yo ma peeps ;) so I randomly wrote this today cause my family and I went somewhere and we had to drive like 2 hours to get there and so like an awesome person I wrote this complete and utter randomness in the car on my ipod. aaanyway hope you enjoy the product of my sleep deprived brain and I totally don't own the night world (unfortunately) and I've decided to go with my usual jez = 15 and Morgead = 16.

Project Ditch

Saturday morning; around ten o'clock, and James was getting dropped off at Jez Redfern's house.

His friends had all said how lucky he was to get paired with her for their final history project. But the truth was: she was a pain. She never paid attention in class, rendering her useless in the information department; she got distracted by everything that moved; and she didn't seem to give the slightest about her school work.

They'd been assigned the project nearly a month before, and James knew that Jez had barely even thought about it, let alone worked on it. But James had his entire half thoroughly researched and well prepared – he'd even started on Jez's work – and she'd done nothing but slack off and act cranky.

Now it was a mere two days until the final project was due to be presented, and James' nerves were shot. Of course, coming to his beautiful and temperamental classmate's house wasn't any help.

James stared up at the dark Victorian house looming above him while his stomach twisted and writhered relentlessly.

It wasn't a minute after James knocked that the door abruptly swung open to reveal a middle aged man with dark hair and crinkled eyes smiling politely at him.

"Yes?"

"Oh, ah," James stammered and rubbed his neck absently as he thought of what to say. Obviously Jez hadn't bothered to mention his arrival to her father. "I'm James. I'm Jez's partner for this project we're doing. I guess she never told you, but I was supposed to come over today so we could finish it."

"Hmm. Well Jez has, evidently, failed to inform me, but no matter. Please," the man opened the door farther and stepped aside. He gestured gracefully inside and smiled warmly. "come on in."

James nodded his thanks as he stepped through the door and kicked off his shoes. He followed the man through a cozy living room and towards the back of the house. As he walked, the man introduced himself.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, James. I'm Jez's Uncle Bracken." James mumbled another brief greeting as he was deposited at the kitchen table. "If you'll just wait here, I'll get Jez. I'm sure she's still asleep."

James was left alone to stare at a picture of a young Jez with several missing teeth hanging on the wall behind the sink while he listened to her uncle's footsteps tapping faintly on the hardwood floor.

It was strange sitting in Jez's kitchen looking at all the personal touches in the house. A crayon drawing, faded, but still stuck onto the fridge; another much more recent picture of Jez with a boy dressed all in black, both of whom were leaning on a black and silver motorbike and grinning. There were books that littered the counter and through the open doorway into the living room, James could even see Jez's famous leather jacket draped across the back of the couch and a motorcycle helmet on the coffee table in front of it.

Overall, it wasn't what James had expected. Looking at Jez, he'd imagined a small, dull house with ratty furniture and devoid of all things personal and sentimental. But the house he was sitting in now was anything but that. It was tidy and sunny and warm, and James had trouble believing that Jez really lived there.

Before he knew it, James could hear footsteps coming back down the stairs, and Jez's uncle came back into the kitchen with a furrowed brow.

"Something wrong?" James asked awkwardly.

Bracken frowned and picked up a stray phone. Dialling rapidly, he replied, "Jez isn't in her room. It seems she snuck out either late last night or early this morning."

James blinked and opened his mouth, unsure of what he should do or say. Bracken waited with a pensive expression on his kindly face as he listened to the phone ring. All of a sudden, a loud song started up in the living room, breaking the thick silence that had settled down on the room. Both James and Jez's uncle stared at the cell phone belting out hard rock and lighting up on the coffee table right next to the bike helmet in the next room.

After a few seconds had passed, Bracken sighed and punched the end button on the phone he held.

"I'll have to drive down to Morgead's apartment to see if she's there," Jez's uncle mused. "Although, if she's any smart she won't be." Bracken began the mundane process of gathering up car keys and house keys and fishing his shoes from the rack in the closet. Bracken hauled open the front door and motioned for James to exit. "If she's not there then I suppose I'll have to take you home. You'll have to give me directions of course; do you know how to get home from here?"

James thought of the drive here, the numerous turns and backtracking his mother had been forced to preform and decided, "No, but I could from town."

"Alright, sounds perfect."

They'd only been driving a few minutes when Jez's Uncle Bracken pulled into the cracked parking lot of a dingy apartment complex and parked in front of the entrance. It wasn't much to look at, and James figured it was just as unsightly inside as it was out.

Bracken turned the keys in the ignition and got out of the car. James watched through the open window as he approached the building's front doors. Instead of going through like James thought he would, he thumbed an intercom button and waited restlessly until there was a cracking reply.

"What."

"Morgead, is Jez with you?"

There was a short, static filled pause, then: "No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd notice if she was here, don't you think? She's pretty obnoxious."

Obnoxious? Jez? Rude and snarky, sure. A total moody loner, definitely. But James never thought he'd hear Jezebel Redfern described so blatantly as obnoxious.

"Well, be sure to tell me if she shows up here then," Bracken sighed.

The line crackled as Morgead snorted sarcastically and muttered, "Will do."

Bracken released the button and returned to the car. He sat in the driver's seat for a moment and pinched the bridge of his nose irritably. He grumbled something below his breath and jerked the car into gear, pulling smoothly from the curb.

The ride into town was filled with a tangible silence that neither party seemed to know how to break. It was just as they were nearing the public library that James noticed Jez's uncle start to act strangely. He'd been in the middle of a sentence – asking if the library was a good place for James to start in giving instructions back to his own home – when he abruptly shut his mouth and tipped his head as if trying to hear something better.

Suddenly, Bracken punched the gas and James' head was plastered to the back of his seat as the car shot forward.

James shot Jez's uncle a wide eyed look to which he explained bashfully, "It seems I'd forgotten to check one place."

After two corners, James realized that they were headed for the park. And the park was the last place he would think to look for Jez. But sure enough, if he squinted hard enough he could just make out a blurry shock of red hair blended with black to one side directly underneath a thick tree at the back of the park.

Bracken climbed out of the car and James followed him as he trekked across the playground and over a derelict soccer field until the blob of red and black began to become more and more clear.

Neither Jez nor Morgead noticed the pair striding towards them until it was too late. James saw Jez look up and saw the shock register on her face. The boy sitting next to her – it was the boy from the picture on the fridge, James realized – stared at him with frigid green eyes as they approached.

As Jez's uncle began to lecture both Jez and Morgead, James found himself feeling rather uncomfortable. It felt strangely personal to see Jez sitting beneath a tree with a boy as they shared headphones from an MP3 player and licked ice cream. It wasn't something he's ever even consider could happen. And as Jez stared at him with piercing silvery-blue eyes and argued with her uncle, James felt as if maybe everything he'd ever thought about Jez had been a lie.

thanks for reading I hoped it entertained you or something cause to be honest I don't even know wtf this is supposed to be. anyway review with what you think and also if you have any requests/ideas :)