Chapter Eight: Jessie's Jamboree

I have no excuse. Except for school, and Indestructible. I do want to continue the novel (I'm all the way through ch. 12 so far), but I haven't seen any interest expressed in it. If nobody thinks its good...maybe I should just stop?

As always, reviews are adored and appreciated! I don't think I got even one review for the last chapter.

After our day in La Push, I was exhausted. That night, I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. My dreams were a confusing jumble of Bella, Jessica, and the tide pools. I woke up late Sunday morning, around eleven. I ambled downstairs in my pajamas, just to see a note taped to the fridge.

"Dear Mike," it read. This couldn't be good; I continued reading. "We've gone on errands, and so we'll be back this evening. In case you don't remember, you finished all the cereal, French toast, and bagels yesterday morning. So, we have no food left—but, there is leftover pizza in the fridge, if you want that. Love, Mom."

Great. No food. Just what I needed. I groaned, and pulled out the pizza. I mean, I love pizza, but that's just not the best breakfast. Cold pizza is okay, but not one of my favorites, you know? I'd rather have the pancakes covered with syrup, but I ate the last of the pancakes last Sunday morning…I was going to have to keep the fridge stocked from now on, because obviously, Mom wasn't doing it!

I finished the cold pizza and threw away the box, but then my stomach growled. I jerked open the fridge again, but it was clean empty, except for stuff like ketchup and salad. I had a crazy idea with what I saw—I found some tomato paste, cheese, and bread. I made myself a grilled cheese, but added tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese, and crushed red pepper to the middle, making a Pizza Sandwich, as I call it. It was pretty amazing, but I knew I was totally pizza-d out. I wouldn't be eating pizza for a few days now.

I went upstairs after eating and cleaned myself up. When I was done combing my hair, I realized that I had a text from Tyler on my cell phone. "Yo, Mike! Guess what? I'm taking Bella to prom!" I read. What? Since when? What was wrong with him? Was he delusional or something? Tyler, taking Bella to the prom? This didn't justify a simple text message—I called him.

"Hey, man, what's up?" Tyler asked, picking up on the first ring.

"What's this about Bella and prom?" I asked, faking curiosity.

"Yeah, didn't you get my text? I thought I passed the message around pretty well this morning. Bella and I, we're going to prom together."

I then realized what Tyler was trying to do—he hadn't actually asked her, but he was hoping that if he got the word around fast enough, nobody else would ask her and she would be compelled to go with him. Good plan; funny, it's usually me who comes up with good plans like that! But not this time, I guess. However, I did have a feeling that she would just not go to prom; after all, she didn't want to go to this spring dance, either, when it was clear that we all wanted her there. I didn't understand why she didn't want to go to the dances, but she didn't seem to like them.

But I decided to play dumb. "No way! You asked her out?"

"Yeah, man. I asked her out."

"And? What did she say?"

"Dude, you're beginning to sound like Jessica!"

I shrugged, though he couldn't see it and I knew it. "Sure, but I'm just wondering, you know? I mean, I would never have expected her to say yes!"

"Yeah, well…" Tyler floundered, and I grinned, digging deeper.

"So she's excited then, right?"

"Of course, man! What else did you expect?" he laughed feebly, and I went in for the kill.

"Wow! I should call her and wish her luck or something. I mean, if she's going with you, then she should learn to not start off her year by hanging out with total losers!"

"You calling me a loser?"

"Yeah, maybe I am! Or maybe you're just a liar?"

"No!"

I sighed, and hung up, not up to talking to him anymore. He hadn't outright confessed, and I knew deep inside that he wasn't that stupid.

Eric called next. But I really didn't feel like talking to him, so I didn't pick up, and he left a message. "Hey, Mike! Wanna hang out? We're gonna go down to West Park to play soccer in fifteen minutes, if you wanna come. I bet you're listening, aren't you? Pick up, Mike!" He paused. "Whatever. See you!"

Soccer sounded like fun. I could use some fun, especially after Tyler. And the fact that I was pretty sure that Bella was into a freshman. That was just plain depressing; that she would choose Jacob Black and Tyler over me. Neither of them were like me; the cool Californian dude. But nooo, she has to go with them instead!

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The next morning, it was even nicer outside than it had been on Saturday. I pulled on a t-shirt and shorts, an outfit that I hadn't worn for ages. It felt great to be dressed in normal clothes, for once, instead of with fifty layers to keep out the cold, the rain, or the snow. With renewed spirit, I spiked my hair perfectly right before going downstairs to see if Mom bought any food yet.

I reached school at a normal time to see Bella leaning over her Trig book. I made my way over to her, admiring the way the sunlight caught her hair, making the brown shine with lustrous red streaks, making it a kind of two-toned copper, and all gorgeous. I realized just how happy it made me to see her, which made me even more excited. She looked up, and I waved.

"Hey, Mike!" she called back, waving cheerily.

"I never noticed before—your hair has red in it," I said, trying to keep the emotions down in my voice, trying to keep it to just a passing comment. The wind blew a lock out of her usual braid, and I caught it, tucking it behind her ear. She blushed slightly, and I smiled again.

