The sun beat down heavily on what looked like an ancient truck in an almost abandoned parking lot. Inside the fifty something year old truck sat a seventeen year old Jess Aarons. His music was blasting to the point that he was surprised he hadn't lost his hearing and he had his head against the wheel contemplating the day before him.
Senior. The word didn't seem to fit him. He still felt like he was only eleven years old, like the day she died was the day he stopped growing. The day she died he became an adult in seconds flat. After that, he hadn't really aged.
Suddenly he lifted his head up and laughed. He was still refusing to use her name even mentally. Like not saying preserved her just as she was the last time he saw her. He felt guilty but the day he and his parents had gone to pay respect to the Burkes, he had taken a picture of her. What, they got to keep PT. It seemed fair to him.
He would wake up in the middle of the night even now and pull the picture out from under his pillow, a nightmare of forgetting even one small detail of her face pulling him back into reality. The color of her hair, the shape of her eyes, everything would come back to him in a second with just one glance of that picture.
Except her voice. That had seemed to die away a long time ago. He could remember the exact second he forgot that wind chime voice. He was in Terabithia, sitting in the castle they had built together drawing a picture of her. But this was different than the other thousand he had drawn, this is how she would have been. How she should have been.
He smiled at his work. Jess hadn't thought it possible but she was even more beautiful than he could have imagined. Her big pixy eyes smiled back at him with approval. But he decided to ask anyway.
"So," He started. "you like it?" The wind chimes over head picked up and he smiled. She seemed to really like it.
Jess looked back down at the picture and tried to imagine her really thanking him. She was sitting over on one of the boxes they had piled around the tiny room still posing with PT for their picture. She would sit him down and walk over to inspect Jess' work and a huge smile would brighten up her face.
She would open her mouth and her musical voice would find its way to his ears as she stood behind him… Her voice.
Jess tightened his eyes and focused harder. It was gone. He had replaced her wonderful voice with wishful thinking. His hoping that she was still alive and growing with him and pushed out the one thing he held dear.
His heart dropped with the memory, almost like he had failed her yet again. Jess once again lifted his head from the wheel of his truck and glanced around the parking lot. The entire section he sat in was now full and people started pouring in around him slowly making the trek from their cars to the high school before them.
After a few more moments Jess finally slid out of the truck and put her picture in his pocket then stuffed some books into his backpack. If he needed anything he'd get it at lunch or when he saw Ms. Edmunds for music class. No, she wasn't Ms. Edmunds anymore.
"Ms. Baker." He corrected himself aloud. She would still let him call her Ms. Edmunds but it had started shifting to a first name basis. Jess was the only person aloud to call her Katie from ninth grade on.
Jess sighed, this year would be no different. He pushed open the door to the huge building and made his way through the halls attempting to find his home room. The only thing that kept his grades up, that kept him going in life was her memory. The last time he saw her drenched from the pouring rain holding PT and smiling at him. He always thought of her walking away back to her house, but everyday he'd follow her.
Only he could see the rain in the halls, only he could hear her laugh. He followed the phantom memory right up to the correct door of his home room.
"One thing down, four classes to go." Jess growled as he took a seat in the back. Janice Avery smiled at him and waved as he unwillingly waved back. He and Janice had become friends, not close friends but good enough to keep him out of therapy he assumed. She had grown into herself since their childhood and she now was a nice and beautiful person.
Janice had become popular in her own respect and still talked to Jess. He would talk to her friends but no one ever really clicked with him. His sisters were all he really had in life that could be considered true friends.
Jess placed his head on the desk and tried to think about anything other than her. This was a difficult task but he was going to try, it never hurts to try. Math. He'd think of math and how much he sucks at it.
That works. He thought. Better than most things I usually think up.
So he thought of how much he was going to dread math class. How he would start drawing on the sides of tests and papers only to stop himself when he realized his head was once again "in the clouds".
The bell sounded and he took the paper the teacher had placed on his desk with all his classes on it out the door. First off was English, then math, music class, and Chemistry. Joy.
So Jess made his way into a Miss. Jackson's English class. She was a tiny twenty something woman starting out with her first real class. Anytime someone would walk through the door, she would jump slightly and attack them with kindness. Jess instantly hated her.
He felt bad for disliking her but if he was going to have to deal with such perkiness at this time of morning then it seemed fair. The high school wasn't big, just like all the other schools and word spread fast over the years. All the teachers would read his name, give him that same pity look and always pay special attention to him throughout the year. He would hate it.
The same thing would happen when a new student would be introduced to the class, but this time it was Jess jumping. He would always dream that she would walk through he door and laugh at him for worrying about her for so long. She'd tell him she was noting to worry over and playfully tap him on the shoulder. But it never happened. Why would it?
The class filed in and books were passed out at the sound of the bell. Boys flirted with girls and the girls would groan and scoot away. Jess just did what he always did, focus on his work. Eventually everyone was lost in papers and reading assignments that they didn't notice the door to the class room open.
The guidance councilor slid in and walked over to Miss. Jackson. Mr. Smith whispered something to the English teacher who simply nodded and smiled.
Oh god, Jess thought, another victim was making their way into this happy hell.
"Class!" Miss. Jackson perked up. "We have a new student!" She glanced around the room with a massive smile.
A small red head girl slid into the room and lifted her head. Jess' heart stopped. She looked just like her. The girl had long red hair down to her waste with braids randomly placed throughout it, huge blue pixy like eyes and doll like skin. Jess was going to vomit.
"Hello." She squeaked. That voice. The memory of the voice long forgotten broke through the box Jess had accidentally locked it away in and flooded his mind. She opened her mouth again. "I'm Macy Summers, nice to meet you."
She smiled as the teacher directed her to the desk next to Jess' and he messenger bag jingled as each bobble hit her leg. She had a zip up sweat shirt on with a skirt and bright orange tights. Filthy white Converse finished off Jess nightmare.
She took a seat next to him and smiled. "Hi, nice to meet you. What's your name?"
She waited, Jess on the other hand fainted.
So that's chapter one! I would love reviews and feed back on this. I think the main reason I'm going to make it Teen is because of cursing or something… Just to be safe. Thanks and see you later!