Disclaimer: I do not own anything IaHB related.

Note: if you have not read the previous chapters, this one might not make a whole heck of a lot of sense. You might want to read the other one's first.
And don't forget to review. Thanks!

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Hank and Melanie sat in the small café, sipping at their coffee and catching up. They had been there for hours already, but it seemed to Hank as if it had just been mere minutes. He wished that the night could last forever.

Melanie was so intriguing to him. Not only was she beautiful, but she was smart and he found that he could talk to her on a number of topics. She was wonderful. Perfect. Everything he had always wanted.

And yet, Hank could not help but wonder what would happen when the reunion was over. Would he and Melanie go their separate ways? Would he ever see her again? He didn't want to lose her, not when he had just found her. Not when he had just opened his eyes and really seen her for who she truly was.

He smiled at her and she blushed unconsciously. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen and he wondered if it were possible for him to ever truly live again if she walked away after the reunion.

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Melanie sipped at her coffee and thought of Hank. He was truly the most amazing person that she had ever met. And she knew that he felt bad for the way he had treated her on that Homecoming night so long ago. It made her feel a bit better to know that.

A shimmer of thrill ran through her body as she realized from perhaps the billionth time that night that she was there with Hank Beecham, the guy she had adored in high school.

She was glad to see that he was such a great guy. He had a wonderful personality, one that Melanie could really get along with. And, of course, he was handsome. He seemed....perfect.

But, Melanie wondered, would happen after the reunion was over? Would he go back to being a doctor and forget all about her? It would kill Melanie if that were to happen. She just couldn't bear the thought of such an occurrence. She liked Hank a lot. And she really wanted to see where it would go. What her feelings would do if given the chance.

That was when she had thought of the trip. It seemed rather easy, really. She had a photo shoot coming up in Chicago. All she would do was conveniently make sure that she ended up in Hank's neighborhood on that day. Then she'd have to stop by his apartment and say hi. After all, that would be the friendly thing to do since she was in the neighborhood. She had it all worked out.

Melanie just wished that she didn't have to wait until the shoot to see Hank again after the reunion was over with.

She sighed inwardly, wishing that there were some way that they could be together.

Hank took another sip of his coffee. Get a grip, Beecham, he thought. She barely knows you right now. If only there was some way we could be together.........

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Tyler lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling in the dark. He had been trying to go to sleep for the past hour, but no luck. His mind was too busy reminding him of the wonderful night he had had with Val. Everything had been perfect, just how he had planned it.
They had danced and talked. Danced and talked. He had told her all about his job teaching math to middle school students and she had told him all about her big corporation. He was glad that she had done so well for herself. He just wished that he was a part of that picture too.

After they had left the dance, they had traveled back to the hotel together. Neither of them had been really ready to call it a night, so they had decided to enjoy each other's company a bit longer. They had sat in the lobby reminiscing about all of the fun times that they had had while in high school.

And then, right before they decided to call it a night, Tyler had run up to his room and retrieved the box. The box contained something that he had wanted to give Val for so long, but had never been able to. The time had never been right, it seemed. Now, though, the time seemed even better than ever. They were both there and Tyler thought it was time that Val knew how he had been feeling all those years that he had not called her.

Tyler turned on his side in his bed and exhaled loudly. He just hoped that Val would still talk to him the next day at the dinner after she saw what was in the box.

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Val felt silly. She sat in bed trying to get a grip. But, no matter what she did, the tingling in her stomach would to go away. It may have some sort of reaction to something she ate. But, Val was more inclined to believe that it was the fact that she had danced so much with Tyler. Tyler Connell. Her Tyler. Well, at least, she liked to think he was hers.

And this box that he had given her intrigued her. It was an ordinary brown box from the outside, but Val could just imagine what type of treasure was on the inside. Tyler had said that the box contained something really important to him that he felt he needed to share with her. She still had not gotten up the nerve to open it up. It sat beside her on the bed, calling to her curious nature.

Val leaned over to her right side in the bed and grasped the phone off the nightstand. She sat back up and dialed Kiandra's number into the phone. She knew her friend would definitely get a kick out of this.

"Hello?" a rather tired voice on the other side of the phone asked.

"Hey it's me," Val replied and she could pretty much visualize how Kiandra must have totally woken up right then.

"How's the reunion? How's Tyler? Should I be expecting fiver dollars when you come home?" Kiandra asked, her voice loud enough for Val to realize that her friend was paying full attention now.

She laughed. She never understood how her roommate seemed to know her so well. Kiandra seemed to have known the whole time that Val would end up dancing with Tyler. Was I that obvious, Val wondered.

"The reunion is great. Tyler is fine and yes, you will be getting five dollars when I get home."

"Oh yeah, I called that one, my friend," Kiandra replied into the phone. "I should have bet you more money."

Val laughed again. "We spent a lot of time together tonight and it was great." She thought of how they had spent so much time talking in the lobby of the hotel that night. It had been absolutely wonderful.

"So, why aren't you guy together right now?" Kiandra asked.

"We were both so tired, we decided to call it a night."

"Uh huh," Kiandra replied. "Did he give you a kiss goodnight?"

Val laughed. Leave it to Kiandra to be the queen of tact. Or lack thereof.

"No, but he did give me a box." She looked down at the box beside her on the bed.

"You wanna run that by me again. Did you say the boy gave you a box?"

