Chapter 2: Never Kiss a Cougar
"What was that?" questioned Riley. "Jennifer, where are you going?" he asks loudly quickly following after her as she runs around Ben's apartment building.
"Help! Someone, help Fred!" Jennifer hears a little girl scream as she runs around Ben's building. She hears Riley calling after her too but she doesn't have time to respond as she runs around the corner and sees… a girl looking up at a tree.
"What's wrong?" She asks, slightly out of breath from the sprint over.
"My cat is in that tree and… and he won't come down!" she sobs.
"Ok, it's going to be alright, I'll get him down for you."
"Really?" she asks though her tears.
"Sure why not" Jennifer mumbles under her breath. She takes off her baggy My Chemical Romance hoodie and tosses it to Riley who is hunched over holding his knees, apparently trying to catch his breath. "Sorry!" She says giggling slightly when it hit him right in the head. She hears him grumble something but then she remembers the task at hand and tries to figure out the easiest way up the tree. There aren't any low branches in the front so she circles it, hoping to see a lower branch on the other side. But of course the lowest branch is one at about the height of her shoulders. "Riley!" She calls out hoping to get a little help.
"What?" he responds moodily.
"Could you give me a boost please?" She asks, using the infamous puppy dog eyes and pout combination.
"Fine", he sighs.
She thanks him repeatedly as he laces his hands together and lowers them down to about where Jennifer's knees are. He quickly boosts her up and she climbs on to the branch so that she's laying on her stomach on top it with a leg on either side.
"You're heavier than you look", he says wiping his hands off on his jeans.
"Thanks", She responds sarcastically. She looks up and sees the next branch is actually really close so she stands up, surprisingly gracefully by her standards, and climbs on to it. She sees the cat is about three branches up and quickly climbs the next two rather easily. The next branch doesn't look very safe so she just reaches up to grab the cat. He quickly runs up her arms and latches his claws around her neck. "Owie", She says quietly as she feels his nails dig into her neck. "It's going to be just fine buddy, no need to choke the life out of me", She reprimands him, while trying to get his nails out from the back of her neck. She gives up and decides to just climb down the tree. She gets down the first two just fine but she can't be expected to climb up and down a tree gracefully, that's just not possible. She slips on the second to last branch and falls on her back on the hard ground. "Ouch", She says miserably.
"Fred!" the little girl screams, as Jennifer sits up with the cat still clinging to her neck. The girl grabs him around the stomach and wrenches him off Jennifer causing his nails to leave three, thin, painful scratch marks on each side of her neck.
"Holy crud!" She exclaims, while laying back onto the ground and flipping over onto her stomach so she can bury her head into the ground. Her hands are clutching each side of her neck. She hears the little girl run off and footsteps, that are undoubtedly Riley's, running towards her.
"Are you alright?" he asks cautiously.
"Peachy keen", Jennifer responds while rolling over. She sits up and takes her hands off of the sides of her neck. There are quite a few droplets of blood dripping down her hands and flowing down her wrists. She feels nauseous at the sight for a second, watching the streams of red travel down her pale skin. She comes back to reality when she feels Riley push her hair out of the way so he can get a better look at her neck. She hears him let out a low whistle.
"Ouch", he whispers. He grabs her hand to help her up and she stumbles a bit. Her head is still spinning a bit from her graceful fall from the tree not even three minutes ago. He catches her and her head ends up resting on his shoulder while she places a stabilizing hand against his quickly backs up once she realizes the position they were in.
"Sorry", She mumbles as she starts walking back to the front of Ben's apartment building.
"Jenny", he calls out.
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She's actually climbing the tree. Wow.
"Do you think Fred will be alright?" Riley hears the little girl ask worriedly while she stared straight up at the tree trying to see any sign of Jenny or her cat.
"I'm sure he'll be fine", Riley responds, "Its Jenny I'm worried about" He continues under his breath. She didn't seem to hear him seeing as her gaze never left the tree. It seemed like an hour later when he sees Jennifer fall from the tree and land on her back. The little girl immediately runs over but he can't seem to move. Is she alright? What if she got seriously injured because I didn't go up to try and get the cat instead of her? She sits up so Riley knows she's alright but then he hears her scream "Holy crud!" and watches her fall back onto the ground. The little girl runs off with her cat in hand and Riley quickly heads over trying to see if she's alright. When he reaches her he sees that she's grasping her neck. "Are you alright?" he asks.
"Peachy keen", she responds sarcastically. He can't help but smile slightly. She's still sarcastic. She takes her hands from her neck and Riley sees her staring at the blood running down her hands. Why is she bleeding? He moves the hair from around her neck and lets out a low whistle at the sight. Dang, the cat got her good.
