Chapter 11 - Lost Memory Monday

Jane woke up on Monday morning, checking her clock and realizing she was running late. She cursed herself and everyone else for not waking her up. She jumped off the bed and got dressed in a hurry. She didn't have time to find matching socks so she just picked up some dirty ones from the floor. Then she ran downstairs and grabbed herself a banana to eat on the way.

She checked her phone and she saw that she only had three minutes before the bell rang so she started to run. She hoped she didn't forget anything and ran as fast as she could.

She made it to the school before the bell rang, but just about. She had to hurry so she wouldn't be marked as late in her first class, which was English. She saw Emily sitting with Kate and realized she didn't even care, she just wanted to sit next to Maura.

"Hey Jane. You look tired. Did you run over here?"

"Yes I did, I woke up late and had to hurry over here."

"When did you wake up?"

"I don't know, about fifteen minutes ago."

"Really? And you still look amazing, how do you do this? I have to wake up at six and take a shower. If I woke up fifteen minutes ago I would be a train wreck."

Jane found that hard to believe, but really? Did Maura really thing she looked amazing? She smiled.

"I hear your vocabulary is changing into a regular teenage vocabulary, congratulations Maura. A train wreck, I'm surprised you didn't use a word like atrocious or ghastly or something."

"Oh yeah?"

"Wow, you even said oh yeah. Great Maura, absolutely fascinating." Jane said in a mocking tone.

Maura smiled and Jane smiled back. Jane looked deep into Maura's big hazel eyes. She had long thick eyelashes and big beautiful eyes. Jane almost got lost in the beauty of Maura's eyes until, Ms. Jacobs entered the room and Jane looked away immediately.

Classes went really smoothly throughout the day and she wasn't bothered by Debbie and Kate or Rory and Joey.

At lunch, Jane asked Maura to eat with her in the cafeteria, which she happily did.

"Why do you never eat in the cafeteria, Maura?"

"I always bring my own lunch and I just feel so awkward in there and like I have nowhere to sit."

"Now you can sit with me."

"I really don't want to repeat what happened on my first day of junior high. I got something to eat and then I had no place to sit. I sat down at an empty table but some mean girls told me it was their table and kicked me out. After that I decided to bring my own lunch and eat in the hallway."

"Oh god, that is awful. I am so glad that I and the boys have a table. You don't mind sitting with Casey and…" Jane stopped for a moment and realized she hadn't talked to Steve since Friday night. "Shit, I can't sit with Steve, he might bring up the kissing. Oh god, well, let's just do it your way and eat in the hallway Maura." Jane turned around and meant to walk away, but in all the chaos, she accidentally walked into the person she was avoiding.

"Hey Jane."

"Uh hey… uh… Steve."

"Going to lunch?"

"Uhm… Don't know."

"Come on, you and Maura can both come and sit with me and Casey, I think he's already there, waiting for us to join him."

"Uh…" Was the only thing Jane was able to stutter.

"That would be absolutely fantastic. Thank you Steve." Maura said and pulled Jane back to the cafeteria. "Just act normal Jane, like nothing happened. You also have hockey practice with him after school, so all you can do is just act like nothing happened, and then maybe he will do to."

Maura was right. If Steve didn't want to remember this awful kiss, Jane was certainly not the person who would bring it up. She followed Maura to the queue, picked up a plate and waited to be served. She then walked with Maura to the table and sat down. She just hoped and prayed Steve would not mention it, especially not in front of Casey.

Lunch went great and Steve looked like he didn't even remember the kiss. He was just like he'd always been and talked to Jane like nothing ever happened between them.

Maura even looked like she was having fun and the boys seemed to like her.

"This was way better than my way. Thank you Jane. Can I eat lunch with you more often?"

"All the time Maura. You don't even have to ask."

Maura smiled and felt happy. Finally everything was good. She had a best friend and was getting to know other people as well. Life was good.

"You're going to hockey practice after school, aren't you Jane?"

"Yeah. You can watch if you want."

"Maybe next time. I think I should spend some time with my parents, I'm pretty sure they won't be staying long."

"Okay then. See you tomorrow."

"Good bye Jane."

Jane felt a little sad when she waved goodbye to Maura as they walked their separate ways. Jane had wanted her to come and watch her play hockey. Well, at least she was finally able to play hockey. She hadn't been allowed to go to practice for the past two weeks so Jane decided to do her very best and prove herself to the coach.

After practice Jane was happy. She had done her very best and the coach seemed happy. She was happy and on her way home when Steve called her name and ran towards her.

"Hey Jane, I didn't want to bring up the kiss thing in front of your friend at lunch but I was wandering if we could talk?"

"Sure Steve. I'm really sorry about last Friday, I don't know what happened."

"It's okay. I just wanted to tell you not to worry about it. I didn't mean to make you feel bad or anything, I'm sorry."

"You're so nice Steve."

