A/N This is a diffrent type of story for me. Features most of the team as teenagers. Seventeen year old Aaron Hotchner and his sixteen year old sister Jennifer Joy Hotchner are the children of David Rossi and Sandy Hotchner. Due to Dave's job within the FBI his wife and kids kept her maiden name for safety reasons. Aaron's best friend is Derek Morgan who is dating Emily Prentiss. JJ is best friends with Penelope Garcia and Emily. As of right now no Reid because I wasn't sure how to fit a twelve year old high school student into the story. If you're so inclined please review and let me know what you think good or bad.
The bright sun beat down against the crisp blue water. Pennsylvania was unseasonably warm for late September, and the students of East Alleghany High were using this warm fall day to enjoy one last trip to the lake
"HOTCH! Hey! Hotchner!" Seventeen year Aaron Hotchner was pulled away from his ministrations with Haley Brooks. "Come on Hotch, this is this is the year you walk the plank!" Derek Morgan stood at the top of Dead Man's Bluff. Every year students dared one another to jump off the cliff, Aaron had so far been lucky enough to get out of the jump.
"Come on Aaron," the dark skinned senior challenged his best friend, a huge grin across his face.
"Why am I even friends with that clown?" Aaron asked his girlfriend, who also had a mischievous grin on her face. The truth was Aaron and Derek were inseparable and had been since football camp their freshman year. Both boys had tried out for the quarterback and had been assigned a room together. The first week of camp they had hated one another, they were too much alike being typical alpha males, they both craved the leadership position, it was when Derek was tried in the Running back position that they realized they worked much better together. Their leadership both on and off the field and positons as Co-Captians had led to the friendship the boys shared. It was rare to see them around campus without the other.
"Come on Aaron, are you going to let that clown show you up?' Haley's blue eyes sparkled as she pushed the seventeen year olds buttons. Aaron was no match for those beautiful blue eyes or that 'innocent' smile, she was one of a small number of people who could get him to do just about anything they wanted.
Looking from his girlfriend to his best friend Aaron finally relented, "Fine," his voice gruff, "But, if I'm doing it so is JJ." Aaron turned to his baby sister, who had been lying next to the lake with her two best friends.
The petite blonde shot up, "What?! No way," She quickly protested, "that's all you buddy." Jennifer Joy Hotchner or JJ, as she was affectionately known, shook her head instantly, there was no way she was jumping off some stupid rock.
Already having a plan of attack Aaron stood walking towards his sister, "Come on Jenny, why won't you jump with me? It's my last chance before I graduate." His voice dripped with feigned sorrow.
"Oh no, nice try Air-Bear." JJ rebutted the use of her least favorite nick name with one of her own. If you're dumb enough to jump off that cliff be my guest, but count me out. Quarterbacks need their arms us soccer stars need our legs."
If Hotch was being honest with himself he didn't want his sister jumping off the cliff, while injuries weren't common they did happen. It was a tradition though that by the time they graduated they would jump, and if his sister was going to jump he was damn well going to be there to protect her.
Fourteen months separated Aaron and JJ, as long as he could remember he had been her protector, nobody messed with his sister. He had fallen in to the role of Protective Brother quickly and easily. Five years earlier their lives had been torn apart and his need to protect her even more pronounced.
Aaron had been twelve years old the night their older sister, Rosaline, had committed suicide while their family slept. He had been woken in the morning by his eleven year old sister's screams. The image of Rosaline laying in the bathtub and her blood on JJ's pajamas is one he would never be able to forget. Aaron had blamed himself, despite everyone's insistence otherwise, for not protecting his older sister. It was too late for the young man to stop Rosaline's pain but he swore he would never let JJ get hurt.
"What did I tell you about calling me Air-bear Jenny! Aaron suddenly rushed forward easily picking the blonde up and throwing her over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes.
Aaron was easily a hundred pounds heavier than her and was pure muscle, despite her fighting he quickly carried her up to the top of Dead Man's Bluff.
"AARON ROSSI HOTCHER! You put me down right now!" JJ's balled her fisted and punched his back, resorting to his full name hoping he'd relent. Aaron's deep laugh was her only response as he made quick work of the hike up, her so called best friends giggling as they followed the pair.
Her cerulean eyes looked to her best friend in desperation, "Come on Penny you gotta help me!" she plead to her eccentric friend.
