I'm so sorry about the slow update! If you've visited my profile lately you'll know that my Microsoft Word program had gone all weird (it still is, as a matter of fact) so I didn't know how to get to my files or work on this fanfic. But I did write some stuff down on paper and once my dad installed another program that would sort of replace Word, I was able to type everything down and work on this next chapter and update... (though the quotations are kind of weird in some places now...wow...random... okay, anyway...)

Okay, just had to let that out. :D I'll talk to you at the end of this; enjoy!

Before Jess left that night both of them came to an agreement: neither of them—under any circumstance—was going to tell anyone what they were up to.

"If our parents find out what we're going to do," Leslie explained to him, "they'd lock us in our rooms until the end of high school to make sure we don't blow anything up."

"We're not going to blow anything up, are we?" Jess asked, looking at Leslie with disbelief.

Leslie smiled grimly. "If we have to."

Her eyes hadn't stopped burning since she started making battle plans—Jess sitting in shock for pretty much all of them—all directed against Ms. Thomas and everyone and everything having to do with the construction. Jess wisely decided against speaking against some of her plans.

"So this is what we're going to do," she had finally finished, speaking more to herself then to Jess. "We'll go to Terabithia tomorrow and take down all the stakes and mess up the spray paint on the ground until we know for certain that they don't really own the land…."

Jess sat there and watched her, his heart beating as it sunk in…if they didn't do anything, Terabithia would be destroyed…

But it couldn't be…

"Leslie?" he had asked quietly after a while. She made no notice of him.

"And we're probably going to have to get everything out of the tree house because if they destroyed the bridge—"

"Leslie," Jess said, louder, and she turned to him.

"What?"

"What if the land really is theirs?"

Leslie looked at him, sighing.

"Then we beg for them to move somewhere else," she said, shrugging. "Or get whoever owned the land before to cancel the contract."

Jess gave her a half smile. "Sounds like war."

"For six years that place has been almost everything we lived for, and I'll be damned before they start destroying it all just so we can have more clothes in Lark Creek." Leslie sounded lethal.

"But, it's just…" Jess said quietly. "Just…." He didn't know what to say.

"Jess, I will do anything it takes to save Terabithia," Leslie told him firmly, looking directly into his eyes. "I don't care what I have to do. I will do anything."

"I know." He didn't doubt her for an instant.

"And if you are who I know you are, you will, too," Leslie said, satisfied with his answer.

Jess walked back into his house that night, after Leslie had scribbled down some answers on his homework so it looked like they had actually done math, wondering dimly what kind of lengths he would go to to save Terabithia. He would do everything possible, for certain, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knew whatever he tried to do, Leslie would make efforts hundreds of times more severe...

When Jess walked through his door and locked it behind him, he heard his dad call from the living room, "That you, Jess?"

"Yeah," Jess called back. He walked into the room and saw May Belle and Joyce Ann sitting on either side of his father on the couch; the three of them were watching a movie.

"You should watch this with us," May Belle said, as Joyce Ann questioned, "Where were you?"

"Leslie's," Jess answered, standing at the doorway

"How did math go?" Jack asked easily, looking up at Jess.

"Wha—? Oh, yeah, math. It went fine." He yawned.

"Let's see that packet," Jack said, hitting pause on the movie. Jess gave him the worksheets.

"Not a lot done," his father observed.

"Yeah, well, I'm bad at it," Jess told him.

"I bet Leslie was getting annoyed," May Belle told him smugly.

"As a matter of fact, she was not," Jess said, frowning at her. "She said I was getting better."

"Can she help me with my homework tomorrow?" Joyce Ann asked.

"No, we've got stuff to do tomorrow."

"Like what?" his little sister demanded.

"School stuff," Jess lied. He took back his packet. "I'm going up to bed."

"Well, good night," Jack shrugged as Joyce Ann scowled. "See you in the morning before you do your school stuff."

Jess glared at his dad and his little sisters snickered. "Good night!" they said.

He replied somewhat bitterly then he turned and walked toward the staircase. As he climbed the stairs he heard Brenda and Ellie in their room, talking as usual, but it was the fact that their voices were quieter and more distressed that made Jess stop in curiosity to listen in.

"...why you just don't tell them, Brenda...?"

"You freaking know why I couldn't! Stop asking me to...!"

"Well, they're gonna take it a lot worse if you wait—"

"Take what a lot worse?" Jess asked as he poked his head in the door. He was startled to see that Brenda was crying; Ellie was on her bed trying to comfort her. They both looked up in alarm as he walked in.

