Here is chapter 3. So far I'm able to do about a chapter per week. That may change as I go along but so far I'm doing my best to keep to that pace. I hope you're enjoying the story so far!

The final week of middle school at James K. Polk had arrived and Moze was excited. For one thing, she was absolutely ready for summer vacation and all the time she'd get to spend with Ned. For another thing, that meant high school was finally starting, something she'd been looking forward to for a while.

As she looked in her closet while trying to decide what to wear, Moze couldn't contain the big smile spreading across her face. Her talk with Ned in his backyard two nights ago had lifted her mood and ever since then she'd felt as giddy as she had at the gazebo. This would be their first full school day as a couple. Moze knew there'd be some changes and probably some unpleasant moments. Like talking to Suzy she thought to herself

Unlike planning her outfit for their first date, Moze was not having any anxiety this particular morning. In fact, she was eagerly looking forward to dressing a little nicer for Ned. I don't want to go over the top she thought. I'll save looking really nice for special occasions. Moze had to admit that although she didn't usually like dressing up, she was excited to look good for Ned.

After a few minutes of deliberation, Moze opted to go for a look that was dressier than normal for her but would still look fine for a regular day at school. She selected a white silky tank with spaghetti straps and pulled a pink V-neck t-shirt over it. Then she pulled on her favorite pair of blue jeans on and used a pink and navy blue scarf as a belt. She put her favorite headband on and let her hair fall down her back. As she looked at herself in the mirror, she had to admit that she looked very nice. I hope Ned likes it she thought happily to herself. She grabbed her backpack and headed downstairs to meet him.

Ned's jaw dropped when Moze emerged from her house. He couldn't believe how beautiful she looked. I can NOT believe she's with me! How lucky am I? This was not the first time he'd had that thought.

"Moze you look beautiful" Ned blurted out.

She blushed, smiled, and leaned towards his face to give him a quick kiss.

"Thanks Ned. You look pretty handsome yourself!"

Ned grinned. He'd dressed up a bit as well in a light blue button up shirt with just the top button unbuttoned, and jeans. His dad had jokingly asked if he was going to a meeting and if he wanted to borrow a sport coat. Ned had dashed out the door, his face beet red while both his parents shared a laugh.

"So Moze does this mean I get a kiss every time I compliment you?" he asked her. "I have plenty of compliments you know. I could compliment you all day."

"No dummy." Moze responded with a laugh. "I can't spend ALL DAY just kissing you. We have other things to do. You know, like class, graduating, eating, and breathing. You know, things I can't do simultaneously while kissing."

"You never know unless you try" Ned responded mischievously with a sly grin.

"Ned Bigby you are too much" Moze responded with another chuckle. She stepped close to him and put her arms around his waist.

"We do need to go to school now, but here's something to last you for a while" Moze's voice trailed off with a seductive hint as she pressed herself up against his body and leaned in slowly. At first her lips simply brushed his, but soon she had them pressed firmly against Ned's mouth. Moze then surprised Ned by opening her mouth slightly, taking his upper lip between hers and sucking slightly.

The two of them ended up making out for about 20-30 seconds before Moze gently pulled away. Ned's eyes were closed and remained closed for a few more seconds.

"Wow" was all he managed to say breathlessly.

After a few more seconds Ned was able to get his raging hormones back under control and it was a few moments more before he found his voice.

"Moze, where did you learn to kiss like that?" he asked in a wonder.

Moze grinned with a hint of playfulness in her expression.

"Girls just know" she responded with a twinkle in her eye. Then her expression became more serious. "But don't expect that all the time. I don't want either of us to get carried away."

Ned nodded solemnly. He looked her right in the eyes before he spoke so she'd know he fully understood what she meant.

"Don't worry Moze" he said.

"Good" she responded, the smile returning to her face. "Then let's get going so we're not late for school. We don't want to get detention from Crubbs during our last week!"

