AN/ Hi everyone and thank you so much Dreaming2BAWriter, KyannA, krc93, Dance Star93, hithere102000, '99, Maddy, QueenCupcake101, silverfox45, ABC-Writer, .Possible and Fallen Emo Angel for your reviews.

Can't believe I got 12 reviews = new record. So here's the next chapter ready and posted earlier than I thought it would be, thanks to you guys;)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own kickin it.

Chapter 13

The ginger-haired girl

Kim's pov.

I kicked a pebble in front of me as we walked towards the mall. Grace shot me a worried glance. She probably didn't know what to say to ease my mind anymore. The fact that it had almost been a week since Jack disappeared made it quite clear that this was more serious than anyone had thought from the beginning, and I had caught myself more than once doubting that he'll ever return.

At least it was Friday, the school was finally over and I was looking forward to the weekend. I hadn't told anyone about it, but I was planning on spending most of the weekend doing some research on my own as I felt the police didn't make any progress soon enough. I had to spend a few hours with Austin tomorrow afternoon though, which could come to interfere with my plans.

The thought of my 'date' with Austin made me throw my head back in frustration, with a deep sigh.

"What?" Grace wondered with both worry and curiosity showing in her voice.

"Nothing…" I shrugged. "It's just that Austin asked me out and I sort of said 'yes'."

"But that's good, right?" She said with an uncertain smile.

"I don't know… I'm not in the mood." I muttered.

She studied me in silence for a moment.

"Don't get me wrong now. I really understand Jack's disappearance is hard for you and that you're worried, but you can't stop living your life just because he's gone." She said and I was struck by how much she resembled my mother. I held back a comment about it though knowing that she meant well. "You could use something to look forward to. Maybe it'll take your mind off of things. Austin seems like a nice guy and he really likes you." She said in a cheerful tone obviously trying to lightning up the conversation. I looked at her. Normally I would be excited about going on a date with an older (and quite good looking) guy, but not now… Grace did understand my worries about Jack, but she didn't know about my feelings for him. In fact no one did and that's how I liked it. I would probably die if someone found out.

"Maybe you're right." I said.

"Of course I'm right!" I couldn't help but smile a little at her confident statement before we entered the mall.

There were people everywhere, just like you would expect on a Friday. We got a couple of smoothies before sitting down at one of the tables in the courtyard outside the dojo, waiting for my practice to begin.

"What are you and Austin gonna do tomorrow?" Grace asked breaking the silence.

"I don't know. He didn't say that we were going to do anything in particular." I said honestly, hoping that she wouldn't ask anything more, since I didn't feel like talking about it.

"Maybe he'll take you out on a romantic dinner or take you down to the beach to watch the sunset." She said with enthusiasm. 'Oh I hope not…' I thought.

Suddenly something big hit the back of my chair making it scoot forward slightly.

"Oh I am so sorry, miss." A man apologized. I turned around to see one of the mall's janitors next to a cart that he must've accidentally driven into me. "Are you alright?" He asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said looking up at him. Man he was tall… He gave me a relieved smile before he left us.

"Weird…" Grace pointed out. I just nodded in agreement as I watched him disappear in the crowd. There was something very familiar about him…

We sat there talking about school and random stuff, carefully not to bring Jack up, as it would destroy the almost joyful moment. Not until it was only five minutes till my karate lesson would begin did we part. Grace left the mall as I hurried of to change into my GIs. Not wanting to be late for practice I had changed my clothes so fast that I was actually the first one out in the dojo ready to start. Milton and Eddie were still in the dressing room and Jerry hadn't even showed yet.

"Hi, Kim." Rudy said as soon as he noticed me. "Can you please help me to move these mats?" He pointed to a pile of mats that was lying right next to him.

"Sure" I said walking over to him. It didn't take long until we were done, just in time for Milton and Eddie emerging from the dressing room.

"Where's Jerry?" Rudy asked concerned, probably worried that he lost another student.

"He's been delayed." Milton explained. "He had to pick his sister up, but he'll be here soon." Rudy seemed satisfied with the answer, but his expression soon changed into a more worried one as his eyes fixed themselves at something by the entrance of the dojo. The rest of us traced his gaze to a tall man in a light blue overall that had just walked into the dojo. It didn't take long for me to recognize him. It was the same man that had driven his cart into my chair earlier.

"Can I help you, sir?" Rudy asked as he approached the janitor.

"Oh I found this outside." The tall man held up a bracelet. "A girl outside told me that it belongs to a girl named Kim. Is that by any chance someone you guys know?" They all turned to look at me, even the janitor. He must've caught that it was me by the way my friends acted.

"I'm Kim." I said feeling that a clarification was still needed though as I walked up to him. He put the bracelet in my hand.

"It's not mine." I stated after studying it closely, returning it back to the janitor.

"Oh sorry, my bad." He excused, his green eyes pierced into mine just a little too long for me to be comfortable with it. "I'll put it in the lost and found box then." He muttered before he left.

"Weird..." Rudy muttered." Okay let's start. Kim, you'll be up against Milton, and Eddie you'll be sparring with Jerry, once he gets here." As if on cue the doors to the dojo flung open as Jerry rushed through them followed by a girly mini copy of himself.

"Sorry I'm late guys…" He took a moment to catch his breath before continuing. "…but Nelly just had to get her photos and sticky paper stuff. It took like forever to gather all of her things."

