Blah blah blah blah blah and you know the rest. 

Ann and Stu stayed on the beach for a very long time. Ann told Stu all her problems. He didn't give advice, he just listened, which helped Ann more than he could ever know.

"Hey Ann…" Stu got her attention. She was staring at the sky. She had told him about her feelings for Cliff and how he had broken her heart. She had become numb, without pain or feeling. She didn't like it but she didn't know how to go back to the way she was. Ann looked at him again. They were sitting on the bench. "Uh." Stu started to say. "Why do you call your dad an old man?" He looked up at her with questioning eyes.

"Well…Because he's old and he's a man silly." Ann smiled and picked up a stick. "Remember when we started hanging out?"

"Yah." Stu sighed. "After May's mom came to take her back to the big city… after poor Barley died." Stu looked at his shoes. "I miss her."

"I know you do." Ann sympathetically smiled at Stu and he weakly smiled back. She drew four lines in the sand with the stick and drew an "x" in the upper right-hand box the lines made. "But I'm glad you understand that she had to go."

"Mm-hmm." Stu sighed and picked up his own stick. "Thanks for the cookie the other day. I'm glad no one caught us." Stu smiled as he drew his own "o" in the box right in the middle of the nine squares in the sand.

"Well it's our ritual!" Ann drew an "x" in on the left side of Stu's "o". "Every Monday. You come in to see me and I give you a cookie." Ann turned to look at Stu. He was puzzled my Ann's move in their game of "x's" and "o's". He smiled and put another "o" over top of Ann's last "x".

"Yup." He smiled, proud of his cleverness.

"Wow!" Ann exclaimed. "Your getting good at this game!"

"Only because you said you would never go easy on me!" Stu replied. "It helps."

"I can see that." Ann said as she sketched a sloppy "x" over top of Stu's "o" in the middle of the boxes. Stu smiled as he placed his final "o" in the bottom right corner.

"Tic-tac-toe! THREE IN A ROW!" Stu screamed in victory. Ann smiled. Stu was so cute. He took her thoughts away from her real life and occupied her. Sure, she had let him win this time. He didn't know.

"Good job." Ann congratulated Stu and raised his hand in the air. "Champion!" She yelled into the ocean and Stu jumped up and down. He giggled. "But now." Ann lowered his arms again. "It's time for you." She poked Stu in the stomach. "To go home and sleep." Stu yawned.

"I'm not tired yet though!" He pouted and crossed his arms.

"I know. But your grandma was expecting you back hours ago!" Ann exclaimed, just realizing the time. She quickly and gently scooped Stu up into her arms and sprinted to his house.

Cilff stared at his beautiful girlfriend, caught in a trance. She was sleeping peacefully, propped up against his shoulder. Cliff gently stroked her cheek and reached for his pocket. Earlier that day, before he had told Ann his news about him and Popuri, he had picked two flowers from Mother's Hill. Two totally different flowers. One was a beautiful, pink flower that had huge, soft petals. The other was brown and scruffy and was short and prickly and yet it had a tinge of orange at the tips. It was dead when he picked it up. One was the most beautiful flower he had seen, then the other was dead and scratchy, yet he picked both of them.

How lame am I? I'm comparing girls to flowers. Cliff shrugged his shoulders. Ann sure did seem dead, he never saw her anymore and he had to let go. He had someone else who actually had the guts to show her feelings. Ann seemed depressed all the time, according to the other villagers. He shrugged the thought away, noticing that Popuri was waking up.

"What do you have Cliffie?" Popuri groggily asked.

"Oh uh…" Cliff grabbed the flowers in a rush, accidentally crushing the fragile, dead one but saving the big, beautiful pink one. "Just a flower for you." He said, brushing away the remains of the dead flower and showing Popuri the pink one.

"OH! It's so beautiful." Poprui exclaimed. Cliff smiled sweetly and broke off the stem. He put his girlfriend's hair behind her ear and gently placed the flower behind her ear.

"Yes, you are beautiful." He smiled, knowing the line was lame and often used by many couples. Popuri blushed and admired the pretty flower in her hair. She snuggled back up to Cliff and fell back asleep. Cliff sighed and picked up the ash that was left of the other flower. He put them into his hand and inched over to the window that he made in the clubhouse.

"Bye Ann…" He whispered into the night. He lightly blew on the ash and it floated out of the clubhouse, out of his sight. Out of his life.

Ann reached Ellen's house and gently opened the door without making a sound. She found Ellen asleep in her rocking chair and realized that Stu had fallen asleep in her arms. She stepped into the house and closed the door quietly behind her. She went over to Stu's bed and lifted up the covers. She set Stu underneath the quilt and wrapped it tightly around him. She smiled at him as she stood up. He suddenly stirred and opened his eyes.

"Ann?" Stu whispered.

"Yes Stu?" Ann replied as she knelt down next to his bed.

"You'd make a great mom." Stu smiled and rolled over. Ann soon heard soft snoring coming from his tiny body. She got up and left the house.

She walked to the Inn slowly thinking about what Stu had said. Would she really be a good mother? How would she know? She doubted that she would live long enough to meet the right guy, get married to him and have a child. She didn't have hopes or dreams anymore, but maybe Stu had opened up a place in her heart, saved just for … Well… what was it being saved for? Ann wondered this as the walked into the Inn.

"Ann." A voice called to her from within the Inn.

"Hello?" Ann responded, wondering who was calling her. "Daddy?" She added, quivering.

"Where were you?" The voice asked.

"I uh…went for a quick walk." Ann answered truthfully, slowly inching toward the counter.

"I don't believe you child." The voice responded. Whoever the voice belonged to had lost sight of Ann's body. "Where'd you go?"

"What? I'm right here!" Ann yelled. She had grabbed an empty glass wine bottle and figured out where her father was standing. He was in front of the telephone, as Ann figured. She leaped over to him and smashed the bottle on his head. Or so she thought. Before Ann knew it, Doug had grabbed her arm and twisted her so she ended up on the floor with her arm in a difficult position. "Augh!" Ann screamed in frustration as she tried to stand but got pushed back down by her father's foot. She rolled her eyes, grabbed his leg and turned it. She hoped to flip him over and she was successful. She jumped up, Jackie Chan style and immediately jumped onto his back.

"Oof." He grunted. "Where did you learn those moves?" Ann smirked and planted her foot on his head. She shoved his face into the hard wood floor.

"I've been taking women's self defence classes, tai kwon doe and karate. Sorta'…" Ann replied, trailing off in thought. Gray had been teaching her how fight and she had gotten pretty good. "Anyways. What do you want dad?"

"Ugh. Get off of me!" Doug screamed as he rolled over, hoping to grab hold of Ann's foot before she jumped up. He was too late. Ann had jumped as soon as he spoke. Unfortunately, she landed on his hands and he grabbed her feet. She struggled to get free of his strong grasp but soon fell onto her back. She glanced at the phone. She rolled onto her stomach and reached for it, but Doug immediately pulled her back. She turned again and punched him square in the face. Doug seemed like a robot, not stopping, even thought he was injured.

"Eek!" Ann squealed as Doug grabbed her waist and hoisted her onto his shoulder, treating her like a sack of potatoes. Ann bit, kicked and punched but Doug was not going to let her go. "Daddy!" Ann pleaded.

"Hah." Doug snuffed. "You lie to me, you pay the price."

"I wasn't lying!" Ann begged for her father's trust. "What have I done wrong?" Doug stalled and shook his head.

"Everything…" He grunted as he walked up the stairs, with Ann on his shoulder, into the blackness of the Inn.