A/N - I don't want to put an author's note at the end.. So sorry for this late update! It's just that school's really taking a toll on me, and I'm failing some classes… I have to try and get that grade back up. This chapter is a bit longer than other ones, and I hope you guys like it. If you review more, I might just have more determination to update!

Make sure to critique anything you didn't like, tell me what you did like, or just tell me your thoughts about this in general. I typed this up while watching my little brother play Halo 3. Funny, eh?

CONGRATULATIONS TO SmILe.0x FOR BEING MY 700TH REVIEWER! Irene, you're awesome!

It takes a couple seconds for everything to register in my head. The reason why Nate took a different route to class was to rat me out. He was suspicious right when he heard I got injured. How could I even be suspended at all? Were there any rules that said that I could be suspended? I look down at what was in my hand. Perfect.

"Mr. McFall, all the rules from the school are in my agenda," I say. I open up to the couple pages with rules and flip to the part about what could get you suspended. "There are no rules that say that I could get suspended just because I fell down the stairs."

He grabs the agenda from my hand and quickly scans over it. After about a minute, he clears his throat and says, "No, there aren't any rules about that in here. Still, I'm the principal and whatever I say goes. And I say that you are suspended because you need to see a psychiatrist."

"Our school has a counselor for a reason, Mr. McFall. I did not injure myself because of stupid reasons. It was pure manipulation from a certain student that snitched on me." I might've seemed calm on the outside, but on the inside, my anger was starting to boil. I swear, when I get my hands on Nate, there will be hell to pay. What I don't get is why he'd snitch on me. I mean, didn't he want me around?

"Oh, and how did that 'certain student' get you to jump down the stairs?" he crudely asks.

"He manipulated me into doing something that I didn't want to be a part of, and the only way I could get out was by injury. Besides, my hand will heal in about a month."

"You believe that that excuse would make me rethink sending you to a hospital for the suicidal?"

"Pissed off principal say what?"

"The original plan was to get you into one of those hospitals for girls who have eating disorders and cut themselves or have emotional issues."

"Hey, you can't do that without contacting my guardians."

"Uh, I mean…"

"You didn't contact my parents yet, did you?" Oh, this was the perfect chance to get out of this.

"What would make you think that?"

"You just kinda stuttered. If you make plans for me to go to some psych ward without my parents' permission, I'm pretty sure I could sue you for that. And if I can't do that, I really could destroy Green Oak's reputation."

"What makes you think you could do that?!"

"Sending me off to some place without my parent's knowing before you made those calls can have some serious consequences. You could try saying that it was your immediate reaction to do that, but you don't have that authority over me. People would think that you're some sort of dictator. Would that make other people want to move to our 'amazing and safe' borough of Green Oak? I think not." I cross my arms over my chest in triumph.

"What are you trying to say?" I could already see the sweat starting to drip down his face.

"Let's just forget about that suspension and that insane hospital. I can make a deal with you, and nobody else would find out."

"No, you need some serious help." Watching the principal hyperventilate is pretty fun.

"Sure, you have evidence of what I did, but you didn't have any authority to contact that hospital before my legal guardians knew about it. How about I just see our school counselor everyday for say, a couple weeks, and I won't purposely injure myself again."

"Well…."

"The news station is just a phone call away. Really, you don't want Green Oak in the news for such a bad reason, right? Everybody would think that Mr. McFall's a controlling and manipulative person."

"I still don't see what fault I have in any of this."

"You had no right to set me up for that hospital. My parents don't have a single clue about that. You are not my legal guardian. Last time I checked, you can't do that."

I wait as Mr. McFall tries coming up with a solution. After about a minute, he says, "You'll be seeing the counselor everyday during study hall until your cast is off."

"Can I get back to Spanish class now?"

"Yeah, go ahead." He waves me off and I happily skip out the door. Really, that man should've thought about the consequences before he did that. Parents are always the first to know, not some strange hospital.

I finish my Spanish test just as the bell rings for lunch. Great, my next period has Nate in it. I decide to only get a turkey sandwich for lunch since I couldn't carry so much. You can only do so much with one hand. It takes me an even longer time to get the money out of my deep pockets, but nobody in the line complained. Nate and Shane were laughing about something when I sit down across from them. I smile at them like nothing had happened, but the expression on Nate's face was pure horror.

"Hey guys," I casually greet them.