"Ouch", He whispers sympathetically. He stands up from his kneeling position and offers her a hand up. She takes it and as she is getting up she stumbles slightly. Riley holds her up, ending with both of them in a slightly awkward situation. He has one of his hands on her lower back while her head is resting against his shoulder with one of her hands placed against his chest. She quickly backs away and without ever looking up at him, she starts walking back around the front of the apartment building. "Jenny", he calls out without thinking. She turns around and Riley gets caught up in the moment for a second. Her hair glides gently around her shoulders as she spins to face. Her face is flushed, most likely from the fall, and she looks… gorgeous.
"What?" she asks and Riley comes out of my little fantasy.
"Uh…Here's your sweater!" He responds quickly. Nice save.
"Oh", she responds sounding disappointed. Why would she be disappointed though? I must just be hearing things. She takes the sweater from him and both of them head around to the front of Ben's apartment.
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Well I have ten more minutes before they should be here. What should I do? Ben figures. Immediately after his thoughts there's a loud knock at the door and he walks over to answer it. Jennifer and Riley are both standing there when he gets there but he can immediately tell something is wrong. There is blood all over Jennifer's hands. "Jennifer, what did you do now?" He asks jokingly. He was sincerely worried though as he grabbed her wrist gently and led her into the living room, while motioning for her to sit on the couch.
"It's Riley's fault", she said in a whiny, child's voice. "See, what had happened was, Riley and I met up at Starbucks on accident and decided to head to the zoo. When we were there he triple dog dared me to kiss a cougar and me, being the ever daring person that I am, could not back down from such a serious challenge. I jumped right in there and kissed the thing right on the mouth. He liked it a little too much apparently, because he tackled me to the ground while wrapping his huge paws around my neck leaving these huge scratch marks." She finished, while brushing the hair from around her face showing three, thin marks on either side of her neck still steadily bleeding. Ben quickly retrieves the first aid kit he had in his cabinet once he saw the scratches.
"Very funny", Ben replies to her crazy story. "Now what actually happened?" He asks turning to Riley for a straight answer.
"She climbed up a tree to save some girls cat and on the way down it must have clawed her neck." He answered Ben, while walking out of the living room.
"That was very brave of you Jennifer", Ben says in a joking, fatherly manner, while he cleans the scratches. She giggles at his joke and he tells her, "well, they won't be bleeding anymore but I don't have any band-aids big enough for these scratches. Unless you want me to wrap them in gauze…"
"No!" she responds quickly, "If they stopped bleeding I'll be fine."
"Are you all right otherwise?" Ben asks.
"Actually my back is killing me", she complains burying her face in a throw pillow at the end of his couch.
"Did the 'cougar' scratch you there too?" Ben asks, complete with air quotes.
"Actually she fell from the tree", Riley adds in, chuckling slightly.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Ben asks, more worried now.
"Yeah, I'm good" she says, "Just a bruise."
"If you're sure", Ben says, still slightly unsure.
"Can I take a shower?" Jenny asks randomly, about an hour later while all three are gathered around the table talking about the Charlotte.
"Sure", Ben says. "It's the last door at the end of the hall and the towels are in the closet next to the sink".
"Thanks" she says with a quick smile as she grabs some clothes out of her duffle bag and heads to the shower. Riley and Ben continue our conversation until they hear Jennifer quietly singing in the shower.
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Wow, Ben uses lavender and chamomile shampoo. "It does smell pretty good though", Jennifer says to herself. She finishes putting the conditioner in her hair but she wants to leave it in for a bit so she starts singing the first tune that pops into her head. She tries to stay quiet so the guys don't hear her and she walks back into the kitchen all clean and shiny in her flannel pajama bottoms and Harry Potter t-shirt.
"Hello everyone", She says cheerfully, brushing out her hair with her fingers. She heads over to her duffel bag and shuffles through it until she finds her brush. She walks back over and stands behind her seat continuing to brush her hair, when she realizes they were both staring at her. "Yes", she says questioningly.
"Nothing", Riley says quickly. "We were just talking about what we would spend our shares of the treasure on. What would you buy?"
"This treasure is about more than the money! This is for historical use. We aren't going to keep it. We are going to give the items to museums for everyone to see." Ben interrupted.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyways, what would you buy Jen?" Riley cut in.
"What I really want to do is travel the world! I want to go to Japan, Ireland, England, China, everywhere!" She responds dreamily. "I would probably take Nick with me so I'd have to wait a year or two."
