Author's Note: Hey everyone! I decided to make this one-shot story after a very long time of thought and deliberation time and time again (years actually). Plus, it's also something that I wanted to do to let everyone I'm still on fanfiction. Enjoy! :)

Nate Wright walked into the hallways of PS 38 with his usual spring in his step. His friends, Francis, Teddy, Chad and Dee Dee were already trading stories about how they won the scavenger hunt against their rival, Gina. As they instantly reverted back to their usual noisiness, something was bugging Nate too. He had a crush on another student Jenny Jenkins but is starting to wonder if she likes him back (despite her having a boyfriend already.)

So he asked her about it.

Her response:

"After school, if you have no detention. I won't wait, if you do."

Fast forward to after school…

Nate approached Jenny in the school yard while everyone else went home and after making sure no one else was around, Jenny looked firmly at Nate.

"All ears," Nate said, smiling at what Jenny had to say.

"It's serious too. You have that crush on me still, don't you?"

"Yup. How serious is this talk though?" Nate's smile started to fade.

"To the point where you're going to hate me for it."

Jenny opened her mouth for a few moments, and then next came the audio:

"I knew about your crush… and I played right along with it."

It almost looked like the world had stopped turning for Nate as if he was hearing things.

"You… what?" he asked Jenny.

"I knew and I played right along with it, about your crush I mean."

Nate tried to formulate his next thought out.

"How long did you know about this?"

"From the very beginning of time, when we first met," Jenny said firmly.

"You're kidding right?"

"If I was then would we be having this sort of talk now? Because I know you're not going to go away, and I'm going to need you to do so at some point."

"But I didn't do anything wrong!" Nate protested.

"And when you try to make that love poem for me, full well knowing that I already had a boyfriend named Arthur, yeah, that's one thing you did wrong. And I'm glad Gina pointed that out, even though she shouldn't have done it publicly (she should have done it privately.) And then you dumped egg salad on me…"

"That was meant to be for Gina," Nate said quickly and quietly.

"Was it?"

"Yeah, I was aiming for Gina since she called my fleeceball team, Kuddle Kittens."

"Kuddle Kittens? The team that Gina had helped you win against Randy?" Jenny asked, her tone dripping heavily of venom. "And that one time when you wrote out a stupid pet name list for my boyfriend Arthur? Yeah, Francis was just telling me about it not too long ago. That's a few things that you did wrong up to this point. You're in the wrong with me. I'm in the wrong too, but you're sticking out the most here between us."

"But I do love you," Nate said quietly.

"You don't love me, you love the THOUGHT of me! The fake me that you've been building up in your head ever since we first met!" Jenny snarled right back.

"What's the difference!? I want to be with you! I want to love you and hang out …and… everything else!" Nate started to trail off.

"We can hang out as friends. We can be best friends too, but we can't be any more than that. I'm already with my own boyfriend. I don't want to make myself any more clear than I already am now," Jenny said firmly.

"Jenny please. Don't do this," Nate pleaded, trying really hard not to cry. "Please…"

"Nate, you have to wake up face up to the facts now," Jenny said coldly. "Don't blow my head off for saying this, but I don't think I can have a future with you, let alone even wanting to be with you since you think you are so high and mighty every single day, thinking the world's going to revolve around you or however you want to say it. But I'm not going to be with somebody who thinks they can be on top of the world, treating all the teachers like supervillains in your comics, or thinking you could just take shots at my boyfriend, or treating your friends like garbage. That's really not going to happen. I don't want to make myself clear any more than I am now. You and I just can and never will be. It's over, just STOP. I mean, there were times that you were a good friend but it just wasn't enough!"

Nate just stood there in stunned silence. He felt his own world crumbling apart. He didn't want to cry, but his heart was breaking in many pieces and ways.

Jenny looked at Nate with anger and disappointment then it bled into resigned acceptance.

"Goodbye Nate. Until you have gotten over me, it's best that we don't talk."

Then she was gone. Out of Nate's sight and out of his life, just like that. Nate didn't even realize that he had been standing there, just standing there with his mouth slightly open.

And after a while, Nate walked home slowly while his brain remained on autopilot…

The thought of what Jenny said still lingered in Nate's head a few days later, and it just wasn't easy for poor Nate. He loved Jenny, but everything was dashed after what had happened in mere time. And it made Nate realize that she HATED him for a long time. He didn't tell his friends, he didn't know why, but he just couldn't. Nate wasn't sure if he was ready to move on yet.

Then Nate noticed a figure in the corner of the hallway with her back to them, blending into the shadows. Intrigued, Nate decided to get a closer look.

As he approached, he noticed the figure was a young girl with shoulder length, long brown hair and styled into a low ponytail and dressed in blue and wearing white earrings. She was unpacking boxes that seemed to contain books and other school materials. Nate cleared his throat to make his presence known and the girl slowly turned towards him.

"Hi," Nate said nervously. He had an idea from her expression that he had made the girl uncomfortable.

"Oh, hi," she said shyly. "My name is Ruby Dinsmore. I just moved here from Washington. I guess I'm the new kid in school."

Nate smiled in recognition and quickly introduced himself and his friends. He noticed Ruby's face light up slightly as she shook hands with Francis, Teddy, Chad and Dee Dee.

A few days later, Nate found himself sitting in front of Ruby in Social Studies class. She had opened up to Francis and Teddy and they all got along well. And for the next few weeks, Nate and Ruby quickly became best friends and Nate started to understand her better. By the time the school year ended, Nate had realized just how different Ruby was from most of the other students at PS 38. She wasn't interested in being the center of attention or in joining the popular crowd; all she wanted was to make friends and be accepted for who she was.

That's how Nate Wright met Ruby Dinsmore when she moved to PS 38 before the events of the book Big Nate Blasts Off. Though their meeting was short, it inspired a lifelong friendship then relationship that is still going strong today.

That's all folks! Hopefully you'd like it! :) Sorry for the little abrupt ending though...