The Match That Lit The Fire
A/N: Hey! So this is my first fanfic, and I've got to say, this isn't really my thing but it's getting hard to pass the time between episodes so I thought I'd tackle something that bothered me a little; the break-up. Not the very idea of it but how very sudden it was. One episode ended with "power couple" and the cutest little scene, then in the next, Nick and Jess were over just like that, so I've written a bit of background as to how they came to the conclusion that they should break up in each of their minds.
In case you forgot, Rose is the blond teacher that Jess works with. I don't know her last name so I made it Gardner. The first part of this seems a little random but it's all important, I promise!
I'm going to write this in the past tense, third person narrative, which I actually find to be the most difficult but I think it's most fitting, so if you notice any mistakes, of course, mention them and I'll fix it.
Also, I know I repeat people's names a lot but there were just a lot of ambiguous pronouns otherwise and I wanted to be clear.
Jess' POV, Six weeks before the break-up.
"That's what she said!" Jess tried her best to glare at the group of boys from whom the remark came in reply to her statement; "It's a lot harder since it's just us." referring to the lack of chaperons, but couldn't help but smirk as she considered that the 'men' she lived with would have made the same comment, and were she not role-modeling for a group of impressionable teens, she probably would have too. Somehow, amidst everything going on with the reconstruction at Coolidge Middle School, she had ended up with a class of tenth graders from Coolidge High across town. It was another world from teaching the sixth grade but she was actually quite enjoying it. They were all so... human. It's much easier to relate to a fifteen year old than it is to an eleven year old.
There was an excited energy on their faces and in their voices as they all stood at the front of the class eager to go. Due to their poor budget and the lack of effort from the rest of the administration, these kids rarely got to go on school trips and were beyond excited, even though they were only going to the Griffith observatory. It had nothing to do with the poetry she was teaching in her English class but when somebody suggested a trip, she jumped at the opportunity to take them.
"So everyone needs a partner but after the mix ups and arguments last year, I'm afraid you won't be choosing your own, but you can ride with whomever you want on the bus and I'll assign you your partners when we get there." Jess listened to the expected sighs and mutterings amongst disappointed 'BFFs' who had already exchanged knowing glances at the mention of partners. She couldn't help but notice the glint in one of her student's, Hannah's, eyes as she told the class though, and she couldn't quite tell if it was relief, excitement, or disappointment.
"Okay follow Miss Gardner to the bus please, and if you don't already have one, please take a water bottle on your way out." The kids filed our of the classroom, talking loudly to one another about seating arrangements. Hannah strayed behind a little, trying her best not to catch the attention of her friends. She had long, straight, ginger hair, pale skin, and a petite but shapely figure. The teenager's eyes were huge like her own (Jess'), and just as bright, but a deep green rather than blue . She was such a beautiful girl but slouched nervously with her arms wrapped around herself all the time, clearly unaware of that fact. Jess wished more than anything that the girls Hannah's age could see themselves the way she saw them and could be just a little more secure in themselves.
Jess had been a teacher long enough to realize the student wanted to talk to her in private and decided to help her avoid suspicion.
"Hannah, will you please help me? I need somebody to carry that box there - the one just under my desk." She shyly bent down and took the box, peeking at the door to see that her friends were gone.
"So what's up?" Jess asked, taking the other box and three folders under her arm.
"Huh?" Hannah looked at her with feigned confusion and Jess just stared her down until she offered an embarrassed smile as if to say that something was indeed 'up'.
"Well, um, I know this is dumb, and it's not like I'm some little kid, although this kinda makes me sound like one and you'll probably say no and-" she was speeding up and lowering her voice as she spoke, in an embarrassed panic.
"Hannah! It's okay, you can ask or tell me anything, what's up?" Jess urged gently.
"About you picking partners for us, do you think you could pair me up with Tyler?" She closed her eyes, clearly wishing she hadn't said anything at all. Jess gave her a knowing look, a little smile playing on her face, trying her best not to look condescending or like she thought of Hannah as a little kid. She actually thought it was really sweet, and brave of her to ask. Jess had had crushes in high school of course – and one boyfriend, but she never did experience young love.
"Tyler huh?"
"Yeah, I mean at the school dance, all the other guys were trying to be all cool at the side of the gym and Tyler just walked right up in the middle of my favorite song and asked if I wanted to dance. I mean the song was 'One Week' by the BareNakedLadies so it's not like it was that romantic, but I don't know, I think it's nice." She stared at the box in her hands as they walked, never looking up although she couldn't help the smile spreading across her lips as she thought of him. Jess resisted the urge to cry or bring her and Tyler into a big hug at hearing this and settled for a smile. It was so beautifully innocent. "I can't believe I'm telling my teacher this." She mumbled as she finished her thought.
"I think I can arrange for him to be your partner." Jess told her with a little wink. They both laughed a little as they approached the bus. Everybody had already taken their seats and were settled, anxious to leave.
