Look at you.

Tawny and broad-shouldered, blue-green eyes flashing as you talk to Crutchy, gesturing animatedly. He says something and you begin to laugh. Slowly, without really knowing why, the others start laughing too.

You're the alpha male of this pack, aren't you? Where you go, we will follow. You're our leader. I guess that makes me the beta male—the mouth with the brains. We work well together. We proved that much during the Strike.

Lions always need a mate. I felt so certain that it would be me. The way you looked at me, the way you smiled . . . were those looks, those touches just expressing a purely platonic love or something more? When I saved you from the refuge, there was something in your eyes that made me hope against hope that my feelings were returned.

Then you chose Sarah.

Why?

Yeah, she's pretty. She's sweet. She's kind. She's insanely maternal.

But why her?

She didn't fight alongside you. She didn't bust you out of jail. She just sat there and looked pretty. The way I recall it, the lioness is supposed to hunt, not the other way around.

It isn't easy, you know. It's so hard to watch you, knowing I never had your heart, and that my sister, puttering around the kitchen and humming tunelessly, does.

I'll move on, though, eventually. I'll get over you in time. It may take a week. It may take a year. It may take forever. But I will.

God loves you, Jack Kelly.

And God help me, so do I.

la fin

All the characters belong to Disney.