I am extremely sorry about the month wait for this chapter. It had taken a backseat while I figured out Hart of a Kinsella. I let myself get engrossed with that story. I wanted to have this chapter up hours ago, but my pup wanted to play and when he wants to play you have to play, so I am sorry about the late update, but it was out of my control.

Before I let you all go I want to say that I do enjoy fishing and I do have a mini panic attack while in the boat fishing and the wave capsizing the boat. I don't really feel comfortable until firmly on land. I even feel that way when ice fishing. Also if you don't know how to say Crappie it's pronounced kraa-pee.

And why this little piece about fishing? You may ask. Well read and find out.

Enjoy!

"Sweetie, a minute please?" Harley asked, exiting his home office, hearing his daughter enter the house, having made it back from dinner with the Kinsella's in Fairhope. Candice taking a relaxing bubble bath left him to freely go over a few things in his office, from work-related files to bills.

"Sure," she shrugged, putting her small bag on the steps, to grab on her way to her room. They had stopped at a little store, and Zoe bought herself a pale yellow sundress. Wade surprising her and buying her a purple beaded bracelet with a butterfly charm. He told her it was his way of really apologizing for his behavior and ditching her when he found out that he was wrong about his dad. She assured him that his friendship was all she needed from him, but slipped the bracelet on with a smile on her face.

"Mind telling me why there was what I am assuming is Wade's clothes on your bed?" He asked with a smirk. He had already heard the story from Jackie when he talked to her earlier in the day. He did want to see what kind of story his daughter was likely to tell him.

"Well, you see," she started to say, fidgeting before his very eyes. "I, stupidly, let Wade, George and Meatball talk me into playing in the mud," she explained, biting her lip.

"Is that so?" Harley asked with a smirk. He knew his daughter, and he knew that no one would be able to talk her into playing in the mud.

"Kind of but not really. It looked so fun dad, and it was and I am only being a kid after all, like everyone keeps telling me to do. 'Zoe, you should step back from your dreams of being a doctor and just enjoy being a kid' and that's what I did, and I loved it dad. I didn't want Mom to freak out over muddy clothes and make me join the Junior Belles, and Jackie didn't mind tossing my muddy clothes in with Wade's. No harm was done," she quickly said, not wanting to be in any sort of trouble.

"Okay," he chuckled. "You can play in the mud all you want, and next time your muddy clothes can come home; I know a thing or two about getting mud out of clothes," he chuckled. "And I promise I won't let your mom put you in anything that you don't want to be a part of, okay?" He asked her.

"Okay," she nodded, relieved to know that her dad is on her side, and that playing in the mud is no big deal.

"I want you to be a kid," he assured his daughter. "You can go about your business," he told her, laughing as she took off running up stairs.

Getting to her room, she hung up her sundress smiling. Happy that she hadn't gotten into trouble for making a mess with the mud, and that she was free to get away with it if she happened to play in the mud once again and being friends with Wade, she was definite mud would become a factor once more. That among other things, she was certain of. Making her wonder just what would need to happen to set her dad off, not that she was about ready to pull any stunts to figure that out. She preferred not being in trouble with her parents.

She got settled in her bed, only after changing into a pair of pajamas, pulling out Treasure Island to read as much as she could before one of her parents poked their head into her room and told her lights out for the night.

"I will let you read another chapter before turning in for the night," Harley said, giving the door a quick rap to inform his daughter, he was opening it, an hour after she went up to her room.

"Okay, got it," she said, her eyes never leaving the page she was on.

Finishing the chapter, she placed her bookmark between the pages to save her spot and placed it on the nightstand, reaching over to turn her light off, before her dad made his way back to her room to check on her. With the lights off and the light from the moon shinning into her room, she got under her blankets and got comfortable, falling asleep almost immediately after her head hit her pillow.

"Do you know that you drool in your sleep?" Wade asked, seeing Zoe start to stir.

