Book titles are are in intalics and underlined.

Time changes are in bold and underlined.

Names and ages are in bold.

This chapter is officially 2,040 words. The longest chapter yet!

Eli: 15
Rosa: 12
JJ: 8
Emily: 12

August 18th, 1991. Emily's house

Emily woke up at 7:00, Monday morning. She got up, went to the bathroom, and got dressed.

At 7:20, she made her way downstairs to grab her bag and then she headed over to JJ's house. Emily had promised the young blonde that she would come over, have breakfast, and then go to school with her.

Emily was on her way out when her mom stops her.

"Emily, dear, don't run off now. You need to have breakfast and then the driver will take you to school."

"That's fine mother. I'm going over to JJ's. I promised I would go to school with her." Emily picks her backpack up and then opens the door before Elizabeth has a chance to say anything.

Emily ran down the pathway and opens the door to JJ's house.

In the kitchen Sandy and Rosa, greet Emily. Sand tells Emily that JJ is upstairs and Emily runs up to her room.

"Hey Jen, what are you up to? Don't you need to be eating breakfast?" Emily asks as she enters JJ's bedroom.

"I already ate." The younger girl is sitting on her bed watching TV.

"What's wrong sweetheart?" Emily drops her bag by the door, then goes over, and climbs onto the bed with JJ.

JJ just shrugs and continues looking at the TV. "Nothing."

"Jen...I know you're not telling the truth." Emily dipped her head down to catch JJ's eye. "Talk to me."

"Everyone is going to leave me today and I don't want that." She finally relented.

"What do you mean everyone is leaving you today?"

"You and Rosa aren't gonna be at school with me today. You'll go to school with Eli and I'll be all alone."

Emily sighs. "C'mere. She holds her arms out for JJ. "You and I have played together every single day since we met. Now it's mine and Rosa's turn to go to high school. I can still walk home with you. And I'll walk to school with you every day if you want me too. Ok?"

"But, I still want to play with you at recess. I won't have anyone to play with anymore."

"Yes, you will. How about this. When you go to recess today, or even when you're just in your classroom, how about you look around. And if you see a little girl or little boy that looks lonely then you go over and introduce yourself. Then, you both will have a new friend to play with. And you can keep them company just like I kept you company."

"Does that sound like a good idea?"

JJ is quiet for a moment. "Yeah…sounds good." She's quiet for another moment. "You'll walk home with me. Right?"

"Of course I will. I'll try to be there before the bell rings, but if I'm not then just wait on the steps for me. Ok?"

JJ reaches up and fingers the red and orange butterfly necklace around Emily's neck. She has a similar one that's blue and green around her own neck. "Ok."

Rosa poked her head in then. "Mom says it's time to go. Me and Eli have to walk you to school."

JJ jumps up and grabs her bag from the end of the bed. She and Emily go downstairs where Sandy hands JJ her lunch and gives her a kiss.

Elementary

Once on the grounds of the school yard, Emily bends down in front of JJ. "I love you, Jen. Have a good first day of second grade, ok?"

"Ok. I love you too." She wraps her arms around Emily's neck. "Bye. I love you sissy. Love you Bubba."

"Love you too, baby sis. Have fun today." Eli responds.

The three teens turn and continue down the sidewalk.

JJ waits until she can no longer see the three and then turns and runs up the steps of the building.

Inside she goes to her classroom and finds her seat. The room is buzzing with little kids talking and laughing about their summer.

She looks around and tries to find a kid that looks lonely like Emily suggested. She doesn't see any, so she decides to reorganize her crayon box again.

After organizing her colored pencils by the colors of the rainbow, the teacher walks in.

"Good morning, class. My name is Miss. Lila. Welcome to the second grade!" She went up to the board and wrote her name and then 'second grade' underneath it.

Just then the door opens and a little girl walks in.

"Class, this is Sarah Beth. She's new this year and I want all of you to make her feel welcome. Ok?"

Sarah Beth has a blue shirt on under a pair of overalls. Her hair is up in pigtails with blue ribbons tied in them.

The class gives a chorus of 'Hi's and Hellos.'

"Now we're going to go around the room and introduce ourselves to Sarah. Then you'll tell everyone one super fun thing about yourself."

"Let's start with this young lady in the front." She points to JJ. "What is your name, sweetie?"

"My name is Jennifer Jareau. But I like to be called JJ, except for by my best friend Emily. She's in the seventh grade today. And I like to collect butterflies."

"Very good JJ. Now the little girl sitting next to JJ."

"My name is Alice. I got to go to Disney World this summer."

"My name is Zach." Teh little boy next to Alice says. "I like to ride horses with my daddy."

