Tragic and Wonder: An Un-Fairytale [On Hold]

Chapter 1- My Friends

To begin, I must warn you, this is not a fairy tale story, or at least not mine. I wish I were able to say that it was, but it is not.

I grew up watching and reading stories about princesses and princes, all the Disney classics, heroines, and the cliché girl meets guy in a meet cute and girl gets guy at the end, thanks very much in part to older sisters. But that is as close to "happily ever after" as I will ever get. I did warn you that this is not a fairy tale.

I was always kind of an outcast, not really fitting in an any particular group. I suppose you could say that I was a bit of a chameleon. I could float between groups of people without them really paying attention but seeming to fit in. There was always one group that I would never be included in and one group that I could always count on. I played some sports but was never the star player. I was a decent singer but never one to take a solo. (Though if I am being honest, I was too nervous to even think about trying to sing a solo.) I took all the AP classes but was never top of the class. I was just average in pretty much every way, even in looks, with my dirty blonde hair and not bright nor bold, grey eyes that changed color depending on my mood or the clothes I wore. I was so easy to overlook, that I was hardly ever included in all those groups, especially one, the "populars". You know, the group that had all the power of the school. The group of people who could make or break someone just by saying one small thing about them. That is one group I would never fit in and the one in which I never wanted to be included. However, one group always included me. This is why when college rolled around, I told myself, that I would always try to make an effort to stay in touch with them, the one group that I always felt welcomed in, the one that never questioned why I did something weird, the one that was always there for a good talk, laugh, game night, or movie night, the weird geeks who did their own thing, my best friends.

My friends were few, but our friendships were deep. Amanda Jenkins was shy. She would almost always have her dark brown hair down over half of her face to cover her small birthmark on her left cheekbone. The birthmark was so small, about the size of a pinhead, that you would think it was a large freckle until you looked closer. It was actually pretty amazing. It was in the shape of star. She hated it. Besides, she was brilliant, more than she led others to believe. She was going to be a biomedical research scientist. She was the one who was going to find the cure to cancer and offer it way cheaper than all the cures currently out there. We grew up down the road from each other. Her parents were like an Aunt and Uncle to my siblings and me. She was an only child and was so shy that when they moved in and we scheduled our first play date, her parents asked my parents if I could just sit quietly next to her for 30 minutes. My parents were taken a back for a moment, but then said "Oh absolutely! Our Jadie is so quiet, you will not know she is there. Sometimes even we don't!" And then they proceeded to laugh and tell horrifying stories about me. Okay, I do not know if they really said the second half of that, but I do remember a lot of laughing so that is what I imagined happened. I was 6 at the time and was not really paying close attention after they started laughing.

Before I go on, I do not want you to think that my parents were horrible people. They, most certainly, were amazing parents. They were trying to break the tension of the new parents who had a very shy little girl, and it worked. Amanda's parents welcomed me into their home like a second daughter.

Anyway, Amanda and I hit it off right away. Both of us quiet and content with being in our own bubbles and both of us happy to be in a quiet room with another quiet person. My house was chaos. Oh shoot, I never told you who I am! "Hi, my name is Jade Williams. I am a hopeless romantic, who is stuck in a bit of a rut. Actually, it is more of a valley as I..." I do not want to spoil the ending, so I'll stop there. My house growing up was pure chaos. I am the middle child, between of two sets of twins. I had the perfectly, poised, princesses, Jasmine and Jordyn, for older sisters. And the dynamic, disaster, duo, Blake and Brandon, for younger brothers. I was stuck in the middle. I did not have that special twin-connection that the J's and the B's had, which is part of the reason I think Amanda and I grew close to each other. She was like my twin in many ways, but we were complete opposites in many others. She never did anything sports related. I did. Mostly to appease my parents, Jeffrey and Bailey but I found some fun in them. I did have a competitive bone, though it was not noticeably big or strong, I did enjoy competing. Amanda on the other hand lacked any desire to learn or participate in sports of any kind.

