Fic: Boarding School (5?)

Author: nodoubtwywh

Disclaimer: None of the characters 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 house really was amazing. Jessie had never seen a house so big before. Katie somehow got the attention of the host very easily and persuaded him to give them a tour. Each room was more amazing than the last. Also, every room seemed to have a theme. Some were packed and had loud metal music playing and others had more mellow music. The only common thing seemed to be the alcohol in every room. Chad laughed when Jessie stupidly pointed it out.

"Yeah," Chad explained "The saying is that everyone who goes to this school is born with a beer bottle in their mouth."

Jessie tried to pretend she thought that was funny so she laughed. But really she just added it to the list of reasons of why she wouldn't fit in. The tour finally ended and they found themselves in a room packed with people dancing to some techno music. Grace and Katie seemed to have no problem jumping in and dancing with the group.

"HEY! YOU WANT TO GO FIND ANOTHER ROOM!" Tad screamed over the music.

"Sure," Jessie replied hoping she could get the buzzing out of her ears.

"WHAT?"

"Sure!" Jessie tried a little louder, but it obviously didn't work since Tad was still staring at her. Finally she gave up on words and just nodded emphatically. Jessie followed Tad out and up a pair of stairs where they found a small room that no one was in except some guy who'd passed out.

"So," Tad said as they sat down on a couch "were you excited about coming to school here?"

"No," Jessie answered truthfully "I'm not exactly a fan of trying new places."

"Well, that makes sense. I wasn't that excited about coming either, but I knew it couldn't be bad if Katie was coming"

"Yeah, having someone you know does help a bit"

Jessie felt like they'd had this conversation before, but since she couldn't think of anything to say, she went along with it. After a while they actually had a good conversation going. Tad had played soccer and so had Jessie, so they at least had that in common.

"So, uh, " Tad started nervously "I didn't know if you knew, or um, i mean back at Upton Sinclair, I uh, sort of had this huge...crush on you"

Jessie obviously found out when Katie started teasing him, but she didn't know that he liked her before. She didn't know how she was supposed to respond to that. Thank you? That's nice? I like you, too? But she wasn't really sure if she did yet. "How do you know something like that?" she wondered to herself

"Um," Jessie started hoping the right words would come to her "Really? I, uh, didn't know you knew who I was"

"Yeah, I definitely knew who you were," Tad said moving slowly closer to Jessie.

Jessie felt her heart start racing and suddenly got very nervous. Did she want to kiss Tad? Not really was the only answer she could think of. Instead of taking her silence as a move to back off because she felt awkward, Tad thought it meant that she didn't mind him getting closer. He slowly leaned in and kissed her. Jessie found herself kissing him back, but her thoughts definitely weren't on the kiss.

"Tad," Jessie got out in between kissing. Tad, being like most guys thought this was just her way of being into the kiss so he leaned her back onto the couch.

"Tad," Jessie began again "Wait." She said and gently pushed him back off her.

Tad didn't seem to get the message.

"Wait!" Jessie said more forcefully.

Grace and Katie walked in just in time to hear Jessie's last 'wait!'

"Dammit!" Grace thought angrily "This is my damn fault for leaving her alone."

Tad and Jessie looked over to see who had walked in. Grace had daggers in her eyes. Katie seemed to be the only one who could find words.

"Hey Jess," Katie started "We decided this party's gotten pretty lame. You ready to go?"

"Uh, yeah" Jessie replied more embarrassed than she could ever remember. Jessie got up and quickly followed them out leaving Tad to stare at them walking away.

When they were outside in front of the house Grace finally found her voice again.

"Are you ok, Jessie? I'm so sorry" Grace said even though she knew it wouldn't help.

"I'm fine, really, no big deal" Jessie said not wanting to talk about it.

"Well, my friend Mike is going to give us a ride back to school," Katie said as she led them to a dark green Jeep.

Katie, Jess, and Grace had made it back to campus in one piece, but that didn't mean Jessie was glad to see it. She hadn't said a word since they'd gotten back to the dorms and Grace was getting a little worried.

"I'm really, sorry" Grace tried again as she changed into her pajamas "I really thought Tad was a nice guy"

"It's all right, Grace" Jess assured her. 'It wasn't Grace's fault and it wasn't like anything that bad had happened,' she told herself

"OK, well, we have to be at chapel at 7:15 tomorrow morning"

"What?" Jess asked "My dad said this wasn't a religious school"

"Oh, no, it's not. My advisor just said it's been on campus forever and we have to go three times a week. He said it's just like a class for the entire school. The chapel's just the meeting place. Tomorrow will probably just be a 'welcome back' and 'work hard' speech by the headmaster"

'How is it that Grace and I have been at this school for the same amount of time and she already knows more than me?' Jessie asked herself angrily.

"OK," Jess said as she grabbed her shower caddy "I'll be right back. I'm just going to brush my teeth and wash up"

Jessie walked to the hall in her flip flops and found the bathroom deserted. Of course the second she started brushing her teeth in walked Katie.

"Hey Jess," Katie said but Jessie could just nod as she continued brushing her teeth. At least brushing her teeth gave her an excuse not to talk.

"Look," Katie said suddenly being serious since the first time Jess had met her. "I'm sorry about Tad. He's really a nice guy most of the time. And he really does like you a lot...I guess he just made a mistake"

Jessie just sort of nodded and kept brushing her teeth.

"Not that I'm saying what he did was right," Katie said wishing that she didn't feel like she was talking to herself.

Jessie finally spit out the toothpaste and rinsed her mouth as Katie started washing her face.

"I'm really sorry" Katie said again.

"It's not your fault," Jess said slowly as she started to wash her face again

For some reason Katie couldn't help but feel responsible for hurting Jessie. It wasn't her fault, but still, she had definitely helped him out a little bit. As bad as Katie felt she felt even worse because that nagging feeling that had come back...she didn't feel that badly for Tad losing Jessie.

"Yeah, well..." Katie said "well, what do you think of this place so far?"

"I don't know...jury's still out I guess" Jessie said still not sure if this was the best place for her.

"Yeah, same here," Katie agreed.

"Really?" Jessie asked surprised to hear that since Katie seemed to have so many friends already.

"Yeah, you seem surprised"

"No, well," Jessie stammered hoping she hadn't offended her "I mean I guess I just figured since I always see you talking to so many people...I mean, it just seems like you have a lot of friend here already"

Katie waited for Jessie to rinse her face off before answering.

"It isn't that I don't have friends here" Katie explained "I mean, I always have a lot of people talking 'at' me, but...I don't know..." Katie stopped suddenly unsure why she felt comfortable sharing this information with Jessie.

"I just still haven't decided yet" Katie finally finished.