Author's Note: Apologies for disappearing off the face of the fan fiction web again. Had to stay safe due to Corona virus outbreak and homework was one thing after another, ESPECIALLY with writer's block again. But hey! I'm Back! With another chapter! Enjoy! Tips to survive the COVID-19:

If you are ill, stay home. WASH. YOUR. HANDS. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Do not share food or drinks, eating utensils or smoking devices. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces. Avoid close contact with anyone with cold- or flu-like symptoms. Cover a cough or sneeze with your elbow. Use good hygiene, wellness and sleep habits. Be mindful of travel to areas of concentrated sickness during spring break. Be mindful of travel to areas of concentrated sickness, especially during Spring Break.

Chapter 15: Meet Billie Morgan

"Hey Nate? What are you drawing over there?"

Winter was right around the corner and fall was here, and school was going smoothly for Nate, And it was in the middle of class time and Ms. Taylor looked up from her desk and saw Nate drawing a cartoon.

"Making a cartoon," Nate said.

"This has been the 2nd time this year that I caught you doing this," Ms. Taylor said sternly. "Maybe start a cartooning club or something so that way I will not have to give me detention or something, so can you please refrain from drawing anymore cartoons in my classroom please? I would very appreciate it.

"Okay," Nate replied.

And so Nate did set up a cartooning club and of course, he invited his friends to join and they accepted with no problem.

That was awhile back ago. And everything is still going pretty smoothly for Nate and his crew.

"Man, we're in 7th grade and the year is going by so fast," Rebecca.

"Agreed," DJ tagged along in the conversation everyone was having. It ranged from grades, teachers, friends, you name it.

"Halloween is right around the corner. Who's all excited?"

Everyone raised their hands. Except Nate of course.

"Not that I hate Halloween, but my Dad doesn't provide the best candy for trick-or-treaters," Nate explained quickly before all of his friends would turn against him.

"How so?" Rebecca asked.

"For starters, he hands out prunes and rice-cakes," Nate explained.

"Yuck! Who hands out prunes on Halloween?" DJ asked in disgust.

"If anyone can do it, my dad can."

Everyone laughed.

"Wonder how my dad is doing..." Nate wondered.

Martin had a long day at work to say the least, that's how he was doing.

Martin was given full time hours at work now and could NOT keep up with his children. He even assigned Ellen to make sure Nate was ready for school. He had no one else to turn to and had no idea what to do.

That is, as Martin was unpacking his stuff from work out of his car (along with a few items dropping to the ground), a female voice rang out to him.

"Need some help?"

Martin looked up and saw a woman with brown hair looking at him.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks!"

And within a few minutes...

"Phew! Thanks for the assist Miss..." Martin began.

"Morgan. Billie Morgan," the woman responded, shaking Martin's hand. "Anything else you need or is that all?"

"I have a question. Housekeeper by chance?"

"As a matter of fact, I am. Need someone to watch over your house?"

"Yes, ma'am."

And so at that very same night at the dinner table...

"Now kids, I want you two to be on best behavior when I'm at work everyday, got it?" Martin announced his plans to have a housekeeper.

"But what if...if it was that woman who nearly killed me just because..." Ellen started.

"Ellen, there's nothing to be afraid of," Martin replied back, rolling his eyes for the umpteenth time, based on how many times he tried to calm his sister down over the journal fiasco.

"Well, what's her name and what does she look like?" Nate asked.

"Billie Morgan, and you will meet her tomorrow, so best behavior everyone," Martin replied then dismissed the family meeting.

So the next morning Nate DID get to meet Billie and this is how the meeting played out:

Nate went to get breakfast but Ellen was too worried.

"Ellen, what's wrong?"

"That woman looks like the same intruder I encountered the other night, with my BFF," Ellen said, voice shaking and trembling with fear.

"Really? Let me see..." Nate said before walking to the kitchen.

"Wait. Wait!" Ellen cried out but it was too late.

Nate then headed into the kitchen where he saw Billie Morgan for the first time. The woman noticed Nate walk in and greeted him with:

"Hello, you must be Nate, correct?"

Nate nodded.

"I'm your housekeeper, Billie Morgan," Morgan introduced herself to Nate.

"Nice to meet you too."

So anyway, breakfast was ACTUALLY good for Nate and Ellen (unlike Martin's cooking of course), but Ellen was still suspicious that Billie had a striking resemblance to her intruder that attacked her, but decided not to say anything at the moment.

