Sun swung the bat, and the ball flew into the outfield. Then he ran the bases, feeling every muscle beginning to burn. He saw that the Redskins had the ball now and he made a dash for home plate. He threw himself onto the base just as the ball entered the catcher's glove.

The crowd was dead silent and when they heard the umpire shout "Safe!!", they jumped to their feet screaming.

Once Sun was back in the dugout, he looked over at the Redskins to find them all surprised on how he had beaten them. Then the Redskins' coach got into an argument with Coach Kelly and the umpire. After the feud was settled, the Panthers came out on top and everyone went to the pizza parlor to celebrate. That is, everyone except for Sun.

He walked over to his mom and dad with the award for the winning the championship and was greeted with a surprise. His folks had reservations for a meal at the famous restaurant, La Gore Lamont. They wanted to celebrate the victory and they did. The family had a round of roast beef, gravy-covered mash potatoes, two pieces of pumpkin bread, and a bowl each of five types of ice cream. After the meal, the family went to the coast and relaxed by swimming in the gentle waves.

Sun thought that things couldn't get better, but later on they did. He was swimming with some friends, whom he ran into when he got there, when he saw someone new talking with the lifeguard. Sun noticed that the person was looking over his way and he swam over to meet the person. When he was close enough to hear what the lifeguard and the new person were talking about, he noticed that the person looked like someone he had run into earlier. When the person looked toward Sun's direction he knew he had met this person before.

Then, the lifeguard asked, "Are you telling me that you don't even remember your best buddy?"

Then the person said, "That is okay Michael, I doubt that he even heard of me coming back."

Once the person spoke, Sun asked, "How do you know Michael?"

The person looked at Sun and said, "I went to school with him when I lived here before I moved."

Then Michael said, "Sun, you need help."

Sun then asked, "Why?"

"You don't even remember Shadow here."

When Sun looked back at the person he didn't understand. Kat had left about four years ago and looked nothing like this person, or did she? Then another person walked up to them and he thought that she looked like Stef.

Then, the new person spoke, "I didn't think a few years staying in Texas would make you hard to recognize Kat."

Then Sun asked, "Do you mean to tell me that you two are Stef and Kat?"

Then Kat said, "Boy, I would hope so."

After trying to put some of these things in reason, some of Sun's friends came up to him and asked, "Who are these pe-"

They stopped when they noticed Kat and said, "Welcome back Kat, boy have you changed."

Then Kat said, "Thank you."

Then off in a distance, Kat heard someone shout her name and looked to find Tif running at her arms open and smiling. When Tif reached her, Kat got on her knees and hugged her.

Once Tif let go of Kat she backed up and said, "I bet Star will be surprised to see you back."

When Kat looked over at Sun, she noticed that he looked stressed and said, "Why don't you come to the hotel and I will explain everything."

"I guess that would help."

Then the group headed to the Ocean Hotel. Once everyone reached the hotel, Kat had them wait with Stef while she went to see if her mother didn't mind if she brought them over to catch up on lost time.

While Kat was gone, Tif said, "Star won't even recognize her."

Then Sun asked, "Why didn't I recognize Kat, Stef? I mean we always wrote each other, but she looks so different."

Stef smiled and said, "Let Kat explain it when she gets back, but Tif, what do you mean that Star won't recognize her. Who is he?"

Then Tif asked, "Do you want me to go get him?"

Before Stef could answer, Kat was back and said that they could come to their room.

Once everyone was seated, Kat asked, "What do you want to know?"

Sun then asked, "Why do you seem so different?"

"While I was in Texas I grew very intone with the people there and I just happened to change."

Then Tif asked, "You have horses?"

Kat and Stef laughed, and Stef replied "Since Kat and her family wanted to have horses they built a house on some of my property and they help us raise the horses. Now she has one of her own."

Then Tif asked "When can Star meet you, Kat?"

Kat looked at Tif and said "Only when he sees me. You must not tell him that I am here. I don't want everyone to know at once."

Then Sun asked "What do you mean?"

"I want to meet everyone, but not all at once. I want to be able to relax before we have to leave to head back."

When she said this, the room fell silent until Tif asked, "What do you mean?"

Kat looked at Stef and Stef realized that Kat couldn't say anything to cheer them up, so she said "We are only here on vacation because school is out and we missed you."

Once Stef stopped talking, Kat looked around the room at all of the sad faces looking at her and she left the room.

Then Tif said, "I shouldn't have asked that."

Then Sun got up and ran after Kat. When she reached the beach she saw her mom and sister, and went over to them. When she got there, she took off her shorts, t-shirt, socks, and shoes and went into the water to relax while thanking Stef for talking her into wearing her suit. After floating for a little she went underneath the water and when she came up she saw Sun swimming over to her.

