The homecoming game was one of the funnest things I'd ever been to. In New York, I had always seen how school's participated in football games and how people would hang out with friends on social media, but experiencing it in real life was a whole new experience.
I had decided to call up Ella and Wendy and the three of us had decided to go and meet Brooke there. The stands were filled with red and gold and it was almost impossible to find a seat to watch.
People cheered and chanted and I quickly learned the ones that everyone knew by heart, as Ella said. I got to even experience the marching band that started to compete with the blue and black band on the other side of the stadium while the bighorn mascot did flips along the track.
It was like straight out of a movie.
I had managed to find Peter and talk to him for awhile, (Ella squealed when I told her that he had almost asked me out). Still, throughout all the chaos, I had managed to avoid Isaac.
I knew he was there somewhere with his friends but I didn't bother to look for him. I mean, why would I? We weren't really friends anyways and didn't we hate each other? Last time I checked, you don't hang out with your enemy at football games.
Still again, something was bothering me. I felt mad at him for ditching me in a place I didn't even know. He knows I don't know anyone or anything in this town and he leaves me the minute his friend comes along? Who does that?
So the next morning I had decided to attend Parker's game to hopefully distract myself and avoid him for longer.
As I sat in the stands of Parker's game alongside Katherine, she began to get worried.
"He's not picking up." she shook her head, putting her phone in her purse.
"Who?" I asked.
"Cole. I've been calling him for the past ten minutes and he hasn't answered. He promised he'd be here for her." she then looked at me, "Do you know where he is?"
I shook my head, "No, but he might have just gone to the gym or something. Or maybe he's in his shed, isn't he always in there?"
Katherine looked back at the field, "I just don't get it. He's been out there helping her practice for weeks. He would never miss this."
The game started and while it wasn't as crazy as the one from last night, it was still fun and exciting to watch the kids play.
Parker was amazing, and I could tell she was one of the best on the team. I cheered loudly for her though and was almost positive I had annoyed her at some point. Every now and then I would also catch her looking up at the stands though, hoping to see something or someone.
Growing up, Jackie, Lucy and I had each played hockey, but I was the only one to really make it all the way to high school. Because of this, I had never really been able to attend their games since I was always playing at the same time as them.
So being able to sit here and support Parker, that was awesome.
At the end of the game, she ran over to us with her helmet in hand.
"Parker, you did amazing sweetie." Katherine gushed, pulling her daughter in for a hug.
"Yeah, Parker, that was awesome." I smiled at her. She ignored both of us.
"Where is he?" she asked. Katherine looked at her uneasily.
"I — I don't know." she said, "We haven't seen him."
Parker nodded, and I could tell that she wanted to cry as her eyes grew watery. With a huff, she adjusted her helmet under arm and pushed past me and her mom, "Let's just go."
The drive home was pretty quiet. I could tell that both of them were upset at the same person, no doubt. Katherine at Cole because he had failed to show up to his sister's game. Parker at Cole for letting her down.
When we got home, Katherine quickly gave her daughter a hug and a kiss on the top of the head before heading inside. Parker sat down in the porch steps, yanking off her jersey.
I sighed, getting off the car. There were sounds of boys yelling, making me turn to the barn and see all the boys stacking up bags and boxes.
"Y/n!" Nathan waved as I stood in front of the car. At the sound of my name, some of them turned, but my eyes landed on the boy I least wanted to see at the moment.
Isaac was in jeans and wearing a hoodie, finally getting rid of his stupid leather jacket for once. He looked at me and I felt his eyes boring into mine.
"Hey, Nathan!" I waved back, ignoring him.
I turned back to the porch stairs, seeing Parker. I sighed, walking up to her and taking a seat beside her.
"Hey, Parker."
She didn't respond, only twisted her body a little to look away from me.
"Look," I sighed again, "I know I'm not the person you wanted to be there, I get that, but I just wanted to let you know that I think you played really good."
She still didn't say anything, and I internally groaned.
This cannot be going well.
Finally, with a last attempt at making her feel better, I spoke again, "You know, when I was little, I used to play hockey."
