Scars
Chapter 5:
Deep, deep Scars
By: Yuy Ren
"Sorry, dude, taking out the trash just ain't my thing." Duo complained as Wufei jerked his head towards the garbage can, motioning Duo to do something about the unpleasant fragrance occupying half of the kitchen.
Wufei shook his head and continued to slice the potatoes. Nobody had ever thought that Wufei was such a good cook, they assumed the martial arts loving Chinese man would chop the cutting board in half. However as soon as they found out about Wufei's hidden talent as a cook, he somehow became the cooking slave.
"Well, Maxwell," Wufei muttered as he sliced, "You've got to get rid of it somehow, or this smell is going to merge with these potatoes so that tonight's dinner will taste like that 8 month-old baloney sandwich under your bed."
"EW, man! Really? Ok I'm gone." Duo exclaimed, only half pretending to gag, and took the garbage can with him. Wufei raised an eyebrow and wondered how the braided guy knew what the 8 month old baloney sandwich tasted like unless… ew.
There was a click by the front door and judging by the footsteps, or lack thereof, Wufei concluded that Heero entered the house. Heero's form walking past the kitchen door confirmed Wufei's suspicion. Barely had Heero sat down on the couch when something whacked against his head. Quickly turning around, his military school skills to full alert, he glanced at the object that had bounced off his head and landed by his feet; it was an agenda. His, in fact. He looked up to see Quatre standing by the living room entrance, Duo right behind him. From the position of those two, and the expression on their faces, Heero knew exactly what had happened. Quatre had apparently picked up his agenda from his office at school while he was looking for Heero. Quatre had attempted to throw the book beside Heero, but Duo's sudden pounce and "BOO!" from behind Quatre had caused him to fling it and the book conveniently landed on Heero's head.
Heero half smirked as his two friends looked like they were ready to hear their death sentence and motioned them to come over.
Quatre realized that the danger had receded, if there was any to begin with, and walked towards Heero, smirking.
"What's this, Heero? Found it on your desk." Quatre smirked. "Ah- not so fast.. I'll read it…. Let's see now… 'you are a very nice person and definitely someone I would like to get to know better. I hope that when you find out who I am, you would feel the same way'….hmm Heero, care to share? Who's it from?"
"I don't know."
"That's Bull!" Duo exclaimed between breaths of "oooooooo~!"s
"I don't know."
Duo and Quatre stared at him. Even Wufei's constant chopping sound stopped. They waited for an answer.
"I think it's a student of mine."
"No really, Einstein! Which student, dude!"
"I have a suspicion."
They waited.
They waited some more.
"Jenna."
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Jenna yawned widely as the bell rang. To her amazement, she realized that it was lunch time and to her embarrassment, the realized that she had also slept through half of English. Jenna looked around and noticed that Relena was jiggling her eyebrows at her. Jenna had a wild thought that Relena was trying to send her brain wave messages and picked up her bags to leave class.
"Didn't you get my brain wave messages?" Relena inquired as she followed her friend out the class.
"You have GOT to be kidding."
"DUH!" Relena exclaimed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "So you delivered the message?"
"Yep."
"And?"
"And what?"
"And what happened?"
Jenna debated whether or not she should tell Relena that she ran into Mr. Yuy on her way out, and decided to omit that information.
"And nothing. I left, he got the note, everybody's happy."
"A note is it?" came a reply from in front of the two girls. Both of them looked up to see the schools most prized music teacher, Mr. Winner. Hell, even his name sounded promising. Many of the girls took the music course just to be in his class, and many of the girls switched from learning the flute to the violin, just so they could be part of his special strings ensemble. Jenna herself didn't switch, she had played the flute for years and didn't see the point in switching. But now, he was looking intently at Jenna and smirked slightly. All the students in the hall stopped to stare at this interesting phenomenon. Mr. Winner never addressed his students unless it was course related and even then, he did not stare like he did at Jenna.
"Ms. Gollins. I would like to have a little chat with you, why don't you join me for lunch."