"How's your arm?" Christie asks.

"The painkillers are starting to wear off, but it's pretty good so far."

"Chink, you need to eat more," Nicole says.

"My appetite got smaller. I'm not that hungry today."

"Jenny, can I speak to you in private?" Nate asks. "Please."

"How about later? I wanna finish my sandwich first."

"It's pretty urgent."

"Urgent enough for me to have to wait to eat this sandwich?"

"Yeah, it's that urgent."

"How about after the first bite?"

"Nate, just let her eat," Shane says. "She had a surgery yesterday, so just give her a break."

"She was begging for it," Nate mumbles under his breath. I barely caught that, but I swear, that's what he said.

"What was that?" Shane asks.

"Nothing," Nate replies. "Nothing at all."

Nicole and Christie give each other strange looks and I start eating my sandwich. Lunch was finally over and I walk as fast as I can out of the doors. I have to stay away from Nate. Sure, I have a couple more classes with him, but if I can avoid him between periods, I should be fine. I feel somebody grip my right arm and I turn around to see who it was.

"Not so fast there," Nate says.

"If we don't hurry up, we'll be late to Geometry," I remind him.

"Why are you still in this school?"

"I can sense Mr. Edwards marking us absent."

"Why are you still here?" he growls in my ear.

"Why did you do that?"

"Do you mean why I snitched on you?"

"You just gave in so easily," I say, shocked at how easy it was for him to confess.

"Jenny, think. What would make me want to get you out of this school?"

"To separate me from Shane?" I finally realize.

"Yeah. I knew you were smart."

"You mean you planned this all out? You knew that I'd get the part and what I would do to get out of it? You knew what Mr. McFall would do? You strategically planned everything out, didn't you?"

"Let's not think about it like that."

"You're evil."

"No, I'm not evil. I just do anything to get what I want."

"And you think that getting me into some psychiatric hospital would make me like you?"

"Well, it'd get Shane to break up with you, and that's a nice start."

"Shane wouldn't do that. He'd help me try to get through it."

"You really think he'd do that for you? If word spreads about what you did, it would ruin his reputation. Knowing Shane, what does he care about more; you or his rep?"

"I don't believe that he cares that much about his reputation anymore."

"Jenny, I've known Shane my entire life. I should know what and who he cares about."

"But he's changed!" I yell. "He's different. He's not the same anymore."

"Do you really believe that? Think about it. A person doesn't change that much that fast."

"Yes, I believe it. I believe that he's changed."

"Don't come running to me when he breaks your poor little heart."

Nate lets go of my arm then starts walking to our next class; Geometry. Instead of following him, I wait until the bell rings. He was so horrible. He did all of that just to try to get Shane and I separated. He believes that Shane hasn't changed for the better. Whatever. I believe that, and nothing is going to convince me otherwise.

XoLAGOHxO

I somehow managed to go through the rest of the day without breaking down. I didn't cry, I didn't hyperventilate, I didn't try to plot revenge on Nate. Instead, I convinced my mom to let me hang out with Shane and to stay for dinner. Actually, Shane and I were going out to that diner we always went to. We had small conversations while eating, but I was drinking my dessert; a milkshake. I breathe in a deep breath and ask him the question that had been bothering me.

"Shane," I start, "you care about me, right?"

"Of course I do. I care about you so much. Is something wrong?"

"No, there's nothing wrong. I just wanted to make sure."

"You're the first girl that I've felt this serious about. I know that we've just met and everything, but I really like you."

"If you were to pick to stay with me or keep your popular reputation, what would you choose?"

"You, of course. I used to worry about my popularity, but that doesn't matter to me anymore. It's not important to me. Why would you ask? Do you doubt that I really have true feelings for you?'

"No, I don't doubt them at all. It's just.. everything's happened so fast," I lie. Well, it wasn't really a lie. Everything did happen out of nowhere, but that wasn't why I asked him that.

"You don't need to worry about anything. You'll always be really important to me, okay?'

"Okay," I say.

"Now raise your right hand and repeat after me." I laugh but do just that. "I, Jenny Huynh."

"I, Jenny Huynh."

"Promise to never doubt the amazing Shane Grey."

"Promise to never doubt the extremely cocky Grey Bear."

"Hey, that wasn't nice!"