"Is Nick your boyfriend?" Riley asks.
"Nope he's my little brother." She says smiling slightly, "Actually, he's not that little, he's going to be seventeen soon."
"Have you seen him lately?" Ben asked.
"Nah, mom still thinks I'm a bad influence on him so I haven't even been able to talk to him since last June." She responds sadly. "I can't believe it's been so long." She whispers to no one in particular. Ben quickly stands up and pulls her into a hug.
"She doesn't know what she's talking about Jennifer, at least when he turns eighteen you'll be able to talk to him all you want right?" he says trying to put a positive spin on things for her.
"Yep", She says, acting happy again so that he wouldn't worry. They continue to talk about "happy things" until Ben notices Jennifer yawn.
"Jennifer, if you're getting tired you can take my bed, I'll sleep on the couch" Ben offers graciously.
"No way Ben", She shakes her head and stifles another yawn, "You are letting me stay in your apartment, I am not taking your bed too. Plus, I like your couch, it's really comfy." She says smiling.
"Fine", he sighs, "I'll get you some blankets and another pillow."
"Thanks Ben" She yawns, settling down on he couch. "Where are you sleeping Riley?"
"I'm sleeping on the couch over there", he says, pointing to a couch on the other side of the living room.
"Wow, I didn't even notice there was another couch over there." She lets out another yawn. She could hear Riley chuckle at her foolishness when Ben walks back out. "You actually still have this purple quilt Ben?" She asks excitedly while she grabs it and snuggles into it.
"Of course I kept your quilt Jenny!" he says acting scandalized, "How could you even ask that? I said I would treasure it forever and I will".
"Thanks Ben", She responds, truly meaning it.
"Goodnight Jenny", he says, before tucking her in and kissing her on the forehead. He gives Riley a blanket and a pillow before starting to walk back to his room.
"Aren't you going to tuck Riley in?" She asks sleepily.
Riley and Ben both look at each other then back at her and say in perfect unison, "No".
"Okay then", She giggles. "Goodnight Ben. Goodnight Riley".
"Goodnight Jennifer", they both say exasperatedly at the same time.
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Riley always hated the fact that she was a very light sleeper. He woke up at the quietest sounds. Well that all changed tonight. He heard Jennifer moving on the couch and he thought she was just rolling over. Is she crying? Riley quickly sits up and looks over at her. She was sitting up and he could easily see her shoulders shaking. "Woah, what happened? What's wrong?" Riley asked as he tried to get off the couch. He ended up sprawled across the floor because the blankets were wrapped around his ankles. Riley saw her glance over at him and she started giggling at his clumsiness. He grabbed his glasses off the end table and he got up. "Very nice, laugh at the one who wants to help you", Riley says sarcastically.
"Sorry", she says with her head down.
"It's fine", He says quickly "I was just kidding." He walked over by the side of her couch and asked her, "What's wrong?" She just shook her head.
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She couldn't cry in front of him. It was just a silly nightmare. I shouldn't let it get to me. He put his hand on the side of her face that was turned away from him and he gently turned her to face him.
"What's wrong?" he asked her kindly.
"Nothing", She says quietly, trying to keep tears from streaming down her face. A single tear fights it's way slowly down her cheek. He was still holding her face so that she was facing him and he gently wiped the tear away with his thumb. She closed her eyes to try and block out any more tears from coming.
"You can talk to me", he says quietly taking his hand off of her face, seemingly taking the heat away from her whole body. She quickly clutches the blanket tighter around her and when she opens up her eyes, she sees that he looked sympathetic and really serious, instead of the normal sarcastic, and joking Riley she saw since she had met him.
She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and said quietly, "It was just a silly nightmare", once again looking down into her lap.
"If it made you cry it isn't silly", he said quietly. She looks up into his eyes but quickly glances away when she realizes she was blushing. Luckily it's dark so she's pretty sure he didn't see it.
"It was about my brother", which was partially true because her brother was in there but that wasn't what made her cry. He quickly leaned over and hugged her. She was so surprised at the embrace that her eyes opened up very wide and her mouth dropped open. She realized what was happening and quickly wrapped her arms around his neck since she was a little bit above him. She was on the couch and he was on the floor after all, and buried her head in between his arm and his shoulder. He started drawing small circles on her back and whispering things to cheer her up in her ear but she wasn't really paying attention. She was blown away by the fact that Riley could care so much about someone he just met, especially when that person was her. She mumbled a thanks into his shoulder and she felt him hug her a little tighter as a "your welcome". A couple of seconds later he gets up from his kneeling position on the floor and heads back to his couch.
