Chapter 3

There she is, Kristine Koonz. Well, she looks different. On either side of her were her two best friends, Cindy and Francis, they looked different too. The three of them must have spent summer working out together. They've hated me for the longest time. I never really knew why. Okay well maybe I do. First of all, my best friend is Berna and second, my other best friend is Shane. Berna was never one to keep her mouth shut when she was annoyed. When we were seven, Kristine was whining about getting wet in the rain. On the way home Berna told her to "Stop whining like a baby" and jumped in a mud puddle splashing Kristine in the process. She's hated Berna ever since. As for Shane... well she didn't have a problem with Shane, she had a problem with me after Shane saved me and we started hanging out together.

"Stop thinking you're all that. Just because you lost weight doesn't mean much," I heard Berna say to the left of me. "You're still ugly on the inside."

Kristine was just about to say something, but instead Jason, being the peacemaker that he is interrupted. "Okay, well, Shane if you're gonna stay and talk to your friends we're gonna head home and start on the movies."

"No wait for me," Shane called. "I'll just be a minute."

"Why don't you three just go on ahead and I'll stay and wait," Jason suggested.

"You're too nice," Berna stated simply before taking the bag of movies. She and I along with Nate started heading home.

It was a few minutes before we heard Jason and Shane running to catch up with us. The silence was awkward all of a sudden. I could feel the anger Berna was holding in because Shane stayed to talk to Kristine. Berna didn't like Shane when he was a jerk toward me, but changed her mind when he saved me. It looks like that dislike might have come back.

"So how's Kristine?" I asked. Berna sent me a death glare just for mentioning her name. So I gave her a calm down look.

"She's good," Shane said. "Apparently all that personal trainer stuff is all true."

"Arg!" Berna grunted. "So she lost weight and is still a b..."

"Ahem-hm-hm." She was about to say bitch in front of Nate. I had to do something to get her to stop or cover the word if she didn't.

"She's still a bad person," she reiterated.

We got to my house and popped in the first movie. Nate decided not to hang with us; instead he headed home to work on another song. He, Jason, and Shane are in a band signed to some record company. They've been writing and recording for awhile now. They're actually really good, who'd have known with Shane spazzing every few seconds.

We ended up watching movies from oldest to newest with Willy Wonka going in first. Surprisingly Shane knew every word to every song.

"Oompa loompa doompa da dee, if you are wise you'll listen to me," he sang as he attempted to dance their little dance.

We were all so enamored by Shane's antics and laughing so hard we barely even watched the movie. I hadn't laughed so hard in my entire life. My cheeks hurt, my stomach hurt, and I swear if I had asthma I would have needed my inhaler 50 times that night. It was great.

"It's good to see you laugh," Shane told me quietly when Willy Wonka ended. I just smiled in response patting his hand.

After the two other comedies Shane was slightly grumpy about having to watch A Walk to Remember. When Landon was told he had to take part in the school play Shane said, "There's nothing wrong with that. I've been on Broadway."

It was true. He was and he was quite proud of it.

Berna started crying when they were reading the little quotes in Jamie's book all the way to the end. I thought she was over reacting a little, but when Mandy's voice started singing the opening verse to /Cry/... I started to cry as well. Darn these sappy movies. Jason walked over to us and handed us a tissue box which we happily accepted.

"I want a guy to help me with my list," Berna said. She never had any luck with guys. She always ended up with jerks and since we started high school she'd always ended up with jerks that only wanted her body or cheated on her.

"You have a list?" Jason asked.

"No," Berna answered. "But if I did I'd want a guy like that."

"What did you think of the movie?" I asked Shane knowing that he was against watching a chick flick.

"It was pretty good," he said with a sniff.

"Are you crying?" Berna asked.

"No." He sounded offended.

"Yes you are. Or at least you were. You're eyes are red."

"Psh, whatever, we gotta go home now. See you guys tomorrow," Shane said getting up.

"Maybe," I said. Shane gave me a why not look. "Tomorrow's Thursday."

