Just doing a quick update. I hope you guys (if anybody's still reading this) enjoy this! And thanks for the constructive criticism, everybody! You guys are really helping me get better at writing!

Disclaimer: The original Bridge to Terabithia belongs to Katherine Patterson. I only own Kaytee and her dad. (And Kitty!)

Chapter 10: Developing a friendship

When Kaytee emerged from Mr. Hawkins' private office with a smile on her face, Jess felt instantly reassured. Kaytee sat down in her seat again and Mr. Hawkins simply glared at Jess with his arms folded across his chest.

"I don't know what to do with you, Aarons." He said. "Miss Monroe insists you had nothing to do with this. You seem innocent of any crimes brought against you so you are free to leave." He said.

"What about Kaytee?" Jess asked.

"I still have some business to finish up with her and Mr. Hoager here. They'll be allowed to return to their classes as soon as their parents arrive so I can discuss the situation with them."

Jess nodded and after Mr. Hawkins wrote him a pass for him to hand to his teacher, Jess left the Discipline Office. As soon as the door slammed behind him, he walked off to class. For a few minutes as he slowly went to class, hoping to kill as much time as possible before he got there, Jess could barely breathe. He couldn't feel his lungs at all. It was like somebody had ripped them out of his chest but had somehow managed to keep him alive without him needing some of his most valuable organs. When Jess got to class, which was his algebra class, he handed his teacher the pass Mr. Hawkins had given him and walked to the back of the room and slammed down in his seat. He finally regained his ability to breathe. Jess lavished the feeling of fresh air going in and out of his lungs and through his nose and throat. The lightheaded feeling in his brain disappeared and his nerves were somewhat soothed.

And for having trusted Kaytee, Jess felt relieved that she hadn't pulled him into their mess. She was a good girl. Jess kind of felt bad for judging Kaytee just because she had hung out with Scott Hoager for most of the first few weeks of school.

Jess opened his algebra book on his teacher's orders and took out a pen and a piece of paper. On that sheet of paper, Jess wrote out a sentence he never thought he'd direct towards Kaytee.

Thanks for getting me out of trouble with Hawkins, Kaytee. I owe you one.
~Jess

Jess knew that even though she'd never get it from him, Kaytee most likely knew he was grateful. For the first time all year, he felt excited to see his new neighbor in his classes and was even excited to wait for her by her locker after school, which was something he was going to do for the first time. As soon as he could find out where it was, that was.

...

"Hey, Kaytee." Jess said when his redhead neighbor arrived at her locker.

"Hey," she said quickly, sounding quite bitter. Maybe Hawkins had given her a horrible punishment that made her not want to talk to anybody. Her body looked stiff, making her look like she wanted to punch somebody. Jess hoped it wasn't him she wanted to punch.

"How'd the interrogation go with your dad?" Jess asked as Kaytee stuffed her books into her backpack.

Kaytee shrugged and continued to put books and notebooks into her bag. Jess's eyes drifted to the inside of Kaytee's locker door. There were all kinds of photos of celebrities and bands pinned up by magnets. Jess recognized a couple celebrities, including Leonardo Dicaprio, Jesse McCartney, Aaron Carter, Metallica, Pink Floyd but for the most part, Jess barely knew any of the people Kaytee had taken pictures of. Kaytee sure traveled a lot, since there were pictures of her and her dad at the circus and at the Grand Canyon and many other places too. Another fact Jess realized about Kaytee: she obviously belonged to a rich or at least an upper middle-class family to be able to travel around the globe like it was nothing.

"He wasn't, like, angry with me or anything but I could tell from the look on his face that he was furious for what had happened to me today. So it's Scott's fault in his eyes." She said. "Daddy being overprotective, I guess."

"So Scott got detention?"

"Suspension, for fighting on school grounds." Kaytee corrected. "And he's not allowed to talk to me or anything like that."

Jess nodded. "So, who are you going to hang with now?" He asked.