"Well, sorry, I guess you're gonna have to sit next to the teacher on this trip" She pulled a sympathetic face, and noticed that Rose had squished herself awkwardly amongst a group of kids at the back of the bus. She gave her a questioning look before gesturing for Hannah to take the window seat. Jess was actually quite glad she was sitting next to her. Her students didn't often open up to her, and although they obviously couldn't continue their discussion with the possibility of Tyler or one of the other kids hearing from a few rows back, she wanted to keep talking to her.
Hannah wordlessly offered her teacher one of her ear-phones as she turned on her music. A little thrown, she accepted, expecting Bieber but pleasantly surprised to her The Smiths. Jess' phone whistled indicating a text, and since she had made it clear to her students that they could use theirs on the bus, she saw no reason not to check it.
Nicks name was written across the screen along with an icon indicating he had sent her a picture. She slid the screen to the right to see it and was met by a picture of her peach butter lotion.
"Can this go on toast or is it like that vanilla stuff I accidentally used on ice-cream once? Did I tell you about that?" She couldn't help but let out a little laugh through her nose. She could feel Hannah looking at her, but she didn't mind much.
"No, it's not for toast but you just made my day. lol" She typed quickly, wondering if the girl beside her was impressed by her extremely fast texting. "And by the way, you didn't tell me about the vanilla stuff. Was it my face cream or make-up remover? :P" She added, her smile never wavering as she pressed send.
"I like your phone case" Hannah broke her Nick-induced trance.
"Oh thanks, I have like three rabbit cases. I'm not obsessed, it just happened." She laughed. Hannah smiled.
"You're talking to your boyfriend right?" Jess looked at her - not at all bothered by her nosiness, just surprised by her willingness to ask. She nodded in reply with a questioning smile.
"I can tell, you do that weird smile." Jess laughed at that.
"What weird smile?!"
"Well, not weird - just different. I only ever see you smile like that at your phone or at the guy waiting with coffee for you at lunch." Jess noted that Hannah was the fourth person to tell her she smiled differently at Nick, although she couldn't tell she was doing it, and wondered if he knew.
"Yeah, that's Nick." She flicked to her gallery to show her a picture, relieved when she narrowly missed clicking on the awkward topless picture he had sent her, with his arms flexed, and a lollipop in his mouth. She really didn't mind having this conversation with a student – she was an open book, she just didn't expect it. Teens are usually so awkward and shy with their teachers.
"So... do you live together?" Hannah asked, her face suddenly showing concern that she had crossed a boundary. Jess smiled to let her know that it was okay.
"Yes, no, not really... sort of." She replied, unable to stop her tongue. Hannah raised her eyebrows and let out a little laugh.
"Well we were already room-mates before we were... anything else, so yeah, we've actually been living together since like a year before we started dating." Jess explained, trying her best to avoid mentioning that she was sleeping with him even though she knew that the fifteen year old would have already assumed as much. "Actually we live right there!" She pointed at the top floor of the loft as the bus happened to drive down their street.
"So you were just like, room-mates with a guy?" Hannah asked, clearly a little weirded out by the idea.
"No, no, I was just room-mates with four guys." She noted the expression on Hannah's face. The one that everybody gave her, wordlessly saying "Wow! What were you thinking?" They both laughed and for the next thirty minutes of trip they talked consistently, as Hannah's playlist jumped through just about every decade since 1850, playing Billy Joel, then One Direction, then Vera Lynn. Jess asked her for the name of about three songs and artists, taking note in her phone. She discovered that Hannah's parents were still together, but her mother was always going on business trips to conferences, or meetings in far away states or countries and Jess already knew that her dad spent most of his time in Asia, following the money, which happened to be in the oil. Hannah mentioned that a nanny had been watching her on weekdays, and her older cousin who was "okay but never talks much" stayed on the weekends. She couldn't help but note that Hannah's Louis Vuitton school bag, Oakley Sunglasses, and what she almost refused to believe was the same stunning, casual, summer dress as Taylor Swift had worn on The Late Night Show the night before, was all accompanied by a broken look in her eyes as she talked about her parents, and she felt sorry for the lonely, seemingly unloved girl, despite how much she envied her designer shoes.
Still Jess' POV, One Week before the break-up.
The sound of the cops theme-tune filled the loft as well as Winston's loud singing along to it. He was putting on that deep, admittedly great voice, and his facial expressions couldn't help but make them all laugh. Nick sat in the corner of the sectional, Jess to his left, with her legs entwined comfortably with his thighs, one over his left and under his right, and the other doing the opposite, woven like material, as she graded papers. Winston was beside her, perched on the edge of his seat as he got excited watching the cops, assuming that that would be what his life would be like as soon as he graduated from the police academy. Schmidt sat on the chair on the other side of Nick, watching Winston sing with a smile.
"Do you hear that? Someone's knocking on 4C, yet nobody has moved in yet." Winston stood suspiciously, clearly trying to sound authoritative and like a cop. He got out his Academy ID card, pushing the pin through his T-shirt , and tweaking it as though it were a police badge. Jess tried not to let out an audible laugh slip out as she watched him, but Schmidt and Winston didn't try so hard, snickering as he pressed himself up against the door, jumping back with a slight squeal when there was a light tap from the other side of it. He put down the gun he had formed with his fingers, and opened the door to find a pale looking girl staring straight past him, moving her neck to take in the surroundings of the living-room.