"Only in the sun," she replied.

"Great day, isn't it?" I asked her. After all, this was the closest Forks would ever get to Phoenix weather.

"My kind of day."

"What did you do yesterday?" I asked her. What did she do at home? I was very curious as to how she spent her days. It was common knowledge that Chief Swan went fishing almost every Sunday, but what did Bella do? It felt like an important thing that I had to know, but even I couldn't tell you why I felt like that.

"I mostly worked on my essay," she replied. Oh, man! I had forgotten about that essay! And I didn't even understand what was going on in English class! I hit my forehead against my palm.

"Oh yeah—that's due Thursday, right?" I clarified. If it was due any earlier, chances were I wouldn't have time to get it done—it would be a sacrifice of either the essay or sleep, and I prefer sleep to English.

"Um, Wednesday, I think."

"Wednesday?"She nodded. No. You have got to be kidding me, Bella! I don't have the time! "That's not good…what are you writing yours on?" I asked curiously. Maybe she could give me some pointers, because she seemed to understand the class, unlike me. I normally just sit in the back, doodling, while the teacher speaks, because as far as I'm concerned, she's speaking Pig Latin.

"Whether Shakespeare's treatment of the female characters is misogynistic." What? Never mind, scrap that idea of her helping me! I got the feeling that she had already done this stuff at her old school because it came pretty naturally to her—or maybe she was just really, really smart. Either way, I was left staring at her like a fool. What in the world did misogynistic mean, anyway? Wasn't it, like, a hatred of marriage or something? But didn't all the characters in Shakespeare's stuff get married? I was so confused!

"I guess I'll have to work on that tonight," I mumbled. Ugh. I'd just tell Mom and Dad that I couldn't help them tonight, and drink tons of Red Bull to keep myself awake for long enough to finish the stupid thing. But on another note…I was pretty positive Tyler had been lying, and that he and Bella were not actually an item. What was the worst that could happen? She would say no? I'd had worse falls than that! So, it just kind of came out, when I said, "I was going to ask if you wanted to go out."

"Oh." She seemed totally surprised.

"Well, we could go to dinner or something…and I could work on it later," I said hopefully. Maybe she would come with me! Or, I could use the dinner to have her "help me with the essay"…that might work, too…that, I planned to try next.

"Mike…I don't think that would be the best idea," she replied instead.

I was so prepared for the "Sure, Mike!" that I had been positive was coming, that I was caught off-guard. I slipped into kind of a frown, and tried not to glare at her. But what possible reason did she have for turning me down and making me feel retarded? "Why?" I asked her. That's it, short and sweet.

"I think…and if you ever repeat what I'm saying right now I will cheerfully beat you to death, but I think that would hurt Jessica's feelings." She said this carefully, while threatening me.

"Jessica?" I repeated. Where did she factor into this? This really was an unexpected turn of events!

"Really, Mike, are you blind?" she asked me. How insulting!

"Oh," I breathed as thoughts of the past several days flew by me. How Jessica kept giving me the cold shoulder, especially with the topic of Bella. How Lauren started disliking me soon after. How Jessica sought my attention back in La Push…

"It's time for class, and I can't be late again," she said, leaving me to my thoughts as she picked up her books and threw them into her bag, and then walking towards building three. I caught up to her, still thinking about Jessica and what Bella meant. All through my morning classes, I was preoccupied. And the more I thought, the better the idea sounded. Bella herself really was an unattainable dream, but Jessica was perfectly willing and available, so why not go with her for right now? I could pursue Bella later.

But first, I had a small task to do. I set about looking for a dictionary, and looked up the word "misogynistic". I read the first entry, "one who hates women". So Shakespeare hates women? I thought he loved them! What in the world had Bella been talking about?

When I saw Jessica and Bella come into the cafeteria, my instinct was to offer Bella the open chair next to me, but she spied Angela and immediately headed over to her. I kind of wanted to ask her about the essay again, but decided against it. A better idea popped into my head, one that complied with this new plan of mine; I held out the chair for Jessica instead. She smiled brightly and sat down. We chatted animatedly about nothing in particular, keeping me totally occupied until the bell rang. It was really quite fun, actually.

Biology and badminton passed without incident for me. I didn't even notice Bella. I was still too busy thinking about how to go about this new plan, and finally decided. After school, I cornered Jessica. "Hey there, Jessie," I said, falling in step with her on her way to her locker.

"Yeah, Mike?" She had been in a much better mood with me since lunchtime.

"How would you like to go out tonight?"

"Really? I'd love that, Mike, truly!" she squealed, throwing her arms around my neck. I hugged her back awkwardly, realizing that I really did like Jessie, too, just not as much as I liked Bella, and that I couldn't wait for tonight. On the other hand, that English essay? It could wait.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I had no idea what to wear. I settled on dress jeans and a polo shirt. Pretty nice, but still kind of casual. We had settled on going out to The Lodge, and I had no idea what to expect when I pulled up in Jessie's driveway to pick her up. Would she be really fancily dressed? What would the proper etiquette be? I had no idea. I had gone on dates before, of course, but I had never been so nervous before one!