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Heero had decided not to do anything about Jenna's letter, but Quatre said that he should not leave the girl hanging, especially if he wasn't interested. Heero had been tired that night and casually said "you talk to her, then." And that is exactly what Quatre had decided to do. He will talk to the girl and try to discourage her for Heero. Except the problem was that he had no idea how to approach her. He had never approached a student unless it was course related. After he had found her, he heard her talk about delivering the note. So it really is her! Quatre concluded mentally. Without much thought, he decided to join into the conversation and then conveniently ask her to have lunch with him, where he could approach the topic at his leisure. Quatre pondered about his actions. Would asking his student to lunch seem like he was flirting? He shook his head and laughed it off. [A.N. Were you born without common sense?? .;;;]
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Jenna lay awake in bed that night wondering about what had happened. Mr. Winner had asked her out?? No way, he wanted to tell her something, but somehow, the conversation never led to that, especially since he was called away 5 minutes after they sat down for lunch. Apparently, he had a meeting that he forgot about. Jenna sighed, Mr. Winner's forgetful behavior reminds her a lot of Rofis.
Rofis…It had been seven days since Rofis had returned home. It just wasn't normal anymore, Jenna had thought. Rofis would usually stay for about a day or two, three at most. Then, somehow, either his parents and his brother, Deryk, called and apologized, or he just got tired and went home. But Rofis' week long stay told Jenna that something was up and this time, it was something pretty big. It was late already, as Jenna greeted the smiling face of her alarm clock which shone its bright red digits at her; 2:30 AM. She sighed. Her mother was still not home. Jenna had gotten a job at the gas station and hadn't had a chance to talk to her mother about it yet. For the past few days, because of her mother's company expansion, every time she and her parents were both in the same house was only when one was asleep, or when both were. She sighed again, but stopped in mid breath when she heard singing.
Rofis.
Jenna got up from her bed and flew up the stairs to the attic. Not bothering to knock, she flung his door open. If Rofis was singing in the middle of the night, it can only be of two reasons; he was either extremely happy or he was extremely drunk.
He was extremely drunk.
Rofis held the liquor bottle close to him, softly humming "Mary had a little lamb." Jenna rushed over and knelt beside the figure sprawled on the attic floor. Rofis stared at her with glazed eyes, and took about three seconds before he acknowledged her existence.
"Jen." He slurred, "HOW're ya BEEN!!"
"Sh…shh… Rovie, you stink. Where'd you get the liquor?"
"What? I'm not short. Your parent's liquor cabinet isn't as high as you think. You gotta reach, Jen… Just reach. Reach." Rofis slurred as he attempted to grab some piece of air high above the ceiling. Jenna didn't know what to do with her friend. This was the first time she had seen him drunk like that, she had only heard from her mother that Rofis sings when drunk, never actually witnessed it. She tried to pry the bottle out of Rofis' hand, but he held on tightly. She tried harder, but only caused Rofis to swear and yell loudly.
"What are you doing? You want it? You want the bottle? You want everything I have? I have nothing! You've already taken away everything I own, and even didn't give me some of what I SHOULD own… You bastards! You can't take this too! LET GO I SAID!" With that, Rofis gave Jenna a determined shove, causing her to fall back about a meter away from where Rofis lay, her head hitting against the wall.
The thud from the wall and the realization of what happened suddenly sobered Rofis to a degree of comprehension. He stared at Jenna through his blurred eyes and put the bottle down. Not knowing what to do, Jenna could only stare back. She shook her head, knowing full well that a bruise was starting to form. She held out her hand and tried again. "Rofis, gimme the bottle."
Rofis gave her the bottle, then turned around to face the other wall, sitting in fetal position. Jenna couldn't tell what he was doing and was just about to approach him when she realized he was shivering. Her first thoughts were that he must be cold, but soon it dawned on her that he was actually crying. At this awkward moment, Jenna didn't know what to do. She had never seen Rofis cry before, sure, she had seen him mad, and even saw him smash a window with a desk lamp once, but never cry. She turned and was just about to leave when Rofis started talking, obviously meant for her to hear.
"They took everything away." He managed to say, before he felt a sob come forward, and had to stop to suppress it. Even in his drunken state, there was no way he would blubber outwardly in front of Jenna. Jenna didn't move, but turned to listen.
"Everything I have, Jen. One by one. They're gone. Did you know I was supposed to be transferred to another school? Yeah, that's right, last year, I was supposed to be transferred to some crappy school so the tuition fee to go to AYR High could be spared. Then, four months ago, my parents moved me out of my room. I'm living in the attic now. Haha, no Jen, not like this attic, our attic is freaking cold, and totally messed up, I swear. A week ago, they took away my college funds. Hell, I need that money! You know why Jen? It's all for Deryk! The spared tuition fee was supposed to pay for Deryk's car, my room became his study because he couldn't focus in his. And that college fund is used to double his!" Rofis took a deep and ragged breath before he turned his head to face her. Despite the dim lit room, she noticed the streaks of tears that have left marks on his face.
