Where Were You When I Needed You? (Jenlisa)

old memories die hard...

Flashback~

I know what we can do! Let's play Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy!" The enthusiastic girl explained excitedly. She had dark brown hair with cute bangs, and appeared to be about eight years old. She was barefoot, wearing old shorts and a worn Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers t-shirt with Tommy, the original Red Ranger on it. It was her favorite shirt.

"Not the Power Rangers again," moaned a small girl, dressed in dirty blue jean shorts and a t-shirt which had seen better days. She wore her hair in two long dark braids.

"Why not? It's a great show! Plus we already had the morphers," the girl held her arm high in the air to show off her newest toy, The Red Galaxy Morpher. She even pushed a few buttons to demonstrate what cool sound effects it made.

"You have a morpher," corrected a third girl, with the same height as the two braided girl, "My eomma didn't get me one. She doesn't trust me with... Weapons," when she said the word 'weapons', she drew air quotes with her fingers to illustrate that this was the actual word her mother used, "... around my siblings."

The three children were sitting on the wooden floor of what, at first, appeared to be a small room inside a rustic house. The first girl, the leader, stood, and paced back and forth across the small room, stopping occasionally to look out a rudimentary window with her large chocolate eyes, which was actually just a square hole cut into one of the walls. She gazed out at the limbs of the tree and then it became clear that she was actually standing in an elaborate tree house built high into the branches of a large oak tree.

"Okay, then you don't have to be one of the rangers, Jisoo. You can be one of the scientists."

"I didn't say I don't want to play with power morphers; I just said I wasn't allowed to," Kim Jisoo explained, her eyes twinkling as she gave the younger girl a big toothy grin.

"I'm sick and tired of being the Pink Ranger. I'm always Pink Ranger. I don't even like the color pink," complained the second girl.

"Well Jennie..." the leader said in a condescending voice, as if she were explaining something to a small girl, "You could always be Yellow Ranger. That ones a girl too," Unlike Jennie, she and Jisoo didn't mind playing the boy characters.

"Ewww," she whined in a response, "Yellow Ranger is always the wimpy one. And I am not a wimp."

"She's right Lisa. Jennie Kim is definitely not a wimp. Remember? She was the first one to jump off the rood on a dare. And she still has the record for jumping out the farest from the tire swing."

"Farest? Is that even a real word, Jisoo?" Lisa asked, trying to distract her friend.

"Ppong! Sure it is. Far, farer, and farest. I am sure it's in the dictionary."

"This isn't settling anything, Lisa. Don't you see what she's doing Chu? She's just trying to distract you," the girl was feisty and she knew it.

"Distract me from what?"

"I rest my case," Jennie smirked at her friends.

The summer of their eighth year passed with much fun, much play, and much arguing. The three of them; Lisa Manoban, Kim Jisoo, and Jennie Kim had been best friends since Kindergarten. Lisa and Jisoo had actually known each other since Pre-school. A fact that Jisoo often brought up when she became jealous of Lisa's friendship with Jennie. Even in the best of cases, a threesome (Y'all have dirty minds. Jisoos!) often led to hurt feeling and someone being left out and feeling like a third wheel. And the third wheel was always Jisoo and Jennie. The group seemed to revolve around Lisa. Even at this young age she had a natural magnetism that drew others to her. (Very true.)

Present~

Jennie stared up at the house she basically grew up in as the memories she had in it came crashing back. She could even see the tree house that was still there from where she was parked. She was sitting in the front seat of her car, willing herself to get down and get this stupid study session over with. Why did she agreed to tutor her ex friend, she had no idea. She had no idea. She hadn't spoken to the girl in three years. Not since after her daughter was born.

She sighed to herself softly and pushed her car door open, which suddenly seemed so much heavier than it was usually, and grabbed her backpack as she stepped out of the car and shut it. Locking it and slowly making her way up the Manoban's tilted pathway leading to the front door. She went up the porch steps and took a deep breath, ringing the doorbell.

The door swung open almost instantly and she was met with the girl's younger brother, who often spent a lot of time with the three previous best friends. She cracked a small smile at him, feeling slightly awkward being there after not setting foot in there in almost four years. "Uhm... Hi Bam."

Bam stared at her in complete and utter surprise. He was definitely not expecting her to be at his door, "Jennie... Hey.. What are you-" before he could finish his sentence, his older sister came rushing down the stairs and pushed him out of the way, smiling at the girl on the other side, her brown eyes twinkling.

Jennie just stared back at her, emotionless. She was not going to let Jennie get to her.

"Hey Nini," Lisa said, grinning girlishly, "I thought we were meeting at your house?"

"No. I made it clear that we would do the tutoring sessions either here or at school. Not at my house," the older girl replied, clutching her backpack tighter as her heart clenched tightly in her chest at the old nickname.

Lisa glanced at said hand and noticed a colorful beaded bracelet resting delicately on her wrist. She cocked her head to side to side to ride what it spelled in white, with two pink hearts on either side.

💖Mommy💖

Noticing where Lisa's eyes were, Jennie dropped her hand from the strap and shoved it into her back pocket, hiding the bracelet from her vision.

"Oh, uh, right," Lisa cleared her throat, stepping back to invite her in, "We can work in the back." She looked at her brother, who was watching her in bewilderment. Lisa just smiled slightly and gave him a look that promised an explanation later.

Bam just shrugged and went back to playing video games in the living room. Lisa directed Jennie to the backyard, the yard they once spent every single day in together. "So, how have you been?" She tried to make a conversation as they sat across from each other at the picnic table they owned.

Jennie kept her eyes in her bag as she pulled out her History textbook and notes. "Fine," she replied bluntly, "Now let's get started because I have to be out of her in an hour."

Lisa sighed quietly and nodded as she lugged her own notes and textbook out.

~~~~

"What did you do today?"

"Drawed."

"Really? What?"

"This."

With an excited twinkle in her eyes, Lucy let go of her mother's hand, and took her Gudetama backpack off only to pull out a sheet of construction paper with three stick figures on it. One, with another female, which Jennie assumed to be Nayeon, then a little girl, obviously her little girl, and then the third grown female which was obviously her.

Jennie smiled brightly at the piece of art, "Aw, I love it so much baby. Is that auntie Nayeon?"

"No, that's my mama," Lucy replied with a huge grin as her eyes twinkled happily. She didn't realize that those three words caused her mom's heart to clench. She knew she was different from other kids; instead of having a mother and a father, she has two mothers. Although, she was confused when Jennie had explained it to her, she accepted it.

Jennie smiled softly at her as she put the drawing back and put her bag on. "It's beautiful," she began walking again as Lucy reached up and took her hand; holding it tightly in her small one.Jennie smiled and started to playfully swing their hands back and forth.

"I missed you today, mommy."

"I missed you too baby."