So Many Memories Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Nope. I still don't own them. Does anybody know if Joey is for sale?

Alright, here it is. The third chapter. This is the product of listening to Lifehouse – Hanging By A Moment over and over again. You've been warned! Now that that's been said, let's get this show on the road.

~~~

Rachel was dreading the next few moments more than anything. She reluctantly drudged up the last few steps, Joey closely at her side. He opened the door for Rachel and left it swing shut as Dina skipped over to meet her friends. "Oh my God! Rachel, what happened?"

It was the one voice Rachel had been fearing the most. It was the one person she knew would try to get the whole truth. That was the voice of the one and only, Monica Geller. "Oh hey Monica! Well, like I told Joey earlier, I kinda fell down, that's all. It wasn't anything serious, I just got this bruise." With that said, Rachel proceeded to greeting her other friends, telling each and every one of them her bogus story.

Monica shot Joey a look of concern and suspicion, not wanting to say anything and have Rachel overhear. Joey returned her look, but with a glint of determination in his eyes. Without a single word, he signaled to Monica to follow him down the hall. Once she was sure Rachel was out of earshot, she turned to Joey.

"Do you believe a word that came out of that girl's mouth?" Joey quickly scanned the crowd, looking for any sign of Chip and his goons, before replying.

"I don't know. I mean, I wanna believe her, but when I saw that look in her eyes this morning… I kinda have a feeling that she's hiding something. I just don't want to see her get hurt." Monica nodded in agreement. They reached the end of the hall and turned right, stopping at locker number 1202. Joey swung open his locker, throwing his stuff inside. "I wonder what it could possibly be that would make her hide something from her best friends." Monica thought out loud, as Joey pulled his history book, complete with homework, out of his locker and placed them on top of the ones he had already retrieved.

"I'm gonna try and talk to her later when we're alone. I wanna see if I can get her to open up to me." Monica nudged him to turn around. Rachel was rounding the corner. Just as she went to open her locker, the bell rang. "Shit!" Rachel blurted out. It wasn't that she was worried about being late for class. Today she was going to try and keep a low profile. And getting everyone's attention when she came in late was something she was trying to avoid.

As quickly as possible, she threw her things in her locker and pulled out all the materials she would need for her morning classes. With a swift shove, she slammed her locker shut and took off for her first class. She reached the door just as the late bell rang. She took her seat behind Monica, who gave her a look of warning, silently telling her to get moving instead of chatting with her prissy cheerleader friends. Normally, Rachel would answer with a sly comment, but didn't have the energy after staying up all night sobbing alone in her room.

A man in his mid thirties entered the room. "Alright. Sorry I'm late. Now, if you will open your books to page 27, we can begin today's lesson." As always, Monica was the first one there, revved up and ready to get educated. Rachel obediently followed suit. As the teacher begins to explain the story of the cotton gin, Rachel turns her attention out the window.

Her gaze follows a magnificent hawk flying freely up in a world where the sky is the limit. 'I wish I could spread my wings and fly away." "Miss Greene?" She was pulled out of her daydream by the mention of her name. "Yes?" she answered.

"Unless Eli Whitney is out there giving a free demonstration of the working of his invention, your full attention is needed in here."

"Right, sorry."

"Now, I'd like you all to read pages 28 through 37 and do the review questions at the end." The response he got was inevitable. Groans of protest could be heard throughout the room.

~~~

Joey waited patiently on Rachel's front porch as she ran inside to get her father's permission to stay at Joey's and do her homework. The minute the door was closed, Joey went straight to the window. He didn't like spying on his friends, but this was for a good cause. If something were going on with her father, Joey wanted to know. He ducked as Rachel walked past, so as not to be seen.

Inside he could hear Rachel ask if she could stay at his place to study. Her dad immediately asked why she needed to study with him, making it obvious he still held a grudge against Joey for the stunt he pulled the previous year. Not that Joey could blame him. He knew most people he ran into on the street didn't have ideal opinions of him.

He heard Rachel say something to the extent of, "I'm just doing what you wanted and trying to bring my grades up." Mr. Greene gave in to her request saying, "Fine. Go. Stay the night for all I care. Just as long as you bring those grades up and get your attitude straightened out."

Rachel turned to go back outside, and Joey jumped away from the window. Rachel opened the door a crack to tell Joey that she was just going to pack her overnight bag. He turned to the road. Surprisingly, there weren't many people who decided to hit the open road today. He stepped down onto the front lawn, soaking up the sun that finally decided to show its face.

Joey went over what he had just heard over and over again in his head, looking for anything that might give him a clue as to how Rachel got hurt. There wasn't much in that conversation, except maybe the fact that her grades had dropped drastically. But as far as he knew, her father wasn't the type to get that upset over grades. In fact, the only people he had known to come down on their kids over grades was Jack and Judy Geller. Which was his guess as to why Monica was so worried about getting anything less than an A. You would never catch Monica Geller procrastinating. This could very well be why she was always after Joey and Rachel, telling them not to wait or do anything other than study when even the most simplistic test were to come up. "Hey! You ready to go?" Joey, startled by her sudden arrival, nodded in agreement.

~~~

Joey moaned as he read the final question in his history book. "Okay, last one." He looked over at Rachel, who was still jotting down her answer to the previous question. 'My God, even with a black eye, she's still beautiful,' Joey thought to himself. Rachel looked up, noticing how Joey was just staring at her. From the look on her face, Joey caught on to what he was doing and immediately turned his gaze back to his book.

'Look how nervous he is all of a sudden! I wonder what's going on in that head of his. I doubt it's anything close to what's happening in mine. Is it so wrong that I can't stop thinking about how sexy he is?' With that last thought, she began blushing. "Um, what was the last question again?" She asked, praying that he wouldn't notice the head over heels look she had sketched all over her face.

"Oh right!" Joey said, snapping back to reality. "Explain in detail, the ways the cotton gin changed life on the plantation." The next ten minutes were brutally uncomfortable. Neither of them even dared to utter a word, afraid it would come out the wrong way. Joey was about to speak, but then thought better of it. At long last, Rachel broke the silent tension. "Do you maybe want to watch a movie, or something?"

Yeah, sure, whatever you want to do." He left out a sigh of relief as he shoved his paper into his ridiculously large history book. Monica's voice came ringing back into his mind, giving him grief over the bad shape of his homework when he turns it in. it didn't bother him in the least bit that he turned in his work all wrinkled or torn up.

~~~

They had the living room all to themselves. Being the gentleman that he was, Joey had left it up to Rachel to decide on the movie they had watched. And just as he had expected, she had chosen, yet again, a love story. As much as he would have preferred to watch a more action packed movie, he gave in to her pleas. She always had this effect on him. Even when they were little, and she had begged and pleaded with him to push her on the swings, he just couldn't possibly say no to her.

When the ending credits appeared on the screen, Joey looked over at Rachel. She had fallen asleep, with her head resting on his shoulder. He stood up, and laid her head down gently onto a pillow. He took a moment, allowing the picture of her sleeping form to engrave itself into his memory. He took the blanket his grandmother had made off the back of the couch, and tucked her in, careful not to wake her from her peaceful slumber. He turned off the TV, and looked once more at how innocent she looked before making his way up the stairs and into his room.

Well, there it is! I hope you enjoyed it. Once the story gets moving, I'll be adding chapters more quickly. As always, read and review. Reader feedback is always welcome.