Chapter Five: Queen Of Hearts (No parts this time)
Midnight, and I'm a-waiting on the twelve-oh-five. Hoping it'll take me just a little farther down the line. Moonlight, you're just a heartache in disguise; Won't you keep my heart from breaking if it's only for a very short time. Playing with the queen of hearts, knowing it ain't really smart. The joker ain't the only fool who'll do anything for you. Laying out another lie, thinking 'bout a life of crime. That's what I'll have to do to keep me away from you.
Honey, you know it makes you mad. Why is everybody telling everybody what you have done. Baby, I know it makes you sad. But when they're handing out the heartaches you know you got to have you some. Lovers, I know you've had a few. But hide your heart beneath the covers and tell 'em they're the only one. And others, they know just what I'm going through. And it's a-hard to be a lover when you say you're only in it for fun
Playing with the queen of hearts, knowing it ain't really smart. The joker ain't the only fool who'll do anything for you. Playing with the queen of hearts
Queen of Hearts, Juice Newton.
"You know, Paul, your biggest mistake is, and has always been, your tendency to underestimate others…"
The voice echoed in the hallway, the same way his own voice had at that misty hallway years before, his first attempt to keep Suze and Jesse apart…
****
Weeks Early…Jesse sighed, feeling tired. It was only day one but he already felt exhausted. He found a savage pleasure in blaming Paul for everything, though. After all, it was really Paul's fault
"I hate fighting with Susannah," Jesse murmured as he walked into his classroom "I don't care is not for real." So everything was going according to plan. Suze had gone to the school at lunch and they fought, making quite sure both Lissette and Paul saw and heard them. He only hoped this worked, too many things were at stake.
Senior History Class walked in, he distracted himself b talking about American Revolution, or at least he hoped it was American Revolution, or something related to it. He waited to the end of the class, knowing what would come next
"Mr. De Silva?" A female voice asked, when he looked up he saw Lissette Stuart smiling at him, as expected
"Yes, miss Stuart" he answered, trying to keep his cool-professional-detached demeanor, biting back his annoyance to keep it out of his voice.
"I was, am- wondering if we could discuss the paper we need to get in next week, I want to see if I'm in the right track"
His first impulse was to say 'Sod off' but all he said was "I suppose I could make some time after class… If you don't mind staying a bit late"
"I don't mind at all" she said smiling and tossing her hair "Around four would be ok? I have the be at cheerleading tryouts but I could skip it if…" (She was Co-Capitan of the varsity squad)
"Four is fine, is not like I fancy going home early today" he said half smiling, trailing off mid way "I'm sorry, you don't need to hear this. I'll see you at four"
"Thanks, professor" Liz said giggling and walking out.
Jesse had a free period until his next lesson, so he walked outside school, to a pay phone two blocks away. Oliver materialized there, "You're clear" he said vanishing right after. (Jesse could see ghosts since he had already been dead) Jesse picked up the phone, dialed the number
"Hello," Suze voice greet him on the other side
"I hate when we fight," Jesse said in the most whiny voice he had
"I hate it too," Suze said, forgetting everything else she was doing at the time "But I love hearing your voice"
"I love hearing your voice too, Querida"
"So, how is it going?"
"It's going, I'm going to be late today. I'm helping Miss Stuart with a 'paper' after, listen to this, cheerleading tryouts"
"Wow, a cheerleader has was flirting with my husband"
"It's not funny, Susannah, I had to flirt with and 18 year old air-head-bimbo. I hate flirting, that's why I married, so I wouldn't have to flirt with anyone ever again"
"I thought you married me because you love me and you can't live without me" she said fake hurt
"Yes, that too. But the flirting thing was also a factor"
"Your making fun of me!" Both laughed but then there was a silence, only their breathing could be heard on the line "I love you, Jesse" she said quietly
"I love you too, Querida"
"I know" Suze said, and everything was ok
"I have to go back. See you later, ok?"
