Teenage Dirtbags

Chapter 1: Together

Snore. There he goes, again... sleeping during the film I choose. We had a deal: I would watch something Jess liked if, and only if, he would watch something I liked the next time we watched something. He wouldn't say anything, but he would probably be upset if I slept during his film. Besides, I'm certain I don't make noises like that when I sleep!

I had bought a film I'd seen before, which was probably a mistake, but it was one of my favourites. It was Titanic and, deliberately, it was a romantic film... but, of course, Jess fell asleep. Fantastic. All he ever got was Dawn of the Dead and Nightmare of Elm Street, or something like that. Don't get me wrong, I like those films, but they're all the same.

"Jess," I muttered, nudging him in the side before taking another hand-full of popcorn. It was the best scene in the film, the scene where he drew her... "Jess, wake up."

"Just another minute..." he muttered, swatting my hand away, and continuing to swat as if there were bees flying around his ears.

"Jess," I said, more forcefully now, continuing to nudge him.

After a second, he hopped off the chair, rubbing his eyes. "Oh, Leslie," he said, his voice perking up. "I must have fallen asleep for a long time, it's night all ready." He gestured, haphazardly, toward the window. "Sorry for missing the film!"

"It's still on," I giggled. "You were only asleep for fifteen minutes."

"It's still on!" Jess said, mouth agape. He kept looking to me, looking back to the screen, double taking. Then, on the third go, his gaze focussed on the T.V. "What the heck are you watching?"

I laughed again, his face was straight out of a cartoon. "It's still the same film," I said, holding out the popcorn bowl in front of his face. "Come on, I watched your film!"

"Yeah, but..." he stuttered, trying to find an answer.

"Sit down, before you hurt yourself," I commanded. I grabbed the pillow, slapped him with it, and threw it across the room. "You're not falling asleep again; I'll banish you!"

"You can't banish me!" he grinned, plopping himself down beside me and taking the bowl. "I'm the king!"

I shrugged. "Yeah, well, we all know queens are better than kings!"

He opened his mouth, playfully, before closing it again. "You're right," he bowed. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," I winked. "You'd better be!"

My name is Leslie Burke, a fifteen year old student of Tristitia High School. I'm not anything special, an average girl, but one thing I have is him... Jess Aarons: my best friend in the entire world. The boy who had dove into a torrent to save my life, a boy who had hugged me and not let go when he realised I was going to be OK. The artist who drew worlds that we created... just a fraction of the things that made him the most special person on this floating rock.

Once, sometimes twice, a week, Jess and I would get a film from the shop by his dad's work (where Jess also worked) and he would come watch it in my bedroom. It was perfectly set up: a nice, green, three seater couch along my wall facing a T.V that I had to beg, and beg, and beg Dad to get. I had to prove to him that are good only if you watch them as a last resort, and I would still spend a lot of time outside. I'd kept my promise. To be honest, I didn't really like the T.V; everything seemed pretty mundane when I was on my own.

Well, what was there to say about the two of us? We were misfits; I had been aware of that fact since I was little. I guess misfits flock together, but that's not to say I only hang out with him because I have no one else. I want no one else, not one person. In fact, it would be impossible to find a better friend. Why was that? Well, Jess was perfect.

I don't know what it was about him. Was it his brown, wavy hair? Was it his soft, brown eyes? Perhaps it was his artistic talent, or the fact that he really seemed to understand me. It was all of those things; like he said, he was the king... He was the king of Terabithia.

Terabithia. That was the place we spent our time, all of the time that we weren't at school, asleep, or at our houses (together, I might add). It was a forest, but it was much more than that. It was where we were the rulers, a world that we protected from the evils of the dark master, where there was no one else, no bullies at school, no teachers, no responsibilities... all we have is each other when we step across the bridge.

It reminded me of the day I woke up. It was funny how simple everything was back then, the fact that I had been in a coma became old news in our heads very quickly. Everything fell back to Terabithia in the end, as it should...

xXx

Jess walked over and, without warning, took me in his arms and didn't let go. "I've been OK, Leslie," he said, in a voice that sounded much older than Jess. It was the same pitch, it just sounded more wise. "I'm just... so glad to see you..." and his voice trailed off. Then, after a long sigh, and one last squeeze, he moved away.

After what seemed like an eternity, Jess broke away from me. The next few seconds were silent, and I could feel my cheeks reddening.

"Err..." I stuttered. "What was that for?"

Oddly enough, when Jess pulled away, he looked just as surprised and confused as me. After he got over what looked like shock, he spoke. "It just feels like," he paused. "It just feels like I haven't seen you for ages." He grinned after that, though his gaze was angled downwards (his cheeks were red). How cute.

"They say I've been out for days," I explained, breaking the silence of the room. I had to speak or I would laugh; Jess's mouth kept opening, then closing again. "The doctors, I mean," I added, when nothing was said.

Jess nodded. "Did they..." he stammered. "Did they say anything else?"

Yeah, they did indeed. "Yeah," I muttered, looking off to the side. "They told me what you did..." Then, after a second of silent contemplation, my pillow collided with his shoulder.

