wow the feedback on my last chapter was simply incredible. getting comments from you guys telling me you enjoy my writing seriously puts the biggest smile on my face. enjoy another update :)

Jane could hear the chatter coming from the living room halfway down the second floor staircase. It had been almost two weeks since the incident with the diary. She was slowly but surely starting to push herself to be around Mike more. The first three days she had eaten dinner in her room and waited until he'd left for school to come down for breakfast. She figured the whole family knew what happened since no one seemed to question her sudden isolation. She had also stopped writing her letters as often as she had been. When she did she was hesitant to write too much. Despite the fact that she didn't think he would read her notebook again she was still worried about the 'what if'. Though Jane was annoyingly stubborn she knew she couldn't be mad at him forever.

It was the night of the dance at his school. She hadn't planned on coming down until after he left but she couldn't help herself. As mad as she still was she didn't think she wanted to miss the opportunity to see Mike all dressed up. Plus her emotions were starting to get the better of her all by herself up in her room. She wasn't in the mood to throw herself a pity party. So she forced herself out before she could change her mind. She practically tiptoed down the stairs and did her best to go unheard just in case she changed her mind and went back upstairs. Jane paused halfway down the first floor staircase. They would all be there once she came down. She needed to collect herself a bit.

The closer the dance got the more bitter Jane became about her situation. Mike wanted to take her. He would have taken her if it was so dangerous. He didn't care what other people thought. As the dance approached she was surprised with herself at how badly she wanted to go. A boy had never liked her before. Certainly not enough to bring her to a dance and show her off and not care about how others might react to it. She wanted to go to the dance so badly her heart hurt. But she knew she would be spending the night reading a book and trying to keep herself from wondering if he was dancing with another girl.

She descended the rest of the stairs before she could lose her courage. Nancy was the first to notice her since Mike was busy posing for a picture with his mother. She offered her an encouraging smile. Despite being Mike's sister she had seemed to take Jane's side in the whole situation. She came up and kept her company lots of times when Jane had been locked up in her room waiting for Mike to leave the room she wanted to go in. A swarm of butterflies started to settle in her stomach as she walked over and stood closely next to Nancy. She was afraid to look directly at him.

"I didn't think you would come down." Nancy whispered in her ear.

"Neither did I."

It wasn't until Ted lowered the camera that Mike noticed her standing in the room. She watched his cheeks start to turn pink when he looked at her. Jane was amazed that his suit was long enough to cover both his wrists and ankles. She wondered if it had been altered to fit him better. His hair had grown out a bit since she cut it back in August but wasn't yet long enough to cover his eyebrows. She figured by the time he needed another cut she wouldn't be mad at him anymore.

Karen fussed with his tie a bit, which only made him blush harder, before she looked over at her and Nancy. "Why don't you kids take a picture together?"

By the way Karen looked right at her Jane figured she was included in 'you kids'. She considered pointing out the fact that the Wheelers were supposed to be clueless to her existence and that taking a picture would be evidence that they were breaking the law by hiding a Jewish girl in their house. Had they all suddenly become as reckless as Mike? Instead she simply asked "Are you sure?"

She seemed to be able to read Jane's mind and know exactly what she was worried about. "One picture won't hurt." She said as she took the camera from her husband.

Yes, it could. Jane just didn't have the heart to argue.

Mike stood on the other side of Nancy (which she was thankful for) and Holly practically ran into Jane's arms. The logical and rational side of her mind told her that being in the picture was a mistake but she couldn't make herself protest. Nancy and Holly had become the sisters she'd never had. While Mike was nothing like a brother to her he was still incredibly important. She wanted photographic proof that she'd known them if anything were to happen.

Once the flash of the camera went off Karen set it down on the coffee table. "Will's mom called me the other day and said you were welcome to come over afterwards if you wanted to." She said. "Are you going to?"

Mike shrugged his thin shoulders. Jane was pretty sure he glanced her way before answering. "I don't know. Maybe." He looked over at her and Nancy. "What are you guys going to do?"

Jane hadn't planned on doing anything but her plans seemed to change when Nancy answered. "We're having a girls' night so you're not invited. You might as well go to Will's."

He rolled his eyes despite the wide smile he wore. "Yeah, alright, noted." He then turned to his parents. "Can I take the car?"

Karen and Ted glanced nervously at each other. "I don't know, Mike."

"Because I kind of already told Dustin I would pick him up."

Ted let out a sigh before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the car keys. "Straight there and straight back." He warned before handing them over. "Do not get pulled over."

