Amber was crying in her bedroom, alone in the whole house, when the phone rang. She screamed and held the pillow over her head. But she still could hear the insistent ringing, and it was driving her nuts. She didn't want to talk to anyone, and she was afraid that it was Craig calling.

Finally, the ringing sound stopped, and she lifted her head up. She could hear the answering machine go off.

"Hi! You've reached the Sullivan residence. Sorry, but none of us are around right now. So call us back later or leave a message. Thanks!"

Amber felt like retching at the sound of her fake, cheerful answering machine voice.

There was a beep, and then a deep man's voice was heard.

"Hello, Mrs. Sullivan. This is Dr. Williams. I was just wondering how Corey and Amber were doing. If anything is wrong, please feel free to call me. Ahem. Actually, the real reason I was calling was because I have rescheduled the appointment that we had scheduled for next Wednesday. I need to drive my daughter to her cheerleading competition that day, because my wife has broken her leg. Therefore, I have rescheduled your appointment to Thursday because I know you said you were free. But if there are any conflicts, please call me. Oh, and bring both Amber and Corey to the appointment. Thank you! Bye."

Amber sat up. Who does Dr. Williams think he is? Talking about his daughter's stupid cheerleading thing. And he wants both of us to go to the appointment! He probably wants to give us some more stupid tests, she thought.

She stalked over to the answering machine, and, out of spite, pushed the delete button.

Then, she laid down on her bed again. She couldn't help the tears wetting her pillow. She bit her lip, bewildered. Why was she crying?

The front door opened and slammed shut. Amber quieted herself and listened closely.

"Amber?" Amber's mom called up the stairs.

Amber wiped away her tears and hurried down. On her way, she glanced into a mirror, and was relieved to see that she looked normal, aside from her slightly crimson nose and her splotchy cheeks.

Once Amber appeared downstairs, her mother directed, "Amber, dear, do go and help Corey bring in the groceries."

Amber nodded and went outside. In silence, the two siblings brought in the plastic bags.

Craig was walking through the park with his camera in his hands. There was no particular reason why he had brought the camera with him. He wasn't planning on taking any pictures, but it comforted him. He strolled on the paths, lost in thought. He had gotten himself into this, and he needed to figure out a way to get out of it. He did not like Manny, that he was sure of. And he was certain that he liked Amber. Then how did he end up going out with Manny?

He had to admit that it was all his fault. He wanted to make Amber jealous. He had been stupid. Amber wasn't the kind of person to get jealous. He didn't think she cared all that much that he had a girlfriend. It was more the fact that he hadn't told her about it that bugged her. He remembered their last conversation.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going out with Manny?"

"Because I wasn't...at least not until this morning,"

"Then how come you didn't tell me at all? How come I had to hear it from someone else?"

"Because I didn't get around to it, okay?"

He kicked at some stray rocks on the path. Why couldn't he forget about Amber?

He heard a rustling behind him. He cursed, and thought, Can't I ever just be alone?

He walked off the path and sat down on a bench behind some trees.

He heard the sound of a girl's voice, and then suddenly recognized it as Amber's. What was Amber doing in the park?

He peeked around the trees, and watched.

Amber was walking slowly down the path, her arms linked with a boy's. The boy looked to be younger than her, but he was a lot shorter. He was rather ugly, too. It looked as if the part of his nose in between the eyes had been pushed in, and his stomach stuck out a little bit. Craig felt a twinge of jealousy. She would walk around with a guy like that, but she wouldn't go out with him! He ignored the fact that he hadn't even asked her out.

They walked right past Craig, and Amber was so close that he could have reached out and touched her. He felt the air move after they had gone past. Before they could get out of his sight, he silently took a picture.

By the time Craig got home, it was starting to get dark. He shuffled in the door, and was immediately met by Angela, his sister.

"Where've you been, Craig? I did so much cool stuff today! I made a mask, come look!"

Craig was too tired to resist, and he let himself be dragged away by Angela.

After Craig had looked at the mask enough to please Angela, he threw himself onto a chair, and turned on the TV. He watched pointlessly at the screen for a few minutes when Joey came into the room.

"What took you so long? You were out there walking for a long time."

"Yeah," Craig said listlessly.

"What's wrong?" Joey sat down next to Craig.

"I'm just having some girl problems, that's all."

"Oh? Who's the lucky girl?"

Craig then spilled everything. He told Joey about Amber, about Manny, and how everything was going totally wrong.

"Does she know how you feel?" Joey asked.

"No! I don't even know if she likes me back. And I saw her with this one guy in the park anyway."

"You're going to have to take risks sometime."

"I know," Craig sighed and then turned back to the TV.
Amber came in from her walk, and hurried up to her room. She needed to think.

When she was strolling in the park, she had turned around once, and she thought that she had seen Craig hiding in the trees. But she couldn't be sure. After all, it was from a distance and plenty of guys had dark, curly hair like Craig. But she had just had the feeling that it was him. She thought he saw her, but instead of coming out and saying hello, he just hid back in the trees. If it was a complete stranger, he wouldn't have hidden again, would he? She was very confused, as she tried to decide if it was Craig or not.

But, then again, if it was Craig, it sort of made sense that he would hide. They had just had an argument, and things between them were a little shaky. Still, Amber thought, if it was Craig, I wish he had come out anyway.

She wished that Craig was with her, and they could clear up everything. Little did she know, Craig was wishing the exact same thing.