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

[niftynovelist]

3:11 pm


Chapter Ten Twelve(????)

Past

After fifth grade, all sixth graders were shuttled to Mt. Plains Middle School one town away.... Sixth grade came and went much as fifth grade did. Seventh grade marked a point in Jess and Alex's friendship that would test their ....

When Jess was twelve, a tragedy occurred that raised her hackles. It would mark a definite end of her childhood and the beginning of what her mother would term adolescent hood, but what Jess would silently argue was darker than that. November seventeenth would be a day that she would remember for the rest of her life, and it would be a day that she would try to forget there after. It was a Saturday, and she remembered waking up, making and eating breakfast, and getting dressed before all hell broke loose, before the shit hit the fan, and before everything crumbled, more for Alex than for her.

"There's an ambulance outside," her mother exclaimed at approximately ten... eleven thirty that morning, one hand pushing away the curtain in the living room to peer across the street.

Jess, busy in the kitchen at the small table where the McCann family had set up the family computer where she was working on a final draft of a school paper, got up and ran into the living room.

"And... an ambulance?" she asked, kneeling on the couch to peer out the window.

An ambulance, it's red and blue lights flashing, sat across the street in front of Alex's house. The front door was open and Jess could see people moving about past the door. A sharp intake of breath occured and she covered her mouth.

"Oh god, what if it's Alex?" she asked, her imagination concocting all sorts of situations that would require an ambulance. Knowing the house he lived in and Marge's temperament, it wasn't difficult for Jess to imagine. Jess looked up at her mother.

Her mother, stray wisps of graying hair mixed with her honey blond hair, looked down at Jess. "I hope he's alright too, sweetie," she said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I have to call him," Jess said, jumping up from the couch and dashing into the kitchen.

"Jess, now isn't going to be a very good time to call," her mother said as Jess picked up the phone and began to dial Alex's phone number.

Jess paused, her hand shaking as she held the phone cradled in her hand. "But, I have to know that Alex is ok," she said. "What's if he's hurt? What if something happened to him? Oh God, mommy, he's my friend. Alex is..." Throwing her head back, Jess wailed as she used to do when she was little.

Her mother wrapped her arms around Jess, rubbing her back in soothing circles until her daughter calmed down. Sniffling, Jess wiped her eyes.

From outside, faint wails could be heart, and Jess and her mother moved into the living room, Jess at the window and her mother opening the front door. Jess, glancing at her mother, dropped off the couch and joined her mother at the door. From the open door, a stretcher exited pushed by two men. Marge stood on the front stoop, her face in her hands and strained wails coming from her throat. Alex, to Jess' relief, stood beside her, his head bowed and his shoulders hunched. He crossed his arms across his stomach, hugging himself in grief.

Jess stood on their front stoop, watching as the men directed the stretcher, a sheet covering what was obviously a body on the stretcher. Alex, looking up, met her eyes. From where she stood, she could tell that he was crying. Marge and Alex watched as the men loaded the stretcher into the awaiting ambulance, closed the doors, and drove away, the sirens silent as the ambulance drove down the street, turned the corner and disappeared.

OOO

Alex was absent from school for the rest of the week, returning the following Monday. By then, everybody had heard what had happened, the middle school rumor mill churning and chugging out rumor after rumor. As the days passed, the rumors grew and grew like a contagious fungus that consumed the whole school. It festered and pooled in circles of students standing in hallways, crawling across floors and infiltrating classroom with death, the talk of death, and the thought of death. It was the worst kind of rumor, no matter the version, because it couldn't and wouldn't get any worse. There was nothing worse than death, especially the death of one of their classmates.

While everybody had known Eric Munez, many being friends with him, and all knowing that he was ill, most didn't know the extent of his illness. Teachers, upon learning that Eric had what was called Cystic Fibrosis, snatched up the opportunity for a teaching moment, having students write research papers, watch movies, read books, and look up information on Cystic Fibrosis. It was a perfect teaching moment, much being learned, but to most of the school, and many of the students, Eric's illness was removed from Eric himself. Yes, he was often absent from school, Alex visiting his classroom teachers to gather his homework at the end of the day, however the students never connected the fact that Cystic Fibrosis was a severe disease, one that often lead to death, with their classmate.

