Bridge to Terabithia 2: A Second Chance

4. Trouble At School

For the next two weeks, Jess and Alexandra didn't speak to each other.

It was quite awkward, considering that they had math and English together and shared the same lunch period, but there was little they could do except do their best to ignore each other and pretend that they didn't exist.

There was just too much tension between them and Jess wished there was some way to get away from Alexandra, like switch classes so he wasn't in the same classes as her. Unfortunately, in a school this small, there was only one teacher for every subject per year, which meant that there was no hope of getting into a different classroom.

Despite their best efforts, they still couldn't completely avoid casting glances at each other. Alexandra shot a few uncomfortable looks his way and he did the same to her in return and every single time, they managed to lock eyes despite thinking that the other wasn't looking.

Jess had opted to sit with some of the guys from the track team but he couldn't help but feel bad when he saw her sitting alone at lunch with only a novel or homework to keep her company. He wanted to sit with her again, because his teammates were rowdy and it was hard to get more than a word in before someone else leapt in to add something to the conversation and it reminded Jess too much of what his home life had been like when Brenda and Ellie had still been living at home... minus all of the catty teenage girl drama.

His teammates, for all of their excitement and rowdiness, were great on the field but not so much at the lunch table -- not that he would ever tell them that.

Jess turned his attention back to his teammate, who was affectionately nicknamed "Waffles", to make it look like he was paying attention but in reality, he wasn't listening to a single word that came out of his mouth and Waffles might as well have been a character in a silent film.

He happened to glance over at Alexandra and felt his stomach drop when he saw her face contort in shock followed by rage and horror as she leapt to her feet and cursed at Scott Hoager, after which silence washed over the cafeteria as heads turned to look in her direction.

Jess didn't even notice his legs moving and when he blinked, he was already by Alexandra's table and standing between her and Scott Hoager just as he had pulled his arm back for a punch and wound up taking the punch that had been meant for Alexandra.

He stumbled but managed to remain on his feet despite how shaky his legs felt. He didn't even know how he'd managed to cross the cafeteria and come to her defense so quickly but here he was, cheek throbbing and arms raised to defend himself like he was about to fight Scott Hoager in the ring.

"Back off, Hoager," he demanded.

"Get out of my way, Aarons!" Hoager snapped as he pushed him aside and lunged across the table for Alexandra.

Jess tried to go after him, to stop him from hurting Alexandra, but found himself wrestling with Gary Fulcher, who was a lot stronger than he looked and gave Jess such a hard time that he couldn't shake him to help Alexandra.

He then heard another voice shout "hey, don't touch her!" and spotted the dark-haired boy who had told Alexandra that he was trying out for football running towards them at top speed. He didn't even try to stop and instead, used his momentum to shove Scott Hoager to the floor much like a linebacker before throwing a few punches that all managed to land.

"Hey, break it up!" a security guard shouted.

They were ordered by the furious security guards to head straight to the principal's office and were even escorted there like a bunch of criminals. Though it was no surprise, the principal was unimpressed and quite disappointed in them once he found out that they had been sent to his office for fighting in the cafeteria.