Winnie Foster Tuck: Everlasting

Chapter 2:

The Tucks were right when they said the water tasted like heaven. The water slid down Winnie's throat and she felt as if she had done the now-impossible, died, and gone to paradise.

She shuddered. She knew what she had just done and the consequences of it. She would accept the responsibilities of being immortal. She had to.

She ran back to her house, as fast as she possibly could. She was greeted by her mother, father, and grandmother, all claiming that they were worried sick. They thought that she had been kidnapped again or something like that. Honestly, she didn't pay any attention to their speeches of how concerned they were. She assured them that she had just lost track of time, and she hadn't even seen a stranger. This was true enough, as Jesse and William were no strangers.

Winnie ran up to her room, looking through The Modern Girl's Daily Chronicle, a magazine her mother made her read, insisting how it would help her in the constant struggle of being a proper young lady. Winnie didn't understand how it was the "modern" girl's daily chronicle, as it portrayed being a proper young lady just as her mother explained it, the old fashioned way, and Jane Henna down the street was supposed to be modern and believed that everything the old fashioned way said you should do things was utterly unheard of and stupid. But who cared. It was a stupid magazine, any way you looked at it.

After an hour of torture sifting through The Modern Girl's Daily Chronicle, Winnie walked back downstairs and asked her mother if she could go back to the woods for about thirty minutes. At first her mother protested, but Winnie told her she had been hearing the "elf music" again, and her grandmother heard (saying she had heard the "elf music" was of course a lie, but she knew then she would have her grandmother on her side.).

"Oh, come now, Margaret! She may see the elves! Elves bring good luck to young ladies, you know!" her grandmother said to Mrs. Foster. Mrs. Foster was defeated at last, and said that Winnie could go, but if and only if she was back in no later than half and hour.

With a quick, "thanks, mother!" she left the house and walked to the tree where Jesse would meet her.

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When Jesse saw her, he took her hand and looked down into her eyes. Winnie felt that she could just die right now, she was so happy.

"Missed you," Jesse said with a grin that she had loved so much so long ago.

"Missed you more," Winnie grinned back.

"Oh yeah?" asked Jesse.

"Yeah," Winnie confirmed.

"How do you know you missed me more? I could have missed you more and you never would know."

"Well, the same applies to you, doesn't it?"

"Well, Ms. Foster, you're right! Let's just say we missed each other!" and with that, Jesse leaned down and kissed her cheek.

Winnie was thrilled when Jesse kissed her. "I know that's true!" she said. "But, right now, I don't have time to stop and chat about the years far gone. My mother expects me back soon. I think I should be leaving in a little under 15 minutes. I said I'd be back in half an hour."

"All right," said Jesse. "I'll lead you to the edge of the forest."

They had almost walked the whole distance when Winnie heard an all too familiar laugh.

"Look, its Foster and her annoying boyfriend!" said William, emerging from the trees.

Winnie groaned. Not twice in one day, Winnie thought. "William, I thought I beat you hard enough you had it for today. You should know better than to come back for seconds. You know I'll hand 'em out." With her statement finished, Jesse gripped her wrist. "Don't start another fight," he whispered in her ear. "I won't start it," she whispered back. "But I'll not say I won't help along."

"No, you won't be handing any seconds out. I believe I'll do the handing. Anyway, you know that family down the street that just moved in? I believe the new boy's grand-uncle was here about 7 years ago...wanted to buy your forest, didn't he?"

Winnie sucked in her breath. She felt Jesse tense up behind her. "Yes, if you're talking about that man who wore that yellow suit."

"Well," said William, "His grandfather's brother was that man. Interested in meeting him? Here he is,"