Sorry for the delay. School's started up again, and I've only got an hour or so every night of free time to work on this thing. (Yeah, I know it may seem like a lot, but trust me, it takes me a LONG time to type up these chapters. I'm just a detail-oriented perfectionist like that, unfortunately.)

Before we get to the story, I'd just like to give a big shout-out to my fellow cyber friend, a huge role model of mines, and a wicked awesome fanfiction author, sweet blossom89. Truth be told, she's the one who sort of jump-started me into cranking out this chapter (no matter how long it took). She's probably wondering how she could've possibly done such a thing, but all it took was a simple reply to my review of her latest chapter of Make You Mine. (If you haven't read that story of hers, I strongly recommend that you do. You honestly don't know what you're missing if you haven't come across Make You Mine yet.) Yup, she just inspires me like that. This chapter is dedicated to you, girl.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ned's, or the song title "Funkytown". I don't own ramen, either, but I do have some stored in my food cabinet.

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Plans and Resolutions

A Ned's Declassified Fanfiction

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12:45 p.m.

Moze let out a sigh as she opened the door to Ned's car and fell into the passenger seat for the third time in less than three hours, an action that Ned echoed in his seat behind her. Cookie started up the engine once more and pulled out of the Bigby's driveway, a determined look engraved into his face.

Eleven more hours. I can totally do this.

"Y'know Ned, I think fate's trying to tell us that we're supposed to stay at your house for New Year's," Moze stated nonchalantly, locking brown eyes with blue in the sideview mirror for a moment before glancing over to the driver's seat. "Are you sure you've got the whole day planned out, Cookie? We can always just stay here and watch a movie like we usually do –"

Cookie shook his head fervently. "No way. I know exactly what we're doing, don't worry! What happened at the park was just a little bit of bad luck, it's not like it'd actually happen again!" He gave a suspicious forced laugh which, luckily, went unnoticed by the other two. "Plus, in the end, we did get to eat lunch – it might not have been what you'd call an ideal New Year's meal or anything, but it's still better than nothing at all, right?"

Ned shrugged in response. "Hey, it was the only thing in the house I could find that we could actually eat."

"It was the only thing in the house you could find that you could actually cook," Moze corrected.

"Without burning down the house," Cookie added with a grin, "Like you almost did last time –"

"HEY!" Ned interjected loudly, eyes wide and nose flaring. "We agreed that we'd never speak another word of that ever again! My mom still hasn't – and won't ever – see that burn mark under the antique rug!" He blew out a threatening huff, eyes still darting back and forth between the two front seats. And then, just like that, he went right back to normal, shooting a smile into the sideview mirror and wiggling his eyebrows at Moze. "But you have to admit, though, lunch was pretty good, right?"

Moze rolled her eyes and laughed. "Yeah, yeah. I think that's the first time I've ever tried instant ramen."

"Me too." They stopped at a red light, and Cookie turned to look at Ned curiously. "Where'd you get them from, anyway? I never see packaged ramen like that in any stores here."

Ned furrowed his brow in thought. "Yeah, I know. I think my dad's college friend who lives in Hawaii sent a box over a little while ago. Apparently it's a really popular food there or something."

"Ah."

The light turned green and Cookie made a right turn, eyes back on the road. The trio went silent for a while, each immersed in his or her own personal thoughts, then Moze turned on the radio and they were all screeching along to the lyrics of their favorite oldies songs. Or at least Cookie was. Moze merely hummed along in a soft, almost inaudible voice. Ned belted out the words just for the heck of it. And both of them laughed hysterically whenever Cookie hit a high note and cracked even more.

"C'mon, Moze, sing louder! We can't even hear you over there!" Cookie chirped in between verses of Funkytown, nudging the flustered girl with his elbow. "We need some girl harmonizing already!"

Ned stopped imitating the technobeat long enough to lean forward next to Moze's ear with a soft smile, tucking a lock of brown hair behind it.

"What are you so shy about?" He whispered faintly, and a tremor instinctively shot down her spine as her breath hitched. "You have an unbelievable voice, Moze."

Cookie glanced over with interest as Moze turned ten full shades of red in less than a second, mouth open and spluttering random nonsense. Ned's smile turned into a grin as he spoke in a slightly louder tone:

"Of course, anyone who lives next door to you would know, seeing as you're practically belting it out in the shower every single night –"

"Oh, you little –"

The next thing he knew, Moze had him in a headlock; her seat reclined all the way back to keep him wedged between both the front and back seats as she spun around and practically strangled the life out of him. Even while choking, Ned let out a strained laugh – "I'm kidding, Moze, I'm kidding! I can't breathe! Uncle! Uncleeee!"

