Two days had passed, and Annah was beginning to feel depressed. Jenny hated her it seemed. In desperation, she seeked out Serena in hope for some advice.
"Hi Serena, this is Annah."
"Yeah A?"
"What do you mean by A?"
"Oh, we use initials here. I'm S, Blair is B, Jenny is Little J, Joss is J. Jenny is still called little in respect for Joss. She was the first J."
"Oh - well, I guess I like it."
"Can you come over here. I'd love to talk to you, and if Jenny's stories are true, you were always the sidekick, the much loved, and sometimes much hated best friend and frenemy. I'm beginning to feel like you, and I'm wondering what to do."
"Well here is the key. Jenny and Blair are actually quite similar, believe it or not, and the way with Blair was to gently prod her, and if she didn't spill then, well, you just have to barge into her space. She'll be furious at first, but once you give her a few minutes of ranting, and she'll calm down. Then she'll talk to you. It is also just trial and error. I would say though, give her a day or too more. Remember, she is, after all, a pregnant lady."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Jenny remembered the envelope in her purse, and pulled it out. Opening it, a key and a note fell out. Picking up the note, she read, Jenny, Alyssa gave this to you. I recently found it, and saw that it belongs to you. Come back as soon as you can. Love, Joss. Picking up the key, she gasped as she recognized it. It was a 24 karat gold key with an amethyst, sapphire, and diamond in the middle of the two birthstones. It hung on a fine gold chain. She knew this key well. It was the key to Alyssa's most private chests, and only she had been allowed into them. She cried, cried hundreds of tears in memory of her lost best friend and her generosity.
Pulling up her courage, she composed herself, and went over to see Jocelyn. Knocking timidly, she was surprised to see Joss open the door widely and envelope her in a hug.
"Jenny, it is so good you came. I thought you didn't know what they key was for. I don't! As for what happened a couple days ago. I'm sorry. But please don't take out too much of your anger on her. If anyone, I deserve it. Anyway, you know your way around here. I'll be down here in the living room if you need anything."
"Thanks Jocelyn. I'm sorry I was such a pill to you, you didn't deserve it. I was just so overwhelmed, and it is just awful."
"It's fine. We both made mistakes. Why not you go do whatever you need to do, and we can go out for lunch. Go ahead," she sent Jenny on her way.
"Thanks." Taking the elevator up, she took a deep breath and entered into Alyssa's room. It still smelled of her perfume. Walking over to the first chest, she opened it up, to find the dress she made for her friend, oh so long ago. It was a blue dress that matched the yellow one she wore to Blair's sleepover party. Fingering the stitches, she remembered the days when she was learning how to design dresses and sew clothes and was using Alyssa as a model. Lifting it up, she saw the scarf she and Alyssa had knit together. Stories were knit into this. Like the war of the knitting needles. Like the time we figured out how we could sew the two parts of this together. LIke the time we tickled eachother till we were blue in the face with our knitting needles. Like - oh, like many times we have done crazy things.
Gasping, she pulled out a small case of jewelry. Recognizing the case, she picked up the silver filigree bracelet, and smiled. It was Alyssa's everyday bracelet. Interested further, she pulled out a Tiffany & Co. heart locket. Opening it, she smiled. It held one picture of her, and the other of her sister. Jenny was touched. She considered me one of her sisters and put me in here with Jocelyn. Putting on the locket, she moved on to see what was in there next. Seeing the Prom crown from Alyssa's sophomore year, she laughed. She remembered that they had both tried to get the two crowns for their age, with her getting the freshman and Alyssa getting the sophomore. Moving on next, she found a small case with a variety of jewelry, all from Tiffany. Joss and Blair both were huge Tiffany people and rarely bought jewelry else where. After looking through some more special items of clothing, Jenny hit gold. Down at the bottom were the photos they got taken of just the two of them.
As she started looking at them, silent tears rolled down her face.
Jocelyn went upstairs wanting to let Jenny know that her mom was home. Seeing Jenny crying over something, she went over to her, sat down and asked, "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Oh, I was j-just looking at some of the things we would do together. Here, look." Jenny told her sniffling.
Joss looked at the photo. There was Alyssa laying on a bed of what? "What is that Jenny? The stuff she is laying on?"
"Oh, well, we bought out several cotton-candy people and we made a bed out of it. Then we put a blanket on it, and enjoyed eating our bed." Jenny laughed. She remembered Alyssa's face when they were finished.
"OMG! So that is why the bed frame still has tinges of pink. Oh you two." she said smiling. It sounded fun.
"Oh, look at this one. This was the whole freshman/sophomore event where we got paired
together. It was fun having an excuse to hang out together."
"Why didn't you go hang out publicly?" Joss asked, a little worried that Jenny would say she was embarrassed by her sister.
"We thought about it, though I was able to convince Alyssa that if socially, she would go down if she hung out with me. With no name, no money, and only being one of Blair's minions at the point back then, I was not the best person to hang out with."