*****
Later that day…"Thanks for doing this, Daisy, you're an angel" Antonio said as he drove Daisy and Hector towards Hector's friend, Patrick, house. He had landed a date with Patrick's mom, but the babysitter had canceled, so he asked Daisy to watch over both kids
"It's ok, uncle" she said sweetly "Anything I can do to help. You must really like this woman"
"Oh, yes, she is great. I tell you, I saw her at the toy store and the world just stopped
"Wow, a world stopper, that's something. So, rat, tell us more about her"
"What do I know? Patrick is my friend, Mrs. Owen is just his mom" Hector said with shrug "I do know that his dad died like two years ago"
"Hum, interesting"
"Daisy, you're the only person that I know that says 'interesting' at finding out that someone died"
"Shut up, rat"
"Stop calling me rat or I'll give you hell the second Uncle Antonio walks out with Mrs. Owen"
"Hector, please don't"
"Ok, uncle" he said unfastening his seat belt as Antonio parked the car
"Mom will be down in a second" Patrick said opening the door for them
"I'll be right down" a voice yelled from the upper floor "Daisy, could you help me up here?"
"Sure, Mrs. Owen"
"I'll stay down here, bonding with the boys" Antonio said feeling awkward, there was a good reason why he never dated
"Could you zip me up?" Jenny Owen asked as soon as she saw Daisy, she did so "I'm sorry about the mess. I haven't dated in a long, long time, I was having a panic attack"
"Don't worry, Mrs. Owen, my uncle is a good guy, and he never dates either, so don't worry, he will make a fool of himself before you do"
"Thanks" she said breathing in and out several times "Is just that this is my first day with a man I actually like since the death of my husband and, I don't know, it's so hard doing all of this again. I know is weird, but I used to feel Jonathan here, you know, even after he died, but suddenly I can't and I don't feel so empty as I thought I would"
"That's because he is ok, with all of this, you know. And I think he wants you to know that" Daisy said
"You sound so sure"
"Mmm, I know certain things" she said mysteriously "Just trust me on this one, you need to go out and have fun"
"Ok, I'll trust you"
So, Jenny and Antonio left the house 10 minutes later, leaving Daisy to watch over the two boys.
*****
Later…"Querida, I'm home" Jesse yelled from the front door.
"In the living-room" Suze yelled back. When he saw her, she was in a pair of old jeans and one of his old t-shirts, her hair in a messy ponytail and a bunch of papers around her "I'm trying to get the books straight, I have a meeting with the accountant tomorrow" she said while she looked at some pay bills "And he always yells at me because I never get this things right. He never yells at Andy" Her accountant was the same as her stepfather's.
"You look really pretty today" Jesse said after realizing he had been staring at her for a while
"I'm a mess" she said. Jesse begged to disagree, in her eyes, she was always the most beautiful woman all around.
"You're gorgeous" Jesse said truthfully, making Suze looking up, only to find him half an inch away from her face, and he kissed her. This was what made the whole day worthy. For crying out loud, he had just spend two hours of his life flirting with one of his students supposedly helping her with a paper, just so he could go home and kiss his wife.
****
Blocks Away… a bit laterIsabel was brushing her hair in front of the mirror, murmuring to herself
"I like it how it is, you shouldn't cut it" Oliver said materializing in the room, in her bed to be more exact
"You're one sneaky fellow, aren't you?"
"You have said it once or twice" Oliver said smiling "How come you're not at Daisy's?"
"She had to take care if Hector and one of his friends so Uncle Antonio could have a date or something, she wanted to do it alone so I just let her. Besides, Hector doesn't likes me that much anyway"
"I see"
"That's something I've always envy of Daisy, having a brother I mean. That way this house wouldn't get so lonely all the time. Guess that's why I'm always at her place. But in a sense I think we are even, she envies my liberal parents, don't get me wrong, they are great but I wish that they weren't so wrap in each other sometimes… Anyway, it doesn't matter"
"You are doing it again" Oliver said "Acting all cheerful. You don't have to do it all the time, no around me"
"But my ability to act all cheerful might be the reason why I might get picked for squad"
"Oh, yes, Cheerleading… the results are tomorrow, right?" she nodded "Will you tell Daisy you tried then?"
