One Day Past NaNo Year Four - Chapter Eight, Part One

[niftynovelist]

2:49 pm


Chapter Eight

Past

The year Jess and Alex turned nine, Jess got a puppy for her birthday. ...With her birthday occurring at the beginning of summer, Jess took the full opportunity for birthday parties... Chester, a tan and white bull dog, came to the McCann family as a tiny puppy, his wrinkled face and kind eyes staring up at her in such a way that she immediately became enamored with the dog. Sweet tempered and as smart as could be, Jess took to Chester as Chester took to Jess. Best friends, they were inseparable.

"Watch this," she proclaimed one summer morning.

Alex had stayed the night, Eric being sick again. After breakfast, they had taken Chester out into the background. The emerald green grass was barely dry, the sun still working its magic on the dew. It being the beginning of June, the pressing heat of July and August were... was kept at bay in return for cool mornings that warmed into tepid afternoons.

Grinning, Jess reached into her capri pocket and extracted half of a liver treat. "Chester, sit!"

Chester's bottom plopped down on the ground.

"Good boy," Jess praised, giving him the liver treat and scratching him behind his left ear. Chester squinted his eyes in pleasure.

"He sure is smart," Alex said. "What else does he know?"

"Just a few tricks," Jess said, reaching for another liver treat.

"Can I see?" he asked, sitting at the edge of the McCann's patio in a pair of jean shorts and an orange shirt.

Jess glanced at him and nodded, her blond hair having grown long, comparably long to how she kept it when she was younger. The top half was pulled back and fastened with a barette her grandmother had sent for her birthday.

"Chester, down boy," she instructed to the dog, danging a treat in front of his face.

Obediently, the puppy flopped down onto the dewy grass.

"Oh, good boy," she crooned, scratching his head while feeding him another liver treat.

Behind them, the screen door opened a crack. "I hope you're not feeding him too many of those liver treats," Jess' mother said, her small face peeking outside. She wore an apron and the aroma of pastries drifted outside.

"We're not, honest," she said, smiling up at her mother.

"Alright, well, remember what your father and I told you," she said. "It's your responsibility to care for Chester."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Don't give me an attitude, young lady," her mother admonished.

"I wasn't," she said.

"It sure sounded like it."

"Sorry," Jess muttered, staring at her knobbly knees.

Her mother smiled softly. "Either way, why don't you two take him for a walk?" she suggested, the suggestion less of an option and more of a friendly demand.

"Ok," Jess said, getting to her feet. "I'll get his leash."

Picking up Chester, she dropped him into Alex's lap and ran inside, returning with a red leash moments later.

"Ok, Chester, let's go for a walk," she said.

Tongue lolling out, Chester panted happily. Reaching down, she hooked the leash onto his collar.

"Ready?" she asked Alex.

He nodded, standing up, his height now towering considerably over Jess. Together, they walked through the backyard, opening the side gate to the fence her father had put up a few weeks ago in preparation for Chester's arrival. Moving to the front yard, Alex headed forward to cross the street.

Jess paused, shaking her head. "Let's go this way," she said, pointing down the street in the direction of their elementary school.

"We went that way last time," he said. "Let's cut through my yard and go to the park."

"I don't want to," she said stubbornly, glancing off to the side.

Alex sighed. "Marge is at work," he said.

Jess shook her head, refusing to step foot on Alex's side of the street ever since her encounter with Marge in Alex's house two years ago.

"It's ok, really," he reassured. "She's not there."

"I still don't want to." Jess shook her head and backed away.

"Ok," Alex said quietly.

Chester sniffed at the grass, his stubby legs high stepping over the unmowed blades of grass.

Jess glanced at Alex, nudging him in the shoulder. He turned to look at her. "What?" he asked softly.

"You're my best friend," she said, smiling at him.

"I know," he responded quietly.

"Aren't you going to say that I'm your best friend?"

"You know you are, so why do I have to say it?" he asked as they began walking down the sidewalk towards the corner of Cherry Lane and Yew Boulevard.

Jess shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Should we go see if Ally wants to play with us?"

Alex shrugged. "Sure," he said.

The two of them and Chester climbed the four steps leading up to Ally's front porch. Jess rang the door bell and her mother answered.

"Hello Jess and Alex," she greeted. "Hold on a moment."

Turning away Ally's mother hollered out into the house. "Ally, Jess and Alex are here," she called out.

Ally's voice answered, her words undecipherable from outside the house.