When Ned and Moze finally arrived at James K Polk middle school, they were greeted immediately by a very concerned looking Cookie and Lisa, who they hadn't spoken to since Moze stormed out of the pizza shop. However the concern soon melted into relief as both Cookie and Lisa noticed Ned and Moze were holding hands and beaming with happiness.

"Ned! Moze!" Cookie exclaimed. "I see you're holding hands. Are you guys ok now?"

"Yeah, we're doing great" Moze happily responded. "I'm sorry I walked out on our double date. I had some stuff I needed to deal with and I didn't handle it very well. Luckily Ned here handled it perfectly"

Moze grinned at Ned and quickly leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. Ned blushed in a bit of embarrassment but smiled warmly. Lisa raised an eyebrow and couldn't hide a knowing smile.

"I guess you guys made up pretty well huh Jennifer?" she asked. Now it was Moze's turn to blush. "I'm glad everything worked out for you two" Lisa continued. "Jennifer, do you wanna go talk for a bit and catch up?"

"Sure" Moze replied. "We can stop by my locker and get my books and talk until class starts."

Moze turned to Ned and gave him a quick kiss.

"Ned I'll see you after your Life Science class."

"I'll miss you" he responded sweetly.

"I'll miss you too" Moze responded, beaming like a ray of sunshine.

As Moze and Lisa walked down the hall towards Moze's locker, Cookie grabbed Ned's arm and pulled him in the opposite direction. He was excited.

"Ned" he exclaimed, trying not to be too loud "Did you see Moze?"

Ned frowned.

"Uh, yeah. She was right in front of me. Did you seriously not realize that?"

Cookie shook his head.

"No, no! I mean, did you notice how she looked? She's never looked like that before. She pretty much had googly eyes. And when she walked away, I think she was giggling! Moze never giggles!"

Ned gave Cookie an annoyed look.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"Moze is quite obviously completely crazy about you Ned! Isn't that great?"

Ned chuckled and shook his head.

"Cookie, I know that. She told me. I told her I feel the same way about her. Why do you think we're going out? It's not like it's just something you do if you're really bored you know! You know for a Cyborg, sometimes you really seem to miss the obvious stuff!"

Cookie shrugged.

"I guess it's just weird to see Moze acting like a girl. She didn't do that with any of the other guys she's liked. Well, except maybe for Faymen when she was trying to get sparks from kissing him."

Ned groaned at the memory.

"Cookie, please don't mention that to me. I don't like thinking about Faymen. He was the one that almost kept Moze and I from going out."

"Sorry Ned. I won't mention him again. Besides, I want to find out exactly what happened between you and Moze after our pizza date!"

Ned's face turned red for what felt to him like the millionth time that day.

Ned had a hard time concentrating in on what Mr. Monroe was saying. Part of it had to do with the fact that Mr. Monroe had deviated from talking about the day's topic in Life Science and was going into great detail about some museum he'd visited during his year abroad, and part of it was the fact that Loomer had been staring daggers at him from the instant he'd entered the classroom.

"Cookie" he whispered. "I think Loomer is planning to actually kill me this time."

"What? Why do you think that?" Cookie whispered back

"He's never looked this angry before. He's zeroed in on me. I feel like any second he's gonna make my brain explode with all the angry energy he's focusing on me!"

"Ned that's crazy. There's no such thing as angry energy. The only way he could possibly make your brain explode is with a death ray, and what are the chances he has one of those?"

"Wait, death rays exist?" Ned felt himself starting to sweat.

"I don't know. Maybe. Maybe he built one."

"Cookie this is Loomer we're talking about! He's not smart enough to build something like that!"

Cookie nodded.

"That's true. Then it's just all in your head. He probably just wants to beat you up for going out with Moze since he's liked her for years."

"Gee thanks Cook. That's a relief. But why does he still care? He's going out with Suzy now!" Ned whispered.

"Is there something wrong boys?" Mr. Monroe asked, interrupting their conversation.

Ned glanced at Cookie, then back at Mr. Monroe.

"Uh, I uh, I have to use the bathroom for the rest of class!" Ned exclaimed, dashing out of the room as he said it.

