Stars Over Terbithia
Chapter 10 – Panic
(Please read and review, it makes us better writers.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Bridge to Terabithia and no profit was gained
from the writing of this story. Terabithia was created by Katherine Paterson.

When Jess awoke on Saturday morning, he gazed sleepily around, something seemed out of place. His alarm clock read seven-thirty – his usual waking time on weekends – but the room was so dark, and there was some strange and repetitive sound droning on and on.

Groaning, he sat up and look toward the window, and quickly realized what was so off about everything. Rain droplets beat harshly against the thick pane and the outside sky was covered by one massively depressing gray cloud. Briefly, he considered going back to sleep at the sight of the dreary November morning, but a clap of thunder stole the notion and he skipped laboriously down the wooden stairs.

The day was in its typical weekend swing by now, with Jess's mother finishing up breakfast, May Belle and Joyce Ann sitting expectantly at the table, and Mr. Aarons wandering in from the living room with the newspaper to grab his coffee and join them.

Jess took his usual seat and poured himself a glass of orange juice from the carton on the table. The four of them sat there quietly until breakfast was ready, when they were joined by Mrs. Aarons and a considerable meal of eggs and bacon.

"Mary," Mr. Aarons addressed, looking strangely at the newspaper. "Looks like they're putting ol' Frank on trial. They got 'em yesterday."

Mrs. Aarons leaned sideways to look at the paper, he face also distorted.

"Wow," she said when she straightened and started back in on her own breakfast. "That's been a long time coming, right there."

"I'm surprised they got the bastard," Mr. Aarons said, his eye brows raised as he folded the paper up and laid it on the counter behind him. "But now we've got to worry about who replaces him."

Jess gave his parents a curious glance, and seeing that they had nothing more to discuss on the topic, went back to his food.

The rest of the morning, Jess helped his father and May Belle tidy up the greenhouse. It actually hadn't been used much since Mr. Aarons had gotten his new job, but since the amount of work had been cut down considerably with the hiring of new deputy managers, the man was able to relax some and get back to his hobby.

That's what it really was. As much as the gruff man used to preach that the plants grown in the greenhouse were part of the family's livelihood, it was also a hobby of his. There was a particular sparkle in his eyes once they had finished the work and the greenhouse looking better than ever.

By noon, the downpour hadn't stopped, and Jess began to feel himself slipping into a state of depression that he always seemed to take on when he woke up to days like this. He did his best not to let it affect him and joined his family in watching the television for the first time in a very long time.

The knock at the door surprised everyone, but Jess was the one to get up and hurry off to answer it. Leslie normally came over much earlier in the day if she came over at all on Saturdays, and though he expected it to be her, he wasn't at all surprised when it wasn't. He was however, surprised at who it was.

Mr. Renick, hair plastered to his scalp and umbrella held high, was standing in the door way. His eyes lit up when he saw Jess standing before him and he smiled warmly at the sight of his student.

"Jess!" Renick exclaimed. "How's that shiner?"

The boy gave him an incredulous glance before he realized what the man was talking about. He had been so busy all morning that he had hardly remembered the events of the past day, and now that it was brought to his attention, the pain in his eye became more prevalent.

"Fine," Jess stammered, still surprised to see one of his teachers at his front door. "D-do you want to come inside? You're getting all wet."

Renick stepped inside and wiped his feet on the rug. Once he had closed his umbrella, Jess's father came in to see who was at the door. Also expecting Leslie, Jess's father was taken a bit by surprise.

"Mr. Renick. This is a pleasant surprise."

Mr. Aarons' tone was sincere, but a little condescending.

"Tom," Renick said. "Or am I not the little boy who used to milk Miss Bessie every morning?"

Mr. Aarons smiled warmly, now seemingly more glad to see the assistant principal of his son's high school. It was strange. The two suddenly seemed like old friends.

"It was a long time ago," Mr. Aarons said. "I wasn't sure you remembered."

Renick chuckled. He knew Jack Aarons well enough to know that the man rarely tried to pry into anyone's memory if they showed no apparent recollection. It was likely that, if Renick had never made this visit, their prior relationship might have never been addressed.

"Come inside, Tom," Mr. Aarons invited. "Have a seat on the couch. Mary will be happy to see you and I'm sure she'll have all kinds of questions.

