Runaways and dreamers

Chapter 13- The runaway's story

"Well you've already met my parents so I don't need to describe them but they aren't always as nice as they seem." Jace started, Katie stared at him looking skeptical.

"Your kidding right? They weren't nice at all! Not to me at least." Katie pointed out.

Jace shrugged, "True. But anyway when I was younger they sent me to a boarding school for 3 years. What kind of parents send their kid away for 3 years with no contact? But I guess it may have been the fact that I got in trouble at school."

"What kind of trouble?"

"I thought the idea of private school was stupid and I always made a point to tell my teachers that and let them know that they weren't any better than public school teachers. That got me a good amount of detentions. Apparently it was disrespectful." Jace grinned deviously. Katie smirked at him in approval, with a small laugh of amusement.

"So my parents decided to send me to an even stricter private school and I kept getting in more trouble until they decided to homeschool me. But that went downhill fast because neither of them were good teachers. Or knew how to really teach at all. All they knew about was etiquette, rich people social code and how to manipulate people into doing what you want. So they gave up and sent me to boarding school." Jace continued with a disgusted look.

"But still, you had so many opportunities that most people only dream about!" Katie protested.

"It wasn't worth it! The opportunities weren't worth the amount of lying and under handed cheating to get there. The biggest thing my parents taught me is how to make people believe a lie for your gain."

"Could be useful." Katie shrugged.

Jace shook his head, "I wanted to actually earn opportunities not cheat to get them! And another thing I hated about my childhood was how uptight everyone was. No one ever really had fun it was all about impressions and convincing people to do your dirty work or showing that you were superior to them. It's sick really, I couldn't take it anymore. Not to mention how boring it was. I needed something more on the edge, more adventurous."

"I always remember, at night, climbing up the biggest hill I could find and just sitting their staring out at the shining lights and imagining how perfect life was there," Katie recounted with a forlorn smile, "it just all seemed like a fantasy world."

"My part of town? A fantasy?" Jace asked more to himself than to Katie, "I always thought the lights were intrusive and obnoxious, I thought the darker side of town just seemed so peaceful."

"From a distance your part of town looks like a dream, like a fairytale where all the happy endings are. Having everything, doing everything..." Katie smiled, remembering the view she'd adored as a kid and still loved. Jace stared at her in wonder, can distance really change that much about a place?

Katie watched him thoughtfully as his thoughts swirled back and forth. She smiled, "Let me just show you." Grabbing his hand, Katie jogged out the door and down the familiar path that she'd taken as a kid to watch the city lights.

A light breeze rustled leaves on trees and bushes, creating a peaceful swaying sound.
Pulling him through the forested path, Katie eventually could see the top of the hill. She bolted toward it, dragging Jace along behind her. She let go of his hand, running ahead and sitting down on the hill's crest. Katie stared at the distant lights with wide eyes, as she always had, still in love with the view.

Jace caught up, sitting next to her and following her gaze toward the beautiful display of the city illuminated warmly in the night. Glowing like the sun, moon, and stars against the black sky. "It's beautiful," Jace said quietly, placing his arm around her shoulders in hopes that she wouldn't pull away.

"Yeah, it is." Katie nodded, staring in awe at the lights she'd grown to adore. This time, as he'd hoped, Katie didn't pull away, she made no attempt to move away or to move closer but stayed put, completely enchanted by the lights. Staring at that view for her was almost like a time machine, transporting her back to when she was a kid. Before everything, before pain, before heart break and betrayal, before fear, before second chances, before anything.

"Katie?" Jace turned toward her in curiosity.

"Ya?...." She replied distantly, trailing off.

"I wanna tell you something."

"K..." Katie murmured, her eyes still fixated on the lights in the distance, and a small childlike smile on her lips.

I love you, Jace thought. He was about to say it but decided against it when he realized she wasn't really paying attention.

"It's really pretty up here." He said quickly in a slightly disappointed tone, pretending that he hadn't been about to say that he loved her. Katie nodded, still mostly oblivious to everything he was saying. Jace frowned, wishing that she'd been paying attention so he could've told her what he was really thinking. He sighed, following her gaze back toward the shining lights of a world he no longer belonged to.

/*\*/*\*/*\*/

As they raced each other to the lake house, Jace got an idea. "Katie! Hold up a minute!" He called to her, she stopped, about ten or fifteen feet ahead of him.

He jogged to where she was, "How would you like to live a day in my part of town?"

A grin spread across Katie's face, "Seriously? Like actually live there for a day?!" The idea of the child image of a perfect city still entrancing her.

Jace nodded, "Yup, we'll get you clothes and stuff to look the part, it'll be fun."

Katie smiled, "Ok, let's go find some rich kid clothes then!" They raced each other up the street and into town toward the mall. Laughing and running, they were out of breath by the time they reached the mall. To Jace the mall was an everyday thing, but to Katie it was giant, like a looming maze of stores.

"Just follow me." Jace instructed, taking the lead and striding into the first store which also happened to be his favorite. Hollister.

"Of course," Katie mumbled with a small laugh, as she shook her head, "definitely Mr.Hollister now."

"Shut up" Jace complained with a playful grin.

Katie smirked deviously, "Aye aye captain Hollister." Jace glared at her for a second before showing her the way to the girls section. He spread his hands in the direction of all the girls clothes.

"Well, there it is," Jace gestured to the racks upon racks of clothes.

Holy crap, Katie thought, looking around at the many, many options she had to pick from. She slowly walked into the enormous selection of clothing, wondering how in the world she was supposed to pick from so many interesting options.