Jessica felt more relief after Jeremy's declaration than she had felt
in a long, long time. There was something else…happiness? Jessica
wondered. She grinned stupidly at Jeremy; Jessica came to an important
realization. She had never been truly happy with Will. Sure, she had had fun
with him at times. But she hadn't been truly happy. Maybe it was
because even though Will had apologized and had helped end the 'Jessica is a
Slut' rumors, the thought that he could have said those things about
her continued to haunt her mind.
"I'm glad," she stammered out.
She hadn't come to this party to meet anyone. Tia said she needed to
get out of her funk. Actually, when Jeremy had approached them, she wished
he would just go away. The last thing she needed in her life was more
drama, and boys always added drama to her life.
But during the short conversation they had, she began to realize that
Jeremy might be different. He could end up being the one calm thing in
her crazy life. She'd noticed it when he spoke. Every time he admitted
something or said something, he had seemed uncomfortable and fidgety. She
would have assumed that he didn't like her, but the expression on his
face gave him away. Jessica decided that he was nervous and a little
shy. She liked that.
"I'm glad I was able to meet you," he said softly. "Liz talks about you
sometimes, but she never said how great you are."
Jessica beamed and then a suspicious look came over her face. Liz
wouldn't tell anyone about…. "Whatever she told you is wrong, I never did
any of those things that she said," Jessica said horrified. What on earth
could Liz have possibly told Jeremy about? Probably the bad stuff. Like
the time she poisoned her family. Or when she had sold those horrible
beauty products and they rotted up. "I mean, Liz isn't so perfect
herself. I mean she actually likes lima beans. She called Ms. Dalton 'mom'
last year in front of the whole class, and one time she tripped and
fell into our pool with her clothes on!" Jessica said defensively.
Jeremy stared at her in shock. Then he burst out laughing. "Man, she's
so going to kill you! Actually, all she said was that you were a
cheerleader and were dating Will."
"Oh," Jessica said, feeling stupid.
"Except," Jeremy said, his eyes dancing. "She told me how earlier this
year you wandered into the wrong class and since you weren't paying
attention, you didn't realize until after the teacher handed out a test
that you were in the wrong class!"
Jessica blushed furiously. "Well, don't think you're exempt."
"What?" Jeremy suddenly stopped laughing and turned pale.
"Yeah, she told us about the time that you were trying to use the
whipped cream machine and you pulled the lever and nothing came out, and you
tried and tried. So, finally you looked up into the nozzle to see if
the tube was backed up and you pulled the lever and the machine started
to shoot out whipped cream all over your face!" Jessica said giggling.
Jeremy laughed. "I'm just lucky it wasn't hot coffee!"
"I never realized how much of a big mouth and a gossip my sister was,"
Jessica said, laughing harder. She hadn't felt so relaxed and
carefree since the earthquake. Jeremy was laughing, too. Jessica hadn't
noticed that he had scooted closer to her on the couch. He rested his hand
on her leg, as if he needed the support to keep from falling over. A
nice, warm feeling spread throughout her body.
Jeremy stopped laughing and was now staring at her. "I want to see you
again," he said hoarsely. "Actually I have to see you again."
Jessica hesitated for a moment. Even though she had just gotten out of
messy relationship, she realized that she hardly cared about Melissa
and Will. They could be in front of her making out and she wouldn't care.
Well, not too much. Jeremy seemed like exactly the kind of guy she
needed. He was nice, quiet, funny, and he seemed to understand her really
well. She wanted to see him again, but she wanted to take this one slow.
Plus, she decided not to tell Liz or her parents that she was seeing
someone new. It seemed liked when she made a big deal out of her
relationships, they usually ended badly.
"Yeah, that'd be nice," she said shyly.
Jeremy paused. "How about next Saturday?"
Jessica hesitated. "I volunteer at the animal shelter in the morning
but after noon I'm free."
Jeremy looked interested. "Really?"
"Yeah, after Prince Albert, our dog, ran away during the earthquake
I've spent a lot of time over there helping the poor animals. I'd like to
think someone would do the same for Prince Albert."
"That's really great," Jeremy said staring at her. "How about we go out
for pizza or something for lunch."
"Sure, how about Guido's?" she suggested.
She noticed that Jeremy was looking really uncomfortable. "How about
DiSalvo's? It's this really awesome place in Bridgewater."
"Isn't that a little far?" she asked uncertainly.
"Yeah, but trust me, their pizza is worth it."
"Well…okay," Jessica agreed.