"Uh, guys, not to ruin your innocent fun," Cookie interrupted nervously, eyes darting between the road and his friends, "But I am still kind of driving here."

The hold on his neck immediately slackened, and Moze dropped back in her seat, arms folded stubbornly across her chest as Ned went into a coughing fit for the second time that day.

"Wow," He managed with a short laugh, a hand rubbing his throat gingerly as his eyes sparkled at her through the mirror. "I haven't had a headlock like that from you in years!"

Moze quickly shifted her gaze away from his to the window, thrusting a stray hair out of her still-red face. "You may have gotten a lot bigger since middle school, Ned Bigby," She snapped in annoyance, "But that doesn't mean I've lost my touch."

Of course, he didn't miss the ghost of a smile that had appeared on her lips.

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1:12 p.m.

"And here we are!" Cookie exclaimed triumphantly, stepping out of the car and holding out a welcoming arm to the large building ahead of them. "Destination number two of the best New Year's Day ever – the one, the only…"

"…IceLand?"

Ned's face completely wiped dead as Moze stared up at the gigantic sign plastered above in amusement.

"I have to give you credit, Cookie," she stated in a matter-of-fact voice, a hand cradling the side of her face as she shook her head. "Of all the places in California I thought you'd take us to, this was definitely not on the list."

"An ice-skating rink?!" Ned shrieked, slamming the car door behind him. "Cookie, do you even remember what happened the last time I tried to ice-skate?!"

The image of a certain mop-headed boy doing a hilarious rendition of the "slip-on-a-banana-peel" fall right onto his rear end flashed through all of their minds, and Cookie and Moze fought (and ultimately failed) to keep from bursting out laughing.

"It isn't funny!" Ned bellowed, an eyebrow twitching like mad as the two doubled over, clutching their sides. "I couldn't even sit down for the next hour, my butt was totally bruised! BRUISED!"

It was true – both Moze and Cookie (and not to mention about a dozen other people) had had front-row tickets to the show the moment Ned had stepped onto the ice. After that incident, he had refused to even go near the rink for the rest of the time they were there, instead sulking around the arcade section and letting out his frustrations on a poor hit-the-gopher game.

"That was over three years ago!" Cookie argued. "You were still a klutzy little seventh grader back then, and it was your first time –"

"That doesn't even count as a first time, and I still am a klutz!" Ned retorted viciously, hands tweaking uncontrollably in front of him. Apparently he hadn't gotten over it yet.

"Oh, come on, Ned," Moze insisted, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the building. "Cookie drove us all the way here to have some fun, we should at least make the most out of it!"

"Yeah, says the one who actually knows how to ice-skate," Ned muttered bitterly, but he let her lead him towards the entrance nonetheless.

Cookie grinned. Leave it to Moze to make that boy's ego melt. He locked the car and came up beside Ned, who had now submitted to walking on his own, Moze's arm still unconsciously wrapped around his. But then Moze noticed Cookie's amused glance and she hastily let go, wrapping her scarf tighter around her neck with a small distracted cough.

Ah. So maybe it wasn't as "unconsciously" as he had thought.

Cookie's grin widened. "Don't worry about it, man – we probably won't even know any of the people here anyway." He patted Ned's shoulder reassuringly, still looking at Moze, who was now suddenly determined to keep her eyes focused on anywhere but her two best friends.

The trio reached the front door, which automatically opened and greeted them with a blast of air even colder than outside.

"And besides, how bad could you be?"

1:57 p.m.

The rink was full of ice skaters of all ages; beginners carefully glided along the border, a hand always within reach of the wall, while the few experts speed racing and pulling off tricky stunts stayed within the center. The rest of the skaters, a.k.a. the "in-betweens", cruised at different speeds, enjoying the music that blared loudly through the speakers.

And then there were two teenagers, a boy and a girl, who stood at the dividers separating the "learner's area" from the rest of the rink. Here were the little kids who were stepping onto the ice for the very first time, using walkers for support as they stumbled this way and that with their parents in tow. Right smack dab in the middle of the tiny crowd, looking extremely out of place, was another teenage boy, his arms wrapped around a walker half his size and holding on for dear life. In fact, if the other two teens squinted and cocked their heads to the right just a little bit, it looked almost as if he were a senior citizen trying to run on a slip-n-slide slick with water.

