The next morning, after a horrible night spent tossing and turning and waking up from multiple nightmares, Jess was woken up bright and early by Melissa. The woman helped Jess to undo the braids from the day before and go through the complicated curly hair care routine that was impossible to do one handed. In the end Jess's curls looked amazing and were held back with with few plain black hair combs. Jess was in cargo pants with many large pockets, a snug tank top, and a zip up sweater. After helping the girl into her sling Melissa watched amused as Jess started loading the pockets with her keys, wallet, lip balm, pepper spray, and one entire pocket was dedicated to and filled completely with a compactly wrapped, bulging, homemade first aide kit.
Heading downstairs Jess had Scott pull out a slow cooker and the roasting pan. While Melissa let Anne out into the backyard. After efficiently pulling the leftover chicken off the bones and packing it into a container Jess put it into the fridge. Then Jess pulled apart the bones and dropped them in the slow cooker. Getting Scott to put the roasting pan back in the fridge Jess grabbed a large carrot and a stalk of celery out of the fridge and snapping them in pieces she dropped them in the broth. Pulling an onion out of the cupboard she peeled it and chopping it in half dropped half in the pot and put half in the fridge. Using a pitcher to fill the slow cooker until everything was well covered with water Jess added a healthy few pinches of salt, a bay leaf, and some whole black peppercorns and turned the crock pot on high. Setting the full pitcher of water beside the crock pot Jess set a plate beside it and set a wooden spoon on the plate. "If anyone who passes through the house today could please check this and add more water if too much evaporates out and things aren't covered that would be a big help. Oh an give it a stir as well."
Rinsing off her hands Jess pulled a yogurt and a bottle of juice from the fridge and sat down to quickly scarf them down along with her antibiotics. Jess only took a pain pill if she absolutely NEEDED it. Which wasn't happening very often anymore. Finishing her breakfast Jess cleaned and put away her spoon and wiped down the counter to be sure no mess remained from her morning meal preparations.
Looking up she saw both Melissa and Scott staring at her in wonder.
Leaning close to Scott, Melissa stage whispered in a fake, Australian accent. "Observe the Super Rare Talented Home Cook in her natural enviroment. See how she moves with grace and efficiency, no movements are wasted as she effortlessly accomplishes food preparation. Creating entire delicious meals from what were once just raw, unappetizing veggies and squishy, uncooked meats." Finishing her narrative both Melissa and Scott clapped loudly chanting. "Amazing, simply amazing."
"What's amazing!" A voice asked from the doorway into the kitchen causing all three of the people in the kitchen to jump. "Sorry, the door was unlocked so I just let myself in." Stiles said pointing over his shoulder at the door awkwardly.
Scott just smiled at his friend and shook his head at his antics. "Mom and I were just marveling that it took Jess all of ten minutes to pull together the main part of tonight meal and get it going in the slow cooker to cook all day. Please make sure that you girl's save some for me. I am studying with Allison after school but I think I will be home for supper. Mom and I can't even manage to prepare a microwave dinner in ten minutes and they are only supposed to take five minutes to cook."
"Hey, I resent that comment." Melissa snapped.
"I've seen it happen." Stiles replied seriously.
"I never said the comment wasn't TRUE." Melissa muttered. "I just said I resented it."
Pulling out her phone Jess typed a text to Derek while saying the words she was typing out loud. "Why did you leave me here alone? I am surrounded by people talking about being so culinarily unfit that they struggle to make a frozen TV dinner. It is hurting my chef's soul."
"Hey!" Picking up a towel Melissa tossed it gently at Jess.
"Not that this isn't fun, but we need to go if we are having to stop to drop of the pooch at the clinic on the way to school." Stiles drawled slowly inching towards the door rattling his keys nervously in his hand as he went.
Grabbing Anne's rarely used leash Jess clipped it to the dog and headed for the door followed by Scott.
"Remember Jess, I am getting you at lunch time. Meet me at the office and I'll sign you out." Melissa called as the teens left the house.
Standing outside staring at Stiled cramped Jeep Jess shook her head. "Hell no." Pulling out her keys, Jess tossed them to Scott. "You can drive the two of us to school in the Tardis. Then use it to get to Allison's after school and to get home. Just drive carefully. This truck is my baby." Jess said walking over and opening the back door of the truck. "Scott can you lift Anne up into the truck for me and help get her out at the clinic? She is still to injured to be getting in and out of a truck by herself." Turning to Stiles Jess bit her lip. "Sorry about making you drive all the way over here for nothing this morning. But it's going to be too hard to get Anne in and out of that thing." Tapping her foot a few times Jess suddenly smiled brightly. "I know i'll make it up to you with supper tonight. You can come for supper and have homemade chicken soup for supper."
"Yeah, yeah that sounds great. Totally worth getting up a few minutes early and driving around the corner to my friend house. Feel free to make such mistakes more often if a free home-cooked meal is the payout." Stiles said happily heading to his jeep. "I'll see you guys at school."
The ride to the animals clinic took WAY longer when someone other then Derek was driving. Scott was a very cautious driver and was looking a bit stressed to be driving such a large vehicle.
