Hamtaro dashed across the field, glancing around himself, searching. He paused, and stood up on his back legs, trying to see over strands of grass. The sky was perfectly clear, with nothing but a gentle breeze disturbing the field of flowers he was stood in.

"Hamtaro!" A voice drifted to him on the wind, and he smiled and gazed in the direction it came from. Bijou's head poked out from between strands of the long grass. A shy smile on her face, the wind wrapped itself around her, catching her blue ribbons in the breeze. "Hamtaro," she giggled, "Why have you stopped? Come on." She motioned him to follow her with a wave of her paw, but, Hamtaro stood as if rooted to the spot, staring straight at her. "Hamtaro?" She said, quizzically. "Hamtaro?"

……

"Hamtaro!" He pushed open his eyes sleepily, and stuck his head out his bedding hut. As always, Laura's room was a total mess. The bed remained unmade, and piles of paper and clothing had been strewn around, as if Laura had been looking for something.

"She really needs to find her alarm clock," Thought Hamtaro to himself. Glancing up at the clock on the wall, he expected it to be close to 9 o'clock. Instead, the time read 7.30. "What?" Thought Hamtaro. "Laura's NEVER up this early, what is going on?" Laura had dashed out of the room, returning with a bag of sunflower seeds, which she quickly emptied into his bowl.

"There you go little fella," She said, before looking hastily round the room as if she'd lost something. "Mum, have you seen my pencil case?" She shouted.

"Have you looked on your desk?" The voice of Laura's mum in the kitchen drifted up the stairs.

"Of course I have!" Exclaimed Laura. "I'm not stupid!" She glanced round, only to see her case sat on top of a pile of paper on her desk. "Err, never mind, found it."

"Laura seems even more flustered than usual," Thought Hamtaro to himself. "I Wonder what the matter is?" He glanced over at his nearly empty water bottle attached to one end of the cage. After a quick yawn and a stretch, he got up and walked over to it, giving it a little tap with his paw.

"Oh, one second Hamtaro, let me refill that!" Laura grabbed the bottle and rushed down stairs, nearly colliding with her father on the way down. "Oops, sorry Dad!" She called as she shot past him, nearly knocking a mug of tea out his hand.

"What has gotten into that girl this morning?" Muttered her father as he entered the bathroom.

"Exactly what I want to know…" thought Hamtaro.

"There you go," said Laura, suddenly back in the room and attaching the bottle to the cage. "Sorry I've been a bit crazy this morning, Hamtaro, but I need to get to school early. They told us yesterday that there's a school Dance on Sunday, and I'm hoping Travis is going to ask me to go with him." The doorbell downstairs rang. "Oh gosh, that'll be Kana, Cya tonight, Hamtaro!" Laura dashed out the room and slammed the door. A second later she opened it again. " Oops, forgot my bag," Laura giggled nervously. "Wish me luck!" and with that, she was gone.

Hamtaro sat down and had a bite of a few sunflower seeds, but didn't feel too hungry. He sighed, his mind still on his dream from the morning. He'd been dreaming a lot about Bijou lately. Before, he'd often dreamed of the Ham-hams, which of course included Bijou, but more recently his dreams had just been him and Bijou. He'd often had Laura discussing dreams of Travis with him, and he'd often wondered if Travis had dreams about Laura.

"If he likes her as much as she likes him, I guess he must do." Pondered Hamtaro. "The question is, does Bijou like me as much as I like her?" He continued, ending with a long sigh.