Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
Chapter 9
When they arrived home Taylor waited anxiously as her mom opened her report card.
"Well? Do I have to start packing?" She asked impatiently.
Patricia glanced up at her. "I haven't finished reading it yet."
Taylor began to pace, stopping only when her mom set the report down.
"Well, it says your work has shown a marked improvement over the past few weeks, and so has your attitude."
"So that's good then?"
Her mom nodded. "That's good, your dad'll be pleased."
Taylor visibly relaxed.
"There is one part on here you might not like though. I promise I didn't know anything about it until now."
"What? If it's anything about summer school I ain't goin'!" Taylor was ready for a fight.
"No, it's not that." Patricia handed her the report.
She quickly scanned through it, trying to find the part her mom was talking about. There it was, at the very bottom of the page. Taylor dropped into a chair and read it again, just to make sure.
Patricia waited for the explosion.
"I'm moving up into your class?" Taylor didn't know what to say. Well she did, but that would only land her in trouble and hurt her mom's feelings. "What's wrong with that? Don't you want me?"
"Of course I do, I was just worried that you wouldn't like the idea."
"Will Jared be in the same class?" Taylor asked hopefully.
"Should be, the whole class moves up together. So you don't mind?"
She shrugged. "Not unless you start pickin' on me in class, then I'd have to buy more crickets."
XOXOXOXOXOXO
As soon as Taylor had changed out of her uniform, and buried it at the very bottom of her closet, she went to find Jason. She was still riding high on the success of her 'revenge' prank, and couldn't wait to share it with him, he would be so impressed.
0
He was impressed, although he wasn't too keen on the fact that DJ was involved. Apparently DJ was building up quite a reputation, not at taking wheels of cars, but at dealing drugs. Jason tried to warn her, but Taylor didn't want to know. As far as she was concerned DJ was useful, and she was not going to avoid him just because of that.
Realising Taylor was not going to listen to reason he managed to turn the conversation in the direction of Vicky. They'd decided on just being friends, but they'd been emailing for months. He was looking forward to her arrival, just as much as Taylor.
"Vicky still coming next week?" He asked.
"You already know she's gonna be here on Tuesday. " Taylor glared at him. "And if Vicky's all you're gonna talk about, I'm goin' to the skate park on my own!" Crossing back to her own side of the street Taylor went to fetch her skates. When she emerged down the side of her house Jason was waiting for her, skateboard under his arm.
Taylor grinned at him. "Got a little favour to ask you."
He narrowed his eyes. "What?"
"Jared's gonna meet us at the skatepark."
"And?"
"He can't skate. Can he borrow your old pair to try it out?"
Jason dropped his board at Taylor's feet. "Okay, but I can't promise I won't laugh when he falls."
"You'd better not!" She yelled after him. "I don't laugh when you fall." Taylor rethought that statement when Jason stopped and looked back. "Well most of the time"
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Jared did fall quite a few times, but he didn't give up. After a few hours, and quite a number of bruises, he was actually able to stay upright without clinging tightly to Taylor. As the three of them walked home, where Jared's mom was going to pick him up, Jared had decided he was going to ask for a pair of skates of his own. Jason's were good, but just a bit too tight. As Taylor and Jared trailed into the house though, it was Leon who was waiting to take his son home. It was the first time she had seen him since the trouble at school. At least this time he didn't look mad, but he was still chewing on a toothpick. He removed it before he spoke. "What have you two been up to then?"
"Three." Taylor corrected, before Jared had the opportunity to reply. "Jason too." She added in an attempt to explain.
"Skating dad." Jared knew Taylor was just confusing his dad.
"You can skate?"
"I can now, but I kinda need a pair of rollerblades."
Taylor nudged him, he'd forgotten already.
"Oh, and a helmet and the pads and stuff. Gotta be safe you know."
It might have been Jared's mouth moving, but Gibbs would have recognised Taylor's words anywhere.
Leon looked from one child to the other. "We'll see."
Taylor always hated that noncommittal reply, but Jared seemed happy enough. He did not suffer from the same level of impatience she did.
"So anything exciting happen on the last day of school?" Jethro asked.
Taylor looked suspiciously at her dad. What sort of a question was that?
"One of the teacher's cars got taken apart. But that was it."
Quick change of subject. "Can we go skatin' tomorrow afternoon?" she looked pleadingly at the Director. "Well if Jared has any wheels, otherwise he'll just have to watch and that wouldn't be very nice…."
"Think you've made your point Taylor." Jethro warned. "Go get washed up, your dinner's in the microwave."
"I was just sayin'" Taylor mumbled.
"I know what you were doing."
