Disclaimer: None of the characters of the film belong to me.
Synopsis: Josie waits for her 'penguin' to kiss her at the State ball game, only to find that he doesn't turn up. Five years later she's invited to the prom reunion, will she meet him again? And if she does how will her heart react?
A/N: Sorry, again, for the very lengthy interlude to my story and no excuses real life took over for a little while but now I'm back to finish off my little tale. Please keep reading and writing those reviews.
Chapter 4
Sam had finally been able to pick up the keys to his new apartment that morning and his friend, Ben, had called over to help him move in. Now, as Sam had nearly unpacked his life again, he slowly and carefully slit open the final packing case with the knife he had in his hand. He removed the first newspaper covered trophy from its six month storage home and after unwrapping it and giving it a wipe over he placed it thoughtfully on the shelving unit that stood in front of him. He picked out another and another patiently giving each trophy the same treatment that its predecessor had had, and smiling as each of his most treasured possessions took their place once more upon the shelving unit that had not equally seen the light of day since that fateful night he had left Chicago.
Engrossed in his work, Sam picked out another trophy from the box. "What the …" Sam jumped at Ben's sudden outburst, nearly losing his balance. He set himself back on his feet and made his way through to the kitchen. "Jeese Sam, when I said buy some beer I didn't mean lets get completely slaughtered."
Sam chuckled, "it's not all for tonight!" He answered, "some of it's for Sunday, when some of the family and my old friends from the city come over to me see me. You're coming aren't you?" He perched himself on one of the stools at the breakfast bar as he watched his friend uncap a bottle and hand it over to him. He placed the still wrapped trophy on the bar as he took a swig of the refreshing beer.
"'Course Sam, I wouldn't miss it for the world." Ben said as his eyes roved over the bar. "What's that there?" He questioned, pointing at the wrapped package.
"One of my trophies," Sam answered.
"Not that," he motioned toward the picture on the newspaper wrapping, "that? It's that reported isn't it? The one that was left waiting on the pitcher's mound."
"Ben, what are you talking about?"
"God, Sam, where have you been? Did you not read the paper before you wrapped up your trophies?" He watched on as Sam shook his head in answer. Ben explained, "there was this girl, Joanne, no. Jessie, no. Josie? Yeah, Josie, I think. Well she went undercover to High School and fell in love with … hey, what are you doing?"
Sam began carefully unwrapping the trophy, taking care not to tear it before gently smoothing it out in order to read the article that now sat before him. He looked up at Ben, who had been eyeing him quizzically. "Could you do me a favour," Ben nodded, "do you think you could find the other half of this article whilst I begin to read this page?"
He heard Ben find his way over to the trophy box whilst he began to read the article, slowly digesting every word that was printed before him, becoming more and more nauseous with each passing sentence. Silently Ben reappeared holding out the other half of the article. "Here it is," he motioned as he watched Sam slowly lift his head and look at the other sheet before taking it from his friend. "Are you alright, buddy?" Ben asked, concerned. "You're as white as a ghost!"
Sam faltered, placing the second page over the first hiding Josie's bewitching green eyes as he did so. He began to read the continuation becoming increasingly depressed the further he read. "Oh god!" He finally uttered.
"What's wrong, Sam?" Ben asked of him again.
"It was me; I was supposed to," he looked up at his friend, absently, "to kiss her!"
"What are you going on about?"
"Ben, this story, the man that Josie Gellar thought she was in love with, the English teacher, the one that she so desperately wanted to give her her first real kiss that was me!"
"Woah, slow down! I think you best tell me from the beginning."
"Right, it's March ok? Final semester for the seniors and the school gets a new transfer student, Josie Gellar, which is odd considering that wouldn't normally be allowed to happen. The first time I see her in my class she's wearing the most ridiculous outfit for a 17 year old and white lipstick, but I find it so endearing …," he shook his head and smiled, he corrected himself, "her so endearing. Trust me; I fell over my feet that day. So, I'm beginning to wonder what angel from above had sprung this little surprise on me when I ask the class to define 'pastoral'. One of the senior girls defines pasteurise, so I ask again! Josie sticks up her hand, I motion for her to carry on and she not only defines the word, she states where it was first used and about it's Latin origin. Now my mind is going crazy, there is absolutely no way a 17 year old student would know that stuff, they don't teach it until students study English at college. So, I question her; only to have her, somewhat nervously, declare that she is indeed 17." He looked to his friend for encouragement to continue. Ben motioned that he should.
"Over the next few weeks I ask her to read in class, it's such a joy to listen to her. We're studying Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' and this girl is good. She knows all of the passages by heart; I mean, I teach it and I don't know every scene word perfect.