I laugh until milk pours out of my nose. I grab a napkin and wipe it away. "Ha, you made milk run out through my nose." I was still laughing.

"Karma's a bitch, isn't it?'

"Yeah," I say, "it is."

"So.. admit that Shane Grey is hot and awesome."

"No, I will never admit that!"

"Come on, don't lie to yourself," he jokes.

"Shane, you're not that hot."

"Jenny, do you need to put on your glasses? I mean, look at me."

"Yeah, I see a guy that needs a haircut and to get his eyebrows tweezed."

"This hair is not going anywhere. And don't make fun of my eyebrows! It's not my fault they're extremely thick. The only guys that tweeze their eyebrows are fags."

"Really, it's like staring at two hairy caterpillars. We need to get that fixed. I work at a nail salon. Just give me a pair of tweezers and I could do it for you." Really, I also knew how to do eyebrows since I worked at a nail salon.

"I'm not gonna trust you with my face. It's too gorgeous for you to purposely destroy."

"Aw, now why would I harm Grey Bear's face?"

"Because Jelly is an evil and devious girl."

"Dude," Fauzul says, "Jenny's right. You really need to get those eyebrows fixed."

"Yeah, they can be as pretty as mine!" Caroline points out.

"Where the hell did you guys come from?!" Shane shrieks.

"Uh, I was born in America," Fauzul says.

"I know that, but you guys just pop up out of nowhere."

"Hey, that milkshake looks good!" Caroline exclaims. "I'm gonna go order one. Fauzul, let's go!"

Caroline grabs a hold of Fauzul's shirt and pulls him to a booth on the opposite side of the diner.

"Shane, I really can make your eyebrows as pretty as Caroline's."

"Last time I checked, I'm as straight as a line segment. No touchy the eyebrows!"

"Hey, that's my quote!" I said that when Angela accused me of being a lesbian. Back then, Shane didn't even know what a line segment was.

"I'm still not trusting you with my precious eyebrows." He was still smiling, though.

"Girls can make their boyfriends succumb to any request."

"Nope, I'm not that weak," he insists.

"Fine then. No kisses for a week." I smirk at his surprised reaction.

"No kisses just because I won't let you tweeze my eyebrows?"

"I won't even do much. I'll just thin them out a bit and make them less disgusting."

"Hey, you're not supposed to criticize my facial hair. You're supposed to worship my sexiness."

"Shane, what sexiness?"

"You're totally blind. Have you even seen me with my shirt off?"

"And you weren't making out with a girl? Nope."

"Check please!" Shane calls out to the waitress. She hands him the check and slips a piece of paper into his hand. She winks at him before walking to other customers.

"What's that?" I ask, referring to that small piece of paper. He unfolds it then throws it away in the nearest trash can.

"Yet another phone number. See, even that girl saw how hot I was."

"She totally ignored me," I growl.

"Better get used to that. I'm a total chick magnet."

We pay for the food and get in his car. Really, I will never get over just how amazing his car is. We pull up to my house and I say goodbye to him after I get out of his car. He gets out too and says, "Hey, I'll walk you to your door."

"You don't have to," I say.

"But I want to," he insists.

"How cliché." I roll my eyes at him.

Our short walk up my driveway to my front door was rather silent. We reach the front door, and his hands were in his pockets, and my arms were crossed. The light by the door was on, and I was rocking on the heels of my feet.

"So.." we both say at the same time. I giggle a bit.

"Goodnight?" I ask, rather than say. This is turning out to be some cheesy scene from a sappy movie.

As if reading my thoughts, Shane leans down and lightly kisses my lips. I smile into the kiss and rest my right hand on his chest since I obviously couldn't wrap my arms around his neck. I hear the door open and somebody coughing. I reluctantly pull away from Shane and turn to face the person who ruined the perfect moment.

"Hey Shane!" Gina perkily greets him.

"What's up, Gina?" he asks.

"Oh, I just wanted to say hello and stuff. Jenny, you should be getting inside now."

"If you don't go back inside the house and leave us alone right now, I'm going to tell mom what happened at Shane's party," I threaten.

"Man, you must be on your period or something. Later, Shane!" She rolls her eyes at me and closes the door.

"Now, where were we?" I ask. We go back to that moment like bratty little Gina never interrupted us in the first place.

Shane had changed. I knew it. Nate was wrong, and Shane did care about me. And I cared about him, too. A lot.