Shadows

The bell rang at exactly twelve o'clock, signaling lunch break for all staff and students. The kids in Mr. Syme's English class were already packed before the bell rang, and they were out the door not a minute after it was finished ringing. Lunchtime was a period everyone looked forward to because it was freedom from a classroom, or it was freedom from teaching the same lesson three times a day.

But just as Ponyboy Curtis and Jennie Cade were getting ready to leave the room, Mr. Syme stopped them. "Hey, Cade, Curtis, could I have a moment with both of you? I know it is lunch hour, but it'll only take but a moment, I promise."

"Sure," they said at the same time, holding their books against their bodies as they walked over to their teacher's desk.

"Some other staff and I held a meeting this morning about sending advanced kids off on a new special program that would allow them to explore other cultures and styles of teaching. It's the Foreign Exchange Program. Now, we were looking over lists of kids and you two came up. Very few people were on that list." He paused to cough before continuing…

"Both of you get exceptional grades every semester…high honor roll and all the works. You're both perfect candidates for the program." He stopped talking to see if they had any questions.

"What would we do?" Pony asked, standing close to Jennie.

Mr. Syme cleared his throat. "Well, every year the board would choose a different country to send the kids to. This year it's Japan. You would go with three other people from this school and this grade. Once you got there, you stay with your group only while you sleep…otherwise, you'd go to different schools on different parts of town; a bus would take you from the school back to the Checkpoint, which is where everyone meets at a certain time, and then vise versa."

Jennie nodded, but she looked unsure. "This all sounds real great, Mr. Syme, but I'm sure it's expensive…and we couldn't pay for that."

"I thought so…" He opened the drawer of his desk, "But the teachers and I thought you two were the best out of the list, and we would love to send you to represent our school." He held up a check. "All I have to do is sign it. If you don't want to go, I can VOID it easily. You two have no pressure to go."

"W-what…you mean you'd pay for us to go?" Jennie choked out, surprised to the point of being unable to speak.

"A few other teachers helped out…Mr. Hart, Mrs. Lewis…they believe so much in you guys. We've never had any students that weren't disruptive in class, didn't turn homework in, talked back to teachers, and so on…but you two are the quietest, most respective kids we've seen in twenty years. You should be proud of that."

"Thank you, but you didn't have to use your money on us…" Jennie started. "We can pay you back…maybe not by the end of the month, but we can try to…"

"Jennie, you just go on home and tell your parents you get to go to some trip for school. If they don't ask about money, you don't have to tell them. Teachers cannot accept money from students. Any more questions about the trip?"

"How long will we be there?" Pony asked.

"It depends on the teacher's special Foreign Exchange curriculum, but it never exceeds five months, although anything can happen."

"What can we bring…or not bring?"

"We allow almost anything. You'll be taking a bus to Oklahoma City's airport and from there you'll board an airplane and arrive in Japan. So anything considered as a weapon is not allowed and neither are drugs, but anything else is fine; you can bring electronics, books, food, pictures, pens, pencils, notebooks…anything to keep you busy or anything that might make you less homesick."

"Can we write to our family and friends?" Jennie asked.

"I thought you'd be the one to ask that question, Miss Cade. I know how close you are to your brother. And the answer is 'yes'. You may send out as many letters as you want, but you should get your own stamps because none will be available. And everyone gets two phone calls for ten minutes twice a week."

"Then we should bring money? How much?" Pony asked, shifting his books in his arms.

"Yes, definitely, bring money; I would say you should bring as much as you can afford to bring to buy souvenirs, postcards, food, stamps, and anything else."

Mr. Syme handed them some packets that explained everything from dress code to what should be brought with you. He tore out the sheet that explained the cost of the trip. "I'll need the medical forms by Friday next week if you decide to go. We just need to know allergies and medications." With that, they ended the conversation and Jennie and Pony left the room, hurrying to get out of the school before Two-Bit's patience wore off.

