Chapter 1:
Finality
If you were to go to Lark Creek High School in mid-spring of 2013, you would find the halls plastered with brightly colored posters, sporting ads for upcoming events.
LAST CHANCE FOR YEARBOOKS! One purple flyer screamed.
SENIOR PROM: 5/27/2013! TICKETS ON SALE NOW $ 5.00! DON'T MISS OUT ON YOUR LAST CHANCE FOR A LCHS MEMORY! This flyer was red, and seemed to draw the most attention, particularly from the female half of the student body.
GET READY FOR FINALS! 6/01/2013 On a white piece of paper, the four words reminding all of Lark Creek High's inhabitants of their impending doom, was smeared with various things, obviously vain attempts to remove finals from their lives entirely.
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL: 6/07/2013 SENIOR GRADUATION: 6/06/2013 WE'LL MISS YOU, GRADUATING CLASS!
Now, many were ecstatic about summer vacation, and nearly all of the seniors were thrilled to be leaving their high school years behind.
One senior, however, was not happy about the end of the school year. He wanted this year to last forever, so he would never have to face what came with the end of it.
Seventeen—almost eighteen, his birthday was in three days—year old Jesse Aarons moved numbly through the throng of students, hands shoved in his pockets, hazel eyes fixated on his sneakers. He was looking for someone, someone who would be leaving him in a very short amount of time.
As he stared at the dirty, scummy ground, the day he had learned his best friend would be leaving flashed through his mind.
Jesse was driving his truck down the highway towards his home. His best friend, Leslie Burke, was in the passenger's seat, fiddling anxiously with one of her white blondelocks and staring at her lap. He cast her a short glance, but she still didn't look up. He debated on whether or not to say something. Leslie had been acting strange all day. She had been quiet and fidgety the whole way to school, barely saying hello to him and then staring out the window as if the telephone poles whizzing by were the most beautiful and captivating things in the world. The minute they pulled into the parking lot she was already out the door and heading towards the building, not even waiting for him to turn off the car or get out. He had to run to catch up to her, and even then it was exceedingly difficult. When he finally had the chance to talk to her—they were lab partners in third period chemistry—she gave him a ridiculous excuse, saying she had remembered that she needed to get something extremely important from the office. He knew immediately that she was lying to him. Leslie had been biting her nails when she told him and Jesse knew for a fact that Leslie Burke neverbit her nails unless she was lying. She had barely said two words to him the whole day, avoiding his eyes in the hallway and staring at her tray during lunch. He found her at the end of the day, leaning back against his truck and looking lazily into the rearview mirror. He called out a cheery "Hey Leslie!" and she responded with a weak "Hi," before asking him to unlock the car. Baffled and mildly hurt, he had done as she asked, watching like a zombie as she hoisted herself into the cab and slammed the door, turning away from the window. He had slid slowly around the bed and into the driver's side, sitting motionless for a moment. He felt her eyes on him, and looked up hopefully, only to have his spirit crushed. She wasn't looking at him; she was focusing on the keys in his hand, possibly trying to tell him to start the truck without actually speaking to him.
They had almost made it home before the uncommon silence got to him.
"What is up with you?!" He blurted out suddenly, causing her blue-green eyes to jerk up from her lap. Looking like a deer in headlights, Leslie managed a pathetic sounding "Huh?" before fixating her gaze on the logo on his T-shirt.
"You've been acting freakish all day," He told her, hearing his words blur together with speed and panic. "You've been avoiding me, and barely talking to me at all. You're looking down, and you never look down. Ever." Okay, that one was weak, but everything was spewing out of him so fast that he barely heard what he was saying.
"You lied to me about needing to go to the office, and don't try to defend yourself, because I know you did. You bit your nails when you told me that, and I distinctly remember you telling me that you only bite your nails when you lie."
"I was like…thirteen when I told you that, Jess." Leslie mumbled.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" He shouted, fed up. He ripped his eyes from the road entirely and felt his foot pound down on the gas pedal. The car shot forward, and Leslie gasped, flattening herself against the seat. Jess snapped out of his angry state long enough to quickly veer off to the side of the road. He stopped in a small dirt patch right next to the highway and pulled the keys out of the ignition, waiting.
"Why'd you…" Leslie began her voice still timid. Jesse interrupted her.
"I'm waiting for the truth," He saw her cringe visibly at the acid in his voice, and he tried to calm himself.
"Leslie…" He started after a moment of silence, and she turned her eyes back to her lap again.
"Whatever it is that's bothering you," He told her gently, choosing to ignore the 'Shut up, Jess' look on her face, "You know you can tell me, right? No matter how bad it is, you can always…"
"Oh God, Jess!" Leslie suddenly whirled around and looked him straight in the face, eyes alight. "You sound exactly like those weird mothers you see in the cheap movies who suspect their daughters are…doing drugs, or whatever. The ones who don't confront them directly. Nothing's…" The fire dimmed for a moment and her voice became quieter. "Nothing's wrong, okay? I…I promise."
