"Hey, Mom," I say after she answers. It's then that I realize what just happened. I've just crashed my mother's car. I try not to become hysterical, but I fail. I start sobbing.

"Ally?" my mom asks. "Are you all right? What's going on?"

"I—I—I crashed your car, Mom!" I exclaim. "I didn't mean to! There—there was this—"

"Ally, calm down," she says. "Breathe in. Breathe out."

I breathe in deeply and out deeply. "Thanks, Mom."

"Now, where are you at?" I look around then tell her our location. "I'll be there in a minute." She hangs up and I look at Austin.

"Sorry for almost killing you," I tell him quietly. He walks closer.

"What?"

"I said, 'Sorry for almost killing you.'"

He just chuckles. "It's okay," he says. "Even though I'm getting the feeling you did that on purpose."

"What?!" I ask. "I didn't do this on purpose!"

"Well, you know, you did tell my mom not to come pick me up and then you forced me to come with you," he tells me. "Then you crashed the damned car!" He starts laughing and I realize that he's joking, trying to lighten the mood. "Now stop crying. Please. I don't like it when... people cry. It's too sad."

I wipe my face. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. You can't help it," he says. He studies my face.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask him.

He blinks. "Like what?"

My mom pulls up to the side of the road in Mimi's car with Mimi in the passenger seat. Mom climbs out quickly and runs over to Austin and I. "My babies!" Mimi shouts, climbing out of the car and running over to us. "Are you two okay?" she asks. "Oh, my God!" She hugs us close to her and kisses us all over.

"Mimi, they're fine," Mom says.

"Yeah, we really are," I tell her as she lets us go. "There was an animal down the road and—"

"Is the animal okay?!" my mom asks worriedly, starting to run in the direction Austin and I came from.

"Mom! The animal's fine! I swerved around it and that's the reason your car is in the tree!" I call to her. She turns and comes back.

"Oh," she says, "okay."

"Well, it isn't... that bad..." Mimi says, looking at it. I look at it too, for the first time. The whole front of the car now looks like a U with the tree there. "We can just call a tow truck and get it fixed for... about... seven, eight hundred dollars?" She looks at all of us. "Keep in mind that I'm not the best estimating person."

"Let's just start with the tow truck then," Mom says.

So they call the tow truck and they haul the car off to the shop. They said they'd probably have it fixed either tomorrow or sometime later in the week. Austin and I climb into the backseat, him in the middle seat and me on the right side of the car, behind Mimi. My mom turns the car on and we continue our ride home.

Austin takes his hand and places it on my knee. I stare at him as if he's insane. Mostly because I thought he didn't like me like that. He jerks his head in the direction of our moms. I still don't understand.

I take it my phone and send him a text that says, I thought we were going to tell them the truth?

After receiving and reading my text, he replies with his free hand, saying, Let's not give them one piece of bad news after the other. First the crashed car and then us not really being in love? I don't think so. I say we tell them after the car gets fixed...

Period of ellipses. Now that could either mean awkwardness or...

My phone vibrates. Deal? Austin has asked. I look at him and nod. He turns his hand over, palm up, and opens his fingers. I reluctantly place my hand in his and it closes around mine, my fingers in the spaces between his. I sigh, but Austin doesn't seem to notice. He just stares out of the left window.

It's then that I notice that, even though Austin showered, his hands are still pretty sweaty. I don't take my hand out of his though. I just let everything be.

I sit at the head of my bed staring at Austin, who sits at the foot.

"You know," he says, "you could—"

"Don't," I say. Every time he's started a sentence with those words, it ended badly.

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood, Ally," he tells me.

"Well, don't," I say again.

"Why did you say you hated me earlier if you don't?" he asks.

"Long story," I answer.

"Is it because of Wilson?"

"Wilson?" I ask. "Why would it be because of Wilson?" I raise an eyebrow.

"I just figured..."

"I'm not Cassidy," I tell him.

"I know, it's just—" he starts, but I cut him off.

"You're broken," I say quietly.

He sighs and looks down, shrugging. "A little," he replies. Austin looks up. "How'd you know?" It's my turn to shrug. "But I don't understand it myself," he says. "I didn't even really like Cassidy that much. It's just that she's hot." I roll my eyes and sit back against the wall, folding my arms across my chest. He hurries on. "Like, the whole team was urging me to ask her out, you know? So I just did. I don't know why it hurt me so much when I figured it out."

I look at him. He looks so helpless and confused and... small. "I thought it was because you didn't think she capable of betraying you like that," I say. "Or something..."

He shrugs. "Maybe. Well, I'm gonna head home and practice," he says.

"Why do you need to practice?" I ask. "I'm sure you can play and sing it perfectly."

"Not yet," he says, shaking his head. And he leaves my room.

The next day, when I walk into school, everyone's buzzing about the talent show this afternoon. I think about the song I wrote for Austin, the incredibly simple song, and I wonder how he could possibly think he didn't have it perfect yet. The intercom comes on as I walk to my locker. They're asking for the people who signed up for the talent show to come to the auditorium so that they can get set up and practice again.

They get to skip class for a whole day just so that they can do that. I don't really see why it's such a big deal. I mean, is it really so important that you should be able to skip class? I don't think so.

I reach my locker and take my books out. As I'm about to close it, someone reaches up and pushes it shut for me.

"Uh, thanks?" I say questioningly, spinning around. Austin.

"I came by to say thanks for writing me the song," Austin says.

"It's no big deal," I tell him.

"It's a huge deal," he says. "If I win, I'm giving you half the prize money. Okay?"

"Oh, that really isn't necessary," I say, waving it off.

"Ally, it's totally necessary," he tells me.

