A/N: This story takes place about four or five years after Bridge to Terabithia, but I've changed the ending so Leslie didn't die. Leslie still fell into the river, but she didn't hit her head, so she merely swam up again.

This chapter, the prologue, is just two or three years after Bridge to Terabithia though, as they Leslie is fifteen and Jesse is sixteen in chapter one. In this chapter Leslie is thirteen and Jesse is fifteen. Jesse is in this story born earlier in the year than Leslie, which means that he has already had birthday when this story starts, and Leslie haven't. Jesse and Leslie are still best friends, and they have romantic feelings for each other, though the other doesn't know.

The next chapter will take place two years after this one. This story is replacing "Dreams" as I was not satisfied with how it turned out.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bridge to Terabithia or any of it's characters or places.

Little House

Prologue

As Leslie walked through the big amount of people dancing she smiled slightly. She thought it was interesting and fascinating to watch people get lost in their dance moves and the music blasting from the stage. She was used to it watch people dance, as the school organized this 'parties' once a month. Leslie herself didn't dance, unless Jesse forced her to.

That was another thing she found fascinating; seeing how much Jesse had changed after they became friends. He was far from as shy as before, and had many other friends. He had become quite popular with the girls, which annoyed most of the boys at first. None of the boys had wanted to be friends with him then, since the girls they were crushing on liked him better.

When he refused to get together with any of them, the boys had finally realized that he wasn't trying to get them fall for him. After that almost all the guys started being okay with him again. He now had five close friends, one of them being Leslie herself. The other ones were Ryan, Jason, Leo and Dakota. Ryan and Jason were brothers, Ryan being one year older than the rest of them, except Leo, who was at the same age.

Jason wasn't really a person Leslie liked, but she tolerated him for Jesse, since he seemed to like Jason very much. Leslie didn't actually see why Jesse liked him though. Ryan was sarcastic and at times a pest at times, but that was nothing like how Jason could act. Jason was absolutely always pessimistic, and pretty rude. Both brothers were naturally tanned, and both had brown eyes. Ryan had dirty-blonde hair like their father had had, before he died, though, where Jason had sepia-brown hair. Ryan's hair was also longer than Jason's and wavy. It was a bit curled too. Jason's on the other hand was short-clipped, barely an inch or two.

Leo had light skin, and royal-blue eyes. His hair was black, and it was almost as long as Ryan's, but Leo's was straight. He was by far the one of them that looked best, or at least nicest, in Leslie's opinion. Unfortunately the other girls didn't agree.

He probably looked too reliable and nice and, as a popular and mean girl had once said, boring. Leo had been sad then, but he refused to show it, stating that he didn't care about what she said or thought about his looks. He was the one Leslie was closest to of the boys, except Jesse.

Dakota was a really interesting girl. She was living with her third foster family. You could see that she didn't really come from here, as it was clear in her looks that she came from Spain. She had curly copper hair, which went down her back. Somehow, she managed to keep it without tangles. It was beyond Leslie's comprehension, as she just barely managed to do the same with her straight, blonde hair in shoulder length.

Of course, there was also Ben. Ben had real brown skin, as his grandparents came from India. His mother had lived all her life in England and his father came here when he was twelve, so Ben was just as English as the rest of them were. Leslie, Jesse, Dakota, Ryan and Leo understood that perfectly well. Jason didn't as easily, but he just distanced himself from Ben a bit, even he knew not to bother him about it.

It was a shame not everyone were like them, since Ben had been tainted badly by racism. Ben had become suspicious and cold. He wasn't so bad with them, but he could be very cruel, just because people had been that way to him.

Leslie continued to walk between all the dancing people, and tried not to bump into someone by best ability. Jesse had been the one who had persuaded her to come. He had left her to talk to Leo after about an hour, but Leslie wanted to see what he was up to. He had been gone for half an hour, and Leslie being Leslie, she was curious.

She was pretty sure he wasn't dancing, since then he would have forced her to dance with him. Don't misunderstand, Leslie didn't dislike dancing, and she wasn't antisocial. That wasn't the reason she hadn't wanted to come. Victoria was. She had been clinging to Jesse for weeks now, despite the fact that he showed no sign of interest for her.

She came up to Leslie and Dakota and told them to stay away from him and stuff too. Worst part was that she lied to Leslie. Told Leslie about things Jesse had said to her, which usually had nothing to do with the truth whatsoever.

Jesse didn't believe Leslie and Dakota when they told him how Victoria had warned them to stay away from him though, and Leslie hadn't told him about the other stuff Victoria had been saying. Leo knew about that, as well as Dakota.

Since Leslie was fairly sure that Jesse wasn't on the dance floor, she checked if he was at the eating area. It was actually pretty cool over there, since it was an actual room. The school had installed a TV there a couple of days ago, so the students had a vote of which movie they should watch, and then that movie was put on.

Jesse wasn't there either. There was only one place left to look. Out in the parking lot. Some of the boys, at times girls too, but that was rarely, used to go out there to smoke, or drink alcohol. It was usually older boys who did that, but at times someone from Leslie's grade went to. Jason had gone a couple of times.

Leslie didn't crave or long for going there, but she had to know if Jesse was there. So, she went on. When she walked out the door, it was a big difference from being inside. It was still just the end of February, so it was dark outside. Inside there had been flashing lights from the disco ball. Disco ball, cheesy right? It had been there since Jesse's parents had gone to the school. So they said, at least.

Leslie looked around; she didn't want to go anywhere if she didn't have to. The boys tended to change their attitude to the worse when they had been drinking alcohol. She didn't have to look for long though.

Seeing the only kissing couple outside wasn't too hard. The fact that it was Jesse and Victoria was a bit worse to proceed for Leslie though. Leslie closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. She was only sucking up air, but it still helped. A bit.

Some seconds later she opened her eyes again. This time she only stared at the couple for a while. She had to make sure everything was the way it looked like, so she didn't let her imagination get the best of her again. Jesse didn't try to push Victoria away, and he looked rather comfortable than anything else. It stung, but Leslie still had to be certain.

When she had stood there long enough to know that Jesse had actually nothing against kissing Victoria, despite what he had told Leslie and Dakota earlier, she walked back inside.

Leo had been in the hallway to catch his breath after dancing so much with Dakota. He had only seen Leslie for a second as she got her coat. But he had still seen it. He didn't know what 'it' was. But something in Leslie had changed. Something in her eyes. They almost looked… lifeless.

A/N: This history is based purely on the first part of the YouTube-video "Something you want to forget about… (Jesse/Leslie) AU" by cassiehvdwt.