Chapter 1:
January 2, 2002
Kay Bennett is beautiful. I know that I've written it in my journal entries before, but as I begin a new journal for a new year, I thought that perhaps I should restate the obvious. Katherine Elizabeth Bennett is the most beautiful creature that I have ever laid eyes on. Her silky hair, her twinkling eyes, her fiery spirit… All I know is that each day I find myself falling more and more in love with her.

One would think that you can only love a person so much. But each time that I think that I can't love Kay any more than I already do, she does something to make me fall deeper in love with her. Take today, for example. When Kay is arguing a point, no matter what it may be, she is sexier than I could ever imagine…

"Now, does everyone understand the assignment?" Mr. Gonzalez asked the class.

Kay Bennett raised her hand, her eyes alight with a fiery passion. "I understand the assignment perfectly, Mr. Gonzalez, but how can you expect us to write our true feelings in a book that we know a teacher will be reading? What's the point of a diary if we're not being true to ourselves?"

"Katherine," Mr. Gonzalez began as Reese hid his grin. He knew how much Kay hated it when people called her Katherine. She claimed that it made her sound prissy and girly.

While Reese admitted that Kay was a name much more fitting for a tomboy, he loved the name Katherine. Perhaps it was because it was Kay's full name, but he just loved the sound of it rolling off his tongue.

He never called her Katherine though. He knew better than to try to suffer her wrath. As it was she already had a tendency to be mad at him. As to why, Reese was clueless.

One would think that seeing your boyfriend would make you happy, make you want to smile, but Reese's presence seemed to have the opposite effect on Kay. More often than not, she frowned or rolled her eyes at him.

Reese was puzzled. Ordinarily he was an intelligent man, but Kay was a tough woman to figure out.

He did the best that he could to be a loving, devoted boyfriend, but he seemed to annoy her much of the time. Why?

Reese shook his head. Now was not the time to try to solve the mysteries of Katherine Elizabeth Bennett. It would be much more interesting to see her reaction to what Mr. Gonzalez was about to say.

"I will not be reading your diary entries," Mr. Gonzalez continued. "While I will be checking to see if you are making regular entries as I have asked you to do, I will not be reading what you write."

"So we could write stuff that make no sense, and you'd never know the difference?" Jordan Aberman asked while grinning at his jock friends.

"While I do hope that you will be taking a more mature approach than that, Jordan, no, I will not know the difference," Mr. Gonzalez conceded.

"Mr. Gonzalez, while you claim that you will only be checking for writing, how are we to know that your eyes will not notice words like sex, drugs, love, alcohol, or the names of other students in the class. You say that you won't be reading our diaries, but how are we to know that you won't read 'I love… whoever' in a diary and read the rest of the entry to get the 411 on the high school gossip?"

"Katherine, while the gossip mill may be the foremost thing on your mind, I have more pressing matters to concern myself with—such as how to get a class of high school seniors to care about literature during the second semester of their senior year. I assure you that I do not care enough about the frivolous flings of high schoolers to attempt to read your entries."

"If you say so, Mr. Gonzalez," Kay replied as the bell rang. She had a look in her eyes that Reese had come to recognize as scheming. She was up to something.

~*~*~*~

After school, they all met at the locker that Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald and Charity Standish shared, as was their daily tradition. Reese looked on as the two greeted each other as if they hadn't seen each other in days. This had also become a daily ritual.

Reese averted his eyes and saw his beautiful Kay sauntering down the hallway. Maybe Kay would let him kiss her this afternoon.

It was rather weird, he knew. Kay rarely allowed him to kiss her. They had kissed only a few times during their whole relationship, although he had to admit that each time it had been explosive.

But why did she limit the number of kisses that they shared? Reese didn't understand it but rather accepted it as a part of the enigma of Kay Bennett. A part of the puzzle he planned to solve someday. Someday soon.

"Can you believe Mr. Gonzalez?" Kay asked the group as she approached.

"What did he do now, Kay?" Jessica Bennett asked curiously.

"He asked us to write in a diary or journal on a regular basis for the rest of the semester. He said that in the future, we will be glad to have a record of our final days in high school."

"He's right, Kay," Charity agreed. "I think that I will start one too. I want to remember every moment that I spend with all of you before we leave for college."

"Yeah, maybe he is right, Charity, but that's not even the point. The problem is that I'm not going to write what I really feel, deep inside since Mr. Gonzalez is going to be reading these diary entries," Kay fumed angrily.

"Kay, he told us that he wouldn't be reading them. I believe him," Miguel replied.

"Of course you would, Miguel! There's nothing about your life that everyone in Harmony doesn't already know. You're the captain of the basketball team, star quarterback, all-state pitcher, boyfriend of Charity Standish. Your brother is a police officer, your mother works for the Crane family. Your father and brother disappeared years ago, but you still managed to pull a 4-oh. You're the golden-boy of Harmony High. Even if Mr. Gonzalez did read your journal, there wouldn't be anything in there he didn't already know!" Reese knew that Kay was mad at her best friend for opposing her point of view, but he couldn't help but wonder if there was something more there. Was Kay mad at Miguel for something else as well?

He was too enchanted with Kay to pay much attention to that question at this point. She was so sexy—despite the fact that blue fire seemed to be shooting from her eyes.

Reese loved Kay, with all of his heart and soul. He would do anything for her.

But at that moment, he would do anything to have the answers to all of the questions that he had about her.