"What the what?" She asked, bolting up straight, glaring at the boy who gave her a fright sitting at her desk. She did check to see if she had, in fact, been drooling. She wasn't.

"It's past 9, figured you'd have been up by now," he shrugged. "I figured since you didn't get to experience and learn how to fish yesterday, that I would take you today. And no worries about George and Meatball, they won't be with," he told her. "What do you say?" He asked, dropping the pencil he had been spinning around. He couldn't help himself when he was waiting for Zoe to wake and started to doodle over some paper that laid on her desk.

"I don't drool," she huffed, tossing the blankets off and getting up. Wade burst out laughing.

"Should've seen that coming," he nodded. "But what do you say about the fishing lesson?" He asked watching her walk to her closet.

"Do I have to touch the worms?" She asked him, looking over her shoulder at him. Wade shook his head, letting her know that he would bait her hook for her. "Do I need to touch the fish?" She asked, pulling out a tee and pants, making sure they weren't white or black. It may have been November, but it wasn't exactly cold outside, not like in New York.

"You do not need to touch the fish, unless you decide that you want to, Princess," he smirked, getting up. "I'll be waiting downstairs," he told her, exiting her room, shutting the door behind himself.

"Why must I be friends with a boy?" She asked herself, tossing her clothes on her bed.

Really, she didn't care that Wade was a boy; she got along with him almost better than she got along with Lemon and Annabeth, even if that meant she was stuck doing boy things, because she hardly doubted Wade could be talked into playing fashion show or doing make overs. And she was okay with that, because sometimes doing boy things out in the woods, was better and a lot more fun than anything else she did.

Fully dressed she went downstairs, seeing that an omelette had been made for, but she hadn't seen either one of her parents.

"Your mom tried but she burnt it so your dad made it," Wade told her, that did explain the nasty burnt egg smell. "They went for a Sunday morning stroll around town," he informed her. "Now eat so we can get to fishing," he informed her.

"Bossy much?" Zoe laughed, taking a seat at the table to eat her food. Trying to hurry without chocking on her food, as impatient Wade was getting on her last nerve.

"When I want to be doing something other than sitting around doing nothing at all," he smirked.

Zoe rolled her eyes, placing her dirty plate and glass in the sink. She knew she should've quickly washed what little dishes she used, but she couldn't take Wade any longer and to be fair she couldn't wait to be out of the house and into the woods. If only to tease Wade about how horrible of a fisherman he is.

"Alright we can go, but if I get into trouble over not washing my dirty dishes, I am going to be really mad at you," she pointed out, walking to the front door to slip her shoes on.

"Okay," he nodded, putting his shoes back on. "I can take the blame," he laughed. "Though I don't know how long you'd really be able to stay mad at me," he teased, waiting on Zoe to shut the front the door.

"You'd be amazed," she smirked.

Unlike yesterday when walking through the woods to Wade's favorite spot to fish, they made it around the mud, no one falling in and starting a mud war. And they made it to the small fishing pond.

It took a few times before Zoe got the hang of casting without the worm flying through the air, or the line falling on the waters edge instead of sailing through the air landing closer to the middle of the pond.

"I think my dad knew about the mud incident yesterday," Zoe commented, sitting in the grass, watching the pole she held with both hands, waiting to see if she could actually feel when a fish was biting or not.

"Why do you say that?" Wade asked, reeling his line in to make sure that his worm was still on.

"He was asking me about it last night," she told him. "I told him what happened, and that I did enjoy playing in it," she confessed.

"Oh yeah?" He asked raising an eyebrow at her. "What did he have to say about that? Do you have to join the Junior Belles?" He asked, casting his line back out.

"Nope and he'll make sure that I don't ever have to join if I don't want to, and he said that he wants me to be a kid and if that means playing in mud than he's all for it, and that he can get mud out of my clothes without leaving stains," she told him.

"That's great," he smirked. "I can give you a hand in making a mess with the mud on our way outta here," he laughed.