"Great," Jeremy said, getting up. "I'll see you there at
twelve-thirty," he smiled at her and Jessica couldn't help but smile back.

"Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" Elizabeth shouted as she thumped down the stairs.
"Wait!" a voice called out from the den.
Busted! Elizabeth thought. A year ago her parents wouldn't have said
anything but maybe 'have a nice time,' as she left. But ever since she
had developed an attitude, came home in the middle of the night from a
party drunk, and streaked her hair pink, her parents didn't seem to
trust her anymore. There was no way they would let her go to nightclub
wearing what she was wearing. Luckily, she had grabbed her trench coat,
which hid her outfit.
She slunk into the den. "What?"
Her dad looked up over the newspaper. "Where are you going?"
"The Riot," Elizabeth lied. She mentally went through the people who
might possibly be there that night. Thank goodness Tia had drug Jessica
off to some party.
"Who with?" Mrs. Wakefield said, giving a tight smile.
"Some people from the Oracle," she shrugged.
That answer seemed to satisfy her parents. "Remember to be back by
eleven," he father called out to her as she was walking out of the room.
She whirled around. "Eleven on a Saturday night?" she said
incredulous.
"Until you prove yourself responsible, it's going to stay eleven for
a while," her dad said sternly and Elizabeth flounced out of the room
in a huff.
She grabbed her keys and marched out to the jeep.
Fifteen minutes later she had reached the entrance of the Cosmo. It was
a pretty run down building, but the parking lot was jammed and
Elizabeth could hear the pounding bass from outside. She turned the jeep off
and shrugged out of her coat. She was wearing her knee boots with a short
black skirt that hung low on her hips and she was wearing a hot pink
tank top where the straps tied at the back of her neck. She quickly
checked her makeup in the rearview mirror. A slow smile spread across her
face. If only her friends could see her now! She got out of the car and
headed towards the entrance. She pulled open the small door and her eyes
quickly adjusted to the dim lighting. The place was packed with
teenagers and young adults. Some rock band was playing a loud song in the back
and people where gyrating against one another on the large dance floor.
The place was pretty smoky and her eyes began to water. She quickly
scanned around but she didn't see Cody. Then she noticed a small flight of
stairs by the band that led to the upper level. The upper level
wrapped around the edge of the lower floor and lots of people were
leaning over the railing, looking down onto the dance floor.
She headed to the stairs and walked up. She scanned the tables that
were positioned everywhere and sighed with relief when she spotted Cody.
Elizabeth weaved through the crowd, crashing into a girl with purple
hair and clothes who sneered at her. With her hair and outfit, Elizabeth
looked like she fit in, but she knew she was just a poser.
She reached Cody's table. "Hey!" she said, sliding down across from him.
Cody's face lit up. "Hey, I was wondering when you'd get here."
Cody looked pretty much the same, except this time he was wearing a
black Jimi Hendrix shirt.
"This place is really cool," Elizabeth said, looking around.
"Yeah," Cody said agreeing. "My friends and I play here all the time."
"Play?" Elizabeth asked. "You're in a band?"
"Yeah, me and two other guys are in a band called Rouge Scarlet."
"I've never heard of them," Elizabeth confessed. "What do you play? And
what's with the name?"
Cody laughed. "I play the drums. My friends Brian named the band. He's
the guitarist and lead singer. We got together in ninth grade and he
was obsessed with this girl, Scarlet, so he named us after her, hoping to
impress her, and Rogue, is his favorite comic character from the X-Men and
that's where our name came from."
Elizabeth laughed. "So? Did it work? Did he impress her?"
Cody laughed and shook his head. "She was mortified at first. She was
so mad at him that she threatened to beat him up unless he changed the
name. He refused so she got back by dating Max, our bass player. And
they're still together."
Elizabeth shook her head, laughing. "That's really weird."
"I know," Cody said grinning. "Not only do I play the drums," he
continued. "I also write our songs," he said shyly.
Elizabeth couldn't stop smiling. Not only was the guy funny, but he was
a writer too!
"That's awesome," she said.
He shrugged. "I love to write, I always write about stuff that I'm
feeling or is affecting me. But the problem is, I've got a rotten singing
voice. So, Brian gets to sing them."
"Oh," Elizabeth said, not sure what to say. She figured this was
important to him.
Cody leaned across the table so their faces were very close together.
"I've never told anyone this before," he said quietly. "But, sometimes
it hurts to hear Brian sing my thoughts, my feelings, my words.