"Probably, but she'll think I'm a crazy air head… But maybe my parents would go to see me"
"I'll go to see you"
"I know you would" she said "You don't think I'm crazy for trying?"
"No, I think is a good thing that you start to do your own thing, while Daisy does her own stuff too"
"Well, we can't be inseparable forever"
"No one can"
"Always The Optimist" Isabel sighed, looking out the window; in that moment Oliver understood how lonely she really was in that big house with her parents out and no one else around to play with, to argue with, and he felt the urge to comfort her
"Come here" he said patting the spot next to him. Isabel walked over him, falling in the bed, right next to him who always spreads in her bed like god-knows-what, usually this annoys her (specially when they watch TV) but this day he pulled her close, hugging her "Sorry it's cold"
"It's ok" she said placing her head in his ghostly chest "I was thinking in going away this summer, doing something different, maybe going to camp… did you ever went to camp?"
"Nop, my parents have this cabin a few hours from home, they took us there for three weeks at the end of each summer. It was great, all surrounded by woods and with a lake near by, The last weekend before going back home, Dad used to take us to sleep outside by the lake, and we would stay awake all night pointing out the constellations…"
"It sounds nice" Isabel said half sleep "Maybe we could go someday" her brain was shutting down and she didn't knew if she was pushing Oliver too far, usually he didn't talk about his past
"Maybe someday" he said gently, but she was well out by then.
******
In the days that followed, rumors started to run around school, rumors that said that Mr. De Silva and his wife were having a crisis, considering divorce and so on and on. Daisy didn't paid much attention, and people were kind enough to shut up when she was around. She knew this was all part of Father Dom's plan to get rid of Paul for good.
One afternoon, while spying on Paul, Oliver heard him talking with Lissette Stuart, and slowly but surely he found out the whole of Paul's cunning plan to make Jesse and Suze split. He told Daisy and Isabel, and they told Father Dom, which blew Daisy's intention of toying her parents about not knowing she was a mediator too, and father Dom came with a plan on his own. All parts were informed and everyone went on letting Paul believe he things were going his way. The big end would come at the pep rally, late September, when the new members of sport teams and cheerleaders would be announced.
All students had been excused from fourth period to prepare for the rally that would be held after lunch. Lissette Stuart walked by a deserted hallway, in the oldest part of the school, reading a note she had found in her locker. Over the last couple of weeks, while tutoring her, Jesse had feed up Lissette with false info about him and Suze problems, even hinted that he might be in love with "someone else" and that this supposed person was a sore point between Suze and him, Lissette didn't need much to believe she was the "someone else" he had been talking about; and diligently told Paul everything. For someone who thought he was so smart, he got fooled too quickly.
In meantime, confident that his plan was working, Paul started to drop by Suze's store downtown, Suze went along with Jesse stories about their problems, after a few days she even started to act friendly with Paul. It had been difficult, but she recalled that summer before she found out what a slimy worm he truly was, and that helped… a bit
As she exited one of the main hallways, she could have sworn she saw a pompon floating around, but she decided it was only nervousness, but it wasn't:
"Did you told Daisy?"
"She'll find out soon enough"
Oliver was playing with a pompon, to the naked eye it seemed like it was floating in mid air "She'll be mad" he said
"Hopefully not too much" Isabel said irritated "And give me my pomp back!"
"Pomp?"
"Two are pompons, one is a pomp, D'uh!"
"Whatever," he said laughing, then he notice that Lissette had just exited the hallway they were in "Gotta go, see you later"
When Lissette made it to the old part of school, and as she walked the length of that desert hallway, she checked the note, to confirm the classroom she was looking for. She found it and when she stepped in, she got two surprises… And one more three minutes later when a freshman boy walked by and found her and Paul Slater, alone, together in that dark classroom.
