It's a couple days later and Jessie is walking along corridors catching sight of Max, Emma, Sophie, Parker, and the gardener talking in hushed tones in the hallway. She steps behind a plant and hopes they can't see her.
"Take this to the grave," Sophie tells them and they all nod their heads.
"No one can find out that the moon rock in your room is a fake, got it," The gardener tells Max and Emma causing them to shake their heads stiffly, "Keep in the fridge and stay quiet."
Jessie gasps when she hears the Ravens have a moon rock, it's gotta be magnetite. It's a good thing the one available to students is a fake now. Even if they probably stole it and put up a fake in its place. Jessie has personal experience with that stuff and knows it's something those kids shouldn't be messing with. Some bad people will come after them.
The gardner splits up, probably going back to his office while the students stay in front of the computer lab. "Sophie, Parker. I know you're in the same clubhouse as my sister. If you could just make sure she doesn't find out about this. She tries to protect me and I'm pretty sure this would kill her," Max begs.
Everyone nods and Jessie gets a disgusted look on her face. She doesn't need protection from her brother. Jessie scurries away before the group of people could see her.
She gets back up to the clubhouse. A grin stretches across her face when she sees it's dark and everyone is asleep. Jessie sits down on a spinny chair and waits for Sophie and Parker to arrive. Just because Max told them not to say anything doesn't mean Parker won't crack. He's a sweet kid but he doesn't have the willpower to keep secrets when pushed.
He'll crack like an egg.
The two of them enter and basically tiptoe through the clubhouse. Jessie waits for Sophie to go into the girl's side and smile watching Parker watch her. Yikes, that sounds creepy.
Parker starts to head inside but Jessie whispers, "Wait, I want to talk with you."
Parker turns around slightly creeped out. He sighs in relief when he sees it's just Jessie. "What are you doing?"
"Well," She drawls, "I was wandering around and heard some little birdies in the hallway outside the computer lab. Talking about magnetite. Would you know anything about this?"
Parker audibly gulps while vigorously shaking his head. "Nope, nothing. Was not there, maybe you should ask Alex."
Jessis sighs pulling her Louie out from behind her ear, waving it. "I guess Dr. Woods will want to see this now then." She doesn't actually have anything on her Louie but a little bluffing never hurt anyone. It's not like she's lying.
"I'm sorry, I'll tell you everything," Parker quickly tells her.
A sinister smile stretches across her face. "Good, I'm so glad you can see sense."
"Max never told us you were so…" Parker grumbles.
"Maniacal, manipulative, evil, I've gotten a lot. Don't feel bad, my fun side doesn't usually come out to play like this. Now, I want to know what trouble my brother has been getting himself into," Jessie says smoothly.
Then Parker sits down and tells her the entire story of their past couple days.
"So y'all thought it would be a great idea not to tell anyone else anything about the groundskeeper?" Jessie confirms. Parker gives her a coarse nod. "Or the magnetite?" Another nod. "I knew my brother lacked common sense but damn."
"Will you tell anyone?" Parker quickly asks.
Jessie shakes her head. "It's not my story to tell but I do recommend telling someone. Now, let's get to bed."
It's the morning again, Jessie wakes up before everyone else and opens her Louie to ask Leo if he's going to join her again this morning. However, she sees a message from Leo already waiting for her.
Leo: Coming to the beach today slowpoke?
Jessie: I'll meet you in five
Jessie turns her Louie off and starts getting dressed. She looks in the mirror before deciding that she doesn't need to apply any makeup today, the bruises are mostly faded and she can just pretend a ball hit her if Leo notices this morning.
She quickly makes her way downstairs and out to where they workout yesterday seeing that Leo is chilling on the beach.
"Hey lazy, what are you doing, just sitting there?" She calls out jogging the rest of the way to him.
Leo laughs as he stands up. "I got down here early and decided to enjoy the night time. Since it is still considered night time for most people. I thought the earliest people woke up was when the rooster crowed."
"Please, that's when children woke up. That's when adult farmer's start working," Jessie informs him in a matter-of-fact tone, "Why were you up early enough to beat me here?"
"I couldn't sleep much last night."
"Why? Still thinking about Hayley?"
"No, well, that's not the whole reason. Brooke just became a Raven, I don't know if you knew that."
