The next month passed quickly and before they all knew it, they felt summer approaching. Jack prepared his last few lesson plans and began grading the last of his projects, calculating averages and writing the final exam. On the last day of classes, he pulled into the parking lot of the day care center to drop Amy off. He'd stopped feeling guilty about having to take her there, because she'd made a lot of new friends and really did seem to enjoy it. But nonetheless he was excited that soon he would be able to give her all of his attention.
"Bye!" Amy waved.
"Bye!" He waved back and watched as one of the babysitters held her hand and took her inside. Next stop was the high school where he taught freshman English Lit., and an elective Poetry course. That was always his favorite.
"Hey Mr. McPhee," some of his students greeted him as he entered.
"Hey Guys," he replied. He hadn't expected the students to be too focused, but it was still his job to prepare them as best he could, for final exams. He reviewed the key terms, as well as the major works they'd gone over, but he decided to cut class a little short. "Before you guys run off," he said trying to hint that they should stop putting away their binders and zipping up their backpacks. "I want to ask one thing of you." They all groaned. "Read," he said, "And more importantly, write. About whatever you want."
"Mr. McPhee?" A student asked.
"Yeah?"
"How come you never shared any of your work with us?"
"Well to tell you the truth, Kyle. I should be taking my own advice, because haven't written in a while."
"Why not?" Jack loved how the kids challenged him to think even though that was his job.
"I guess I just haven't found the time," He said. He pointed back to the class in general, "which is not a valid excuse, for any of you or for me." He looked up at the clock. "Okay, okay. Go already." His class was out the door before he looked back up from his desk.
On the subway ride to pick Amy up, he thought about the discussion. He hated being a hypocrite. He pledged to himself, to do some writing this summer.
One month was all Pacey needed to get almost everything ready for the move. He had sold the apartment and had some potential buyers viewing the apartment that very week. So the next weekend Pacey and Joey decided to come back to the city and go apartment hunting.
"Hey Jack," Joey said into his answering machine. "Guess what? Were moving here! Crazy, huh? Anyway so were actually in the city, today looking for an apartment so we thought maybe we could meet up later. Call me when you get this."
"Hi Amy," Jack said. "How was your day?"
"Good."
"Guess what?"
"What?"
"I don't have school for three months," he told her excitedly. "Do you know what that means?"
"What?" She repeated.
"Tomorrow we can do whatever you want," He said and playfully poked her tummy.
"Yay!" She said and gave him a big hug.
He got home and was excited to here Pacey and Joey's news. Not just because he'd missed, though he had, but because he'd been getting a little lonely. He loved Amy more than anything in the world, but it wasn't the same as having adults around. He called them back as soon as he got the message.
"Hey Joey," Jack said. "It's awesome that you're moving here."
"I know!" She replied. "We found the greatest apartment just 6 or 7 blocks away from yours. We're going to move in next week."
"Cool."
"But we're heading back to Boston later tonight, so I thought maybe we'd all go out and grab an early dinner?" She suggested.
"Sounds great," he said. "But let me check with Amy. It's the beginning of our summer vacation together," he beamed. He put the phone down on the table. "Amy?" He asked, "Do you want to go have dinner with Pacey and-"
Before he could say Joey, "Yes!" Amy shouted decisively.
Jack laughed and picked up the phone again. "She's all for it."
"Great," Joey replied.
"But you better watch out," Jack warned, "I think she might have a crush on Pacey. They both laughed.
"I'll see you later then," Joey said.
"Bye," he replied, and went to go wash Amy up for dinner.