Chapter 9 - A Par-Tea

The following days were fine. Emily spent most of her time with Debbie and Kate so Jane hung out with Maura. She had completely forgotten her dream and was looking forward to the party that was happening tonight.

"Are you going?"

"Uh, I wasn't invited."

"Well, you can come with me. I was invited. And you were probably not invited because you're never in the cafeteria at lunch so, duh."

"I don't know."

"It won't be the same without you."

Maura smiled. Jane was always so nice and always wanted Maura to do everything with her.

"I would love to Jane, but my parents are flying in this evening and I don't think they'd appreciate coming home to an empty house."

"Oh I get it. Well. The next one."

"Of course Jane. And don't forget the game on Sunday."

"Forget? That's all I've been thinking about these past two weeks!"

"I'm glad Jane."

"I don't know how I can ever repay you."

"Don't Jane. I love to make you happy."

"I wish I could make you happy too."

"You do Jane. By being my friend and always being so nice to me. You make me happy Jane."

They looked deep into each other's eyes and smiled until Angela barged in on them.

"When are you coming home Janie?"

"Uh I don't know. When do I have to?"

"You are only 14 years old so I don't want you to come home after midnight."

Wow. Jane was surprised, she thought her mom would say nine o'clock.

"I promise ma. I might come home earlier than that though."

"Just have fun Janie."

"Ma. Don't call me Janie."

"I'm sorry sweetheart."

"Ma!"

"Oops. I'm just going to leave."

Angela left and Jane looked at Maura but the moment had passed.

"I think I should be heading home now."

"Yeah. Well. See you tomorrow."

"Yes Jane. Have fun tonight." Maura gave her a hug and a part of Jane didn't want to let go. She was absolutely positive the party would be a snooze fest without Maura.

While walking to the party Jane thought about how her friendship with Maura had been. Maura was always so nice to Jane. She never criticized her or said anything mean to her. She never forced her to wear make-up or fancy clothes and she always complimented her for everything. Maura was so much better then Emily, she just hoped Maura knew how much their friendship meant to her.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Steve said when Jane arrived.

"Thank you Steve. Wow, you invited many people."

"Yup. I have to enjoy my freedom, my parents are out of town so of course I have a party."

"Yeah." Jane walked inside only to find a crowded living room with people dancing and playing games. She walked towards the drink table and was just about to grab a drink when Joey approached her.

"Hey frog-face."

"Hey frog-face." Jane copied him.

"Where's your hot nerdy friend?"

"Who? Casey? He's probably here somewhere." Jane looked around.

"Haha, think you're real funny ha?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking about becoming a comedian! Well, oh man, that probably means I will have to hang out with you more, because I get all my best jokes by just looking at your face."

"If you weren't a girl, I would kick your ass."

"Oh really?"

"Oh wait a minute. You aren't a girl."

"Now who's funny."

"Nice talking to you Rizzoli." Joey said and left the room.

"Always a pleasure." Jane said back and decided to go explore the house.

The last room she checked out was Steve's room. She was walking around in it and checking out all the prizes he'd won.

"Hey don't…" Jane turned around. "Oh it's you. I was just about to lock the door." Steve said.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She but the prize she was holding, back on the shelve. "I'll just go back downstairs."

"Don't. You're welcome to stay here. I can keep you company. Have a seat on my bed."

Jane sat on his bed and soon enough Steve had closed the door and joined her on the bed.

"When are you coming back to hockey practice?"

"Uh… Probably Monday."

"Cool."

"Yeah."

"You can hardly see you were ever hit with a puck."

"Yeah, well. Time heals."

"Yes it does."

Then everything became quiet. They looked deep into each other's eyes but all of a sudden Steve closed his eyes and started moving his head closer to Jane's. She was so excited. Steve, a boy she'd been in love with for four years was finally about to kiss her. She thought about the time Emily told her about her first kiss.

"When he's moving closer to you your head starts to spin, you get massive butterflies in your tummy, you feel so happy that you almost want to cry and when his lips finally touch yours all the butterflies start flying around and your head starts spinning even faster. Your whole body will know and when the kiss finally ends you will feel like you explode and all the butterflies finally escape. Your body shivers and it slowly fades away."