Val played with the tape that kept the box closed. If she opened it, she would know.....All she had to do was pull at the tape.

"Yeah, he said it held something really important to him," she replied, securing the phone between her cheek and shoulder. Using both her hands, she lifted the box to sit on her lap. Hmmmm, rather light, she thought.

"Awww," Kiandra sighed. "Have you opened this mysterious box yet?"

"No," Val replied, barely listening. Her heart was beating fast again. What could be in the box? What could Tyler possibly want to share with her?

"Well, open it up, girl!" Kiandra all but shouted into the phone. Really, did Val need a written invitation?

Val didn't need any more encouragement. She pulled at the tape greedily, wanting so badly to see what was inside. The tape came off under her fingers and she wadded it up in a ball and placed it on her nightstand. Then she returned her attention the box before her. Slowly, she lifted the flaps and peered inside.

She sighed. "Oh wow," she whispered.

"What? What is it?" The immediate reply came from the other side of the phone.

"Letters..." Val breathed as her mind raced. The box contained letters, tons of them. All addressed to her from Tyler.

She remembered thinking that he had never written to her after they graduated. How wrong she had been. From the looks of the pile in the box, it looked like he had written to her a lot. But, she wondered, how come he had never sent any of the letters?

"Hello? Hello!?! Are you there still?" Kiandra asked through the phone.

Val's mind snapped to the present and to the fact that Kiandra was still on the phone. "Oh! Kiandra, I'm sorry."

"No problem," came the response.

"Listen, I have to, um,...go now," Val said, her mind not really knowing what her mouth was saying.

She could just picture the huge grin on Kiandra's face in her mind. "I'll bet you do have to go," Kiandra said. "Happy reading."

"Yeah, bye," Val responded hastily and then hung up the phone.

Slowly, she reached into the box and smiled as her fingers closed over one of the letters. This will be the first one, she thought as she leaned back against the pillows behind her.

Val opened the letter and began to read.

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Jamie lay sprawled across his bed in the hotel. A smile played across his lips as he thought about the events that had unfolded that night. He would have been happy to have just seen Caitie that night. But, they had spent the whole dance together, which mean so much to him.

She was exactly how he remembered her- sarcastic wit and all. Jamie as so glad that she hadn't changed. After all, it was the Caitie in high school that he had fallen in love with.

And she seemed genuinely interested in K's Camp, which meant the absolute world to Jamie. For so long, he had wanted to call her up and invite her to come see what he had created. But, fear of her not caring had always stopped him at the last minute. But she did care! He knew that now. Jamie wished that they could skip the rest of the reunion and go there.

And she cared about him. That much was obvious. Jamie smiled again as he thought of how right it had felt when they had been together that night. And when they had kissed..........wow.

He couldn't wait to see her in the morning.

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Caitie sat at the small table in her room. Her lap top lay open on the table, ready to work. Her fingers roamed over the keys on the keyboard. She was trying to get the chapters done in order to send them to her editor.

She typed in another sentence and looked at the computer screen to see where she was. Caitie sighed. She was having an awfully hard time focusing on her work that night.

".....and then he ran a shaky hand through his dark spiky hair," she read aloud.

Hmmm, she thought, her mind starting to slip away from the words on the screen. Kind of like Jamie's hair, she added in her mind.

Caitie smiled as she thought of how they had danced and danced that night. And when they had stopped dancing, they had talked and talked.

In Caitie's opinion, the whole evening had been............perfect.

She stopped, the smile slowly fading from her face. Perfect? She thought. It sounded way too much like something Val would say. And when had Caitie ever been as mushy as Val over some boy?

Caitie shook her head and laughed. She refused to get mushy about the whole thing between her and Jamie. It wasn't her style. She didn't know what would happen between her and Jamie, but whatever did, Caitie would not be mushy. She just refused to.

Caitie soon returned her thoughts to her chapters, lecturing herself for getting off task. She worked hard for hours into the night. She filled page after page with typed words that she was sure her editor would absolutely love.

The best moment came, though, when she finished the last chapter and hit the save button. She sat back in her chair, allowing her fingers and arms to relax. She had to admit that she was proud of herself. Even though it had been rather hard, Caitie had managed to out all thoughts of the evening and Jamie out of her mind in order to work on her book.

See? She told herself. I will not be mushy.

And then something on the screen caught her eye. She leaned forward, feeling dread creep up into her stomach. She grabbed the mouse and scrolled up three pages in her story. Sure enough, it was there too. Her eyes went wide and she scrolled all the way back to the first page that she had been working on. Yup, it was there too.

The whole section that she had been working on that night was about her main character. The character had been created solely out of her imagination and should not have had any type of similarities to anyone she knew in real life. Yet, the more she proofread her work, the more she realized the mistake she had made.

"Jamie hopped in the car.......," she read.

Her eyes moved down a few lines.

"That was when Jamie realized.......," she read out loud.

Everything would have been just wonderful if the main character in Caitie's novel had been named Jamie. Too bad the main character's name was Thad.

Caitie rolled her eyes. Oh, this is as bad as drawing little hearts with his name in it, she thought. Her eyes drifted guiltily to the waste paper basket across the room where drawings of such hearts were crumpled and laid to rest not too long after she had come home from the dance that night.

I will not be mushy, she told herself. I will not be mushy.

But, this time, Caitie didn't believe it.


Please don't forget to review. I' ll try to have the next part out soon.