Dear Luxa,

I miss you. I'm glad I still have that picture of the two of us. I look at it at night when I know my Mom can't take it from me for looking at it. She wants me to forget about you, but that's impossible. I have Luxa on the brain and in my heart and in my soul. Part of me thinks that's dumb, but part of me wishes you would find that out someday, somehow. And part of me wants you to forget about me and move on with your life. I know that I'll never move on with mine, but it's all right if you did. I wouldn't blame you.

I'm suspended from school for another week, and decided to make good use of all my free time. In fact, I don't care if I ever go back, but at least I can learn while I'm not there. I read three chapters of my math book yesterday. Now today I have to go back and do some of the homework to see if I understood all that information it or just read through it. Maybe I'll ask Lizzie to help. She has a way with numbers.

I was lucky that I had my math book with me when I got suspended. I also have my English book, and my history textbook. I had homework in those classes for the next day, which is why I even had those books with me in my backpack.

I didn't have any batteries in my backpack this time. Or duct tape. Or water. We don't need any of those things in the Overland, because they're all right there whenever we need them. Well, maybe not duct tape, but we don't need light the way you do down in the Underland. I just flick the light switch on and light goes everywhere. And it's really bright light too. Even my bookmark has a little light on it, so I can read at night when I have a nightmare and can't sleep. Mrs. Cormaci gave it to me. She's the neighbor I told you about. It belonged to one of her kids, but she told me I could have it since it was just laying around. Between you and me, I think all that stuff she says belonged to her kids - she really just buys it and gives it to me because she knows I'll need it sometime soon and my family can't afford stuff like steel-toed boots and mini flashlights that are waterproof.

Anyway, I'm using my free time to get ahead in my classes if I can. That way, when I go back to school, I won't be behind anymore. Maybe I'll get better grades then. Mom and Dad can lay off me for a while. Just as long as I don't fight!

I shut myself in Lizzie and Boot's room and do the fighting forms that Mareth showed me during the day so that I won't forget any of it, and so my rager blood won't do anybody any harm when it comes to life. It's good to just be by myself sometimes. Lizzie is at school, and Dad keeps Boots entertained in the other room for an hour or so. I got carried away last week and accidentally punched a hole in the wall, but if you open the door all the way, it hides the hole. Lucky for me that it's not hot right now and we don't have to keep the door shut to keep the cold air-conditioned air in that room. But since money's tight with Grandma living in the nursing home, we might not be able to afford to run the air conditioner in there either. Guess it'll just be hot everywhere then.

I have to get through Christmas before I start worrying about when it's hot here in the summer, though.

Thinking about Christmas makes me think about other holidays, which makes me think about my birthday. Then I can't help it - I think of the Jungle, and of quicksand, and of you. Seeing you again was the best part of that whole Jungle trip. I still think that way. My heart really did skip a beat when I saw you, just like all those dumb books say. Even if you looked so disapproving. I felt bad for Aurora. She really was hurting. I'm glad Hamnet was able to help her.

Speaking of Hamnet, how's Hazard? Is it hard for you to keep him from learning how to fight like the other Underland kids do? Maybe he can start a school for learning ambassadorial skills instead of learning to fight. He can even make part of that a language school. Remember how he and Boots and Temp would go at it in this weird mix of Crawler and English? I bet he would be great at something like teaching real little kids about other languages. Maybe Ripred could join in. It would be good for him to do something besides always eating shrimp and cream sauce. If he's not careful, he'll need to go on a diet soon, especially if he's not fighting so much anymore.

Are you keeping him from fighting? Stuff his mouth with food. I bet that would stop him. But now we're back to the diet thing. Maybe you should stuff his mouth with a bone so he can whittle down his teeth. Just stuff his mouth with something! I don't think he can chew and fight at the same time. Of course, I can't even spin-fight and spot at the same time, so who am I to talk?

Gregor, the witless Warrior