True Colors

Chapter 4 - "For once in my life, in one moment, I was 100% completely happy."

Chapter 4 – Jessica Montez

Jessica pulled up in front of my house and demanded—literally demanded—me to lock the doors and wait in the car.

I did as she told me so and I waited in the car for about a half an hour. In that half an hour, I got three messages from Eric and two from Ben. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to either of them, so I just put my phone back in my pocket and leaned against the window.

I watched as Jessica rolled my suitcase down the drive way in one hand and held my duffle bag in the other. Unlocking the doors, I popped the trunk open for her as well. I felt the car shake as she closed the trunk.

“Ready?” she asked me.

I nodded, “Are we going to go back to practice?”

She looked at me curiously, also with some look of concern, “Do you really want to go back to practice today?”

I exhaled through my nose and looked at her as she drove down the street, “I just want to watch the rest of practice, if that’s okay with you.”

She nodded, “You think you’ll be able to get a ride home?? I’m going to drop your stuff off and then I have class.”

I nodded, “Sure, I can either walk, or I could ask Ben or someone else to drive me back.”

“You have a key?” Jessica asked, stopping at the red light.

She started rummaging through her bag and pulled out a key on a chain, “Here, this is my spare key,” I grabbed the key and smiled, “I think you’ll need it more than I will.”

“Thanks,” I put the key around the wrist and sighed.

We took a turn by the Safeway closest to Heritage and traveled down the street a while. I turned to Jessica who seemed a little too focused on the road—like she was in a trance or something like that.

“Hey, Jessica?” I broke the silence, and pulled my phone out; simply lying in my lap.

She broke from her “trance” and look over at me as we pulled into the Liberty PAC parking lot, “What’s up?”

I smiled at her, “Thank you,” I whispered.

She smiled back at me and unlocked the car, “You’re welcome.”

I looked at the PAC to see that the band was doing another Drill Down.

“Good luck, Jessica,” Jessica stated.

I chuckled, got out of the car, and watched as she backed out and drove away; waving as she left. I turned my attention to the PAC as I walked over to the rest of my band.

I leaned up against one of the pillars, next to the steps the band was sitting on. There were about ten people left in the Drill Drown, two of them being Nina and Jennifer.

“LEFT HACE!” Ben shouted.

“One, two!” the ten band members shouted.

The PAC was quiet as the ten waited for Ben’s instructions; Ben looked at me for a moment and smile. I smiled back as I gestured for him to pay attention to the ten band kids.

“ABOUT…HACE!”

“One…two!”

And at that very moment seven of the ten were eliminated—taking one false step could cause for one to be eliminated from a Drill Down; this was pretty strict stuff.

“At ease,” Ben called out.

The band scattered for a few minutes of water break, they all seemed to have vanished before your eyes.