CHAPTER 10 PREPARATION
The day after the dance Dan, Zach, and Cody all did their community service by picking up liter around town.
"What kind of person just throws their garbage on the ground?" Cody asked as he stabbed a plastic bottle with his poker and then dropped it in his large black "lawn and leaf" bag.
"Hey Cody," Dan called. "Is this the wrapper you tossed on the ground the other day when we were in town?" He stabbed a Hershey's chocolate bar wrapper and held it up so Cody would see.
"No," Cody said, looking nervously at the wrapper as he recalled the event. He knocked the wrapper off Dan's poker and quickly stuffed it into his own bag. Dan and Zach laughed.
Dan was not as grumpy today as he had been lately. It was his last day of punishment, and he had gotten to go to the party last night. Cody and Zach were counting down the last week of their punishment. Cody was glad he was going back to classes and wouldn't have to be in suspension all day, anymore.
"I am so glad I don't have to see smelly old Miss Shoeberry anymore," said Cody. "I think her smell started rubbing off on me." Cody smelled his arm and made a disgusted face.
"I don't know about you,' said Dan, "but I thought you two made a cute couple." Zach doubled over with laughter.
"Very funny, Dan," Cody said sarcastically as he thrust his poker at Dan. Dan dodged the poker, and threw the damp, dirty newspaper that was stuck to his poker at Cody. It slapped against the leg of his neon orange, jump suit.
"Oh, now you're going to pay," Cody said threateningly. He stabbed a soggy banana peel and chucked it at Dan. Dan tried to dodge it but it ended smacking him right in the back of his head. Dan saw an empty bottle nearby and scooped up some water that was near the curb, in it. Her turned around and threw the water at Cody. Cody ducked, and the water ended up soaking Zach who had been trying to stay out of it. He stared at the wet stain on his suit for a second before saying, "Oh, it's on."
The boys went at each other for about 20 minutes running through the streets chucking any form of garbage in sight. After nailing a poodle with an unidentifiable, very soggy item, the boys called a truce. They continued cleaning up, in their wet, dirty jump suits. When their 5 hours were up, they stayed a little longer, feeling guilty that they had wasted time. The headmaster had to check them off before they could go back to the school, (he asked about the dirty jump suits, but then decided he didn't want to know). When they got back they showered, and washed off their jump suits, before returning them to the headmaster. For the rest of the day they did homework, (Cody had been given work to do in suspension from his teachers), or tried to avoid doing their homework.
"Hey," Jess said as she walked into Dan and Cody's room. "How was community service?"
"Better than suspension," said Cody. Dan and Cody were playing a war game on the Xbox. Jess lay down on the couch behind them.
"Dan," Jess said after a minute of silence, (other than the explosions from the game).
"Yeah," he answered.
"Why does your hair smell like rotten banana?"
"Aw man," Dan said as paused the game. He ran his hand over the back of his head. "I thought I got it all out."
"That doesn't tell me why your hair smells like a smoothie gone wrong."
"Why were you smelling my hair anyway?" he asked as he stood up and looked at her suspiciously.
"I could smell it when I walked in the room. I just realized it was you."
"Cody threw one at me," Dan said as he walked to the bathroom.
"Do I want to know why?" Jess asked looking at Cody.
"He threw a wet newspaper at me," Cody said.
"Dan," Jess said sounding like an angry mother. She turned to face Dan and stared at him. He looked at her from around the door frame of the bathroom, with the back of his head recently soaked.
"He tried to poke me with the garbage, poker, thing," Dan said, defending himself.
Cody was quick to save himself. "Dan said me and Miss Shoeberry would make a good couple."
"Truth hurts, buddy," Jess said.
"Hey!" Cody exclaimed sounding very hurt.
"Anyway," Jess said ignoring Cody. "This was your last day of punishment, right Dan?"
"Yeah," he called from the bathroom where he was soaping down his hair. "Thank, God too. I am so tired of detention it's not even funny."
