SKIPPING TIME

Chapter 4

SIX MONTHS LATER...

Cacee bounded up the bus steps, scanning the seats until her eyes landed on Jess. She smiled as his face relaxed into an easy grin at the sight of her. Hurrying down the aisle, she threw herself into the seat next to him and whispered, "I'm so glad you're here! I've been worried you'd get caught."

He blanched. "Caught how?"

"You know." She mimed signing something.

Jess started peeling the vinyl off the arm of his seat. "Oh, that. Yeah, I'm cool."

He didn't look cool. He looked horribly self-conscious. Clearly, he still felt bad about forging the permission slip to come on this field trip. He would've never told her about the forgery if she hadn't been going through his backpack for gum and come across the paper with Margaret Smitherson written all over it. The first few times the name was written in Jess's neat, clear penmanship but, as it progressed down the page, the writing morphed into someone else's until, by the last signature on the sheet, she would've never been able to pin it as Jess' writing. She'd immediately known what it had to be. Practice. When she'd asked him about it, Jess had gotten so discomfited he might've been caught plotting a murder rather than sneaking off to a harmless field trip.

It was only after she'd pushed for answers that he'd reluctantly admitted what he was doing. But Cacee still didn't get why he'd had to forge the permission slip. Today was a Friday, the one day a week Jess was allowed to hang out. Therefore, it shouldn't matter that they weren't getting back until five or so. But, according to Jess, it did matter. In fact, he seemed to agree with his aunt and uncle that, just in case there was some emergency with Peter, he should be nearby, not two hours away in Philadelphia.

She thought that was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. In the case of an emergency, it was up to Peter's parents to be there, not Jess. Especially since he never got to do anything or go anywhere. Plus this field trip was to the Philadelphia Art museum. She'd seen numerous drawings or paintings Jess had done in art class. His stuff was always dark, but good. He might never make a living as an artist, but he definitely had talent. He shouldn't have felt guilty for wanting to go to see this exhibit. But he obviously did. She nudged his arm. "Hey, lighten up. You didn't commit a crime, you know. It's just a teensy little signature."

Jess mumbled, "Can we drop this?"

She nodded, then caught his eye and smiled, an unspoken apology for making him feel bad. In six months of friendship, she'd never hung out with Jess for more than a few hours at a time, one day a week, when Peter went to the therapy. She'd gotten special permission to come on the art class's field-trip for the sole purpose of spending the entire day with him. The last thing she wanted was to make things awkward.

She was happy when Jess gave her an easy smile back.

She shoved her backpack under the seat just as he said, "I can't believe this place is two whole hours away. I'm never gonna make it."

She laughed. "Let me guess, you're starving."

Jess gave her a pleading look. "I don't suppose you have a few extra cookies or something?"

She pulled her backpack out again and dug around the cooler she'd packed. She got out a large blueberry muffin and a bottle of juice before looking under their seat. She frowned, "You didn't bring it."

Jess asked, "Bring what?"

She frowned at him. "Your guitar. I planned on trading food for a song."