A memorial assembly was held midway through the week on Wednesday, much of the students excited that they had a free pass out of their sixth, seventh, and eighth period classes. Jess and Elizabeth didn't see the benefit of the memorial. They both, frankly, would have rather been in class, learning rather than sitting in the cafeteria, the tables pushed against the wall and folding chairs lined up in neat rows. Alex missed the memorial, though Jess and Elizabeth secretly were glad for the fact for the amount of rough housing, paper airplanes, notes passed, and whispered comments unrelated to the subject at hand that passed through the cafeteria during the memorial. They cried, they sobbed, they held each others hands throughout the entire memorial, both of them knowing and being friends with Eric. His death wasn't something to benefit from and his memorial brought up heart wrenching memories and feelings of almost overwhelming grief instead of gratitude.

On Monday, when Alex returned to school, he didn't take the school bus, showing up in Jess' homeroom. He shuffled into the room, pale faced, and sat down in his seat next to Jess. Jess who hadn't seen him since before Eric's death, Marge not allowing it on grounds of Alex grieving, leaned over.

"Hey," she whispered as their homeroom teacher walked into the room.

Alex sat down, glanced up at her, and slumped in his chair.

"I'm so sorry about Eric, Alex," she said.

"Thanks," he whispered back, meeting her eyes with wary reluctance.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

He shrugged.

"Alex, we're glad to see that you're ready to return to school," their homeroom teacher greeted as the morning announcements began on the television screen.

The typical announcements consisting of after school activities, what was for before breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack, special events, visitors to the school, upcoming field trips, and the usual blabber was broadcast, along with reminders to see the school counselor and grief adviser that was visiting their school for the next week or so if they thought that they wanted to talk.

"I went to see her the other day," Jess whispered to Alex. "She's really nice."

Alex nodded wordlessly.

"She has tootsie roll pops on her desk," she continued. "Lots of orange ones."

He glanced up at her.

"What?" Jess asked softly, tilting her head gently.

Alex shook his head, folding his arms and resting his head on them.

OOO

Alex spent the entire lunch period with his head down at the table he sat at with Jess and Elizabeth. No matter of gentle prodding, sweet bribes, or pestering by Jess and Elizabeth would draw him out of his silence. Midway through lunch, Alex excused himself to the bathroom, returning ten minutes later. Jess noticed tear tracks down his cheeks. She exchanged a look with Elizabeth and drained the rest of her milk carton. The bell signalling the end of lunch rang, the three friends standing from their seats. As they walked out of the cafeteria, a group of people approached them, specifically Alex.

"Alex?" Ally said, smiling softly at him, the gesture lost on her distastefull choice in clothing and her abandonment of her friends years earlier.

However, Alex stopped, turning towards Ally. "What?" he asked heavily.

"I'm sorry about Eric," she said. "He was my friend too." Ally sniffed, wiping at her eyes. Lacy handed her a handkerchief.

Not answering, he merely moved on.

Jess turned around and faced Ally. "If this is what you call friendship," she said, gesturing between the two of them, "then you're a shitty friend."

The girls standing around Jess and Ally gasped, a few eavesdropping boys belting out a chorus of 'oohs' and 'ahhs.'

Ally wrinkled her nose. "I wasn't speaking of my friendship, or lack there of, with you," she said snottily.

"Oh, then you must have been speaking of your friendship with Eric, because everybody knows you two were tight," Jess said.

Pressing her lips together, Ally narrowed her eyes at Jess. She gave her a moment's consideration before spinning on her heel and stalking away.

"Good riddance," Elizabeth said, gripping her backpack's straps as the two girls moved through the hallway.

"I can't believe we were friends with her," Jess said. "God, it's pathetic."

Elizabeth smiled. "Whatever, let's not waste valuable chat space on her," she said.

"Good idea," she said, following the crowd of students filtering down the hallways to their sixth period classes.

As they walked away, Jess glanced back, catching sight of Alex's departing form, his head bobbing in and out of the crowd of students. Her heart gave a jilt, and she widened her eyes, turning back around. Jess frowned.

"What?" Elizabeth asked, glancing at her.

Jess shook her head. "Nothing; it's nothing, Elizabeth," she said.

"Alright," Elizabeth said, perusing a new book she'd checked out from the library the other day.

"How can you read and walk at the same time?" Jess asked her, changing the subject.