But on way to school, Ellen decided to talk to her friend regarding the matter. At first, Charlotte had difficulty putting two and two together until she went deep into detail about the new housekeeper.

"Wow...should we tell someone? I don't think we will get far without evidence..." Charlotte started.

Then a light bulb went off Ellen's head.

"I have an idea! We can take pictures and record conversations with Billie and we will get proof of what we are going up against!" Ellen explained of her new plan.

"Great idea! Let's do it!"

And even Nate talked about Billie to his friends.

"Wow, so is she pretty?" Rebecca asked.

"She is," Nate said.

"Maybe your Dad wants someone to keep an eye on you, that's all," DJ suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"Maybe...but I don't know. She did make an excellent breakfast for me and Ellen," Nate said.

"Here here!"

Rebecca hands Nate a note that read:

Nate,

you're welcome to join me and my family for dinner anytime you're available. Hopefully tonight is okay :)

-Rebecca

Nate turned around and said:

"Maybe not tonight though, but maybe you can always come over too, y'know...oh and you guys are invited too," Nate said, acknowledging his friends.

"Sweet!" Samuel replied.

Later...

"Here you go, kids!" Billie said, whipping out bowls of chicken alfredo to everyone.

The room went NUTS.

And after that delicious meal, Nate went to go get some paper and drawing more Ultra-Nate comics. The comic played out like it was a masterpiece because Nate was portrayed as a hero (like usual) and Billie was his trustee companion and even at the end, Nate was reunited with Ruby Dinsmore.

"Still committed to her, I see," Rebecca peered from behind.

"Yup, still am," Nate replied, putting the finishing touches to the comic.

"You sure you will see her again? As Forrest Gump once said, 'Life's a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.' Not to be rude, though, because once I had a friend... she promised she would keep in touch with me...but I never saw her again," Rebecca explained sadly.

"Wow. That's...pretty awful. I'm sorry," Nate replied sadly, hugging Rebecca.

"Thanks, Nate," Rebecca replied back.

And later, Nate found himself in bed, drawing comics as usual and saw a picture and took a look at it. It was him, his friends and Ruby before he left for California.

"I really do miss her," Nate said with a tear going down his cheek.

Maybe Rebecca was right: HE MIGHT NOT see Ruby again, because friends and crushes come and go, but family is forever.

That was the exact same feeling Ruby was going through when she looked at her picture of her relationship with Nate.

Such simpler days.

"Time for bed, young lady," Ruby's father called out from the hallway.

So then Ruby soon fell asleep aware that Nate was dreaming the same dream as she is...

"Hey! Put him down!" orders a voice.

It was Ruby with an angered look on her face, which Nate has never seen before. Most of the time, Ruby seemed to be a very nice girl who can hardly get mad at anybody, but hey, there's the first time for everything...right?

"Why should I care?" Nolan asks.

"Do the math, pinhead. It's only you against two of us," Nate chimes in.

After a few moments, Nolan sets Nate down and begins walking away saying:

"Two against one. Real fair. You know what? It doesn't matter. We'll settle this at the mud bowl! See you later chumps! You too look like they deserve each other!"

After Nolan disappears, Nate turns to Ruby and says:

"Thanks."

"Are you okay? He looked like he was about to kill you," Ruby responded with concern.

"I'm okay. See you later."

Nate began to walk away, but that's when he heard it: sniffing.

Nate slowly turned around to see Ruby and noticed a tear sliding down her cheek.

"You are ditching me again, after...after what I have done for you just now?" Ruby said with her voice shaky.

Ruby broke down and sobbed for a bit. Nate felt REALLY guilty now for what he did to Ruby and decided to rebel against leaving her alone and walked back over to Ruby and got her attention by saying:

"I'm not ditching you this time. Never again."

Ruby looked up at Nate for a bit with her face bloodshot from crying.

"Really? Are you really sure?" she asks.

Then Ruby noticed something too: Nate had a single tear sliding down his cheek too.

"I'm really sure, Ruby. Cross my heart," Nate replied.

Ruby began to feel better and a few short moments later, she smiled in relief.

"Good," she replies and wrapped her arms around Nate in a hug, which Nate feel better also.

"Do you want to take a walk with me, like normal couples would do?" Ruby asked after finishing hugging Nate.

"Um...Sure. I don't see why not," Nate replied.