Next, was Casper Cunningham. He was the new kid our freshman year coming part way through the year. We had the same first period class. The teacher sat him next to me and told me to help him get to his next class. I was a bit nervous because he was cute. His light brown hair with bright green eyes and his easy go lucky smile made butterflies stir in my stomach. I kept it cool though and looked at his schedule after the bell rang for the passing period to begin. As it turned out, our schedules were nearly identical. We only had one difference. He had shop class when I had choir. They were down the hall from each other, so we walked to class together every day after he came to our school. Needless to say, we became good friends. Casper was a dork. He was goofy, both in appearance and in character. He knew it, too. He knew when to turn it off and when it was fine to let loose. He was a lanky kid, tall and thin, who was good at whatever he put his mind to. For Casper, that was usually games. All sorts. He liked computer games, Xbox or PlayStation games, and board games. He was smart, though you would not know it by his grades. He let his goofiness out if he did not want to show that he was smart, but I knew better. He had a laidback approach to most things, including his style, which was always jeans and a t-shirt, no matter the weather. It honestly fit his personality well.

Then there was Jermaine Hepler. Jermaine was a gentle giant. He was a big boned, tall, young man with dark skin and dark hair but the most beautiful hazel eyes I had ever seen. He was always so quiet and sweet. Such the gentleman, that he was always letting ladies go first and holding open doors. Jermaine was always the teacher's pet. His polite honesty was something that teachers dreamed about. He wasn't necessarily the smartest kid in the class, but he was definitely up there. He was not really into sports, though with his size everyone assumed he played basketball or football. He would just say he was going to make his future fortune with his brain and not brute strength, which usually made everyone drop the subject. I think that was partially because he did not want people to know he was adopted. His birth mother died when he was a baby, her family wanted nothing to do with him, and his birth father was not interested either. Jermaine's birth father was a star football lineman at some college and almost went pro but supposedly had some domestic dispute issues that kept him from entering that profession. Jermaine hated the thought of being related to someone who could bring themselves to purposely hurt another human being. Hence, he was the gentle giant. The opposite of the person who helped give him life. That was the only thing Jermaine received from his birth father and it was the only he ever wanted from him. His adopted parents, Mark and Vickie Hepler loved him with all their hearts. They suffered through many miscarriages before being blessed with Jermaine. They then adopted two more kids and were the sweetest couple, teaching all their children to be the best persons they each could be. I think he may have been a secret crush of mine, but I knew he had eyes for only one person and that was Jane Cooper.

Jane Cooper was the last piece to our friend puzzle. She and Jermaine were practically married in our eyes. They were always together and always had inside jokes, but never made us feel awkward at all. They did their best to only hold hands in smaller social settings. They were both very strong-willed people but opposites if you looked at them. Jane was a shorter, fair haired, and fair skinned girl with dark brown eyes. She made most people do a double take from the striking difference in her hair and skin against her eyes. Jermaine did a double take and never looked away after that. He was smitten with her from day one. It was adorable. Jane was sort of an only child. I say "sort of" because her parents adopted her older brother when he was thirteen, three years before Jane was born. They never really became close because by the time Jane was able to hold reasonable conversations, Robbie was out the door and on his own. He would stop by for holidays or call her on her birthday but, they never were close. Maybe that is why Jane threw herself into books, to feel a connection with someone other than her parents. Through books, Jane started to draw and capture the details of what was happening in the books. Jermaine loved books as well, so they first started talking about books and quickly discovered they had many favorites in common. Jane then showed Jermaine her drawings and that is when they really grew close. Jermaine let her in on his drawings, while not as detailed as Jane's, his were artistic and he captured the missing pieces for Jane's drawings. So, Jane and Jermaine started creating together. They would create dioramas, models of characters, or even paint about the books they read. They fit in our unique little group as much as the rest of us. We loved each other and would do anything for each other. That is why we wanted to make sure that after we graduated, we made time for reconnecting.