At this, she moved her head just barely in my direction, "Really?"
"Yeah, dude, really. And I was good too, almost as good as you." I said, "And I used to always wish that my mom would be able to come see me play, cause I would hardly see her. You see, my mom used to work nonstop and when I did see her, it was usually so she could measure me for her silly designs."
At this I heard her chuckle.
"But I remember every weekend during the season, I would always beg her to attend my games, even just one and you know what she did."
"What?"
I shrugged, "She never did. The most I got out of her was a text and she would make me tell her about it after."
Parker finally looked at me, "Seriously?"
"Mm-hmm." I nodded, "And I remember I would cry and cry sometimes if she wasn't there, but you know who was always there to make me feel better?"
"Who?"
I grinned as the memories started coming back to me, "My dad. My dad was my number one supporter and he was always there at every bad game, every good game, and every pizza party right after. He was my mentor through it all and there were times that he was all I had at the game."
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, "Look, what I'm trying to say here is that I know Cole wasn't there for you. I could tell him being there meant a lot and I'm sorry he didn't show. But, you should also be appreciative of those that did show up. Your mom really loves you and I could not tell you the amount of videos she took today."
She laughed, wrapping her jersey around her hand.
I looked at her and smiled, "Just try and remember that for next time, if you can. Cause I think your mom would really appreciate it."
There was a pause before Parker looked at me with a small smile, "Thanks, Y/n. For the talk and for showing up."
"Anytime. I'll try to go to as many as I can for now on, if that's okay with you."
"Yeah, I'd like that."
As we sat there, another one of their trucks pulled up, hauling the cider cart across the dirt. It stopped in front of the house and the passenger door opened, revealing Jackie, Danny, and Alex.
I waved a good morning to them as Jackie hopped out and they drove away.
"Hey." I greeted her.
"Hey, good morning. Hi, Parker." Jackie smiled, walking over to us. "What are you guys doing?"
"We just came back from Parker's game." I replied.
Jackie raised her brows and smiled, "Really? How was it?"
"It was alright. We won though." Parker replied.
"That's awesome, Parker, congrats." Jackie said. "I'm gonna get something to eat, I'm starving."
"Oh, I'm going in too, I need to pee." I stood up, patting Parker on the shoulder. "I'll see you later, Parker."
"See ya." she half smiled at me.
I followed Jackie up the porch steps and to the door.
"Hang on, what were you up to this morning?" I caught her by her sleeve. She stopped and shrugged.
"I went to go finish the cider clean up from yesterday."
"Oh, okay." I nodded, "How'd you like the huddle?"
"It was pretty fun, actually. My stand did really good, did you see?" she smiled excitedly.
"I did actually. I also saw a certain someone helping you out." I wiggled my brows. She turned away, her cheeks growing red.
"I don't know what you're talking about." she went to open the door and I laughed.
"Oh really? You're terrible, Jack in a Box." I teased her, poking her side. We walked in, and suddenly we heard the sound of hushed voices, making us both quiet down.
Jackie looked at me with a confused face and I shrugged, putting a finger to my lips and tiptoeing to the kitchen where the voices were coming from.
"Plus we got equipment, the fuel, the maintenance, the ranch. It's just..." I poked my head around the corner, seeing George and Katherine talking quietly at the island, "Well, we're 11. And plus Y/n and Jackie now. So that's 13 mouths to feed. I genuinely don't know what we're gonna do."
"We'll make it work." Katherine said. "We always do."
They hugged each other tightly before George broke away.
"I gotta head outside. Make sure those boys aren't killing each other."
"I'll go with you."
They both left though the side door, and it went silent. I slowly retreated from behind the wall and motioned Jackie to follow once the coast was clear.
It was silent between the two of us as we stood in the hallway. Finally, Jackie spoke.
"Y/n, do you think we're a burden?"
I shrugged, "I-I don't know."
Jackie nodded, wiping her eye, "I'm gonna go upstairs."
She turned on her heel and left and I let her.
