Here it is, folks. The final HCD chapter!

I have very mixed feelings about this. I'm happy that this story is done, but I'm also sad that this story is done. I think the ending is kinda cheesy, but it's way better than the randomness that was my original ending, so...

...yeah...

ANYWAY, I really hope you guys enjoy this :)

I still don't own Good Luck Charlie.

The following morning I sleep in. Not because I'm tired, or because of school (it's Saturday and I'm suspended anyway, remember?), but because of my mom.

She was really upset when she found out I that got into a fight and was kicked out of school. Wait, I take that back. Mom wasn't upset, she was angry. Like, teeth-clenched, face red, vain popping out of her forehead angry. Which is big, since she's usually pretty chill. Apparently, 'violence is never the answer', whatever that means. I hate to be a smart aleck, but from my experiences, there's nothing a little fist-to-face contact can't solve.

Unfortunately, my mom doesn't see it my way, so now I'm grounded. No friends, no electronics, no life. While I am used to these rules—I've been grounded more times than I've insulted Gabe—it doesn't make me any less angry. The whole thing was Juliette's fault, not mine. She was the one who dragged me onto the balcony. She was the one who started insulting me. I can't quite remember who packed the first punch, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were her.

I was merely a victim of Juliette's viciousness. Everything I did was out of self-defense.

Again, Mom doesn't see it my way. So in order to avoid her, I lock myself in my room and wait for her to leave the house. And, what better way is there to pass the time than to sleep? I'm not sure how long I'm out, but I know I'm awakened by the sound of the car engine starting up.

Peeking through the window, I watch the car leave the driveway. When I'm certain she's gone with no way of turning back again, I pick out my outfit for the day and go to the washroom to get ready. Fifteen minutes later, I go downstairs to make myself a quick breakfast. Then I get to work.

It takes me almost an hour to get everything set up. Videogames, extra chairs, junk food that I may or may not have gotten from my secret stash in the basement. Long story short, I'm so tired by the time the doorbell rings that I consider calling this whole thing off.

Fortunately, seeing Gabe's face at the door gets me excited all over again.

"You got my message!" I grin, giving him a quick hug.

"Um…yeah." He looks me up and down, taking in my outfit. While he doesn't comment on it, I notice the corners of his mouth turn up slightly. "I thought you said you were grounded."

"I am grounded. So grounded. When my mom comes home—which could literally be at any moment—I'll be buried. No joke. She'll probably kill me."

Gabe laughs. I narrow my eyes at him and dig my heel into his toes. "There is nothing funny about my potential death, Stupid!"

"Not that," Gabe pushes me off of him. "It's just…well…so your mom hates you right now and your solution is to throw a party?"

"Yeah," I cross my arms, suddenly feeling defensive. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing!" Gabe puts his hands up in defeat. "It's cute. Reckless, stupid, childish."

I relax. I can't stay mad at Gabe. Mostly because I played pat-a-cake with his ex-girlfriend's face and confessed my totally deniable—I've been doing it since the fifth grade—feelings for him yesterday, but still.

"You texted everyone about my party right?" I ask, changing the subject.

Gabe nods. "I told everyone to come in an hour because I wasn't sure how long it would take you to set up."

"An hour? Seriously?"

"Hey, you could've texted everyone just as easily. You have your phone."

"Yeah, because I ransacked my mom's room looking for it. She is getting surprisingly better at hiding things from me."

Gabe gives me his signature smirk. "So now you're throwing parties and destroying parents' rooms? Jo Keener, such a rebel."

"I try."

Forty-five minutes later my house is packed.

And when I say packed, I mean packed. I swear, everyone I know from school is here, plus a bunch of unfamiliar faces. I honestly didn't expect this many people to show up. Then again, who can resist a good party?

"Looking good, Keener!"

I grin and lift my plastic cup in toast. Normally that's the kind of comment that would end with someone in an ambulance, but today I take it as a compliment. I've been getting a lot of compliments lately, both about me and about the party. It's weird. I'm not used to getting this kind of attention.

It's also something else. Something…nice?

"Jo Keener! Do my eyes deceive me or are you showing leg?"

I turn around to see Hot Heather linking arms with Lucille. Both of them are holding cans of Coke.

"You're wearing dresses now?" Lucille squeals in delight. "This doesn't have anything do with Gabe, does it?"

I roll my eyes. Yeah, I'm wearing a dress. Turns out they're not as bad as I thought and orange doesn't actually make me look like a carrot. Don't think too much of it though. I'll still pummel you to the ground if I have to.

"It's just a stupid dress, Lucille. I wore one yesterday too, remember? It doesn't mean anything."