In no time, both Lissette and Paul were at Father Dominic's office. Lissette was told to wait at the vice principal office, they will deal with her when her parents arrived. Father Dominic sat behind his desk, looking at Paul, the clock ticking
"Mr. Slater" he said slowly "I hope you understand the situation here, you were found with a student in a place where you two shouldn't be, in a situation rather inappropriate. We also found in Miss Stuart possession this note, in you're handwriting, saying "Meet me at fourth period, I can't wait to be with you" and instructions to get into that room in the old part of school. You do understand how this looks like"
"I understand but…"
"Well, then you understand that I have no other option than to fire you. I have gotten young Mr. Eventcort to don't spill the fact that he saw you and Miss Stuart but I can't not keep you in this school, for the sake of my students"
"The sake of your students? You know I don't have anything to do with Lissette, you know I like Suze and you're only doing this to get me out of here so I won't bother your golden boy Rico-Suave-De-Silva. And you know that I didn't wrote that note" Paul yelled in rage
"I'm afraid you can prove any of that with out getting yourself into more trouble" Father Dom said "And about the note, if you didn't wrote it, how did?"
Paul open and closed his mouth a few times "I don't know" he admitted finally "Someone trying to screw me" he muttered barely above a whisper
"On that you're correct" Oliver said materializing next to him "But try to prove that a dude who died 20 years ago wrote a note to incriminate you"
"I should have known you were behind all of this" Paul said angrily
"Then you know I leaved no knot without tie" Oliver said. Paul was getting angrier by the minute "I must admit it was rather cleaver to use someone else to get between Suze and Jesse, that way it would take longer to link it to you. But you forgot an important thing" his smile was insufferable to Paul "In this school, walls have ears, and they hear everything"
"You were spying on me"
"Of course I was spying on you, did you really thought I was going to let you roam around here that easily, As you see, not even dead can prevent me to come back and watch that you don't mess with people I care about. You already did enough damage"
When it looked as if they were about to get into a fist fight, Father Dominic intervened "That's enough" he said with authority "Don't you have other place to be?" he said to Oliver, who just vanished "And you, Mr. Slater, I want you out of this school by the time classes re-start in and hour. So get on moving"
(The reason why Suze and Jesse weren't actually that involved in the last part of the plan was because it would have been too obvious that all was a set up if Jesse or Suze were involved)
***
Paul was carrying his stuff out by the main hallway, towards the parking lot, but before he got there he saw Suze walking in
"You were in this too, weren't you? Paul asked her
Suze smiled, a sly smile "Your biggest mistake, Paul, is, and has always been, your tendency to underestimate others…" she said, her voice echoing in that empty hallway the same way his own voice had at that misty hallway in shadowland years before, his first attempt to keep Jesse and Suze apart "what other people feel, what other people know… what other people can do"
"And all this time I was thinking you were nice to me, but you were just acting up"
"Get this inside that think scull of yours: I love Jesse, and I'm with him. I don't want anything to do with you. Stay away from us" Suze said walking pass him. Jesse was 10 feet behind Paul, and she walked over him, taking her rightful place beside her husband. Jesse put her arm around her. And Paul could do nothing but watch, he had to admit that he had lose a war there, not that he was happy about it, but he would need some time to plan something else.
******
Over at the Pep rally…
The rumors about Mr. De Silva marital crisis ended as if they had never existed about fifteen minutes after Jesse and Suze showed up at the school gym for the pep rally, they were holding hands and all over each other, making out in ways you don't expect married people to do (They actually made a couple of experimented seniors blush)
Daisy was avoiding as much as she could watching her parents, praying for no one to realize she was the daughter of those two and waiting for the show actually to start. Surprise, surprise, Isabel was no where to be found, but Daisy distracted herself by talking with her other friends: Cassie, Josh and Aidan.
"And here, to show the school spirit, our Cheerleaders!" the P. E. teacher voice said and the names of the girls were called one by one as they ran across the gym and got into formation "Riana!… Caitlin!…. Sarah!… Isabel!" to Daisy's shock and amazement, Isabel went out in full cheerleader regalia, her other friends cheered for her, Daisy looked over the far side of the gym and saw Oliver cheering for Isabel in all her purple and white glory (cheerleader uniform colors), so Daisy went along, clapping for her friend too.