"It's just, I was wondering… Are you… I mean… It's just… You know…" Steve stuttered.

"What?"

"Do you have feelings for Maura?"

"WHAT?" Jane asked, shocked! She was caught so off guard that she said it way louder than she intended. "I… Uh… No. Pfft. What would make you think that?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to assume anything Jane, it's just, I have seen you with her and sometimes I feel like you have a crush on her or something, but sorry again. Can we just forget the whole thing?"

"Yes. And we should Steve. Let's go back to the way things were."

"And I'm sorry about assuming…" Jane cut him off.

"Just forget about it, and it's not true! We're just friends."

"Noted Jane. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, bye Steve."

Jane walked home feeling confused. Why would Steve assume she was into Maura? They were just friends. They were just friendly friends being friends. Jane was so confused, why was Steve always messing with her head? She tried to think about something else but all she could think about was the question Steve asked her. She really hoped that when she got home, her family would be able to distract her and make her forget this. She really wanted to forget all about this.

"Hey Jane. How was school today?"

"It was fine ma, just a regular school day. Nothing special happened."

"Did you go to hockey practice?"

"Of course I did, the doctor said I could go today."

"I know, but I wasn't sure if you were ready."

"I was, and it went great. As you can see I didn't get hurt so please, can we just forget about the puck incident, once and for all?"

"Okay Jane. But just be careful. It's hard being the only girl in a sport like that, I have seen how the other guys play, maybe you shouldn't."

"Ma! Why do you always do this? It's like you don't want me to do the things that I like doing, I don't care if I'm the only girl, I don't care if girls should rather do some other things or dress differently than me! I don't care!"

"I'm sorry Jane, but why are you taking this so seriously, I didn't mean to offend you."

"I know ma, I'm just tired. Please, just let it go. Is dinner ready?"

"No, not yet. It might even be a little late, because your father is coming home late. You can have some bread if you're hungry."

"Thanks ma. I'll just go to my room. I need to do some homework."

Jane wasn't lying but, when she had locked the door to her room she didn't pick up her school books but instead she picked up her laptop. She admired the desktop photo for a while. They were smiling and they were so happy. Jane felt happy. This was the best day of her life and getting to spend it with Maura made it even better.

"Do you have feelings for Maura?" Steve's voice said in her head.

"No I don't. She's just my friend. She is just my friend. She is just, my…"

Jane stared at the photo. She had some feelings for Maura, she felt happy, she felt good. Did that mean she had feelings for her? Jane was confused but she decided not to overthink it and opened up Facebook.

She scrolled down her news feed but didn't find anything interesting so she just put her computer away and picked up her homework. She didn't have a lot of homework, but she had some math, which she decided to start on.

She struggled for about an hour but she was able to finish it without any help or by cheating and that made her proud. She put her math books back into her bag and picked up the book she was supposed to read in English. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles.

Jane wasn't so excited about this book and she didn't really read much, but that was probably a bad thing anyway, so she picked up the book and lied on her bed.

She was really getting into her reading when her mother called her for dinner. She jumped out of the bed and put the book away. She ran downstairs and sat down at the dinner table.

"Hey sweetie. How was your day?" Her father asked.

"It was good. I was finally able to go to hockey practice."

"That's great. And how did that go?"

"It went great."

"You're still playing as attacker?"

"Yes. I beat out five boys for that position."

"That's my Jane. Always better than the boys."

Jane usually felt a better connection with her dad. He never criticized her for liking sports or the way she dressed. He liked her for who she was. He also encouraged her to do sports and he had taught her everything she knew. Much to her mother's dismay.

As a kid, Jane hated wearing dresses, because she liked climbing trees and dresses are not the appropriate wear for that. Her mother on the other hand always bought her dresses or skirts. Her neighbor and childhood friend had pants that fitted Jane and gave her two pairs. Her mother got mad but Jane refused to wear anything else unless her mother would buy her some new pants instead.

Angela couldn't have her baby girl wearing old and dirty boys clothes so she gave in and bought her daughter pants.

After that, Jane only wore a dress on Christmas. She and her mother had made a deal. As long as Jane would agree to wear a dress on Christmas, her mother wouldn't bother her about wearing it any other day of the year.

"Well, bon appétit everybody. Dig in." Her mother said and served her famous Spaghetti Bolognese.

Jane was starving and she loved spaghetti. She filled her plate and started eating. Oh how lucky she was. Her mother was the best cook in the whole city. Jane liked everything her mother made, it was always delicious.

"Thank you ma, this was so good. I think I am going to explode." Jane said when she finished eating.

"I'll take that as a compliment, but I'd rather if you wouldn't explode Jane."

"Don't worry. Well, I am going to continue with my homework, I have to read a story by John Knowles." Jane said and left the table.

She went to her room and closed the door. She continued reading the book, until she fell asleep and drifted off to dreamland.