Thanks to all those who have left reviews so far, especially Pooch2010. :) Hope to see you guys review again and again.
To answer Saffron's question - no, Tessa doesn't appear in the story.
11.
December quickly rolled round. Jem had returned to school and tried out for the fencing team, just as he said he would. The team acknowledged that he had skill, but it seemed that his stamina was very poor. He was accepted on the team, but he could not take part in any tournaments against other schools. He practiced every day after school but he still got winded easily and he began to get frustrated.
Meanwhile, Will delivered a flawless apology to Hannah in front of everyone in the cafeteria. It was such an eloquent performance that it was all anyone talked about for days. Even though they all knew it was not completely sincere, no one could point out any real fault with it, so Hannah was forced to graciously accept. The two stayed as far away from each other as they could since then.
The boys studied for their exams together, spending hours in their cosy corner of the Sixth Form lounge. Even though Jem had missed a few weeks of school, he ended up patiently coaching Will in many of the topics. Will repaid him by keeping them both well supplied in the snack department.
After their exams, the boys' attention was all focused on a big event – the wedding of Elias and Colette. Jem was extremely excited about it and Will gamely tagged along to any appointment Jem followed his uncle to. They had sat in on so many gown fittings, food tastings, invitation design meetings and location scoutings that Will felt he knew everything there was to know about organising a wedding.
What he did not like was when he went with Jem to try on suits. Jem was going to be the best man. However, his uncle kept procrastinating on going out to get suits so it was practically a week to the wedding before Colette put her foot down, threatened to cancel the whole wedding, then dragged them all out to get suits. Since Will was there, she insisted that he put on a suit too.
"I look ridiculous," Will whined when he came out from the changing room in his shirt, trousers, vest and blazer. He fiddled at his sleeves and collar and unbuttoned his top button.
Colette immediately did it up again. "Nonsense, you look handsome," she assured him. "Perhaps with a bowtie…" she speculated.
"No!" Will rejected firmly. "And no blazer too. What do I need to look so nice for?"
"Don't you like to look nice? It'll help attract the girls' attention," Colette teased.
"Are you inviting many girls?" Will inquired. When Colette answered in the negative, he rolled his eyes. "Exactly what I thought," he said, shrugging off the blazer. "Where's Jem? I want to see him in his monkey suit."
"I'm here," Jem said, stepping out of his cubicle. He looked immaculate and the grey suit suited him like a second skin. It made him appear fashionably skinny instead of his usual war orphan look. "Will, you look so good," he complimented. Will huffed peevishly in reply.
Colette made Jem turn round for her. "I think the tie doesn't suit you," she commented. "And the jacket seems a little bit too big." She went and spoke to the shop assistant who made the changes and brought Jem a smaller sized jacket and different coloured bowtie. "Yes, much better," she decided after he put it on.
Elias was next in line for inspection. He had on a shiny white tailcoat with sequins and red bow tie and cummberbund. He held out his arms and spun round once. "What do you think?" he asked enthusiastically.
"Yes," Jem said, nodding his head with a grin.
"No," Colette said, shaking her head with a frown.
"What's wrong with it?" Elias asked in disappointment, looking down at his suit.
"You look like Liberace and Elton John had a secret love child," Will opined.
"Really? I thought it looked suave in a George Clooney kind of way," Elias said, looking at himself in the mirror.
"George Clooney would not go anywhere near anything with sequins on it," Colette informed him. "Take off the cummerbund," she ordered. He obeyed, but Colette still shook her head.
Elias gave up on trying to save the outfit and went to pick something else to try on. Colette fussed over Jem in the meantime, adjusting his vest and tie and asking for alterations to make the suit compliment his tall thin frame better.
"Okay, I think this is a winner," Elias announced. He came out and everyone made noises of horror. The velvet suit was maroon with embroidery at the cuffs and lapels. A white neckerchief was threaded through the collar. Overall, it looked like it had come out of a Victorian museum.
"Why do you even have this in your store?" a flabbergasted Will asked the shop assistant.
"Themed weddings," the shop assistant answered shortly.
"You are most definitely not wearing that!" Colette exclaimed, ushering him back into the changing room. "Take it off. I'll find something suitable for you."
"That was what I asked you to do in the first place," Elias grumbled.
