Playing The Game

Chapter 5. Game Over?

Author: j_rock873

Rating: PG-13

Summary: The plan is revealed, but what will happen next?

Disclaimer: I only own the character, Nicole.

Reviews: Yes, I would like them.

Jessie's car, along the sidewalk in front of Tad's house

Jessie had just opened the driver's side door when it was slammed shut from a person behind her. Jessie froze at the hope that it would be Katie. She was thinking that Katie might have changed her mind and was going to surprise her.

"K-KATIE? Was that you?" Jessie slowly turned around at hearing silence. "Will you please talk to…Oh, hi, Grace, what do you want?" Jessie asked before her crying went back to the loud volume it was before Grace got there.

"I'm driving you home."

"I'll be fine, Grace. You can go back to the party."

"No, you won't. You barely made it to the car without tripping. You're in no condition to drive; and contrary to popular belief, I like having you around."

Jessie walked over to the other side of the car. Before she got in she confessed, "I like having you around too. Let's just keep that between us for now."

"It's a deal," Grace returned with a happy sigh.

As the girls made their way home, Grace remained silent while Jessie continued to cry softly. When they reached the house, Jessie planned to hold back tears until she got upstairs. She would find out quickly that wasn't going to happen.

Sammler/Manning home, family room, 11:15 PM

Grace and Jessie entered to see a barely awake Rick and Lily shutting off the TV and heading upstairs.

"You girls are home a little early, aren't you?" their parents mumbled out between yawns.

"Yeah, the party wasn't that exciting. We decided to come home early."

"In my younger days, I never left a party early."

Rick chuckled at his own attempt at humor while Lily sensed something was wrong immediately. She then looked at both girls before directing her attention to Jessie.

"Jessie, what's wrong? Did you and Katie get in a fight? If you did, I'm sure everything will...," Lily was interrupted as Jessie broke down in tears again before she rushed upstairs. "Grace, what happened tonight?"

Rick just looked on in worry.

"I don't know all of the details, but before we left, Katie and Jessie had a argument that left both of them in tears. Then Katie stormed off to her house. I'll find out the rest and tell you tomorrow."

Jessie's bedroom

Grace entered the room in time to see Jessie tear a tank top and shorts, which were lying on the bed, to shreds. Jessie then began attacking the punching bag in the far corner.

"Jessie, you need to calm down and tell me what happened back at Tad's."

"Don't you knock?" Jessie asked politely before calmly continuing. "Anyway, you were there. You saw what happened."

"Yeah, I did, but why did it happen? I thought things were going great for you two?"

"I don't know," she babbled while still attacking the bag, "I thought it was too. It was our first date. We went out to eat, messed around in the car a little bit, and then we went to the party."

Jessie stopped talking and attacking the bag when she realized she let out more than she wanted to say. She quickly sat down on her bed and looked up to see a stunned Grace standing in front of her.

"You messed around in the car a little? How much is a little?" she asked cautiously.

"Not much," Jessie sighed when she was met with a disbelieving look, "Fine, but you've got to promise to not tell anyone."

"I promise."

"We kissed in the front seat." Jessie began to stall before Grace nodded to continue. "I sort of unbuttoned Katie's shirt before I removed mine."

"WOW!" Grace commented before falling down on the bed. "Wait, sort of? Either you did or you didn't. Which one is it?"

"I did."

"How did she react to that?"

"She didn't mind anything until…" Damn mouth. Don't you know when to be quiet?

"Until what?"

Jessie sighed. "Until I tried unbuttoning her jeans. I stopped, apologized, and then I…" Damn mouth. I told you to shut up!

By this time, Grace's eyes were bugging out and her mouth was wide open.

"Then you what?" Grace questioned while knowing that she wouldn't be able to speak much longer.

Jessie didn't want to say it out loud, so she decided to whisper instead. After doing that, she lay down face first on a pillow. Grace was rendered speechless. Jessie removed her head from the pillow.

"I've had arguments before with ex's. Both boys and girls. This time it's different."

"What makes this time different?"

"It's different this time because…"

"Because?"

"Because I LOVE her. I love KATIE SINGER, and she HATES me. Everything was going fine at the party. We were having fun until she went to get us more drinks. She came back so upset. Everyone heard the fight. What am I going to do, Grace?"