I stayed in the hallway for awhile just thinking. It had been a whole week we had been here and yet I still didn't feel at home. Sure, I had grown a little accustomed to the showering chaos, the morning chaos, and the dinner chaos here at the Walter's home.
But I knew it would never be home. This would never be home because the people I loved most of all weren't here. This would never be our home because our real home was across the country. This would never be home because we were disrupting this one.
I didn't want to admit it to Jackie, but I knew we didn't belong here.
Not really.
—
Soon, a little over two months flew by and it was early November. Halloween had just passed and, needless to say, it was my favorite holiday. Back home, no one really partied at our school since, well, it was private.
But here, Nicole and Wendy were notorious for partying, which I quickly found out. It was a small town so there weren't too many places for people to sneak out and have a party, but there were definitely a few, like one of the lakes and and an abandoned house in the woods.
Because of this, I had also started tagging along with some of the guys, especially Cole, to the parties and began drinking. I hadn't been a big drinker when I lived in New York, but that all changed a bit here in Colorado.
Jackie had grown used to things here too. She had her own groups of friends and while she never really did go out as much (partying wasn't her thing), she was pretty social in her own way. She kept busy with the student council and her grades and she soon she was trying out for track team. Plus, she had finally decided to start slowly unpacking her things after all this time we'd been here.
And, being the nosy big sister I am, I had constantly bugged her about her and Alex. They were constantly with each other, studying for class, eating at lunch, and he had even convinced her to start playing video games with him, and believe me — Jackie never played video games except for Mario Kart.
She always told me the same thing, that they were just friends, but I could tell that there was something more. This made me a bit sad, since I could tell Cole liked her but was just...weird. I'm not really sure how to explain it.
As for my own relationships with everyone, it was decent. Katherine and George were still nice to us, even after overhearing that conversation two months ago.
Parker was okay with me now, after our little talk on the porch I had attended every single one of her games until the season ended. Benny grew to like me too, and he even asked me to read to him at night every now and then. I have no idea why.
Jordan talked to me occasionally when he needed new footage for his documentary, and when he would record my reaction to their pranks. Nathan was still the one I happened to talk to the most, besides Cole because of the parties. Danny was nice too, but super shy. I got the feeling he liked talking to Jackie more since they both had the love for Shakespeare.
Alex was...okay. He was just awkward a lot of the time, and while he was nice he didn't really seem like he knew what to say to me. Lee was still pretty cold, not really talking to us unless it was a quick question we asked and Katherine or George were there.
And finally Isaac. Isaac and I were the exact same. We constantly argued and fought over the smallest things. He would prank me and I would prank him, the both of us using each of the other kids to team up against each other.
If anything, we were on worse terms than we had been since the first day we got here, and that's saying a lot. It was as if that night at the huddle never happened. The whole day after that, we were back to being enemies and it hasn't changed since.
It was the first weekend of November now and the weather had cooled down a lot. The leaves had changed colors and the days were shorter.
But today was Friday, a very special Friday.
It was Lucy's nineteenth birthday.
Since I was little, I was always the type to forget important dates, so I always had people's birthdays written in my calendar. But Lucy's was different. Besides Jackie, she was the only birthday I could easily remember off the top of my head, not even my mom's or dad's.
I'm not sure why that is. Maybe because she was my older sister and I just loved her so much? Or maybe cause she was never the type to make things all about her. She always included us in on her celebrations and I swear, the day would get even better.
But this year, things were different. Lucy, nor my parents, weren't here anymore. There was no more pancakes in the morning. No more presents before school. No more cake wars at dinner. It was just me and Jackie.
That's just what I happened to be thinking about as I got ready for school. We had the door open as I laced up my dark green converse. I wore dark washed jeans and a gray long sleeve.
"I'm glad you're unpacking." I told Jackie as she opened up some boxes. She shrugged, not saying anything.
Today was especially harder on her. Like I've mentioned before and regardless that I was the token adopted middle child, Lucy and Jackie always had the closer bond. They were both calm and more calculated, but Lucy was just a bit more outgoing when she wanted to be.