When he reached her he asked, "You are leaving, aren't you?"

Then she replied in a morose voice, "Yes, I have to go back to Texas. I wanted to explain, but I knew that when I said that I was leaving I had said the wrong thing."

"I hope we can have fun before you leave."

Kat looked away and said "I do too. I missed hanging around with Michael and you."

They swam back to shore and she asked "How was the baseball game?"

Sun smiled and said that they had won. Once they had dried off, they went to grab some shrimp.

When they had been silent for some time now, he said "I wonder if you will tell me why you really came here."

"I came back to see you guys and see how you were doing."

"I know you Shadow. What is the real reason?"

"I came back to try and forget my dad."

"Why?"

She stopped walking and looked at the waves and said slowly and barely hearable, "He died a year ago."

"I didn't know. I am sorry."

She started to walk again and when they saw an ice-cream stand they realized that is about time to head in and got some ice cream. When the waiter asked what they wanted, they both ordered chocolate swirls. After they had eaten their ice cream, they headed back to the hotel.

When they reached the hotel Sun's parents were waiting for him and he said softly to where only she could hear, "If you need to talk about it I will listen."

Then he left and she went to her room. When she got to the room, she saw that Stef was getting some fondue chocolate and she smiled.

When Stef saw her, she said, "I told them that you didn't want to say anything else for the day and asked them to leave."

"Thanks. I will pass on the chocolate though. I need to get some rest before I confront everyone I ran out on today."

When she was about to go to sleep, Stef asked "He asked you, didn't he?"

"Yeah."

The next morning Kat was unpacking some of her photo albums when she ran across her dad's photo book. She laid it aside and finished unpacking. Once she had finished putting her photo albums in their places, she grabbed Rod's photo album and walked down to the beach. When she found a nice picnic bench, she sat down and opened the photo album. When she looked inside the album, all of her childhood memories came back.

She saw a picture of herself playing with her first toy when she was just out of diapers. Then she found the picture of her in her first grade classroom in front of the chalkboard holding up a book that had Bambi and Flower on the cover. Next, she found a picture of her helping Rod set up their fax machine and she was holding a pad of paper in her hand with the instructions of installment on it. After a few pages of Liz pictures, Kat found a picture of her trying to feed a pigeon and it was flapping its wings in a crazy way with a negative attitude as it snapped at her. Then she found one of her most precious memories of her dogs in the album.

After a while she found a picture of her handing Rod a bottle of water with a label on it saying that it was an antidote to cure gloomy days. Then she found some of the most embarrassing times in her life. Rod had a picture of her watching Cunningham drink from the toilet and laughing. She ran across the Dean's List of her records. Rod had put them in the album to keep a hold of them so they wouldn't get lost. After the Dean's List she found the rest of the book empty so she closed it.

After she closed the book, she felt as if she had just rewitnessed her father's death and her heart was on the verge of shattering. When she thought the pain was too great to endure she saw Stef walking over to her.

"What do you have there?"

"My dad's photo album."

Stef noticed that she wasn't happy and said "I will take it back and you can go for a walk for a while so you can relax a little."

After Stef left, Kat hopped off the table and walked along the beach. While she was walking, she bumped into Star without noticing it and said sorry without even looking at him. Once Kat had passed, Star realized that the girl looked like someone he knew, but he couldn't put his finger on the name. When he looked at the girl, he saw Tif talking with her and then Tif hugged her. When Tif let go, Star watched as the girl walked away and he headed over to Tif.

"Who was that?"

Tif smiled and said "Just a long lost friend."

With that she ran off with her friends and left him wondering about who the girl was. As he walked along the beach looking for the girl, he found her, but someone was with her. He recognized that person to be Sun, but he couldn't see why he was walking with that girl. Then Sun spotted him and led his friend over to him. Star tried meeting the person's gaze, but it was futile for she adverted every attempt.

Sun sighed and asked "Are you not going to say hi at least?"

Quietly, he heard "Hey."

He smiled and said "Hey."

Her eyes drifted to her watch and she said "I've got to run."

When she left, Star asked "Who was that one?"

Sun shrugged and said "Just the girl you were crazy about."

Then he walked away and Star stared after him. He had heard what the boy had said, but the words wouldn't connect. When he looked down the beach, he saw her retreating back and he began a quiet chase. She led him away from the beach and over to a bus stop. He remained behind a tree and watched the girl mingle with the crowd until the bus appeared.

When it stopped everyone boarded and he slipped on as casual as possible. He sat in the back of the bus and kept his eye on the girl as she watched out the window. The bus stopped ten minutes later and he saw the girl make her way to the front to exit. He got up and followed her off the bus, but when he stepped onto the ground he had lost sight of her. With a frustrated sigh, he walked over to the bench for the bus's return.

PGS