I don't own Jak.
Vacation or War- Return
Chapter Twenty Five- Tag-Along
Stephie was watching as Loor intercepted a guy who looked like he belonged at the high school; she didn't look particularly happy to see him, which Stephie just couldn't fathom with the way he looked. Handsome was the word, but he had more of an effect than that. There was confidence on his face and in his posture, even faced with Loor going into a full tirade that couldn't even be contained by the thick glass of the door she'd stepped beyond to catch him before he entered the school proper. "Whoa." Was about all she had to say.
"Took him long enough." Damian sounded smug, commenting between chomping on his cheesy garlic bread. "Ick, did they add another cup of grease to the recipe this year? I might as well go back to the pizza line..."
"Fuck if I know." Alex shrugged, neither of them seeming bothered by the appearance of the tall boy on the other side of the door. Whatever Loor was yelling at him, he didn't seem put off by her rage. In fact, he seemed to find it rather funny. "What do you think she's gonna do about him?"
"Do I care what she does with him?" Damian rolled his eyes. "I just told him how to get here, they can figure their own mess out."
Stephie turned away from the door to look at Damian and Alex. "Wait, wait, that's the guy? Her new guy? How old is he?"
Damian deliberated on that question. "Probably seventeen... give or take. What, think he's too old for her?"
"I don't care!" Stephie's voice rose an octave. "He's beautiful! … And kinda familiar looking, now that I look at him. Do I know him? Has he been lurking around before and I just didn't notice something that gorgeous being in the room? Cause if that's the case I'm about to be really disappointed in myself."
"Nah, Loor just met him like... she said it was about a month's worth of time, right?" Alex said, looking disinterested. "Maybe a little more. Little bit of summer vacation romance, y'know. She's fallen pretty hard, though she won't admit it."
"Classic for her." Katie commented, her calm monotone striking a vast contrast to Stephie's jubilant excitement. "Hope she can pull that temper in, teacher incoming."
Several sets of eyes went up, since Katie was right. A male teacher was heading for the door to see what the deal was, since from his perspective it looked like a student arguing with an outsider to prevent entry, which was as security problem meant for the adults.
"Oooh shit..." Damian muttered. "Didn't count on that one."
"I bet that hair hasn't been winning her any points with any of her teachers." Alex added, watching the scene with a little more interesting now. There was a possible disaster impending.
Loor, on her other hand, wasn't facing the door. She was focused on Jak, and had no idea that there was a teacher inbound. She was also focused on the question she'd asked him the second she'd seen him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She'd been quick to shout, before the door was even all the way shut.
"Visiting you." He had answered matter-of-factly. "Is there some kind of law against that?"
She shook her head violently, fists balled as if she meant to hit him. "You can show up like this, how did you even know how to find me?"
"I have my ways."
"Damian?" She snarled.
"Maybe." He was grinning at her. "So what's the problem? This is a place for kids, right? I'm kid enough. Why can't I just follow you around for the day?"
"Because you're not a registered student!" She snapped. "You can't just walk in like you belong here; teachers have been giving me crap all day cause I look like I'm too old for this place, but most of them remember my face so it's okay. You, on the other hand, clearly don't belong here, and I'm unlikely to convince them otherwise!" She then sighed, putting her hands to her temples while sucking in a tense breath, trying to relax as she blew it out. "Okay, this is easy. I just need you to go somewhere else, anywhere else, until school is over."
"No."
"No?" Her shoulders were tense. She was ready to actually hit him this time. "Why the fuck not?"
"Cause I don't want to." He said simply. "And you're going to have to explain my presence whether you like it or not."
"And what's to keep me from beating the stuffing out of you and making it look like an accident?"
"The fact that we both know I'd win that fight... and there's an adult coming up behind you. He doesn't look happy."
Loor turned around as the door opened, admitting the teacher that Jak had noticed just in time. "Is there a problem here?" He asked, the look on his face assuming the worst of the situation. He probably assumed Jak was a high school student playing hookie to visit back to the middle school and try and see some younger friends. "Lauren, who is this?"