Lucy was the one that Jackie would go to mostly, since she was the oldest sister and the most like mom. I guess that's why I always felt pressured to look out for her since Lucy was no longer here.
I sprayed some perfume and looked at her, "Are you gonna come down with me then?"
She looked up at me and shrugged, "You go ahead, I'm just gonna get this one last box."
I nodded, slipping out the door. I passed by Alex as we crossed paths, giving him a nod. When I got downstairs, mostly everyone was already eating.
"Seriously, Lee? That's what you're having for breakfast?" Katherine said.
Lee shrugged, holding a pizza in his hand, "It's a ham and mushroom pizza. It's, like, all the food groups."
Katherine sighed as he turned to the table and she turned to me. "Oh, good morning, Y/n."
"Morning." I greeted, grabbing a plate and a piece of toast off the island. I took a seat, grabbing the butter.
"Oh, Y/n, I'm just gonna let you know that I'll be home a little later today. I need to stop and get groceries for dinner." Katherine poured her coffee.
"Okay, that's fine. What are you making?"
"Chicken alfredo." she said, before disappearing out of the room.
"Sounds good." I smiled, grabbing the orange juice and a cup to fill my drink. As I went to take a sip, suddenly Benny was yelling.
"Jordan! Jordan, give it back!"
Jordan came running into the room, holding a stuffed Sonic toy above his head.
"No way." Jordan laughed, pushing Benny as he reached for the toy. I rolled my eyes, looking at the two of them.
"Jordan, give him the bear."
"Stay out of it, newbie." Lee shot at me. I turned, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Who said I was talking to you?"
"You're talking in front of me."
"Yeah, but not to you."
"Hurry, Isaac!" Benny said. I turned, seeing Isaac right beside me and chugging my cup of orange juice.
"Hey!" I jumped up, reaching for my cup. He stepped back, putting his hand up to shield himself. "Isaac, that's mine!"
He stopped, putting the drink down briefly with a big gulp, "Yeah, and it's really good."
He put the cup back to his mouth and kept drinking. I reached up but he kept his arm there to block me as he gulped down every last drop. He finally set the cup down and wiped her mouth, "Ah!"
I scowled at him, "You're so annoying."
He shrugged, ruffling the top of my head, "I know."
I finally had enough as I swung at him. He quickly dodged me, running around the table. I chased after him, the rest of the boys cheering us on.
"Go for the face, Y/n!" Jordan cheered.
"Trip her, Isaac!" Lee added. I had finally grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him back, pulling my fist back when we heard a loud clash.
Everyone stopped and turned, seeing Parker beside the sink with her field hockey stick in hand and Jackie right beside her.
"What is going on in here?" Katherine said, standing at the entrance to the kitchen. I quickly released Isaac and we both stepped away from each other.
"Parker broke something." Benny blurred out.
"Benny!" Parker yelled at him. Katherine rushed to the sink and looked inside it.
"Parker, be careful!" she scolded.
"It was an accident!" Parker snapped back, grabbing her plate and walking out of the room. Jackie stood there, staring into the sink.
"Oh God." Katherine looked at her, "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay." Jackie replied shakily, turning to look at everyone. Her face dropped, seeing all eyes on her. She looked at me and I furrowed my brows. What did she break?
"Okay, everybody, we need to be outside in 15 minutes, so let's go." Katherine waved everyone off. Everyone quickly went back to finishing up their food.
Jackie stood at the sink with her arms crossed and when I looked at her eyes, they were watery and on the verge of tears as she looked down.
"Sweetie, I just..." Katherine shook her head, "I feel terrible-"
"It's fine." Jackie's voice broke before she quickly left the room.
"Jackie!" I called after her as she fled up the stairs. I quickly rushed over to the sink and looked down, seeing one of Jackie and Lucy's teapots shattered.
Their favorite one especially.
I turned on my heel and went for the stairs, pushing past Isaac as they headed for the door. I knew they were all staring, but I didn't care about that right now.