"We've got some hard core practice ahead of us this week," Jess called back to him. "'cause of the game next Tuesday."
Cody's face fell.
"Oh, shit," Dan said as he dropped something on the floor in the bathroom. "I totally forgot."
"Yeah, well we're all very happy for you," Cody said bitterly as he shut off the Xbox.
"What's your problem?" Dan asked as he came out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel.
"Take a wild guess," Cody said as he stood up and walked over to his desk. Jess gave Dan sign that told him he should stop. Dan looked curiously at Cody.
"Your punishment ends next Saturday," Dan said. "You can play on Monday, and Tuesday. What's your deal?"
"Coach'll never let me play," Cody spat at Dan. "Not with only one day of practice after two weeks of suspension."
"Oh," Dan said quietly. He knew that playing in the Season Opener was a big thing, especially for Cody. "Sorry."
"Whatever," Cody said, before turning away.
Jess sat quietly for a minute before going over to the phone and dialing a four digit number.
"Hey," she said into the mouth piece. "Time to call in the cavalry." She hung up the phone.
"Who was that?' Cody asked.
"No one," Jess said innocently.
"It must've been someone," Dan said tossing the towel into the large black hamper next to his wardrobe.
"No one important," Jess said staring into space, as she drifted around the room. Dan tried to look at Cody to see what he thought, but Cody was looking the other way.
As Jess drifted around the room, Cody wrote a letter to his parents, (mostly to say sorry), and Dan continued his Civics homework in silence. About 10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Jess jumped up from her spot on the couch, to answer it.
"'Bout time," Jess said to the person at the door. Dan and Cody looked up from what they were to see who it was.
"Nice to see you too, Jess," said the person as they walked into the room. It was Nate. He had a duffle bag over his shoulder that looked quite full.
"He's the cavalry," Cody said pretending to surprised. "Who's the infantry? Zach?"
"No," Jess said as Nate walked into the room and set his bag on the ground. "He's the guns. He doesn't have enough brains to do anything more."
"What do we need cavalry for, anyway?" Dan asked.
Jess grinned and looked at Cody. Cody looked at her confused.
"You always need cavalry for a game of rugby," she said. Cody smiled and shook his head. Nate grinned at him from behind Jess. Dan was still confused.
"Well," said Cody as he stood up, "if you want to get your asses kicked that bad I'll play."
"You talk big, but can you play big?" Jess asked him as she grabbed the rugby ball from Nate's bag and threw it at him. He caught it and said, "Bring it."
The four of them went out to the soccer field and played 2 on 2 rugby. Jess and Dan vs. Nate and Cody. They played pretty rough, but then rugby is a rough sport. Dan had never played rugby before so they went easy on him. He still enjoyed it. During a break in the game, Dan ran over to Jess.
"Why did you call Nate over to play rugby?" he asked. Jess nodded towards Cody who was running towards them. Jess gave Dan a little wave before walking over to talk to Nate. Dan watched her go, getting more confused by the second.
"Uh, Dan," Cody said to get Dan's attention. Dan turned towards him. Cody continued, "I just wanted to say sorry for the way I was earlier. I was just angry."
"Don't worry I get it," said Dan. "I'd be the same way." It was quiet for a minute before Jess called to them.
"Are you love birds done? We'd like to keep the game going."
Nate, who was behind her, laughed. Dan and Cody gave her a dirty look as they walked towards her.
"You shouldn't be fraternizing with the enemy anyway," said Nate as he pulled Cody away from Dan. He whispered some new plays to Cody when they were a couple yards away.
"That's way we play rugby," Jess said to Dan. He turned from looking at Cody to looking at her.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Cody's a stuffer. He stuffs all his anger until he pops. The only way to cool him off his to have him hit something. Rugby is a great way to do that."
"Nice."
"Yeah," Jess said. "But now he's cooled off so really stick it to him now."