"It means that you're in lurve with Gabe," Hot Heather grabs me by the hand and twirls me around. "That's why you also did your hair and makeup."

Actually, I did my hair because I felt like it and my makeup to take attention away from the bruises Juliette gave me. While most of them were arm damage (smartly covered with the adorable jean jacket I may or may not have stolen from the Lost and Found bin at school), the awkward scratch-slap she gave me when I'd called her a freak, believe it or not, did leave a mark.

Of course, what's the point of arguing with Hot Heather? I'm trying to be nicer to her and, besides, she's not wrong. She's certainly not right…but she's not entirely off either…

…Tell anyone that I said that and I will end you.

"Nice party Jo," Jake says, walking up to me and slapping me on the back. "Although, I do have one complaint—"

I groan. "If this is about Nikki and Trevor, I can't control when or where they decide to suck face!"

Jake covers his mouth with his hands. I catch Gabe giving me a look from the corner of my eye, causing my cheeks to burn. Guess I said that last part a little too loud. Oops.

"This isn't about…that…" Jake says removing his hands from his mouth and wiping them on his jeans. "I was wondering why you didn't invite Heather. I'm not sure if you know this yet, but Heather and I are together. Like dating. Like officially. She updated her BuddyPage and everything—"

"Shut up, Jake." I point towards the kitchen. "Your annoying girlfriend is in there arguing with Zander, the only other boy besides you who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. Which, by the way, should be all the time."

Jake makes a weird pouting face. "You need to learn to be nicer to me if you're going to date Gabe. We're best friends, you know."

"Yeah, whatever." I walk past him, scanning the crowd to find Maddi and Stella, who promised they'd be here. I finally spot them sitting on the stairs. I rush up to join them.

"Having fun?" I ask.

Stella nods. Maddi doesn't respond. She's looking right past me. When I take a step towards her to ask what's up, she shoves me.

"What the—!"

"Who invited her here?"

Stella and I follow Maddi's gaze to the front door. Standing in the doorway is a brunette wearing a pink polka dotted dress and eating a cupcake. It doesn't take me long to recognize her.

I turn to Maddi. "I did. Well…I made Gabe invite her." Maddi makes a face at me that can't be described as anything other than complete shock. "What? It's Kit. She's Lucille's friend. If I didn't invite her, someone else sure would have."

"I'm not talking about Kit. I'm talking about the girl talking to Kit."

"What?" I lean forward and squint. Facing Kit is another, taller brunette. From where I'm sitting I can't see the girl's face, but Stella can. And she looks just as shocked as Maddi does.

"Is that…Juliette?!"

As if she can hear us, the girl turns and smiles. Not a nice smile, but one of those cruel smirks. While she's facing all of us, it's easy to tell that her pale eyes are focused on a single person. More specifically, me.

Yep, it's definitely Juliette.

"Oh no…."

I didn't expect her to come here, mainly because of how badly I messed up her face yesterday. I'm proud to say that I got some pretty good hits on that girl. Unfortunately for me, Juliette has mad makeup applying skills and was able to cover up her bruises way better than I was able to cover up mine.

"For someone who got beat up by savage yesterday, she looks pretty good," Stella comments, sliding her glasses down her nose.

"Shut up, Stella!" I screech. "Help me come up with a way to get rid of her!"

"Whoa there, Jo Keener. Take it easy." Stella grabs both my shoulders and turns me so I am facing her. "You don't need to come up with an elaborate plan to get rid of her."

"I would hardly call Jo's plans elaborate. Beating people up is pretty straightforward," Maddi notes.

Stella ignores her. "You already fought Juliette and that clearly didn't work. What you need to do now is talk to her. As in, with your words. Not your fists."

I snort. Like that's ever going to happen.

"I actually agree with Stella. As much as I'd love to see another fistfight, I'd rather it happen at school and not in the middle of your own party," Maddi says.

I groan. I hate Stella's logical reasoning and Maddi's inability to side with me no matter what.

"Jo…"

"Fine!"

I walk straight out the front door and into the backyard, not even acknowledging Kit as I drag Juliette with me. If I'm going to be using my words, it's not going to be anywhere anyone can see me. That and I don't want any witnesses around in case things go south.

Scowling, I turn to face the brunette she-devil.

"Are you lost or something? Did they let you out of the psych ward early? Like, what the heck are you doing at my house?!"

Juliette doesn't respond. She only watches me with a look of amusement.

"Do you not know how to take a hint? No one likes you! No one wants you here! It's done, okay? All of this stupid drama is done. I won. You lost. Get over it."

