A midsummer's day.
Hello all. I have to apologize for something: I have made some research to figure out how to write this story. Marianne for example is a character Sookie defines as her "best friend in high school" in SVM volume 2. Tara appears several times of course, and JB and Eggs are said to know Sookie from before as well. However there is something I wrote that is wrong, being that Hadley and Sookie are the same age. They are not: Hadley is actually 3 years older than Sookie –Jason's age. For this story, though, I will ask you to forgive me and go along with my side of the facts – which Hadley is in Junior High with Sookie. If she'd been in Junior High 3 years before Sookie, Sook could've never helped in her research. But I'll stop here, I might've said too much already ;-)
I hope you like this chapter, thanks J.T.R for the review =)
The characters and baseline plot are obviously Charlaine Harris's, but I've tried to introduced new characters and feel-in the blanks; and the story is of course in Sookie's POV.
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"That's a great dress Hadley" I said, admiring the white sequin dress hanging in the closet. "Yeah", she replied, without much emotion in her voice. "It's a rental though; I'll give it back when I think of it". I looked at the photo of the beauty contest from a few weeks earlier, the day Hadley was crowned Miss Bon Temps, with her hair all done and her tiara and the flowers and the beautiful white dress. Then I turned around to see Hadley, in front of the mirror, trying on a deep purple lipstick and black kohl. It was hard to imagine it was the same girl. I hope she's doing it just for fun, I think; I hope she's not thinking of wearing this during junior year. It's not like she'd be too accepted in our devout town, if she starts looking like a worshipper of Satan. I scold myself. It's not my business anyway. "Get the makeup off", I tell Hadley, "you're mom is going to call us downstairs!" Sure enough Aunt Linda called us, asking if we wanted to lunch. "Damn, girl! I'd give anything to have a cool gift like that". I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Hadley is one of the few people who truly believe in my "gift" –though I rather look at it like a disability, for all the good it's done me– and will admit to anyone she wishes she had something that cool. She is the exact stereotype of the little town cheerleader: hollow, obsessed with makeup, accessorizes, and (I could hear her screaming inside) getting the hell out of this Podunk-neck-of-the-woods-backwards-trash town of ours. Looking past this of course she's a good cousin to have and –for a teenage telepath without many– a good friend. Jason and Hadley are my closest relations of my age, and we've hung out a lot in our childhood –meaning I didn't hang around too many other kids when I couldn't really figure out the difference between what they were thinking and saying, which freaked a lot of them out.
We have the same grandmother, Adele Stackhouse, but while my father married a small town woman, his sister married Carey Delahoussaye, who could not shut up about his French ancestors and New Orleans upbringing. When he'd left two years ago, Aunt Linda and Hadley took back the name of Hale, at least for the neighbors, and decided to never speak of him again. But I could read in Hadley open mind that she thought of going to find him in New Orleans. She couldn't wait to be free and independent.
"I might dye my hair black!" Hadley suddenly offered. I was startled. Hadley has the same blond hair as mine and as we rarely go to the hair dresser, they are as long and straight as mine tend to curl.
"Black, uh? Hum, right, well, let's talk about it some other day ok?" I sensed she wasn't done, but sometimes, I'd just rather not hear. Then we went down to eat and I managed to leave Hadley's without mentioning the black-haired-black-makeup group of new friends she'd been thinking about telling me about all day. Some things are better left unsaid.
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"What's up with your cousin" Tara asked me a few days later. "I heard she's acting strange and shit? Wearing all black, hanging around the old cemetery? Is she into devil ways, as my mother would call them?
- Well, I don't know." Tara and I had been tanning on long chairs in the garden. My grandmother was putting the laundry up on a line in the backyard. "And please watch your mouth! We are good Christians in this house, and I won't let you talk of such things in here. Plus, there is no way of knowing what she's into." Tara eyed me good. "Ok, maybe there are, but you know Hadley, she's just trying to be interesting".
I hoped I was right. When I'd come back from Hadley's, my grandmother could not help but being worried, and I wondered if there was more to the story than meets the eyes. But so far, I was doing pretty well on trying not to listen to people around me. Jason and Adele of course were the easiest because I spent so much time with them; their brain pattern was almost fixed in my mind as making a specific buzz that I could try not to listen to. On a good day. If my head didn't hurt. But these days there were no reasons for my head to hurt.
"I'm not gonna lie, that sound pre-tty scary and weird to me. But anyway I guess small-town gossip is just what it is." Tara sometimes accentuated syllables like that, that didn't ask for anything. I looked at her like I had no idea what she was saying. "How's your brother then?" Tara asked to change the subject. I was grateful. "He's good. He's starting working with the road crew, taking up some heavy stuff from the road parish. You know him, he's the outdoors kind, he likes that stuff, and I think he might be sticking to it for a while." Renard Parish isn't that big, so the road crew doesn't just level the roads but takes care of a few gardening and wood-trimming issues along the road, and there are a few things to work out in the summer, so Shirley Hennessey would hire some help during the hotter moths. He'd taken Jason this year again, and as I heard, a couple other boys. "He's told me the boys call their boss 'Catfish'", I whispered to Tara with a look of conspirator on my face. She was too kind to say it out loud but her thoughts said Everyone knows that Sook… I decided to look it over and start practicing on my blocking her a little more. After all, a good friend is a friend who doesn't listen on other friend's minds…
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In the summer, I love to sleep with my windows open. I stay up in my bed looking in the distance or I just wonder what goes on in the woods at night. During the winter, they feel pretty ominous but in the summer time they look like endless possibilities. My brother goes out fishing and hunting sometimes, and I know there are plenty of things in the woods, from raccoons to razorbacks, but I sometimes almost want to check them out myself.
