After a few days, school started again. Jess found himself walking with Damien to and from the bus. At first Jess was reluctant to talk to him, but soon found he and Damien had too many things in common to completely ignore each other. Jess still talked to Leslie, but not as often. She seemed not to mind and listened with rapt attention whenever he related a conversation back to her. It was on a cloudy afternoon when Jess was doing his homework and Leslie walked into his room.
"Jess," she said slowly and playing with her short hair.
"Yeah?" Jess asked as he looked up from his work.
"You know how we were wondering the other day why I was sent back?" she asked.
"Yeah," Jess said slowly dropping his pencil to the bed.
"I think…I think I might have found out why." Jess sat up with new interest.
"Maybe….maybe I was sent so you could find a friend," she said, finally meeting his eyes. It took a moment for this sentence to click in Jess's head.
"What?" he whispered hoarsely.
"You know. Maybe since you weren't doing so well…I had to come to put you back on track. Or something."
"So what happens when you put me back on track?" Jess laughed nervously.
"I …I go back to where I came from?" Leslie asked shrugging. Jess stood up from his bed with lightning speed.
"Leslie," he said firmly, "I don't have any friends. I'm not ever going to be put back on track. The only one I need is you."
"Ok. Ok. It was just an idea. Besides, I never said I would for sure," Leslie said smiling.
"Still. Let's not talk about it," Jess mumbled, crawling back onto his bed to finish his homework.
"Jess!" his mother shouted from downstairs. Jess sighed and rolled his eyes at Leslie.
"Coming!" he shouted back.
His mother was standing at the door and in the door stood Damien.
"Hi," Jess said placing his workbook that he had taken with him on the kitchen table.
"Hi. Listen, my dad wanted to know if you wanted to come to town with us and see a movie," Damien said excitedly. Jess smiled widely. He had never seen anything in the theaters before.
"Do you care?" Jess asked his mom who shook her head.
"Do you?" he asked Leslie who was standing on the stairs.
"I already said I didn't!" Jess's mother said looking at Jess as though he had gone insane. Jess ignored her and waited for Leslie's answer which came quickly.
"Tell me all about it when you get back!" she said smiling.
"Cool. Thanks mom!" Jess shouted; he and Damien were already halfway out the door.
"Have fun," Mrs. Aaron's said at the boys retreating backs.
Damien ran ahead of Jess and turned around so he was walking backwards.
"So what do you want to see?" Damien asked.
"I don't know. I didn't know you could choose," Jess shrugged. Damien avoided running into a tree narrowly.
"Of course you can choose! Haven't you been to a theater before?"
"No," Jess muttered.
"That is all going to change soon. If you hang out with me, you're going to have a lot of new experiences," Damien laughed.
"Because I mean, we aren't just going to hang around outside all day. We'll go to town often and you can come with us if you like," Damien continued.
"What do you have against this place?" Jess asked exasperatedly.
"Nothing! It's just with nothing to do we'll have to drive a ways to do some things." Jess frowned and tried to control his words but they came out nonetheless.
"If you used your imagination, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to live out here."
"Ok, sorry. I didn't know you were touchy about the subject," Damien said backing off.
"I'm not touchy. But I think it's insane that you need a city to keep you happy."
"Well, don't you?"
"Obviously not," Jess said in a sing song voice. Damien punched Jess on the shoulder and soon the two were sparring and laughing.
"Come on, you two! Let's get outta here," Mr. Crawford said upon coming out of the house. Jess and Damien jumped off the dirt and bolted into the car.
Well, I think I'm almost done...which I really don't want to be. Sorry if this was a rushed chapter, please let me know if it was. Thanks for reading!