The visit was predictable to Jess. All of the kids were expected to stay in the room and listen as the boring adults droned on and one about their lives, telling old stories. Renick went in depth about his departure from Lark Creek and everything he had done since then.

Jess learned that the man had lived in Lark Creek for three years earlier in his life, between the ages of twelve and fifteen. He had lived with Andrew and Samantha Perkins, who had owned the house next door ten years earlier, before it became the subject of frequent arrivals and departures of new owners before the Burkes settled in. During his time in the small community, Renick had struck up a friendship with a girl his age.

The topic of Renick's friend was mentioned only briefly, both adult men in the room suddenly looking very uncomfortable. The subject was changed by Jess's mother, who began the boring drone again by talking about the "dreadful weather."

This topic wasn't so much boring as it was distressing to Jess. He had been trying hard the entire day to keep his mind off of the weather, instead trying to focus hard on the details of the conversation. The reminder of the dreary state of the outside weather sent him spiraling back into a depressed state of consciousness.

From that point on, the conversation continued to be cheerful and good natured, but Renick kept stealing curious glances at Jess every few seconds. Jess wished he would stop.

Over the next few minutes, the voices of the people around him started sounding muffled, as if all of them were speaking from within a tunnel. The thoughts in his head, any attempt made to make sense of the situation, were clouded and just as confusingly restrained.

Without realizing it, Jess moved his hand quickly to his chest, aggressively grabbing a handful of his shirt. He could tell then that he was breathing and exhaling at an alarming rate, and was now very aware of why it was that his teacher continued to give him progressively concerned glances.

Mr. Aarons seemed to be embarking on some long tangent, the contents of which Jess could not discern. Thirty seconds passed, and still Jess was hyperventilating, his mind in a whirl, completely unable to focus on anything aside from a familiar and profound sense of panic that had suddenly taken over his senses.

A few more awkward glances later, Renick interrupted Mr. Aarons and moved quickly to sit next to Jess. The young teacher's hand clasped the teenager's shoulder tightly.

May Belle finally seemed to notice the distress and had jumped up. Joyce Ann, always one to mock her big sister, did the same, but eventually did seem to realize that something wasn't quite right with her older brother.

"Jess."

Renick's tone was firm and confident, and it was that that helped focus Jesse's hearing.

"Jess, listen. You're having a panic attack. Just breathe, and wait it out, and remember that there is nothing wrong with you physically."

Jess could feel the sweat trickling down his forehead. The rate at which he was breathing was startling to him, but even more so to those around him, as Jess himself wasn't quite able to focus and didn't really hear the sounds of his own rapid hyperventilation.

Jess's mother and father could do little other than watch, and the entire family was told more than once that there was nothing they could do for him.

After what seemed like at least a half hour, Jess snapped out of it, his rate of breathing normalizing and his heart quickly fading to its normal, soft spoken rhythm. In the end, the attack had lasted only ninety seconds.

"You all right, Jess?"

His father's voice sounded refreshingly clear, and almost disturbingly close when compared with what he had been experiencing. He simply nodded, the overabundance of oxygen he had taken in during the episode causing him to be just a little lightheaded.

Everyone waited a few minutes before saying anything else, giving Jess a few minutes to recover from whatever it was that was ailing him. The boy wasn't sure he needed the time, but was thankful for it. It gave him time to collect his thoughts.

Jess had heard of panic attacks, as he had just completed his Psychology course the previous trimester, and was also fairly certain that he had had one before, years ago. This one seemed much more aggressive.

"Jack, Mary," Renick addressed Jess's parents once Jess seemed a little better off. "Do you mind if I speak to Jess privately for a little while?"

"Come on, girls," Mr. Aarons said after nodding, placing his hand on his wife's back to direct her into the kitchen. "Let's go out to the greenhouse for a little bit."

Joyce Ann was quick to comply, though May Belle seemed a bit hesitant. She started after her parents, but then halted in front of Renick.

"Is Jess going to be all right?"

Renick smiled brightly. "He's going to be fine."

That seemed to be enough for the young girl, who smiled back and hurried off after her family. Once she was gone and the room was clear, Renick turned the distracted portion of his attention back to Jess, who was still just a little bit shaken. However, he was more curious than concerned at this point.

"I'm fine, really."

Renick considered Jess for a long moment, his face taking on a very pensive expression. Jess wondered what might be going through his teacher's mind.

"Jess, has this ever happened to you before?"