"Well, at least I wasn't the one that forgot my GI back home and managed to get us locked out…" Nelly retarded, as we looked at Jerry with our eyebrows raised.

"Hey, I thought you had the key." Jerry defended. Nelly just looked at him in disbelief shaking her head, making the black curls that framed her pretty face dance in the air, before turning to Rudy.

"Hi, I'm Nelly." She introduced herself, even though we all had figured that out already.

"Nice to meet you." Rudy greeted. "I'm sensei Rudy."

"Is it ok if I work on some of my stuff during Jerry's practice?" She asked.

"Sure, you can use my office if you like." Rudy offered.

"No it's ok. I rather sit on the floor. That way I'll be able to have a better overview of my pictures." Rudy seemed a little surprised by her answer at first.

"Ok you can sit over there if you want, there's no risk of you getting a karate student over you there." He pointed to the small area by the entrance of the dojo.

"That'll be great." She smiled, heading over there with her back pack that held all her stuff.

In the meantime Jerry had hurried of to the dressing room to get changed.

"Ok, let's get back to sparring." Rudy said and gestured for me and Milton to get ready. The lesson went on just like any other day, with the exception that we were missing a member. Everyone tried their best to stay focused on the training though.

Milton and I bowed to each other slightly panting. Even though I still could beat Milton pretty easy I must say that he has improved a lot. Tiered and satisfied with our training we walked off the mats as Jerry and Eddie were up against each other next.

I went over to where Nelly was sitting and placed myself next to her on the floor. There were papers, pictures, pencils and glitter and stuff scattered everywhere around her.

"What are you working on?" I asked curiously. She looked startled at me as she probably hadn't noticed my approach, too busy cutting out a picture of her riding a horse.

"It's for my scrapbook." She explained as she began to glue the photo unto a blue paper. I noticed a book lying beneath a pile of papers.

"May I take a look at it?" I asked.

"Sure." She said, not taking her eyes of the page she was working on. "Some of it is pretty old though and I'm not that pleased with how they turned out to be."
I grabbed the scrapbook and started to look through the pages. It was pretty good and some of the pictures were really funny. I chuckled a little at a picture of Jerry fighting a goose, at least I think it was him behind a cloud of feathers.

"That was when we were at the petting zoo. The goose at one of his flip-flops…" She explained.

"Poor goose…" I said still giggling.

"The goose came out of it alright." She said. "It was Jerry that needed medical care after…"

I turned the page and I saw something that made me stop laughing. It was a picture of ten girls posing in their soccer uniforms with big smiles across their faces. I figured that they must be a team and one of them I recognized as Nelly. But it wasn't her that had caught my attention at first. It was that somewhat tall, ginger-haired girl on the far left that had caused a funny feeling to stir inside me. It was Tess, the girl who was at Jack's last tournament and the girl who sent him the letter that I still had in my bag. Remembering very clearly the way she had looked at him, I couldn't help but feel a sting of jealousy, even though I knew that the possibilities for Jack dating her were almost equal to none. I didn't know that Nelly knew her…

"Are you okay?" Nelly asked concerned. She must have noticed my mood change.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I nodded. "I was just thinking about Jack." I half lied. Well technically I did think of him but more in an indirect kind of way.

"I know what it's like to lose a friend." She said. I looked at her. I haven't thought about it before but she had been through the same thing as I, only worse. Her friend was dead and gone forever, while I still had the hope of reunite with Jack once again.

"I know you miss him every moment of every day and every time you do something fun or boring, or you hear or see something, anything…" She made a pause looking up at me "…you wish that you'd be able to share it with him."

I nodded surprised by her accuracy. That was exactly how I felt.

"You miss Theresa a lot, don't you?" I said.

"Yeah…" The pain was clearly shown in her eyes. "She lived in my neighbourhood and seeing her house almost everyday…" Her voice started to waver. "Sometimes I forget what has happened and expect her to come walking out of her house just like she used to." Nelly tried to smile, but I could see that she had troubles keeping it together. "She was always so kind. When some of us were upset or anything, she always knew how to cheer us up."

"She seemed like a really nice girl." I said. "Do you have a picture of her in here somewhere?" I asked referring to the scrapbook that was lying on my lap. I was curious to see what she looked like, not having seen her before.

"Of course." Nelly said and pointed without hesitation at the ginger-haired girl to the left at the picture I had studied a moment earlier. I looked confused at it.

"But that's Tess." I said.

"Yeah…" Nelly looked at me as if I was stupid. "…Everyone called her Tess, very few knew her real name was Theresa. You knew her?"

"No, yea… I mean no, I've seen her once, but…"

"Are you coming Nelly?" Jerry said making us jerk startled. He was already done and ready to go. I shot a glance at the clock realizing that our karate lesson was as good as over. Had we really been talking for so long?

"Yeah, just give me a sec…" Nelly said as she started to gather her stuff. I stood up and headed to the dressing room. I wanted to talk more but I felt I needed some time to think also. The more I thought about it the more confusing it got. Especially the fact that Jack had gotten a letter from Tess or Theresa whatever you wanna call her last Friday, several days after her death…

Since this worked out pretty well, I'm going to repeat it again. Next chapter will be up at the beginning of next week, unless i get 10 or more reviews, then I'll update sooner.

And of course, everyone that leaves a review get a sneak peak of the next chapter.

/MJ