Taylor found herself gently propelled towards the stairs. "Alright, I'm going. See you tomorrow Jared, well if you get some skates." Then flew up the staircase just in case she'd pushed her dad just a bit too far.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Saturday after lunch, and her weekly visit to Dorothy, Taylor sat on the fence surrounding the skate park, waiting for Jared. When his mom pulled up, Jared emerged from the back seat of the car, kitted out in all the latest safety gear. Taylor fought back a smile. He could almost play hockey wearing all those pads. Still, it was a decent set of blades he had tucked under his arm, and he was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
O
Taylor could hear his mom calling out to him to be careful, just before she drove away. Both kids wanting to keep at least some dignity pretended they hadn't heard, and made their way over to a bench so that Jared could put on his new skates.
"You got all this stuff this morning?" Taylor was ever so slightly jealous.
"Yep." He locked his skates into place.
"Huh. When my dad says 'we'll see' it usually means he'll take ages to make his mind up, and then say no."
Jared shrugged. "I just got lucky this time."
O
They had a really good afternoon. Jared was feeling confident enough to remove some of his pads, but had enough sense to replace them before he was picked up again. Taylor was almost going to accept a ride home with Jacky, but spotted DJ in the distance. Making an excuse about wanting to walk home, she hurriedly said goodbye to Jared and crossed the park to where DJ was.
O
She hadn't seen him for quite a while. When it came to paying for the prank, Taylor had left the money in one of those little plastic moneybags, under a rock in the back yard. DJ had grown, and was beginning to bulk out. Even though he was surrounded by a number of kids, when he spotted her he still called her over. As Taylor approached the other youths, they quickly disappeared.
"You did a great job with the car DJ. I don't think anyone will ever figure out who did it."
"We aim to please! Glad you liked it." He paused. "Is your dad still a hard ass? Maybe its not such a good idea if anyone sees us together."
Taylor looked at him. "You're not scared of him are you? He wouldn't really hurt you."
"You sure about that?"
"Mostly. Besides, I pick my own friends."
"Speaking of friends, here comes one of yours now, and he's lookin' pissed!"
Taylor spun round to see who he was talking about. It was Jason, and he was stalking towards them. Jason grabbed a hold of Taylor's arm. "What the f**k are you doing with him?"
She shook him off. "I can talk to who ever I want to Jason, now f**k off!"
"I'm not leaving you with him. `I already told you he's dealing."
Taylor was getting extremely pissed by Jason's over protective attitude. "So what."
Jason finally spoke. "You heard her. Piss off!"
Giving Taylor one last look, he crossed the park, but kept Taylor in sight.
DJ and Taylor talked for a few more minutes, remembering the good, and not so good times they'd had together. As Taylor turned leave, he slipped something into her shirt pocket. She didn't look to see what it was.
"What is it?"
"Something you're gonna love." He said with a smirk.
Taylor looked sceptical .
"Don't worry, it's safe!"
She shrugged, believing him. "Thanks."
When a few prospective customers showed up, Taylor left DJ to it, and started to walk home. Jason fell into step behind her.
"Don't wanna hear it Jason." Taylor warned.
"I know you don't, but your dad would." He threatened.
Taylor stopped abruptly, dropped her skates and turned to face him, fists clenched. "You wouldn't!"
"Try me! He's dangerous Taylor."
"Yeah, says you! I was just talkin' to him."
Jason locked his eyes on hers. "So he didn't try to sell you anything?"
"NO! NOW LEAVE ME THE F**K ALONE!" Taylor yelled, before picking up her skates. She wasn't gonna hang around here to be interrogated, and not by Jason of all people.
He wasn't giving up. "What did he put in your pocket?"
Taylor took a step back.
Taking this as a sign of guilt, Jason held out his hand. For a moment Taylor just stared at him, then lifted the small tablet from her pocket. She had almost set it into his outstretched palm, when she snatched it back and popped the tablet into her mouth and swallowed.
Jason looked stunned. "What was it?
"No idea. Now you can leave me alone. Ignoring Jason she started walking.
He called after her, but Taylor didn't look back behind her again until she'd put a couple of blocks between herself and the park.
Jason must have finally got the message. He was gone. Now her temper was receding, the fact that she'd swallowed the drug, especially when she had no idea what it was, no longer felt like one of her greatest ideas. At least it didn't seem to having any effect on her. Until Jason had made her mad she'd had no intention of taking whatever DJ had given her. Taylor sat down on a low fence to think. Shit, she could do some dumb stuff. Taylor figured her best bet was to call DJ, and find out exactly what he'd given her. Then she would at least know whether or not to panic, for all she knew it might even have been an asprin.
O
Taylor was waiting for DJ to answer when a car pulled up in front of her. It was her mom. 'What was she doing here?' Taylor wondered, as Patricia climbed out of the car and joined her on the fence.
"Are you okay?" She asked her daughter.
Tapping the screen Taylor ended the call. "Uh huh. What are you doing here?"
"Your dad wanted me to pick you up. He wants us to meet him at NCIS. Standing, Patricia lifted the rollerblades then held her hand out to help Taylor to her feet. As Taylor clicked her seatbelt on, she started to relax. DJ must have been winding her up. It must have been something completely harmless he'd given her.