"Oh no sweet cheeks, no way am I getting between you and Hotch." Penelope Garcia gave her friend a fake look of sympathy, there was no way anyone was going to get between Hotch and his sister. Penny could understand Hotch's need to be the one to jump with JJ, she did after all have brothers of her own.
A thin sheen of sweat covered the seventeen year olds forehead as he reached the top, their group of friends waiting for them. "Look at this, the Hotchner duo are gonna jump!" Derek smiled gleefully as he put his arm around his girlfriend, "What do you say Em? Wanta jump to?"
Reaching up on the tips of her toes she kissed Derek's cheek, "Nah, we'll let them have the glory, but before you abandoned me for college I'll jump with you." Emily Prentiss promised as Penelope made gagging noises behind them.
At the edge of the cliff Aaron finally sat JJ down on her own feet. The wind blew softly around them causing her to shiver in her light pink bikini. "Come on sis it's not that bad." Aaron encouraged as he put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Jay, you know I would let you do this if it wasn't safe."
"Says the one who isn't afraid of heights." Her bright blue eyes met with his chocolate brown ones, further evidence of which parent each looked like; Aaron was all Rossi while JJ had gotten the Hotcher fair features, Roz had been the perfect mix of Dave and Sandy.
Aaron held his hand out, "Come on it's not that high, we can do it." JJ hesitated just enough for the brother and sister to be interrupted.
"You know Jennifer, if you're scared I'll be happy to jump with you." Shawn Richards had had a crush on JJ since she turned fourteen and puberty had started to reveal the beautiful girl that had been hidden beneath soccer uniforms and flag football games. One summer she had seamlessly changed and was no longer just another one of the boys.
Giving Shawn one of her signature smiles, "Thanks Shawn-ie but I'm ok." JJ like Shawn but his male chauvinistic ways were what prevented her from ever giving him a second look, she could never be the dutiful girlfriend he wanted.
Turning back to her brother she grabbed his outstretched hand, "Alright let's do this before I lose my nerve. And I swear to God if I break anything and can't play soccer, I'm gonna kill you." The look in the sixteen year olds eyes left no room to suggest she was joking.
"Don't worry squirt I'll protect you, I always will." Aaron held her small hand tightly as the brother and sister pair rain off the side of the cliff.
JJ felt the cold water surround her as they landed feet first into one of the deeper parts of the lake. Her body sunk deeper into the abyss. She could feel the strong grip of Aaron's hand, he wasn't going to let her go. As the sinking began to slow she could feel the pull of her arm as Aaron swam toward the surface, her soccer toned legs worked to their advantage as she kicked up towards the sun.
Their heads lifted out of the water, the sound of applaused replacing deafing sound of the water. Their friends cheered loudly, the group rushing down to meet them at the edge of the lake. Aaron and JJ swan towards the shore, the younger wondering how long it would take for her stomach to fall out of her chest.
"HOTCHNER! HOTCHNER! HOTCHNER!" the boys from the football team chanted as the two made their way slowly to the shore. Derek, of course, shouting the loudest. "Atta boy Hotch! About time you made the jump." Morgan slapped Aaron's back as they climbed out of the water. "And I can't believe the Pennsylvania Petite made the jump, you know hot stuff I had my money on you somehow using that smile of yours to get out of it."
Shrugging his muscular arm off her shoulder, "Save the sweet talk for Penelope dork, she's the only person that buys your routine." Before rejoining her friends she turned back to her brother and the boy who was practically her brother, "BY the way, you two suck and I will get my revenge." She turned away from them before they could see the huge grin on her face, the jump, after all, was a lot more fun than she'd let her brother know.
Shawn and another classmate, Mark, carried a large white cooler from the back of one of the pickup trucks. "Time to eat! And in honor of 'The Great Hotchner jump of 1998' we party!" Shawn lifted the cooler pulling out two beers, throwing one at Aaron and the other at JJ.
JJ looked over to Aaron not sure if this was a good idea. The pair had always been the "good" kids around school. Both getting good grades and never getting into trouble. Their father, David Rossi, was an FBI Agent, one of the best if you talked to people around town. It was because of his job that they had been given their mother's maiden name, their father wanted to protect them from the killers he went after. Their father's career coupled with their mother being principle of their school held them to a higher standard than their friends.
Aaron shrugged his shoulders not sure if he wanted to be the "good guy" this once. For once the seventeen year old wanted to be a normal teenager, he didn't want to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. Popping the top of the can he smiled at his sister, letting her know this once it was ok, and lifted the can to his lips taking a gulp of the cheap beer.