"Go away!" Brenda yelled and Ellie, snarling, got up and slammed the door in his face. Jess stood there in shock for a moment, then he turned on his heel and went into his room, confused.

"How is it that girls go from fine to furious in a matter of seconds?" he muttered to no one in particular, flinging his math packet on his bed.

OOO

By the time they had been in school for a month, it was the beginning of October and the air temperature had lowered so that fall clothes came out again, more people started coming to school drunk so they could escape the chill, and Coach started making them run outside even more.

"It's beautiful out here, isn't it?" he would say cheerfully as he led the shivering group outdoors on the track. "Now go take a lap."

"It's freezing out," someone would usually complain. Sure, Coach might have been cold-blooded, but the rest of them, in PE shorts and T-shirts, felt like ice cubes, especially the girls. After Coach had tried to pass a school rule for their benefit that would stop the use of gym clothes, all the girls, Leslie included, had revolted against the administration (that had vetoed the idea) by rolling up their shorts and ripping their shirts, showing as much skin as fully possible while wearing their gym uniforms. Because the guys rebelled by hanging their gym clothes on the flagpole whenever they could, the cold was torture for the girls. No one would relent, mostly because they all knew Coach admired their efforts. However, being on the good side of the principle and staff was a necessity for keeping a job.

"Running will warm you up," Coach would always answer them, smiling sadly. "Now, those who walk get two laps. Let's get at it!"

Leslie would heave a yawn and start trotting down the track. The rest of the group, grumbling, usually followed her. Jess would hear the couch clap appreciatively.

"We've got someone who doesn't mind the cold! 'Atta girl, Burke! Let's go, everyone! Faster! Faster!"

Jess liked gym class. Not only was he with Leslie, which was a good thing within itself, but he liked Coach, who always waved his hands when he talked and made everything sound like fun, even being in the locker rooms.

"This place smells like something's died in here," he shouted once while the guys were changing. "I heard the girl's locker room smells like roses. Why do I have to live in a place that smells like a slaughterhouse?"

"I say we raid the girls' locker room," sniggered one of the guys, followed by hoots. Jess looked to the coach to see how he would react, but the coach just smiled.

"I'll tell you what we'll do. When all the girls are gone me and some of you guys will sneak in there and leave 'em all our dirty socks on their benches."

"I say that if we suffer from the stench, they do, too!" yelled someone from across the room and everyone shouted in agreement.

That day had been memorable. Leslie, for her part, was laughing along with the guys by the time she came out of the girl's locker room, but the majority of the girls were furious and disgusted.

"That could work," Leslie said thoughtfully at lunch that day. "Using smells to ward them off. No one would buy clothes in a place that stinks, right?"

Jess nodded and made sure no one was around them to overhear. "Yeah, well, what would we use for our amo?"

"Get everyone's old gym socks," Leslie told him, grinning.

Towards the middle of October and by the time May Belle was arguing with Joyce Ann about going trick-or-treating (for May Belle was convinced that twelve was a ripe old age to be going from house to house dressed in a costume) Leslie and Jess had completely evacuated their tree house. They cleaned out every tin, box, and corner of the place they had practically grown up in and Leslie made Jess tear down the map of Terabithia he had painted when they were ten.

"Leslie, this has hung in our castle for six years," Jess said despairingly as he carefully folded the worn paper and packed it away.

"Would you rather have someone destroy it?" Leslie asked him as PT started chewing on an old apple core. "Don't worry; we'll be putting our stuff back in here in no time. But for now I think it's safer that we take things out before they take down this tree house, too."

"But we don't know when they're going to build."

"They aren't going to build," Leslie said hotly. "We called Ms. Thomas back in September, right? She said that they would start developing within two months. So we've got until November to stop them."

"So as of now, we've got two weeks before they build."

"They're building illegally!" Leslie cried. "They won't be able to build because we are going to stop them!"

"Okay, okay..."

"And we're going to find out who really owns, or owned, this land," Leslie said. "That way we'll know who to direct our battle plans against."

"You've got enough to battle against."

Leslie raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"

Jess hesitated. By "enough to battle against" he meant Trent, someone who wouldn't be much of a threat had it not been for the way Leslie acted around him. When Trent was near her she was nervous, always shifting around and looking over her shoulder, jumping whenever Jess shook her arm, trying to get her out of her state. She yelled at Jess every time he mentioned Trent's name, which was the reason Jess held himself back now.