"Oh" Mr. Monroe said, confused. "Well alright then." Then he went back into his museum speech.

Moze hadn't seen Ned all day and she was starting to get worried. She'd gone to his Life Science class to meet up with him like she'd told him, but he wasn't there. Cookie had told her he'd dashed out of class early and hadn't returned. She waited by the boys' bathroom and had even asked Coconut Head to check if Ned was in there. He wasn't. She'd even checked the girls' room to see if he'd accidentally gone in there again. He hadn't. She checked the nurse's office, the library, the gym, even Crubbs office, but Ned was nowhere to be found.

By the end of the day, Moze was a nervous wreck. No one had seen Ned. The teachers had seemed oddly unconcerned when she'd asked them. Dr. Sweeney had even told her "Not to worry about it" But she was worried. She entered her final class of the day, History, and her jaw dropped when she'd entered the classroom.

"Ned?" she asked in disbelief.

Ned was sitting at their teacher's desk. Their teacher, former Principal Pal, was standing in front of him, wearing a suit of armor complete with a helmet, shield, and a sword that didn't look even remotely sharp.

"Halt! Who goes there?" Pal asked.

"It's ok Principal Pal" Ned answered before she could respond. "It's just Moze."

Principal Pal moved out of the way so Moze could reach Ned. She grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet.

"Ned, where the hell have you been? I was worried sick about you!"

Ned looked like he was going to be sick.

"I'm hiding from Loomer" he admitted, clearly ashamed of the fact.

"Why?"

"I'm pretty sure he's trying to kill me. So I had Principal Pal send the rest of my teachers notes saying I had a special project I was working on with him for graduation. Then I hid out here all day. It's the only class Loomer doesn't come to on Mondays because he has his tutor."

"Loomer has a tutor?" Moze asked with a laugh.

"Don't tell anyone though" Ned nervously replied. "I don't need another reason for him to kill me."

Moze nodded in sympathy.

"So how did you get Pal to agree to your little plan?

"Actually it was pretty easy. I told him we were learning about medieval times in another class and I had a project to learn about how knights defended their king from his enemies. I didn't realize he'd go all suit of armor on me, but it worked. I'm alive. Loomer hasn't killed me. Yet."

Moze rolled her eyes. "

Well, we'd better get to our desks. The rest of the class will be here any minute."

As they sat down, Ned leaned over to Moze.

"Moze, I haven't seen Suzy yet today and she's in this class. How is she doing? Is she mad at me? Or you?"

"Actually Suzy isn't here today. Apparently she had a couple of appointments her mom scheduled for her. Probably getting ready for all the grad photos she's gonna take. We'll have to find out tomorrow."

The rest of the class slowly filed in and a few minutes later, class began. Principal Pal decided to keep the suit of armor on and spent most of the class talking about chivalry, bravery, and oddly enough, the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Ned found himself enjoying the class and for a while he forgot about Loomer. That all changed when the final bell rang.

Ned convinced Moze to make a break for the bus to help him avoid Loomer. They dashed to each of their lockers to grab what they need. As they finished at Ned's locker, Moze wasn't completely pleased with how Ned was handling the whole thing.

"Ned, at some point you're gonna have to face Loomer. You can't avoid him like this again tomorrow."

Ned was shoving books and things into his backpack as fast as he could.

"I know" he replied. "I'm hoping my mom will buy me a flak jacket to wear tomorrow."

Ned finished loading his backpack, slammed his locker shut, and grabbed Moze by the hand. He half dragged her towards the exit.

"Ned!" Moze exclaimed. "You have got to stop being this crazy. I'm sure it'll be fine. Loomer's harmless. It's not that hard to talk to someone. You just have to be brave and….." but her voice died out and she didn't finish the sentence.

Ned had frozen. Loomer was standing between them and the bus, looking angrier than Moze had ever seen him. But that wasn't what froze her in her tracks. The reason for that was the person standing next to him. There, looking as mad as a hornet, hands firmly on her hips, was none other than Suzy Crabgrass.