A/N This is a happy chapter! (: I hope that you guys like it! I'd also like to apologize if I make any grammatical mistakes or if I mess up the story in any way. I only do it for fun. If you're reading then thank you, continue to read and review and I'll continue to write for as long as I can! I really love the reviews! keep them coming!

Emma usually went to Terri's house on Friday nights, but Terri had a date with Will, so that meant that Emma was home alone tonight. Her dad worked late on Fridays on her mom went to her friend, Jeanie's, house to drink wine and talk about books that none of them have read. Emma didn't really mind being alone tonight though. It was better then being with Terri. She had had a lot on her mind the last few days and it felt good to be able to sit with her thoughts.

She was half way through her pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and on her second viewing of Pretty Woman of the night when there was a knock at her window.

Emma nearly had a heart attack, and was momentarily relived when she saw it was just Will. Then she remembered that she couldn't see Will, she couldn't talk to him.

She opened the window. "Will you scared me half to death."

He gave one of his heart melting smiles. "Sorry, but I had to talk to you." He said, climbing into her room.

"I do have a front door you know."

"I didn't want to piss your parents off. It's almost 1 in the morning."

"Oh?" Was it really that late? Where had the night gone? "Well I guess they're probably in bed by now…"

"Anyway, what's been up with you?"

"What do you mean?" Emma asked, "How was your date with Terri?" She didn't want to talk to Will about why she had been avoiding him. She was avoiding him because she couldn't talk to him.

"It was good. But I've been trying to talk to you all week and you keep running away from me."

"Oh, have I? Sorry. I didn't mean too. I've just been busy." God she was such a bad liar.

"That's okay; I just wanted to give you something. He took a seat on her bed and she followed, sitting next to him.

"What?" Emma asked.

"Well my mom and I were going through old pictures, and you'll never guess what we found? The photo album with the pictures from the day we went to the zoo for my seventh birthday. Remember that?"

"Oh my goodness!" Emma said. "That was the best day ever. I don't think that I've ever eaten so much junk food in my life. She looked down at her Ben and Jerry's. "Well, I guess if you don't count tonight."

"Well anyway." He pulled something out of his pocket. "I wanted you to have this." He handed her the picture. It was beautiful. They were just two smiling little kids with no cares in the world. All they cared about was that they were having a good day and that they were with each other. Emma felt envious of the little girl in the picture standing next to little Will. Her hair was curlier back then. It was before she knew what a flat iron was. Her cute little red pigtails clashed with the salmon shirt that she was wearing under her overall shorts.

Will's hair looked exactly the same, it was curlier than Emma's was in the picture, and he was missing his two front teeth. She remembered when he lost his first tooth. He lost one before her and she was jealous. She thought that loosing teeth was such a grown up thing to happen to you, and also she heard that when you lost teeth a fairy came and gave you money, that's what her older brother told her anyway.

He was wearing his favorite red shirt that he wanted to wear all the time. He never understood why it had to be washed in between. If it was up to little Will he would have slept in the thing and never have taken it off.

She remembered how upset he was with his mom when she had to throw it away, but in her defense, it had two rips, three stains and was about a size too small for him.

How did little Emma not understand that that little boy standing next to her was the person that she would grow to care so deeply for in different ways, ways that she could never tell him because she was too shy. Then she could never really tell him because her best friend was going to snatch him up.

There were so many things that big Emma wanted to tell little Emma. She wanted to tell her that overalls are no okay to wear, even on a little girl. She wanted to tell her that Terri wasn't a good friend and that she should have just stuck with Will. He would be a good friend. She wanted to tell her all about Will. She wanted to tell her that he grew up to be so handsome and funny and caring, which isn't easy to find in a teenaged boy.

She wanted to tell herself how lucky she was to be there, just her and Will, no secrets to keep, nothing to hide from him, just two kids, laughing at a zoo, the only argument over which was the best animal, the chimps or the elephants.

She didn't even notice the hot tears that were falling from her eyes until Will asked her if she was okay.

She wiped her eyes. "I'm fine. It just… It feels like it was so long ago."

"It wasn't really that long ago." He said with a smile. "Maybe we should make another trip to the zoo, you know my seventieth birthday's going to be coming up pretty soon. Maybe we could go again, exactly ten years later."

Emma laughed. There was no Terri, there was no Seth, and there was no horrible party that she had to go to tomorrow or feeling that she wasn't good enough. She was just like the girl in the picture, and he was the boy, only now they were older and they were capable of loving each other in a different kind of way.

That doesn't mean that Will will ever love you, so don't get your hopes up. I mean, would you choose you over Terri?

Probably not.

"Thank you so much for bringing this picture."

"Yeah, well I figured that you would want to share in some of the memories with me. It's a shame you know, that we stopped doing that."

"Going to the zoo?"

"Being friends."

"We're still friends, Will."

"Well then I haven't been a very good friend. When the last time we actually spent time together? I don't think that I've been to your house in years."

"We got older." She said with a shrug.

"And you found new friends." He said with a chuckle.

"I did not!" She protested.

"Yes you did. When you joined the Cheerios and met Terri it was bye-bye Will, and hello girl world."

Emma gave him a faint smile. "I should have been your best friend forever."

"Hey, forever's not over," he said, placing his hand on her's. "And as far as I'm concerned you've always been my best friend."

"Well what about Gabe?" Gabe was Will's friend that he played football with. They were best friends like Terri and Emma were best friends.

"You're allowed to have two." He said.

"Okay, best friend. Try to keep in touch this time. I don't want to loose you again." I want to be with you for the rest of my life.

He laughed. "I should probably head back home. I don't want your parents to wake up."

She laughed. "Thank you for the picture. I really love it." And I really love you.

"Yeah, I do too. I'll see you in school Monday."

Emma closed the window after making sure that Will got down her house and into his safely. Then she fell backwards on her bed. Her once precious ice cream lay melted and forgotten as she starred at the picture. Nothing mattered anymore. Emma didn't care about anything that Terri said or did. She didn't care about Megan or Lily, she didn't care that she wasn't as pretty as the rest of the Cheerios or that she wasn't special in any way to the rest of the world.

She was Will's best friend again. That was all that mattered.

And she couldn't have been happier,