This went on until all the kids had told Sarah their names. Then it was time to give out the special jobs.

"Ok, now I have a list of jobs and im going to pick one of you to do each of the jobs."

"Alice, you'll be the line leader."

"Zach, you will help me hand out the snacks."

"JJ, you can be the fish feeder."

"Zoe, you can be in charge of making sure all the books are in the bookshelf at the end of the day." Miss Lila points to a bookshelf in the corner of the room. It has three bean bags and a rug surrounding it.

Once Miss. Lila was done giving jobs, she said the class could go pick out a book and have quiet time. JJ goes over to Sarah Beth and sits down next to her.

"Hi! My name is JJ. Do you wanna be friends?"

The brown haired girl looks over at her. "No, thanks. I already have a friend."

JJ was confused. This girl was new and she was being nice. Emily told her to find one person that was new and try to befriend them.

"Well, can I be friends with you guys too?" She asks.

Sarah shakes her head 'no'. "I think we have people.. With this Sarah got off the bean bag she was on and went over to a couple of other kids.

JJ just shrugs. She feels a little sad because now she won't have anyone to play with. JJ picks out a Curious George book and went back to her desk. Once she was done with that she goes and picked out some Cat in the Hat books.

She picked Hunches in Bunches and I Am Not Going To Get Up Today!

Recess

At recess JJ runs over to the play equipment. If Emily were here, then JJ would have ran over to her the second the recess bell rang.

About twenty minutes into recess JJ spotted some kids from her class. One of the kids was Dakota, the boy she stood up for when he was being picked on the year before.

"Hey, 'Kota! Wanna play?"

"Yeah! Let's play hide 'n' go seek. I'm it!" Dakota covered his eyes and started counting.

JJ ran over to the jungle gym and hide behind the slide. Suddenly, she heard a voice that she had come to hate.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little brat that got me sent to the principal's office."

"Go away Joshua. I don't wanna talk to you."

"Why? Because you don't have Emily to save it? Huh? You got me grounded for a month. That was the first time I had ever went to the principal's office and it was your fault." Joshua pushes JJ down causing her to scrap her hand on the gravel.

"Ow! That hurt. Go away Joshua! You're just a big meanie!" The the duty teacher was there.

"Joshua, in the Office! Now!" The she turned to JJ. "Are you alright?. She helped the young blonde up.

"My hand is cut." She says. The duty teacher, Ms. Lauren, walked JJ to the nurses office. In there, the nurse cleaned and bandaged the cut. By then, recess was over and JJ went back to her room.

Inside the classroom.

"Hello JJ. What happened to your hand, sweetie?" Miss Lila asks.

"I fell and cut it." She says.

"Well, how about you go pick out a book. You can read it and do the math lesson tomorrow when your hand is feeling better."

"Yes, ma'am." JJ went over to the book case and picked up a Courious Geoge book she had not got to finish before recess.

"Why does she get to read when we have to do work?" Sarah asks. "It's not fair just 'cause she's a big baby."

"Hey, now. Sarah, it's not nice to call people names. Please apologize to JJ."

"I'm sorry." Sarah says.

"Thats ok Sarah."

End of the Day. 3:10 p.m.

At the end of the day, when the bell rang, JJ steps out of the school building. She looks around and doesn't see Emily, so she sits down in th steps.

Five minutes later Emily comes walking up the sidewalk. JJ jumps up and runs over to her.

"Emmy!"

"Hey, there's my little second grader! How was school?"

"Good! But Joshua was there again." That's when Emily notices the bandage on JJ's hand.

"What happened?"

"Joshua pushed me 'cause he said it was my fault that he got sent to the principle's office last year."

Emily sighs. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. It doesn't even hurt that much."

"Well, did at least one good thing happen today?" Emily asks as the two begin to walk to the sidewalk. Eli and Rosa went on home since Emily promised to walk JJ home.

"Yep! My teacher gave us special jobs and I'm the fish feeder!"

"Wow! Do you guys have any cool fish?"

"Yeah, there's purple fish and blue fish and even ones that have whiskers like kitty cats!"

The two continue home until they arrive at JJ's house. There they get an afternoon snack, Explain why there's a bandage on JJ's hand, and then head to the park for a couple of hours.

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Next up: Thanksgiving.

Then: Christmas.

That will conclude the year 1991.

Hippiechic 81: The chapter with Emily helping Jj after Rosa's suicide will in '95. That's roughly in 10 or so chapters. I try not to skip ahead though the years too much, but if run out of ideas I may be able to put it up sooner.

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I will take time to update Get Ready more if you guys don't review on this story!

A big thanks to Hippiechic 81 who has reviewed every chapter!