"Relax Scott. This truck is a tank. If you hit something the Tardis will just have an easily fixable dent or scratch. Whatever you hit will be a heap of useless scrap. But we will walk away without a scratch. It's why Joe picked it for me." Jess reassured the teen.
After Scott got out to take Anne into the clinic the pair headed for school. Showing up a bit later then Jess normally showed up when Derek drove.
Getting out of the truck Jess said bye to Scott who hurried off to find Allison. Looking up Jess was surprised to see Danny hurrying over towards her carrying a large, flat, gift-wrapped, rectangle. Remembering that the boy had insulted the Tardis the day before Jess stood in front of the large truck with her arms crossed scowling at the approaching teen.
"My darling, dearest, incandescent, Queen of Drama. Seeing you this morning gives me the will I need to continue plodding through this dreary thing called life. But I must put off my normal list of praises for you until I have addressed a grievous wrong which I didst unknowingly perpetrate against your fine vehicle." Danny said walking past Jess and getting to one knee before her truck. "Oh great and magnificent Tardis, magical conveyor of explorors and champions, most beautiful and refined vehicle, protector of the innocent and down trodden. I come before you to beg your humble forgiveness for the slight that I unknowingly cast upon you yesterday. I have no true excuse for my behavior except that I knew not who I was addressing. Your chameleon curcuit is so powerful that I did not recognize your true form and for that I must humbly apologize and offer up this gift to you, that such a thing may never happen again." Danny waxed poetically towards the truck bowing his head and holding the package up before him towards the truck.
Stepping up Jess took the package and carefully opened the paper without ripping the paper. Sliding out a thick black sheet of stiff material Jess carefully folded the paper and shoved it in a pocket before flipping the black sheet over and gasping loudly. It was a magnetic decal replica of the Police Public Call Box plaque that adorned the actual Tardis door. Running over to the driver's door of the truck Jess carefully positioned the decal and settled it on the door of the truck with shaking hands. Stepping back Jess pulled out her phone and snapped a few pictures before seeing that Danny was still bowing to the truck. Running around the truck Jess threw herself at him knocking him over and causing him to start to laugh happily as she wrapped her one free arm around him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She cried clinging to the laughing teen.
"Does this mean I am forgiven?" Danny asked slowly struggling to sit back up with Jess still clinging to his neck.
"Yes, yes, a million times yes." Scrambling off of Danny Jess offered him a hand up. As soon as he was standing Jess dragged him over to the side of the truck. "Just look. Isn't it glorious?" She asked sniffling quietly and wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.
"My dad has a friend who prints these kind of magnetic decal things. When I explained about your awesome Tardis truck and said I wanted a gift for the truck to make up for insulting it he said he knew exactly what I meant and would start making it right away. I picked it up this morning. He liked how it turned out so much he said he might make a few more and sell them in his online store." Danny said smiling happily. Looking around Danny frowned suddenly. "Where is tall, dark and grumpy? And why isn't he ordering me to carry your bag? Where is your bag?"
"Derek had stuff to do so Scott drove me. I don't have my bag today because I am only here for my two morning classes before Melissa is picking me up to go to Doctor's appointments this afternoon. I am hoping they will say I can start wearing the sling less." Jess answered. "All the things I really need are in my pockets. I just need to grab a few pens from my locker. After I see the Doctor's and finish prepping supper I plan to finally try and tackle the impossible." Taking a deep breath Jess grimaced. "I need to switch all my info and files from my old laptop to a new fancy laptop and do the same with my old phone to my new phone. It has been a week. I need to bite the bullet and resign myself to a night a swearing and frustration and just TRY and get it done." Jess grumbled. Looking around to be sure the coast was clear she leaned close and whispered. "I also want to wipe clean and upgrade all the programs on the old one and give it to Scott." Jess sighed. "But I am probably going to end up dragging it all to a tech store and having to pay someone to get it all sorted out."
Threading his arm through Jess's arm Danny chuckled. "Never going to happen my Queen of Drama. I am great with computers and electronics. I can do all of that for you. I can stop by tonight after school and help you with it all. Won't take long to get the programs running then we can hang out until they are done." Danny offered smiling down at Jess.
Squeezing Danny's arm tightly Jess sniffed a few times. "You are, the best friend, I have ever had, that didn't have fur or scales." Jess said slowly as they walked up the stairs into the school.
Walking through the doors the pair was stopped in the entrance way by the Coach. "There she is." He bellowed pointing at Jess. "I need to talk to you in my office a minute." Seeing Jess shrink back and tighten her hold on Danny's arm the Coach winced and lowered the volume of his voice. "Danny can come along. I just have something to show you and a minor request." Turning the Coach strode quickly down the hall towards his office.
Exchanging a confused glance the pair hurried after him and were soon standing in his office. Reaching under his desk the Coach pulled out a wooden frame and set it on the desk. Carefully secured inside the wooden frame was the neatly stitched penny. Pulling a pen out of his pocket the Coach set it on the penny and stepped back away from the desk slightly. "I got this fabric pen and I was hoping that you could label the different types of stitches for me and then sign the bottom. This here shows talent. Real raw talent. Someday when you are a famous vet I want to be able to point to where this is hanging in my office and say I knew you when you were still learning your stitches."
