Hello again, guys. I'm sorry...summer is getting to me! I had a time trying to figure out where the story should lead...and I guess it doesn't help that I'm apparently going out of state for a couple of weeks starting Monday. Hopefully, though, I'll be able to find a Wi-Fi hotspot or something of that nature. Until then, however, I'm gonna try to think up more ideas for upcoming episodes. Please enjoy!

Last time on Care Bears Z, No Heart mysteriously stopped his evil scheme after a confrontation with the Care Bear Family. What could the evil wizard be up to? However, more and more worries are beginning to show themselves in the lives of our heroes. Will family issues, budding romance, and slowing school years leave the Care Bear Family larger, or will they only result in despair? Find out in Care Bears Z Episode 11: Speculation Frustration!

~Z~

"Lloyd," Mr. Danek called from the kitchen as his son walked by. The boy backpedaled to the doorway, his head tilted in questioning. Arthur put down the files he had been looking through and beckoned his son into the kitchen. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Lloyd sat down across from him. He was a bit taken aback by his father's rather grave expression. "Is everything okay?"

"You have classes with Lisa, right?" he started. "Lisa Clarke?"

"Yeah," a bit of realization appeared in the boy's eyes. "Is this about what happened the other day?"

"Has she been acting...different lately?" Lloyd shook his head.

"I don't hang out with her that often," he replied. "But she doesn't seem any different. Everyone was concerned for a bit, but she kept insisting she was fine, so it kind of blew over."

"Hmm..." Mr. Danek looked down at the file folder on the table.

"She seems okay, dad," Lloyd said. "I don't know why anyone would have wanted to take her."

"Right..." he flipped the pages of the folder with his thumb. "Well, if something happens, you'll tell me, right?"

"Right," Lloyd nodded earnestly. He stood up from the table. "Um...I'll see you tonight."

Arthur nodded, and Lloyd left the room. He heard the front door open and close as his son left for school. Sighing, he looked through the doorway to the living room, setting his gaze on the picture on the wall. It had been taken so long ago, it seemed. Lloyd had been only 10 then. In the photo, he was standing between himself and - in Mr. Danek's opinion - the most beautiful woman alive. Oftentimes he found himself wondering if there really could have been a chance of fixing things...though the more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed. Shaking his head, Arthur picked up the file and headed to his home office.

~Z~

"Well, it's official," A perky voice from behind her locker door startled Lisa out of her thoughts. She closed the door and was met with a grinning girl with long pink hair tied back in a ponytail.

"What is?" she asked. The girl gave her an incredulous look before pulling her over to the wall. Lisa gazed at the bright blue poster stuck on it.

"The end-of-the-year dance, of course! It's officially happening in three weeks. I can't believe you haven't seen these all over the school."

"Oh, yeah," Lisa said. She had indeed seen the colorful posters on her way to her locker, but hadn't really taken the time to read them. "I guess it is..." her eyes went wide. "It IS!"

"Omigosh, I can't wait!" the other girl said happily. She was practically jumping around, making the skirt of her rainbow-gradient dress bounce above her pink leggings. Lisa suddenly smirked and giggled at her friend.

"Of course you can't, Charity," she said. "Anything to dress up for your man. How's it going with Chris, anyway?"

"Ohh, perfectly!" Charity smiled dreamily. "I can't wait for our next date...I hope it's just like Saturday..."

"Well, unless you can squeeze another date in between now, the last game of the season, and the dance," Lisa started.

"Well, there's always the party after the game, seeing as there's no way my boo can lose," Charity said proudly. "That's going to be the best. And don't get me STARTED on the dance," her smile grew bigger. "You and I are gonna have to do some MAJOR shopping later."

"Shopping? I hope you're not going without me," A girl with peachy blonde hair wearing a simple-yet-elegant vintage sundress came up to them.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Precious," Charity said. "Hey, do you think Lloyd is gonna ask you?"

"I don't know," Precious replied. "It's not like the dance is tomorrow. He may...find someone..."

