Chapter Five: Square One
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Degrassi. I just own Gia, Jesse, Wes and, Tristan.
It was when he came home to a house full of ruckus that Jay questioned how he had ever transformed from jackass to decent human being. He could hear all the noise, from inside the small bungalow that he called home, while standing at the end of his driveway.
Tristan had arrived home a half hour before him after work and already she was practicing he routine in her bedroom. A dance medley was booming out bass and beats at such a large level that the Hogart's walls were pounding.
Gia stood in the living room with her work suit still fully on, her cell phone and blackberry both singing frantically and buzzing on their messy coffee table that was planted in front of the television that had Alec Trebek loudly asking questions on it. Gia was frazzled, shouting at her son. This was a new sight to Jay. Gia was somebody who was born professional. He was pretty sure she knew how to work a pager by the time she was three. She could write an article before she could actually verbally form words. However, Jesse was dishing it all back.
"Jesse, I came all the way down here from work. Don't just shrug your shoulders when I ask you a question!" She shouted above the noise.
"Oh sorry, I'm cramping your style. I'm only your son. God forbid, I take you away from your stupid magazine."
"Jesse," She stalked over to him, her heels clicking on the tiles. "If you don't tell me why you fought with this kid at school today, I will just call your principal." She threatened, pointing her perfectly filed and maroon painted nail in his face.
"Whatever." He scoffed. He was entirely unaffected. "Like you could pry yourself away from your work."
"Jesse, don't talk to your mother that way." Jay shut off the television and warned his son from the living room. "Tristan," Jay banged his fist against her door. Of course, she couldn't hear him. "Tristan, turn it down!" He tried to get her attention again. Jay sighed deeply and fiddled with the door knob before just pushing the door open. He was embarrassed to expose to himself his daughter who was going over her cheerleading routine in her spanks and sheer lace bra.
"Oh my God, Dad, Haven't you heard of knocking?" She ripped a thin blanket off her bed and held it in front of her.
"Man." Jay slapped his palm over his eyes. "Sorry, please turn down your music." He bustled out of the door frame and shut the door closed as quickly as he could. To avoid that happening again, Tristan turned the volume down almost immediately.
Jay thought about leaving Gia to fight with their son but, what kind of example would he be setting then? He turned around from the direction of his and Gia's bedroom and wandered right into the kitchen to face the conflict head on.
"Go to your room, Jesse!" Frustrated, Gia raised her voice even louder. She could feel her throat shaking and it was beginning to itch inside. She imagined if she could see it, it would be the same color as tomato paste.
"No." Jesse was looking through the fridge for something to drink. He was entirely indifferent to his mother's commands. He knew that they'd lost control of him, he was well aware that neither his mother or father knew how to deal with him anymore.
"Hey," Jay ripped his son's shoulder back, sending the refrigerator slamming. "Listen here, you little shit," He grit his teeth. Jay used to fight with customers at the shop loudly all the time and he could recall a few bombastic arguments with his wife over the years, but in the last year the only person he was ever vicious and hostile with was his son, Jesse. "You're going to call the Brooks and apologize. You're going to listen to your mother and you are going to smarten the hell up, you hear me?" Jesse said nothing. His weasel-esq smile didn't fade for a moment. "This is not a suggestion." Jay slammed Jesse's back into the counter and held him there tightly with an arm shaking under his son's chin.
"Fine." Jesse shook Jay off him and waited until his dad's grip had loosened before walking right by him and heading into his bedroom.
Jay took a moment to collect his thoughts and slow his breath. Sliding his hands through his thick mane, he exhaled and then took notice to Gia, who appeared as exhausted as she did back when their children were newborns and they were up on the hour attending to them.
"We need a battle plan." Jay told her, they met half way in the kitchen and Gia draped her arms around his neck while he held her stomach to his. They needed to work together if they were going to sort Jesse out.
"Or heavy prescription drugs." Gia pouted and tried to make light, but part of her wasn't kidding at all. "Jay, I don't know how to get through to him." She leaned back and searched her husband's eyes for something heroic, something to put all her faith inside and store it there. Still, Gia knew Jay was just as much at a loss when it came to Jesse as she was. "He's moody, crude, and disrespectful. I don't…I just don't know what to do."
"I'll talk to him, alright?" Jay pulled her back against his chest and held her for a moment longer. Gia had been so occupied with work in the last week, he missed her.
"Thank you." She rubbed her face against his greasy mechanic shirt. She also thought it made him so sexy. She remembered being young and first meeting him. He was fixing her best friend's cracked gasket when she drove down to the shop to pick up her friend. He was sun burnt at the time but had the devil dancing in his overworked blue eyes, she couldn't resist. She wanted the dirt under his nails to graze her clean and clear skin. Two days later, Gia had purposely slashed her front tire and drove it over to the shop, just to stare at him again.
