Chapter 19

When Jane was dropped off at the art center on Friday afternoon, she was not in a good mood. She walked into Lizzie's office and threw her things on the floor with a scream.

"Jane? What's wrong?" Lizzie pulled Jane into a hug.

"I don't want to talk about it." Jane wrapped her arms around Lizzie as much as she could and hugged her back. "Hows Baby?" She kissed Lizzie baby-bump.

"Baby is fine. Do you want to go home?" Jane nodded. "Let me just sign out. Grab your stuff and lets go."

Lizzie clocked out, and helped Jane throw her stuff in the back of her bug, "Can I sit in the front?"

"You're still a little young." Jane pouted. "But, I'll let you drive up the driveway in my lap once we get to my house." Jane jumped into the car and fastened her seatbelt. The entire way home, they sang at the top of their lungs and danced in their seats to the radio. When the got to the driveway, Lizzie stopped. "Ready?" Jane unfastened herself and climbed into Lizzie's lap. "I'm going to control the speed, but everything else is up to you." She eased the car forwards and the two of them made their way up the curved driveway. They got to the garage and Lizzie stopped. "You wanna try your hand at parking?" Jane nodded again. "Okay. I'm still gonna control the petals." She eased the old bug slowly into the garage and noticed Will standing in the door, Charlie laying down between his feet. Lizzie stopped, turned the car off and Jane hopped out.

"That was so much fun!" She wrapped her arms around Lizzie again. "That made my day perfect!"

"Why don't you go say hi to Charlie and William? I'll get your stuff out of the car." She walked around to the trunk and took out Jane's backpack and small rolling suitcase. She felt a pair of hands wrap around her and she sighed. "Don't start. You didn't see how sad she was." She closed the trunk and bent to get the bags. Will reached them before her and pushed them out of the way with his feet. He took her upper arms and turned her around,

"I'm not mad at you." Lizzie looked up to see William smiling. "Hello." He bent down to kiss her. When he pulled away, she saw a frown on his face. "Do you know what made her so upset?"

Lizzie shook her head. "She just said she didn't want to talk about it."

"Okay." He leaned over and grabbed both bags with one hand.

They got inside and Jane was sitting on the couch petting Charlie sadly. William put her bags down and they both went over to the couch.

"Janie, what's up? You seem a little down." He sat on her left side and Lizzie took her right. Charlie got up and laid across the three of them.

"Its nothing." She looked down at her hands. Lizzie's heart was breaking,

"Janie. Something is wrong. Please, tell us." Lizzie went to make eye contact.

"Its just some girls. Its no problem." She sniffled. William saw a tear on her cheek and brushed it away.

"It must be a pretty big no problem." He didn't know what to do, so he thought back to when he saw Lizzie crying across from his room when they were young. "You know, when Lizzie and I were your age, I used to look across into her room at night. One night I saw her crying on the ledge outside her window. When I opened min and asked what was wrong she said it was nothing. It turned out that some girls were being really mean to her. I'm a good listener, Jane. We both are."

Jane broke down and hugged Will. He hugged her back and Lizzie stood up. "I'm going to give you two some space. We have some stuff for sundays. I'll make you a magic one that will make you feel better."

When Lizzie had left the room with Charlie on her heels, Will straightened Jane and say puffy red eyes. "Okay, kiddo. What's wrong? And please don't say nothing."

Jane sniffled and wiped her face with her sleeve. "There are these twins, they're my age. They were just a lot meaner than usual to today. Apparently, their mother is sending them to visit some aunt to get money later in the month. They think that they're better than everyone because they have an aunt with a lot of money."

He rubbed her back. "Did they do anything else?"

"They pushed me off the swings and stole my lunch."

He remembered what he had said to Lizzie when they were closer friends and stuff like this happened. "Well, are they getting a magical ice cream sunday tonight?" She shook her head. "Are they spending time with awesome people like Lizzie and I for an entire weekend?" She laughed a little and shook her head again. "Do they get to try out the new swing that I put together for Baby?"

"You made a swing?" She smiled widely. He nodded. "And I get to test it?" He nodded again. "Can I test it now?"

Lizzie came walking in with a massive bowl filled with ice cream, whipped cream, and all sorts of chocolate candies and gummy worms. "Don't you want to help finish this off first?" She put it down on the coffee table and handed Will and Jane each a spoon. They ate their sunday, laughing and telling jokes and stories. By the time the sunday bowl was empty, Jane appeared to have forgotten all her problems.

"Could I try that swing out now?" The three of them got up and headed to the back yard.

Jane ran to the swing in the corner and hopped on. As she swung higher and higher, her laugh grew and her troubles seemed to be forgotten.

All of a sudden, a loud crash filled the sky. "Will, you have to go get her." Lizzie pushed him out into the new rain.

He picked her up and the two of them ran back inside right before the skies opened and water crashed onto the freshly broken in swing.

"Time to go to bed." William shifted her around so he was carrying her piggy-back up the stairs.

"Really? Now?" Jane whined.

"Yes Janie." Lizzie opened the door to Jane's room for the weekend.

Although she protested, Jane went to sleep quickly and Lizzie and Will headed to their room.

When the got into bed, Lizzie curled up with her head on his chest. "What was going on?"

She felt him shrug. "Just some kids poking fun. I don't know if they've done it before, but it sounds like the girls are real pieces of work." He sighed. "I just wish we could do more."

"Do you think Charlotte knows?"

Another shrug. "I don't know."

"Okay. I love you Will." She kissed his chest through his light tee shirt.

"I love you too, Lizzie. Good night." He kissed the top of her head.

"Good night." And the two of them fell asleep easily.

Early the next morning, both Will and Lizzie jumped out of bed when they heard a loud, high pitched scream.