Title: Homemade Always Says It Best
Rating: This chapter is probably only PG, but I plan on bringing it up to PG-13 at some point.
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine...I cannot claim them. They all belong to the hardworking people involved with Once and Again.
Feedback: Yes please, I want to know what everyone thinks of this story so far.
Summary: This will be a J/K or Jessie and Katie story eventually. It's just my take on another way that the girls could have ended up discovering their feelings for each other.
Author's Note: Wow. The final chapter of this story. Of course, some of you may not realize that this is the final chapter of this story because you don't read this…I may ramble, but I do have points, such as pointing out that this is the FINAL chapter…Crazy, I know. I finally got this chapter all written out, and I'm happy with the way it turned out, personally. Hopefully, you are too. Enjoy!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tick. Tick. Tick. Katie glared anxiously at her clock. In movies, clocks always went, "Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock." Hers was apparently broken, because it only went, "Tick. Tick. Tick." Leave it to her to end up with a broken clock; she seemed to be breaking everything else lately, which was probably what was causing her to have insomnia.
Her ticking sounding more like a bomb nearly ready to go off. That wasn't a pleasant thought. Tick. She needed to get out of her room. Tick. She needed a walk. Tick. She'd go fix things, then she would sleep. Tick. A frustrated Katie threw on a sweatshirt and quietly snuck out of her house.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A disgruntled teenaged girl rolled over. She could have sworn that someone had said her name just then. "Sarah!" Someone was saying her name…She glanced at her clock. 1:43 a.m. Tomorrow was a school day, and Katie, that had to be the voice, or owner of the voice, was at her window screaming for her. Must be a dream. "Sarah!" A very loud and Katie-sounding dream.
"What?" The girl finally answered Katie's calls by opening her window. Her bedroom was on the first floor, luckily. So, in reality, Katie was right outside.
"Hi Sarah," Katie smiled. She looked as if she hadn't gone to bed yet. She was very awake and fully hyper, then again, Katie usually was hyper. She fidgeted nervously. "I need to talk to you."
"Do you want to come in?" Katie glanced at her surroundings; a bunch of shrubs. "This might be where I belong after I talk to you about this."
"In a shrub?"
"On the ground." Sarah's eyes widened; she wasn't quite sure what would make Katie be so dramatic. Then again, she always had a certain kind of flair about her. "Lower than the ground, but if I did that, then, well, I'd end up in the ground, and you couldn't hear me, only worms could…I'm not even really sure if worms have ears, do they?" Sarah shrugged, wondering what Katie's point was. "And then, I'd end up in China, if I went far enough. Not that I'm saying that you can dig your way to China because there's a mass of molten rock in the center of the Earth, which would ruin it, and I may take the wrong tunnel and end up in England anyway, and I don't even have a shovel…"
Sarah listened to the other girl ramble on before she realized that Katie wasn't going to ever get to the point, if Sarah let her ramble on much longer. "Katie, what's wrong? If you don't want to come in…Here, I'll come outside." Luckily, Sarah understood how to unhook her screen on her window, so within minutes she was standing next to the now-wary girl, who was still jumpy.
"I," Katie glanced at Sarah. "Um."
"You're suddenly not very talkative." Katie forced a laugh at the girl's sense of humor, but it was forced.
"I'm…I need to…break up with you."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tad woke up with a start. He felt like he was missing out on something suddenly. It didn't feel like the time that he missed the circus when he was ten, or the time that he missed asking this girl out because another guy asked her out first, or even the times that he got to the movie rental stores too late to rent the new releases. This felt different. He felt guilty and sad and angry and surprised and shocked, yet not shocked at all, at the same time. It was almost overwhelming.
"Girls," he muttered as he picked up his car keys and walked out the door.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jessie was horribly bored. There was absolutely positively nothing to do. She sighed and looked outside. It was nice out; it had to be, so she grabbed a jacket and walked outside. Well, the young blonde snuck outside because the rest of her family was sleeping. It was 2:17 a.m. and it seemed like no one else could possibly be awake.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Grace," came a small whisper, that turned a bit hoarse. He had heard someone walking around on the stairs, which woke him up.
"Eli?" A pajama-clad Grace opened the door to find him staring at her.
"I, um," he fumbled for words for a minute. "Want some ice cream?" She wasn't the one sneaking out then…He has probably imagined it. Of course, no need to waste some time that he could spend talking to Grace, since they were both awake now…She nodded silently. Ice cream and Eli sounded good right about then.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Is it because you like Jessie?" Sarah blinked, trying to force herself not to cry over the girl who was standing in front of her, in her shrubs. For some reason, she wasn't surprised when Katie nodded, but she was hurt. "You could have just told me that you liked her."