And the two went for a walk and talked about how Nate got & 7 detentions in one school day...

"...and I broke down laughing right after I saw my favorite pen ooze on Mr. Galvin's chest," Nate told to Ruby, who giggled while reacting to Nate's story.

...how he got Randy to detention...

"...and Randy comes dashing to the table that Chad and I were carrying to the lunchroom and tried to pin the blame on me, but Ms. Clarke sent him detention," Nate told to Ruby who slightly chuckles.

"What a moron," Ruby responded.

...won fleece ball against Randy...

"...and Gina smacked the ball with her eyes shut and got a home run," Nate to Ruby, who responded with a 'good for her'.

...got Gina her first ever detention...

"...then Gina yells at me in the library and gets caught by Mrs. Hickson and sent to detention," Nate told to Ruby, who slightly giggled.

...winning a skateboard an the Scout's fundraiser ceremony...

"and Artur and I were tied up so a coin had to be flipped, and it landed on heads, which I chose and won!" Nate exclaimed.

"Good job," Ruby complimented to Nate.

"Thank you," Nate replied.

...won in a snow down against Jefferson Middle School...

"and the judges caught Jefferson cheating so they announced that we are the winners!" Nate exclaimed to Ruby again.

"That's great!" Ruby said with ecstatic in her voice.

...winning the trivia slam against Gina...

"..and I said cats to the question and the Factoids won. Oh, did I forget to mention that Gina made a face so hilarious that I took a picture of her?" Nate asked Ruby.

Ruby giggled.

...winning a bet against Marcus the 7th grader...

"...and I volunteered Chad to be in the three-legged race with Maya (Chad's crush), and those two won against Marcus who got humiliated in the process, which destroyed my bad luck," Nate told to Ruby who laughed by this.

...and found an old mural that saved the school.

"...and my team called 'Nate's Non-stoppers found an old mural that was forgotten in time so I showed the principal and he sold it to the museum for a lot of money that saved our school!" Nate exclaimed.

"An amazing discovery, indeed," Ruby nodded with a huge grin on her face.

During the story, Ruby noticed that Nate was laughing, something that she wanted to see when she was sent by Dee Dee to cheer Nate up.

After a while, Ruby got all serious again.

"Nate, can I ask why you would act rudely towards me at school the other day?" she asks Nate.

"Well, it's because of the California pl-" Nate started but Ruby raised her hand up for him to stop.

"Besides that. Sorry to interrupt, by the way," Ruby responded.

"...because Dee Dee wouldn't talk to me when I was angry and upset," Nate replied back.

Ruby nodded and said:

"That's what I was told by your friends. And if it wasn't for the California plan, none of this would be happening. Heck, we would be going out by now."

"True..." Nate nodded.

"Look...can we just date for now and worry about that California situation later?" Ruby asked Nate.

"It's not just the California plan that I'm worried about now, it's what happened at the school that's affecting me," Nate replied.

Ruby nodded sadly then asked:

"You think this would come back to haunt you one day?"

"Absolutely," Nate responded.

Ruby nodded again.

"But you did the right thing to stopping Gina, so that's something. But for now, take a while to relax, okay?" she asked Nate.

"But..but.." Nate started.

"Please, Nate. For me? For your friends? They have forgiven you for what you did to me, just like you would do the same to your friends, right?" Ruby asked looking directly into Nate's eyes.

Nate sighed. He had to stop the conflict sooner or later for Ruby's sake and friends' sake.

"Okay, I'll relax for awhile," Nate replied to Ruby.

Ruby smiled.

"Great. Hopefully, you stay put," she says before, believe or not, her lips met Nate's in a passionate kiss, much to Nate's surprise.

It's almost like Nate finally got his first kiss from his true love for the very first time.

Black hair met brown hair.

Black eyes met blue eyes.

Nate finally found someone who truly understood him.

After Ruby stopped kissing Nate, she looked at him and giggled for a bit, mainly because Nate's cheeks were blushing cherry-red. Not to mention Nate's legs felt like they were made of pudding.

And a few seconds later, Nate fainted in dazed happiness.

"I'll find you Nate, no matter who or what will conspire to keep us apart, I promise..." Ruby whispered in her sleep.

But maybe Rebecca had a point... okay, you get the picture.

Author's Note: there you go. Hoped you liked it. Leave any thought or comments and ideas for next chapter. So what will happen next? You decide!