AN: Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed. It is incredibly motivational to hear that people actually like your stuff! Lol.
Jack's first impression of her high school that morning was a good one. It was nice, clean, surrounded by houses that were relatively small, but well kept. The building itself didn't look to be more than a few years old.
At registration two days later she got a chance to see the inside, and was equally impressed. None of the schools she'd ever seen on New Mecca had been so up-to-date. And she had seen a few schools in the capital. She got kicked out of two of them before she was fourteen and a half. She later ended up transferring out of a third.
It was good to see that for once her old records hadn't been lost, and there weren't any problems encountered while she was getting registered. She was assigned a locker, had a school ID made for her, and was given a class schedule that she immediately stuffed into a pocket on her cargos. Jack had always believed it was unlucky to look at a schedule before the first day of school. Besides the fact that she never liked her schedule and couldn't get it fixed until school started anyway.
Since it was a relatively large school Jack wasn't really surprised that no one approached her to introduce themselves. As far as she was concerned that was just fine. When she wanted to meet people, she would. No sense in rushing it. Besides, one school term wasn't that long. Eventually she was just going to be uprooted again, and then she would have to start over somewhere else, once again not knowing anyone. That much she was used to.
Riddick picked her up after she got done with registration. Little was said during the drive home. That was how it had been for two whole days. Near silence between all members of the household.
Jack grimaced. Well, not quite all of them.
It's not like I can't hear them 'communicating' at night in their room down the hall. Damn Old Horny really knows how to rub it in that she and Riddick are having the best make-up sex of their lives, and it's all because of me.
That was about the only part of Riddick's image that remained intact for her. Like she'd always imagined, he definitely could keep a woman satisfied. How many times already had she walked into a room to find them both flushed? And the night before Jack had lain awake for three hours listening to them...
Another grimace.
Why am I thinking about this again?
For no good reason, that was for sure. Jealousy, perhaps? That thought almost made Jack snicker. Her, jealous of what Shella had? Yeah, that made sense. She was totally jealous that Shelly owned the face, the body of a formerly great man. What did she care when Riddick's soul no longer resided behind that face, in that body?
Jack had decided she didn't care. It was safer that way. It hurt less.
"Jack. Jaaaack. Anybody home?"
Oh, Riddick was talking. Waving a hand in front of her face too. Apparently it was time to disengage her brain, perhaps even stop thinking altogether. It got too depressing as she was occasionally reminded of the man she used to know. "Huh? What?" she finally asked, feigning the turning of her full attention in his general direction.
Riddick snickered, picking up his bottle of Hydrite with one hand, the other still on the wheel. "I was going to ask you how registration went. Get everything squared away?" he asked, taking a sip of the red liquid, glancing over at her briefly.
Jack shrugged, instinctively biting her thumb nail. She was beginning to do it often when he spoke to her, like she used to do all the time when adults would talk to her. Especially while she was a skittish runaway with frazzled nerves. "Yeah, it went okay. It's a really nice school. I had this crazy idea about trying out for volleyball, but I thought I should get settled in with doing my homework first and then see about sports. If I get a job, I don't know if I'll be able to fit anything else into my schedule."
Riddick nodded, spinning the cap expertly back onto the Tupperware bottle. Jack realized he must drink out of it often while driving to have become so well practiced, but for the moment didn't think anything of it.
"That's true. You don't want to get overloaded. Oh, by the way, I have those applications for internships and part time jobs with Sampson Inc in my office. Why don't you swing by after school on Monday and pick them up?"
"Sure," Jack agreed absently, hoping that was the end of the conversation. She turned towards the window, once again resuming her through examination of the scenery outside it.
You know, he really is a nice guy now. So what's the big deal? That he's domesticated? Maybe you should just let him live his life, Jack. Don't be the jealous tramp Shella thinks you are.
Jack sighed. If only it were that simple. She just couldn't shake the odd feeling that something wasn't right. It tugged at the back of her mind even more strongly than she thought jealousy would. And it wasn't the sticky 'you know you have no right to feel this way' sort of gross feeling. It was a sense of panic, alarm. There were pieces to this puzzle that were missing, and she'd never know what was truly eating at her until she found them, put them all together.
You're chasing a ghost.
Shut up. I loved that ghost.
"Jack."
She didn't even look up. What was the point anymore? She wasn't going to see him in those eyes. They weren't even the right color. "Yeah, Riddick?"
"Quit biting your nails, kid," he rumbled, his tone stern but not angry.
A moment of silence passed during which Jack pulled her hand away from her face and then very deliberately turned to look at Riddick straight on for the first time that afternoon, annoyance clearly visable in her cool gaze.
"Make me, Dick."
The weekend was horrible. Riddick and Shella were both home, although Shella did go shopping most of Saturday afternoon, allowing Jack to finally slip out of the sanctuary of her room for a little while and watch TV with Riddick.
Avoidance was the game she was playing with the little lady, and it wasn't a game she was enjoying.
Way to go, Jackie. Ya won the first battle, and now you're losin' the war. First rate right there.
It wasn't so much fear that kept her at a distance, more like dread. Dread of the battles she knew would come, but she could not possibly win as long as Riddick remained so...catatonic. He couldn't even fight for himself in the slightest anymore, and Jack knew that it would take all her strength to do the fighting for both of them. But in the end, that was what would have to be done. It was just a matter of when. In all her life her endurance had never been so tested. But she hadn't survived T2 for nothing. She would prove to all of them that she was the strongest of them all.
Riddick offered to take her to his anger management meeting on Saturday night, and Jack almost accepted as an excuse to get out of the house. However, in the end she decided to lock herself in the room, hoping she wouldn't end up getting caught alone in the house with Old Horny. Not that the bitch behaved herself any better when Riddick was there, but Jack felt stronger when she could tell herself that she couldn't be weak in front of him.
Leading by example, huh? Except, I doubt that Riddick would've taken such a round about way of dealing with this problem. You're stalling. And worst of all, you don't even have a plan.
It couldn't be helped. Things were different in girl fights. And honestly, Jack would take a good old fight to the death any day over all this cloak and dagger shit.
And in those moments, when she started to question whether or not she had the energy for any of it, she would begin to recite from the beginning...
"Jack B. Badd sat on a wall..."