"Hi Miss Day." Jess looked up from her paper, wide-eyed at Hannah who stood in the door frame.
She was dressed in her usual; an expensive dress, slight heels, and an expensive bag, looking about ten years older despite her baby face, but her face looked as though she had slept with make-up on, and her hair seemed as though it had probably looked pretty good hours ago, but stray strands hung loosely around her now bangs-framed face. Jess couldn't help but think she may have inspired the haircut when she came into school showing it off two weeks earlier. She bit her lip nervously, her eyes deep with concern.
"Hi Hannah." Jess stated, her facial expression now matching Hannah's. She untangled herself from Nick, suddenly very aware of her newly tanned legs, mostly exposed by her tiny striped pajama pants. Despite the fact that she had just said it out loud, she turned to Nick momentarily and mouthed; "That's Hannah!". Jess had talked about her a lot since the day of the field trip. She and Tyler had sat together on the way home on the bus, and although Hannah hadn't told her so directly, Jess was pretty sure she'd heard them discussing going to see a movie the next week. They'd been on vacation for the last week and a half, and the three days before that were in-service days on which only the teachers had to go to school to arrange things for the next semester so she hadn't seen her in a while and worried about her quite a bit.
She stood up, pulling at the legs of her shorts to cover the insides of her thighs as she approached the door. She stood for a moment not knowing what to do or say, before she snapped up as though she'd been nudged. "Come in sweetie." She moved to let her past, and glanced at Winston who moved and muted the TV. The guys shared a glance, concerned but unsure whether to stay where they were or go off to their respective rooms. Jess said nothing else for a moment, certain only that bombarding the girl with questions would not help, but allowing her to feel safe definitely would. She took her coat, hanging it by the door, but Hannah held tightly to her bag. At that moment, the kettle dinged, alerting Jess that her water was ready. Two mugs and teabags sat out already, waiting for her and Winston. She gestured for Hannah to follow her to the kitchen where she filled the two mugs silently and handed one to the girl. She sniffed it, obviously not usually a tea drinker, but muttered a thanks and held it with two hands towards her face, looking more vulnerable than ever. Jess rushed around to the other side of the island when she saw her shoulders begin to shake, shaking the liquid in her hands with them. Jess gently took the cup from her hands and put it down, engulfing her in her arms as she turned her sobs into her shoulder. Keeping her body in place to be cried on, she turned her head to signal to the guys to stay where they were. As Hannah pulled back, embarrassed by her show of emotions in front of the now five strangers (Coach and Cece entered while she was crying, bemused and looking for answers with confused glances at the others who shrugged unknowingly, though Nick had thought to mouth "Hannah" just as Jess had done, assuming Cece had heard about her as well. She had, but that didn't really answer all of her questions.), Jess put her hands on the girl's shoulders and looked into her eyes, bright silver-green from her tears.
"Come on, let's go talk in my room." Despite having moved in with Nick a while before, she still almost directed her into Schmidt's room before remembering and shutting the door behind her, relatively sure that she had managed to kick Nick's underwear behind the door before Hannah noticed, not that she was all that worried about it in that moment.
They both sat down on the bed, neither of them saying anything for a while. Jess knew that Hannah knew she was waiting for her to talk. There was no point in pushing her, or asking. The student played with the handles of her bag between her fingers, looking down, but feeling Jess' stare on her.
"I um... well my cousin stays in the left wing, and on the ground floor, and my room's in the right wing on the second floor, and there are stairs from my balcony so, it's not really hard to, you know, sneak out." Jess listened and nodded, trying to disguise her interest in just what kind of mansion she lived in, and where was this place? She was sure she didn't live far from the school. Hannah opened her mouth to continue to talk, to explain where she had been going, but she stopped as though she couldn't form the words, as her eyes began to fill again. Jess took her hand from the bag, cupping it in her own, student-teacher rules be damned.
"What happened babe?" She asked in what was almost a whisper, locking eyes with her. Hannah took in the biggest breath Jess thought imaginable and she assumed she let it out at some point because she didn't appear to struggle. She closed her eyes, and threw the bag in Jess' arms forcefully, but not in an aggressive manner. Jess glanced at her for permission to look inside and she nodded her head slightly. Jess opened the leather bag, revealing a bunch of school papers, her already graded Yates essay and other old pieces of work. Slightly confused, Jess looked at Hannah who reached over and removed the papers, revealing one small pregnancy test at the bottom of the bag in a ziplock. Already knowing it would, Jess turned it over to see the a little plus sign adorning the test.
She closed her eyes for a moment, suddenly understanding everything.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading. I know this all seems a little random, and unrelated to Nick and Jess as a couple, but rest assured, I have a plan in motion. Any sort of reviews, good or bad are always welcome; criticism, praises, suggestions, spelling/Americanisms/grammar corrections, ideas, better ways to layout a sentence, anything that confused you, or whatever you have to say, I'd love to hear it! Also, I know this chapter is short, the first couple probably will be but they'll get longer, and also, I update more often this way anyway.