"Ah, my leg is asleep", She hears him mumble under his breath. He starts limping away and she has to hold back her laughter from the silly sight. He starts jumping up and down on one foot to try and wake it up and she turns away so that her face is buried in the couch to try and prevent him from hearing her laugh.
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Ouch. Stupid kneeling, blocking my stupid blood, from getting to my stupid leg. Riley was about to climb back onto the couch when he sees Jennifer's shoulders shaking again. He rushes over and starts rubbing her back again and asking her if she's ok. She rolls over and he realizes that she was laughing at him. "Oh it's on" He whispers menacingly with a smirk on his face. He starts tickling her and she's laughing so hard tears are steaming down her face. She's trying to push his hands away so he sits on top of her to prevent her from getting away.
"Uncle! You win, I give up! Just stop please! I can't breathe" she says breathlessly between laughs.
"That's what I thought" He said, rolling off of her and standing beside the couch. He turns and starts walking back to his couch in hopes that she won't see him blushing.
"Goodnight Riley" she says adorably, wrapped up in her quilt and trying to stifle a yawn.
"Goodnight Jennifer."
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I can't believe I slept until eight-thirty! Ben quickly wakes Riley up and heads over to wake Jenny up when Riley stops him.
"Wait, she didn't sleep well last night. Let her sleep a little longer." he yawns out.
"What happened?"
"She had a nightmare", he answered while stretching. Ben says 'all right' but then tells him to make sure to wake her up in fifteen minutes because Ian's coming at nine. Ben he hears him mumble in the affirmative and quickly heads off to take a shower. By the time he takes a shower, gets dressed, and shaves, it's already ten to and he hears a knock at the door.
He quickly jogs to the door to answer it and says a quick greeting to Ian and invites him in. He walks in the living room with Ben and he realizes Riley's mistake.
Riley walks into the living room with a bowl of cereal and says, "Morning" with a nod of his head.
Ian sits beside Riley on the couch and then points to Jennifer and asks, "Who is the young lady on the couch, Ben?"
"That would be Jennifer", Ben responds, sighing as he stoops down to try and wake her up. "Time to wake up Jen", He whispers in her ear while gently rubbing her shoulder.
"Five more minutes" she groans, rolling over and burying her face in the couch.
Ben pokes her back to try and get her up and she makes an odd yelping sound before jumping right off of the couch and falling, on her back, and onto the floor.
"Owie", she moans. "My back really hurts", she says rolling onto her stomach. Her shirt is bunched up and Ben can see her lower back, where there is a pretty nasty bruise from yesterday.
"Sorry Jen, I forgot about yesterday."
"It's alright", she says rolling back over and quickly sitting up. "Holy cow! Who are you?" she asks obviously referring to Ian, while pulling down her bunched up shirt.
"I'm Ian Howe", he responds smoothly, while getting up and reaching a hand out to her. He pulls her up and kisses the back of her hand. By that time she's blushing furiously. Her hair is put up and Ben sees him glance at the scratches around her neck. "What happened?" he asked her quietly as he took his finger and gently traced one of the scratches around her neck.
"Oh…uh I kind of got attacked by a cat", she says quietly, immediately reaching a hand up and rubbing her neck. "I'm going to go get dressed now", she says quickly while grabbing her duffle bag and heading towards the bathroom. Riley was sending death glares at Ian while eating his cereal the whole time.
"Riley, how could you forget to wake her up?" Ben asked angrily. He knew she was completely embarrassed by now.
"I was getting cereal", he said motioning to his bowl, "and I forgot."
Ben sighed and quickly sits on the couch she was just sleeping on. Ian follows suit and they start talking about plans for the trip to the Arctic.
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I can't believe that just happened! First I fall off of the couch in front of the guy; I was sleeping when he came in. Then, he kisses my hand and touches my neck and… dang he has soft hands, and a cute accent. My gosh, I think my face is going to be cherry-colored for the rest of my life! Look at my hair! Holy cow, I can't believe I'm going to be going on this adventure with this guy. I've never been more embarrassed. Jennifer quickly brushed through her hair, throw on a half-sleeved, light blue shirt with flared sleeves and a flared pair of dark-blue jeans.
She looks up and sees that she's still blushing. Cold water, I need cold water. She quickly splashes some cold water on her face and she eventually turns back to her normal, pale self. "Alright, here we go", She says to herself quietly. She steps out of the bathroom, leaving her duffel bag next to the door.
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The group end up talking about the trip for about three hours, finally deciding on leaving in a week to fly first, then take vehicles already rented by Ian, to the where Riley has discovered to be the approximate area of the Charlotte. They go their separate ways, deciding to meet up at Ben's apartment on the following Friday at six in the morning (much to Jennifer's dismay).