I expect Juliette to slap me. Or call me something rude. Or scream something stupid like "You stole my boyfriend! You won't get away with this!" in her angry screech-voice. Instead, she adjusts the sleeves of her flannel shirt and laughs. Not even an evil cackle. It's a genuine, light-hearted laugh.

I'm not sure what's going on in that disturbed mind of hers, but it's really starting to freak me out.

"You're so cute, thinking that this is over." Juliette finally says. "That, just because you got the guy and humiliated the girl, you're going to be living happily ever after. That's not how things are. Romeo and Juliet died in the end of the play, remember?"

"Are you implying that Gabe and I are going to die? 'Cause last time I checked, you're Juliet, not me."

Juliette looks at me long and hard for a moment. Then she leans in and whispers to me in a cold, cruel voice.

"Just know that this isn't over."

As I watch her walk away, I can't help but think that Juliette is wrong. Dead wrong. I know how things work. I know that happily ever after is complete crud. I didn't get the guy and humiliate the girl; I got the guy away from the humiliated girl.

I'm not quite sure about the whole Romeo and Juliet death thing or what it meant, but I wouldn't put it past her to be wrong about that too.

Still, despite all these wrongs, a tiny part of me is terrified because I know that Julietteis right about one thing; this isn't over.

And I can tell from that gut feeling in the pit of my stomach that it won't be over for a very long time.

When I return to the party, I don't see Juliette anywhere. I guess she went home after our little talk.

Speaking of 'talk', I have a few things I need to say before everyone passes out from all the sugar they've been eating. I wait for Zoey to finish her rendition of some Justin song on the karaoke (which is freakin' hilarious since she always puts 'in bed' at the end of her sentences), before grabbing the microphone.

"Hey, party animals! Are you having fun?"

I get a loud round of applause and some hollers in response. I wait for things to die down a bit before continuing. "I know—"

"You're not going to sing, are you?" Jake interrupts. "You sound like Darth Vader with a cold, and that's just your speaking voice."

The room erupts with gasps of shock and surprised murmurs. I roll eyes. I know exactly what Jake is doing. He's testing me to see if I actually listened to him and plan on being nicer because he's 'Gabe's best friend'. What a moron.

Instead of beating Jake up—second time today that I resist using my fists—I put the microphone down, pick up an unopened can of cream soda, and shake it. You can probably guess what I did next.

"Jo!"

"Normally I'd beat you up for this," I say, crushing the now-empty can with my foot, "but you were right. I do need to be nicer to you."

I go back to my original spot in the front of the room and pick up the mic. "As I was saying, I know this party was pretty last minute. It's my way to make up for the…intensity of yesterday's school dance."

Everyone begins talking at once, I guess about my brawl with Juliette. I clear my throat and yell at everyone to shut up.

"My epic duel landed me in some serious trouble with a lot of people, so if I don't get at least one thank you from every single person here, expect trouble. Also, to the idiot who thought it'd be a good idea to park their hideous yellow bike in the middle of the street, it's being run over for the fifth time as we speak."

I smile and toss the microphone, but not before screaming at the top of my lungs.

"Happy Crush Day, Losers!"

I quickly lose track of time. Fortunately my mom calls to tell me she's working late.

"So all's well that ends well, am I right?" Stella asks as soon as I hang up the phone.

"I guess." I give a signal to turn the music back on. "Whatever the heck that quote really means."

"It means that problems don't matter as long as the outcome is good," Maddi explains. "Although, there's still one problem that hasn't been solved yet."

"Is the problem the fact that you know what a proverb means when you don't even know what a proverb is?" Stella asks.

"No…" Maddi gives Stella an annoyed look. "The problem is that we still don't know who sent Jo those Crush Day roses!"

"Oh yeah," I shrug. "Guess I forgot about that."

Total lie. I spent the last twenty-four hours trying to figure out who did that to—I mean, for—me until finally realizing two very important things;

1. I don't know

2. I don't care

I risked my life trading punches with a psycho-maniac just so I could be with Gabe. The last thing I need is some random guy, who probably only sent stuff to spite me, messing things up.

Besides, while I'm still not a hundred percent sure, I already have a pretty good idea who did. And I forgive him.

"Do you know where Gabe is?"

Maddi and Stella both point towards the stairs and smile, as if they've been waiting for me to ask them that question all night. Which, knowing them, they probably were.

Playfully shoving my friends out of the way, I walk through the crowd and up the stairs. Gabe is sitting on the top step with a bag of potato chips on his lap. When I reach him I grab the bag and toss it.

"Um…I was eating those."

"Not anymore," I say, grabbing him by the wrist. "Now get up. I have something I want to show you."