"I get her to read her essays too. At first I told myself it was so the class could listen and learn from some of the best pieces of written work I have had the joy to mark in my life, but then I realise its because I just want to hear her speak and feel the passion of her writing through her own voice. I find myself leaving her work until last so that I can spend the time reading over and over again to try to ascertain her personality from her words and feel the emotions she emits through her own hand.
"Then we had this fundraiser for the prom at Navy Pier. I'd been walking around for ages, talking to students and joining in some of the games, when I see her. To be fair, I had been looking for her for so long that I wasn't even aware I was doing it, and when I saw her, my mouth went so dry and I could've sworn my heart stopped beating for a second." He blushed at his own admission. "I hear one of the fair carnies shout 'Lonely ride in bucket 5, single' and I watch as Josie forlornly and quietly asks if he really needs to shout it out, he says that he does.
"Before I know what I'm doing, my feet quickly cross the distance to where Josie is, my head only thinking of Josie being on that ride on her own. I don't even think about what it could do to my career if anyone else read anything more into my actions. I hand over my ticket and take the seat next to her, I'm even oblivious to the fact that I am now sitting in a chair on a Ferris wheel; scared of heights as I am.
"The ride starts and that's when I get nervous, but she soothes me, calms me down with her kind words and by touching my hand with her own. My mind wanders because of the proximity to her and I start to babble about Lara, trying to bring back some kind of sense to all of my actions and reactions. I even say something about guy's lining up around the block for her when she's my age, all the while wishing I could bite off my own tongue because all I want to say is that I want to be the only guy lining up for her.
"Over the next few days I get to see a different Josie, one that is more confident and radiant. She's begun to look and dress better, her clothes fit better, her hair is straighter and her make-up isn't so jarring any longer. She also seems to be warming up to me, as well.
"She becomes involved with the prom committee, to which I am faculty advisor. We're painting the sets and man, when we're alone we begin flirting with one another, getting more paint on ourselves than on the sets." Sam stopped momentarily fleetingly thinking about what could very nearly have been had they not been in the situation they had been in, a faint smile touched his lips as he absently shook his head, he continued. "We've then got to decide upon the music to be played at the prom and blow me if we can't even be that serious about that either. Two days before prom and we're at school sorting out final props and getting everything ready before it's moved over to the country club. We start to talk and I swear if it weren't for the sudden wake up call I gave myself, I would have kissed her there and then. I realised I was falling in love with her.
"The night of the prom arrives, I'm there early as I need to go over a few things and run through the running of prom court with one of my colleagues. I'm ready early and I patiently wait to see her dressed up. Finally, she arrives with the most popular boy. They are all supposed to be famous couples and they turn up as Rosalind and Orlando from 'As You Like It', I can only imagine that was actually her idea. She looks so beautiful, wearing a pink gown with antique lace around the sleeves, the bodice fits her frame so perfectly and her hair is up and pinned away from her face. It's the first time I've been able to see the full extent of her lovely neck and all I want is the chance to kiss and caress it. I'm resolved, I have to tell her sometime that evening how much I admire her.
"Finally, I get the chance I've been waiting for. She's alone and I make my move. I tell her there's something I need to say to her, she says the same and pulls this pin from her bodice, wings – she's worn it for as long as I can remember; she throws it on the floor. Just as she's about to tell me whatever it is she wants to say, she notices most of the popular crowd are about to make a fool out of her friend, Aldys. She comes to her rescue, very honourable of her really, she becomes angry with the popular kids for their actions, throws her crown on the floor and tells them, well, us all actually, that she isn't 17 she's 25 and an undercover reporter for the Chicago Sun Times.
"I'm dumbstruck, I can't believe what she is saying and I can't bear any of it any longer. I find my feet and quickly find my way outside, making my way to the sunken garden to find a quiet spot and contemplate what I've just heard Josie say. Not 5 minutes later and she's outside presumably looking for me, but I can hear someone else too. A man and he's telling Josie that Gus is going mad about a lost feed and 'had she got anything on Coulson yet?'
"She says 'no', finally noticing me as I get up from my seat and turn to face her, her 'friend' quickly leaves. She's nervous and despondent," Sam laughed, "as am I, she says "surprise", I say, "what? Surprise your doing a story on me? Or surprise I was allowed to be attracted to you? She says she couldn't do the story and asks if I was attracted to her, and I shout at her and impress upon her that she had just been setting me up. I mean, I can't trust her now and I sure as hell don't have any idea what is going on her head. I leave, telling her 'I can't look at you in the same way', after she tries to console me and try to make me see her sense, but obviously at that point I don't have any.
"And now I read this story, six months after the actual event I get to read a story that was written entirely for my eyes and mine alone and I read it too late. I've stupidly allowed myself to believe that Josie Gellar was one of those self-important, uncontrollable reporters that didn't give a damn what they wrote in order to get circulation. Quite clearly, after reading this," he motioned to the newspaper before him, "I was wrong!