"You know, battling against homework...and stuff."

Leslie eyed him carefully, giving him one of her stares that always made Jess very aware of the fact that she knew he was lying, but she said nothing.

"So I was thinking I could find out who owns the land."

Leslie's eyes softened. "How about you go downtown next chance you get, then, and see what you can find. I'll try to talk to Tom Strellgate and see what he knows."

Jack needed his help the next day, however; the greenhouse heater had broken and as it was turning cooler the frost could harm the plants, so Jess had to stay home and help unwire the greenhouse. Leslie came over to borrow his truck.

"Wish me luck," she muttered in Jess's ear before she climbed in the driver's seat. "Some people say that poor man is crazy."

Jess grimaced as she drove away; as ususal she drove fast.

"If you wreck the truck I'll wreck the first car you get!" he called teasingly after her; Leslie rolled her eyes at him and sped away.

"Where is she going?" Jack asked as he, too, watched Leslie drive down the dirt road, turning right rather then left, which was the direction they took to go downtown and to their school. "There's nothing that way but a couple of farms."

Jess shrugged. Jack frowned and looked over at him.

"Are you two hiding something from us?"

"Of course not, Dad," Jess told him, forcing himself to laugh. "What would there be for us to keep a secret about?"

"Lots of things," muttered Jack and he didn't elaborate.

He didn't get anything out of Leslie, either, when she came back about an hour later, gently placing the keys in Jess's hand and giving him a swift look that told him that she had information. Jack smiled at her as she sat down on an unused workbench.

"So, what brought you down by Strellgate's farm?" he asked her casually, as Jess handed him a wrench. "Some people are afraid to get within a hundred yards of his front door."

"That's hard to believe. He's very nice," Leslie said, smiling back. "My mom just wanted me to ask him about some old recipe."

"Recipe?" Jack asked.

"Oh, yeah. Um, about his vegetable soups, or something. He grows all his own plants and I think she...I think she wanted to know how he made them."

"The vegetables?"

"The soup."

"Gotcha," Jack said, nodding. "So his soup must be pretty good."

"So I've heard."

Jess smiled at her efforts; just like she could always tell when he was lying, he could tell when she wasn't telling the truth. Thankfully his father bought the story—or it seemed he did—and he and Jess were able to get the heater working within another half hour so that Jess could escape. Leslie followed after he made their excuses.

"Okay," Jess whispered as soon as they had gone about a hundred feet from the greenhouse, where Jack was still wrapping up, "spill. Fast."

"The land belongs to Tom Strellgate," Leslie said at once.

"Does it?"

"Well, it did," Leslie added darkly. "I just talked to him. He said he sold the land to the clothing company."

Jess's heart sank. "So…" he said with a beating heart. "The land belongs to them?"

Leslie smiled. "Well, yeah," she said. "But have you seen any public hearings? They're still building illegally."

"Huh?"

"When a company buys property," Leslie explained to him, "Mr. Strellgate says that they have to hold public hearings before they can buy land."

"What's a public hearing?"

"I'm not really sure," Leslie admitted. "But I know that the company holds a meeting where people from the city attend and give comments to them, or something. And then the people know that land is going to be developed and they can debate about whether or not it should be done."

"So if they had a public hearing we could speak out against the development!"

"Yes," Leslie said patiently, "but Miranda's Outfitting! doesn't seem to be holding any public hearings for us to speak out in. And without the hearings, to just build on land, even if you own it, is illegal."

Jess ran a hand through his hair.

"I know, I don't understand it, either."

"So who do we go to confront?"

"I don't know," sighed Leslie, looking at him. "I wish I did."

"Is there an office downtown where—?"

"Shh!" Leslie hissed as Jack came out the greenhouse door. He stopped when he saw them.

"You two planning to make some of Strellgate's soup?" he asked.

"Er...no," Jess said. "We..."

"...were going to do math?" Jack asked as he walked up the steps to the door to the kitchen. "Or maybe some other school stuff?"

Jess and Leslie glanced at each other as Jack chuckled to himself and walked inside.

"He knows," whispered Leslie with wide eyes as the screen door slammed shut.

"No, he doesn't," Jess assured her, at the same time trying to assure himself. "He doesn't know what we're doing."

"If he does..."

"Well, it's not like he'd want something illegal happening!"