Before she could stop herself, she spoke. "Oh, hi Mr. Mathews. Sorry, this is Jak, my cousin. His mom is visiting from Florida, staying with my family, and apparently she just dropped him off here assuming we'd let him in without a parent to vouch for him."
The teacher, Mr. Mathews, raised his brows at the story, but the look on his face became less hard. At school Lauren was a good and trustworthy student, if a tad anti-social. He had no reason not to believe her, particularly since Jak's tan couldn't have come from rural Minnesota without the assist of a tanning bed. "Oh, I see." He shifted his gaze to Jak. "Shouldn't you be visiting the high school so you don't fall behind when you get back home?"
"Tall for my age." Jak said shortly, sticking with Loor's story, hiding his surprise that she'd come up with it so quickly. "I just wanna tag along with her till I have to go home this weekend."
"You'll need a visitor's pass." Mr. Mathews didn't look worried at all now, taking a friendly smile and pointing to another door on the other corner of the parking lot. "Lauren, you can take him over there and help him sign in. Make sure to give them the heads up that this'll be for the whole week."
"Thank you Mr. Mathews!" Lauren spoke with a smile, giving Jak a push towards the door to the outside. "See you in sixth hour!"
By the end of the day, Loor was in a rather mixed mood. Thanks to explaining Jak away to the front office and getting him signed in without an adult, which was not difficult but was time consuming, she'd missed lunch. Sitting in her seventh hour and last class of the day, her stomach was growling as regular intervals while her science teacher explained the syllabus for this year. She was also irritated because she'd been invited to introduce her 'cousin from Florida' in each class since lunch. Between the jokes about them being a pair of giants and the girls in the class staring at him with insatiable interest, she was irritated and tired.
But there was still a bright spot in her mood. She felt rather special that he'd come all the way across town just to hang out with her at school. She'd warned him it would be boring, but he didn't care. Secret smiles and glances were exchanged all the way through class, though she made sure she didn't look at him too often; everyone in class thought they were family, and the rumors that would bloom if someone saw them looking at each other that way would be downright horrendous.
She hated the rumor mill. A lot. It may have served her at a time, spreading her violent reputation whenever she decided to protect someone from bullying, but for the most part it just made school more annoying.
She nearly cheered outloud when the bell rang to end the day, releasing a rush of kids to run for their lockers. Lauren walked slowly, in no particular rush. Ann would be picking her up from school, and the high school was on the other end of town. By the time she'd gotten to the middle school the traffic would keep her from getting to the parking lot for nearly an extra half hour.
Jak followed her dutifully, watching rather than asking as she waited just inside of the classroom door, waiting for the main rush for the buses to go by before making the approach to the locker bays.
The school was arranged to keep the different grade levels away from each other, each wing sitting at one end of the compass rose design in the center of the floor plan. Seventh grade was at the end of the northern point, and all the wings were the same with classrooms making up the outside edge, an office for behavioral lectures in the center, and locker bays arranged around the office block. Loor's last name was pretty far down the alphabet, so her locker was at the far end of the wing.
Opening her locker and unloading all of her books into the metal storage space, she glanced over to Jak to see him watching her. "So..." She said slowly into the ever quieter air; schools got creepy as the kids emptied out. "What do you think?"
"I didn't know you could have so many kids in one area." He said honestly.
"I suppose, Sandover was pretty small, and we didn't see very many children in Haven..." She shook her head, closing the locker and leaning on it. "This town is actually pretty small, only about six thousand people or so. I think there's five hundred kids in this school... give or take. I used to live a lot closer to a big city, and went to a bigger school... it was a lot worse there."
"Worse?" He asked as she started to walk out of the bay to leave the wing and head to the cafeteria to wait. "This doesn't seem so bad. Boring, but not bad."
"Eh, there's bulling, cliques, rumors, that sort of thing. Stuff kids do when they're bored to make life interesting, I guess. We're a small town so it's not bad, no one brings weapons to school or nothing... in big cities some kids go a little nuts, bring a gun to school and start taking pot shots."
"I'd go crazy too... it's just too many people in one place."