Jessie laughs at him. "Of course I do. I am an Eagle like she was. Sophie and I had to talk the Eagles down from storming in and taking her back."
"You don't want her back?" Leo questions.
"No, I just think she has a right to something new. A lot of things in her life are changing right now and when that happens sometimes people don't want constant memories of their past life. Once everything settles down, I hope she'll come back to the Eagles but I won't force it," Jessie says.
Leo looks over at her and ponders for a moment. "I think you are the only person in this school that is in one clubhouse but still is mostly liked by the other."
"Mostly liked? Who doesn't like me?" Jessie asks, offended.
"Becca, but don't take that too personally."
"The girl you're dating. You know for someone with a girlfriend you're still pretty hung up on someone else," Jessie states.
Leo holds his hands up quickly. "Was dating. And not for that long. In all honesty, I'm not even sure how we started dating. It was just one day, bam, she's announcing she's my girlfriend in front of the whole school and acting like the captain of the Ravens. Honestly, what's up with girls who like me acting like they're a captain?"
"They are the first lady."
"Not if I don't like them," Leo defends himself.
"Then why are you dating them?"
"Because," Leo starts but pauses, "Because I wasn't dating the girl I did like. I guess, I don't really know."
Jessie lays down the two mats for them. "Well, I think you are a mess of emotional problems. Maybe the Greenhouse needs to invest in a therapist. Because they don't quite have one yet, let's start our workout. I was thinking about legs."
"Okay," Leo says, looking a bit more eager to start today than he was yesterday.
It's been a couple days since days since Brooke has switched to be a Raven and everything has been off. She doesn't quite fit in with the Raven's and the Eagles are struggling to stay afloat without her. Especially with Sophie barely being able to do anything since she just lost her best friend.
Leo and Jessie have been working out together each morning but they've only hung out in the music room once, and that was only for thirty minutes where they barely spoke. Relying on the music to say everything. Leo still hasn't been able to come up with lyrics for anything.
It's been a couple days since days since Brooke has switched to be a Raven and everything has been off. She doesn't quite fit in with the Raven's and the Eagles are struggling to stay afloat without her. Especially with Sophie barely being able to do anything since she just lost her best friend.
Leo and Jessie have been working out together each morning but they've only hung out in the music room once, and that was only for thirty minutes where they barely spoke. Relying on the music to say everything. Leo still hasn't been able to come up with lyrics for anything.
Everyone was called down to a field for a challenge. A classic game of capture the flag. Suzanne is at the front explaining the rules before releasing all the teams to start on their strategy.
"We out run them," Sophie states in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Are we sure that's a good idea?" Jessie questions.
Hayley nods. "Jessie has a point, the Raven's are going to come up with a good idea. They aren't going to be predictable."
"Please, this is our plan every year and we haven't lost. We'll go for the weak ones first," Daniel says supporting Sophie. Jessie notices Hayley roll her eyes since Daniel brushed her off.
"Max and Emma," Parker quickly says, "Not to say Max is weak he's-"
"No, Max can't run. He can barely breath," Jessie reassures him.
"Okay, so we agree," Sophie says.
"No, I really don't think it's going to work. They won't be predictable. They're too smart for that," Hayley insists.
Jessie snaps in front of Sophie's face. "I don't want to be rude but Hayley is right. The Raven's are ten times smarter than we are and they have Brooke. So, they know exactly what we are going to do if they didn't before. We might be able to outrun them and they know that. They're going to out strategist us if we don't try to come up with something else. We're athletes half of our games aren't our practices or what we do at the game. It's the strategy the coaches come up with."
"This has always worked for us, Jessie. I'm sorry if you're new and don't realize that. We win every year with that. We will again this year. Now Eagles on three, one, two, three," Sophie snaps at Jessie who locks her jaw as everyone yells Eagles.
Jessie is stubborn enough to not cheer for the team when she's thinking they're being dumb. If her fatal flaw is anything it's stubbornness and pride. She won't admit to being wrong.
Everyone walks away as Sophie runs away to hide the flag. Jessie studies what the Raven's are doing. She might not agree with this plan but she'll be damned if she doesn't try to win with what she's been given.
A couple of the Raven's give her a wave when they make eye contact. Jessie will nod in response but she doesn't really give them that much of her attention. Max can't meet her eye, they're having a sneaky plan. Well, she's fairly certain that the Raven's are going to win.
