Supernatural//[ON HOLD]

Supernatural//20

- Jamie - 

My car was sitting, idly parked, in one of Bryce Middleton's many parking lots. I wringed my hands together nervously while I stared up at the looming building. It's been a while since I've been here. The structure was almost unfamiliar. The school was just like all the other school on the coast: grand and pristine.

The entire building's walls were made of glass, so everything that was happening inside could be seen from the outside. The glass was gleaming. There were two sets of stairs jutting out from the sides of the school, both leading up to the spacious balcony where seniors had their lunches. If I squinted, I could make out blurry forms of my classmates, talking and laughing while they picked at their grilled cheese and took a bite out of their apples. 

Usually, I'd be up there with them, but the sudden scenic change from hot, dry Texas to sunny California had given me a small case of whiplash. I was still reeling from being shot - no one would tell me how or why - and my amnesia. I hated not being able to remember anything. Seeing the sad faces on my  friends' faces, it hurt the both of us that I wasn't able to recall a thing. Every time I conjured up Ryan and Chris's face, I willed myself to remember at least a tiny memory but all it resulted in was me getting a migraine. 

I dragged my eyes away from the balcony and up to the roof, which was a circle dome, made entirely out of glass mosaics. I snorted, a bit overwhelmed. I'd attended this school before we moved and I'd gotten used to it. But I'd also gotten used to the small, cozy school right smack in the middle of Houston, Texas. Being back, it was like all those years in California before the move had been wiped out and were now being forced back into my brain, filling up the missing pieces of my life in Texas, filling a void that could never be filled. 

Sighing, I willed myself to take in the rest of the surreal scenery: the palm trees, the people littered on the beach just a few feet away and the black, intricate gate surrounding the perimeter of the school. The walkway leading up to the school's entrance seemed like the only thing that wasn't overdone; it was just cement and it was what I felt when I finally worked up the courage to go inside, bag strapped to my side.

...

"I'm so glad you're back!" Juliet squealed, squeezing her small, delicate arms around my midriff and giving me a hard squeeze. I let out a squeak and she pulled back, beaming. "It's been so weird without my best friend!"

Thoughts of Texas were still swirling inside my mind and seeing Juliet's grinning face, I couldn't help but feel guilty. Here I was, reunited with my old friends and all I could think about was my life without them. Contrite, I smiled and hugged her back. "I miss you. How have things been these last...three months?" 

"'Three months'?" Juliet echoed. "Jamie, you were gone six months. Don't they have calenders in Texas?" 

I recoiled away from her. Six months? I'd been there that long? 

Juliet frowned. "What, what's wrong?" 

I shook my head slowly. "Nothing's wrong. Where's Mitch?" 

If she had sensed anything strange with my sudden subject change, she didn't show it. Instead, her brown spheres snaked from student to student until they brightened. Her index finger shot out and she said, "There he is." Putting her hand on my shoulder as an armrest, she stood on her tiptoe and called out, "Mitch! Over here!"

A few moments later, the third member of our little group approached, grinning from ear to ear the second his eyes landed on me. Ignoring Juliet entirely, Mitch lunged for me, pulled me to his chest, wrapped his arms around me, and like Juliet, squeezed. Both, apparently, weren't that concern of my well-being or my newly adorned bullet wound. "C-can't breathe!" I gasped out, my fist pounded feebly on Mitch's hard back. I doubt my punches made a difference but he dropped me nonetheless. "There - wasn't any need for that!" I scolded. "You saw me yesterday."