"The most stupid thing of all though, the night I moved out of Chicago was the same night I got caught up in all of that traffic on it's way to the State Championship Ball Game. If only I'd known Josie was waiting there … for me, then this would all be different now."
"How exactly?" Ben asked, after taking in all that Sam had just told him.
"Well, Josie and I would be together for a start."
"Maybe, you would be, maybe, you wouldn't!" Ben ascertained.
Realisation struck Sam, like a knife in the heart, "Oh god, I should've been there, what the hell did I put Josie through, the hurt she must have felt, the humiliation, what have I done to her?"
"Sam, don't beat yourself up. You couldn't help it if you didn't see the article, as far as you were aware she was a conniving lying reporter who was doing her best to use you as a basis for a story that didn't exist." Ben looked at the worried face of his friend. "If it helps, I know there were a couple of follow up stories, maybe you could get copies and see what they had to say?"
"Yes, thanks Ben, that's a good idea. They normally have copies in the library," Sam mused, "I'll take a look tomorrow! But for now I must finish these last few bits off. Thanks again, Ben."
Sam had been given time off work in order to move and took this opportunity to go to the library in order to see if there were any more stories that did indeed follow on from Josie's original article. He asked the librarian where he would be able to find the back issues of the Chicago Sun Times and was directed toward one of the computers. The librarian clicked open the folder with the archived newspapers and Sam was then able to select the first paper from the day of the original article.
He searched the navigator to find the page he was looking for and sure enough, once he opened the page Josie's eyes were staring at him from beyond the screen. He shivered inwardly; she still had an effect upon him. He had tried so hard over the past six months to forget her but she still invaded his dreams. The more he tried the more he was taunted until finally he gave in to the realisation that he may never be able to forget the one woman that had left a very lasting impression upon his life. However, after all the feelings of hurt and dejection he had experienced since Josie's outburst he had finally been confronted with the knowledge that she had always been true to him. He had hurt her so badly and because of that she may never want to see him again but if anything could give him an indication of that then hopefully some answers may lie in the articles he was hopefully going to find.
He opened up the following day's paper hoping that there would be something in there relating to Josie's own article but after sifting through he couldn't really see anything. He noticed a search box at the top right of the screen, he wondered if he could use that to find her, he typed her name in and hit 'search'. The results took their time but he was soon presented with a fair list of articles that would have taken him a while to get through. He looked around hoping for something to help him; he found another box entitled 'search within'. He typed in the word 'kissed.' Hitting search again resulted in another lengthy search but finally it processed a smaller list of only three articles. He read the text available for the first and realised that that related to Josie's original text. He clicked on the second.
The paper opened it's pages as Sam looked on, not knowing what to expect as the first thing he caught sight of was Josie's utterly distraught picture as she had stood waiting for him to come to her, obviously having realised at this point that he wasn't going to be joining her. His heart cracked, he reached out his hand touching the visible tear as it seemingly made its way down her cheek. "How could I have done this to you?" He whispered.
He read the by line – 'Still Never Been Kissed, by Augustus Strauss, Editor'. So this was Gus, her boss. He started to read through the paragraphs becoming more and more distressed himself at what he had done and to what extent. She had laid bare her soul, put her life on the line and she'd done it all for him. And he in return, even though he had no knowledge of it, had done nothing but hurt her more than any words could express for the second time in her life.
He remembered that a third article had been shown in the search results and quickly navigated his way to this final article. This was once again written by Josie and was printed a month or so after the original events, he noticed. It was her update.
He re-read it several times finally sitting back in his chair and absently wiping his now moist eyes. He really was a piece of work. He couldn't believe he could have caused so much damage to one person by not giving her one chance to explain her actions and a simple explanation at that. He'd single handledly torn out her heart and left a diminished Josie in his wake. He had managed to wreck another person's life, which had only happened to be the woman that he found himself deeply in love with. Now he knew he really did have problems.
Even before he had seen Josie's article the previous evening he was still able to believe that Josie Gellar was a deceptive, cruel miscreant that worked for one of the largest newspapers in Chicago. Now, he knew that she was nothing more than the truly remarkable woman he had met back in March when she had entered his life with a bang.
"Sir, are you alright?" The librarian asked, trying to bring Sam out of his reverie.
He looked up at the woman, a mild mannered, white haired, spinster and momentarily saw Josie as her, realising that this was the kind of life that was meant for Josie if he didn't do something about bridging the ever widening gap between them.
"Yes, I'm fine," he answered, knowing damn well he wasn't but not wanting to alarm anyone. He had to find a way of getting close to Josie again, to make her realise what she meant to him and that he couldn't satisfactorily go on with his life without her. But how was he going to do it? He didn't have a clue.