"Do I have to?" Gabe whines, but gets up willingly.

Smiling, I walk him to my bedroom and towards the window. "Have you ever climbed up onto the roof of a house?" I ask, yanking on my closed polka dot curtains.

"Is that a trick question?" Gabe lightly pushed me out of the way and opens the window at maximum speed, quickly slipping through it. I follow after him.

"Cool, isn't it?" I say when we're both safely seated. Well, as safe as you would consider to reckless teenagers sitting on the roof of a house to be.

"What? Your roof?" Gabe asks.

I roll my eyes. "No, Stupid. I meant the sky."

The sun is finally setting, the usual blue sky now showing obvious shades of orange and yellow with bits of pink and purple in between as the sun lowers on the horizon. Nicest one I've seen in a while.

"The sky is great," Gabe says sarcastically. I don't think I've ever seen clouds up close before. No wonder we failed our project."

"Oh, shut up!" I not-so-playfully slap him on the arm. "Screw the clouds and look at the colours. It's like the sky barfed up different flavours of Gatorade or something."

"Wow, Jo. Great comparison."

"You are such a jerk." I say, lying down on my back. "Last time I show you something I care about."

"I'm just kidding," Gabe follows my movement and lies on his back as well. "It is pretty cool. I'm just…didn't think you were into this type of thing."

I shrug in response to his comment. I mean, what can I say? That there's more to me than just violence and zombie video games? That's stupid and way cliché. I'm better off shoving him off the roof.

Gabe turns his head to face me. "Do you always watch the sunset?"

I shake my head, turning my attention back to the sky. "Only every now and then, when I need a break. Sometimes I watch the sunrise instead." I can sense that Gabe is giving me a look, so I respond with a snippy, "What? Even fighters need peace sometimes. And, like I said before, I happen to really care for and enjoy sunsets. They're…pretty."

Gabe nearly chokes on his own breath. "Pretty? I thought you hated that word."

"I also hate you, yet here we are together."

That comment manages to shut him up. At least, for a few minutes.

"Do you have any idea why Jake said you couldn't sing?"

I sigh, sitting up. "I think he was trying to test me. Earlier today he said I have to be nicer to him if—" I pause, briefly questioning whether or not I want Gabe to know what Jake said. In the end I decide that I really don't care. "I have to be nicer to him if I want to date you."

Gabe is silent, as though he's processing this information. Finally, he sits up. "So…do you?"

I tuck a strand of stray hair behind my ear. "Do I what?"

"Want to date me?"

Well then. I totally walked right into that one. "You tell me. Did I treat him any nicer than I usually do?"

"You sprayed him with soda. That's only nice by your standards."

"Oh Gabe," I slide closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder. "When will you learn that my standards are the only ones that matter?"

Laughing, he wraps his arm around me and we watch as the single sun is slowly replaced by millions of stars. We must have been on that roof for hours, talking and laughing and watching the sky. It didn't matter to me what was going on in my house, or when my mom would come home. Gabe was my only focus. Gabe and the sky.

At one point I must have fallen asleep on Gabe's shoulder because the last thing I remember before being yelled at by my mother is dreaming. It was a nice dream, similar to the recurring one I've been having, only happier.

Much happier.

"I've been waiting…"

I spin around. There he is, hidden beneath the shadows of the trees. His big brown eyes staring at me. His pink lips twisted into a smirk. His hands rested on an invisible wall.

You must fight for the one you love.

I take one step forward, and then another. I reach forward and touch the wall with my finger. It's cold, like ice. I place my hand out so our palms touch through the wall. It's suddenly warm. Slowly, I do the same with my other hand.

The wall shatters.

"Gabe."

He takes my hand. Together we walk away from the shards of ice and towards my future, the rest of my life.

You must fight for the one you love.

I did it. I fought. And let's just say, this was one battle worth winning.

So I'd like to thank everyone who alerted/added this story to their favourites. I'd also like to thank you all for the nice reviews.

I'd even like to thank those of you who simply just read and enjoyed. It all means a lot to me. :)

I don't have any serious plans on writing another GLC fic anytime soon, but who knows? When it comes to fanfiction, I'm about as predictable as my updates (which aren't very predictable, if you didn't get it).

Anyway, thanks again for everything! I know there was a point where I was on the verge of deleting this story, and I'm so glad that I didn't. FIRST MULTI-CHAPTER STORY COMPLETED! WOOT! WOOT!

Again, thanks for being amazing. Love you all and hope you continue to read fanfiction, whether it's by me or Alpha or any of the other fantabulous authors on this site! Just keep on reading and writing!

XOXOX BETA :)