"You're from a small place." She pointed out with a snicker. "You're not used to it. I kinda hate it here, but at the same time I get this weird enjoyment from it. I mean, I hate it when the rumors about me are almost all lies, but it's nice to be noticed. I would hate it if they didn't notice me at all."
"They?"
"The top girls." Loor rolled her eyes, the idea sounded so silly now, the idea of the school hierarchy. "They dress pretty and wear make-up and spread rumors and giggle over guys and so on and so forth. When you got a group of those, there's always a leader. They're not evil, per-say, they just take a lot of pleasure in causing other students pain but throwing out a lot of ugly words. They don't bother with me cause I don't really rise to that kind of stuff, but when they go after someone who is vulnerable to that sort of thing, I tend of get in their faces about it." She laughed a little, rolling her eyes. The idea of verbal insults being painful was also something that seemed pretty silly to her now. "So they do their business at a distance. They can't screw with me or people I know without me coming after them, so they'll start little rumors that'll spread until I can't figure out which one of them started it, so I don't know who to go after. They know I won't do it unless I'm sure."
He thought about it, then shook his head. "Sounds pretty stupid... why do you care if they notice you?"
"I like attention." She admitted, her tone somewhat surprised, as if she'd only figured this out about herself recently. "And I guess they do too, or why would they do what they do? Either way, I'd hate to just not exist in the minds of the student body... I want people to remember me when I've gone, even if it's just lies about me... though that sounds really fucking retarded when I say it outloud."
He nodded, though Loor got the feeling he was only pretending he understood. She didn't expect him to understand anyway; she got the feeling that her want for attention came from the inescapably female part of herself. They came to the compass at the center of the building and continued on to the south point; the hall that would take them to the cafeteria. There was almost no noise up ahead; all the other kids had boarded buses and were about to leave, or were outside waiting for their rides.
"They might not remember you around here, but Haven is gonna remember you forever."
She blinked, looking at him as they entered the huge room that was the cafeteria. She was still leading, her steps aiming for the huge window looking out to the parking lot. There was a ledge under it that was good for sitting on while waiting. "They aren't supposed to even know me." She pointed out, a little bitterness coming into her voice. "And anyway, they'll remember us. I was barely a sidekick."
"Hey, if Dax can be a hero, so can you."
She pouted for a moment before giving him a push. "Hush you, you're ruining my pity party."
"Just trying to give you a boost." He assured, pushing her back.
She nodded, but still looked rather glum as she sat on the ledge under the window, looking outside. "I thought I was gonna be famous, you know."
"Eh?"
"I was going to revolutionize energy. Me, a kid. A bullied child turned reclusive genius, discovering liquid energy that would take away the fire hazard that came with electronics, solve storage problems, and change the world. That was going to be me. I thought about it. I'd stare in the mirror and practice what I'd say when the news interviewed me, the way I'd smile when the world thanked me, the way I'd pretend to be modest while I did something amazing and changed everyone's lives. They were all going to be so happy I was so smart, be so happy that I was geeky and weird. They'd be sorry they bullied me, teased me, and made me lonely... and I was going to be so happy when they all looked at me. When I had all of the attention. The attention of the whole world."
Her fists were clenched. Frustration had her eyes slightly damp.
"VC. Volatile converter. That was going to be the name of my fame. And the device that was going to put me on the map, make me a famous child inventor..."
One fist lifted and smashed down onto the ledge.
"The only life it changed was mine. My personal little failure."
He didn't speak, watching her a moment as she stared out the window. Then, gently, he touched her cheek and got her head to turn, giving her a peck on the lips that didn't last more than a moment. "That's not true." He told her. "You changed my life, too."
She stared at him, then smiled slightly, nodding against his hand which now cupped her jaw.
He sat next to her, softer words shared until Loor sighted her sister's car in the parking lot, getting up and leading the way out.
Never noticed by the couple, a pair of dark brown eyes watched them leave with uncanny interest.
The Author's Corner
Hi everyone! Sorry we got bogged down for so long in those few chapters, this book is always the most difficult one to write because there's not much of a middle to it. We're getting to the ending though, and that's a bit more interesting, so it's more fun to write.
MEOW!
-Loor