Colette gave him a small smack on the arm and sent him inside. She then came out and looked through the available suits. She rallied the boys to help her to find a nice single-breasted blazer while she searched for the other pieces.
Will followed Jem around the shop. Jem seemed to know what he was doing. He often pulled blazers off the rack, held them up against Will and then put them back. "You know I'm not the one wearing this, right?" Will asked after Jem did that for the fifth time.
"I know. It's just what I've seen people doing in the shops," Jem explained. He pulled out a solid black one with black satin lapels. "What do you think?"
"Sure," Will said after glancing at it.
"Will…"
"Hey, I know nothing about suits! It looks fine to me, just like the last five did," Will protested.
"Well, I like this one for Uncle," Jem decided. "It's formal but has the shiny bit to stop it from being funerary."
Colette gave it the seal of approval. She had picked out an ivory coloured shirt that matched her own wedding gown, and accompanying waistcoat and bowtie. As she fused over Elias, Jem suddenly pulled Will aside, hiding behind a few racks of colourful prom dresses. "Now that Uncle and Colette are occupied, I want to talk to you about something."
"If this is about blazers, no, I will not wear one. I flatly and adamantly refuse," Will firmly told his friend.
"It's not about that," Jem assured him.
"A flock of rampaging ducks will not make me put on that straitjacket they call outerwear," Will continued to rant.
"It's not about the blazer!" Jem repeated in exasperation. "Would you please listen to me, Will?"
Jem rarely demanded that Will pay attention to him, so this novel experience made him quieten down. "What is it, Jem?" he asked in a gentler voice.
The other boy took a deep breath before he said: "Uncle and Colette asked if I would like them to adopt me."
"That's nice," Will remarked. Then he caught the queer look on Jem's face. "Isn't it?"
Jem sighed. "I don't know. I told them I had to think about it. It would be nice to really belong to someone again. But, I already have parents." He paused for a long and awkward moment before correcting: "Had parents." He fiddled with the sequins on a dress. "I don't know what to do, Will. I'm worried that if I tell them no, they'll think I don't love them. They've done so much for me already; the last thing I want to do is make them think I'm rejecting them."
Will frowned. "You think they'll think you don't love them just because you don't want them to adopt you?" he clarified. "Your parents are your parents. They'll always be your parents, even if they're dead. You've got the right to keep it that way. You can love your uncle and Colette and your parents at the same time."
"But what if they don't see it that way?" Jem worried.
"That's absurd!" Will exclaimed. "Your uncle should know better than anyone that you can't just replace a family member. You do what you think is right. If you don't want them to adopt you, tell them. They love you. And I'm pretty sure they know you love them. It's not as if they're going to toss you out of the house."
Jem seemed a little less tense after hearing that. He nodded. "You're right," he said. "Thanks, Will. I knew talking to you would help."
"Always glad to be of service," Will doffed an imaginary hat. "We'd better go back. I hear Colette calling you."
Colette was indeed calling loudly. She made Jem put his adjusted suit on and stood him next to his uncle, who was looking quite good in the outfit they had picked out for him. She whipped out her phone and took a few photos of the two of them.
"What was that for?" Elias asked as he tugged at the cuffs of his jacket.
"Reference," Colette said cryptically, typing away at her phone. "You both look so very handsome, I must say." The pair smiled almost identical sheepish smiles. "All right, go on, I think we're done here. Go get changed. Jem, you look exhausted. We should probably go home after this."
Jem gave her a quick salute and went into the changing room. About a minute after he went in, though, he began coughing quite hard. Colette went to his cubicle, which was separated from the rest of the room by a heavy curtain and called: "Jem, are you okay?"
There was no reply, only more coughing and gasping. Then, abruptly, Jem stopped coughing and there was a loud thud. Colette immediately pulled back the curtain to reveal Jem lying unconscious on the floor. He was white as a sheet and his breathing was ragged.
Will was terrified. "Do you want me to call an ambulance?" he offered frantically.
Colette was slapping Jem's face, trying to revive him. Elias then came out of his own cubicle, his hair a rumpled mess and his T-shirt on inside out. He rushed to Jem's side and checked him over. "He's choking," he said. His voice was calm but there was an undertone of fear. He turned Jem onto his side and began to administer rescue breathing.
It was only a minute but it felt like a lifetime before Jem took a shuddering breath and started coughing again. To Will, those hacking coughs were suddenly the sweetest sound in the world.