"Are you kidding? There's no way he could find someone else!" Lisa blurted. "He likes you; and you like him too, I know it."

"Oh..are you sure?" Precious asked, a light blush appearing on her pale face.

"Why don't you ask?" Charity said in a hushed tone. "Here he comes!"

"Oh!" Precious turned around, trying to compose herself as a boy with dark blue hair strolled toward their little group.

"Good morning, ladies," he said politely. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting..."

"Not at all," Lisa said with a smile. "We were just about to head to class, right Charity?"

"Right," Charity smirked, catching on. "We're off to history! See you two later."

Before either Lloyd or Precious could react, the two girls rushed down the hall toward the stairs. Inside, Precious mildly began to panic. She turned back to Lloyd, who was smiling bemusedly.

"Er...I just wanted to ask you, Precious," he started. "Are you coming to the game on Friday?"

"Of course," she said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. I know you're going to win," she giggled. Lloyd seemed to relax a little bit.

"Well, I was wondering...if you're not busy after the game...would you like to go to a movie?" the boy rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, not to insinuate that there won't be an after party...but even if there is, and you don't fancy that...of course, if you do that's alright...I mean..."

Precious opened her mouth to respond, but the warning bell rang at that moment. She sighed inwardly, but Lloyd smiled at her.

"May I be so honored as to walk you to class, milady?" he offered her his arm. Precious smiled and accepted. When they reached the science hall, Lloyd gave her a gentle smile.

"Please think about my offer, Precious," he said. "I would love to spend time with you. I'll see you later," he waved as he left for his own class.

~Z~

"Hey, Lloyd," Ben greeted the boy as he walked into the Biology class. Then he turned back to Preston. "So, you're actually gonna be helping with the dance?"

"Hey, somebody's gotta hang streamers and balloons all over the school," Preston absently flipped through the workbook on his desk. Benjamin raised his eyebrow.

"Whoa...What kind of balloons are we talkin', here?"

"What?" Preston feigned a hurt look. "Am I not to be trusted with balloons?"

"It's hard to trust you with anything, man," Ben shrugged. Preston's jaw dropped and his eyes narrowed. Ben simply smirked and shook his head. "I mean, what with what happened last month..."

"How can you blame me for that?" the other boy asked. "You know April's meant for that sort of thing!"

"Yeah, for one day, not the whole month. I'm just saying, dude."

"Alright, everyone," A stout woman in a plain black dress entered the room through a storage door in the front of the room. "Calm down, let's get started. As you know, finals for this class will be in two weeks, and I expect everyone to pass...with at least a C," she added the last part upon seeing a couple students relax after the comment on passing. "So, everyone has the next few classes to study, and then we'll start our final project before the finals are done." At the sudden wave of groans, sucked teeth, and rolled eyes, she added, "And I can assure you that this project will indeed be fun. Now, get to it!"

Ben and Preston took the advantage of group studying to sit by Byron, who more or less had no objections. They spent a good chunk of the class looking over a few things, some more than others as they didn't quite remember some things from the beginning of the year.

"Ugh," Ben leaned back in his chair and held his head in his hands. "Yo Byron, do you think you guys could push the dance up a couple weeks? I dunno if I can survive past finals..."

"Ah, you'll live," the blond boy said. "Besides, an end-of-the-year dance has to be just that; at the end of the year. Duh..."

"So, you're saying it should be on New Year's Eve?" Preston retorted with a smirk. Byron looked up from his book with a glare.

"End of the year means end of the school year. End of our WORK."

"Juuust checking," Preston tossed his head, leaned back, and stretched. "I kind of agree with the finals, though. I just barely made honor roll last quarter, and I can't afford to fail now." He sat back up. "I'm too close to getting a new phone..."

"Maybe ya shouldn't have dropped your old one off the bleachers," Ben said.

"How was I supposed to know it would break so easily?"

"Oh, I dunno, READ THE MANUAL?"

