SURPRISE!!!!!!! –throws confetti-

Yes, I am updating on a Tuesday. What madness is this?!?! Ehh, well I figured it could be a little early Thanksgiving treat for you Americans, and I just felt like it since I'm so far ahead in writing this right now. ^_^ I'm going to update on again on Friday, too! Geez, two updates in one week, aren't you all lucky. ~.^

I'm feeling too lazy to reply to my lovely reviews, so have some sugar (and salt!)! –throws out stuff- You all kick butt! Bwahaha!

I got sugar cookie lip balm. ^_^ YAY! It smells. . .goooood. –drools- Yes, I can actually SMELL, as I am over my cold. WHOO HOO! HAPPY DAY! –dances-

That dance made me hungry. . .you may now read. . .

~Chapter Ten~

I couldn't face Steve and Ivy right after doing that, so I just turned around and galloped back home, where Mom was in the round pen with Hades.

"Where are Steve and Ivy?" she asked, stopping Hades in the middle of the ring. She looked at me and Joker, who was heaving and covered with sweat.

"I. . .I. . ." I sputtered. "I told them and I didn't want to see how they reacted so I galloped Jo around and then we came home," I babbled.

Surprisingly, Mom nodded in understanding. "I imagine they're following you," she said, dismounting from the Rapidash. "Give me Joker. I'll tell them to go up to your room when they come back."

Now how did Mom know I was planning to run to my room?

Mothers.

~*~

About ten minutes after I retreated into my hidey-hole I called my room, Steve and Ivy burst in.

"Lindsey, what the heck was that?!" Steve cried. "Geez, you just spit out something and gallop away and worry us half to death!"

I sat up on my bed, staring at the floor. My hair made a curtain in front of my face. "You guys. . ." I started.

"You need to learn to control your emotions," Ivy said wisely. Of course. "You don't just run away from us like that!"

"Don't you know why I ran off?" I muttered.

Silence.

I groaned. So they hadn't heard me. . .one time was painful enough, but they expected me to say it again? Well. . .might as well get it over with.

"I'm moving to Hoenn," I whispered.

More silence.

After a minute, I saw Steve and Ivy plop down on my bed on either side of me. I finally got the courage to look up, and saw they were both. . .well, shocked.

Ivy was the first to break the silence. "You're WHAT?!?!"

"Don't make me say it again," I sighed.

"But why? Oh man---you can't! Lindsey what the. . ." Ivy was babbling.

Steve was surprisingly quiet, until he grabbed my shoulders and twisted me around, forcing me to face him.

"Is this a. . .joke?" he asked carefully.

"Not unless my parents are pulling a fast one on me." I was on the verge of tears. Don't cry, I thought.

I didn't. . .for the moment.

Steve just sort of started at me like he couldn't believe what I had just said. Ivy was, of course, doing most of the talking.

"LINDSEY! Why are you moving???" she yelled. "You can't move! We're supposed to be B-F-F! Forever doesn't mean you le-e-e-e-ave!"

"Ivy, shut up before you get all of Johto's Officer Jenny's here," Steve said. "It's obvious Lindsey's joking. She's not. . .moving."

I stood up and stomped across my room, and sat down on my windowsill. "It's not a joke," I repeated. "We're moving to Slateport City. I have absolutely no idea why, and we're leaving in a month and a half."

It was Steve's turn to babble. "A MONTH?! Are your parents insane?! Slateport. . .geez! Why are they moving to HOENN of all places, you know, Kanto's supposed to be NICE this time of year. . ."

I didn't say a word. I just pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face in them.

"If you're going to be like that, just leave!" my muffled voice complained.

I didn't hear anything for a few seconds, but then there was the creak of my two best friends getting up from my bed and suddenly sitting next to me again.

"Oh Lindsey," Ivy sighed. "We just. . .can't believe it. That's all."

"Neither can I," I muttered, my face still in my knees.

I felt someone's arm suddenly go around my shoulders. I looked up, startled, to see it was only Steve.

"I'm sorry about that. . .outburst," he sighed. "But. . .you're moving? It just. . .doesn't seem real."

To my greater surprise, he suddenly pulled me into a hug. "You're one of my best friends, and I really don't want to lose you."

I felt Ivy hug my other side. "Yeah, like I said, B-F-F. . .what's going to happen?"

I suddenly got this overwhelming feeling. My friends. . .they loved me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized. . .we really were Best Friends Forever, and was me moving going to change that?

Not if I had anything to do with it.

"Hoenn's only an overnight ferry ride away," I said. "I'm not going away forever. Mom's renting out the place. So. . .one day. . .I will return," I quoted Mom.

"But how long will it be before you do return?" Ivy asked quietly. "Heck, one day is going to seem like forever. Who knows how long your parents are planning on keeping you there?"

I shook my head. "I really don't know. I just know. . .I don't want to leave you guys." For the first time that day, tears started to spill from my eyes.

"You won't really," Steve said, his grip around my shoulders getting tighter. "Hey, like you said, it's only an overnight ferry ride away. And there's always writing and using the videophones. . ."

"It's not the same," I sobbed. "Everyone keeps saying that, but it's just not the same. I've known you guys practically my whole life and now. . ."

"Just because you're moving doesn't mean you still can't know us," Steve interrupted. "We're still us and you're still you. So. . .so what if you're going away for awhile? Nothing can change the fact we're. . .we're best friends."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ivy raise her eyebrows waaaay up. "Steve, you do know you're a guy, right?" she muttered.

"So?" Steve muttered back.

"That's such a. . .girly thing to say. What, Anna, or whoever your girlfriend is rubbing off on you or something?"

"Hey, I have a heart."

"Kinda big for a guy's heart!"

"Ivy, you. . ."

"You guys!" I burst out laughing, and my tears were instantly dried. "Oh man. See, I can't leave. Who's going to break up your little tiffs?"

Steve and Ivy just stared at each other, but then Steve laughed kind of nervously. "Oh, I'll just get Anna to break them up."

"Over my dead body you will!" Ivy let go of the group hug and threw herself across my lap, trying to kill Steve, I guess.

"IVY!" I cried, trying to push her off. "Steve is, uh, supposed to be one of your best friends! I don't think you go and kill people who are supposedly that!"

Ivy sat up and burst out laughing. "Like I would ever think of really doing anything like that!" she winked.

"Suuuuure," Steve muttered.

I gave him a warning glance. "Don't start again!" I whispered.

Ivy jumped up and ran to my bed, grabbing a pillow. "Pillow fight!" she squealed. "C'mon Lindsey, at least one more?"

I smiled and nodded. "Of course!"

I started to sit up, but just then remember Steve's arm was still around my shoulders. He quickly realized this and slid it off, hiding his face behind his long bangs. . .and if I weren't mistaken, I could've sworn he was. . .blushing.

Hmph. He probably just thought I was Anna.

Ivy and I grinned as I grabbed a pillow and prepared to attack Steve.

"Nooooooooo! My innocence from the damned pillows was for so looooooooong!" he cried as we whacked him.

"Hey, you asked for it!" I laughed. At this point, I did not mind whacking even one of my dearest friends.

~*~

Hmm. . .how weird. Things are getting odd in the world of Lindsey. . .

And even odder in the next chapter, which, remember, comes on Friday so check back sometime then! In the meantime. . .review so I know you were here! ~_^