At this point, Jocelyn's mother heard the voices and laughter in her long-lost daughter's room, and curiously she entered it. On the floor were a computer and her daughter and another girl, clutching each other doubled over in laughter. "Hi girls, what is going on here?" She was not angry, she just wanted to know what was going on.
"Hi Mother. This is Jenny, who was Alyssa's best friend and partner-in-crime. I just got in contact with her, and found some last instructions from Alyssa in a letter. In short it said that the room and everything in it was Jenny's, and that Jenny, with or without your and my blessing, could move in here. We were just looking at video of Jenny and Alyssa that sis put together."
"Nice to meet you Jenny. Call me Isabel. Jenny, I am wondering, how did you know my younger daughter and why I never got to meet you."
"Hi Ms. Isabel, I met your daughter back when Alyssa was in her freshman year of highschool, and I was an eighth grader. We were touring Constance and were being led by Alyssa. She and I ended up hanging together after school to meet some of the teachers. We hit it off and became friends then. She knew about my family and that we don't come from old money, but still was my friend. When I joined the students at Constance, she and I became as inseparable as Serena and Blair, but we had one problem. I did not want to drag Alyssa down because since I was one of Blair's minions, and not an heiress to a wealthy family, I was shunned. I did not want the same to happen to my best friend, so we only spent time together when no one was around. Recently, I met Jocelyn, and she knew I was a friend of your daughter and gave me the key Alyssa left me."
"Oh, how kind of you. Can you show me the key? We have been missing one Alyssa's keys for a long time."
"Is it this one?" Jenny asked, raising up the golden key.
"Oh, yes. How did you find it?"
"I didn't Ms. Isabel. Jocelyn gave it to me, telling me I was welcome to come any time."
"Jocelyn, why did you give her the key. You should have told me first," Ms. Isabel admonished.
"Mother, Alyssa's letter to me told me explicitly to give Jenny the key and that now, that she was dead, it was Jenny's along with everything inside the chests it fits in. Nowhere does it say to show it to you. And don't give Jenny that look, if anything, it is all my fault." Jocely told her, defending Jenny. It wasn't fair!
"Well, Jocelyn, I can understand your reasoning. Jennifer, I am sorry for being rude earlier. It is just a little hard to see anything that belonged to Alyssa go missing. She was the baby of the family and was loved by all. Here is your key back. If you need anything, just call one of the maids. And obviously, since you were so close to Alyssa, than, welcome to the family."
"Thank you very much," Jenny said, surprised that once again, she was part of an Upper East Side family. I guess I just can't end up escaping them. They will always be a part, like it or not. I guess I should get used to it and like it for Alyssa's sake.
With that, she returned to her video, and watching Alyssa and her swap Jocelyn's plastic cake, with one of styrofoam.
"So you guys are the ones that did it! What is wrong with me? I was Queen then, I should have noticed that!" Jocelyn said scolding herself. She remembered the party, and trying to cut the cake. Still to this day, she would get teased about it. Now though, she had a culprit, and someone she could prank back.
Finishing the video, Jenny opened a slideshow of herself and Jenny, from beginning to end, bad times and good. Even in her death, she can still cause me to have a whirlwind of emotions. Laughing at one photo and crying at the next. She really was an amazing girl and an even better best friend.
Jocelyn carefully watched the photos, loving all these new photos of her little sister. She was also surprised at how at ease they had appeared, not looking fake one bit, or even the slightest sense of embarrassment. She was also watching Jenny. Every time she saw a new photo, she had a different reaction, happy, sad, laughing. She would have to get the stories out of her.
Meanwhile, Serena and Annah were sitting together, feeding the ducks in Central Park. "S, what do you think about this time?"
Startled out of her reverie, she asked, 'What time?"
"I mean, the time we have had as a group. The time we have spent together trying to help Jenny and Blair. The times we have had to pick up the pieces of our best friends, and put them back together. What does it mean to you?"
"For me, its the time, we cry, it rains, and brings life to the future. No flower can grow without any rain can it? We often are the ones forgotten, yet we help keep the leader together. We are the ones, who are there, when the rest of the world are not. And recently, neither of us have been there. I have left Blair when she went home crying, and you barged into Jenny's house. Let's get our rear ends out of here, and where we need to be. With our friends.
Meanwhile, 45 miles away, a man smiled sinisterly and got into his car. Grinning like a
madman, he muttered, "Tonight will be a good night."
Gossip Girl here: Is it just me, or is there something fishy going on? There is this mystery blonde that is making appearances everywhere. Going to Joss's house, laughing with Joss in gasp! A's room. Why is there laughter in our dear, dead Alyssa's room? Isn't it sacred? And why did Serena, Joss, and Blair go to Astoria Park together? And who are those other two? One our mystery blonde, and another mystery brunette.