The week went by quickly, and before Jennifer even realized it, it was Thursday afternoon. She had already gotten the time off and finished the extra work her boss gave her to make sure he did all of her work before she left. All she has to do now is pack and wake up at five in the morning. Great. Jennifer quickly went home and packed after work, grabbing her favorite jeans, two t-shirts, and some underwear. She decides to head off to bed early and sets her alarm clock for five o'clock.
She wakes to an annoyingly loud buzzing in her ear. "Ok, ok I'm up", She says groggily to no one. She gets out of bed, brushes her teeth, takes a quick shower and gets dressed into a pair of pinstripe black pants, a green day shirt and long, black fingerless gloves that go a little above her elbows. Of course she is wearing her favorite black converse as well. She looks at the clock and sees that it's 5:40. She grabs a granola bar and a go-gurt and heads out the door. "Yummy", She says under her breath, on her way to Ben's home. She quickly jogs to catch up to the bus when she notices that it's already at the stop.
It takes her about a block away from Ben's apartment and she looks at her watch and realizes that it's 5:55. "Oh yeah, I'm so on time!" She says excitedly. She gets to Ben's apartment and decides to peek around the back. "No cat's stuck in trees? Good." She says to no one. Jennifer is actually the first to make it to his apartment.
Jennifer sits on the couch with her empty go-gurt tube and her half eaten granola bar. She quickly gets up and throws out the empty go-gurt and then takes the granola bar out of its wrapper and throws it out too. She sticks the rest of the granola bar into her mouth when she hears a knock at the door.
Ben shouts out, "Jennifer, can you get the door for me?"
She wanted to say no, to explain the problem, but her mouth was full so she just walked over to the door and opened it. She was still chewing a huge mouthful of S'mores granola bar when she sees Ian with three other guys behind him. She opens the door so they can get in but when he gives her a confused look, she puts up her pointer finger telling him to give her a second, and points to her mouth showing that she was eating. He nods, smiling at her and she has to cover another blush. She closes the door behind him and his friends as Riley comes out and starts talking to them.
She quickly swallows her granola bar and walk over to one of Ian's friends. "Hi, I'm Jennifer" She says with a smile, holding out her hand for him to shake. He tells her that his name is Shaw and introduces her to both Shippen and Powell, the other two men that came along. Ben finally walks out and they all head to the van behind his house. Everyone climbs in and she's stuck in the back next to Riley with Shippen, Shaw, and Powell across from them.
They finally get to the mini airport; they are taking a small, private plane to an area just south of where Riley has estimated the Charlotte's location. Ian distributed the huge jackets, boots, hats, and gloves on the trip and she tries to put her's on. The jacket is a little big on her and goes down to right above her knees. The sleeves end right where her fingers start too. At least I'll be warm. They end up in these awesome, huge snow vehicle things. What are these called anyway?
"I was thinking about Hanson and Perry, crossing this kind of terrain with nothing more then dog sleds and on foot. Can you imagine?" Ben says to Riley, Ian, and Jennifer.
Ian replies instantly with, "It's extraordinary."
"Awesome", She says in wonder. "Are we getting closer Riley?"
"Assuming Ben's theory is correct and my tracking model's accurate, we should be getting very close. But don't go by me, I broke a shoelace this morning." Riley says. After getting some incredulous looks from Ben, Ian, and Jennifer, he explains, "It's... it's a bad omen."
"Should we turn around and go home?" Ian asks falsely serious.
"Or we could pull him over and just throw him out here." Ben says jokingly.
Jennifer laughs along with everyone else but end up saying, "Of course we wouldn't throw you out Riley!" and give him a quick hug. "Hey Riley", Jennifer adds.
"Yes?" he asks.
"Can we trade hats?"
"Why?"
"Because yours is adorable and has little flaps for the ears. Do you want my ears to be all cold?"
"I don't want my ears to be cold. I don't really care about your ears." Riley responds quickly.
"You don't care?" She asks pouting, with fake tears coming to her eyes. "I thought we was cool!"
"Quoting Unreal Championship Two characters won't help you."
"Not even Malcolm? The coolest of all characters." Jennifer asks, the fake tears immediately disappearing.
"Not even Malcolm", he deadpans. "He isn't the best though, I like Selket more."
"You only like her because she has big boobs and flashes people."
"She's a good fighter too. That's just a plus" Riley says smiling.
"Fine! I don't want your stupid hat anyway!" She says, crossing her arms and looking out the window.