"Okay," He sighed, still frustrated that he didn't know what was bothering her. "I trust you. If you say nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong." He put the key back into the ignition and was just about to turn it when he heard a feeble squeak come from somewhere. Looking around, his eyes landed on Leslie, who had wedged herself into the corner of the seat. She was looking out the window, but when he looked closely enough at her eyes, he saw the layers of tears sparkling in them.
His first instinct—an instinct that had been formed by living with his harsh and unrelenting father for seventeen years—was that he had done something to cause the tears.
"Les?" He murmured. She just shook her head, causing some of the tears to splash down violently on her cheeks.
"Leslie? I did something, didn't I? I'm sorry. I guess I should be more understanding to the fact that as we get older, you won't tell me everything like you did when we were twelve, and…"
"It's not you!" She cried out, the obvious frustration in her voice startling him. "You haven't done anything! I…have to tell you something, and I'm afraid it's going to hurt you."
"Just tell me, Les." He told her before pondering the true meaning behind his best friend's words.
"Are you sure?"
He nodded.
The blonde girl drew a shaky breath and closed her eyes, causing the last of her tears to drip down her nose.
"I'm moving." She told him quietly.
"What?" The words had been so breathy that he knew he must have heard her wrong.
"I'm moving, Jess." She opened her eyes and faced him, fresh tears sparkling.
"Moving?" He repeated, dumbfounded.
"To California."
"California? But…that's way on the other side of the country…" He felt like a moronic child, repeating everything she told him and stating obvious things she already knew.
"I know, Jess. But…we've been in Lark Creek a long time, my parents and I."
"Six years." He whispered numbly. Leslie nodded sadly.
"A really wonderful six years. The best six years of my life. We've never stayed in a city for so long, ever. My parents like to move around a lot, see more people and places for their books. Before we moved here, I had lived in eleven different cities all over the country, not including Arlington. I never really minded the moving, until…"
"Until what, Les?" Jess prodded, not wanting her to stall. If she stalled, she would be able to see how much pain he was in.
"Until I met you." She looked at him again, water filled eyes seeping with honesty and hurt. "You are the best friend I've ever had. The only true friend I've ever had in my life, Jesse. You'rethe reason my Mom and Dad have stayed in Lark Creek for so long. You saved me from God knows what…depression, drugs, alcohol, smoking…maybe even suicide. I used to terrify them, Jess. I made my mother cry, I gave my Dad headaches. They thought they were responsible for people not liking me. I used to try to tell them that they weren't—though now I realize they were—but they didn't believe me. 'You're just a kid, Leslie.' They would tell me. 'You don't know what you're talking about.'"
She stopped for a minute, clearly lost in a memory.
"After a while, I believed them. I thought I was an idiot, a weird, freakish idiot."
"But you're not!" He cried out before he could stop himself. Seeing her so…vulnerable, it scared him. She had always been so brave and strong, and now when she was so close to breaking, he worried he wasn't strong enough.
She smiled weakly at him. "I know that now. But only because of you. Mom and Dad figured now would be a good time to leave, since we would probably be apart anyways, with college and stuff…"
"I'm not going to college." He reminded her bluntly. "We can't afford it, and my grades aren't good enough for a scholarship, unlike you…"
"I know Jess." She whispered, voice cracking. "Unlike my parents, I pride myself on actually listening when people talk to me!" She turned away abruptly, pressing her forehead against the window.
Dang. He thought to himself. You've made her upset again. Nice going, Aarons!
As much as he didn't want to sound narcissistic, he realized that Leslie was dreading living with her parents without having him around.
"If you don't want to live with your parents," He started after a moment of cold, guilty silence, "Maybe you can get a dorm, or an apartment."
"Can't." She answered stonily. "Mom and Dad won't let me live on my own until I'm twenty, and even if I could convince them to let me move onto campus, CCA is all full."
"CCA?"
"CCA stands for California College of the Arts. It's the school I'll be going to in San Francisco."
"You guys are moving to San Francisco?"
"Yup," Her anger seemed to be directed off of him, at least for a moment. "San Francisco. The city of smog, streetcars and sidewalks. I can't believe my parents are moving me out of one of the most beautiful places in the world, to go to a place like San Francisco. In California, of all places! California is full of tan, pretty people. I'm blonde, isn't that one of the criteria for living by the beach?" She snorted scornfully, sounding as if she were talking to herself more than to Jess.