"So apparently, Ned's pretty bad at this." Moze stated simply, as Ned's legs buckled under him for the tenth time in less than a minute. She glanced over at Cookie, who was staring at Ned with a mixture of disbelief and utter amusement. "Cookie, even with people not knowing who he is, I still think Ned will permanently hate you for this kind of humiliation."

"I'll hate you BOTH even MORE if you don't get over here and help me out!!!" Ned shrieked loudly, which caused the few adults who were helping their kids on the ice to shoot him dirty looks.

"What?! What did I do?!" Moze retorted angrily, eyes wide with shock as she and Cookie quickly made their way under the divider tape.

"You're the one who dragged me in here and talked me into this!"

"Well, it's not like I actually knew you were this bad at ice skating!" She reached for Ned's wrist and pulled him out of the learner's area as Cookie returned the walker to the rink's entrance. "I mean, come on, it's just like rollerblading! You already know how to do that!"

"It is nothing like rollerblading!" Ned hissed through clenched teeth, his free arm flailing like a maniac. His attempt to keep balance failed, and he lurched forward, grabbing onto Moze for support; she let out a yelp of surprise, eyes wide.

"Ned!"

The sudden weight threw her off balance as well and she slipped backwards with a small scream, pulling Ned with her. But he caught on at the last moment and spun Moze around in mid-air; they both crashed to the ground, him taking the brunt of the fall and her landing ungracefully on top of him.

Cookie skated over to the groaning tangled heap that was his friends and knelt before them, shaking his head in pity.

"Nice catch, Ned. You two okay?"

"I've been better," Ned muttered under his breath, helping a flustered Moze into a sitting position. "Can we leave now?"

"Nope, sorry." Cookie stood and helped both teens to their feet. "I've already got everything planned out perfectly, so we're not leaving until four."

Ned staggered in place before clutching onto Moze again, eyes wide in disbelief. "Four?!" He shook the girl's shoulder back and forth in desperation, but for some reason she didn't seem to be responding much. "Moze, help me out here, I'll die ifwe have…to…"

He trailed off, peering at her blank expression in confusion. She seemed to be staring right through him, absently chewing on her bottom lip, and he slowly waved a hand in front of her face. "Moze. Mooooze."

Moze blinked and reanimated with a start. "Huh?"

Ned gave her a strange look, then shook his head. "Never mind. You sure you're okay?"

Before she could respond, Cookie spoke up in a chipper voice. "He wanted to know if you'd go out with him, Moze."

The reaction from the two was absolutely classic. Ned tweaked out, shooting Cookie a look that clearly said "Who said what now?!" Moze's jaw dropped and she almost fell over again, and this time it was Ned who kept her steady rather than be the one who caused the fall. But then he saw the look she was giving him and quickly let go…only to lose his balance and crash to the ground again instead. He struggled into a sitting position, and it took them both a moment to recover, and then –

"WHAT?!?!"

Cookie gave them a confused stare. "Go out. You two. Together. Y'know, instead of staying here at IceLand. Go somewhere else." He cocked his head to the side and peered at Ned. "That's what you were gonna say, wasn't it?"

"No! I mean, yes, but I – That's not even CLOSE to what I was going to say, Cookie!" Ned yelled in frustration, eyes bulging. He fell back against the ground, laying spread out on the ice in front of them. "I just want to get out of here!!!"

Moze seemed to snap out of her flustered stupor, and she shot an accusing glare at Cookie before bending down to help the boy to his feet.

"Sorry, dude." Cookie shrugged apologetically, "Like I said, we can't leave till four. You both left it up to me to put this New Year's thing together, and that's what I'm doing! You can't just pull out of it now."

"You promised that it would be the best New Year's ever!" Ned argued heatedly, stumbling over to hold onto the wall. "This obviously isn't going the way you planned it, or else I'd actually be having fun!"

The song that was playing through the speakers suddenly faded into to a new one, and Cookie perked up excitedly. "Hey, I love this song!" As if he hadn't heard a word during the past five seconds, he quickly skated away, much to Ned's extreme irritation.

"HEY! I'm still talking to you, Cookie!"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing!" The techno geek called behind his shoulder, flashing a thumbs-up sign in Ned's direction. "Trust me, it only seems bad now –"

"It IS bad now!!!"

"It'll get better!" Cookie insisted with a wave of his hand, and with that he disappeared into the crowd of skaters, already busting out his eccentric dance moves.