When I walked upstairs, I found Jackie in front of her mirror, crying. I quickly shut the door, and sighed, "Jackie , are you okay?"
She quickly wiped her eyes, "I'm fine, Y/n." she said, but her voice cracked.
"You know you can talk to me, right?" I walked over to her, putting my hand on her shoulder. "We can talk about it and I'm sure if we tell Katherine, maybe she'll let us stay home-"
"I said I'm fine, Y/n." she snapped, shrugging my hand off her. She turned to the bed, grabbing my backpack and pulling it on. "I can't miss school. You know that."
I put my head down and nodded, "Sorry. I — I forgot."
She went to open the door, "Are you coming?"
"Yeah, yeah." I said quickly, grabbing my bag and putting it on. We both turned and left, heading outside to follow the boys to the car.
When we got to school, everyone piled out of the car like normal and I waited for my sister as she got off behind me. Then, without looking at me, she began to walk straight into the school.
"Hey, hang on." I said, catching her by the wrist. She stopped, pulling her hand from me.
"What?" she snapped. I furrowed my eyebrows, adjusting my backpack strap.
"Are we gonna hang out at lunch today? Because of, you know..." I trailed off. She shrugged.
"Sure." and then she took off before I could get another word in.
"Is she okay?" someone asked from behind me. I looked, seeing Coke standing with the car keys in hand. I shrugged.
"She's fine, just...tired."
—
The day dragged on excruciatingly long. As I sat in class, I began to think more about Jackie. I know it wasn't her fault that she was being moody earlier. It's a hard day and I'm trying my best to be strong for her.
Even worse, I had to deal with Isaac and Monica all over each other. Since the huddle, Monica had actually been very sweet to me and talked to me a few times in class, but Isaac had been more clingy with her. If his arm wasn't holding her waist then it was probably thrown over her shoulders as she laughed at whatever he whispered in her ear.
It was annoying. How could someone as pretty and sweet as her be with something like that? And how could she publicly let herself be cuddled with a creature such as him?
As I sat in second period, I felt myself glaring at them. How could they even act like that in the middle of class? It made me want to barf all over my worksheet.
"You okay?" Nicole nudged me. I looked away and turned my attention to her.
"I'm fine."
"Really? Because you've been looking at them for the past five minutes." she raised her brows. I shook my head and sighed, looking back at them.
"It's just that, Monica is so nice and he's so...repulsive." I grimaced as the two of them laughed at something they were watching on the phone, "I mean, how could she even stand him?"
"Well don't you remember? They've been friends since like seventh grade but he's never given her a chance." Nicole explained then she shrugged, "Maybe he finally is."
When I didn't say anything, she nudged me again, "Why do you care anyways?"
"I don't." I said quickly, looking back at her, "I just think it's...absurd, no?"
"Yeah, I guess." she said, turning back to her book. I turned to my paper finally and began to work on my assignment.
The day stretched on and soon it was lunch, which made me feel a little better. I looked forward to the days Jackie and I would have lunch together instead of with our new friends. It was like a small break from the hectic-ness of being here.
But when I walked in the cafeteria, I didn't see Jackie, nor Cole, in the lunch line like always. Cole always stood with Jackie until I got there or he would even stand there and talk to us before we each went our separate ways.
I stood in line and texted her, hoping to get a response. Maybe she was in class still.
Soon I was at the front of the line though and I still hadn't gotten anything from Jackie. I finally sat down at my usual table with a huff.
"Everything good?" Brooke asked as I aggressively unwrapped my sandwich. I sighed, looking up at them as they stared at me.
"Jackie hasn't been picking up her phone. We were supposed to have lunch together."
"I'm sure she's fine, Y/n." Wendy assured.
"Yeah, she's probably making out with Alex somewhere — or Cole." Ella joked, earning a kick from Nicole.
"Seriously, El?"
I ran a hand through my hair, "I'm just worried. She was sort of upset with me earlier and I'm just worried she's avoiding me now."
"I'm sure that's not the case, Y/n." Brooke shook her head "Look, didn't you say she's trying out for track? I heard they were practicing last period."
