Peter put down the money for the food, then everyone started walking out. Before leavign Peter, turned. "See you at soccer try outs in two months!"

Kayla glanced at Jen, who looked a little...well, upset wasn't the word for it. She looked a little lost, or dazed. So Kayla walked over and gave Jen a hug. "You okay?" she asked.

Jen felt the cool mist of the night on her face. "Ever feel betrayed by a parent, Kayla?" Memories of her dad pulling out Peter's hair came to mind, causing her to wince. She glanced over at Peter, who was talking to Zach.

"Two months?"

A blank look.

"Oh, that," Zach nodded. "Well, I'll see you school in a week anyway. Why in two months?" He paused and stared at Peter. He wouldn't put it past that emotional wreck to do something drastic. "You going somewhere?"

Peter answered, "No. What I meant was I am loolking forward to try outs and you trying out too. Actually try-outs are in a month. I miscounted." Noramlly, he would remeber better when try outs were. However, the stress of Nate leaving the next day and stress of Justin's possible fates were wearing on him. Still, it didn't stop him from being friendly and wanting to have a good time.

"What?" Kayla stopped in her tracks and stared at Jen. The evening breeze caused Jen's silky hair to flutter around her face, and Jen's eyes were big and sad and empty in the moonlight. "What are you talking about?"

Jen shook her head. "It's not important. My probably did love me, just had a sick way of showing it." She tried to rationalise in her head how a lovign father could pull her best friend's hair out and treat him as if he never changed. "You know what, he's not my dad anymore."

Kayla put an arm around Jen. She couldn't imagine what she would do if she were in Jen's place. She was glad she had a kind, loving father at her home. "Oh Jen...you know, I think you're right. I think he did love you, but he just didn't show it the right way. I think that's why he pulled Peter's hair out. He thought he was doing the right thing, thought he was protecting you. He just became obsessed with keeping Peter away from you, and well....you can't change what happened, Jen. But I think your father really did love you. I think he still does."

Peter skated with his feet over the snow, into the car where Jen and Kayla were. He noticed Jen looked a little sad. "Jen, what's wrong?"

Kayla followed Jen up to the car and waved to Peter. "I didn't know that Chrissa liked Ben," she said playfully, giggling.

Peter felt a little curious about the change in conversation, but decided it must be a private girl thing. Perhaps, they were just talking about private girl stuff. Anyways, he smiled at Kayla. "I didn't know either. Looks like love is in the air for all of us. I would watch out. Some guy might come along and you would be next."

Kayla blushed. "Um, I don't think so! I don't want to fall in love any time soon. Not yet," she said, smiling.

The next morning, Peter woke up to find Nate with suitcases. Suddenly, it dawned on him. Today was the day Nate was going to go to bootcamp. Standing at Nate's doorway, Peter asked, "Are you sure you want to go? THey're going to shave your head."

Nate laughed at his friend. "That will be the easy part."

Peter shook his head. "I didn't think I would mind s shave dhead for a while at the Army when i suggetsed joining, then when my hair was pulled out I learned differently." Then again, he remebered he was pretty upset when the doctors shaved it off last year when he got in that accident.

Nate put a hand on Peter, "Hey, we will be wearing helmets anyway. So, it's not like people would see it. Besides, if we didn't have to shave our heads, I would be wanting to show off my cool hair, then i would get shot in the head."

Peter knew Nate was trying to make him feel better, but it wasn't working. All he could think about was What if Nate gets killed? All of a sudden he saw Lyn give Nate a hug, tears rolling down her face. The two of them had just reuinited for Nate to leave? That just didn't seem fair! Peter eyed the suitcases, resisting every urge to just dump them and throw them on the floor. When the three of them got downstairs, he blocked the door while Nate was saying good-bye to Greg and Angie. "You're not leaving!"

Tears in his eyes, Nate said, "I have to now. It's too late to back out."

Seeing how hard this was on Nate, he gave in and gave Nate a hug. "WRite letters, okay?"

Nate responded, "I will."

" 'Eylo," Zach tugged at his locker door and nodded at Peter. "Is Nate late? I haven't seen him. Maybe he's si-"

He stopped and looked at Peter questioningly. "He left, didn't he?" The locker door remained stubbornly shut but managed to slice open a finger. "OW!" he glowered at the evil blue object.

Peter was saddened at the reminder Nate left, then shocked to see Zach slice his finger in the locker. He noticed the blood from Zach's finger and asked, "Are you okay? Wait here, let me get you a paper towel."