Part 4: Make That a Return Ticket to Cloud Cuckoo Land!
"Hello?"
"Hey Tad… Listen um… we need to talk." …
… "Sure…What's up?" The worry was evident in his voice.
"Well…um, you see I think that… maybe we should…"
'What am I doing, I can't do this, not for a girl, especially not for a girl. What was I expecting? Did I really think I could have a chance with her? Who says she even likes me? Who says she even likes girls? Oh I'm in way too over my head. This is too much and especially too fast.' Jessie had been quiet for a little too long.
"Jess? Hello? Jessie? JESSIE?"
"Yeah, um, yeah."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I um, I was wondering if you could, uh maybe pick me up tomorrow for school?" Jessie just managed to pull a sentence together in her current state.
"Yeah…sure." Tad was now quite confused and wondered why it took her so long to ask such a simple question.
"Was there anything else?"
"Oh no, that's it, so I uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Okay," Tad decided to let it drop, "I love you!"
"Yeah…love you too." She disconnected the call and walked the rest of the way to her class in silence.
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Jessie was sat on her bed, in her room up in the attic at the Manning's house, thinking of Katie. 'This is stupid, I can't feel this way about a girl, I won't feel this way about a girl. I'm so stupid how could I let myself get so close to her. Why am I still thinking of her!' She tried to focus her attention on something else but she heard Zoe calling her name from the bottom of the stairs.
"Jessie…phone for you!"
"Who is it?" She was expecting it to be Tad, it was around his usual calling time after all.
"I don't know some girl! Are you gonna get it or what?"
'Oh no! I forgot!'
Jessie took the phone off Zoe and ran back up the stairs and sat back on her bed, meanwhile Zoe walked off down the hall mumbling to herself.
"Why thank you Zoe, it's my pleasure Jessie, geez no manners!"
Back in Jessie room she finally spoke down the receiver to a happily awaiting Katie.
"Um…hello?"
"Hey, it's Katie. You alright?"
"Oh hey, yeah I'm fine, uh you?"
"Yeah I'm great. I just thought I'd phone you, you know cause I said I would and well, I like to keep my promises so…"
"Yeah."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just tired that's all." She added a yawn for emphasis.
"Oh, okay. Well maybe I better let you get some sleep the, rest up for tomorrow, which reminds me, do you have any frees?"
"Oh…um…no I'm completely booked tomorrow, sorry." She lied but she really couldn't face another meeting at the moment.
"No worries, well goodnight Jess, sweet dreams."
"Uh, yeah, night Katie." Once they hung up Jessie slumped back into her bed thinking how obvious she must have seemed and how disastrous the conversation was. However Katie was thinking the opposite, in fact she was glad to find it so easy to talk to Jessie on the phone and also that things seemed to be looking up. She didn't realise how wrong she could be.
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At break the next day Katie was walking towards her locker talking to Grace about Sarah.
"You should ask her out, you know!" Katie suggested.
"I can't do that, what if she says no?"
"She shouldn't, I mean she'd be crazy too."
"Really? You think? Grace brightened up upon hearing the compliment."
"Yeah, well, I suppose you're alright!" She laughed.
"Why are you incapable of being serious for more than five minutes?"
"Hey, I resent that! Give me ten minutes at least."
"What's gotten into you?" Grace was curious. Katie had been acting differently all morning and yesterday for that matter.
"What do you mean?"
"You're acting different…like there's this big party in your head that has just exploded all of its happiness over you. You can't stop smiling."
"I'm allowed to be happy aren't I?"
"Oh I'm not complaining! It's just…weird!"
"What like you?" Katie couldn't help herself, it was such an easy set-up. She started to laugh which caused Grace to slap her on the arm, but not before laughing herself. Just the Katie looked up and saw Jessie shoving books into her locker at the end of the corridor, she would have shouted her name but she didn't want to embarrass the younger girl. Grace noticed that Katie had gone quiet so looked up to see what was happening. She followed her gaze.
'So she does have a thing for Jessie!'
Katie's smile grew, you would not have thought it was possible but it did all the same.
Jessie had just finished putting her last book in the locker and shut the door. She turned to start walking down the hall but noticed Katie and Grace staring at her from a distance. She quickly darted around the corner behind her and ran down the hall as fast as she could.
'I can't see her, I won't see her!' She thought.
Meanwhile the goofy smile that was plastered on Katie face had now been replaced with a very unhappy frown.
'Did she just run away from me? No! She couldn't have, could she?'
"What did you do?" Grace questioned.
"Huh?" Katie was confused. She had even temporarily forgotten that Grace was even there.
"To Jessie. You were in cloud cuckoo land just a second ago and the other day after you two "bumped" into each other, she was on cloud nine. Now that smile has completely disappeared and she's avoiding you. What…did…you…do?" Grace dragged out the last part for emphasis.
"I…don't know." She seriously didn't know.
"Oh come on!"
"No, seriously, I don't know what I could have possibly done wrong. We went for a hot chocolate yesterday, well she had a milky coffee, and we talked and then I phoned her last night like I promised I would but other than that, nothing else happened." Katie was really trying to figure out where she went wrong.
"Do you want me to talk to her?" Grace felt sorry for the girl.
"No, don't do that. I want to sort things out myself."
"Oh, okay, just don't be mean! Um…just out of curiosity," 'Or for confirmation.' "Do you like her?"
Katie was silent for a few seconds before saying, "I'll see you later Grace." She left almost apologetically leaving Grace standing in the hallway.
'I thought so!' Grace turned around and walked off in the direction of the cafeteria.