Title- The Return of Jess

Chapter Title- Phase One

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

I walked into The Dingo noticing it wasn't too crowded. I saw Pat, the manager look at me. She looked puzzled, like 'why the hell are you here?' type of puzzled.

"I'm here early, I know," I told her and grabbed my order pad.

"Jessica, you got a phone call this morning. A girl named Anna is stopping by for lunch, she said to start it then."

"Thanks," I told her and quickly made a note on the front of my pad. Anna and I had planned to stage a fight in front of Lisa, to make it more believable. Michelle and Anna are very strange in the creative type of way. I waited patiently as Lisa came in, I figured it would only be about 2 hours until the fight. I waited tables nervously.

The bell above the door rang and I turned my head like I had about a million times that day. I saw a red headed girl walk in. She winked and I nodded. I pointed to a table I was supposed to wait on. We were putting phase one into action.

I got her the drink she ordered, I was careful, and spilled it into her lap.

"What the hell was that for?" She yelled at me. I shrugged.

"Get me another fuckin' drink!" she said looking at me carefully. I frowned; this was going exactly like we planned.

"Fuck you," I muttered and she looked at me.

"No, fuck you. Is there a better waitress around here?" she asked and 'noticed' Lisa. She pointed at her.

"Hey, can you be my waitress, I don't like this one. No, I hate her." Lisa nodded and bumped into me.

"Join the club," she told Anna and they started talking. I walked into the back and Pat looked at me.

"Don't worry about it," I told her. It didn't hurt when I knew Anna didn't mean it. There was a difference between meaning something and not. I walked back out and Lisa and Anna were laughing. This was going better than we had planned. We figured Lisa and Anna wouldn't start to get along that fast.

When Lisa went into the back Anna looked at me. 'I'll call you later,' she mouthed and walked out. So far, this was going pretty good.

I walked to the DX to give Steve the message.

"Dad said be home by 6," I told him.

"Why?"

"He wants us to meet his therapist, so he is making dinner." He nodded and I left. There was a note on the counter.

"Kids went to work and then I'm going food shopping. Take showers and get dressed nicely. Dinner is at 6:30, but be here by 6."

Kids? He thought we were kids? Well, excuse me, but I'll be 18 Friday, and I'm not a kid. I sighed and took a shower. I brushed out my hair, so it would be straight when it dried within the next two hours. I pulled on a skirt and a nice blouse. I hadn't worn a skirt in a while; it was easier to wear pants.

Steve came in and I gave him the note. He took a shower and put on a pair of jeans and a shirt, nothing new. Dad came in around 5:40, ten minutes after Steve. He started to cook. I never knew he could cook, and I was more afraid of eating his food than I had been of trying Soda's.

Denise had light brown hair that was cut short. She had glasses over her brown eyes. My dad welcomed her with a hug. He never seemed like the hugging type, but that was when he was drunk. He was sober. We "kids" were introduced as Steven and Jessica. Steve had told her to call him Steve. I had never known Steven was his real name, although I had considered it but everybody called him Steve so I never bothered to ask. I told her Jessica was fine for me because I couldn't stand Jessi (although I was getting used to it when Soda called me it) and Jess was what my friends called me. Even if this lady had helped my dad become sober, I wasn't going to be her friend.

We ate dinner and I guess everything went fine until she asked about mom. She asked the usual questions: How old are you? Do you go to school? Do you work? Where do you work? The list goes on and on. I answered them all with the 17 going-on 18, no, yes, The Dingo, blah, blah, blah.

"So your mother died?" She asked looking at me and Steve. Did she think we were like twins or something? Dad probably didn't go into that story.

"Shoot, her mother died. I haven't seen my mother since I was a baby. She got jailed for something." Steve cleared it up.

"You're not twins? You look a lot alike."

"Nope, he's my half-brother. Didn't even know he existed 'til about eight months ago. I'll be 18 on Friday; he's about six months behind me."

"Oh," she said and then looked at my dad, "I thought you said you're wife died."

"Well, she was my wife once," he said looking at his plate. I looked at him.

"Liar," I said quietly, "mom said you never married her. You left her in the delivery room for his mom." I pointed at Steve. I was glad he wasn't drunk, because I knew I would've gotten hit.

"You were a baby when this happened, not even born. I had gotten drunk with his mom. I loved your mom."

"Yeah, that's how come I never knew you until eight months ago. You never even called." I finished picking at the food on my plate and dropped it into the sink.

"BYE!" I shouted and walked out of the house. I just had to hope he wouldn't be drunk when I got home. I sat on the porch of Soda's house for a while wondering if Steve would come.