Disclaimer: I do not own 'Little House' or any of the characters. Enjoy(:

Age ten.

Jeb Carter and Jenny Wilder met at age ten. They lived in the same small town known as Walnut Grove. He had once again been enrolled into school, and she just started. Her terrified, horrific look made him want to give her a hug and tell her that everything would be alright. He smiled at her as she sat down on the desk bench across from him. She looked up at him for a second, before looking at him once more with a curious, yet affectionate gesture. They grinned in awe at each other before their teacher, Miss Plum, broke their train of thought.

.~.

"It's awefully hot, come on." Jenny prompted him. Jeb had wanted so badly to go swimming with her with the rest of the children, but he was dreadfully scared of swimming. Only his brother, Jason, knew of his phobia of water.

"Maybe some other time, I have to take care of my pigeons." He replied, his head bowed.

"Pigeons!" Jenny exclaimed, "I'd like to see them sometime!" "Sure, anytime!" He stated excitedly.

"Jenny come on!" Willie Olson called. She looked over her shoulder before saying goodbye to him. He watched her race the other children to the pond before heading home to do chores.

.~.

Jeb ran outside of the Wilder's house, forgetting all about the cylinder and the pigeon that he gave to Jenny. He couldn't believe it, Jenny wanted to kill herself! The smart, outgoing, beautiful girl that he'd come to admire wanted to kill herself. He had known that her father passed away, since his family were the only one's that attended the funeral, but the note that Jenny had wrote to her aunt and uncle about seeing them again one day, made him want to cry. No girl made Jeb Carter cry.

"JENNY! JENNY!" He called. There wasn't a soul in sight.

For some reason, he knew exactly where to go; the pond.

.~.

"I wanted to thank you." Jenny told him earnestly.

"None of the other kids know." Jeb replied. It had only been yesterday afternoon when he dived into the pond and saved her from drowning herself. He had finally gotten over his fear of swimming, when he realized that Jenny's life was more important. Now she was back in school, and that was all that mattered.

"Say, do you want to go swimming?" He asked her. "Yeah, let's go!" Jenny gently took hold of his arm as they walked swiftly towards the pond, the warm summer air lingered on their backs.

To be continued.. (: