by Quinn Loftis
Chapter 3
The morning sunlight shone into Jacque’s room as she yawned noisily and stretched her limbs thoroughly. She glanced over to where Sally and Jen had fallen asleep, and saw they were snoozing soundly. I’ll let them sleep while I get a shower she thought. She still had things she needed to process from her encounter with the hottie across the street.
“Thanks Jen,” she muttered under her breath. Now she couldn’t think of him as the foreign exchange student because Jen had so eloquently named him the “hottie” across the street.
Jacque would have to watch herself and make sure not to introduce herself by saying “Hi hottie, I’m Jacque; it’s nice to meet you.” Yeah that wouldn’t be embarrassing.
She gathered up some clean clothes, and realized as she stared in her closet, she was taking quite a long time to pick an outfit to wear to meet the hottie, grr, the exchange student. Jac she thought, say it to yourself, ex-ch-an-ge student.
Finally she chose a pair of her jeans that had holes in various places along the legs, of course they weren’t there through any fault of hers; they were $125 jeans which she paid to have holes in…go figure. She picked a baby doll tee that said “I’m not stubborn, my way is just better.” Well, better to let him know up front I tend to be slightly sarcastic in stressful situations Jacque thought. She headed to the bathroom to take a hot shower, and hoped it would help settle her nerves. She didn’t really understand why she was so nervous about meeting the exchange student, way to go Jac, you didn’t call him the hottie. She was very nervous. Then again it could be, she thought, because he might have spoken to her in her mind. “I’m mean what the heck,” she muttered.
She took her time in the shower, finally getting out when the water started to get cold. She towel dried and got dressed, then took her time fixing her hair. She couldn’t decide if she should wear it up or down. “Good grief,” she told herself, “you never have this much trouble getting ready.” She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something major had happened last night when she locked eyes with the handsome stranger.
Settling on wearing her hair up, it was summer in south Texas after all which basically meant frying eggs-on-the-side-walk hot, she headed back to her room to see if Sally and Jen had decided to join the rest of the living.
Sure enough, they were both sitting in the floor, each with bed-head looking a little dazed. “You’re up bright and early…and dressed,” said Jen sounding surprised.
“Well, I woke up with just a few things on my mind and knew it would be impossible to go back to sleep. Also I need to go talk to my mom about us going over with her to greet the hot, I mean exchange student. Thanks to you Jen I will probably introduce myself to him and say hi hottie.”
“Well if you do I will be sure to do you the honor of laughing my ass off.” Jen said graciously.
“Oh, thanks sooo much,” Jacque retorted.
“Okay, kids let's play nice, we have plans to make, so let’s not waste time playing who can be the snottiest sista,” Sally said in her best motherly voice.
“Okay, why don’t ya’ll take turns getting a shower and I will go talk to my mom about when she plans to head over to the Henry’s”
“Sounds good,” Sally answered.
“Go team,” Jen said with fake enthusiasm.
Jen could often be just as sarcastic as Jacque, which at times caused them to be the best of friends and the worst.
Jacque headed downstairs to find her mom already in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Lilly Pierce was not your average woman. She had a sketchy background growing up in a foster home, not knowing who her real parents were. She often had these “feelings” about things that were going to happen, and the scary thing was she was usually right. Jacque and her mom never really talked about it, though Jacque was beginning to show signs of a similar nature. Only Jacque didn’t know things, she could feel things; like how others were feeling. It was very subtle at times, she might be in a room with her mom and without Lilly ever saying anything Jacque knew without a doubt her mother was sad or worried or confused. She didn’t know how she knew it, she just did. It wasn’t reliable though because she could go days without feeling another’s emotions. Jacque didn’t want to know things, or feel things; she just wanted to be normal.
As Jacque looked around the kitchen she saw there was a pan of fried chicken on the stove, and corn-on-the-cob in a pot of boiling water. Her mom was steadily mixing a bowl of mashed potatoes, adding milk and butter as she saw fit.
“Hey mom, how goes the southern meal making?” Jacque asked.
“I’m almost done. I just need to put some rolls in the oven. Would you mind getting them and putting them on a pan. They aren’t homemade, just those Hawaiian rolls, but they’re really good.”
“Yeah I can do that. “So mom, Sally, Jen and I were wondering if you needed help carrying all this over to the Henry’s,” Jacque said, trying to sound casual and not really knowing if she had succeeded. Her mom looked at her questioningly and Jacque figured she hadn’t even come anywhere close to casual.
“Are you really wanting to help or is this just a perfect opportunity to meet the new exchange student? It is a guy after all, right?” Lily asked.
“Yes he is a guy, and maybe we would like to see who he is, but we do also really want to help you. I don’t think you can carry all this over on your own,” Jacque answered.
“Well, I was going to ask you to help me anyway, and thought you girls would be interested in meeting the new young man, especially since you and Trent have split up.”
“Do not go there Mom! This has nothing to do with him. It’s only natural to want meet someone new and especially since he’s not from our country,” Jacque stated firmly.
“Okay, okay, you don’t have to be defensive. I will be ready just as soon as those rolls are done warming. I’m going to call the Henrys now to make sure they are okay with us coming over in about ten minutes.”
