Jenny
Super Six is getting stronger. I’m not though. I feel like I’m suffocating. All these battles. All this drama. I think about this during my break at Le Café. Drew asked me to come over to his house so I’m walking there alone. I like being alone sometimes just to think. Finally, I arrive at his door. “Drew!” I call out. I hear him fumbling around and the door opens. “Jenny!” he cheers. “We have to stay outside because Piper is sleeping.” He explains softly. Piper is Drew’s adorable three year old sister. “Okay.” I agree. Drew is pretty wealthy so his backyard is huge. He also has a giant trampoline. Frankly, I’m more interested in his tree.
I quickly grab branches and easily climb until the branches get too thin to hold me. “Come up here.” I call down to Drew. He begins to climb up the branches until he reaches me. He sits beside me on the branch and slides his arm around my shoulder. I blush and look up at him. “What’s up?” I ask him. “Not much. I just put Piper down for a nap. Why’d you come up here?” he asks. “I like climbing trees.” I reply biting my lip. We stay quiet for a few minutes. I look down at the ground so far away. I start thinking about trees and how we’re all kind of like a giant tree. We all have the same roots but we all break off in different directions. Sometimes branches scratch against each other and don’t get along. Sometimes two branches are perfectly intertwined. Either way, we’re always growing. I look at Drew and wonder if we’re two branches that are intertwined or if we’ll just grow apart. Finally he breaks the awkward silence. “Why didn’t you tell me you were starving yourself?” he asks quietly. I wonder why it took him like a week to ask. I take a deep breath and decide to tell him the truth. “Well, I have this whole part of my personality that’s all happy and rainbows and stuff like that and if anyone saw my dark side they’d never see me the same. I didn’t want you to worry.” I confess. “I don’t like to think about self-harm but I’m still here for you if you need me.” He looks into my eyes. “You know that right?” He puts his hands on my shoulders. “You can trust me.”
We spend a while up in the tree. We talk about life and school and Nick, Joe and Matt. We stay up there until the sun starts to set. My break is long over but it’s not like B.B can do anything. I’m surprised he can get any of us to work at all. I hear a door slam shut and I see a small figure run out of Drew’s house. “Piper!” I cheer and start climbing down followed by Drew. “Addie!” Piper cheers. For reasons unknown to me, Piper calls Drew “Addie”. She runs over to the tree and hugs Drew’s leg. Drew lifts Piper up into his arms. “How was your nap, Piper?” he asks in an adorable voice he uses when talking to Piper. “Sleepy.” Piper responds. Drew hands Piper over to me and I hold her in my arms. She’s really squirmy. It’s weird to describe a baby as beautiful but that’s what Piper is. She has gorgeous platinum blonde hair like Drew. She has it pixie cut with bangs. She also has big, bright blue eyes. She looks exactly like Drew in some ways. She’s really hyper and unlike most babies, when she falls over she just gets up and never cries.
“Jenny!” Piper cries happily. “Hi Piper!” I say with a little extra enthusiasm. I’m not good at talking to small children. Piper pulls at my curls and releases them watching in fascination as they bounce. “Babies are amused by the weirdest things.” I observe handing Piper over to Drew. “I’m not a baby!’ she cries leaping down from Drew’s arms and running off into the bushes. I look over at Drew who just smiles. “To be fair, your hair is rather amusing.” He replies pulling on the curls. For a moment everything is peaceful and nice until a portal opens up in front of us. I scowl when I see Nick. He ruined the moment. I don’t say anything since I’m not sure why Nick is here. Sometimes him and Joe come by and are peaceful but sometimes they go and do dumb things like kidnapping Krys. Nick stays quiet too. Drew finally speaks. “Go away.”
Nick snickers. “You’re not the boss of me kid.” He responds. It’s funny to hear Nick call Drew a kid when they’re so close in size. But Nick is three years older. “Addie?” Piper’s voice calls out. She emerges from the bushes and stops when she sees Nick. He must look like a monster to her with his orange glow and big ears. Instead Piper laughs. “Why the ear big?” she asks innocently. I turn to Nick who’s in a daze. “Who’s this?” he asks with a strange voice. Drew runs over to Piper and scoops her up. “You can’t be here Piper. Go inside okay?” he pleads. “Piper doesn’t want to. Piper wants to stay with Addie.” She answers bopping his nose. Drew just runs inside with Piper in his arms. Nick snaps out of his daze. I quickly understand why Piper made him act different. He has a baby sister too.
“Piper reminds you of her, doesn’t she?” I ask looking up at him. He doesn’t answer but a look of anger overcomes him. He quickly grabs my Le Café shirt by the collar and pulls me close to him. He grabs his dagger out of his back pocket and holds it to my neck. He has a look of determination in his eyes. He looks so serious and I can’t move. His eyes narrow and he looks into mine. I can only imagine how terrified I must look right now. He shoves me down and screams at the sky. “I can’t do it!” he yells. Drew rushes back outside to help me. I disregard him and jump to my feet. “It’s okay.” I whisper to Nick. “No it’s fucking not! You have to make this shit so hard for me!” he screams at me. “Why don’t you fucking fight back? You’re impossible to hate!” He’s waving his knife around like crazy. I look down. “I don’t want to fight you. Or anyone.” I reply calmly. Since I am a selfish human being, I can’t help but feel happy Nick said I was impossible to hate. Drew still stands shocked at the doorway. “We all fucking know that, Jenny! You’re such a fucking pacifist and it drives me nuts. I just want to fucking kill you so I don’t need to worry about Lilly!” he shouts. “Who?” Drew asks. I’m pretty sure Lilly must be Nick’s sister.
Nick makes a fist and attempts to punch me in the face but I quickly block him with both hands. This only frustrates him more. “Don’t you touch her!” Drew yells running to my side. I don’t need his protection but I welcome it. “Fuck you both!” Nick yells teleporting away. There’s at least five minutes of silence until Drew speaks. “What was that about?” he asks annoyed. I sigh. “What lengths would you go to in order to protect Piper?” I ask. Drew looks at me funny. “I dunno. Why?” he asks. “Would you kill someone to save her life?” I ask looking into Drew’s blue eyes. “I don’t know. Hopefully it will never come to that.” He mumbles. I remain silent. In certain religions, people believe in a concept called Ultimate Concern. Your Ultimate Concern is the person or thing you would kill for or die for. Lilly is clearly Nick’s Ultimate Concern and that makes me wonder. I’m the obstacle that gets between Nick and his Ultimate Concern. All he wants is for Lilly to be safe and I’m the one preventing that. And although I don’t want to be, I don’t know what else to do. I glance over at Drew once more and look up at the tall strong trees. Another thing about trees is that in order for a tree to survive, you have to cut off the dead branches or else they’ll infect the whole tree.