The whistle blows and the game commences. Alex and Parker get out fairly quickly but come in before any action actually happens. Soon enough nearly all the Raven's have tried running over the Eagles side and get tagged quickly.
"Come on guys, ugh," Brooke groans, looking annoyed at everyone.
The second to last Raven gets caught sneaky around where the Eagle flag was but doesn't say anything. Everyone assumes she doesn't have the flag.
"I'm sorry, Brooke," Becca says to Brooke getting walked back to the sideline.
Brooke grabs her hand and shoulder. "It's okay, you tried."
"Go on Eagles," Sophie hollers, giving Jessie a "told you so" look. Jessie shrugs admitting that maybe the Raven's weren't as sneaky as she thought. She didn't completely believe it though.
Everyone walks across and Brooke makes a show of trying to get some out but knows she won't get everyone. Jessie walks slowly across the line away from Brooke and starts heading to the bench. No one else was looking there and for Jessie it was just a shot in the dark. However, Brooke immediately jumps and gets Jessie out.
"Sorry, Jessie. I figured anyone smart enough to find out the flag would be you. I knew we wouldn't be able to find yours so I tried to hide it well," Brooke explains to her as Jessie goes to sit on the side.
Leo leans over to her when she sits down, across most of the Ravens. "Something wrong, Eagle? Upset that you were taken out by a Raven?"
"Totally, I can't believe that the only half athletic person in your clubhouse took me out because she was scared? What did she have to be scared about?" Jessie taunts him.
She stretches and leans over the bench throwing her arms over her head.
"Something wrong Woods," Brooke taunts as Alex jumps back and forth across the line separating the Eagle side from Raven side, "You look hot."
"Come and get me," Alex scoffs trying to get a response out of her.
Jessie catches sight of why Brooke didn't want her to let Jessie get near the bench. The Raven flag.
"Hayley," Jessie hollers but Max jumps and covers Jessie's mouth.
"Sorry Jessie. We can't let you win," Max tells her while Emma gives him a side hug and Leo gives him a gist bump.
Jessie struggles from beneath but gives up when she notices Brooke holding a silky piece of cloth.
Brooke holds it up smirking towards Alex. "Do you need something to wipe it off?" All the Eagles notice and groan loudly as every Raven gets up and starts celebrating. Jessie watches this with a slight disgust. She doesn't think it's right that Brooke talked to Alex like that after she broke up with him. Even though Jessie agrees with why she broke up with them, it's unfair of her to taunt him like that even though they would have already won.
"Okay, the Raven's won," Suzanne announces loudly. The Raven's start cheering about the banana boat they're going to get to ride.
"Upset that you guys lost?" Leo asks, smiling.
Jessie gives him an ugly look, raised eyebrow and an extremely annoyed face. "No, unlike some people I know, I know how to handle losing something. I'm more annoyed at how Brooke acted."
"Come on-" Leo starts but is cut off by Jessie.
"Oh, and let's not mention that Becca got out but then gave the flag Brooke when an honorable team never would've thought that little plan up."
"Come on, it was a strategy. Don't get mad because we beat you," Leo begs in a joking manner not realizing how serious Jessie was.
Jessie shrugs and starts picking stuff off of her nails. "I won't be mad. You see, there's a much better thing to be. Disappointed, revengeful. I just have to decide which one will be more fun," She snarls before giving him a malicious smile.
Max notices what's happening and comes over to the pair quickly tugging on Leo's arm. "I told you Jessie wouldn't be happy with this plan. Leo, I don't want to be disrespectful, but please, for your own sake, let this go. Let her blow off steam."
Leo gives Leo a funny look but then let's Max drag him away from her and cheer with the team. Jessie scoffs when she sees Becca clutch Leo's arm like a boa constrictor. Such a good little stalker.
Jessie waltzes up to Alex and hooks her arm through his. "You want to go on a walk?" She questions barely even giving him time to nod his head before dragging him away from the field.
They walk in silence for a while down the beach. Alex wraps his arm around her shoulders and she wraps her around his waist leaning her head on his shoulder. They stare out at the ocean as they watch the tides.
"Is it bad that I kind of hate Brooke right now," Alex mutters, his head on Jessie's.