"What was that for?" he protested, rubbing his injured arm.

"You idiot!" I scolded. Secretly, I was amazed that I was so important to him. It made me so happy to think that he had risked everything just to make sure I was OK. But, of course, I was never going to say that! "What were you thinking?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, looking bewildered and hurt.

Instantly feeling guilty, I continued. "What if you had drowned?" I asked. "Who would be around to look after Terabithia?"

He grinned, still nursing his 'injured' arm. He was joking, of course; I hadn't hit him too hard. There was no way that I could ever actually hurt Jess Aarons, the person who saved my life. "I didn't really think about it," he said. Then he frowned. "Do you remember what happened? Anything at all."

My brow lowered with thought. "Hmm..." I hummed, falling into thought. It was weird trying to look back on that moment. If was like watching a film where someone had broken the end; everything cut off just before what you really wanted to see. It was infuriating! After I had exhausted my head, I said: "I remember knocking at your door, and you not being there," I told him. I looked up to see him looking at the ground. "Then... nothing," I finished. "Care to fill me in?"

He was still looking at the ground. "I was going... well, Ms. Edmunds had asked me to go on a trip to Tristitia Museum to look at some paintings, or something like that..." he explained, before I interrupted him.

"Bet you loved that," I teased, grinning.

He looked up, more at ease, with a smile. "Then, while we were driving away, I looked at you house," he trailed off. I didn't want to push him, or upset him, but these pauses were really annoying when you were trying to get a story out. "I can't remember why, but something in my head clicked. I panicked, jumped out the car and ran to find you."

"You... panicked?"

Yeah," he nodded, but he looked extremely confused. "I have no idea why, though, not even a clue." He ran his hand through his hair. "Anyway," he continued. "I jumped out of the car and ran to Terabithia and... well, you know the rest."

He had been really worried about me... that's all I had got from that story. The doctors had told me that Jess had seen me fall, and jumped in. Jess had also said he didn't think, he just tried to save me. Talk about a knight in shining armour... "Thanks, Jess," I said, looking at my feet poking up from the covers, suddenly overwhelmed with gratification. "I wouldn't be here without you."

After another agonising pause, Jess replied. "Don't mention it."

Then, much like my pillow had struck Jess's shoulder, my mind was struck by a thought. "Jess!" I gasped. He instantly sat up straight, eyes wide. "The rope!"

That was all I had said, but Jess understood completely. "I know," he said. "How are we going to get back to Terabithia?"

My hand came up to my chin, a habit I had developed from my dad, as I began to think. It definitely was a problem; the rope broke under my weight... was I really that fat? How could that kind of rope break... "It was the evil dark master," I mused.

"Huh?"

"How could a rope like that break on its own?" I replied.

"I thought we were thinking about how to get across the 'river'," he said.

I grinned. "We'll come back to that, keep up, Jess Aarons," I replied. "How could a rope like the one to Terabithia break?"

"Rain?" Jess suggested.

"You know better than that," I said. "It must have been a sabotage by the Dark Master. He must have known we were helping the Terabithians and wanted to stop us from helping them rise up. He's so clever."

"Makes sense," Jess said. "He'll have won, if we don't find a way back."

I nodded. "So, we need a safe way to get across the river," I squeezed my pillow in between my arms.

"A bridge?" Jess suggested.

I clapped my hands together. "That's brilliant, Jess!" I exclaimed. "But how can we build a bridge?" I stopped. "Wait a second, Dad has a lot of spare wood. He won't mind us using that."

"And my dad has tools," Jess continued. "We could probably make one, if we did it after school every night!"

That would be so cool; a bridge... "We have got to do that..." I said.

"So," Jess said, obviously feeling uncomfortable throughout the silence. "How have you been?"

I laughed. "I've been in a coma," I winked.

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "But, what's it like, is it like being asleep, or something?"

Actually, that's a pretty good question. "I'm not sure," I told him. "It's a bit like being asleep, but I feel tired even now I'm awake. I shouldn't do; I've been asleep for days, but I feel like I need to go to bed! It's so weird."

"How are you, now?"

"Actually, other than being tired, I'm all right," I replied. "Bit of a headache, and this..." I held out my arm, which had a bandage on it. "It itches," I explained to him. "It itches like mad."

"You had a nasty fall," Jess told me. His face looked slightly green as he remembered it. "There was a heck of a lot of blood, too."

I shivered. "Blood really creeps me out," I mused. "How's school been? Any work from Mrs. Myers?"

"Not really, she's been pretty nice lately," Jess explained. "Scott hasn't laid off, at all, but what do you expect?"

"Yeah, that's just who he is," I sighed.

The day wore on, and all Jess and I did was talk. It was weird; I felt like I had been gone a very long time. It wasn't like the coma was a second long, it felt like I had awoken thousands of years later...

A/N: Well, there's the first chapter. Basically, all I did was let you know that this was a continuation of the first one, Frequency. However, you don't need to have read the first. If you haven't read Frequency, then this should have given you enough information.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the first chapter.