Evacuated

Another Chance

Things were the way they were. Terabithia, school, life. Everything was as per the usual. One night, Jess' family were going to watch his dad's baseball practice, so I joined in on the invite from Jess. For the most part, we just watched his dad play. The team was pretty good. Two of the players, husband and wife had a child under two years old, Nolan was his name, and Jess loved the kid. Him and I tried to play with um, but he was teething at the time so the poor kid was in so much goddamn pain. Last time, Jess told me they had said they'd bring cinnamon buns to practice that day. But most of the practice flew by and nobody had brought cinnamon buns. Jess and I were just hanging around for the most part.

We began walking towards his parents car because we were bored and hot and wanted to sit in the car and listen to music. "Race ya" Jess smiled. We both started running as fast as we could. I came upon a small hole dug in the ground and tripped over it. Jess turned around to see I was fine and kept running. "Hey, that's not fair!" I called over a meter behind as I picked up my pace again. "I won" Jess smiled pridefully. "That doesn't count!" I laughed. I unlocked the door and got in the drivers seat of the car and cranked up the music. "No, you sit there" Jess said, nudging the passengers seat. "No, I'm not moving" I laughed. I locked Jess out of the car and had the keys in the outlet to power the blasting music. I kept locking and unlocking it quickly to taunt Jess. He finally got me and opened the door before I could re-lock it again. "No!" I screeched through my laughter. "I'm not moving" I repeated. "Alright fine" Jess smiled, shoving me over and forcing himself onto the drivers seat with me. "I'm not gonna move! You move!" I laughed. "No, we'll
just sit here like this" he threatened. We sat in silence for a couple seconds under the sound of the music. "Okay, fine!" I laughed. "I'll sit over there" I told him. "Okay" he agreed. "Well, get out so I can get out" I demanded, still smiling. Jess opened the door and hopped out. I quickly closed the door and laughed at him. He opened it and gave me that "really?" kinda look. "Alright, alright!" I laughed, hopping out and going to the other side. Jess got in the drivers seat and locked all the doors. "Hey!" I laughed from the outside. "Not funny!" I called to Jess. "Open the door!" I banged on the passenger seat window. Jess finally unlocked the door and let me in on the other side. I closed the door as I sat myself comfortably in the passengers seat. "Ooh I love this song!" I turned up the radio. "Me too!" Jess laughed. We sang along with the song before it ended. Sorry, I can't remember what song it was. "We better go back now" I said. "Why?" Jess complained. "They might be handing out cinnamon buns now" I explained. "No they won't, nobody had any coming in" Jess explained. "People had bags, ya never know. Well, I'm going" I decided, opening the car door. "Okay, okay. Wait for me! Don't run!" Jess called after me.

I waited for him to catch up. When he did, he bolted so fast ahead of me. "Hey! Not fair! You always get a head start!" I called, chasing after him. When we got there, Jess and I stood there breathing heavily in attempt to catch our breath. The group of baseball players stood in a circle talking, Mrs. Aarons holding Joyce and Mr. Aarons grasping May Belle's hand while Brenda and Ellie stood aside with their noses in their phones. Over half the team were eating cinnamon buns around us. The team leader was explaining the next practice dates and locations to the team. "Where'd everyone get the cinnamon buns?" Jess asked his mom silently. "Shut up" she spat at him. He rolled his eyes and nudged me with his elbow. I nudged him back and we kept pushing each other around, trying not to laugh with smiles on our faces. "Did you two get cinnamon buns?" the team leader turned his attention to Jess and I. "No" Jess said as a smile grew on his face. "Help yourselves!" he smiled. "There's only one left" Jess sighed. "Here" I said, splitting it in half. "Which one do you want?" I asked him with both halves gooey in my hands. Jess took the bigger half from my hand and bit into it. I laughed at the sight of cinnamon all over his freckled face.