Elizabeth shrugged. "Same way that you talk and walk at the same time." She grinned as she looked up.

"Har har," Jess said.

Gym class, being their next class, was held in one of the two gyms in the school. The girls and the boys each had separate changing rooms and required gym uniforms each wore. Jess and Elizabeth filtered into the girl's locker room, Jess going to her locker and spinning the lock. Elizabeth carried on further into the room, her locker several yards away. Besides Jess, Lacy came to stand next to her, opening her locker as well.

"Hello, Jess," she said, smiling sweetly.

Jess glanced at Lacy. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Just to say 'hi' Can't I say hi?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

One of Lacy's friends, Heather, approached and regarded Jess. "So, how old are you, Jess?" she asked.

Removing her shirt and pulling on her gym tee shirt, Jess frowned, pulling her blond hair out of her collar of the shirt. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I'm twelve, just like you." Jess looked at Heather and Lacy, who had giggled at the question, as if they were idiots.

"Are you sure?" Heather asked.

Jess reached into her locker for her shorts. "Um, yeah, quite sure. Now, go away," she said, knowing they were up to no good.

"Well, I was just asking because, well, you know," Heather said, gesturing at Jess and then at herself and Lacy.

Jess, her pair of shorts in hand and in the middle of unbuttoning her jeans, stopped. "No, I don't know," she said. "And I don't really care."

"You look like a little grade schooler. I mean," Lacy said, filling in for Heather. "I mean, like, you've... you're as flat as a board. Are you, like..." She giggled. "A boy?"

Heather laughed. "A boy," she tittered on.

Rolling her eyes, Jess slammed the locker door and stalked away. Elizabeth, who's locker was a few aisles away, was finishing up getting dressed, throwing her long hair up into a pony tail. "Hey," she said and then saw that Jess still had her jeans on. "Aren't you getting dressed?"

"I'll change here," she said, slipping out of her jeans and pulling her shorts on.

"Oh, come on, Jess," Lacy said, following Jess.

Elizabeth frowned.

"They keep saying I'm a boy," Jess muttered to Elizabeth.

"That's ridiculous," Elizabeth said, finishing tying her hair back and neatly closing her locker door with a click, reattaching her lock.

Jess slipped her shoes back on.

"So, really, Jess...is your name really Jesse?" Heather asked.

A few other girls gathered behind Lacy and Heather. Ally, who showed up late to gym after being dismissed during lunch, looked on with curiosity.

Ally grinned. "Jess is totally a boy. I grew up with her, so I should know." She placed a hand on her hips.

Her proclamation made the notion that Jess McCann was a boy truth rather than fiction. The surrounding girls tittered with laughter and ridicule. Jess sighed and tied her shoes, pushing through the crowd and out the locker room.

"What is going on over here?" she could hear as she left the room, the changing room attendant shouting at the girls.

Several of the girls squealed, running out of the changing room.

Jess and Elizabeth walked into Gym Number Two, the gym classes that were held during that period lining up on the floor in their separate classes and in neat, orderly lines. Jess walked over to the far group and plopped down. Elizabeth sat down a few rows away. Lacy and Heather and Ally and the rest of the girls joined them, sitting down in their assigned spots, whispering back and forth. The boys sitting among the girls leaned over, the ones who cared at least, to gather the latest gossip. Jess turned red, ducking her head.

"Hey, Jesse," one of the boys, Adam from the birthday party, tapped her on the shoulder.

"My name is Jess. So, get it right," Jess snapped at him.

"Whoa, dude, easy on the anger," he said, holding his hands up. He smiled.

Jess barred her teeth at him.

"Just as I told you, Adam, she's actually a boy. Ally confirmed it," Lacy said.

"Yeah, they grew up with each other, so she would know," Heather added.

Burying her head in her hands, Jess groaned.

OOO

Once school had finished, Jess sighed in relief, boarding the bus to go home. A vapid and terrible rumor of her being a boy instead of a girl had spread like wildfire, middle school students being magnets for any and all rumors, especially if it was cruel and harmfull to another person. Climbing onto the bus, she dropped down next to Alex, who sat staring out the window unseeingly.

"Hi," she said.

He turned to her. "Hey," he answered.

"Are you ok?" she asked, for the moment shifting her mind to her friend.

Alex shrugged. "I heard that rumor about you," he said.