"No," Jessie sighs, "She was being rude today. Honestly, I would've slap her if Suzanne wasn't there."
Alex squeezes her a bit tighter in the side hug. "I was upset, hell, devastated when she broke up with me but I was never mad you know. But today, after the game. I was hurt and angry. She just had to kick a man when he's down."
"Definitely rubbed salt in the wound. You weren't at fault, she is," Jessie assures him. They stared a bit longer, eventually ending up sitting down on the shore. The water laps at their feet during high tide and the sun sets while they're sitting, not saying anything.
The water reaches up to Alex's knees but barely above Jessie ankles since Alex has long legs. "Can you do a flip?" Alex questions quietly.
Jessie starts to burst out laughing at the question and his sheepish expression. "Why?"
"I don't know, it always cheers me up."
"It must be the fact that I'm now a cheerleader. Why don't I teach you how to flip? Then you can cheer yourself up when I'm not around," Jessie tells him not to get up.
"Why wouldn't you be there? Don't tell me you're going to leave me like Brooke? I don't think I could handle that many loses this quickly," Alex mumbles.
Jessie groans but gets up. "Fine, but one of these days I'm teaching you how to flip. We're going to graduate at some point and unless you plan to find a way to keep me in your life permanently, somehow, you're going to have to find another way to cheer up than watching me flip."
"You can always be with me, even after the Greenhouse," Alex assures her. He watches her do the half jog thing a couple feet father into the water before doing a one handed cartwheel.
"Happy now?" Jessie asks him standing with her hands on her hips.
"Another one," Alex chants.
Jessie laughs, shakes her head, then does a stand hand. She does the splits above her head in the air before tilting herself over and standing on one leg, her other still straight up in the air.
She brings one back to the ground and strikes the same pose. Hip out, hands on hips. "Now?"
"One more?" Alex holds up one finger.
Jessie sighs and does a backflip, ending in a somersault on the sand. "Now?"
Alex sighs nodding, "Yep, much better. I guess we should be heading in. It is pretty late."
Jessie nods in agreement. She leans her head back to look up at the stars. "Hard to believe we stayed out late enough for the biggest and brightest stars to come say hello."
Alex stands, brushing sand off of himself, before going and helping Jessie stand up. She takes his hand and allows herself to be pulled up. The walk back to their clubhouse hand in hand.
"Jessie," Alex starts pulling her to a stop half way to the clubhouse.
"Yeah?" She questions. Alex lets go of her hand and pulls her collar down slightly. "Hey now dude. I don't know what you're doing."
Alex blushes but doesn't move his hand from right below her collar bone. "Revealing this bruise you have. I noticed it when you first came here. You were adjusting your shirt and quickly pushed it back over your bone. After that though, even when your collar showed your bone there wasn't any bruise. Today, it's a pretty green color. Mostly healed. I didn't notice until you were doing flips on the beach."
"Why'd you notice then? It was dark," Jessie mumbles, looking down.
"Because you have matching healing bruises on your stomach. Your shirt showed them during the flips when it fell down," Alex explains, "I just want to know why you have them, and why you went through so much effort to hide them. We're a family."
Jessie shakes her head and a tear falls from her eye. "It's personal. I didn't think you'd be so observant. I guess you're more than just a jock."
"Correct," Alex says, "I'm a concerned friend. Who gave you the bruises?"
"That's not important," Jessie tells him but then looks up suddenly, her eyes going wide, "Please, you can't tell Max I have bruises."
Alex nods placing his hands on her shoulders. "I won't but can you tell me why?" Jessie shakes her head. Alex nods sadly and grabs her hand again. "Then let's get back to our clubhouse to sleep. It's been a late night."
They walk into the clubhouse and get an angry look from their friends. "Where were you?" Sophie demands, "Do you not check your Louies?
Both Alex and Jessie quickly let go of the other hand and open their Louies. They both had a lot more than a couple missed messages and calls.
"Sorry," Jessie mumbles.
"We looked everywhere," Hayley exclaims going into big sister mode, "Do you realize how late it is?"
"Obviously not, we were just a couple steps down the beach," Jessie comments, getting a dirty look from everyone.
"Don't get mad at Jessie. She was just trying to help me clear my head," Alex defends Jessie, putting his arm around her protectively.