"Pfft. I knew what I was doing. No-one reads those for real..." Preston sat back in his chair with folded arms. Ben and Byron snickered at him. He rolled his eyes and smirked.

~Z~

"Well, at least they're serving something good today," Ciara Powell sighed as she trudged through the lunch line behind her friend Harriet Best. "Even if it's only the shaved ice."

"I guess the burgers aren't TOO bad, when you get past the burnt ones," Harriet said, wrinkling her nose. "But it's so repetitive. It's like they gotta have the same thing every day." The two purple-haired girls turned around. "You're awful quiet, Whitney. Somethin' up?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing," the Whitney said. Her friends blinked at her, before turning around and moving up in line. Whitney frowned. It had been the same all day; they seemed completely unaffected by the events of the previous night. Could No Heart's spell really have had no after effect when he terminated it? That was how it seemed. No-one in the city appeared to have felt it last night. Whitney's thoughts continued like this until she reached the table. She sat across from Shana Goldstein, a rather quiet friend of hers. She looked at the bag of chips Shana was currently eating from, and looked down at the turkey burger she'd had to get.

"Want some, Whitney?" Shana smiled and held out the bag. Whitney smiled and grabbed a handful.

"Thanks."

"Okay, everyone's gonna be at the showcase Friday, right? No plan changes?" Harriet said seriously. Her friends shook their heads, and she relaxed. "Okay, that's good."

"You're more pressed than the upperclassmen, Hare!" Shana pulled out her friend's nickname, the one only her close friends could use.

"Well, I just wanna see this go well. I love performin', but I can't carry all the notes in the choir. Ya'll seriously need to show up."

"Chill out, Harriet," Ciara said. "We're not going to be flake."

"I guess I'm just nervous after what happened before winter break," Harriet hung her head. "I still can't believe Naomi! I mean, how you gonna get a solo in the concert and then NOT show up? I mean, come on now..."

"Well, don't worry, we promise not to let THE CHOIR down," Share smiled and shook her head. "Don't worry so much; it'll be fine."
"I hope so..." Harriet pulled the foil off the top of her shaved ice.

~Z~

"Ohh..." Terrence sighed and closed his French book. He was in no shape to study; too much was on his mind. At least he had a good reason to be worrying now. He simply found it too odd that No Heart had apparently reversed his spell, and not a single person he'd talked to today had seemed to remember its effects. He was worried by what this could possibly mean...why would No Heart just stop his attack?

Another thought made Terrence shudder. It hadn't just been some new scheme to make the world stop caring; from what the evil wizard had said, his spell had had the ability to kill. Why on Earth would he kill innocent human beings? Just what was he trying to do?

He looked at his alarm clock. It was almost 9:30. Wendy was asleep. Mr. Lawson was still at work...again. Sighing rather irritably, Terrence flopped back onto his bed. He felt awful for doing so, but he was beginning to be a bit angry with his father. It seemed now he and Wendy only saw him on weekends, when they went to visit Mrs. Lawson. Was his job really so important that he had to be there 22/7? Couldn't he come home more often? It wasn't like the mayor had THAT much work for him...

"He works really hard," Terrence mumbled. "He works hard for us...for me and Wendy and mom."

Slowly getting up to prepare for bed, Terrence wondered why the words felt like they had no meaning.

~Z~

There we have it! I know it's a little shorter than normal, but this is mostly filler for real. Thank you all for being so patient, and I'm afraid you'll have to be so again for the next couple weeks. I don't know if I'll be able to update at all, but if I do, I don't think much will be revealed. Thanks again, you guys, for all your support!

FUN TWO CENTS OF THE DAY: I won't ask you guys if you can guess who the characters are, but if you want to you can. And did you catch that burnt burger quip in there? It's based on a true story: one time I was buying school lunch, and they had burgers. I got one, and went to the planning committee's meeting room. I open the wrapper on the burger, and the thing is freaking CHARRED. Rock-hard bread, blackened cheese and everything. Yuck.