Disclaimer: Criminal Minds isn't mine.
An Almost Ordinary Day
Spoilers for Risky Business, although set before the episode.
Author's Note at the end.
It was an ordinary day. Kathy wasn't feeling well and stayed home from school. JJ wanted to say bye before she left, but Mom said not to disturb her, so she didn't.
At school, she got a B+ on her spelling test. Ms. MacDonald assigned the whole class two extra pages of math problems for homework as punishment for talking in the hall. Which really wasn't fair, because it hadn't been the whole class. JJ turned around and made a face at Charles Gordon, who sat behind her and who was always causing trouble. She knew he was one of the kids who had been making all the noise.
During recess, she, Stacy, and Melissa had kicked a soccer ball around some. JJ let out a cheer when her kick sent the ball flying past Melissa's feet.
On the way home, the bus driver yelled at all the kids to settle down. This time, JJ had been making some noise. But, only because everyone else was, and she had to raise her own voice to be heard.
It was a perfectly ordinary day until she got back to her own street. The first thing she noticed was Mrs. Clapp and Miss Ruehl standing outside the Clapp house, talking. But, they both stopped when she got close. Maybe it was her imagination that made her think they both looked at her funny. It wasn't her imagination that when she passed them and turned back, they had started talking again. And stopped when they noticed her looking. A few houses down, she happened to glance towards the window of the Low house. Old Mr. Low was there, and he gave her a funny look before he closed the curtains.
JJ started to run . She didn't know what was wrong, but it seemed everyone was staring at her. When she got to her house, everyone turned into a small crowd.
"There she is," someone said.
"Poor thing. At least she wasn't here to see it happen."
"Mom! Mom!" JJ called. She pushed her way past the people. Mom was sitting in the living room. So was Dad. What was he doing home from work?
Mom pulled her into a hug. She had been crying. JJ wrenched away. It was the kind of hug that made her even more scared.
"What?" she asked.
Dad- had he been crying, too?- sighed. "Jennifer, I have to tell you something about your sister."
JJ unconsciously fingered the necklace around her throat.
End
Author's note: This is my first time writing anything strictly JJ centric and set pre-show. Ever since JJ revealed her sister's suicide, I've been curious as to what that day had been like, but always hesitated to write it. I'm not used to writing things set pre-series, and I also didn't want to write something that didn't seem like JJ. Any comments and criticisms about whether I succeeded or not or anything else related to the story are welcome.