And it suddenly floated in, so much at once, but so gently that she could take it all. Maybe that was why school had never been that much fun. What they could learn from adults never meant as much as what they had learned together. Discovery meant more than pie charts and textbooks. And they had discovered every important thing as a unit. It had always been true.

It still was.

Maybe it was even more true now. It sort of made New Years funny, in a way, ironic to the core....

She locked her arms about him too, leaned her head forward an inch or two. "Well then, I'm tellin' you right now; you want to be this. Just like this. Dun't you go changin' for anythin'. Not even those gapin' holes in your trainers."