Her mother yelled something back, stepping away from the door, the exchange of words repeated several times.

Jess glanced at Alex and shrugged her shoulders.

Ally's mother returned to the door. "Sorry guys," she said. "I guess Ally doesn't want to play today."

"Why?" Jess asked.

"She's feeling a little under the weather."

"Oh, well tell her we hope she feels better," Jess said.

"Yeah," Alex added.

Ally's mother smiled and closed the door. Descending the steps, Jess glanced over at Alex. "What should we do now?"

"Wanna go to the park?" he asked.

"Sure, but let's go the long way," she said.

He sighed and laughed, shaking his head. "Alright," he said.

One block over from Cherry Lane, the subdivision had built a lovely little playground two years ago where an old strip mall had once existed. An entire acre... neighborhood block of grassy land stretched out, the area dotted with trees, a perfect place to run free. In the middle of the park, they developers had built a playground, a very large playground. Four slides spiraled and wound down from the climbing structure, one having dozens of rolling cylinders that you slid down, the rolling bars making you go extremely fast if you got somebody to push you. The climbing structure, built out of plastic coated metal, boasted several levels of surfaces to play on, each accessible by either stairs, ladders, or climbing poles. Various other sorts of ladders, some twisted into interesting shapes where you may end up upside down if you began climbing rightside up, arced from the play platform to the woodchips below. In the middle of the climbing structure, a large platform with an awning... a roof sat.

Making their way around the neighborhood, Jess and Alex walked through the grass, the dew having dried up in the growing heat of the morning. Playing on the playground, a few toddlers and preschoolers screamed and romped through the woodchips. Their mothers sat on the benches circling the playground. Glancing at each other, deciding wordlessly that the little babies weren't worth the trouble to play on the playground, they continued around the playground to the grassy area.

"What do you think it'll be like when we're ten?" Jess asked once they tied Chester's leash to a "No Dog Walking" sign. She sat down on the ground and then laid down, folding her hands under her head.

Alex dropped down beside her. "I don't know, probably a lot like nine. What does nine feel like?" He wasn't due to turn nine until July.

Jess shrugged and then took the time to truly think about it. "It's a whole lot better than seven."

"Or six."

She grinned. "Or five."

"Oh, God, let's not be five again," he said.

"You were so quiet. Remember how I would follow you around?"

"You were so annoying."

"But you loved me," she crooned, turning to him.

"Did not. Love is gross," he said. "Eric says he loves a girl from his class last year."

"Eww," Jess said, and after a moment asked, "What's her name?"

"Holly," he answered. "She's in a wheelchair and he says they resonate on the same frequency, or something."

"What's that mean?"

Alex glanced at her. "I don't know...that he likes her?"

"Eric's weird sometimes," she said thoughtfully.

"He's just smart."

She grew quiet for a few moments before asking her next question.

"Why's he so sick all the time? I know it's cause of his Cystic Fibrosis, but he wasn't like this when we were really little," she said.

"Yeah, he was, just not when you knew us," he said. "The house we lived in before Marge's house, I barely remember it, but I remember Eric was always coughing and having trouble breathing. But they smoked."

"Like cigarettes?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Have you ever smoked a cigarette?"

Alex laughed. "You've known me since I was five, what do you think?"

Jess giggled. "I guess that's a no."

Chester, who had busied himself near a tree sniffing out various dogs and squirrels who had been there previously tired of sticking his nose in other smells and trotted over to where Jess and Alex lay in the grass. Wiggling his butt, he stuck his nose in Alex's hair.

"Hey, Chester, stop that," he squawked, leaning upwards to get away from Chester's wet nose.

"Aww, he likes you," Jess said.

Alex picked Chester up and deposited him between him and Jess. The puppy sniffed at their clothing, pressing his cold and wet nose against their arms.

"Hey, Jess...Alex!"

Elizabeth approached, waving energetically at Jess and Alex. Dressed in a pair of simple jeans and a grey tee shirt, she completed her look with a pair of blue and white sneakers.

"Hey Elizabeth," Jess greeted, pushing herself up onto her elbows.

Alex did the same. "What's going on?" he asked.

She sat down across from them, placing the book she had previously held in the crook of her arm down on the ground.

"Not much," she said. "But I did persuade my mom to let me ride my bike all the way over here." She grinned proudly.

"All the way here?" Alex asked.

"You knew we were here?" Jess followed up with. "You have to share those psychic powers!"