"I may be blonde, but I'll be far from fitting in. I'm so pale everyone will think I'm an albino. I'm not a volleyball player, or a cheerleader, or a girl in skimpy skirts and tank tops. I don't even like tank tops! I'm not pretty either…I'll be a sore thumb! No, I'll be even worse than a sore thumb, I'll be…"
"I think you're pretty,"
Leslie stopped mid-sentence and yanked her forehead away from the window. She stared, open-mouthed at her best friend, who was twiddling his thumbs and intently studying the ketchup stain on his jeans.
"Wha…what'd you say, Jess?"
"Uh…um…I do...I don't…think…you, you're not…ugly," He finished lamely, looking out his own window.
Moron. He thought. You complete and utter moron! How could you say that?!
"O-okay," the girl stuttered, forking a hand through her shoulder-length hair, clearly as baffled and embarrassed by the situation as her friend was. "Thanks, I guess…"
"Uh, you're…welcome…"
The two sat in the embarrassed silence for nearly five minutes, Leslie twirling her hair and Jesse picking at the dried ketchup on his pants and wondering if his mother would notice.
"We should probably get home." The blondesaid after a moment. Though the sentence was light hearted and her tone was soft, Jess knew his friend well enough to recognize an order in disguise: He had to drive, or she would. Though Leslie Burke was brilliant at everything she did: Writing, running, schoolwork; hand-eye coordination did not seem to be a gift of hers. The fact that she had been able to pass her learner's permit test when she was fifteen was considered a miracle in itself. She had been trying to take her driver's license test for almost two years—it would be two years on August thirteenth, a week after her eighteenth birthday—and failed every time. So, not only would Leslie driving his truck home be illegal, but would probably also be a self-inflicted death sentence.
"Yeah, we should. We've got our Pre-Calculus final next week…"
"Yeah," She replied shortly, and Jess put the key in the ignition, the groan of the old diesel engine coming to life startling him. The rest of the trip home was cool and mildly uncomfortable, and when they came to a stop in front of the Burke house, Leslie jumped out of the cab before she properly said goodbye.
Jess grimaced. He knew the scene well, but the guilt and sense of loss it caused did not lessen, no matter how many times he replayed it in his head. The undeniable fact that Leslie would be moving thousands of miles away from him within a few short weeks was like a slap in the face. No, it was worse than a slap in the face. It was an ache so terrible that it made its way from being a psychological state to an actual physical feeling. A churning, nauseating stomach ache had kept him up for the majority of his evenings since the indirect fight with his friend. Nearly a week had passed since Jesse had learned the Burkes were going to California, and though the tension between him and Leslie had eased a little, their friendship was nowhere near back to normal. Now heartbroken and sleep deprived, Jess was on his way to find his friend and ask her if she was riding home with him. He knew she was, of course, but to him it seemed an outright invitation might be a step in the right direction.
Leslie was standing at her locker, hastily shoving books into the blue backpack. Large strands of hair were falling from her ponytail and flopping in her face. Every few seconds she would tilt her head up a little bit and try to blow the locks away, but all that did was make them float for a moment and then land right where they had been originally.
"Hey Les."
More guilt flooded into his stomach when he saw the surprise in her eyes.
"Hi Jess," Her voice was just over a shocked whisper.
"You're riding home with me today, right?"
"Uh, yeah…that's okay, isn't it?"
If he had felt guilty before, he felt awful now. He imagined that Leslie had not intended for her remark to have the effect it did, but her hestation stung, nonetheless.
"Of course it's okay!"
His overzealous outburst caused his friend—and several other students passing by—to shoot him an odd look.
"Are you okay, Jess?" She asked skeptically as she shut her locker.
"Fine. Never better actually."
Leslie arched a dark blonde eyebrow. "Good to know."
As they made their way through the throng of students stuffing themselves through the exit of LCHS, conversation flowed easier than it had for several days. The topics were lighthearted, and through they slipped into silence about mid-way home, it was a comfortable, contented silence. Before they knew it they were pulling into the Burke's driveway, and through Jess switched off the truck both remained where they were.
"Do you want to go to Terabithia?" Jesse blurted out suddenly, and Leslie stared at him in surprise.
He had absolutely no idea where the suggestion had come from. The two hadn't spoken of—let alone gone to—their tree house in the forest since the middle of their sophomore year. The magic had dwindled, and while both of them mourned it in their secret heart, neither had possessed the audacity to suggest going.
That was why Jess felt mortified when Leslie turned away from him and opened her door, sliding out. However, he did not expect her to drop her backpack by the rear tire and speed away at a breakneck run.
"Race ya to the end of the road!" She called back to him as she headed in the direction of the creek.
A smile broke out on his face, and he darted after her, tossing his book bag on top of hers.
No words, he thought, had ever sounded sweeter.
A/N: Well, there you have it! This story has been lurking in my mind for a while now, and I decided to sit down and write it. A few important notes: I