Begin Again (Lukesse)

through the woods again

Lukas's PoV

I knocked on Jess's door, hoping that I didn't look nervous. Holy Heckmouth, I was nervous. It was my first time going to her house, ever since I found her in the lake. The door clicked open and I saw Romeo standing there, his red hair looking majestic as always. "Uh.. I'm here to see Jesse?" I said awkwardly.

Romeo glanced at me and back at the stairs. "Well, come on up then." He said, opening the door wider and allowing me to step into the house. It looked so different when it was in the day. The kitchen was so clean and orderly, and there was the scent of lavender in the air.

"It's Xara's work." Romeo said, laughing as he noticed me standing still in the kitchen like a dumb person who has never seen a kitchen before. He gestured which door was Jesse's before leaving me alone. I took a deep breath before knocking and entering the room when I heard her say, "Enter.!"

"Oh hey Lukas. Ready to start the next project?" Jess asked, pulling off her headphones. "Yeah." I replied awkwardly, sitting down on a stool which I noticed as an IKEA stool. When I'm nervous I just think of weird things like that. I really wished my hands would stop sweating.

"Hey," Jess laughed and poked my arm. "Why so serious? It's just a English Project." I watched as she poured out a waterfall of coloured pencils and paper onto her soft carpet.

"Hey Jess, I've been meaning to ask you- why'd you pick me to be your partner anyway?" I stammered as the pencils rolled everywhere. She looked up at me, suddenly looking upset. "Why? You don't want to be my partner?" she asked, looking down at the pencils on the floor.

"No!", I grimaced because I might've said it too loudly, "I mean, I want to be your partner! This is so cool.!" I smiled, making Jess shrug. "Alright. Then we can start, I guess."

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"Whoa- this is super tiring.!" I muttered, shaking my cramped hand, which was stained with marker ink and pencil granite. Jess had tied up her hair in a bun, and I had stuck a pencil through it, making her look classy. But she didn't know about the pencil and I didn't say anything.

"Break time!" Jess exclaimed, jumping up and running out the door. Where did she even get her energy from? I smirked and looked around her room. And I noticed a box, lying on top of her cupboards. I tiptoed a little, reading the words on the box. Experiment. I turned away from it, not wanted to get in trouble.

I walked around the room and came to a table sitting near her windowsill. And on it was... I ran a hand over the polished wooden bow. There was a quiver of arrows nearby and a case lying under the table. A bow? She had a frickin bow? I knew Jess was rich, but not so rich to be able to buy a bow. I knelt down and found a picture frame sitting on the table.

There was a much younger Jess. Like the one in Xara's candy shop. But this Jess had braided her hair, and was pulling back a bow, like for some cosplay event. I picked up the picture, looking at something behind her. The shadow of the something huge was behind her. I remembered faintly that Jess wanted to show something to me...

Before I saw that Winged girl. I shivered a little, glancing outside. What did she want to show me? "I see you found my bow." Jess's voice called out from behind me. I turned and saw her setting down a huge slab of chocolate cake and she walked over to me.

"I got this when I was ten, God, it was such a long time ago." Jess ran a hand over the bow. Then she turned to me, "Hey... do you want to try it out?" she asked, grinning at me. "I looked at her, eyes wide. "Really? I've always wanted to try archery... but will it be-."

Jess rolled her eyes and took my wrist, sending shivers up my spine. "Lets go to the woods!" she said, excited as she packed up her bow and slung her quiver on her back. "But Jess-." I laughed, watched her excitedly pack her archery things. "What about the project?"

Jess stopped and waved a hand at the papers on the floor. "Pfft. Who cares about them? I'd rather spend time with you doing something more enjoyable. I mean. Seriously. This is going to be so much fun!"

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"Fred, Romeo! I'm going out!" Jess called as she pulled the wooden door of her house shut. My father would've killed me if I went out of the house like that. But Jess didn't seem to care. All I cared about was that Jess was practically pulling me towards the woods, one hand on her bow case, another around my wrist.

-End