Jacque got a pan and put the rolls on it in straight rows; her mom had already pre-heated the oven so she just put them in and set the timer for 7 minutes which is what the package directions said. As her mom was stepping out of the room to call the Henrys she caught the briefest hint of worry coming off her mom in subtle waves. It had been a while since she had picked anything up from her mom so it kind of made her take a step back. I wonder what she is worried about.
She headed back up stairs to see if the girls were done getting ready and let them know the plan was in motion. Man, she felt ridiculous as she thought about how it sounded to have a “plan” to meet a guy, and not to meet him like ‘hey what’s up’, but meet him like ‘hey are you a weirdo or something’, what was her world coming to? Oh well, could be worse, she could be hearing voices, oh wait she was, well crap.
Sally was done with her shower and doing her hair when she got upstairs. Sally was could be very efficient when she needed to be, and she wasn’t one to be overly fussy about her looks. Of course that could be because she would be pretty even with a paper bag over her head. Her long coffee-colored hair was striking against her mocha-colored skin. She honestly didn’t look like a Sally, but whatever, Jacque thought, I didn’t pick her name.
Jen was still in the shower and when Jacque went to the bathroom door she could hear her singing Martina McBride’s “Independence Day”, and she was belting it out proudly, out of tune. Jacque banged on the door and hollered, “Yeah, yeah, you’re strong, free and independent, we get it. Hurry up! We’re rolling out 10 minutes ago.” Jen just sang louder. Jacque rolled her eyes and went back to her room.
“If she’s planning on blow drying that blond mess on her head then we’re leaving her here,” Jacque told Sally looking over to see her shoving her feet into her shoes.
“Well, I’m ready when you are Sherlock, let's go check hottie out,” Sally said with a wink.
“How lucky I am to have you my dear Watson,” Jacque said smiling.
Jen stepped int
o Jacque’s room fully clothed, hair up in a French twist.
“What’s taking you two so long, I’ve been ready for 2 minutes,” Jen said with fake exasperation.
“Oh, a whole two minutes? How dare us make you wait, please don’t have us flogged your majesty.” Jacque retorted.
“It’s about time you realized who is queen in this outfit,” Jen said grinning.
“Girls, I’m ready if you all are!” They all heard Jacque’s mom yell.
Well, here we go, Jacque thought, she felt in that moment she was walking into the lion's den. Just what had she gotten herself into?
“I think I am officially going to be sick,” Jacque said with a slight moan.
“Take slow deep breaths, if you pass out while we’re over there, I once again tell you I will laugh my ass off,” Jen said.
“Man you are just a ball of warm fuzzes aren’t you?” Jacque said glaring at Jen.
“I’m just saying,” Jen laughed.
Turning in a circle with arms out and palms turned up Jacque said “How do I look? Is this shirt a little much?”
“No, I think it’s perfect. It makes a statement, like hey I’m not scared of your little mind gibberish,” Sally encouraged.
“But I am scared of his mind gibberish, if it is really his mind gibberish and not something else entirely,” Jacque said sounding forlorn.
“Oh, come on, pull yourself together man, he’s just a guy, okay, nothing more and nothing less,” Jen stated with utter confidence.
The only thing was Jacque didn’t believe mystery guy was just a guy; no, he was more, much more, she just didn’t know what yet. As they began to descend the stairs a thought touched her mind, one that was not her own. “Good morning my Luna,” Jacque heard.
She stumbled a few steps on the stairs. Jen reached out to steady her. “Are you okay?” she whispered.
“I just heard the voice again,” Jacque said shakily.
“What did it say?” Sally asked.
“Good morning my loona,” Jacque answered. “What the stink does that mean?”
“I can’t believe I thought it was a good idea to go over there,” Jacque thought.
Jacque’s mom was standing at the bottom of the stairs watching them closely. She had that look that Jacque knew all too well; her mom knew something was up. She could feel her mom’s emotions very strongly; she was very, very concerned.
“Are you girls coming?” her mom asked.
“Lead the way Ms. Pierce,” Jen said.
Each of the girls carried a dish. Jacque’s mom had even made sweet tea, after all what’s a southern meal without sweet tea?
As they stepped out of the house and onto the walkway, the sun shone brightly down on them, and at 10:00 a.m. it was already blistering hot.
Although the grass in some of the lawns was still healthy and green, Jacque’s and her mom’s lawn was brown and dead. Of course that could be because her mom mowed it way too short last time in hopes she could go longer than a week between mowing. She inadvertently killed the grass. Oh, well, Jacque thought, it’s not like they were going out for prettiest lawn competition. Goodness knows both she and her mother would rather pull their toe nails out than work in the yard in the ridiculous south Texas heat.
As they crossed the street Jacque saw the curtains in the right, second story window part. Briefly, she saw the handsome face looking back at her. When she looked away to get the attention of Sally and Jen she looked back to point him out but the curtains had closed.
“He was standing in the window ya’ll, I promise I did not imagine it,” Jacque said sounding a little desperate.
“We believe you Jac, stop doubting that,” Sally said with conviction.
She was right Jacque thought. They were her best friends and she knew they would stick by her no matter what.