On the walk back out to the car, Jess and I ate our cinnamon buns. "I like the non-gooey parts better" Jess said. "I like the gooey parts better" I added. "Mine half is too gooey" Jess stated. "Mine isn't gooey enough, we should've took the other halves" I suggested. "That's what I get for selfishly choosing the bigger half" Jess remarked. "I know, I noticed that!" I laughed. "Race ya" Jess said before bolting ahead of me. "You always get a head start, Jess!" I called after him. He beat me, once again. We laughed and got into the car. On the way back, Joyce sat in the car seat between Jess and my seats in the middle row of the car. His parents sat in the front, while May Belle, Brenda and Ellie sat the way back. Jess and I reached our feet across the seats and layered them on top of each other the whole way home.

It was dark when we finally arrived back at the Aarons farm. I ran back home and checked in with my parents. They said it wasn't a school night, so I could go back over and stay the night with them if I wanted. I didn't even pack a bag before heading back to the Aarons. When I got there, Brenda gave me some of her old pajamas to wear. I began changing when Jess walked in. "Strip club!" Jess taunted as May Belle and I changed clothes. "It's a bedroom, you change in a bedroom" I stated. Jess took of his shirt, May Belle and I staring at him disapprovingly. "What? It doesn't count!" Jess whined. After, I turned on the video game system in their TV and Jess let me play the racing game they had. I sat on the couch and played. I wasn't very good and I wasn't doing it right either. Jess grabbed a pillow and set it in my lap before laying down on it. I was saying "excuse me" to the passing racers in the game and asking them to "please move" and all sorts of polite things when you push someone out of your way or pass by them. Jess was laughing at me for whatever reason. "What?" I asked. "You're funny" he laughed, laying down facing the TV. "How?" I asked. He just continued to laugh every time I excused someone who passed by me in the game.

After I turned off the system, I told Jess it was time for bed because it was after ten o'clock. He wouldn't get up, pretended to be half asleep. "Come on" I begged him. He laid there on the couch as I bribed him with so many things to get um to come to bed. After a while, I decided I was done. "If ya can't beat um, join um" and I laid down on the couch with Jess. I began talking a little and trying to get him to come with me and just go to bed already. He wouldn't answer me and kept on acting half asleep. I sighed and just laid there for a second before Jess took my hand in his. "Alright" I finally shut up. We laid there, hand in hand for a few minutes before I got up to go to bed and Jess finally followed me.

I sat down on his bed and placed my head at the end where your feet should be and faced backwards. After turning all the lights off in the house, Jess came into his bedroom he shared with May Belle and Joyce Ann and closed the door. He joined me on his bed and laid on top of me, facing upwards towards the roof. Now this part I can't remember, I don't remember a damn thing we talked about. But whatever it was was beautiful and the conversation made a true memory in my heart. After a while, we parted into our own places to sleep. I couldn't sleep at all. I was uncomfortable and didn't even know how to fall asleep. I went over by Joyce's bed where the hamster, Yasmin, is kept and talked with her. After a while, I fell asleep on the ground. I don't know how long later, but I was awoken with the touch of someone's foot jabbing into my stomach. I tossed and turned but they wouldn't give up. I sat up and saw Jess sitting there beside me. "Why are you on the floor?" Jess asked. "I couldn't sleep" I said. "Me either, my ear is fluttering" he explained. "What?" I asked, sitting up. "My ear is fluttering, there's a butterfly in there" poor little Jess whined. "Aw, I don't think that's what it is" I said. "I'm searching it up, can I use your phone?" Jess asked. "Mines pretty much dead" I said. "Oh okay, it's fine" he decided. "No here, it's fine. I won't need it for the rest of the night so burn it up" I said. Jess spent a lot of time sitting there, googling "why is there a fluttering in my ear?" I laid down on the floor beside him and ran my finger along the bends in his pajama pants. After a while, Jess spoke. "I think I have a disease called tinnitus" Jess said, almost laughing. "No, you don't" I laughed. "Yes I do" and he began reading me the article and all the symptoms. He was going on about this tinnitus and did as much research as he could on it. After a while, he handed me back my phone and laid next to me. "I have tinnitus" he restated. "No you don't!" I laughed. After a long debate about tinnitus, Jess and I got back in bed and went off to sleep. The next day would bring something worth discovering. Something we'd do together.