"Why Jen?" He asked her genuinely, actually expecting and answer.
"Why? Tell me why, Jen? What did I do? Am I that bad? Am I such a bad kid that my parents practically want me out of the house?" Jenna couldn't answer Rofis' questions, but could only shake her head, to confirm that he wasn't bad. His pained expression was contagious, making Jenna come close to tears.
"Deryk doesn't deserve better! I'm right, aren't I, Jen? That bastard kicks me around all the time and it's always, always MY FAULT!" Rofis exclaimed, as he slammed a fist against the floor, making the floor vibrate.
Before Jenna could respond to it, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she noticed that her mother was standing behind her. Jenna wondered when she got home and for how long she was listening to Rofis. Mrs. Gollins went into the room and picked up the shuddering boy and tucked him into bed. She eyed the liquor bottle and raised an eyebrow but didn't inquire about it. After having tucked Rofis into bed, she planted a gentle kiss onto his forehead and told him to go to sleep, that they will talk in the morning when everything is more clear. Her gentle words made Jenna jealous of Rofis for a second, but she suppressed it before it had a chance to emerge.
Mrs. Gollins motioned Jenna to follow her as she proceeded down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. She sighed, placing the almost empty bottle into the liquor cupboard. Wearily, she motioned Jenna to take a seat and seated herself opposite her daughter.
"Oh boy, Jen." She muttered. "If only your father wasn't out of town, he could handle that boy better than I can."
It was true, Jenna acknowledged. Father had always been able to make Rofis feel better no matter what the problem was. Every time Rofis showed up at the front steps, Jenna's father would welcome him into the house, they would go somewhere for the entire day and by the end, either Rofis was ready to go home or he would be the very next morning. Jenna's father, as far as Jenna was concerned, was probably the most important and influential person in Rofis' life.
"Well, he's not here is he?" Mrs. Gollins continued. "It's ok, I suppose. I've handled it pretty well."
"Yes, mother, you did. Thank you."
Mrs. Gollins stared at Jenna for a long while. Jenna could tell her mother was debating with herself over whether or not she should tell Jenna something. And that was something pretty important, or else mom wouldn't debate like that.
Apparently, the Tell-Jenna side won and Mrs. Gollins spoke the words that changed things forever. "Honey, your father and I have known Rofis' parents for a really long time. All the way to high school, actually. They were great people. They still are. But events cause people to change. Rofis caused them to change. I hardly talk to them anymore." She sighed, looking deeply depressed.
"I'm sorry mother, I don't seem to understand. What did Rofis do?"
"He was born."
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hm…. This chapter started out all happy… I wonder what happened… oh yeah, I planned this, I'm just following my story line… hehe nevermind.
Now, to all those nice people who read this ficcie! I luv u all!
Gundam06serenity: yeah, lol, Trowa. :p~ I know I didn't talk about him in this chapter, but he's one of the pretty darn important ones and expect more about him and Jenna soon. (^_~)
Vylian Li: Hm… yes, that future might exist… but now don't you wanna add a forth wheel? Maybe quatre?? :O and there's nothing wrong with going clubbing… but all I know is Duo is NOT going to end up with Hilde in this story.. though I think she'll make a short appearance… dunno yet.
Mithros: Thanks for your support! Yeah, lol, that wendy thing was pretty funny… I laughed writing that. This chapter was more heavy hearted (as opposed to light-hearted? Hm…) oh well. Next one's gonna be funny :P
SaMmi SnEeze: Yeah I know. I don't know what I'd do if my chem. Teacher was Heero… probably study real hard… (^_^)
Water Lily2: Thanks for your support. It's people like you that makes the painful writing task all worthwhile. (lol, it's not really that painful, but you still make it worthwhile :P)
Bama: Hehe, well, you never know… Maybe they'll end up together…. This story has some nice twists to it. .
Oh yeah, before I forget… I don't own Gundam Wing, if I did, it wouldn't be categorized under fanfiction…. (_)
Oh yeah… if you're reading from fanfiction.net, please take a second to review.