Every Thursday I had counseling. After a year living with my parents they thought it would be better going to a counselor. I guess my lack of friends and all the aggression I had towards Shane didn't look all too good.

"Oh yeah, well, maybe after. Have fun at therapy," Shane said.

"How many times do I have to tell you? He's a counselor not a therapist."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Bye you two," Jason said as he followed Shane out the door.

Berna and I hung out until her dad came to pick her up. Her mom was in the military. You'd thing she would have moved 10 times since we met, but she hasn't. She and her dad stay here while her mom moves around.

--- --- --- ---

The next morning at 10:00 I found myself sitting in Mr. Barker's office. He's in his mid to late twenties, married with a two year old baby boy. He's pretty cool.

"So how are you doing today?" He asked me after he got situated at his desk.

"How about I get to what you want to hear?" I've never been all that happy and he would always give me a lecture about how being happy is important in a person's life.

"Whatever you want to talk about." I told him about what happened last night and how I laughed for about 6 hours straight. "So you had fun last night with your friends."

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun."

"Isn't it nice to let loose and laugh a little?"

"Yeah, I guess," I say with a little shrug.

"Jackie, Jackie, Jackie," he says with a sigh shaking his head. "When do you start school?"

That was a weird subject change. Where's the lecture? "Umm," I looked over to his calendar on the wall. August 7th was the first un-Xed date. "A few weeks."

"Well, when you go back I want you to do something. I want you to find a class, club, activity, anything that makes you happy."

"That might take a long time," I tell him. It would be nice to do something interesting other than just going to school and church.

"Hmm," he hummed in thought. A second later he reached for the little intercom thing on his desk and said, "Patty," that was his secretary in the other room. "I want you to call Central High School and have them fax a list of clubs and every school related activity they have ASAP and give it to me right away."

"Yes Mr. Barker," her broken up voice said through the intercom.

"We'll just have to spend today going through that list to make it easier for yourself when school starts." He always was a smarty pants. "Anything else you want to talk about?"

I thought for a moment. "Shane's birthday is coming up, like... 8 days. I don't know what to get him." What else was there to talk about? Nothing was going on in my life. My parent's are great, my friends are great too. I wasn't having any problems; I was just lacking certain emotions.

"Well, what kind of stuff does he like?"

I shrugged. I really don't know what he would want. "Running? Maybe new running shoes?"

"You do complain about him dragging you out of bed for your morning jogs together," he laughed. I'm glad he finds my discomfort entertaining. "I'm sorry for laughing," he apologized. I just gave him a half smile and a shrug. "Is there anything else you can think of?" I thought for a moment before shrugging again. "You can't think of anything? His favorite color? Favorite TV show? Favorite food?"

"Nope," I said with another shrug.

"I thought he was one of your best fiends?"

"He is."

"Well, I think you should get to know him a little more. Next week I want you to come in and tell me 10 new things you learned about Shane. You can ask him directly or something you just noticed, it doesn't matter, but I want 10 things, no less."

We were interrupted by Patty coming into the room with that list from school. It was three pages long. Mr. Barker thanked her and at the top of the first page he wrote in big blue letters, "10 Things!"

"Okay, now let's get started, what do you think of joining a drama class?" We went though the whole list crossing off every sport there was. I'm a little lazy and going to practices every other day was not for me. In the end we were left with art, multi media, photography, music, and craft club. That last one sounded really... dorky, but I've seen some of the stuff they make and they look pretty cool.

"Don't forget," Mr. Barker said as he pointed to the words at the top of the sheet of paper he handed me.

"Okay I won't. See you next week Mr. Barker," I said as I left his office.

IMPORTANT NOTE! I won't be finishing up this story. If you want to continue reading check out my profile for my Jonas FF myspace url. If you add please tell me you're from here. I'm just curious and like to know these things. lol I'm posting this story, another old story, and a newer one. I'm slowly posting, about 1-2 chapters for each story each day until I get caught up. I'm currently working on my sixth Jonas-fic but have yet to post the first chapter of.