Disclaimer's: I still don't own Jonny Quest... REVIEW!

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I love this place. It has the best pool: it's Olympic-sized, has a diving board, diving pedestals for racing, and the water's heated. What more could you ask for?

How about some peace of mind? Yes, that's right. Jonny is sill apparently mad at me for no reason. He avoids me like the plague. Oh, well, at least everyone else is still talking to me.

What am I doing in the pool at a time like this? Putting myself through a ritual that I use to relieve stress. I start in the deep end of the pool and swim to the shallow end and back. When I reach one of the diving pedestals, I do 10 chin-ups, then do 2 more laps and keep going on like that.

Why wasn't it working? This always works! My foolproof plan to calm myself down had deserted me at the worst possible time!

Just as I was ready to give up and get out of the pool, Race came in wearing a red swimsuit and climbed into the pool with me. He swam over to me once I reached the shallow end.

"Hey, munchkin," he said. As much as I love Race, I really HATE that nickname, "How long have you been in here?"

"2½ hours," I said.

"Have you been swimming like that the whole time?"

"Yes," I said, "I'm working off some energy." Nervous energy...

"Well, even if you have a lot more energy, I think you'd better take a break. I wouldn't want to have to call your Mom and tell her that her daughter collapsed from exhaustion. She'd be up here to pick you up and take you home in no time."

I smiled faintly, "You know, it's funny you should mention my Mom picking me up."

"Why?" Race asked.

"I was thinking that summer vacation's a really long time to be away from home." I said.

"And?" Race prompted.

"Maybe I should go home soon," I finished in a rush.

Race was silent for a minute, "If you think that you'll get too homesick, then by all means, go home. But, if you're running away from Jonny because of what happened at the party, then I think you're making a mistake."

I stared at him for a few seconds before saying, "I don't know what you're talking about," a second to late.

"Hadji told me," Race said, "Don't worry, I won't yell at you. It wasn't your fault."

"I'm glad you think so," I said, "Jonny's been avoiding me and he seems pretty angry."

"He's probably angry with himself," Race remarked, "I think he genuinely likes you."

My response to that was starting to swim all over again. Race just waited calmly until I made it back to the shallow end.

"Calm down," he said, "If you don't want to talk about it, then just say so. Don't run away."

I felt slightly insulted at that. I wasn't running away, I was just working off frustration before I started screaming. Race doesn't know about my issues and such, so I couldn't really blame him.

I looked him in the eyes, "I never run away, I just know when I'm not wanted."

"Well, I want you to stay, Hadji wants you to stay, and the Doc wants you to stay. 3 out of 4 isn't bad." Race said reasonably, "But the choice is yours. Whatever you want to do is fine with us."

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem. Why don't you go take a shower and think for awhile?" he said.

"Not thanks," I said, "I think better when I'm in the water. It calms me down. All the problems just float away." Then I felt really stupid for saying that.

Race just said, "If you decide to stay, you should tell that to Hadji. He does the same thing with a candle flame. According to him, he puts all of his anger into the candle flame and then he blows the flame out."

I smiled, "I'll leave you to swim," Race said. He got out of the pool, grabbed his towel, and left. I started a fresh round of laps.

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All right I told myself Go talk to him. I was on my way to talk to Jonny. I asked Dr. Quest where the boys were and he said they were in (big surprise) the VR Room, so that was where I was headed.

I walked in and waited until they took their helmets off. Jonny saw me and tried to get to the door, but I happened to be blocking it, so he was forced to stay. He wasn't going to ignore me this time.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked them.

"Of course," Hadji said before Jonny could say anything. I shot him a grateful look.

"I'm leaving," I said bluntly, "I'm going home tomorrow. I thought I should tell you so you don't hear it from your Dad or Race. I can tell when it's time for me to go home."

"Cayla," Hadji said, "Why are you leaving before anything's happened? We had all sorts of fun activities planned."

"I think enough has happened already, Hadji," I said, "It's time for me to go. Please don't make it any harder."

Hadji nodded. Jonny hadn't said a word, which was all I needed to convince me that it was definitely time for me to go.

I went up to my room to pack and call my Mom.

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Hank loaded my things into the jet. I was leaving in about 10 minutes and I had to say good-bye to everyone.

I gave Dr. Quest a hug, "Thanks for inviting me. I wish I could've stayed longer."

"That's OK," he said, "I don't blame you for being homesick. Maybe the whole summer is just too long to be away from home."

Race told me the Doc didn't know what happened at the party. He thought it was just homesickness that made me want to leave. That was a relief.

On to Race, "Bye, Race. Thanks for all your help." He knew what I meant.

"No problem, munchkin," he said, "We'll miss you. Call anytime and reverse the charges." I hate being called that...

"Bye, Hadji," I said, "You seem like a very interesting person. I wish I had the time to get to know you better."

"You are very interesting, too," he said, "You have hidden depths in you. I wish I could have helped you discover them."

For some reason, that brought tears to my eyes.

Blinking them away, I turned to (dum de dum dum) Jonny.

I walked over and before I could hug him, he stuck out hi hand. Surprised, I shook it, "Bye, Jonny. I'm sorry things ended this way." As I walked towards the jet, I thought I heard him say, "So am I."

After one last round of hugs, Hank came over, "All set."

I was halfway in the jet when someone grabbed my arm. I turned around to see Jonny. Just as I was about to say what, he leaned down and kissed me. I looked at him in shock.

"I want you to stay," he said, "Please don't leave because I was stupid."

"I was going to stay, but I needed to hear you say that you wanted me to and you didn't." I said.

"I said it now," he said, "Was I in time to stop you?"

"Yes," I said, "I'm staying."

"Good," he said.

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Come on, you didn't think I would leave before anything interesting happened, did you? I haven't gotten to go anywhere or even use the VR Room because those boys hog it so much! Review with adventure ideas, K? The Management.