Once Gianna arrived at Ronnie’s luxurious house, the thought of telling him where she was going was almost unbearable for her to handle.  Though it was tough, she got out of her car and walked to the front of his house and rang the doorbell.

 

Ronnie Dane and his family were nothing like the family Gianna and Jack had.  Ronnie Dane was notorious for being the heir of his father’s corporation, Dane Industries, a company that helped make train engines for even bigger companies like GE Locomotives.  He was one of the richest families in the county, so Gianna dating him was one of the biggest shocks in her high school.  But she thought if they could last through high school and college (so far), they could last almost anything.  Gianna, on the other hand… well, we’ll get to that later.

 

Some lady she had never seen before answered the door.  “Excuse me, who are you?” she asked.

 

“I’m Ronnie’s girlfriend… Gianna?”

 

Her face suddenly lit up.  “Ronald!  Gianna’s at the door!”  She could hear him running from upstairs down to the main hallway.  When he arrived at the door, she could just tell he was feeling miserable.  “Thanks, Mrs. White,” he said, excusing her.  She left into the kitchen and continued cooking some chicken noodle soup for Ronnie’s cold.

 

“Ronald, huh?” Gianna giggled.

 

“That’s Mrs. White,” Ronnie replied, taking her jacket as she walked in, “She’s here to help my parents out while I’m sick.”

 

“She seems very nice.”  She smiled at Ronnie.  Though he was sick, she couldn’t help but notice that his eyes got suddenly brighter.  “I can’t stay for long, but I have something to tell you.”

 

“Me too,” he said, “And I understand if you can’t stay.  You know… don’t wanna be sick around the kids.”

 

Gianna chuckled, trying to hide the real reason of her early departure.  “Yeah.  I can’t give them colds or else they’ll be gone for weeks!”  Ronnie took her hand as they both walked to his room.  He shut the door once they were both in.  “Okay,” he said, “you go first.”

 

“I don’t think I should… you look happier.”

 

“But still… go first.”

 

“Even if it’s something bad?”

 

“Even if it’s bad,” he said, slowly approaching his dresser.  Gianna sat down on his bed, taking off her light jacket.  “I got an internship.”

 

Ronnie got ecstatic.  “That’s great!  What’ll you be doing?”

 

“English teaching.”

 

He looked at Gianna, noticing that she wasn’t as happy as most people that got internships.  “What’s wrong?” he said, approaching his bed.  Gianna looked at Ronnie and clasped his large hands with her tiny ones.  “Promise you won’t be mad.”

 

“You’re not going to Antarctica or something like that, right?”

 

“Close…”

 

“What’s closer than Antarctica?”

 

Gianna paused and took a deep breath, knowing what was about to come.  “South Korea.”

 

At the second she mentioned ‘South Korea’, she noticed Ronnie’s previously bright, happy eyes turned angry.  He snatched his hands away from Gianna’s grasp.  “Why would you choose something so far away?  I mean, why did they choose you anyways?!”  Gianna explained what Mr. Yeshion had told her over the phone… how she was most qualified because she did so well on her exams.  Ronnie was suddenly getting even angrier, and Gianna could tell he was only going to get worse.  “You’re not even Korean… shouldn’t they have a Korean person teaching them English?”

 

“That doesn’t even make sense, Ronnie!  How is a Korean person going to teach Korean people English?”

 

“They can learn!”

 

“That’s why I learned, Ronnie!  These people need my help, and if I’m qualified enough for a board of educators from East Stroudsburg and Seoul, I have to take this!”

 

Ronnie turned away from her, refusing to even look at her face.  “Ronnie,” she calmly said, though angry, “I leave Saturday.  I’m going home to pack for the next two days.”  He furrowed his eyebrows, not saying anything.  “Are you just going to ignore me?”  He nodded.  “But, don’t you have something to tell me?”

 

He turned to her, standing up and towering over her.  She could just feel the fear overcome her previous anger.  “I don’t have anything to say to you right now.”  He stomped over to his door, opening it up so forcefully that it slammed against the wall.  “You need to leave.”

 

Gianna stood up, frightened, and ran out of his room.  She walked briskly down the stairs, making sure not to fall, and grabbed her jacket.  As she ran out the door and into her car, all she could hear was Ronnie screaming, “YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN THAT INTERNSHIP!”  She started up the car and sped out the driveway, heading straight home.  Because of Ronnie’s outburst, she was actually starting to feel excited about finally leaving East Stroudsburg.