A/N: I think this is a record. Less than a week between updates! This is a short chapter, but it has to be because of the way things are currently sequenced. Hopefully, the next chapter will be long. I certainly have enough stuff I want to cram in there! I'm going to try and write it this weekend and post it around the beginning of next week. Until then, please read and review! Oh, and I would also really appreciate it if you read either of my other YW fics. Thanks!

And I just found that my formatting isn't working the way it's supposed to! Phooey. But I'm posting this anyway. I'll worry about fixing it later.

Chapter 8: Nita's Note

"Nita? Could you answer the question?"

The sound of her English teacher's voice dragged Nita out of her cyclic thoughts. Her head jerked up, and she saw Mr. Simmons standing right in front of her desk. This is a bad time to have a last name near the beginning of the alphabet, Nita thought, looking up at her teacher from her seat in the front of the room. "I'm sorry," said Nita timidly, "what was the question again?"

Mr. Simmons repeated the easy plot question, which Nita answered with little thought before going back to what she had been doing, which was infinitely harder than remembering what had happened in Great Expectations.

Shielded by the desk, her manual lay open to the messaging pages. She looked back down, carefully scrutinizing the note she had been composing. Her decision to tell Kit about what she had been going through had lifted off the pressure, but she still had to get him somewhere they could talk things through. Nita didn't want to do it at either of their houses; any of their family could accidentally stumble into the conversation—if it stays a conversation, Nita thought. She was hoping Kit would react nobly and help her fix her problem, but there was always the chance that he would get caught off-guard by what it was she wanted him to help her fix.

She had eventually decided that the moon was the best place for it. No one else would be there to interfere, and Kit would have to hear her out unless he wanted to draw up a transit spell and go home. Besides, they had thought over many a conflict there in the past. It was somewhere familiar.

Nita looked at the words that shimmered on the page of her manual:

Kit,

There's something I need to talk to you about. Can you be at our special spot half an hour after school's out? It's kind of urgent.

She wanted it to sound foreboding enough that he would come, and that he would be ready for something unexpected. She didn't want him to be completely unprepared. Looking at the note, she added, Please let me know if you can make it, before signing her name. Taking a deep breath, she sent the note just as the bell rang. Only one more class, and she could see Kit. One more boring class before they would figure this all out.

There's no going back now.

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Kit sat down in his history class, the last class of the day, and automatically reached into his backpack for his textbook. Seeing Katherine walk in the door reminded him of the conversation he had overheard, and so when his hand brushed against his manual inside his pack, it took him a moment to realize that the covers were buzzing. He had a message.

There was a very short list of people who would use the manual's messaging system to contact him. Even those who could rarely did. The only person who messaged him with any frequency was Nita.

Kit's first reaction was to forget about the message until after class, but some unknown force insisted that it could be urgent. He looked at his watch. He still had a few minutes before class began.

With unusual trepidation, Kit took his manual from his backpack and leafed through to the back pages where incoming message were saved. There was only one message, on the first page. His eyes flicked down to the signature before he read the letter. Nita. She wouldn't ask me out like this, would she? he wondered idly. He looked at the timestamp. She had barely sent the message five minutes ago.

Finally, Kit brought himself to read the message.

Kit,

There's something I need to talk to you about. Can you be at our special spot half an hour after school's out? It's kind of urgent. Please let me know if you can make it.

Nita

Kit sat shocked, looking at the book in his hands. Something she needed to talk to him about. Something kind of urgent. Something important enough that she didn't want to talk at home, but instead asked him to meet her at their "special spot" on the moon, with the view of the Carpathian Mountains. He gulped, reminding his lungs to breathe. This could mean only one thing. She was going to ask him. This was the "right time" she had talked to Katherine about.

He could just forget to reply. He could leave the message in the back of his manual. He could escape all the hassle.

But he couldn't, not really. It would be a lie. He couldn't ignore Nita's request. She was his friend. It could be that she needed to talk to him about something completely unrelated. She could have changed her mind and decided against asking him after all.

And the Lone Power could become a Girl Scout troop leader, Kit thought sarcastically. No, he knew why Nita wanted to see him. He also knew that he had to go, as her friend, no matter what it was that she wanted to talk to him about. He knew that he would always help her if he could. He also knew that, if he had asked, she would do the same.

He sent his reply just as his teacher strode to the front of the room to begin the class. It was short—in fact, it was only three words—but he thought it was enough. And it would always, always be the truth, no matter what Nita asked of him.

I'll be there.