Of course, the answer was yes. It was a bit vague, but Jess could recall a time when he had felt much the same as he had minutes earlier. He had actually forgotten about the incident until all of this had happened.

"Yeah," said Jess. "Once. A few years ago."

Renick nodded again, something he seemed to be doing a lot in the span of his visit. This was another thing that Jess wished he would stop doing.

"Can you tell me about it?"

Of course he could, but Jess wasn't so sure that he wanted to. That time period in his life had been very hard himself, the Burkes, and his entire family to some extent. Jess didn't like talking about it, and tried not to unless he really had to. The last time he had even spoken openly about it with someone other than Leslie had been three months earlier, when school had started.

"I'm not going to force you to talk about it if it's painful, Jess." Renick's tone was presented in a very caring manner. "I just think you need to talk about anything that's bothering you."

"It was a few years ago," Jess started. "Just before Leslie's accident. The night before, actually."

Jess recounted the incident, explaining to his teacher a profound sense of dread, panic and hopelessness that he had experienced the night before the accident that had nearly cost his friend her life. He had recounted it only one other time, to Bill Burke in the hospital in the days following. The man hadn't done much to comment, obviously distressed over his daughter's condition.

"Jess, was there any reason for you to fear for Leslie's life that night?"

Jess thought about this long and hard, which was something he had done a select few times since it had happened. Jess wasn't stupid by any means. Sometimes he lacked common sense, or just tried to make things much more complicated than they really were, but he was still a very bright young man, and a relatively selfless one at that. Still, he had yet to put the pieces into place.

Looking in from the outside, Renick had some ideas. He had had Leslie in class, and though they weren't exactly best friends, he knew quite a bit about her character just from watching her mannerisms and the way she acted around her best friend. He knew quite a bit more about Jess and Leslie's relationship than even they did at this point.

"Jess, you've idolized Leslie." Renick stated, simply. "I don't know all of the details about your childhood, but I believe that she changed your life in a big way when she came to this town. She's saved you in more ways than one, I think. And you've saved her."

Jess nodded. Renick wasn't trying very hard to beat around the bush.

"Through all of that, you've managed to ignore her faults. You've probably blocked them out."

Feeling a little angry that anyone could even think that they knew Leslie well enough to understand her faults, it took a lot for Jess to keep his mouth shut. The entire situation was beginning to make him feel just a little uncomfortable, but before his teacher began speaking again a few moments later, Jess came to the realization that he might be on to something. Jess honestly couldn't name a single thing wrong with Leslie's personality.

"I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with her," the man said, almost as if reading Jesse's mind. "She a wonderful young woman. However, there had to be a reason for you to fear for her safety that night. There had to be a reason for you to panic. I think that your subconscious realized something that night."

"Like what?" Jess asked, a little more bitterly than he had intended.

"Consciously, you choose to ignore her faults. Subconsciously, you knew them all too well. You said that you were very anxious to sleep over with Leslie that night. Why is that?"

"I never slept over with anyone before. I was excited."

"I think there's another reason. If I remember correctly, it had been raining a lot that month, especially during that week. Did you ever suggest to Leslie that going over the river on an old rope might not be a good idea?"

Jess had to think about it for a minute. He remembered that time period well. The long weeks of rain always hit Virginia hard that time of the year, and that was the first year he remembered not being depressed by the seemingly omnipresent clouds that hung so drearily in the sky. Of course, he knew it was because of Leslie. She had always been like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, whether it was actually cloudy or not.

"I think I did. Briefly. I was afraid she would think I was scared or something."

"Bingo," Renick said. "She's adventurous, very brave, and extremely stubborn. All of those aren't necessarily bad character traits, but in the wrong situation, they can be incredibly lethal. Subconsciously, you knew she would try to go across the creek the next day. Subconsciously, you knew you wouldn't be able to stop her. That might be why you never said anything."

"So I wanted to be close to her?"

Renick nodded, his eyes boring into Jess as if trying to discern whether or not the buy truly understood what he had just been told.

"You're saying that I knew the rope would break?" Jess asked, somewhat confused.

"No, no, no. What I'm saying is that you knew she wouldn't be afraid to go across that creek, as bloated as it was. You also knew that if you said anything to try and stop her, she would go across anyway, if only to prove to you that she wasn't afraid to do it, even if she actually was." Renick sighed deeply. "You knew that going across that swelled river would be dangerous. Instead of saying anything, you jumped at the chance to be close to her the next day and ensure that no harm was done when she made that brief journey to the other side of the river. In the larger sense of things, you prevailed."