"Well, you're going to get some sleep. We'll figure it out tomorrow."

Grace rose off of the bed, but was pulled back by Jessie.

"Don't leave me now. Stay, please? Tell me what happened between you and Tad," Jessie finished with a smile.

"Since he has to go out of town tomorrow, he asked me if I would like to go out on a date next Friday," Grace blushed, "Now go to sleep."

The girls fell asleep on Jessie's bed with her resting her head on Grace's shoulder.

Monday, lunchtime

Jessie had tried repeatedly to get Katie's attention, but was completely ignored. She watched speechlessly as Nicole and Sarah sat beside Katie at a table on the opposite side of the cafeteria.

End of the school day

Grace was reaching for the backpack hanging off the back of her seat when she heard something hit the floor behind her. She turned around and saw a strange looking, electronic device on the floor.

"Hey, Nicole, you dropped something," Grace shouted, but Nicole was gone.

She picked up the device and hit the play button. For the second time in three days, she was rendered speechless. In the process of rewinding it, she unknowingly hit another button. What she heard the second time was the same thing as before, but one of the voices was different. She walked out of the room into a completely empty hall. Then sprinted outside and noticed Jessie crying on a bench while Tad tried to console her.

"It will be alright, Jessie."

"No, it won't. Uh, hi, Grace."

"Jessie, I have something that you need to hear."

"Really? What is it?"

Meanwhile, 10 feet away

"OH NO!"

"What's the matter, Nicole?" Sarah asked before kissing her softly on the lips, which got the attention of half of the students outside.

"I lost the tape player."

"Tape player?"

"Yes, the TAPE player," Nicole repeated as she frantically looked in her coat pockets and purse.

"YOU BROUGHT IT TO SCHOOL? HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID?"

"DON'T CALL ME STUPID!" Nicole snarled. "YOU WANTED TO LISTEN TO IT TOO, REMEMBER?"

"I DID, BUT NOT HERE!"

The extremely loud fight had got the attention of the remaining students.

"Nicole, Sarah, what's all the commotion?" Katie asked calmly as she made her way to them.

"Looking for this?" Jessie interrupted. "I found it quite interesting."

Nicole and Sarah almost instantly turned pale.

"Jessie, you're smiling like the Grinch right before he stole Christmas. What did you find so interesting?" Katie replied with curiosity and confusion.

"This," Jessie answered with a smirk while turning the volume up all the way.

Everyone else gasped when they heard the tape. Then half of them smiled or laughed while the others frowned.

"I already heard that. Saturday night to be exact," Katie stated with disgust.

"Wait, it gets better, everyone," Grace shouted with an abundance of enthusiasm and anticipation.

"Thanks, Grace." Jessie shared her smile with Grace while rewinding the tape. "Yes, but you definitely didn't hear this."

Everyone gasped again when they heard the same conversation, but this time it was Sarah's voice instead of Jessie's.

"Care to explain? If you don't, I will make your remaining time at Upton Sinclair a living hell." Jessie sneered before slowly turning to Katie with a "I told you so." look.

Nicole remained silent as Sarah explained, "It was all Nicole's idea. She wanted revenge because she STILL loves you."

Nicole ripped her hand away from Sarah's grip.

"You, BITCH! You promised to never tell anyone that."

"Well, what did you expect? We share our first times together, and you call out her name."

Sarah pointed to Jessie and found looks of disgust on everybody's faces when she turned around. Jessie laughed at Nicole, threw the tape player on the ground, glanced at Katie, and then began walking to her car. Katie stopped her when she rested her hand on Jessie's shoulder.

"Jessie, I'm SO sorry. Please forgive me. I STILL LOVE YOU!"

Jessie began to slowly smile again before mumbling, "I love you too."

"What?"

"I LOVE YOU TOO, KATIE SINGER, I…"

Katie interrupted Jessie by kissing her passionately, hugging her, and then crying on her shoulder. Jessie then pulled her away and softly kissed her. The girls then rested their foreheads on each other while smiling and tried to get their breathing and heartbeats back to normal. Like the ending of most teen movies today, they were surrounded by applause and cheers.

The End