This story is based off Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson and the 2007 movie. Except in this version. Leslie Doesn't die.
I own none of the following characters, names, or fictional locations.
Also in this series, I use the name Jesse Aarons. I thought the S gave his name alittle more meaning than a blunt stop after N.
Other than that, I tried not to stray to far from the original Bridge To Terabithia. But of course, this is set 4 years later, so not everything is exactly the same.
You can also bet relationships won't stay the same either.
Chapter 1: Warm Front
It was mid April.
Extremely hot weather stuck Lark Creek with temputures in the 100s.
Leslie and Jess were lying up in the treehouse trying to keep cool.
Other than that it was a completly "Normal" day in Terabithia
Both of them decided against fighting Terabithias ruthless enemys due to the unbearable heat.
Even walking or moving took great effort.
"Oh, its so hot" Leslie groaned blowing her hand in her face to attempt to keep cool.
"Yeah" Jess replied as he tried to think of cool winter days.
Jesse's house's air cooling system couldn't handle the excess heat and had broken down last week.
Infact most houses in Lark Creek, didn"t have aircooling since most of them broke. Except for Burkes...
Leslie"s parents had rebuilt their house's heater and air conditioning last spring. They had spent more money on their house than anyone in the area.
Leslie felt guilty to stay in her house all week while Jess suffered in the heat .alone.
So she stayed out with him and whenever she could, offered him to spend the night at her house.
Jess turned over on his side and glanced at Leslie.
"Leslie?" he asked miserably.
"Yeah Jess?" She looked at him with a gleam in her eyes that appeared to be so joyful and ongoing.
Leslie had many face expressions and Jesse knew some of them. He thought of it as a secret language between him and her, when words weren't enough or when they had to be quiet during school.
"I...uh...well...could we...um...go over to your house so I can show you my latest sketchs?" He mumbled.
He stuttered looking down at a chipped piece of the treehouse's wood floor and kept his eyes focused towards it.
Leslie thought for a second. She got up on her feet and looked down at Jess as he continued to pointlessly stare at the chipped piece of wood.
Jess was afraid that she might say no.
"Sure!" she said as she walked over to the tip of the latter and climbed down it.
Jess sighed with relief and followed her down.
Soon the two were on their way to the Burkes house.
When they got there, Judy was sitting on the porch drinking lemonade, and writing in her soon to be published book named ( The Good Life ).
"Hey!" she called when she saw Leslie and Jess walking up.
"Hey" Jess and Leslie said as they stood in front of her. Jess was alittle bit cautious to be going into the Burkes house because he felt he was so insignificant and meaningless.
Leslie turned to Jess and glanced at him. Her eyes sparkled. Jess nodded and walked inside while Leslie talked with Judy.
Jess Carefully trouted in. not reallizing that Bill was sitting in a lounge chair, reading his 46th published book.
Jess thought to himself about how dedicatied Leslie"s parents were to books and to the making of them.
"Hey Bill" Jess said as he sat in a chair across from him. Not sure what to do next.
Bill managed to mumble alittle, and then finally came to a "Hello"
Eventully Leslie signeled to Jess as she came in, to go up to her room, on the second floor.
Quietly Leslie and Jess found their ways into her room and sat on the floor.
"So Jess" Leslie murmered.
First Jess grinned, and opened his book. He turned to the back of the book, while Leslie's eyes gazed around the room. She didn't want to make Jess nervous, so she didn't direct her glance at him.
After a few seconds when he found the right page, he handed it to Leslie. She sighed and looked.
The first Picture was of a Bridge leading into a forest. With the suns rays streaming through the trees. Leslie almost seemed to be engulfed by it.
"Amazing!" She said.
Jess smiled and decided to ask her something. He thought of the words but couldn't say them.
As Leslie handed the sketchbook back, she decided to get up and sit at her desk as she wrote something on a piece of notepaper.
Jess appeared curious and decided to wait to see if she would say anything.
Monments later she sat back down next to him.
"What do you wanna do now?" Leslie asked in a friendly tone.
Jess finally had the courage to say what he thought of.
"Leslie, Can you sit on your bed as I drawl a detailed picture of you?" "That way every year we can compare to see how much you've changed!"
She thought about it for a moment and curiously wondered about it. She slightly giggled and smirked in a strange way.
After a few seconds, she stood up, wandered around her room, and crash landed on her bed. Leslie turned around and smiled ackwardly.
"Go ahead!" She exclaimed.
She seemed to be acting oddly, Jess thought.
But he assumed it was due to him asking a strange request.
15 minutes later Jess had completed her face, but needed to fill it in with colors and drawl a backround.
Leslie looked like she was asleep but Jess knew she was just pretending.
"Sorry Les" He softly mumbled.
Leslie opened her eyes and smiled. She was bent forward leaning on her arms that were folded in her lap.
"Its okay, i've must have been in the heat too long." She replied.
Jess smiled slightly knowing what a horrible liar Leslie was to him. She could fool anyone in all of Lark Creek including her own parnets, but not Jesse Aarons. He knew her more than anyone did.
Jess softly brushed the last bit of paint onto the sketch.
"Ok, I'm done now." He stated.
Leslie burst up from the bed, casually walked out of the room, and down the stairs.
"What did I do?" thought Jess.
After a few seconds in mild shock, Jess crawled over to her desk, pulled out the paints she had given him 4 Christmas's ago and filled in the sketch. It seemed to come to life when he colored in Leslie's face.
Her blueish green eyes shinning and her blonde hair dangiling.
Jess felt alittle it embarrssed as he had never drawn a picture of Leslie before in extreme detail.
He carefully put away the panits and ran down the stairs to show Leslie his creation.
She was sitting on a leather chair drinking cold leamonade.
"Do you want some Lemonade? She asked softly looking up at him from, legs crossed in the chair.
Jess didn't anwser. He was obviously more concerned about his painting than lemonade.
She smiled and reached her hand out, intending for Jess to hand her the newly drawn picture.
Jess quickly gave it to her. He smirked to himself and awaited what she thought of it.
"Jesse Aarons!" she said teasingly, trying to sound as convincing as possible.
"What?" "Are you jealous cause you can't drawl as good as me?" he replied jokingly.
Both of them laughed
Soon it was time for him to go home.
"See you tonight" Leslie stated saddly.
Jess wondered what she meant "See you Tonight." Usually after Jess went home, she wouldn't come over unless it was for dinner.
"Bye" Jess quickly said, as he walked off towards home.
Please Review this story, so i know what needs to be changed or if i'm doing it properly..
Thanks,