I know I'm a bit young and defenseless though, so I just stayed in, but opened my window to stare in the dark. I practiced my mind to explore the house, see if I could sense Adele (yes) and Jason (sure, but even without the brain his snoring would alert the whole county he was there). Could I sense further, I thought? What about old Jesse Compton's house across the cemetery? That house was way too big for poor Mister Compton, and I hated that he'd had no one to come visit him (he was obviously in no better family condition than I).
Suddenly, I thought I sensed something by the cemetery. Something human, obviously, from the brain pattern. I'm not sure how to recognize if I know the person or not, but I know there are people. And looking closely, I think there might've been a few torches or something out there, because I feel like I can see something outside as well. I took some boots and walked slowly toward the door. What do I do? Do I leave home at one in the morning because I think I heard brains over by the cemetery? Probably not.
Feeling shy and cowardly, I stopped right before I unlocked the inside door. My grandmother raised me to be a good girl. A brave girl, sure, but not a fool. And a good girl doesn't sneak out in the middle of the night for no reason. I abandon my plan and go back to the window. As if I'd imagined it, there are no more noises, no more lights. As for my brain, it's aching in a very weird way. It feels like flashes of faint red are edging the corners of my mind. I shake my head and try to go to sleep.
As I doze off, I try to wonder how far I can send my "waves", and how good my mental ability is. Am I developing it by trying to hear further? Or am I playing with fire? I decide that from now on I will stop trying to explore, and concentrate on blocking people out.
As the night gets deeper, I have the impression there are things in the woods, but it's probably just my dreams starting as my mind joins my body in abandon.
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Jason came home a few weeks after my birthday with a boy I'd never seen before. He was mighty pretty, that boy, but also rough and a bit edgy. Not just like any boy I'd ever seen, I thought. But what do I know about boys?
The garden was clean, the house was impeccable, and I'd try to help my grandmother in every way I could. I'd also gone through a romance novel and two mysteries. I was getting restless. I couldn't possibly spend all my time tanning and cleaning. There had to be something to do? JB du Rone had invited me out on a date but I hadn't got around answering him yet. The main problem was that I didn't know what to tell him. On the one hand of course I'd wanted to go out with him, I'd thought about it deeply and the thought of going on a proper date like many of my classmates, well, it sounded nice to be a little normal for a change, but how would I react? Possibly a movie with a guy thinking hard next to me would be difficult. I try to avoid enclosed spaces as much as I can, especially with people I don't want to know about my disability. I decided it could wait. After all, he didn't even have a car to take me out with.
Jason on the contrary had gotten a car (a beat-up egg box as he'd call it) to go to and from work every day. Which is why when I saw him and this boy come out of a loud red pickup truck that day, it made me want to look twice. Jason introduced me to his friend Max (Maxwell, he knew, but it was more colloquial to call him by a nickname, made him feel 'cooler'), eighteen years old and something of a young god. Adele has fixed them some meal made out of biscuits fresh from the oven and a big cold jug of sweat tea. They were none the merrier. Both looked beat and sweaty, and if I hadn't stuck around, I'd probably never heard what was coming.
While they were talking, I couldn't help but look at Max. He was brown-haired and green eyed and he didn't eat like he hadn't eaten in 3 days like Jason. He chewed and stopped and stood straight like a young man ought to. I was more impressed with him by the minute. Although I stood very close, I could barely hear him. I mean hear him (my ears are fine thank you very much). There was a party coming up, Jason said, and he wanted to know if Max wanted to come. Max looked a little weird, like he'd never gone to a party before. What kind he asked. "Oh, just normal", said Jason who hadn't noticed anything different or peculiar. But then again, Jason isn't known for his observational skills. "Some dancing and pizzas and (softly) maybe beer and stuff. Hoyt's mom doesn't let him too much slack and he usually barely ever goes to parties so I don't think we should skip him giving a barbecue. Plus there's gonna be a lot of people our age, from town. Wouldn't hurt for you to meet a few people I'm sure!". Max looked at me like he was expecting me to say something. I played dumb and got up to leave like I had remembered something to do –actually, I was feeling a little weird. I realized I could block him more easily than other because he was such a poor broadcaster. "Sure" he said, "I'll come. But shouldn't we invite…" he realized he didn't know my name. Jason didn't realize this time either and said, "Don't worry the whole town's going." Then he looked at me "you're going too, Sook?" Max's eyes were blazing.
"Sure" I said with a small shrug. I hadn't been thinking of going to Hoyt's party, now couldn't wait.
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Hope you like it!
Read and review please! =)