Later, Daisy waited for Isabel, so they could go to the next class together
"Don't look at me like I just kicked an Ewok" (A Star Wars thing) Isabel said looking at the peeved expression on Daisy's pretty face, but Daisy soon cracked a smile and hugged the other girl "Oliver told me, nosy guy, you know. And I think is great" she said smiling still "I mean, Sakura was a cheerleader, and we love Sakura" (Card Captor Sakura, watch it, well translated is great)
"Right, that we like"
"But we are still trying for soccer team on spring, right?"
"Yeah, of course" Isabel said smiling
"Well, then lets celebrate after school! The Comatose Rat has a sleepover at a friend's, my parents are going out, your parents are going out, we could have a girls only night at your house," Daisy said as they linked arms and walked to the French classroom "Of course, Oliver will be there 'making sure we won't burn the house" but as soon as we start to talk about PMS he will vanish again" Deep down both knew they couldn't be inseparable best friends forever, but they could be it right there and then
****
Suze's and Jesse's Night Out…To celebrate the end of all things related to Paul Slater and Lissette Stuart, Jesse was taking Suze out. So after dropping Hector at his friend Patrick's House, and Daisy at Isabel's, Jesse drove all the way to Ocean Avenue and to the Pine Inn for their romantic night.
Jesse checked them in, and sent their overnight bag to their ocean view room. Then Jesse took Suze to the Italian restaurant in the hotel: IL Fornaio, for a romantic dinner, he was in full romantic mode that night. In fact, the only no-romantic thing he said all night was "You know, this inn was built in 1889 and its one of the oldest in Carmel, but, since that happened after my day, for me is kindda new"
After dinner, they went to their room, and Suze was amazed when she saw all the trouble Jesse had gone through just to make sure everything was perfect, just for her…
"Jesse, this is amazing" she said
Jesse encircle her waist with his arms, his breath warm against her ear as he said "No, you are amazing, querida" His velvety voice made her warm and week at the same time. Suze thought she was about to die when later, already in bed (not precisely sleeping, if you dig), Jesse said her name over and over again "Susannah… Susannah…" in that voice that made her melt, full of love and adoration for her…
End of Chapter Five
******
Notes from a very tired author!
This chapter went through three versions plus this one, all thanks of the fact that my pc crashed three times before I could end, it went to three different songs too: Underneath it all, No Doubt; Brown Eyes, Destiny's Child and Lemon Three, but after I started from scratch four times I ended up choosing one of my favorite songs Queen of Hearts.
Anyway, I hope you like it, I don't know how it ended because my mind is already blank. Sorry if I put too much Oliver and Isabel and Daisy, but they are all dear to me. Oliver and Isabel are part of the way Daisy founds out about her father's former ghost status, and Isabel is kind of like me. And Daisy is based on one of my favorite fictional characters ever: Daisy Adair form Dead Like Me. So, sorry if I put too much of them. I know the whole lets get ride of Paul thing was a bit lame but I hope you guys bear with me, please! (I suck at cunning plans)
What else? What else? Oh yeah, for more info on the Pine Inn, and other Inns in Carmel check the h t t p : / / w w w . c a r m e l – c a l i f o r n i a . c o m (I actually went searching for that).
Oh and yes, if you want a new chapter, please let me know… because I'm unsure, the only end I know is the end of Oliver and Isabel and how Daisy founds out about Jesse, she knows her mom is a mediator but has never really wondered about her father. More Suze and Jesse? I don't know… I could try but…. Let me know what you want!
And Father D. didn't lied, technically, Suze and Jesse did all the lying. He only came up with the plan, if it can be called a plan.
Ok, I'm off. And sorry about not writing personalized answers to your reviews, I did but the pc blew them… Sorry. And sorry for the misspells, my kb never cooperates.
Love, Alex