"You think they waited ten minutes for us?" Jennie asked, running down the hall as fast as she could to keep up with Ponyboy.

"I'm sure they did—you're here and I don't think anyone would leave you behind, especially if Johnny has a say in it."

"They'd wait for you, too, Pony."

They reached the doors and left the building. Two-Bit was parked in front of the school, laughing hysterically at something someone said. He must have seen Pony and Jennie, for he pointed and said something. Only Johnny and Dally were in the vehicle, so there was plenty of room left when Pony and Jennie hopped in. "Did you guys forget where to go?" Two-Bit inquired, grinning like a Cheshire cat on drugs.

"Don't be stupid, Jennie wouldn't forget where to go." Dallas said, dropping a cigarette out the window.

"Hey!" Pony exclaimed, understanding Dallas' meaning.

"Hay is for horses," Dally replied nonchalantly, searching pockets for another cigarette. He looked at Jennie. "Don't worry kiddo, I won't light it yet." Everyone knew Jennie hated smoking and she had a strong view of "secondhand smoke kills" and she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Children, children, children! Stop all this nonsense." Two-Bit said, trying to sound motherly.

"Anyone willing to tell me why the hell you were so late?" Dally looked from Pony to Jennie, and his eyes, his stern gazing eyes, softened just a hair when he looked at Jennie Cade.

"It was nothin', Dal…" Jennie said after a minute, leaning forward to stuff the packet Mr. Syme had given her into her backpack. "We just had to talk with Mr. Syme."

"That crazy lunatic…man, is he still teaching?" Dallas laughed.

Jennie shook her head at Dallas' outburst, but she was trying not to smile. She so badly wanted to tell Dally that Mr. Syme wasn't a "crazy lunatic", but she didn't.

"Aw, Dal, come on; you were in his class for one day." Pony said.

"…and he assigned a twenty-point essay the very first day. What kind of crazy loon assigns homework on the first day? It ain't a way to make friends…" Dallas grumbled the rest angrily, but Two-Bit had started to pull away and no one seemed to be paying attention anyways.

It took a normal, safe driver six minutes to get from the school to the DX…but the way Two-Bit was driving, they were literally there in thirty-seconds. He had been cutting corners, driving on grass, hitting curbs, and narrowly missing dozens of cars, but he was grinning his trademark grin while Dallas laughed and made it seem like he was having the time of his life. Dally didn't drive so well either.

Sodapop nudged Steve, laughed, and waved to them as they swung into the parking lot at the DX. Before she knew it, Jennie felt herself being pulled out of the car by a laughing and grinning Sodapop Curtis, who twirled her around in the air and then set her back down.

"You guys are late!" Steve called from the table he was sitting at, eating a hamburger.

"Blame Pete and Repeat over there." Two-Bit said, looking over at where Pony and Jennie and Johnny had already started to laugh at Soda.

"Who?" Steve asked, walking over and wiping his face.

"Pete and Repeat…God almighty, you are really stupid!" Dally glared at Two-Bit. "He means Jennie and Pony."

"Pony and Jennie were late? Wow, I've got to write it down! What's today's date…the nineteenth?" Steve asked.

"You're a few days ahead there, buddy! It's the sixteenth!" Soda called, pulling the Pepsi out of the vending machine for Pony. Jennie said something to Soda and he grinned sheepishly. "Did I say the sixteenth? I meant the fifteenth."

"Yeah…right…" Steve rolled his eyes at his friend.

They all sat at the two tables, since one table wasn't enough to fit all of them, and they joked and ate and drank pop. "Jennie, aren't you going to eat something?" Soda asked, noticing Jennie wasn't touching her pop.

"I'm not really that hungry." She wasn't. She was thinking too much about that Foreign Exchange thing to even care about eating. Her stomach felt queasy, and she didn't know why.

"You sure? I know how you are with all that 'let everyone else eat first, I'm such a burden' thing." Soda looked skeptically over at his friend.

"I'm just thinking about stuff…that's all."

