The No Kiss Contract (Jensoo)

2

Jennie left her soggy boots on the mat and pulled her drenched sweater over her head, hanging it on a hook next to her dry and unused raincoat. If raincoats could talk, hers seemed to say I told you so as it hung there all smug and judgmental. She padded through the kitchen and found her mom asleep in front of the TV with a very awake Louis in her lap. He was watching an octopus unscrew a jelly jar on the screen, but smiled at her when she came closer.

"Hi, Ma. Octopuses are smart."

Jennie bent over his small frame and pressed the back of her hand to his cheek and forehead before running her fingers through his sweaty dark curls. "Hey, Louis. Feeling any better?"

"Grammie let me have green Jell-O. It felt good in my throat." He didn't take his eyes from the antics of the octopus.

Jennie's mother woke up and the recliner snapped to an upright position. "You're back. How did it go?"

"How are you feeling, Mom?"

"No more fever, thank goodness. For either of us. I gave Lou the children's Tylenol at six, and I think he's feeling a little better, but I'm still pretty wiped."

"Why don't you go to bed? We'll stay tonight since it's so late. Can I put Lou in with you and I'll take the couch?"

"Sure." She sat up. "I notice you didn't answer my question."

Jennie slouched in the doorway. "We didn't accomplish much. She'll call and finish the arrangements with you."

She gave Jennie a despairing look. "I don't understand why you can't be adults and get along. For Cherry's sake, at least."

"It doesn't matter. She's not a part of our lives." Time to change the subject. "What do you think, Lou? You up for going to school tomorrow?"

"I think I'm still too sick."

She grinned. "Somehow I thought you would say that. Why don't we see how you feel in the morning?"

"Come on, Louie. Let's go to bed. We can watch the octopus tomorrow."

"Okay, Grammie." Instead of negotiating for five more minutes, he went docilely with his grandmother, and that's how Jennie knew he really was still ill.

The tinny sound of music leaking from headphones was all Jennie could hear when she put her ear to Cherry's bedroom door. She quietly opened it to see her sister sitting on the floor watching a YouTube video on her laptop while typing on her phone. Jennie nudged her with her foot and Cherry reacted violently, tearing her headphones off and clutching at her chest simultaneously.

"Crap! Knock much, Jennie?" she said and slapped the spacebar on her laptop.

"Sorry." Jennie plopped down on the floor beside her. "What are you watching?"

"Joanna Gleason as the Baker's Wife. Her phrasing is sublime. Rumor has it SSCT is doing Into the Woods this summer. I'm brushing up."

"And you're going for the Baker's Wife?" There was no way Cherry, at almost-fourteen, would be cast as the Baker's Wife.

"Hardly. I'll audition for Little Red."

A much better fit, but still a reach. "You'd be perfect." She hoped the set wouldn't be very elaborate. She didn't have a lot of time to give the Southfield Summer Community Theater this year.

Cherry picked up her pencil and twirled it around her fingers. "Did you see Jisoo?"

"I did. There's still some details to work out, but you're going to get your party."

Cherry clapped with excitement. "Yay. When?"

"That falls under the aforementioned details yet to be arranged. Did you know she moved to Elmdale?"