"Aye, aye," Dan said saluting Jess. They continued playing until it was too dark to see anything. It was quite late when they got back. It seemed like it only took Dan a second to fall asleep.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The rest of the week went by quickly, compared to last week. Jess had been right about the hard core practice. Coach crushed them into the ground. Dan's legs and butt were so sore Tuesday because of Monday's practice. He could barely walk. Jess didn't seem to be effected by the practices.
"You wimp," she said as Dan limped towards her Tuesday morning at breakfast. "You're worse than Cody."
"Hey," Dan said sounding hurt, "I'm not used to this."
"You'd better get used to it then,' she said. "This won't be the last time it's like this. Coach always freaks out before big game's."
"Good to know," Dan said as he gingerly sat down.
"Need an ass massage," Jess asked as she watched Dan's pain filled face.
"No thanks," he said. "I'm good."
"You'd probably like it," Cody said as he set his over-flowing plate down on the table.
"That's gross," Dan said trying not to look nervous. Why would he say that? Dan thought. Does he know?
Cody noticed the look on his face. "Calm down, I was kidding," he said as he sat down.
"Apparently you don't know how to kid 'cause we should all be laughing," said Jess.
"You're such a party pooper," said Cody as he stabbed a huge chunk of pancakes and shoved them into his mouth.
The three of them finished eating and headed off to class. The rest of the day was normal until 8th hour. Dan was already sitting at his spot when Cody walked in.
"What's your deal with Jess?" he asked as he sat down next to Dan.
"What do you mean?" Dan asked nervously.
"This morning, when I said you'd like an ass massage from Jess, you got a funny look on your face. It was almost like…" His voice trailed off and he looked at Dan for a moment. "Oh…my….God."
"I know what you're thinking," Dan said hastily, "but that's not it-"
"You like her!" Cody said surprised.
"Shut up!" Dan was getting very nervous now.
"I can't believe it. I know some guys say she's hot, but you!"
"Shut your trap before I shut it for you," Dan said threateningly. "It's not… It's just… I don't know."
"Chill man," Cody said calming down. "I know how you feel. I was just never expecting it to be Jess. But you don't choose who you like."
"Thanks," Dan said still feeling uncomfortable. "Just one problem, Armageddon will come before Jess likes me."
"Don't doubt yourself," Cody said. "Jess has never told anyone but you that story about her mom. All the people that know were either with her during it, like me, or her dad or brother told them. She's never even thought about telling anyone other than you."
Dan felt a little better.
"Alright class," Mr. Zit said. "Quiet down."
The rest of class they listened to Mr. Zit talk about engine maintenance.
The week flew by. Cody never really said anything about Dan liking Jess other than the night after he found out, when he asked Dan for a more in depth explanation.
Pretty soon it was the Monday before the game. Cody was so happy to be back at practice he could hardly contain himself. He did around Coach, though, because Coach was so mad at him and Zach. During advanced practice he was a little behind but he caught up soon. Unfortunately, Jess was the one who had to inform Cody, officially that he wasn't playing in the game on Tuesday. He was still disappointed even though he already knew that it would probably happen. Coach still wanted him to suit up and be the water-boy for the day. This would lower his status with the other players. Cody expected it though. He worked hard during practice to show Coach he was still dedicated. It must've worked because Jess told them during dinner that Coach was originally considering having Cody sit out the next game too but, in the end he decided not to.
Before Dan knew it, he was going to sleep with his head full of terrible thoughts about the game tomorrow. You're gonna loose the game. It's going to be all your fault. Everyone will hate you, especially Jess.
He gave up trying to sleep at 2 in the morning. He got up and went down stairs to the common room, in only his pajama pants. He got a candy bar from the food machine. As he unwrapped it he turned around to look at the whole common room. He jumped out of his skin and dropped his candy bar when he saw someone sitting on the couch watching him. It was Jess. He hadn't seen her until now.
"Jess!" he said. He was no longer uncomfortable with Jess seeing him half naked. She had seen him change in the locker room about a million times now.
"'Bout time you saw me," she said casually. "You walked right past me when you came down here. I knew you weren't intentionally ignoring me."
