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The first time Katie met Gwen, she was a little afraid of her. When she was nine and new to town and anxious for some new friends, and Gwen was eleven and untrustworthy of outsiders and especially untrusting of cute big-eyed little city-girls, even ones who had just lost their parents and spent most of their time hiding in the Café with Grandpa because they were scared of the world.

But it wasn't long after that Katie stopped hiding and came out to play with the other kids.

Joe took her in right away, because he knew what it was like to lose his parents, and anyway, he liked girls with curly hair and big eyes and pretty laughs when they finally started laughing again.

But Katie still ended up running home in tears, because Gwen ordered her away, and even though Joe was eleven and a half and a whole three inches taller than Gwen, he still backed down when she ruthlessly declared Katie too young, even though Kurt was only eight-and-three-quarters and that's only a little older.

Katie was steaming mad, and really disappointed, and only felt a little better when Joe showed up a little while later to take her for a walk to the pond in the mountains.

Even when Joe started playing with her all the time instead of Gwen and Bob and Kurt, she still watched wistfully when Gwen sashayed past the windows of the Café, ponytail swinging, lean and tanned and strong and prettier than any other girl in town.

Katie thought that maybe she just wanted a girl friend, because Joe was cute and funny and tried to be interested in romantic stories and cakes and ribbons and kittens, but he was still a boy, and he didn't understand about girl things. And since Gwen was the only girl in town, Katie was just out of luck.

But then Clove Villa was built when she was thirteen, and a rich family moved in, and Katie had two girls her age to talk to.

Not that Dia talked much. For that matter, neither did Gina. But Gina listened. She listened and smiled while Katie rambled on about romantic stories and cakes and ribbons and kittens and Joe's smile, and Katie had a girl friend at last.

She thought that now she wouldn't care anymore that Gwen didn't like her and called out teasing comments whenever she passed and tried to order her away from Joe because puppy-love never lasts and you'll just end up hurting him, but she still sighed when she saw a horse and begged Grandpa to let her serve when Mr. Woody came in, because she might get to hear what things Gwen liked and why Katie wasn't one of them.

And then, only a few years later, when the town was put in danger of being paved over for a theme park, Katie was so scared for her home and for Grandpa's home and for Grandpa, whose tired, kindly old eyes were even older and tireder and so, so sad, that she forgot to think about Gwen.

But then she found the flier for the cake contest, and thought immediately of old Mrs. Harvest's special cake that Grandpa used to talk about with that soft, adoring sparkle in his smile, and decided with all the stubbornness of sixteen that she was going to save Sugar Village.

And when a weird rumor gets back to her, she wonders, somewhere away at the back of her mind, if maybe she should just let people go ahead and think that she's doing this to win the money and move back to the city.

After all, if Gwen thinks she's leaving, it might shove her into realizing something that Katie's been trying to ignore for the last seven years.

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End Notes: Yaay! This time Katie's crushing on Gwen! The last Gwen/Katie one came out way better, but the fact still remains that I love these two cute li'l gals together. 3