Kaytee shrugged and closed her locker rather hard, slamming it hard enough to cause a short echo to sound in the loud hallways.

"I'm not sure, really," she said. "Maybe I'll hang in the library during lunch. I don't really need friends anyways."

"How about me and you start hanging out? Like here at school and at home, maybe? We could be homework buddies and just buddies in general, if you'd like," Jess suggested.

Kaytee smiled and stood up. She hugged Jess and then pulled away from him quickly. She smiled gratefully at him.

"Thanks so much, Jess." She said.

"Hey, it's no big deal." Jess said.

"Want to hang at my place?" She asked. "We could get started on homework."

Jess smiled.

"Sure," he agreed.

Jess and Kaytee headed out to the bus stop and only as the bus arrived at his and Kaytee's stop did Jess realize that he was going to be entering Leslie's house for the first time in months. His heart pounded with grief and fear and when Kaytee jumped off the bus while dragging him with his arm in her grip, his grief only worsened. Kaytee turned around and smiled. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him into her backyard. It was fairly messy, with wooden boards and nails and bricks strewn all over the yard. Kaytee chuckled nervously.

"Yeah, sorry about the mess," she said. "Dad's been working on the roof for the last couple weeks but he pulled a muscle in his back so we've gotten a little behind with the remodeling."

Jess smiled. "It's alright," he said.

Kaytee smiled and ran up to the back door and took out her keys. While Kaytee unlocked the door, Jess started to notice details in the yard that weren't there before when Leslie and her parents lived in the house. The windows were replaced so now a person could enter into the house through the window if they felt like it. There weren't any garden gnomes anywhere but Jess knew the Burkes hadn't had any garden gnomes either. It was just something Jess noticed right now. But he spotted a very expensive car in the garage that hadn't been there before when Leslie lived in the house. It was a shiny new gold Hummer. Jess had figured that the Monroes were better off than his family when he first met them but he now knew that Kaytee's dad was rich. No wonder Kaytee traveled everywhere.

"Okay, come on in!" Kaytee said. She walked inside the house and dumped her bag inside the hallway by the door. Jess followed her inside, dropping his bag by Kaytee's. The house had been given a complete renovation. Everything from the walls to the actual rooms had greatly changed since Jess had last been in the house where his Queen had lived.

"Hi, Lucy!" Jess heard Kaytee say.

Kaytee walked out of the living room with a tuxedo cat in her arms. The cat hissed at Jess and Kaytee started to rub its head to try and calm it down. Jess glared at the cat.

"Aw, baby, don't be mean to our guest." She cooed to the cat. The cat glared at Jess and then leapt out of Kaytee's arms and went upstairs. Kaytee chuckled nervously.

"Sorry about that, Jess. Lucy's really territorial." She said. "She was territorial before in our old house and she's territorial here too. Once she gets to know you though, she'll like you."

"It's okay. I get it that the cat doesn't like strangers." No duh Lucy didn't like him. If Lucy was a lion, Jess knew he would qualify as her lunch.

Kaytee grinned back. "Want something to eat?" She asked.

Jess nodded and followed Kaytee into the kitchen. Even the kitchen had been renovated to the point where Jess couldn't recognize anything familiar at all. The flowery wallpaper that used to be on the walls had been torn down and was replaced with sky blue walls and light green walls that half looked like they had been painted by an amateur and half looked like it was painted by somebody who knew what he or she was doing. Probably Kaytee and her dad had done the painting themselves instead of hiring somebody to do it for them. Kaytee's parts looked like something the Burkes had done when they had painted the Golden Room. It had obviously been done completely unprofessionally but that it still looked good with the rest of the room.

"So your dad doesn't like wallpaper?" Jess asked.

"Nope." Kaytee said, reaching for a box of Oreos off the top of the refrigerator. "He thought it was really ugly and we tore it down even before we started renovating the kitchen. He couldn't bear to look at it. Cookie?"

Jess took one of the cookies from the box and bit into it, chewing thoughtfully. Kaytee sat down on the counter and looked at the pictures hanging by the window. All of them were pictures of her and her dad during different holidays and occasions.