Elizabeth giggled, pushing a strand of brown hair that had escaped her braid out of her eyes. "No I went to your house first," she said to Jess. "Your mom said you were here."

Chester, at the sight of Elizabeth, someone he had yet to meet, waddled up to the girl, sticking his nose in her hand.

"Oh, he's so cute."

"His name's Chester and he's three months old," Jess said.

"Is he house broken yet?" she asked. "It took us forever to get Riley to stop peeing in the house."

Alex grimaced.

"Not yet," Jess said, gazing admiring at her puppy. "But I'm working on it. If you see him peeing outside, make sure to tell him taht he's a good boy."

"And he likes being scratched behind his ears."

"His left ear," Jess added.

"What a cute little puppy you are," she cooed, picking him up.

Yapping, he squirmed before Elizabeth brought him to her face to kiss his snout. "So cute."

Cocking his head to the side, Chester decided that he would much rather lick her face, and promptly did so. Elizabeth, used to Riley, their hundred pound great dane doing the same, just giggled.

"So, where's Ally?" she asked after a minute of Chester attention. She put the puppy down in the grass, Chester sticking his nose in and out of the soft blades of grass, his eyes intent on something within. "She's usually with you guys by now?"

Jess shrugged. "She didn't want to come out and play," she said.

"Didn't want to play yesterday either," Alex added, flopping back down to gaze up at the clouds. "Does that one look like a flower to you?" He pointed up at the clouds.

"Kinda," Elizabeth observed before turning to Jess. "What do you mean she didn't want to play? She always wants to play."

Jess shrugged, picking at the grass. "I don't know. Her mom enrolled her in that cheerleading club at the park district this summer," she said.

"She did?" Alex asked, craning his head around.

"The one that Lacy is a part of?"

Lacy Edwards moved to their neighborhood last year in the middle of the school year. Sporting the coolest clothes in the most up to date styles, she strutted around the third (or is it fourth?) grade like she owned the place. Ally had taken to her like butter to bread, Jess, Alex, and Elizabeth tagging along more often than not.

"I guess," Jess muttered.

"Lacy's a stuck up snot," Elizabeth said, flipping through her book. "I don't see why Ally would want to hang out with her."

"It's not nice to say people are stuck up snots," Alex mentioned idly, waving his hand in the air from where he lay.

"It's always not nice of her to call other people names," Elizabeth said. "And I heard her call you some pretty nasty names."

"Like what?" He sat up.

"She said that her brother said that you were a faggot," she whispered.

Alex frowned. "What's that mean?"

"I don't know, but the way she said it wasn't very nice," she said. "Her brother isn't very nice either."

"I also heard something," Jess spoke up.

Alex turned to her.

"The last day of school I heard her talking about how you carrying around a purple back pack makes you a pansy," she said. "She said only homos like that stuff."

"What's a homo?" he asked.

The girls shrugged. "But she said it in a nasty way. I'm glad you didn't hear her," Jess said.

"Does it matter that I carry around a purple back pack?"

"No," Jess said. "At least it shouldn't."

"It doesn't matter," Elizabeth said.

"I like purple," he said. "What's so wrong with that?"

OOO

Fourth grade began with a fight, a huge brawling fight that landed everybody involved in the principals office with huge trouble hanging over all their heads. It all began in the school yard before the bell had rung for the beginning of school.

"Nice shoes," Nick Edwards snorted at Alex.

Alex glanced down at his shoes, an old, worn pair of Converse with pink shoe laces threaded through the eyelets. That morning, as he had scrambled to put his shoes on, he'd discovered that the old laces had broken on his shoes. Not wanting to bother Marge or Hank, he'd walked into Penelope's room, the girl oblivious to everything around her, and snatched up a pair of her shoes, unthreading the shoelaces from her shoes. Quickly, he laced up his shoes and dashed of the house.

"Thanks," Alex said, knowing his comment was everything but a compliment.

"That wasn't a compliment," the other boy said, snarling at Alex.

"So?" Alex asked.

"So, I think they look gay," he said. "Who wears pink?"

"I do," Alex said.

"Are you gay?"

"No," he said.

"You even know what that means?"

Alex frowned. "Yeah," he said, even though he didn't.

"No you don't," Nick shot back.

"Oh, look, it's little Alex," a girl with bright, blond hair said, strolling up. She was everything that screamed hip and fashionable. Ally trailed behind her.