing the homework assignment on the board. She always assumed that Hollyleaf would write the problem out on paper, and was embarrassed to have her favorite teacher see her do anything less than perfect. So Mousefur gave Hollyleaf her privacy.

What the geometry teacher was missing, though, was Mousewhisker quickly scribbling the answer onto a piece of paper and passing it to Hollyleaf. Hollyleaf then unfolded it, stared at the number for a few seconds, and then announced confidently, "Eleven."

Then Mousefur turned from the blackboard and say, "Yes, Hollyleaf, that's correct," with one of her special smiles while the rest of the class (besides Mousewhisker, of course) glared at Hollyleaf for getting off so easily. Hollyleaf then began copying the assignment into her book innocently, ignoring the haters.

On this particular afternoon, however, when Hollyleaf was copying down the assignment, Mousewhisker stared at her. He whipped his head around to look at the front of the room when she caught him peeking. Hollyleaf felt her fur grow hot with embarrassment. Why did he keep staring at her?

Hollyleaf soon found out. Mousewhisker did like her! That afternoon after school was let out, he waited for her at the bus stop. Jayfeather and Lionblaze looked offended when she and Willowshine brushed past them to catch up with the gray warrior. While they sat together, Mousewhisker asked Hollyleaf, "Are you doing anything this weekend?"

Hollyleaf grew excited. Was it possible that he was asking her out?

"Not much," she meowed. "Homework, I guess."

"Oh, right," he mewed sadly. "Me, too."

Hollyleaf's heart sank. Maybe he wasn't asking her out after all.

"Here's an idea," Willowshine suggested obviously. "Why don't we all do our homework together? You can come over to my den Friday after school."

"Yeah, that sounds good!" Mousewhisker meowed, suddenly eager again.

"I'll have to ask Squirrelflight, but I'm pretty sure she'll be okay with it," Hollyleaf responded.

"Then it's settled," Willowshine declared. "I'll see you two after school tomorrow."

Mousewhisker got off at an earlier stop than they did, so Willowshine and Hollyleaf had some time to talk together without him hearing.

"Willowshine, you are a genius!" Hollyleaf cried.

"What?" asked Willowshine innocently.

"I thought for sure Mousewhisker was going to ask me out – I could tell because Honeyfern said that's how Berrynose was like when he was asking her – except when I reminded him about homework he started to back out, but you saved the date!"

"Oh," meowed Willowshine. "That."

"I still can't believe it! How did you do that?" Hollyleaf demanded.

"I didn't do much," her friend mewed modestly. "He just needed a push in the right direction. Toms are too shy to do much on their own when it comes to she-cats."

"How do you know so much about this?" asked Hollyleaf. "Medicine cats aren't supposed to have mates."

Willowshine shrugged. "We're not," she meowed. "But I noticed that Berrynose needed a push in the right direction too."

The two friends laughed.

As Hollyleaf lay in her nest that night, she couldn't get to sleep. Tomorrow she would get to see Mousewhisker again!

* * *

Lionblaze paced back and forth across his bedroom. "I can't believe Hollyleaf got a date!" he meowed for the hundredth time.

For the hundredth time, Jayfeather nodded in agreement. "I always thought that she would wait longer to take a mate," he mewed. "She seemed too focused on the warrior code to worry about having kits."

Lionblaze pounded his pillow with his paw. "Firestar's decision to make us go to school has screwed everything up!"

"How so?" Jayfeather wanted to know. He didn't think Hollyleaf having a tom friend was that bad.

"Cats from other Clans are being friendly!" Lionblaze exploded.

"Mousewhisker is from ThunderClan," Jayfeather pointed out quietly, but Lionblaze ignored him.

"It's not right!" he insisted. "This is changing us! Hollyleaf isn't the Hollyleaf we used to know!"

"What if we're being changed for the better?" Jayfeather meowed.

"Change is never for the better!" Lionblaze yowled.

"Okay, okay, relax," his brother replied exasperatedly. "Hollyleaf having a tom friend is probably not a good idea. Mousewhisker'll break her heart when he dumps her after he realizes how obsessed she is with the Warrior Code."

"Exactly!" Lionblaze meowed. "That's exactly the kind of thinking I like!" He stood up confidently.

"But what are we going to do about it?" Jayfeather wanted to know. "She's already made plans to meet him tomorrow.

"Right." Lionblaze sank back on his paws. "Well, I guess we can't change that, then."

"But what if we sorta… monitored the date?" suggested Jayfeather.

"That could work." Lionblaze looked thoughtful. "We can see how Mousewhisker acts around her, and then plan our next move from then."

"Let's pull together a game plan," Jayfeather added. "Can you grab some notebook paper? We've got some serious ideas to write down."

"On it." Lionblaze bounded over to his desk and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pencil. Across the top of it he wrote, How to Stop Hollyleaf from Getting a Tom Friend.

"You, my friend," Lionblaze meowed, "are a genius."

* * *

A/N: Oh my gosh!!! It has been so long since I've updated! I am so sorry! I just sort of hit a dead end… and then forgot about it. I'm sorry for the short chapter, but hopefully this will be the first of many updates to come.