Crying For Who: Rebitten

Two

July 14th, 2009
TAFT High School

Jordan sighed, closing her locker. When you're young, they tell you to grow up, get a job, maybe have a kid... and that's it. But there had to be more, right? It was like a cycle. Make breakfast, hope dads at home, get driven (with Hunter) to school, go through a school day, get home, do whatever she needed to, make dinner, study, sleep, repeat. It had been like this for a while now. Seventeen now, eighteen next year. Thoughts of the future... and then it would be a loop of working, trying to find a home, until she could maybe retire and enjoy what time she had left. Not to mention things had been different since she turned fourteen... her hair always seemed to just get slightly messy, all by itself, she bit down harder...

"Yo, Jordie." Came from next to her. It would be right to say that Jordan had gotten stuck in her own thoughts, a hand on her shoulder— Debbie. "You in there?"

"Oh, hey guys." Jordan smiled slightly.

"Come on, we're gonna be late." Tina turned around.

Great, among her two friends, heading for the lunch hall, with all the usual teenage stuff, like acne. It's normal, no matter how annoying.

Two Minutes Later...

"Jordan, he's over there. Ask him to the prom." Debbie gently elbowed Jordan as they stood in the line for lunch.

It would be right to say Jordan hadn't slept much. "..Huh? Forget it. No possible way." Jordan admitted, pushing her glasses back on, strands of hair sticking out.

"J, you've been drooling over McCann since he
transferred from Harrison." Tina reminded.

"I don't drool." Jordan defended. "And besides, what am I gonna say to him?"

"Nothing. You say nothing. Look at Ashley. They've got it down. The hair flip, the lip pout, the over-giggle. It's a language all its own." Debbie pointed out.

"This is not the time to be the mouse, Jordan. You're the predator, and he's your prey, a test run. The practice." Becca encouraged.

"All right. See ya. Bye, court. Dang it. I forgot my wallet." Came from McCann's mouth. It's high school, they're allowed to experiment with their love lives...

Jordan removed her glasses - well, Tina removed them, let her adjust her hair, and just... walked over to him, some money in her bag.

"Here." She half-managed to hand a crumpled dollar bill to the lady. He was taller than her. She wasn't sure what she was doing with her lips.

"Uh.. thanks. Jessie, right?"

"It's.. Jordan."

"..thanks."

He walked off. Great. Awkward.

And now she had to pick up everything that fell out of her bag in the process... great. Pen, phone - she probably had a text from her new friend, textbook, money, eyedrops, hairbrush, red scrunchie... all without her glasses on.

Ashley seemed to be glaring at her...

Later
P.E

"Heads up!" The kick, her worried attempt to block. "Ooh!" Another... "Aah!" And her hitting the ground.

Seriously, she needed a way to get excused from P.E. She could be spending that time studying, researching, reading... maybe check on a friend who'd randomly brought up a Greek mythology book she'd found and rambled on about it until she stopped and apologised - awkward pictures of the book (and each other) and all.

"Come on, Sands. Get a hand up!" Came from their teacher. It was nice to have someone believe in her... if she wasn't almost down on the grass, awkwardly having her gloved hands covering her face.

"Your sister kind of stinks, dude." Richie said from the side of the building.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure that's the bag?" Robert, or as they called him, Petey, rose his eyebrows.

"Patience, my apprentice."

"Ooh!" Jordan needed to get off of the pitch, she didn't know what was coming... or why she kept trying.

"Come on, Sands. Did I say you can take a break? You want to make this team, I'm gonna need a little more effort." She had wanted to make the team when she was younger, but it always seemed just out of reach.

"Here we go." Hunter smiled to his partners-in-crime. "Watch this."

As the teacher reached into the bag... an excellent reproduction of a human head, a terrified expression on both ends... it's not like someone could tell the difference in a moment like this... a scream.

Jordan didn't even react as the fake head rolled over to her feet -

"...Dude." Came from Becca, standing next to Jordan, her attention directed to the scream, their heads turning.

"Hey, isn't that your loser brother, Sands?" Came from Ashley.

"Don't even know him." She probably wasn't making the team.

Later that day,
Sands House

Ah yes, the table, bills being sorted under Jordan's hands. This wasn't a teenage a job.
"Ok, so this one really needs to be paid. And, um, the rest of them can wait another few months."

Tired. That's what they both were.
"...Dad, everything's gonna be alright, isn't it?"

"Mmm. Sure. Of course it is." David tried to be reassuring. Maybe he'd ask John about that electricity trick he had...

"We need a miracle. A big, big miracle."

"Hey, look, I don't want you guys to worry, all right? I'll figure this out. I promise."

"Oh, and, um, there's something else that I just..." Jordan sighed. That got her out of P.E.

"Yeah? What's that?" David looked down at it... right from the principal herself. Suspended again?"

Jordan only nodded.

"Hunter, grab the camera. I can't hold it through the mask." The woman held the mask steady, putting it onto her face... how long ago was this? Two years? "Ok. I'm gonna sneak up on him."

And the little jump from the back of the couch to David's shoulders... "Aah! Aah!"

"Oh!" From Jordan, face in a book...

"You freaked me out. Come over here!"

"What are you doing? Mom!"

"This is so brilliant, Hunter."

"Not brilliant."

"Aah! It's not funny."

"Would you put the entrails down, please?" David came into his room. Maybe he hadn't been tough enough on him.

That's right, we're in Hunters Room now!

Hunter paused. The recording, I mean, no longer playing with the fake entrails. Wasn't his fault they helped distract him.

"Hunter, this has to stop. It was ok when you were a kid, but it's time to grow up."

"Dad, I'm not fourteen until-." Hunter argued.

"You've got to start living in the real world." David interrupted. "Ok? And in the real world,  there's no Destruktor. All right, there's no Mutilator. There's no aliens." It was time to put his foot down.

"Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it's not true."

After all, he had so much evidence. People going missing around strange angel statues, some explosion in a British school and reports of weird creatures appearing last summer...

"...I miss her too." David laid his eyes on the screen. "One more of these, one more, all this goes away. Ok?" He gestured around the room. So many pictures of scaring Jordan... he could've done something earlier.

"Yeah. I got it." Hunter let out a small sigh.

"Goodnight."