Part Two

"Ugh. I'd forgotten how gross Pacey looks when he's stuffing himself."

Jen glanced over at her old friend.

"He's still gorgeous."

Her friend's brows arched in surprise.

"Tell me you're kidding."

Jen smiled.

"Okay. It's not his best angle."

"That's an understatement," her companion retorted.

"Oh Abby..."

"Don't give me that mocking and wise laugh. God, what have they done to you? You used to be fun."

"I like to think I still am. I just grew up and..."

"And what? I never did?"

"Well you never got the chance. I'm sorry," Jen said softly.

Abby waved a hand dismissively.

"Stop it. We both know it wasn't your fault. It was good way to go actually. I'm sure I was the talk of the school and at least I made a beautiful corpse."

Jen laughed and shook her head.

"I had forgotten how you could make me laugh."

"Obviously. You were caught up with that boring group who just droned on and on about the lint in their navels."

Jen rolled her eyes.

"Okay. Some things seem very trivial now that I'm here."

"So," Abby suddenly said. "I can't believe you finally ripped off Dawson's tighty-whiteys. You go girl."

Jen met her friend's impish grin.

"Please tell me you didn't see everything."

"Are you kidding me? There's no way that I could stomach Dawson getting it on," Abby gave a little shudder. "Over here we are spared seeing all the intimate details. We sometimes get a look into the minds of people on earth and we can watch snippets of their day. I guess all that is supposed to compensate for a lack of other voyeuristic privileges."

Shooting Jen a frustrated look, Abby continued.
"Come on. You must know all this. What were you doing during orientation?"

"I was trying to deal with my new death status. So sue me. I find it hard to believe that you picked everything up straight away when you got here. I remember your attention skills or lack thereof in class."

Abby giggled.

"Yeah, okay. Your gramps took pity on me and went over everything one word at a time."

Jen smiled gently.

"It's been wonderful seeing him again. We never really got to talk in his last years."

"Yeah…Jen, umm, navel lint alert." Abby stood, brushing a few leaves from her skirt.

"Look, I might head off. Just watching Dawson, Joey and Pacey sit through that episode of The Creek has left me so bored that I'm wishing I was deader than dead. I can't believe that someone is paying money for that show to go to air."

Jen shaded her eyes from the sun.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm just off to look in on some interesting people on earth. There's a woman over there that should have been my mother. We would have had a lot of fun."

"I don't even want to think about what your ideal mother would be like," Jen shook her head. "Anyone I know?"

"Hah, not likely. She lives in Orange County, a far more glamorous locale than Capeside. Julie Cooper-Nichols."

Though her eyes were watching Abby walk away, Jen's mind was on three of her dearest friends that she had left behind. In the last couple of hours, as she watched them in their outer and inner worlds, she had sensed an unease and even discontent in all of them. In her last week on earth she had been sure to give significant hints to Dawson, Joey and Pacey. Hints as to how she believed they could make their lives richer and the paths that each needed to take for real happiness. She hadn't wanted to be preachy but she had hoped that she had made her thoughts clear. Now three months later and with the benefit of a death view of earth she wasn't so sure.