Jess's head was swimming. He understood everything that Renick was saying perfectly, but was still having a hard time with it. He suddenly felt himself wishing he had paid a little bit closer attention in Psychology, and wondered exactly how it was he had managed to pass the class with a B.

"Does this make sense?"

"Not really, but I think I understand."

"The thing to understand now," Renick continued. "Is why this attack occurred today. I want you to think long and hard about that, and then come to my office once your suspension is lifted. I have an idea, but the details of Leslie's accident are still very vague to me, so I think that only you can figure this out."

Renick gave a final nod and stood up, looking down at Jess fondly.

"Scott Hoager and Dennis Patrick have been expelled," he said unexpectedly. "Willard Hughes is being sent in for academic evaluation. I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but given the circumstances of their punishment..."

Jess smirked and nodded with gratitude.

Renick left a few minutes later, taking the time to go out into the greenhouse and thank Mr. and Mrs. Aarons for their hospitality. When the family returned inside, they all gave him inquisitive glances and hints that they wanted to know what has transpired in their absence, but they didn't pry. Well, everyone except May Belle didn't pry.

Leslie showed up at around five, and Jess immediately knew that Renick had been on to something. She rounded the corner into his bedroom and all of the grief and anxiety he had been feeling through the day suddenly vanished.

It took Jess a moment to recognize her. She looked like she normally did, except that she seemed to have made the short journey between the two houses without and umbrella and her hair was clinging tightly to the top of her head. She was also wearing a pair of small glasses, something he hadn't seen her do in almost two years, since she had started wearing contact lenses a week after receiving her first glass lens prescription.

Leslie groaned when she saw his expression.

"Don't say it."

"Say what?"

May Belle giggled quietly at the exchange and went back to finishing up her weekend homework. Jess couldn't help but feel annoyed that she always seemed to want to do her homework in his room, despite now having her own with Joyce Ann. He figured that that was probably the issue. Joyce had yet to begin school, so the concept of school work and needing peace and quiet to get it done didn't come easy to May Belle's young roommate.

"Whatcha workin' on, May Belle?" Leslie asked with some spunk, obviously trying to get over her disdain for wearing glasses.

"Social Studies," May Belle said, rolling her eyes and blowing a few strands of her overly long brown hair out of her face. "Miss Edmunds is a fun extracurricular teacher, but she's strict and unforgiving in this class."

"How long has Miss Edmunds been teaching something other than Music?" Jess asked his younger sister. Leslie flashed him a look that suggested it was the first she had heard of it as well.

"Since the beginning of this year," May Belle groaned. "She's brutal."

Jess took a minute and thought back. He hadn't actually seen Miss Edmunds in a very long time, which was unusual considering the size of Lark Creek. Brutal however, was not one of the words that he would have chosen the describe the overly nice and energetic woman. What Jess didn't realize was the feelings that didn't come so easily with the mention of her name anymore.

Everyone's train of thought was quickly broken when there was a loud sound from behind Leslie – who was still standing in the doorway – followed by a white ball of happiness that rushed into the room incredibly fast, leaped into Jess's lap and immediately shoved its nose into his face, sniffing and licking away.

"Hey PT!" Jess said after recovering from the surprise.

"I wondered when he'd find his way up here." Leslie said, smirking and glancing at May Belle, who was once again giggling.

Despite her appearance, Leslie was unable to stay very long. She left about fifteen minutes later, PT in tow, and promised she would drop by after church the next day. Despite her mother being an atheist, both of them had been attending regularly since Bill's death.

Jess went to work on trying to figure out her birthday present. Leslie was incredibly hard to buy for. It always seemed to Jess that she never really wanted anything; that she had in her life all she could ever asked for. He began to consider May Belle's earlier advice about taking her to a movie or something, but even though he was suspended until Wednesday, Leslie still had school on Monday.

"What kinds of movies do you think Leslie likes?" Jess asked his sister as she closed her Social Studies text book.

May Belle looked a bit confused and then smirked. "Wouldn't you know that better than I do?"

"We don't watch movies," Jess said defensively, as if the notion was completely unheard of. "Except once or twice. She seemed pretty impartial."

"Then don't see a movie," May Belle said, shrugging. "Take her out to dinner or something."

Jesse glared.