She stepped out of the house shyly, looking awesome. Her hair, usually a bit frizzy, was pulled up into a simple but elegant bun, with small wisps of hair framing her face. She had put on makeup, I could tell, but not very much, just enough. She wore a short, colorful baby doll dress, accenting her figure and making her look quite amazing. I had never really thought of Jessie as pretty before, just as having average good looks.

"Hi, Mike," she said quietly, waving. She seemed very self-conscious or something.

"Hey, there, beautiful!"

She blushed slightly, and did a small twirl. "So you like it?"

"Like it? I love it! You look great!"

"Thank you very much!" she exclaimed, delicately stepping into the car. I realized then that I had somehow missed her shoes—they were electric red, with high heels. I stared at her shoes and exposed legs without realizing it until she cleared her throat. "So…do you want to get going?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah…Sorry…" I trailed off, putting the car into reverse and hitting the road. Jessie turned on the stereo to find that I had my iPod plugged in. "Do you want me to unplug it?" I asked her. "If you don't like it, I can turn on the radio."

"Oh, let it be. I just want to see what you have on it," she replied, scrolling through and occasionally turning on a song. She went through the artists, stopping at the letter F. "You have Fergie on your iPod?" she gasped, amazed. I shrugged, not bothering to reply. "This is too funny!" And so it went until we reached the restaurant, with her interjecting every thirty seconds with an exclamation and a new song that she decided she liked better.

Once we reached the restaurant, we found an empty booth and sat down. A waitress brought us menus, and we ordered our food, talking about nothing important. "Remember Jacko?" asked Jessie suddenly.

I grimaced. "Yeah, why?"

"What about Gift?"

"Yes…I remember her too. But what's this about?"

"Nothing important. Just wondering…" But then a horrible thought occurred to me. Maybe the reason Bella was ignoring me so much was not because she was into other guys! I mean, she hadn't really been going out with any of them, had she? So what if she was…you know…not into guys? Ugh!

Jessie saw my expression. "You really didn't like Jacko, did you? Or was it Gift you didn't like?"

Gift was nice enough. But Jacko, he got on my nerves, and I told her so. She laughed.

"You would have a problem with him. Or was that because of what he said to you?"

"Both."

Conversation continued, but I couldn't get this newest theory out of my head. I'd have to talk to Bella and just try, though. There was nothing I could do except try. She was sweet, she was pretty, and she was mine for the taking, I thought. I don't really know what's going through my head, sometimes. How could I possibly have deluded myself so?

"So…you know, Tyler sent out a text telling everyone that he's taking Bella to the prom."

"Yeah, I got that text. What about it?" I asked cautiously. Bella was a dangerous topic when it came to Jessica, especially something so juicy and gossip-filled.

"Angela keeps telling me it's not true, but I don't know. What do you think?" I shrugged. As much as I didn't think it was true, I wasn't positive, and wasn't going to dig myself a hole. "Lauren was heartbroken when she heard. First Gift, then Bella. She's still not over it."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused.

"Didn't you know? Remember how Tyler and Gift were going out second semester freshman year?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, Lauren didn't like that, did she?" I had no idea what she was talking about, and sat bewildered. She could tell. "She was, like, totally into Tyler since the beginning of that year. And then he asked Gift out instead."

I interjected, "Weren't Lauren and Gift friends?"

"Not after that. So when Gift left, Lauren thought she might have a chance with Tyler, you know? But it didn't work out like that—he was with nobody sophomore year, and now he's after Bella. Lauren's been getting increasingly desperate, and now is turning all that hate of hers onto Bella. Personally, I think she's right about Bella, though. She's kind of…skanky, it seems. I mean, what girl attracts boys like she does? I don't get it. She's not that pretty, but all of you are just obsessed with her! Is there something us females don't know about her?" she demanded.

"Uh…" Jessica had thrown us both into quicksand now, and I couldn't find a way to get out of this dangerous territory. I didn't belong here, and it took her a while of ranting before she realized it.

"I'm sorry, Mike. You probably don't want to talk about this, do you?" she apologized. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Did you see that graffiti on the side of the school? I wonder who did it. Nobody does graffiti around here!" Of all people, Jessica would know, and this was a good new conversation, I thought.

I chose well, apparently, for she got all excited about graffiti now. "I heard it was some of those La Push kids! It was rude crap about the Cullens, telling them to get out of town, only meaner. What do they have against pretty people?"

"I don't know! I wondered about that."

"There's another rumor that says the Cullen kids themselves did it as a publicity stunt. Not all of them, but definitely that big one that laughs really loudly."

"Maybe. But I think the janitor cleaned it up on a day the Cullens weren't even in school. I'm pretty sure they didn't see it."

The waitress arrived with the check. I paid, and rose. Jessie got up as well, and we walked together to the car without speaking. She fiddled with my iPod again all the way to her house, and when we reached her home, she kissed my cheek fleetingly before waving, smiling brightly, and bouncing inside.

I grinned. Tonight had been perfect, and I couldn't wait for another night like it. Spending time with Jessie had actually been pretty awesome, and an encore would be much appreciated…