"Why are you up?" he asked. "You can't be nervous."
"Not really," she said. "I might get a little nervous later but not now. I just woke up and decided to do stuff down here so I wouldn't wake Bee up."
"What exactly are you doing, then?"
"Watching you get a candy bar."
Dan looked curiously at her.
"I just got down here when you came down," she said. "I sat down and then you came."
"So you're not as crazy," he said. She laughed. Dan picked up his candy bar and sat down next to her.
"Are your parents coming to watch the game?" Jess asked Dan.
"Yeah," Dan answered. "I'll probably get a lecture about good behavior from my dad, too, so that'll be great."
"If you weren't such a juvenile, you would have these problems."
"I didn't do anything."
"Right."
Dan laughed a little. "What about you?" he asked. "Is your dad coming?"
"Yeah. He's waiting for the hockey team though. He loves hockey so much he could marry it."
That phrase sparked something in Dan's mind.
"I know this is kind of a personal question," he said, "but does your step-dad, like, date and stuff."
"Yeah," she said. "How is that personal?"
"Well, I mean, your mom died and some people wouldn't date after that but some do."
"What are you talking about," Jess said turning to Dan and looking confused. "My dad's never even met my mother."
"He had a kid with her!" Dan said getting really confused himself. "You said your mom had Nate with another guy after you were born."
"Oh," Jess said. "You're talking about Nate's birth dad."
"Who else would I be talking about?"
"My mom left Nate's father about a year after Nate was born. She found out he was having an affair. Mom never dated after that because she believed that, if her choices so far were this bad, she wasn't meant to have a man."
Dan felt like he'd been slapped across the face.
"I guess I forgot to mention that earlier," Jess said with a guilty look on her face.
"Yeah, a little bit," Dan said.
Jess smiled.
"So then who's the 'Dad' you were talking about?" Dan asked.
"Well, after Mom died and I got out of the hospital," Jess explained. "Nate and I were put into an orphanage far away from where we actually lived. On my 11th birthday I ran away and headed back towards home, but I didn't get far. I got sick and had to recover in another small town that was on the way. I stayed there for a while. The sheriff, a young guy 'bout 29 named John Biebe, let me stay with him because he lived alone. I stayed there for 9 months before the orphanage found me. They were going to take me away again. The sheriff had gotten attached to me, so he said he would adopt me if I wanted him to. I told him I was a package deal. That I didn't' go anywhere without my brother. So he adopted us right there. He's been the only real dad Nate and I have ever had."
"That's great," Dan said glad there was a happy ending to Jess's story.
"Yeah," Jess said smiling to herself. "He's been amazing. He even let us move back to our hometown, where he eventually became sheriff. It was one of the best times in my life. I got to see Cody again, and everyone else. I went to the town school for the rest of the year. The next year we took out a huge bank loan and got a scholarship to St. Mary's. Dad doesn't exactly have bucket loads of money. Nate's trip was mostly funded by fundraising they did, and a chip in from Cody's parents."
"My heart warming story for the day," Dan said.
Jess laughed quietly.
"One last question," Dan said. "Shouldn't you and Nate have you're a Dad's last name?"
"We do," she said. "We just chose to also keep our real last name. Legally my last name is Payton-Biebe. But I still just go by Payton. I haven't lived with the name Biebe long enough to call it my own. Nate goes by Finch, his birth name. It was just easier, legally (for my mom), for Nate to keep his dad's last name. He doesn't care though."
"So, anymore things from your past I should know about?" Dan asked jokingly.
"No I think that about covers it," she said grinning. "Well, I'm shot. I think I'm gonna try to get more sleep." She stood up.
"Yeah," Dan said also standing up. "I probably should, too."
Dan spent the rest of the night trying fathom how Jess could be so, Jess, after all she'd been through. I'm less happy than her and nothing bad ever happened to me.
Dan could help but feel a strong love for his parents at that moment. He felt bad for every time he had taken them for granted.