Smiling softly at the Coach Jess pulled her arm free from Danny's hold and picking up the pen she quickly and neatly labeled each section of different stitches then signed her name at the bottom of the shirt. Placing the pen down on the desk Jess stepped back and watched as the Coach lifted up the frame and hung it carefully on the wall beside his desk.
"Perfect!" The Coach yelled happily staring at the frame. Seeing the two teens still standing by the desk he frowned. "Well, what are you still doing here? Get to class."
Hurrying out of the Coach's office and stomping over to her locker where Allison, Lydia, Jackson, Scott, and Stiles were hanging out waiting for class to start Jess reached up and started wiping at her eyes again. Unlocking her locker she pulled out a handful of pens and shoved them into her pocket. "This is all a fucking conspiracy." Jess sniffed angrily. "You are all going out of your way to be nice and make me love it here and be happy so that I don't up and run away again as soon as the Doctor clears me to start using my arm again." Jess muttered dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve again.
Surprisingly it was Jackson who reacted first pulling a neat white folded handkerchief out of his pocket and holding it out to Jess he asked softly. "Is it really a conspiracy though if the reason people are being nice and trying to make you happy is because they genuinely like you and want you to be happy because they think that you deserve to be happy? From the bits I've heard you life has been CRAP for a lot of years. And it wasn't because of anything you did wrong that made it crap. It was just life being crappy because people suck. Now you are around people who MOSTLY don't suck. So your life is finally starting to be normal and NOT so crappy. That isn't a conspiracy. It's just a normal life with normal friends being a normal amount of nice." Jackson finished speaking and blushed to see EVERYONE in the group staring at him. Before he could say something rude to get them to stop Jess had reached forward and hugged him lightly still sniffling. "Yeah, yeah, your an emotional wreck. Take the damn hanky already before you drip on me."
Stepping back Jess took the hanky and started dabbing carefully at her eyes. Looking down at the hanky she smiled softly. "What is with men in this town and owning actual hankies? Your the second one who has seen me crying and whisked out a neatly folded hanky."
Standing leaning against the lockers Danny laughed. "One of the men's clothes stores in town is owned by a little old grandma who spends all her time sitting in the shop watching her young assistants help customers and sewing hankies. She gives one to every make customer that buys something every time they buy something..."
Stiles cut in here. "And each time she gives one out she tells you to fold it up neat and always keep it in your pocket so that if you ever see a pretty girl crying you can pull it out and offered them a nice clean hanky. Then she sighs and says that is how her husband met her. She was crying and he walked up and pulled out a fresh clean hanky, handed it to her, introduced himself and asked how he could help."
Hearing the explanation all three girl's looked like they could use hanky. Stiles and Danny each pulled one out and handed it to a girl while Jess continued using the one she got from Jackson and Scott grimaced and turned out his empty pockets to show he didn't have one. "Sorry, my mom buys most of my clothes. If she is getting free hankies from an old lady she is hoarding them."
The rest of the morning passed quickly. When the bell rang for lunch Jess said her goodbyes promising to see Scott, Stiles, and Danny later that afternoon or evening.
Heading for the office Jess saw the teacher in change of the Drama Club waving excitedly at her and stopped to see what he wanted. "I got a phone call from Dr. Deaton. Owner of the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic this morning. He called the school and asked to speak with the teacher in charge of the Drama Club. He told me how you had gone and pitched the idea for the joint fundraiser to him and told me how excited he is to join with us for this project. Told me all about the storage room for us to use to store things and take the pictures in and told me that you already have a key to the clinic that you can use at anytime. He did make me promise that no one could be at the clinic with out him there unless you or Scott McCall were at the clinic to supervise things. Which is a TOTALLY reasonable request. I heard already that you are leaving in a minute to go see your doctor. But the rest of the club is going to meet at lunch and start brainstorming ideas for how to stage the animals. Dr. Deaton said that he trusts YOU with the final say about which ideas are safe to try and which animals we use where. He said he would be sure to update the adoption info for each animal this weekend so that next week YOU could start reviewing them and getting to know them slightly and making your selections for which animals would be best to work with." Smiling proudly at the young girl the teacher was bouncing in excitement. "Once Dr. Deaton had signed off on the idea I told the rest of the faculty and several of the other teachers mentioned wanting to help out with the project and that students may wish to help out. I'm not sure if you are aware but our school has a thriving photography club and a computers class. Both groups have offered to volunteer their time and talents for the project." The man gushed excitedly. "Everything is coming together wonderfully! And when I mentioned the second fundraiser idea the Home Ec teacher offered to use her classes cooking time to make the meals for the supper with a character night. We decided not to do baskets. Instead the meal will be set up on a table in the cafeteria and we will tour the room for people to see and smell the meals and have a moment to talk briefly with each character before we begun the auction." Fluttering his hands excitedly the teacher shooed Jess away. "Look at me making you late to your appointment. Go, go. You need your arm better. You are our chief animal wrangler and the thinker of such marvelous ideas. We need you in tip top shape."
Smiling and shaking her head Jess turned and continued to the office.