Bridge to Terabithia 2: A Second Chance

5. Homecoming Blues

On what was looking to be a bright and sunny Saturday morning, Alexandra made her way downstairs and walked into the kitchen in search of breakfast.

With how quiet the house was, it was obvious that her parents were at work and Freddie was still asleep. Her brother tended to sleep in until noon (or sometimes even later) on weekends, partly thanks to how hard he was working himself in football practice, whereas Alexandra tended to be an early riser for no other reason than that she couldn't sleep longer than nine in the morning.

Though she normally would have skipped breakfast or had it a little later in the morning, she poured herself a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles and sat down to eat because she and Jess had agreed to hang out and she didn't want to have to quickly cut off their activities so she could go eat. Cereal would help keep her going until lunchtime and after she finished breakfast, she put her bowl in the sink, grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, and ran next door, where she found Jess milking the cow in the barn.

"Morning," she called as she walked over to him, announcing her presence so he didn't get spooked.

"Hey, good morning," Jess said in return.

"Are we still on for baseball?"

"Yeah, we are. Just let me finish milking Miss Bessie."

"No problem, I can wait."

After Jess finished milking the cow, they went back to her house, grabbed the bat and the collection of baseballs she kept in a paint bucket in the shed, and walked out towards the road. There was no traffic this early in the morning and they were about to cross the road when Jess heard someone calling Alexandra's name and looked over in time to see the boy from the fight in the cafeteria run up to her from the house in no time at all.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?"

"We're gonna play some baseball out in the fields," Alexandra confirmed. "Wanna join us?"

"Hell yeah, you know I'm always down for some baseball!" Freddie cheered.

"The more, the merrier, right, Jess?" Alexandra asked.

"R-right..." he managed to say.

Oh, yeah, I don't believe you two have been formally introduced," Alexandra sang as she placed a hand on her brother's shoulder. He was a few feet taller than Jess but absolutely towered over Alexandra and looked like a giant next to her.

"Freddie, this is Jess Aarons, our next-door-neighbor. Jess, this is my brother, Freddie."

It was true that they hadn't been formally introduced, especially when Jess recalled that the first time they had even been in the same room for longer than a few seconds had been when they had been sent down to the principal's office following that fight in the cafeteria last week.

Jess hated to admit it but he felt a little intimidated because Freddie was built like a linebacker and he had seen him throw a punch at Scott Hoager that must have hurt.

"Nice to meet you, Jess."

"Yeah, same," he replied.

The trio trudged out into the field just across the road from their houses and found a nice, open spot far enough from the road that they wouldn't have to worry about hitting any cars that drove by and then decided who would bat first with a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors.

"Ready? Rock-paper-scissors!"

Jess had picked scissors, so had Freddie, and Alexandra had unfortunately picked paper, which meant that she had lost her chance to bat first. The boys then squared off, shouting "rock-paper-scissors!" for no other reason than to see who could be louder, and Jess managed to beat Freddie's scissors with his rock; Alexandra and Freddie then battled for the position of pitcher but luck wasn't on Alex's side today because she ended up losing to her brother and Freddie was first to pitch.