"So where's your dad?" Jess asked.

"At work." Kaytee said. "He said today he's going to be late since they're trying to finish the repairs on the church they're working on."

"So your dad's a-"

"He's got a part time job as a laborer but he's going to quit being a laborer soon and he's going to open a gun shop, since that's the kind of business he owned back in Philadelphia." Kaytee explained. "He's just trying to earn enough money to finish the house first before he starts chasing his ambitions."

Jess nodded. Lucy came stalking into the kitchen, her tail held up high in the air and her chin raised with pride. She looked at Jess, who rolled his eyes at her. Jess hadn't been in the same house as the cat for no more than ten minutes and Lucy was already getting on his nerves. The only thing that stopped Jess from strangling Lucy was Kaytee, who fondly continued to give her hugs and kisses, even if Lucy was being disrespectful.

"Hey, Lucy." Kaytee said. Lucy jumped up onto the counter and glared back at Jess.

"But didn't your dad come to see you at school because Mr. Hawkins wanted to talk to him?" Jess asked.

Kaytee nodded and took a bite of an Oreo.

"Yeah, he did but he went back to work because he needs to collect his paycheck for the week," she explained. "It's a Friday and he only gets paid on Fridays."

"Oh, okay." Jess said.

Kaytee hopped off the counter and smiled.

"Ready to do homework?" She asked.

Jess shrugged. "Sure," he said.

Kaytee walked out into the hallway and picked up her backpack and threw Jess's bag to him. Jess caught it. Kaytee smiled.

"Good catch!" She said with a chuckle.

Jess chuckled. "Good throw!" He said.

Kaytee grinned and pumped her arm up in the air a few times to flaunt her throwing ability. "It's all in the arm."

Jess and Kaytee headed into the living room, where Jess immediately recognized it as the Golden Room. Now, it was painted over with a light blue color. Jess felt a little sad that the Golden Room was no more but there was nothing he could do about it. After all, it wasn't his house. It wasn't Leslie's either, sadly.

Kaytee put her bag down and sat down in an ancient chair that looked like something that had existed around the WWII time period and now looked like it was going to break apart and shatter, while taking Kaytee down with it. But the chair remained upright, so Kaytee did as well. She smiled and flipped open to the page in her algebra book that they were going to have to do for homework. She stared at it and then shut the book and threw it onto the floor where it slammed down with a bang.

"I don't feel like doing homework." She admitted, throwing her hands in the air.

Jess nodded and stuffed his algebra book back into his book bag. He grinned.

"Me neither." He said.

"So now what do we do?" Kaytee asked.

"I don't know. I think I'll head home." Jess said, standing up.

"Aw, but it's still early!" Kaytee whined, glancing at the clock on the mantle. It was only four in the afternoon but Jess knew he had to head home and hit the books, even if he didn't want to.

"I have to go help my dad in the greenhouse and then there's homework..." Jess lied.

"Aw, well, okay." Kaytee said, although she didn't look as if she bought Jess's lie completely.

Kaytee showed Jess out the door and as Jess crossed over to his family's yard, he heard Kaytee call him name. He turned around and he saw her smiling at him from where she stood on her own house's doorstep.

"See you at school tomorrow!" She called, waving to Jess.

Jess waved back to her and then headed into his own house and slammed the door. He sighed with relief when he saw the familiar surroundings of his house but he had to admit that Kaytee's own house looked great, despite having changed so much to please hers and her dad's personal tastes. At least he had somebody to hang with from now on. Maybe he could even show Kaytee to the world known as Terabithia one day.

Maybe.

But for now, Kaytee and Jess were just going to be friends. Jess knew if he got to know Kaytee a little better, then maybe he could introduce her to Terabithia. However, he wasn't sure if she even had a broad imagination like him and May Belle and Leslie. That was one thing he was going have to wait to find out for himself.

Well, I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter! More to come once school's over. (whenever that is…)