Hayley throws Alex's arm a dirty look causing Jessie to shrug him off quickly. "So, it's late, I'm going to go shower and fall asleep. Good night everyone," Jessie announces before sprinting into the girls locker room getting away from the stars.
Alex saw her bruises. Alex of all people. He was supposed to be the puppy's friend. Innocent and fun. Not noticing her darkest secrets. He can't tell Max, no one can figure out why they're there. Max will connect to many dots, he will be wrecked.
Max is already involved with magnetite, that's dangerous enough with... him wanting more of it. She never should've come to the Greenhouse, it was just one big mistake. She could escape now, leave. Never come back, never talk to anybody here.
Not Alex.
Not Sophie.
Not Daniel.
Not Emma.
Not Leo.
Not Parker or Hayley.
Not Becca or Brooke, although right now that wouldn't be too big of a loss.
Jessie looks up at herself in the mirror. "I can't do that. I decided to make friends and I must stick by that decision. I can't just leave people that I got close to. No one can know that much about me and I do not have a close eye on it," Jessie mumbles in the mirror.
It's the morning, time for the workout. Jessie doesn't even pause in order to check if Leo has decided to come or not. Honestly, they've been doing this every morning so it's half expected that he'll come at this point and she half hopes that he'll forget and not come.
She gets ready and sees Alex sitting in the clubhouse messing with his Louie.
Jessie stops at the door. "You're debating about texting Brooke, right?"
Alex laughs sadly nodding. "Am I that predictable?" He questions.
"Yep," Jessie tells him, opening the door.
"Do you have any advice?" He questions leaning over to look at her.
Jessie shrugs her shoulders. "Work your problems out?"
"I might hit that hoops then while I think this over. Although most people would say something like text her or that's the dumbest thing to ever be said," Alex tells her in a smart guy tone.
"If you haven't noticed, I'm not like most people."
"True, where are you going?"
"Workout on the beach. It's where I go every morning," She tells him.
Alex stands up. "Mind if I join you?"
"Sure, grab a third mat and come on," She tells him.
"Third?"
"Yeah, I work out with Leo. Helps him think through his feelings about Hayley and Daniel."
"Okay," Alex says grabbing a yoga mat.
Jessie calls out to him, "Also, if you want to use weights grab those too."
"Okay," Alex says grabbing another bag and putting a couple weights in it.
The two of them walk out and meet Leo in the hall. "No morning wake up call?" Leo questions, "Why is Alex here?"
"No," Jessie growls, "And Alex joins us today. He's got girl problems to work through too."
"Why is it that when a guy has girl problems he ends up working out with you?" Leo questions.
Jessie shrugs and walks down to the beach in front of them. "Because I help guys get over girls apparently. Maybe it's my hobby."
Alex leans over to Leo behind Jessie's back. "What did you do to her?"
Leo shrugs. "I think she did something wrong yesterday after the capture of the flag. I'm not really sure. Max seems concerned for my safety."
"Let's workout," Jessie announces loudly cutting the boys off at the beach. She spreads out the mats and Jessie smirks evilly.
"How about we do a core workout today?" Leo suggests. He's gotten used to her workout routines, well mostly what will be sore when for him. Everything, all the time.
Jessie nods the smirk not dropping from her face. "Now, I was thinking now that you've been working out more we'd do a bit of a harder workout. You should use weights today."
Leo nods not wanting to seem weak in front of the Eagle.
At the end of the workout, Leo collapses on the ground alongside Alex. Both boys glare at each other trying to prove their masculinity. However, both of them lost to Jessie who is finishing up a set they opted out on.
"Dude," Alex grumbles, "Whatever you did, you made her mad. That has to be worse than what the coach ever made us do."
"I'm pretty sure that's because you joined. She probably agrees that working out is better without you," Leo snaps back. Both boys had a constant competition going between them trying to prove that they were better. Jessie just rolled her eyes and acted like the queen she was.
"Both of you two, be quiet and clean up. We have to get to classes in an hour and both of you need a shower," Jessie snaps rolling her mat up.
A/N thank you so much for reading. Quick question, who do you think Jessie should end up with, or other couples you definitely want in this story, also what would their ship names be? Please follow and favorite and comment on the story :) :) :) Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top :P