"Danielle's here!" Fully dressed in her gym pants and a fitted tee shirt, Tristan left her room and threw her gym bag over her shoulder. "I'm off to practice!" She ran into the kitchen to let her parent's know.
"Have fun!" Gia pulled away her face away from her husband's body to wave her daughter away. Jay simply said goodbye and watched her jog out of their home.
"Why isn't Jesse headed off to practice?" Jay looked down and asked his wife.
She had already unwrapped herself from his arms and let him go. She was gathering up her blackberry and cell phone into her large tote bag and getting ready to head back to work.
"You punch out the coach's son, without a doubt, you get suspended." She stated like Jay should just know.
"How long is going to be out for?"
"Three games, I think."
"Shouldn't he still go to practice?"
"Jesse should do a lot of things that he doesn't do." Rushing, Gia threw her tote bag over her shoulder and ran over to give her husband a simple kiss. "Do you think you can come by the house at lunch tomorrow?" She whispered into his ear.
"Sure, why?"
"I miss you." She bit his lip slightly and then pulled away, never taking her eyes away from his stare. Gia always tried her best to keep their relationship spicy. She feared divorce like it was a fatal disease.
Jay wrestled with the idea of having a talk with his son for a full half hour after his wife had left. What would he say? Jesse had a way of poking every one of Jay's buttons until he was raging mad and ready to kill. Jay tried to tap into his old teenage psyche and remember what it was like to be misunderstood and angry all of the time. Very cautiously, Jay knocked on his son's door lightly.
"Jesse, can I come in?" He spoke right into the wooden door. Jesse didn't answer. "You know, I'll just walk in anyways." After catching Jesse high when he was fourteen, Gia and Jay had made the mutual decision to remove the locks off both of the kids doors and the bathroom. Before Jay could wrap his hand around the door knob, Jesse opened the door up silently and went back to his bed where he was reading over a Sports Illustrated magazine. 'Thanks." Jay couldn't believe how nervous he was. He was attempting to be calm with his son which was a new concept for both Jesse and Jay. "I'm not going to beat around the bush, Jess, okay? Why'd you punch out Wes?" Jay leaned his butt down on the window sill in his son's bedroom and watched as Jesse shut the magazine and toss it down next to him.
"Because the kid's a pussy."
Jay mentally counted how many times he used that as a reason to pick on someone when he was a teenager: 16.
"How so?" Jay was very conscious in his decision not to raise his voice at Jesse.
"He walks around the school like he owns it. Saying hello to everyone, making small talk with teachers, smiling. He's a total tool."
"So, you punched him because he's pleasant?" Jay tried to piece everything together.
"No." Jesse didn't see it that way. "I punched him because he comes up to me and starts to rag me on my game. Sure, he's just being friendly but, I told him to just back off. I know how to play my game, maybe he should just make himself more open, you know?"
"So, you punched him out because he's pleasant and likes to talk sports?" Jay collected all the data, counting the reasons on his fingers.
"Plus, I know about you and his dad back in the day. Sounds like he had it coming."
"You have no idea how wrong you are about that." Jay put his hand down and said sternly.
"Whatever. You've got a rep, Dad. I'm just giving people what they want."
Jay had no more words to say. He couldn't believe it. Unintentionally and unconsciously, Jay had raised the sequel to himself. He could hope that Jesse would meet a woman like his mother who would make him interested in bettering himself or that he'd have half of the eye opening experiences that Jay did that forced him to change his ways but, Jay was also aware that Jesse might stay this way forever. Change was difficult, Jay knew that for certain.
Leaving his son alone in his bedroom, Jay climbed into his car and headed straight for his kid's high school. He let himself inside through the side doors and wandered into the busy gymnasium where all the rest of Jesse's team mates were working on drills. The cheerleaders, including Tristan, were going over the same routine that Jay had seen his daughter perform in the kitchen at breakfast time, only this time they were going at warp speed. Jay pulled his eyes away from his daughter and found Jimmy wheeling behind his players and cheering them on.
"Atta boy, Davies. Keep those hands up!" He hollered. Jimmy looked annoyed at the sight of Jay wandering over him and though it was see through, Jay just kept smiling at him.
"Hey there, Jimbo!" He attempted to be extra friendly.
"If your sons got a problem with his punishment, tell him to come see me himself."
"No, it's not about that."
"I don't have time to talk right now, Hogart." Jimmy kept a firm watch on his players.
"I just wanted to apologize for my son's behavior. I hope Wes is okay."
"Save it." Jimmy said, the chill clear in his voice, before wheeling away and rounding up his team at the benches to go over a new play he had been working on.
It appeared like Jay had his work cut out from him. He had to do a lot more than go around handing out apologies. He was going to have to demonstrate how much he'd changed to everyone.
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Square One - Tom Petty