"Is Jennie Cade lying to us? Gasp, I never thought it possible!" Two-Bit joked.

"Honest, I'm not lying. I really am just thinking."

"Mr. Syme said we didn't have to worry about that Anne Frank thing because he'd explain most of it to us tomorrow." Pony said, understanding Jennie's reason for feeling weird. Jennie always felt like a burden, and when Mr. Syme paid their way into that student exchange, she felt worse. Of course, she knew he only did it to help, but she really didn't like feeling too burdensome.

"No, Pony, it's okay. We should just tell them what Mr. Syme was talking to us about. We'll have to give the stuff to our parents anyways…" Jennie said, defeated and wanting only to tell the truth. She knew the truth couldn't get you into trouble.

"Oooo, the goody-goodies got in trouble!" Two-Bit chanted, and Dally slapped him on the side of the head pretty hard.

"Shut up," Dally warned.

"We didn't get into trouble, Two-Bit," Jennie said tiredly, "we…well, Mr. Syme wants us on this program for the top kids in the school. It's a Foreign Exchange thing. We'd go to Japan or something like that…for five months. I don't know if I want to go."

They were all looking at her and Pony. "A-and what does something big like this cost?" Soda asked.

"Nothing for us," Pony said quietly.

"Nothing?" Dally looked at Jennie. He could get it out of her with a guilt trip; Jennie Cade couldn't lie. "Is that right, Jen?"

"Did y'all hear about those new streetlights they put up around the lot? It won't be so dark at night now." Pony tried to change the subject, but Dallas didn't seem to care too much about streetlights at the moment.

"Is that right, Jen?"

"What? The streetlights are up now? Yeah, I saw them, it's right…" Jennie said.

"Don't get smart, Jennie."

"Okay…Mr. Syme sort of paid for us." There. She said it. It almost killed her, but she said it.

"He paid for you to go? Both of you?"

"Well, no, he had help from a few other teachers…"

"Do you want to go?" Dally asked.

"Please, Dal, I don't know yet. Let me think about it."

"No, Jen, if you're going to go, just come out and say it. I suppose Pony's going. At least you won't be ditching one of your friends for something school-related." Dally stood up. "You know, Jenafer Cade, I thought I could understand you. But you're just as stuck-up as the rest of the kids that get good grades…"

"Dally, I didn't…" Jennie started, but Dally shook his head.

"Shut up, Cade, I mean it." And he walked away.

Jennie watched him go with wide eyes. She felt terrible now, even though she didn't think she had said anything to set Dally off. "I didn't mean to make him mad…" she said, turning back to the rest of the gang.

"Not you, Jen, it wasn't you." Soda said, his eyes unveiling an unidentifiable emotion.

Jennie gave a weak laugh. "He called me by my full name." No one ever did that unless they meant serious business or they didn't know Jennie well enough to not call her Jenafer.

"He's only mad that you might go away without him." Johnny said quietly for only Jennie to hear. Jennie shook her head. She didn't think that was it.

"It doesn't matter anyways. I don't think I'll go." Jennie said, taking a sip of her pop.

"Jen, don't let his stubbornness get in the way of your fun. You're smart. It's not a bad thing. You ain't being stuck-up if you go on a field trip." Soda said, trying to reassure his friend.

"Yeah, it's stuck-up, Soda. Only a few people get to go…only if you've got the brains and the grades to go." Jennie replied, sadly. She never classified herself as "smart" ever, not even when she got put up a grade level and got stuck in al advanced classes.

Jennie didn't want Dally to stay mad with her for going. She didn't want to be considered stuck-up for going. She didn't want to be a burden because Mr. Syme and the other teachers had to pitch in money because her parents had been lazy drunks and didn't go to school when they had the money sitting in front of them. She would rather not go on some school thing if it would affect her friendships. Her friends were more than that: they were family to her. One big family. And that was more important to her than some school thing.

The solution to her big problem: don't go.