"I didn't realize that she was…" Katie felt horrible saying that. "I didn't know when I started dating you. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, but I'm glad I met you."
Sarah rolled her eyes and sniffed back a few more tears. "Don't tell me that there are more fish in the sea, please."
"I doubt that you want to date a fish."
Sarah shrugged hopelessly, "Maybe a mermaid."
Katie promised, "You'll find her; you deserve it."
There was an awkward silence, then Sarah asked an awkward question. "So, Jessie's gay, huh?"
"Maybe," Katie paused. She wanted to be honest, so she was. "Well, I mean. We like each other, that's all that matters."
"You're right." Sarah knew that it really wasn't any of her business about the young girl's sexual preference. "You really should have just told me right away."
"I know." Katie glanced at the other girl. "Friends?"
"Not right now." Katie looked forlorn for a second, so Sarah continued. "Tomorrow maybe, or the day after, but not right now…"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Tad?"
The young man stepped out of his vehicle and pounded against his chest with a quick thump. "In the flesh."
"Why are you here?"
He countered the blonde with, "Why are you up?"
"You shouldn't answer a question with a question."
"It happens." Tad shrugged. "Look, about earlier."
Before he could say too much though, Jessie burst in. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that I was with Katie."
He chuckled mildly. "Well, that was quick."
"That's why you're here." Jessie pointed it out very obviously, because they both knew that it was true. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen."
He knew that it really wasn't going to help him any to be angry with two girls who were his best friends. He saw the hurt in Jessie's eyes, and he knew that Katie would be talking to him about it as soon as she could. She must have felt that it was Jessica's place to tell him about it first. He had to be the bigger man, or only man in this scenario…He had no choice but to joke. "Just, two things. One, do you really like her?" Slightly less joking, "Two, can I watch?" Jessie immediately punched his shoulder, a very Katie-like gesture. He grinned, "Just kidding!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The blonde girl was still sitting on her porch later. She was adjusting to the conversation that she had just been a part of moments ago with her ex-boyfriend. He was such a pervert; she chuckled. Had she had a watch, then she would have realized that she had a mere four hours before she was to be awake for school the next day. 3 a.m. and not all was well…quite yet.
"Hey there," Jessie suddenly noted the older girl standing in her driveway. A wave of relief hit her senses. It as always nice to see Katie.
"Hey Billie." Katie smiled back at her girlfriend.
"Isn't it past your bedtime?"
"Hey now, I'm older than you." Katie chuckled as she sat next to Jessie, turning serious. "I told Sarah about us."
"Really?" Jessie glanced at the older girl. Apparently she really wasn't the only one who wasn't able to sleep that night. Insomniacs unite!
"Yeah," Katie nodded. Silently, she pushed a piece of dirt off of the stair with her toe.
Neither girl said anything for several minutes. The blonde was the first to break the silence. "Are we okay?"
Slightly panicked, Katie looked up. Oh God. "What do you mean?" Jessie wanted to break-up with her.
Billie immediately noticed her girlfriend's nervous gestures. She tried to soothe her with a look, but Katie seemed even more worried after Jessie's smile. So, the blonde simply answered the question. "We kissed, then we hid our relationship to everyone but ourselves. Are we ready to be together?"
"Do you not want to be together?"
"No, I do. Just," Jessie felt silly suddenly, admitting such things.
Katie knew that look. "Slow?" Because it was exactly how she imagined that she looked at the moment, shy and nervous. Of course, Jessie was all cute about it.
"Ice age slow." Katie's eyes widened a bit as the blonde suggested such things. The blue eyes were twinkling. "I'm kidding, not quite that slow."
"Holding hands, in private?" Katie decided to test the limits by reaching for the blonde's hand. Jessie immediately entangled her fingers with Katie's. "Kissing?"
Jessie blushed and grinned, sneaked a quick kiss as well. "Kissing is a good thing. Definitely allowed."
Katie sighed; her immediate fears gone now. "I'm not ready to tell everyone else yet either, Jess. It's okay to be a bit afraid."
Blue eyes met green eyes fairly certainly. "That's why we have each other?"
"Exactly, we'll figure it out." Katie nodded, feeling more assured once their hands were intertwined.
"That's what you said about the cookies that we tried to make once." Jessie chuckled, remembering it. "I ended up with the sugar down my shirt."
"I had flour on all of my clothes." Katie grinned, remembering it, before pointing out that, "I had it on my socks." Katie shrugged. "Besides, we figured out the recipe eventually."
Jessie rolled her eyes at her girlfriend. She was so silly sometimes. "We should have just bought the cookies from the store."
"Figuring things out ourselves is a lot more fun though." Katie grinned and wiggled her eyebrows, then she nudged her girlfriend's shoulder with her own teasingly. "Besides, homemade always says it best."