Finally Jane was about to have her very first kiss. She closed her eyes and waited for her head to start spinning. He moved closer and suddenly his lips touched hers. She had no butterflies in her stomach and the lips that were pressing against hers felt a little aggressive. This was nothing like she had hoped it would be. She then opened her eyes and kept her lips closed even though Steve was trying to push something in. Jane then pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked

"Uh, I don't know. I'm sorry." Jane said and then thought about the time Emily explained true love to her.

"When you're in love with someone you want to be with them all the time. They make you smile and whenever they approach you feel happy. When they touch you, you get this tingling in your stomach and you want to hold on forever. Whenever you're not with them you feel like a part of you is missing."

"Wow. How do you know all this?"

"My sister told me and she is married with kids so she must know."

Jane looked at Steve. He seemed confused. Jane wasn't sure what she should do. She then stood up quickly and ran downstairs.

"Jane? Jane wait!" Steve yelled and ran after her.

Jane didn't stop, she got out of the house as fast as she could and ran home.

"Jane? You're home already? You just left?" Angela saw the frightening look on Jane's face, she stood by the door like she was frozen. "Jane? What's wrong?"

Jane didn't answer, nor did she move.

"What happened? Tell me honey."

"Don't call me honey." Jane then said and ran upstairs to her room. She locked the door and lied down on her bed. Jane knew her mom wouldn't give up so easily and before she knew it Angela was knocking on the door.

"Tell me what's wrong Jane. What happened?"

"Nothing. I'm fine, I just don't like parties. Please leave me alone."

"No Jane. I know something is bothering you, come out and talk to me."

"No. I don't want to talk about it. Please leave me alone ma!"

"Jane."

"For god's sake leave me alone!" Jane yelled.

Angela stopped knocking and Jane could hear her footsteps as she walked downstairs.

Jane didn't want to think about the party or anything so she decided to distract herself by playing a video game on her laptop. She had an old baseball game that she could play for hours. She turned it on and started playing.

Jane then woke up to her phone ringing.

"Good morning Jane. This is Maura."

"Hey Maura." Jane sounded way sleepier than she intended to.

"I'm sorry Jane. I didn't mean to wake you up. It's way early in the morning."

"It's okay Maura. I didn't go to bed late and I should be up anyway."

"My parents came home last night and we were talking about you and they would like to invite you over for tea."

"I don't drink tea."

"You don't have to drink it, we will have many other hors d'oeuvres."

"Huh?"

"Refreshments."

"Oh okay. When do you want me to come?"

"I think two o'clock would be fine."

"Okay Maura. I'll be there. Is it just gonna be the four of us?"

"Yes."

"Will it be like fancy or some?"

"No no. Just a Saturday afternoon tea. You are not required to wear a dress, just wear something you want to wear Jane."

"Okay Maura. See you then."

"Good bye Jane."

Jane hung up the phone and checked what time it was. It was almost eleven o'clock so Jane would have good two hours to get ready. She decided to take a shower and wear something nice, because judging by the way the Isles lived they were probably a bit snobby.

She picked out her fanciest jeans, a white tank top, and a light blue T-shirt, white pair of socks and some underwear and took it into the bathroom.

She decided to take it slow in the shower and just relax. She washed her hair and realized she should definitely have a haircut soon. Her dark, thick, curly hair covered her entire back when it was wet. She also needed a lot of shampoo to wash it. Yes. It was time to have a haircut. Jane couldn't even remember the last time she had a haircut.

"Jane. I need to take a shower." Frankie knocked on the door.

"Just a minute." Jane said a bit frustrated.

She found a bottle of conditioner which she decided to try to put in her hair. She had never put conditioner in her hair before but when she had washed it out, her dark hair shined and was so soft to touch. It also smelled really nice.

When she got out of the shower she started brushing through her hair and it had never been so easy to brush through before.

"Wow where are you going? On a date?" Frankie said with a smirk look on his face.

"No. I'm just going over to Maura's."

"Yeah right." Frankie said and jumped into the bathroom before Jane could answer.

Jane walked downstairs and hoped she would be able to escape the house without a second degree from her mother but Angela called at her before she opened the front door.

"Where are you going Jane looking so fancy?"

"I'm just going to Maura's."

"Jane Clémentine Rizzoli, you better not lie to me."

