Disclaimer: Not mine, all Disney's! This was a weird little story that I came up a little while ago, when I was cutting an article out of a newspaper for economics class. That's got to be the weirdest place to get a story idea. I should get a prize. Christopher Ralph, please!! Anyway, without further ado...
Newspaper Clippings
Caitie Roth stumbled down the steps of her house, heading into the kitchen with the unhurried "grace" of those that are still half asleep. Yawning so huge she thought her jaw was going to crack, the petite brunette staggered into her kitchen, attempting to ignore her parents cheerful good mornings.
"Hi honey!" Her mother called, standing at the counter, a frying pan in one hand, an apron tied around her waist.
"Good morning." Her father intoned from behind the newspaper, his head buried in the Business section.
Caitie grunted in reply, rubbing a hand across her face. She could feel her mother's disapproving eyes on her, reprimanding her for her unlady like behavior, but it was fart to early in the morning to care--as if she ever did.
She dropped herself into her chair, her shoulders' slumping, and her head drooping forward to meet the cherry wood of the table. Another yawn threatened at the back of her throat, and Caitie's mouth gaped open, making way for the involuntary motion. Propping her head up with one hand, the girl looked through half lidded eyes at her father, who sat across the table from her.
Something on the front cover of the page caught her attention, and Caitie sat up, leaning forward to peer closely at the front of the paper. Who in the...
No way.
It couldn't be.
No possible way.
Jamie Waite's handsome, if dirty, face shone out at her from the front of the picture, a mother and young boy beside him. Teen Hero Saves Young Boy screamed at her from across the table, and she blinked rapidly, trying to clear the sleep from her vision.
No way did that say what she thought it said.
Blinking again, Caitie leaned across the table and scanned the article, trying to read as much of it as she could from the awkward angle her father was holding it at. She couldn't get all of it, but she got the gist of it. And the gist of it was enough to completely jolt her awake.
Jamie had, apparently, gone inside a burning building while on call last night to pull a young boy out a burning building. The firefighters hadn't been there at the time, and Caitie deduced from the couple of paragraphs she read that Jamie and the child could have been...well...could have "succumbed to the flames", as the paper put it so delicately.
Good Lord.
Jamie was a HERO. He had...he had saved that little boy's life. Caitie mentally smacked herself, pointing out that Jamie, Val, and the rest of the super squad saved lives on a regular basis--this wasn't that big of a thing.
But, in a way...it was. They didn't normally put themselves in the amount of danger that Jamie had to save that little boy--Jamie could have died.
Good Lord--Jamie could have DIED.
Her best friend could have DIED last night, and she wouldn't have found out about until this morning, reading an upside down newspaper. That headline could have read Teenage EMT and Child Die in Blaze instead of what it really said.
Caitie swallowed hard against the lump in her throat, running her hand over her face and swallowing again. God, Jamie could have...Jamie could have...
"Caitie?" Her mother's voice broke into her reverie, and Caitie jerked her head up, looking at her mother with wide, startled eyes.
"What?" She almost snapped, her heartbeat banging against her chest like a jackhammer.
"Caitlin, are you alright?" The older woman asked, reaching out to press a clammy hand against her daughter's brow. "You just went paler then milk."
"I'm...I'm fine Mom, really. Fine." Caitie shook her mother's hand off, and pointed at the paper in her father's hand. "Can I see that when your done?"
"Taking an interest in current events?" Mrs. Roth asked perkily, smiling a sunny smile at her daughter that never quiet reached her eyes.
"Something like that." Caitie muttered, watching the paper as her father folded it up and scooted it across the table to her. She snatched it up like it held all the answers in the world, devouring every word of the article on Jamie and his heroic activities last night.
The article said precious little, in actuality. Caitie had to rely on her vivid, if morbid, imagination to fill in the details. The gruesome pictures that filled her mind scared her badly, and she suddenly pushed herself to her feet, and run to her room, taking care to snatch up the paper as she did so.
Her parents watched in bewilderment, exchanging worried glances as they did so. But Caitie saw none of this, so intent on her goal was she.
She reached her room in half a minute, slamming the door behind her. Taking a deep, calming breath, the girl walked toward her telephone, lifted the earpiece, and pressed it to her ear before she realized what she was doing. The dial tone was actually what yanked her out of her odd stupor.
Caitie shook her head at her own jumpiness, hanging up the phone. Jamie was FINE. Val would have called her if something bad had happened. And had Val called?
"No." Caitie answered her question out loud, looking at the newspaper she had dropped on her dresser drawers. Jamie's handsome face looked back at her, and she picked the picture up, studying it carefully.
It really was a good picture. Jamie looked, as always, deliciously handsome, even in his dirty EMT jumpsuit. The slight hint of a smile that played on his lips spoke louder then any words the utter joy that he was feeling, the utter peace, that the child was alive and back where he belonged.
The girls' fingers traced the photo for a second, her mind a million miles away. Moving on automatic, the young woman moved toward her desk and yanked open one of the drawers, her fingers finding a pair of scissors and a roll of tape. She went back to the paper, separating the front page from the rest of the newspaper, letting the excess fall onto the floor.
With careful cuts, the girl snipped out the picture and article in the paper, and then, just as carefully, taped it to the lower right hand corner of her mirror. Stepping back, she admired her handy work, a small smile pulling at her lips.
Perfect.
Snapping herself out of her slight daze, the girl turned her attention to getting dressed, a smile pulling at her lips.
Wonder what Jamie had to say about his sudden fame?