"Fine, fine," she considered him for a moment. "I don't know. Ask her if there's anything she wants to see. She has to know something about current media stuff."

"May, you're talking about Leslie here."

May Belle sighed, shook her head and went down stairs. Jess decided that she was right, and that he would ask her what she wanted to go and do. It wasn't exactly the most exciting way to confront his friend with her birthday, but it was certainly the only thing he could think of.

Sunday was a long day, Jess having to crawl out of bed a full two hours earlier than he had the day before. Church went quickly, but Jess was forced to go shopping with his mother and Brenda, something that wasn't exactly appealing. He desperately needed new clothes however, and despite his constant conflicts with his older sister, he wanted to see Brenda.

Brenda seemed to be doing very well. She and Gabe – her boyfriend of three years – had been engaged for almost two weeks and seemed very happy. Jess also noticed that Brenda wasn't quite as fussy as she normally was. Instead, she seemed to be doing a lot of smiling, and even went so far as poke fun at her younger brother in good nature. For the first time since her departure, several members of her family began to believe that Brenda might not be coming back. Anyone else might have been impressed by her sudden change in attitude. To her brother however, it was quite possibly one of the most disturbing things that had ever occurred in his lifespan.

Gabe was a genuinely nice guy, and his parents had been friends of the family for years. He was quite short, not standing much taller than Brenda, and he had shaggy blond hair and green eyes. He seemed a little less beleaguered to be attending this event than Jess, but it was still quite obvious that he believed there to be far better places for him to be spending his time.

Instead of complaining about how incredibly boring the trip was, or going on about how long women can spend inside a pottery store, Jess and Gabe made the most of each other's company. While the girls were inside an antique store, Gave led Jess into a small electronics store across the way, showing him the various electronic gizmos that he wanted, and a few that he already owned.

Just after noon, they all sat down for lunch in the food court, heaving Jess's new clothes, several bags filled with things that Jess had remotely no interest in, and a new game machine that Gabe had picked up (and had met Brenda's irritated and inquisitive glance with, "But they marked it down a hundred!" when she had seen him with it).

After they had all eaten, Brenda handed Jess her phone so he could use it to call Leslie and tell her where he was. The phone rang five times before it was answered.

"Hello?"

"Leslie?"

"Oh, Jess!" Leslie sounded a little off guard. "I'm sorry, I was in the ba—uh, I was upstairs."

Jess screwed up his eyebrows. The volume of the phone was turned up loud enough so that everyone at the table could hear, and it was pretty obvious that everyone at the table was listening.

"I thought you had a phone in your room?" Jess smiled. He could practically hear her cheeks fire up.

"Okay, fine. I was in the bathroom."

"That's gross."

"You asked for it," she said, and then stifled a small groan. "Can I call you back?" It was Jess's turn to blush, understanding why it was she needed to call him back. He looked to Brenda, who nodded.

"Yeah," he said quickly. "You have Caller ID, right?"

Leslie muffled a small "Uh-huh" and then the line went dead.

Jess handed the phone back to his sister, and then all of them decided to sit and chat until Leslie called back, not wanting to be caught in a crowd of people while someone had to dig through their purse for a cell phone, and Jess not particularly enjoying the thought of trying to talk over the amount of people that seemed to have chosen Sunday as their shopping day of choice.

"So Jess," Brenda started after they had been sitting in silence for a minute or two. "You two gotten your heads out of the clouds yet and taken a good look at what's in front of your faces?"

Jess looked at her curiously.

"What Brenda means, I think," Gabe started, smirking. "Have you kissed your friend?"

Jess's eyes went wide. "What?"

"Locked lips; snogged; sucked face. Take your pick." Brenda snickered.

Jess didn't have a reply, and was quickly saved by Brenda's cell phone chiming some random song that she obviously liked. She picked it up, and rather than handing it to Jess, answered it.

"Brenda, don't do anything stupid!" Jess's mother warned quietly. Brenda just motioned her hand casually.

"Hey, Leslie!"

Jess couldn't hear Leslie's reply, and suspected that the volume had been reduced, but he could tell that she was surprised to be talking to Jess's sister rather than Jess.

"Want to speak to your boyfriend? He's right here!"

Jess and his mother sighed in unity, and Jess took the phone.

"Sorry about that," he said as soon as he had the phone to his ear. "Someone forgot to teach Brenda to butt out."