"Don't you dare," she warned, feeling a tug on her pole. "I got a bite," she squealed happy jumping up. "What do I do?" She asked in a panic looking at Wade.

"Breath, first of all," he chuckled. "Reel in the slack and once it's taut give a big tug and keep reeling the line in," he told her.

Zoe doing as told, fighting the fish on the end of her line. She smiled seeing the fish at the top of the water. "What is it?" She asked, watching Wade grab her line to take the fish off.

"A smallmouth bass," he said, pulling the hook from its mouth. "See how's it mouth is level with its eye?" He asked showing her. "It's also a brownish color with vertical lines, and there isn't a break between the dorsal fins. Largemouth bass has a bigger mouth the jaw going past its eye socket, green in color with horizontal lines and a break between the dorsal fins," he explained, putting the fish back into the pond, making sure it was still alive and watched it swim back into the depths of the pond.

"Got it," she nodded, watching Wade put another worm on her hook. She didn't think she was going to have so much fun fishing, but the excitement of catching and reeling in a fish was pure adrenaline, and she wouldn't mind fishing more often.

"If you think this is fun; you should try deep-sea fishing for Marlins, now that's a blast, but it kills your arms," he told her with a laugh. "But you'd like it," he said, feeling a bite on his line.

"Yeah, maybe," she sighed, chewing on the inside of her cheek. It wasn't the fish she had a problem with; it was the boat. She's never been on one, whether it be on a small lake or an ocean, and she's seen the waves out at sea and they scared her, made her think that the boat was going to tip right over, and she would drown or become shark bait.

"What's wrong?" He asked working the fish off his line. "This is a black crappie," he told her, explaining that the black crappie has irregularly arranged speckles and blotches in their color pattern as opposed to the faint vertical bars of the white crappie, making it look more metallic in color, as he let the fish go.

"It's nothing," she told him, moving her pole. "It's silly, really," she said, when Wade didn't question her anymore and the silence went on too long for her liking.

"If it's a fear, it can't be silly," he told her, casting his line back into the pond.

"I've never been on a boat of any kind in any body type of water," she confessed.

"Honestly, that isn't silly. I was beyond scared when I went on the boat deep-sea fishing. My nerves didn't leave until an hour after we got back to land, the same time when my legs stopped feeling weak," he confessed to Zoe. "It's scary; those waves are not fun," he said shaking his head. "The best time to go out is on a little lake when there is no wind so the water will be calm and take it slowly," he shared. "You have nothing to be ashamed of, Zo," he promised her.

"Thanks," she told him, feeling better about her fear. Not that she had plans of racing out and getting in a boat to cure her fears of being in one.

Wade nodded and went back to fishing. Zoe doing the same thing. They sat fishing for the better part of the morning, seeing who could out fish who. It turned out to be a tie when they called it. Both claiming to have caught the bigger fish, bickering about it in a friendly way as, they walked home. Wade dropping his fishing stuff off at his house and walking with Zoe as she headed home. Zoe saying bye as she headed up the walkway as Wade went back home.

"Zoe," her mom said, greeting her by the door.

"Yes?" Zoe questioned not sure why her mom was giving her a look. She hadn't done anything wrong; they knew where she was going, at least she figured they did when they left before she did.

"Care to explain why you didn't wash your dirty dishes from this morning?" Her mom asked. With the older Zoe got they had given her some chores to do around the house. Zoe didn't mind.

"It's not that big of a deal. I washed them," Harley spoke, making his presence known. "She knows that she has responsibilities, and she won't let it happen again, will you?" He asked looking at his daughter. Zoe shook her head. "See, we need to let her enjoy being a kid, Candice," he said.

"How will she learn, if we don't get after her for not doing something as easy as washing a few dishes?" Candice asked.

"She'll learn," he stated. "Zoe why don't you go clean your room," Harley suggested, giving her the out she wanted to have, not wanting to witness her parents get into an argument over the fact she left three dirty dishes in the sink.