"I'm not lying ma. Seriously. You can call Maura and ask her if you don't believe me." Jane said frustrated and handed her mother her cellphone.

"And where are you going after?"

"Uh… Home? Seriously ma! I'm just going to Maura's house and having a tea with her parents, I promise I'm not meeting any boys or whatever you are accusing me of doing. Now may I please go before I miss my bus? Huh?"

Angela didn't answer but opened the door for Jane who ran off as soon as she could. Angela had never seen her daughter act like this before, they would definitely talk about this tonight.

Jane ran to the bus stop but tried not to go too fast so she wouldn't sweat. She got to the bus stop one minute early and waited for the bus that stopped right outside Maura's house.

She hopped on and found a seat in the back. She looked out the window and tried really hard not to think about last night but at some point she found herself thinking about it and feeling so awkward. She really didn't want to face Steve in school on Monday. She really wanted to talk to Maura about this and hoped they could get some time alone after the tea.

"Oh you must be Ms. Rizzoli. Maura has told us so much about you. Come on in dear." Mrs. Isles said.

"Thank you. Maura has told me a lot about you guys too." Jane said and hung up her jacket.

"Hi Jane." Maura said happily and jumped to Jane. She gave her a big hug and Jane couldn't help but smell her hair just a little bit. "I am so glad you could come join us for tea Jane."

"Me too." Jane smiled and they looked deep into each other's eyes.

"Well the tea is ready my dears, come join us in the living room." Mrs. Isles said.

Jane felt awkward, she really wanted to make good impression for Maura's parents, but she was a little nervous, she also couldn't remember the name of Maura's dad, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't remember his name.

"Ms. Rizzoli, I hear you are Maura's partner in biology. Are you challenging her?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh mother, we are supposed to help each other out in biology, not challenge each other."

"I just want to make sure my daughter gets the finest education. Did you know she is planning on becoming a doctor, maybe she'll even be a surgeon." Mrs. Isles said proudly. "What about you Ms. Rizzoli? Are you interested in medicine?"

"Uh, I don't know. I don't think I'm smart enough to become a doctor."

"Jane is really smart mother, she's just being modest. She gets good grades and she is really good at sports." Maura jumped in as her mother looked suspicious.

"Do you enjoy sports?"

"Yeah, I really do."

"Which sports do you prefer?"

"Uh baseball and hockey mostly."

"Baseball and hockey?" Mrs. Isles asked confused. "I thought these sports were for boys only."

"No." Jane grinned. "I mean, yeah, most people think that but, I don't know, I mean I'm the only girl on the hockey team but still it's fun."

Jane felt awkward, Maura's mother obviously didn't like that and Jane was so afraid that Constance wouldn't approve of her.

"Jane's been teaching me a lot about baseball, she's even going to teach me to bat and pitch, and tomorrow we're seeing the game, remember?"

"Those were some fine seats I got for you girls, I hope you have a lovely time." Mr. Isles finally spoke.

"Thank you Mr. Isles." Jane said and tried going back to before where she actually seemed like one of them.

"Oh you can call me Harold." He said.

Jane smiled and knew that Maura's dad was starting to like her. Jane than looked at Maura who smiled at her and indicated that everything was going well and according to plan.

After the tea, Maura's parents excused themselves and went to visit some friends.

"That was so great Jane. Thank you. I think they both like you."

"I tried really hard to seem like one of you."

"You don't have to put on a show, just be who you are Jane. That's the Jane that I like, and I am sure my parents will like that Jane too."

Jane smiled. Maura was always so nice. She hadn't asked Jane to look nice or pretend to be something she wasn't, she just wanted her parents to meet her new friend.

"I forgot to ask you Jane, how was the party?"

"Uh, so lame, I left early, but it was so awkward."

"What was so awkward?"

"Steve kissed me?"

"Oh Jane, and how was it?"

"Bad. Really, really, really bad."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, it was sort of like gross and, you know, I just had to get out of there."

"Oh poor thing. But I thought you liked Steve."

"So did I. Maybe I'm just not ready for this stuff, you know, kissing and that kind."

"That's alright Jane, you're only starting high school. You don't have to be ready."

"Are you ready?"

"I don't know Jane. Maybe if the right guy comes along, but to kiss just anybody. I don't think so."

"Yeah. Me neither."