Ned gaped after him in disbelief for a moment before slapping a hand to his face, letting out an exasperated groan.

"I really hate that guy."

Moze gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, silently trying to make sense of their friend's peculiar motives. "Well…he did go through all the effort to set this thing up for the three of us. We shouldn't complain, right?"

"We have every right to." Ned shot her a skeptical look. "He's plotting something else, too. I know he is."

"Knowing Cookie, you're probably right." She heaved a sigh then took Ned's hand in hers, causing him to jump in surprise. She raised an eyebrow before gently dragging him away from the wall. "What? C'mon, I'll help you out of here, we can still have some fun in the arcade. I think I spotted that shooting game you're obsessed with when we first came in."

Ned immediately brightened at the sound of "shooting game" and took an enthusiastic step forward. "Awesome! Let's go –"

Apparently, he had forgotten that they were standing on ice. And that he couldn't skate to save his life. His legs shot out from under him and Ned swore out loud, jerking forward; Moze quickly pulled him towards her and he fell into her arms, embracing her for dear life as they both struggled to stay on their feet. Once she had gained her balance again, Moze let out a sigh of relief, still breathing hard, as Ned loosened his hold a little and straightened to his full height, looking frazzled.

"Wow," He said finally with a short laugh, looking down at his best friend with a grin. "That was…"

She had chosen to look up at him at that particular moment, and brown eyes locked with blue; both their smiles faded as they realized just how little space was between them.

"…close…" He managed to finish in an unnatural croak. "That was...really close."

Wow. This just became incredibly awkward.

"Yeah," Moze said with a nervous laugh. "But…we're good now, right?"

"R-right."

"Okay. So, um…I'm just gonna…" She slowly dropped her hands from his back and pulled away, tucking a strand of wavy hair behind her ear. The warmth that had come with the close proximity of their bodies immediately vanished, and she shivered, although she was pretty sure the cold wasn't the only reason for it.

Oh, no. Not this again…

They had started going out during the eighth grade, after the end-of-the-year field trip. But for some reason it hadn't worked out, and they had gone back to being the same best friends as before, almost as if those few exclusive months had never happened. She'd told herself over and over again that she was over it; after all, they were better as friends, and not as a couple. Couples fought all the time, whereas true friends rarely had any serious troubles. She wouldn't risk losing Ned over some stupid relationship problem. She loved him way too much for –

Whoa. Not that kind of love, of course. He was like a brother to her, and that was all. This was just another one of those coincidental situations where her mind tried to trick her into thinking otherwise.

Just like all of the other coincidental situations that were occurring today.

No, she didn't love him like that at all. Just plain coincidence and trickery of the mind.

…Right?

God, even in her head it sounded ridiculous.

Cookie wasn't anywhere to be found, but Moze now had the strongest feeling that he was the main reason for all of her internal stress. Suddenly, the "something else" he seemed to be plotting was starting to become very clear, and she mentally whacked herself for not realizing it sooner. It was all him! She grinded her teeth in annoyance. She wasn't exactly sure how he was doing it, but Moze was almost certain Cookie was behind all of this. As soon as she found that boy, she was going to give him a piece of her mind…

Ned's panicked voice abruptly dragged her out of her thoughts, and Moze blinked, noticing that he had grabbed her hand again and was desperately trying to pull her towards the exit of the rink without falling, his face completely drained of color.

She shook her head to clear her mind. How long had she been in her own little world? She glanced at Ned again, and his dread became understandable when her ears finally tuned in to the speakers; they had long stopped playing music and were instead announcing in a booming voice:

"The rink is now closed to the outside crowd! All skaters still on the ice, the Four Corners competition is about to begin!"

Ned's face dropped in horror, and he shot a deathly glare at Moze, who could only muster a weak apologetic smile.

Coincidence indeed.

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I was hoping to finish this whole ice skating thing in one chapter, but it was getting a little too long. So you get a cliffhanger instead.

If Ned, Moze, and Cookie seem out of character, I'm sorry. They are a little older, so I'd expect that they're a little different, too. And for those of you Ned fans…don't worry, he won't be tortured for too long. I know he's been getting the short end of the stick in this chapter, but he'll get his moment of glory. Hopefully. You'll have to tune in to the next chapter to see for yourself!

Lots of references to my own life/experiences and stuff in this chapter. And yeah, we do eat a lot of ramen here in Hawaii. It's the best.

Review, as always! Next update comes soon!