I just shrug. Whether he likes it or not, I'm not taking the money. "Fine. Well, good luck today," I say, reaching out to shake his hand. At the same time, he opens his arms for a hug. I awkwardly change positions, opening my own arms, as he holds his hand out to me. He opens his arms again quickly and hugs me. I just kind of stare at him after he pulls away.

"Okay," he says and he walks away. I turn around to walk to class and see Dallas standing there.

"What do you want, Dallas?" I ask.

"You wrote Austin's song?"

I shrug. "Yeah, why?"

"What if I wrote you a song?"

"There's no guarantee I'd listen to it," I tell him.

"But it would've come from the heart. Would you love me again?"

"Dallas—"

"Answer the question," he says, pushing me gently back against the locker. Even though he pushed me gently, I whimper, remembering the last time he did something like this. "Would you love me again if I wrote a song for you?"

I'm about to answer when someone yanks Dallas away from me and shoves him up against the lockers forcefully. "Dallas, can you repeat to me what Trish and I said to you the last time we spoke?" Austin asks. I could've sworn he left. "The last time we spoke while you were sober?"

"'If you don't stay away from Ally, we'll kick your ass,'" Dallas answers, trembling. "A-Actually, I think that's what you said while I was drunk too."

"Exactly, you'd think the point had gotten across by then," he says. Austin raises his fist and Dallas squeezes his eyes shut.

"Stop!" I scream. No one else in the hallway heard over their own loud talking. "Stop. Don't... Austin, please don't."

"Be happy your little girlfriend stuck up for you," Austin says. When he looks at me, he immediately lets Dallas go. "I'm sorry," he says quickly, probably apologizing about the "little girlfriend" thing.

"You can't fight me anyway," Dallas says, catching Austin's attention. "You'll get kicked off the team."

"I've been wanting to kick your ass for a long time," Austin says with a side-glance at me, "so that's a chance I'm willing to take."

"You can't fight me if you can't catch me!" Dallas shouts and he takes off down the hallway.

Austin glances at me before saying, "Later." And he leaves as well. Then I walk to class.

About halfway through the school day, everyone is called into the auditorium for the talent show. A senior, Ashley Madison (the girl who is in charge of the show), walks out on stage and welcomes us. She tells us we have a lot of great people performing their talents today.

"Benny Thompson, and his partner/little brother, Lane Thompson, are up first!" she says.

Benny and Lane walk out on stage wearing karate outfits. They spar for a little while then they each chop three boards in half. We applaud. After the Thompson brothers, there's a knife juggler (she had to use plastic knives because of school rules against weapons), a balloon-animal maker, and a lion tamer (he brought in his cat instead of a lion). Huh, where's the ring master?

"Next up is Dez... Dez, you didn't put your last name on here!" Ashley calls to backstage.

"I don't have one!" Dez calls back.

Ashley stares weirdly at what I'm guessing is Dez for a moment before shaking her head and finishing her sentence. "Next up is Dez and Trish De La Rosa!" Ashley exclaims. Heh, it kind of sounds like they're married and, instead of taking Dez's last name, they took Trish's. Ashley runs off stage as Dez and Trish run on.

They're both wearing pirate costumes.

This ought to be good.

Sorry I haven't updated in forever! It's just school and family and homework and... Omg, I had this homework packet for Algebra. EIGHT. FREAKING. PAGES. I was working on it every night. It drove me insane. Sorry this chapter is so late and short. I was gonna put the whole talent show in this chapter, but then I wouldn't have known where to stop it. And then I'd have one more thing to write and that would be in chapter eleven. You know what that means. Eleven chapters. Period. And then I would go mad because of the uneven amount of chapters and I'd build a panic room and go down there with a Barbie doll that has about three tufts of hair and I'd pet those three tufts of hair until they fell out and then I'd end up dying down there.

And we don't want that to happen, do we?

Because I know as well as you do that you all want me to finish The Next Summer. And I can't finish TNS if I'm dead, can I? No, siree, I cannot. So I stopped this chapter there. And I'll finish the talent show in the next chapter and I'll put something else in another chapter so that we can have an even amount of chapters and I won't go mad. Then everyone shall be happy and Santa won't have to die. OKAY. :D

OMG I HAD AN AWESOME DAY AT SCHOOL TODAY SO I BEGGED MY MOM TO BRING ME TO MCDONALD'S (the library is closed on Monday) SO I COULD UPDATE. So, pretty much, if I update, you know I either had an awesome day at school or I had to some crap to do on Edmodo (it's some kind of website for school; I hadn't heard of it until this year).

Ausllymoon, yeah, that's what I meant. There was a typo somewhere else, too (or a missing word). I can't remember where it was, but I don't know if anyone caught it. Silently hoping they didn't... xD

Princess-Girl12, yes, ma'am. Feel. My missing word has been found by you and Ausllymoon. xD

TotallyNOTaWizard, DON'T IGNORE CLASS. YOU NEED THIS FOR LIIIIFE. Lol, just kidding. Keep ignoring. Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep drawing. Keep doing whatever you do when you ignore your teacher. They're pretty much just telling you a revised version of what you learned last year anyway, am I right? And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm getting a strong feeling that you actually are a wizard... Hm... And you probably don't care, but there's this boy at my new school and, every day in the cafeteria, he ends up in front of me in line even though he was behind me when we came in from rec. Today, I finally said something about it and I accused him of being a wizard. He was just like "O.O O.o" and I was like "O.O :O" and I thought of you. Just an average school day.

Review!

pls.

LoVe, KeNzIe

P.S. I'm definitely updating tomorrow. I'm gonna upload the next chapter while I'm here and update TFMAMI... A! WW?! from my phone. (Don't ya LERVacronyms?)

P.P.S. Y'all better feel special. I'm using up my phone data for you guys.

P.P.P.S. I love you!