Sometimes I wish I could be the one who gets to sing them. Writing is very
personal. Now I know why music critics sneer at singers who don't write
their own songs. You're only getting half the performance. Trust me, if
I could sing them, and sing them well, it'd be a deeper performance
than with Brian singing them.
Elizabeth smiled. "I know exactly what you mean," Elizabeth admitted.
"I love to write short stories or poetry, but I hardly ever show it to
anyone. It's like if they read them, they'd be reading a part of me that
I'm not sure I want people to know and understand."
"But you're a fabulous writer," Cody said, grabbing her hand. Elizabeth
didn't pull back. It felt…nice. "I read all your things in the Oracle."
"You do? I mean, I never would have thought," Elizabeth stammered.
"Rockers read the newspaper too," he said raising an eyebrow. "I loved
that piece you wrote last week 'Sweetless Valley High' about that woman
who's trying to sue our school for promoting an unhealthy lifestyle by
having the word 'Sweet' in our name."
"I know," she said laughing. "I'm surprised she's not suing the whole
city!" Elizabeth was silent for a minute. "Actually, my writing this
year isn't as good as it could be."
Cody stared at her, with question in his eyes.
"I've really been blowing off the Oracle," Elizabeth admitted. "Earlier
this year I got wrapped up in this guy I was seeing and I let
everything slide. Don't worry, I'm still not seeing him," she assured him. "But
I got into trouble at school and with my parents and then to make it
worse, the guy totally dropped me."
Cody squeezed her hand. "That's rough," he said.
They sat there in silence. Finally, Elizabeth changed the subject. "I
didn't know you had an earring!" she exclaimed, examining in the small
silver stud in his left ear.
Cody fingered with his ear. "Yeah, I've had this for about two years."
"What did your parents say?" Elizabeth asked him. "Did they actually
let you get away with that?"
Cody hesitated. "My mom is pretty easy going. My dad is uh…he died when
I was five."
"Oh!" Elizabeth looked down at the table.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "I hardly remember him. He died in a car
accident. We were living in Louisiana at the time, but after he died my
mom moved us here because this is where she had grown up."
"Wow," Elizabeth said. "That sounds awful."
"Yeah, but my mom is really awesome."
"I haven't been getting along well with my parents, but I can't even
imagine if one of them was gone."
Cody stood up. "Enough of this maudlin talk. It's a Saturday night. My
throat is really dry, do you want anything to drink?"
"A diet coke," she said getting up.
"No, stay. The line's usually pretty long and you can save our table."
Cody walked away and Elizabeth stared at the dancing throng of people
on the lower level. Their table was close to the railing.
"Wakefield," she heard behind her.
The voice startled her and when she turned around she almost jumped out
of her skin. Conner was standing there.
"You scared me," she said hoarsely.
Conner raised an eyebrow and smirked at her. Elizabeth blushed
furiously. She loved it when he did that. "Didn't think this was your kind of
place," he said as she stood up. His eyes traveled the length of her
barely clothed body.
"You're looking sexy," he murmured. He leaned in so that their faces
were touching. "Love the hair," he said, fingering her pink highlights.
Elizabeth felt like her body would explode from heat and wanting. Why
did she have to feel like this when she was with him? He had done and
said all kinds of horrible things to her, yet she still wanted to grab him
and kiss him. She was with a really cool guy. Sure, when Cody
had held her hand it had felt nice, she had gotten a nice warm feeling.
But nothing like the crackling connection that she felt when she was
around Conner. She stepped back from him in order to regain control of
her mind.
Conner stood there in silence. Finally he said, "So where's T-"
He didn't finish because Cody had come up behind her. "Here, Liz."
Conner glanced at Cody and then at Liz. His expression gave away
nothing.
"Hey, Cody," she said guiltily. Turning to Conner she said quickly,
"Tia's not here. She and Jessica are at some party."
Conner barely heard her; he was staring at Cody and smirking. Elizabeth
suddenly felt angry. Cody wasn't lame. If she remembered correctly,
Conner had that same Hendrix shirt.
"Later, Barbie," he said walking away.
"Nice guy," Cody said sarcastically.
"What? You don't like him?"
"It's not that," Cody said. "He's an awesome guitar player, but he has
this huge attitude."
Elizabeth didn't feel like talking about Conner anymore. She grabbed
Cody's hand and pulled him over towards the stairs. "Come on, let's
dance!" Cody laughed and when they reached the dance floor they started
bumping and grinding to the beat. All thoughts of Conner fled from her
brain.