Fic: Boarding School (2?)

Author: nodoubtwywh

Disclaimer: None of the character of Once and Again belong to me. But if they were on ebay - watch out!

Summary: Jessie goes to boarding school not knowing that her life will never be the same. (haha sorry, I suck at this whole summary thing)

Feedback: Yes, please! If you want me to continue this story, please let me know!

The next morning was a blur of running around. Jessie overslept her alarm, and nothing seemed to go right after that. She almost forgot her toothbrush, she fought with her dad about finishing her bowl of cereal, and her mom, who was supposed to come over and say a last goodbye, wasn't there yet.

"Where is she?" Rick asked angrily to no one in particular.

"Calm down, Rick" Lily said soothingly "She'll be here, and we have plenty of time."

"Jess, will you go get Eli and ask him to help us pack up the car? We're running behind." Rick asked Jessie who had a million other things to do.

Jessie ran to the garage and got her brother before heading back to her room to take a last look around for anything she may have left.

Thirty minutes later the car was all packed up. Karen had stopped by just in time, Zoë was left in Eli's somewhat capable hands for the day, and Grace finally found her mp3 player. The ride to school was supposed to take three hours. Jessie had been so busy dreading boarding school that she forgot to dread the long car ride to get there.

Luckily enough, the trip was fairly uneventful. Grace was unusually quiet, and Jessie was sure she was just as nervous as she was. The good thing about the two of them listening to their ipods was that they could pretend not to hear their parents trying to make small talk with them.

"Hey Girls," Lily turned around and made eye contact to get them to listen.

Jessie and Grace reluctantly took out their earphones.

"This is our exit," Lily smiled at them "The school is only a half-mile up this road"

Jessie wrapped her earphones around her ipod and stuck it in her backpack just as the car made a right turn onto the campus.

'Wow,' Jessie thought to herself when she first saw the grounds. 'Great, I'm going to get lost all the time'

"This place is big," Grace said aloud mirroring Jessie's thoughts.

"Yep, it used to be a college campus over a hundred years ago" Rick replied knowingly

"Gee, Rick, you really have that brochure memorized" Grace mocked

"Grace," Lily started and then added "actually, that's not in the brochure. That recruiter from the school told us at the parents interest meeting months ago."

Grace just rolled her eyes at her mom.

"Ok," Rick said ignoring them "The girls' dorm is around here somewhere. I think if we make a left it'll be up here on the right."

They pulled up to a big building that Rick verified as the girls' dorm. He found space on the curb in the middle of all the others cars unpacking, too, and the girls finally got out of the car.

Jessie just looked at the huge building and knew that this might even be worse than she imagined.

Grace and Jessie went inside to the lobby of the building and waited in a long line to get their room keys. They hadn't said much since they arrived, but they both knew there was no going back now.

Moving in turned out to be such a big pain that no one had time to think past it. Waiting for elevators and carts to bring up their stuff in took a long time. Four hours later everything was in the room and nearly set up.

"Well," Lily said taking a look around the room at the cinder block walls "It's not a lot, but you guys can decorate it to make it more homey."

"Right," Jessie said not wanting to point out that it wasn't home so how could it ever be 'homey' ?

Before Rick and Lily had to leave they wanted to take Jessie and Grace out to dinner.

'A last supper,' Jessie thought to herself bitterly.

The school was in a small town, so their choices were limited. They found a place and soon realized they weren't the only parents who were taking their kids out for a final meal. The restaurant was filled with families.

"So, are you guys nervous about classes?" Lily asked trying to drum up some dinner conversation

"No, not really" Jessie lied.

"Me neither," Grace chimed in as it went back to silent.

"Well, I think it's great that you guys can walk off campus to so many places" Lily said not giving up.

"Yeah," Rick said trying to help Lily out "Jess, I think I saw a used bookstore, too"

"Great," Jess said trying to pretend that made everything better.

Dinner continued uneventfully, and before Jessie knew it, they were saying goodbye.

"Don't forget to call us," Lily said "and e-mail."

"A lot," Rick added as squeezed the life out of Jessie

"We will," Grace and Jessie replied.

"And let us know if you need anything and we can send it up right away." Lily reminded

"Well, actually, I could use a new pair of shoes," Grace joked

"Very funny, Grace" was the reply she got from Lily.

Finally, Rick and Lily got back into the car and drove off.

"So," Jessie said turning to Grace.

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess we should go upstairs"

"Yeah," Grace said as she started back into the dormitory.

There was a loud group of girls already laughing in the corner of the lobby, and Grace thought she recognized the ringleader.

"Hey Grace!" someone shouted.

Jessie looked at Grace curiously, but decided to wait for her near the elevator. Big crowds of people she didn't know was exactly Jessie's idea of a good time.

"I'll be right back," Grace told Jessie

"I promise," Grace added at the look on Jessie's face.

Jessie watched Grace go over and talk to the group, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. A few minutes later Grace came back over and they got into the elevator.

"Who was that?" Jessie asked

"Katie Singer, remember? the other girl from my grade who was coming here"

"Oh yeah," Jessie said knowing exactly who Katie Singer was. "Did she know a lot of people coming here already?"

"No, she told me she only knew me and her friend Tad"

"Figures" Jessie grumbled as she unlocked their dorm room. Jessie always saw Katie around school with a million people around her. It figures she would automatically be that popular at a new school, too.

"Hey, what's that?" Grace said as she sat down on her newly made bed.

"What?"

"The bright pink piece of paper on the floor near the door"

Jessie saw that Grace wasn't moving, so she went over and picked it up.

"It says we have a floor meeting in the common room at 10 tonight" Jessie said as she read the note. "What time is it now?"

"It's 9:30"

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we got back form dinner when we did" Jessie said as she sat on her bed.

For the next fifteen minutes both Grace and Jessie did absolutely nothing. Jessie decided to lay down, and Grace did the same. If anybody walked in and saw them both staring silently at the ceiling, they'd think someone had died.