"Yeah, I mean, she's probably out on the track right now or something." Wendy nodded.
I looked down at my plate, "Yeah, maybe."
—
Soon lunch ended and I still hadn't heard a single thing from Jackie. I'm sure she was fine, but I couldn't help but feel like she was mad at me for something. Something I said, something I did. She never ditched lunch with me and especially today? It didn't make sense.
I hadn't seen or heard a single thing from her all day until right before sixth period. I stood at my locker, talking to Nathan.
"It's just weird, you know." I grabbed my math book from the top of my locker, "She usually at least responds with something."
"You don't think it has anything to do with the thing Parker broke this morning?" Nathan asked, shoving his hands in his pockets, "What even was it?"
I looked at him, biting my lip, "It was a teapot. I know it sounds stupid but it means a lot to Jackie."
"Right." Nathan nodded, then looked behind me, "Have you tried asking her friends yet?"
"No." I shook my head, following his gaze that landed on Skylar, walking towards us. I quickly waved my hand, "Hey, Skylar!"
He looked up, smiling at the two of us, "Hey, Y/n, Nathan. What's up?"
"Have you seen Jackie today? I haven't seen her since this morning." I asked. He furrowed his brows and shook his head.
"No, actually I haven't. But I'll let you know if I do." he said, then looked at Nathan, "I have your shirt in my locker. Do you wanna come get it?"
Nathan raised his brows, his face turning a light shade of pink, "Oh, y-yeah — Yeah, that'd be great. I'll see you later, Y/n."
"See ya." I waved as the two of them walked away. I sighed, turning back to my locker to grab my notebook. As soon as I closed my door, I was met with Alex right beside me.
"Jesus, don't do that." I gasped, looking away.
"Sorry." Alex shook his head, "I was just coming over to ask where Jackie is."
"I've been wondering the same thing." I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "I haven't seen her since this morning at the car and she hasn't replied to my texts."
"Mine neither. I saw her after first period and she said she had a headache so I just thought she went home." he shrugged, "I got her the work we did in English though so I'll give it to her at home I guess."
"What do you mean you got the work for her?" I wrinkled my eyebrows.
"Well I just got her an extra worksheet and the poem we have to read. She wasn't in class so I just thought-"
"Wait, what?" I widened my eyes, "She wasn't in class."
"No, I thought-"
"Jackie never misses class." I shook my head, "She'll never miss even if she's sick, or if we're on vacation, not even when she broke her arm she zoom called in the hospital."
I started breathing quickly, taking short and shallow breaths, "Oh my gosh, what if she got kidnapped? What if some crazy teacher took her? Oh my gosh what if she got dehydrated and fainted and she's just thrown somewhere?"
"Y/n, slow down-"
"She could be in the back of a pickup truck right now! She could be on her way to Canada or something!" I ran a hand through my hair. I looked at Alex, taking him by the shoulders and dropping my books completely, "Where was the last time you saw her. Was she still wearing her pink sweater?"
"I-I — I think so?" Alex stuttered, looking at me with big eyes. "Y/n, I think you're over exaggerating."
"I'm over exaggerating?" I raised my brows. Just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder, spinning me around aggressively. I was met with Isaac.
"Converse, did Cole ditch you too?" he said.
"What?"
"Don't act dumb. Did Cole ditch you?" he repeated.
"Ditch me? Ditch me for what?"
He furrowed his brows, "Oh, I thought he told you."
"Told me what?"
He scratched the back his neck awkwardly, "He went down to Dylan's lake house for a kickback with Jackie. I thought you knew."
I'm gonna kill Jackie.
—
hi everyone! i hope you enjoyed this chapter. i'm so sorry it's not nearly as long as the one before. i feel terrible, i feel like this one didn't come out as good and it's more of a filler. i sort of rushed it since i've been busy since yesterday but i really wanted to give you guys something.
i'm going to try and get out a better one hopefully by tomorrow (fingers crossed) but still i hope you enjoyed this little filler. lmk your thoughts in the comments and pls vote!
nessa