"True," Leslie said. "I meant that if he knew about Tera—"

"Don't say it here," Jess said frantically. It was oddly quiet in his kitchen; the windows were open and only the screen door was closed in the door frame. "Look...let's go downtown...see what we can find..."

"If only we knew what we were looking for," Leslie said as they walked over to the truck, and Jess could not have agreed with her more.

OOO

Eventually they decided to do some asking around for information; out of desperation Jess started asking his teachers—who he knew wouldn't rat on him—what they knew about who could be involved in land development. When he asked they all looked at him as though he had announced he was about to grow wings.

"Legal building rights?" Coach repeated back to them in confusion when Jess and Leslie had approached him. "Are you guys looking to build a house somewhere or something?"

"No," Leslie explained, "we're trying to figure out who we can contact about legal building rights."

Coach laughed. "Kids your age are concerned about fitting in, beating on everyone else, sleeping with each other, getting drunk," he told them, shaking his head. "And you two want to contact someone in charge of land development here in Lark Creek. I could just hug both of you."

"We're trying to save a piece of land," Jess told his coach; he and Leslie had agreed to share that bit of information with the only teacher they trusted. "It's kind of like our childhood playground."

"It's very special to us," Leslie added.

"Well," Coach said, still beaming at them both, "I don't know who you'd have to contact, but go down to that office on 56th street. It's in front of two big oaks; I remember my neighbor went there to see about his company building another post office around here."

Finally, on the day before Halloween, Jess's history teacher called him up after class and told him the name who she believed was the head of the town council members. He nearly ran to his English class after math, waiting impatiently for Leslie to show up so he could share what he had found out.

"Leslie," he said in excitement when she walked through the door and came over to him. She sat down and he went on, "I've found out who we've got to go to! We have to see..." He trailed off as he looked at Leslie more closely. Something didn't look right; her eyes almost looked scared, and her hair was tousled slightly. "Leslie, what's up?" he asked, frowning. She didn't answer; she stared straight in front of her, obviously seeing nothing she was looking at.

"Leslie?" He tapped her shoulder lightly; to his shock she jumped as though electrocuted and turned on him ferociously.

"What?! My God...don't scare me like that! What is it?"

"Uh..." Jess said, confused. She looked alarmed. "Are you okay?"

"Geeze...I'm fine!" Leslie said, a smile spreading over her face so suddenly Jess was taken aback. "Yeah...freaking mobs I have to go through to get here...what were you saying?"

"Er...okay, so I asked my history teacher about who might be in charge of construction here and she said that the town council members would be responsible for overseeing everything the company does...that includes public hearings, you know. Leslie, are you even listening to me?"

Leslie was gazing straight in front of her. It looked to Jess as though she was lost in thought. "Town council members..." she said, so softly Jess could barely hear her. "Which members?"

"She said the name Greg Jacklyn. I'm not sure what she meant by him being the cheif board member but I think he'd be able to help us."

"Hmm..." Leslie mused, still gazing off into space. The bell rang and their teacher locked the door and started talking. As they passed their homework to the front of the room, under the rustle of papers Jess whispered, "Leslie, you sure you're okay?"

Leslie nodded at him, with the same half-smile she always had to give reassurement on her face. "Yeah," she said, and Jess thought nothing more of it, wondering throughout the rest of the period how they were going to find Greg Jacklyn.

Argh...Now I must bore you with my novel-long author notes...bear with me here...

So for those of you who are convinced that this story is going too slowly...too bad :D Naw, just kidding. All is under control. There was some major foreshadowing in this chapter, after all!

All righty, so first as always I have to thank my anonymous reviewers who I can't reply to: oracle3452, PollenandSalt, and HarleyQuinn. You guys leave amazing reviews that help me so much...thank you for taking the time to leave such nice comments for me! I appreciate them so much.

And I'd also like to thank MadTom (and also wind-chime146, for your helpful review) for helping me out with the information I sorely lacked regarding legal building rights that companies should have. I'm trying to make this story as realistic as possible so I really appreciate the efforts you made to try and educate some fifteen year old kid on public hearings! Thank you so, so, so much for your help; I needed it badly :D

And once again I'd like to apologize for the delay in updating. I'll try to get back on to my "update-once-a-week" status I had going on earlier; however there are a couple of issues that have started going on in my life that aren't going to make writing this story a heck of a lot easier (the same goes for So Changed, for those of you who are reading that story, too). So again, I'm sorry if you faithful readers of mine have to wait another eternity for the next chapter :D; I promise I'm doing all I can to write.

Thank you again for reading and please review!