BECAUSE I'M HAPPY
It was a long day after that. Jay was in and out, meeting with whoever he could, trying to figure out what happened. He explained to me he already talked to Mr. Corson, but that he was clean. It had been a long time since I had seen my brother this disheveled.
"Jay," I whispered from the hallway. I had spent most of the afternoon in my room, watching choreography videos and doing my best to distract myself. There were a lot of unknowns with this situation and it was freaking me out.
"What's up, Grace?" Jay asked me, turning from his spot on the couch. He had been closely examining something, but I couldn't tell what it was.
"Is this going to mess up the custody agreement between you and Dad? Am I going to have to go home?" I questioned.
"No, Gracie," Jay shook his head and stood up, quickly closing the space between us. "This is your home. You're not going anywhere."
"What if they tell Social Services?" I asked.
"This isn't an investigation on you, it's on me, and I'm going to figure it out," Jay said, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. "This will pass."
"Okay," I resigned, not completely convinced, but feeling a little better. "I guess I'm just going to go to bed now," I told him.
"Did you want to watch a movie or something?" Jay offered, picking up on the idea that I didn't really want to be alone right now. Even so, I knew he wanted to go back to whatever he was doing and that was more important right now.
"I'll be fine, Jay," I feigned a smile. "It's just been a long day."
"Okay. I'll be out here if you need anything," Jay promised, squeezing my shoulder. "Good night, Grace."
"Good night, Jay," I told him and retreated back to my bedroom.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of pots and pans in the kitchen. I was confused because I knew Jay had been up drinking last night and I expected nothing except a passed-out Jay on the couch. I rubbed my eyes and wobbled my way out into the hallway.
"How'd you sleep?" Jay greeted me once I made it to the kitchen, flopping down in one of the chairs.
"Better than you, or at least I thought," I mumbled, still groggy from waking up. "You seem chipper this morning," I pointed out. The sparkle in his eye was back.
"It was a long night," Jay answered with a shrug. "Eggs okay?"
"Sure," I nodded. "What happened?"
"Do you have a lot of homework?" Jay asked, completely ignoring my question.
"I did most of it already," I lied – well, kind of. I didn't really have that much to begin with, so it was going to be easy enough for me to do it later.
"Did you apply to St. Ignatius yet?" Jay continued, catching me off guard.
"I didn't realize my application to St. Ignatius was on your radar…" I trailed, confused.
"You're always on my radar," Jay smiled, plopping my eggs on a plate and sliding it over. "We can work on it now, if you want."
"You don't have to run off anywhere?"
"Not until this afternoon," Jay explained, taking a bite of his own breakfast.
"So you're innocent, then? You didn't kill Lonnie?" I tried to swing back to my earlier question. If he was still a suspect for murder, he wouldn't be so relaxed.
"I didn't kill Lonnie," Jay winked. "I told you I was going to take care of it."
"Dork," I mumbled under my breath.
"Doofus," Jay coughed.
A week later and it was like none of it had ever happened. My dance team was one of the groups performing at the race against Cancer outside of the hospital and it was beautiful out.
"Are you ready to run?" I teased Zak. He was running as a representative from the studio. Brooke was here as well, but she was going to hang out with us until our performance time.
"Grace!" I heard someone shout above the crowd. I looked up to see Gabby and gave her a smile and a wave.
"Hi guys," I ran over to where Matt and Gabby were standing. "Oh, hey Officer Burgess," I greeted, recognizing that she was there as well.
"Please, you know you can call me Kim," Office Burgess – Kim – told me. "What are you doing here?"
"My dance team is going to perform in a little bit and my dance coach is actually running in the 5k. Some of us decided to come early and cheer him on," I explained.
"That explains all the makeup," Gabby teased, pulling at my ponytail. "I know Jay didn't do any of this."
"He just about had a stroke when I left the house this morning," I laughed, remembering the look on his face. "I don't think he realized that all of this was part of the package," I gestured to my face.
"I can't say I blame him," Matt chuckled. "What time is your performance? Maybe we can sneak out and watch."
"Um…12:00 I think," I answered. "I know I have to be back at the tent by 11:30, so it should be around then sometime."
"Sounds like a plan," Matt high-fived.
"Thank you!" I high-fived him back. "Are you running, Gabby?" I asked her. She nodded.
"I still have to go register, but we're going to finish putting the tents up first," Gabby mentioned. They had barely started setting up.
"Makes sense," I smiled. "Well, I guess I'll see you all later!" I called as I walked away, back towards where my team was. It was a little chilly, so we were all huddled in sweatshirts and blankets.
"This blows," Rebecca complained. "Let's get this whole thing over with."
"Stop being so negative," Another girl, Kelly, argued with her. "It's for a good cause and it's good publicity for Zak and Brooke."
I ignored them and started playing games on my phone. Rebecca was right, it was cold and boring, but complaining did nothing to help anyone. The 5k was for cancer research, which was an important cause to me, and us being out here was free publicity for Zak and Brooke. There was really nothing to complain about.
"Grace!" I heard a little girl shout and I looked up from my phone to see not one, but two little girls running towards me. "Are you Grace?" The blonde one asked.
"That is me," I answered carefully. I had no idea who these kids were.
"My aunt Kim is a Police Officer, and she says you're a real dancer," the brunette stated, putting her hands on her hips. The blonde little girl nodded along as if she knew all of the secrets of the world. It was really cute.
"Well, Police Officers weren't trained to be liars, were they?" I smirked. "Of course I'm a real dancer," I chuckled. "What are your names?"
"My name is Zoey," the girl who said she was Kim's niece declared.
"And I'm Imogene," the blonde girl laughed, smiling at her friend. I couldn't help but smile too, as the girls were so contagiously happy. It was a welcome change to the earlier sour mood.
Well, at least until we got knocked to the ground by a bomb.