"I was talking about you."

"Yeah, so I was talking about you."

Jess found herself blushing, much to her surprise, and ducked her head. Clearing her throat, she pushed her hair out of her eyes. "You want to come over to my house?" she asked. "I mean, I know there will be a lot going on at your house and all...but..."

Alex nodded fervently. "Yeah, yeah, I want to come over," he said almost desperately.

"Ok," she said.

"Jess?" he asked.

Jess looked over at Alex, her eyes roaming briefly over his tall stature, her friend having hit a growth spurt the previous summer. He now literally towered over her short frame, much teasing and jesting occurring over their height difference. His eyes were black, as they always had been. Jess remembered thinking they looked like licorice when she was younger. Looking at him now, she thought that they still looked like licorice. His hair, cut close to his head, Marge having chopped it off weeks ago after being sick of seeing it messy, still harbored a certain messiness. His skin she thought resembled coffee, coffee with lots of cream, quite like the coffee her father made in the morning. Jess quickly looked away from him, her heart pattering. She felt her cheeks redden again.

"What?" Alex asked.

"Huh?" Jess asked, giving him barely a side long glance.

"You just blushed and looked away," he said. "It was weird."

"Oh...right, it's nothing." She looked at him full on and smiled.

Alex gave her a weak smile back before sighing and meshing his fingers together. He looked again out the window, leaning his forehead against the glass. The coolness of the glass leaked into his skin, soothing the almost fevered heat and gut wrenching pain that had lingered there ever since Eric had died. His death turned his stomach, gave him nightmares, and made him want to puke. Taking in a deep breath, he closed his eyes, focusing on the gentle swaying of the bus, the sounds of two dozen other middle school kids all talking at once around him, and Jess' presence right next to him. It was reassuring, as it always was.

"Alex," she said, tugging on his shirt.

"Huh?" He looked up, craning his neck around to look at her.

"We're at our stop," she said.

"Oh," he said, grabbing his bag and standing up.

Jess and Alex stepped off the bus at the bus stop that was located down the street from them. Normally, Alex would cross the street and walk home on his side of the street, Jess and him talking back and forth until he reached Marge's house where he would quietly go inside, hoping everything was calm and fine on the inside. Often, Marge would be on an irrate rage filled rampage, one of the other foster kids screaming or causing a ruckus. If that was the case, he would retreat quickly to his bedroom where Eric would be either sleeping or playing with his toys or doing homework that the tutor that the social services agency had sent once it was apparent that he was too sick to attend school. However, now with Eric gone, his brother dead, Alex came home to an angry house, a violent foster mother, and no brother, nobody to tell him that everything would be alright. The empty bed haunted him, stripped of Eric's sheets so another foster child could use them. Alex had overheard Marge talking about putting another foster kid in Eric's old bed, something that Alex didn't want to happen. It was his brother's bed, and the room they had shared ever since Alex had been living in Marge's house since he was five. He didn't want to think about another kid sleeping in Eric's bed, hanging his clothes in Eric's side of the closet, and playing with Eric's toys.

"Come on," Jess said, pulling Alex along the sidewalk.

He glanced at his house, the yellow paint faded ever so slightly. Penelope sat on the front stoop, swaying back and forth. She held her dolly in her hand, running her hands along the doll's worn hair. Alex looked away.

Jess' house always smelled of home for Alex, and home often smelled like cookies.

"Hey sweetie," Jess' mother said, kissing Jess on the top of the head as she traipsed in through the back door.

Alex followed, and Jess' mother spotted him, her eyes growing teary and her arms reaching out. "Oh, Alex," she said, pulling him into a hug. "How are you, sweetie?" she asked.

"I'm ok," he muttered into her blue and white ruffled apron that she tied around her waist.

"Really?" she asked, pulling him away from her and looking down at him.

Although Alex towered over Jess, he had yet to grow taller than her mother, though only time would tell.

Alex shrugged, looking at the clean, tiled kitchen floor. Then, he glanced at Jess who stood in the doorway, her backpack in hand.

"I wanted to go over to your house and see if I could help any," she said, "but things have looked a little crazy over there."

Alex nodded. "Yeah, a little crazy," he uttered.

"Do you need anything?" she asked.

He shrugged again. "I'm ok," he said.

"Mom?" Jess said.