Leslie chuckled. "It's fine, Jess. Where are you? I came to your house earlier and your dad said you were 'out with the girls.'"

"I am." Jess rolled his eyes, and was sure that Leslie was doing the same thing on her end of the conversation. "It's pretty boring. We're at the mall just outside of Roanoke. Mom made me come."

"It's pretty boring here, too," his friend said. "Mom left this morning to do something or other. I wasn't honestly listening."

They both shared a laugh at that, and Jess was frantically trying to ignore those who were trying to pry into his phone conversation around him.

"Hey," he said. He knew this next thing would get Brenda really started on him. "Your birthday's tomorrow, and you never told me what you wanted."

"I don't want anything, Jess," she said. "Maybe we could just spend the day in Terabithia or something?"

They talked for a bit longer before everyone started getting a little impatient. Jess said his goodbyes and hung up, Brenda's gaze going from slightly irritated to immensely pleased with what she had heard during the conversation.

"You idiot," she said to him as they started down one of the long corridors in the mall. "You don't ask a girl what she wants for her birthday the day before! I didn't think you were that stupid."

Jess flashed her an annoyed glance.

"And when you don't know what to get her, get her roses," Gabriel chimed in. "Or get her jewelry."

"I don't think Leslie would much appreciate either of those," Jess said truthfully.

"Maybe not jewelry," Gabe said. "But a girl always appreciates roses. Nothing too complex, but something that has a very heavy personal value attached too it. Think about it."

Jess took the advice to heart. About an hour before Leslie was set to return home from school the next day, he went out and went to a small shop about a mile from his house. He slapped down the one hundred dollar bill he had gotten from his parents for his own birthday, took the flowers and the change, and left. He was very careful to avoid the bus as it pulled up at the usual place and cut off his route home, but quickly went inside and called Leslie, telling her to meet him at the tree house in fifteen minutes.

Leslie arrived not long after Jess did, and he found himself hoping that she hadn't seen him going into the woods from a distance. He hadn't exactly been trying to hide what he was carrying on his way over, knowing that if Leslie caught up to him then there would be no reason to even try.

"School was weird without you today," Leslie said without a hello. "Janice is kind of different when you aren't around. Not quite as, well, manly."

Jess chuckled, and then caught Leslie's eye as she seemed to notice that he was holding both of his hands behind his back quite suspiciously.

"Whatcha got there, Jess?" She said, almost cautiously.

"Two things," he said. "Which one do you want first?"

"I'm allowed to pick?" She said, laughing nervously. He nodded. "Uh, the...first...one?" She obviously wasn't sure how to address the situation.

Jess whisked the flowers out from behind his back, just as he had seen done in so many movies, further proof that TV had taken quite a toll on his brain before he had met Leslie.

Her eyes lit up, and she accepted them quite speechlessly. After a couple seconds of trying she finally managed to say "Thank you!" and then made a move to wrap her arms around her friend. He stopped her.

"There's still something else," he said, trying hard to control the broad smile on his face. "If you want it, I'll need you to take a good look around the tree house, and then close your eyes for a few minutes."

Leslie bit her lip and did as she was told. She looked odd, standing there like that. All she could do for a few minutes was listen to Jess rustle about around her, and a few times she was sure she heard tape being stretched from the roll. Finally, Jess told her to open her eyes.

Leslie noticed what was different instantly. All of the drawings on the wall that Jess had made years ago, including the one of the tree house, a small map of Terabithia, and a very small picture of PT's nonexistent guard tower had been removed, and in their places were much better, much finer looking drawings of the very same things.

The Terabithian map was now much more detailed, outlining everything from the Bridge, to the Lily Long Log, to the Grove of the Pines. Even the old abandoned caravan, referring to a broken down truck, was marked in incredible detail. All of the drawings looked professionally down.

"Oh, Jess, wow."

"Like 'em."

"Yeah, I do."

Leslie smiled, laid the roses down on the small table near the back, and wrapped her arms tightly around her friend. She had been dreading the return home during her entire day at school, afraid of the emotions that not having her father around would stir up, but most of that was washed away. Jess could never replace her father. No one ever could. But only Jess Aarons, even with such simple gifts, could make her feel like her birthday meant something more than adding another year to her now fifteen-year old body. It wasn't a celebration of age.

"Happy birthday, Leslie."

To Jess Aarons, she could tell, it was a celebration of her existence.