"I won't, I won't." he said quickly as he reached for them.

"Mike seriously." Karen said in a much more serious tone than Jane was used to hearing from her. "We cannot risk you getting in trouble right now."

She watched everyone glance her way nervously. Jane felt overcome with guilt that they had to be so careful because of her. Mike held her gaze for a moment longer than everyone else before grabbing the keys from his dad. "Yeah, I know. I got it."

He said a quick goodbye before grabbing his jacket and heading out the door. Jane couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that she couldn't follow him out. The bitterness that had settled within her felt even more sour than usual. More than ever she wished the world was different and that she could just be a normal kid. Nancy seemed to pick up on her shift in mood by the way she put her arm around Jane's shoulders and dragged her towards the stairs. "Go put on your comfiest pajamas and meet me in my room, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

Jane ducked into the door inside the closet and dug through her drawers for the sweatpants and pullover sweatshirt she had packed. Once she changed her eyes lingered on the photo album on top of her dresser. She'd been more tempted to open than she had ever been. But she didn't think she could do it alone. If there was anyone she wanted to look at it with it was Nancy.

As she reached out towards it she, for some reason, expected it to burn her skin. But it was just a book. If anything if felt cold to the touch. She tucked it underneath her arm as she left her room and headed downstairs for Nancy's. The door was wide open and when she walked in she spotted her changing the station on the radio next to her bed. She wore a pair of shorts and a t-shirt underneath a soft looking robe.

When she spotted Jane her eyes drifted down to the album in her hand. "What's that?"

Suddenly she felt stupid for bringing it. What if she cried and ruined their girls' night in? What if Nancy thought she was being too sensitive? "It's, um, a photo album my neighbors sent over a little while ago." She answered while looking down at it. "I haven't opened it yet."

"Do you wanna look at it?" Nancy asked gently.

Jane looked back up at her. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah, of course."

Nancy sat down at the head of her bed and Jane sat next to her. She set the book down on her crossed legs. It took her a moment to gather her courage before the grabbed the cover and opened it. The first one picture was a shot of her as a baby in her mother's arms and her dad next to her. They both looked so young and happy. It was hard for Jane to remember a version of her mother when she wasn't frail and sick.

"Is that your parents?" Nancy asked as she looked over her shoulder.

Jane nodded. "My mom said I was named after Jane Eyre because she managed to overcome adversity." She looked up at Nancy with a small smile. "She was also an orphan."

She felt Nancy's hand land on her shoulder. "But you're not."

Maybe.

The first few pages were shots of her with both her parents when she was younger. She wondered if Nancy picked on her mother was all of a sudden absent from any and all pictures. Halfway through the pages were more recent pictures of her with her friends. A small smile spread on her face at a shot of a football field with a few kids blurry from running around. "This was taken the day the girls and the boys were on two separate teams and played soccer."

"Who won?"

Jane smiled even wider. "The girls."

Towards the end of the pictures they all started getting older and her friends all started wearing more make up. But not Jane. One of the last pictures in the book was a shot of her standing between her two friends. Her hair was straight and she had suffered through squeezing into a dress and putting on some makeup. "This was the last school dance I went to." She said. "This was the night that we found Rita kissing a boy in the grade above us in the hallway."

Nancy laughed and leaned in closer to get a better look at the picture. "You look so pretty." She looked up from the picture with a wide grin on her face. "Can I do your make up?"

Jane's nose scrunched up as she closed the album and set it on the bed behind her. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because that's what happens on a girls' night." She said as if it were completely obvious. Nancy seemed to have a very different type of girls night than Jane and her friends did. "Either that or I paint my nails."

"Make up." She answered almost immediately. It would be a lot easier to take off.

The grin on Nancy's face only widened as she pulled her to her feet and sat her down in a chair in front of her vanity. She dug through all her bottles and compacts and brushes (Jane was stunned that one person could own so much make up) and pulled out a bottle filled with a liquid that looked a little bit too light for her skin. "Can I ask you something?" she asked as she unscrewed the cap.

"Sure." Nothing good ever started with 'can I ask you something'.

Nancy poured some of the make up onto the back of her hand before putting it on Jane's cheek. It felt cold and sticky. "What did Mike read in your journal? You don't have to tell me exactly what but I get the feeling it was really bad."

Jane let out a small sigh. She reminded herself that it was Nancy. Nancy was easier to talk to than her friends usually were. She didn't tease or judge or make her feel silly for her feelings. Plus Jane had been desperate to talk about it with someone who could respond. "I wrote letters in it. To my mom and my dad and my friends."

