Finding Jaime

Chapter 34

Dad pulled up to the front of the school and parked. I gathered my crutches and backpack and got myself organized. Dad and I walked into the school together.

"Yo! Clarke! Where have you been, man?" Frank came up to me and offered a fist bump.

"Yeah. Been a crazy couple of weeks," I said.

"I can see that," Frank said, indicating my cast. "What happened?"

Frank does not watch the news.

"Fell in a canyon on a hike," I said. "Pretty stupid, huh?"

"Well, if anyone is going to fall into a canyon and bust up his leg, well, actually that'd be Justin. So I'm surprised it was you," Frank smirked. "Who's this guy?"

He was pointing at Dad.

"Oh, uh, this is my, my dad."

"Your dad? I thought your mom was single. When did she get married?"

"She didn't," I said. Clearly Emanuel didn't fill them in.

Frank was looking at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes.

"She died," I said simply, looking down at the ground.

"Dude! What happened? I'm sorry, that was rude."

"She was sick," I said. I didn't want Frank's pity.

"Why didn't you tell us? Did you have a funeral? Why didn't you call us?" Frank said. "We woulda been there. You're our boy."

"Everything kinda happened so fast and I wasn't in a good headspace. Emanuel already read me the riot act for not letting you guys know."

"So that's why he said go easy on you when you come back," Frank said. I saw Dad's eyebrow raise.

"Say," Frank then said, looking at Dad.  "You look familiar."

Dad shrugged.

"I get that," he said. Until a couple of girls walked by.

"OMG. Are you Pete Wentz?!" They came up to Dad. He looked at me and smiled.

"I might be," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"Wait, you're Jaime. You were on the news. Pete Wentz is your dad?" 

I had a feeling I was about to become a lot more popular than I wanted to.

"Can we go to the office now?" I asked Dad. He nodded.

"Ladies," he said, as we walked towards the office. The girls followed.

"Clarke, I'll see you in Chem!" Frank called out. I waved at him to show I'd heard.

Dad and I walked into the office and the principal walked out of her office.

"Jaime, welcome back," she smiled as I clunked my way in. "We're glad to have you back. How are you doing?"

I shrugged.

"Mr. Wentz, I presume?" The principal said to Dad.

"Yep," Dad said. "Just figured we should change some of the contact info for Jaime."

"Alright. We can do that. Jaime doesn't need to be here," she said to Dad and then turned to me. "You can head on to homeroom."

"Jaime, Meagan or I will be here at two thirty. We'll text you to let you know which one of us, okay?"

"Yeah," I said, heading out of the office.

I crutched my way down the hall towards my locker. I heard whispering and people were staring at me as I made my way.

"Hey, Jaime!" Emanuel said, coming up to me at my locker as I was putting books into my bag.

"Hey Em," I said.

"Glad to see you back, man. You seen Frank yet?"

"Yeah. Saw him when I got here. You didn't tell him."

"Naw. I didn't really know how to explain, well, everything."

"Not that hard. You could a told him mom died and I'd moved in with my dad."

"I coulda, but then how do I explain who your dad is?"

"You don't. You didn't have to. Whatever. I don't care," I said, slamming my locker. I pulled on my backpack and headed to my first class.

"Jay," Emanuel called after me. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what you wanted people to know!"

I flipped him the finger. I didn't care. Yeah, I didn't tell anyone my mom had died. And yeah, I didn't invite them to the funeral. But Emanuel knew and didn't say anything to Frank. And I had enough to deal with now. The girls who recognized Dad were following me, chittering away about him.

"Would you shut the fuck up?!" I finally turned around and screamed at them. "Yeah, Pete Wentz is my dad. So the fuck what?!"

They looked at me, stunned. Then, rolled their eyes and, finally, walked away.

I continued on my way to homeroom.

When I got to the classroom I went inside and dumped my bag on the floor at my desk, fell into my seat and fumed. Thankfully, I was the only one there so far. I'm never early.

"Jaime Clarke," Mrs. Watson said. "Welcome back."

I glared at her as she made her way over to me.

"I heard about your mom. I'm so sorry, Jaime. And we all heard about your accident. And your dad. How are you doing?"

I looked at Mrs. Watson and wanted to snark at her. But she was actually a decent person.

"I'm okay," I said.

"Look, Jaime. I know you put on a tough exterior. But if you ever need to talk, you can always come to me. Or your guidance counsellor. Or any staff member."

I nodded.

People started filing into the classroom. Some of my friends came by and said hello and that they'd missed me and seen me on the news and all that shit.

Mrs. Watson welcomed me back in front of the whole class, took attendance and sent us off to our first period classes.

Most of my classes started in much the same way. It got annoying.

At lunch, Frank and Justin found me in the cafeteria where I was trying to eat lunch and started talking about stuff we'd gotten up to before mom died and the night before. How weird it was the the next day my life changed.

They were talking about what they wanted to do next.

"Don't count on me," I said, getting up and throwing out the rest of my lunch. They'd made me lose my appetite. "I'll just slow you down at this point anyway."

I left the cafeteria without looking back.