Chapter 6:
Jenna walked into her balcony and looked down at the people who were talking freely to each other. She felt suffocated being locked up in her room until the next meeting. Sarah had even asked Marcia for help to keep her inside her room since she was fed up by Jenna always arriving late for meetings and forcing her to cover for her.
She let out a loud sigh and wished for someone to save her. Jenna couldn't just walk out for her door was locked. As she gazed down, she spotted Beetle talking to a bald man. He was her way out. The idea made her jump up and down from joy and start calling him. She couldn't call him any louder for fear of her guards hearing her.
The bald man walked away and Jenna knew that soon Beetle would go too so she looked around for anything to call him with. Everything was too hard that throwing them at him would make him pass out. Finally, she took off her shoe and while apologizing Beetle for this, she dropped it on his head.
Beetle's pained swear was loud enough for her to hear. Jenna whistled and he looked up while rubbing his head. He saw her and came closer. "Jenna, what is it?" he shouted for her to hear but Jenna motioned him to be quiet and mouthed him to come up.
Desperate for him to not be polite for once and come through the front door, she shook the tree next to the balcony. Beetle got her aim and took his coat off. He grabbed the tree that didn't have much of foothold. It was funny to see the always tidy Beetle struggling to climb up a tree. Breathless of the effort, he grabbed her balcony bars and pulled himself up. Jenna took a step back so that he could jump in.
"Bravo, really good." Jenna clapped her hands as Beetle leaned against the wall and wiped the sweat of his face.
"What was it that I had to come up this way?" his voice still wasn't even. Jenna grabbed a small bag by her side and dragged him back to the balcony.
"I needed bail out. Sorry." she said quietly and took her shoe from him.
"Then you should've thrown your hair down or something." answered Beetle as he followed her. "Come on, I can't take this horrible tree anymore and besides they'll see us." he looked down. "And it'll look pathetic." Jenna didn't listen to him and lifted her skirt to be able to go over the bars. "You can't go anywhere with that skirt."
She looked up and smiled. "If I could then I would've escaped myself." she blinked several times to look desperate. "I can't stay here any longer. Please, Beetle." she smiled with delight when she saw his awkwardness.
"Okay, hang on." he went back out of the balcony and swinged from the tree. Beetle then took Jenna's hand and wrapped them around his neck while holding her waist with one hand and the tree with other. "This is crazy. Pure craziness." he kept muttering as they were about to loose balance multiple times. Every time, Jenna just held on tighter and gasped that made him loose focus and check if she's fine. "Jump," said Beetle when they were inches above the ground.
Jenna let go of him and landed smoothly on the ground, followed by Beetle. She extended her arms and took a deep breath of freedom. "I wanna do something different today." she exclaimed and looked around. "Got it." Jenna snapped her fingers victoriously and turned to him. "How about joining the jumping group? They're available for today only." she suggested brightly.
Beetle was lost at that point. "What is a jumping group?" his question was answered when Jenna dragged him with her to a part of forest that was vacant of any trees and was filled with Ordinary Wizards. Hastily, Jenna hid her gold circlet in her small bag and looked at Beetle's face who was starting to understand everything. One of the Wizards stood on a wood.
"The volunteers step forward." the Wizard shouted and few stepped forward. Jenna laughed and pulled the reluctant Beetle with her. "Your umbrellas are up there. And there is the ladder." he pointed at the ladder and they both just saw the massive jumping point that was 10 foot tall.
Jenna coughed to get his attention. "Have you experimented it?" she asked to ease Beetle and a small part of herself.
A female Wizard patted on her shoulder. "Of course. We tested it on plants and even potatoes." she explained as if saying the obvious.
Beetle and Jenna exchanged unsure glances but before either of them could object, they were pushed to the ladder and were forced to climb up by the line behind them. Jenna gathered her long skirt in her hands and Beetle went up after her to catch her in case she falls.
When they finally reached the last step, a strong wind came. Jenna was almost blinded by her hair moving in front of her eyes. She stepped on the platform and took Beetle's hand to help him up. The ground below them was so far that she now called herself insane for doing such a thing.
Two umbrellas were pushed into their hands as others stood beside them. "Jenna," called Beetle to have her look at him. "You ready?" his face was red from excitement.
"We can go back down." suggested Jenna, hoping for retreat on his side.
He shook his head. "No need. Just remind me later why I agreed to this." he held her hand tighter when they started counting. "I like you. You should know that since our luck might not measure up to those plants and potatoes." they both held the umbrellas above their head.
Jenna was pleased to hear that he liked her. "I really should've asked that whether the potatoes were fine or not." she whispered and the countdown ended. "Jump!" they jumped down the platform at the same time. Her scream was unheard through the strong wind.
The ground kept getting closer and Jenna closed her eyes. A sting of pain was shot through her ankle as they landed heavily on the ground. She laughed with amusement and so did Beetle. The sound of applause overwhelmed them.
Relieved to be fine, Beetle hugged her but stepped back as soon as he remembered their state. Jenna blushed but was still laughing that she saw the sun. "Oh, I'm going to miss the meeting." she exclaimed and got ready to run. She looked back at Beetle. "Race you. The winner gets to choose the next date." she winked happily and ran.
Beetle couldn't believe to have his confession accepted so he too started running. He was going to win this race.
Thank you again for reading and please review.
Disclaimer: The jumping part was inspired by the TV series 'Gilmore Girls'.