"Oh."

She closed her eyes as Nancy started putting the makeup closer to her eyes. "He said something to me back in August that I wrote about. And he read it?"

"What did he say?"

"He was talking about the dance tonight, saying he wasn't sure if he wanted to go." Jane said. "When I asked him why he said because there was a girl he wanted to go with but that she couldn't go."

She opened her eyes just in time to see Nancy stand up straight and shake her head. "So he finally told you?" she asked as she grabbed a compact with peach colored powder.

"What?"

Nancy smirked. "About his big fat crush on you?"

Jane felt her cheeks engulf in flames. "Well he didn't exactly say that."

She watched her smirk even wider. "It's about damn time he said something. He's been drooling over you ever since you got here." Nancy popped open the compact and grabbed a brush. "So what did he read?"

"I wrote him a letter after he said that. About how we would never work and how he should just forget about it." Her skin tickled where Nancy ran the brush over her face. "I may have said something about how I wish it would work."

Nancy raised a thin eyebrow at her. "So you like him too?"

"Yeah." She admitted a bit reluctantly. "But it would never work out. I mean, does he even realize what's going on in the world right now? What happens to people like me?"

Nancy set the compact down and picked up a mascara. She instructed Jane how to open her eyes the perfect way before responding. "He does. But Mike likes to ignore things that get in the way of the things that he wants. And I think that because he doesn't think the way everyone else does that he sometimes forgets that not everyone things about people like you how he does."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Well he's an idiot for thinking it would work."

"Mike is an idiot in general."

They both fell silent as Nancy picked up a tube of red lipstick. It was a color Jane normally wouldn't be caught dead wearing. But it was girls' night. It felt good to just hang out with someone. For once she felt completely content spending the night in.

Just as Nancy finished up filling in her lips the song playing on the radio was interrupted by static. Her confusion was mirrored on the others girls face but neither of them thought much about it. Not until a man's frantic sounding voice filled up the room. "Attention, attention! There has just been a bombing on Elden Avenue. An exclusive statement from German soldiers suggest that the French are to blame for this attack."

When she looked from the radio to Nancy she immediately noticed that her face had paled and her eyes had gone wide. "What is it?"

"Mike's school is on Elden Avenue."

Both girls jumped to their feet and rushed over to the radio. Nancy turned it up to full volume and they both ignored how it distorted the audio. "We have to report on how many have been injured or killed. Our sources at the scene have said that there are several ambulances present."

Nancy's hand reached over and grabbed tightly onto hers. Without something to hold onto she might have collapsed onto the floor. The fear that had a death grip on her heart seemed to be reflected on Nancy's face. They starred at the radio until the reporter repeated the same bits of information over and over again. Still gripping tightly onto one another they hurried out of Nancy's room and down the stairs.

When they got into the living room they immediately saw Karen and Ted sitting on the couch with the radio on full blast in front of them on the coffee table. The same voice they had been listening to upstairs filled the living room. Nancy and Jane sat on the second couch across from them.

The four of them sat and listened to the radio for what felt like hours. They just kept saying the same thing. Bomb. Elden Avenue. The French are to blame. No one knows how many are hurt. Jane didn't know who was holding on tighter; her or Nancy.

"We have to go look for him." Nancy said suddenly before getting up and walking over to the coat rack next to the front door. "We can't just sit here and wait."

Karen stood up slowly and walked over just as Nancy started putting her coat on. She looked almost on the verge of tears. "Sweetie we can't." she said. Her voice came out shaky and quiet. "He took the car."

Nancy turned to face her. She wore the same determined expression she had the night that air raids came up at dinner and she asked Jane about her experience. "Then we borrow the neighbors. They'll understand."

"We can't leave Jane here by herself."

Jane wanted to scream at the to forget about her and go look for their son. She was always holding them back, she didn't think she could ever forgive herself if she held them back from saving Mike. But her voice felt as weak and scared as she did. "Just go. I'll be fine here."

Ted, who had been quiet until then, spoke up. "With a bombing so close by soldiers will be out more than usual. It's not safe for you to be here by yourself."

No one offered up any arguments and Nancy and Karen eventually came and sat back down.

Jane hadn't prayed, seriously prayed, in years. But with the radio on and the soft sound of Karen crying Jane clasped her hands together, pressed them against her forehead, and whispered every prayer she could remember.