Chapter 4 - Trouble at School

Jess was very eager to find out what the reaction of his family would be when they see Leslie. They arrived at his house and he knocked on the door. He felt weird knocking on his own door. His mom, Mrs. Aarons opened the door. Her eyes went from Jess to Leslie. Her mouth fell open at the sight of Leslie. She looked a bit frightened and invited them in. She got a hold of Jess and she said "What is going Jess! I thought she was dead." Jess just gave her a smile and he said "So did I."

A couple of seconds later, Maybelle and her two sisters, Brenda and Ellie, came down the stairs and when they saw Leslie, they too had the same reaction as there mom. But Maybelle unlike her mom and her sisters ran towards Leslie and gave her a big hug.

"I thought you were dead! I'm so glad your still alive, you have no idea what my brother and sometimes me went threw. We were very depressed." she said crying her eyes out.

Leslie didn't answer. She simply hugged her back and kissed her forehead. Mrs. Aarons called Mr. Aarons and he arrived 15 minutes later. He looked at Leslie and then he gave a smile to Mr.Burk.

"You-you-you are one very lucky guy! You are the luckiest man i have ever met! You must so happy to have your daughter!" said Mr. Aarons. Mr. Burk got up and they both hugged. Jess was really shocked at the sight of the two of them hugging. From everything he heard from his dad, he really didn't like Mr. Burk that much, and yet here they are hugging. The Mr. Aarons went and hugged Mrs. Burk too and then he even hugged Leslie and told her "Welcome back!"

"So, Jess, are you gonna tell us what happened?" asked Mrs. Aarons.

Jess sat down next to Leslie and they both explained the story that they made up. To there luck everyone believed them.

"Well i guess this calls for a celebration" said Mr Aarons. "Let's go have dinner somewhere festive and this time it's on me!"

They all agreed and went to there cars. They went to a regular buffet. They sat down and they all made a toast to Leslie's return.

While Jess was at the salad bar, Leslie joined him.

"If I knew they were going to make such a big fuss over me, I would have rather stayed in your mind!" said Leslie.

"Well when you become a parents and you think that your child has been killed, it feels like someone cut out your heart and stabbed it 50 times, its a very terrible feeling, so that's why they are very happy to see that you are still alive." said Jess

"You know, you've changed these past six months. From what i see, you've become smarter and you've also matured a lot" said Leslie. She was looking at Jess directly in his eyes. When Jess looked back in her eyes. She looked away, slightly blushing.

"Well doesn't this salad look good!" What am I saying! Why am i so shy in front of my boyfriend! Omg i forgot about that, how am i going to explain that to my parents and his!

They all had a very pleasant time and during car ride home, Leslie wanted to sit with Jess in the back of his dad's pick up truck.

"So, you want to go to Terbithia tomorrow and hunt down some followers?"asked Leslie

"Wat's the point of going there, we told Toori to tell us every time there was something wrong, so why would we go there and just sit around doing nothing. Besides, you have a lot of homework to catch up on!" said Jess and they both started laughing.

"I don't want to go back to school.Everyone is going to be staring at me as if i was a God or something." winned Leslie.

"Don't worry. I'll be there with you" said Jess and he gave Leslie a small smile and he held her hand.

They arrive home. Jess helped Leslie to come down from the pick up truck and they started going back to there homes. Leslie suddenly turned back and ran towards Jess. She threw her arms around Jess and gave Jess a big warm hug.

"Thank you so much for saving me Jess!" whispered Leslie in Jess's ear.

"Anytime!" said Jess with a small laugh.

When Jess turned around he saw that Brenda and Ellie had seen what happened.

"Weird and weirder!" they both said together.

The weekend passed quickly and then on Monday morning they found themselves back on the school bus back to school. Before they entered the bus, the bus driver had given Leslie a big hug and he said "Glad to have you back, Leslie". When they sat back at there usual place, it was exactly like Leslie had said it would be like. Everyone was staring at her as if she was a God. Then Janice Avery walked up to them and gave she too gave Leslie a hug.

"I'm so glad your Ok, because after you went missing, i got so sad that i always bullied you around and never let you have a happy moment. So know that I know your Ok, I just want to say I'm very sorry for being so mean to you, i would have said this before, when you gave advice in the girls bathroom, but i was too shocked about you helping me." said Janice and she went back to her seat.

Leslie gave Jess an odd look which meant what was going on.

"O ya, I forgot to tell you, after you went missing, Janice and I became friends. She even gave Gary Fulcher a bloody nose!" said Jess

Leslie looked very happy that he had made another friend and she was also happy that she too made another friend. When they arrived at school, they saw that both Scott Hoager and Gary Fulcher were still standing at the entrance of the school, bullying everyone that tried to get inside the school. When Jess and Leslie got closer to the entrance of the school, Scott made a happy and yet evil look at Leslie as if he was happy that she was back so he can bully her around. But suddenly they both ran back inside and they disappeared. Jess and Leslie realised that Janice had joined them and helped them get inside. She then gave both of them a small laugh and pointed and the two bullies who were still running away from Janice.

"Wow, it's a good thing Janice is our friend now or else who knows what Hoager would have done to me" said Leslie in a relieved way.

"But still, just because Janice is our friend doesn't mean that they will stop bullying us. Every time Janice wasn't around me during you absence, they always bullied me. So keep your eyes wide open for any tricks they might try to pull off."

Leslie nodded and looked at her class schedule. She had math now and Jess had history.

"Be careful" said Jess and they went to there classrooms.