Carrie woke them up the next morning. Janice changed into a smooth blue dress that went past her knees and a sweater. When she walked out of the bathroom, Jeremy was just putting on his shirt. She couldn’t help but pout to herself as she dragged a brush through her hair. Carrie called to them from downstairs and the two missionaries finished fixing themselves before jumping into the awaiting car. “So you’re supposed to go to school on Monday but the News said there might be a small snow storm. So that might be cancelled.” Carrie informed them as they turned into the parking lot.
The church was beautiful inside and out. The high ceiling and colorful mosaics caught Janice’s eyes as soon as she stepped in. Each stained glass mural depicted one of the Stations. Janice signed herself with the holy water before looking for a spot. Each row of benches looked comfy and worn out. Carrie led them to a seat in the middle row. Janice and Jeremy bent on one knee with their heads lowered in respect. They rose quietly and filed into bench with Carrie following them. Jeremy smiled at the older lady as he sat next to her and pulled Janice next to him. He put her hand on his thigh and intertwined their fingers from the back of her palm. Janice blushed and waited for mass to start.
Janice noticed that Carrie stood out like a black sheep, literally. Everyone around them was in nice, bright attire and presentable hairstyles. Carrie, on the other hand, was wearing a dark blue, almost black, knee length dress with dark fish net stockings. Yet, she strutted in without a care. Janice had major respect for her at that moment.
The small group of young men and women started to sing. Everyone stood and watched as the pastor walked down the center aisle. The two missionaries bowed their heads quickly when the pastor passed them. “Welcome!” The pastor’s voice boomed through his headset.
“And also to you.” Everyone replied.
“If we have any new comers, we welcome you to stand and tell us where you come from.” Jeremy stood up before Janice could, dragging her up along with him. Besides the two missionaries another young couple stood from the back row. “Where you two from?” The pastor asked the other couple. They explained to the pastor and their audience that they were visiting from New York. Everyone clapped for them before the couple sat. “And you?” When the pastor asked Jeremy and Janice, she noticed his eyes light up.
“Wisconsin.” Jeremy told him. Under the circumstances of being in a secret mission, the missionaries would be allowed to lie but only when needed.
“Your names?”
“Jeremy.”
“Janice.” Her voice sounded so quiet in the large church. She blushed when the pastor asked her to repeat herself. “Janice.” She said louder. He nodded and smiled at her.
“Welcome!” The pastor held out his hands in queue for everyone to start clapping. On command their audience welcomed them and the mass started.
Janice noticed that every time the pastor looked their way he would smile hugely. Mass ended and people wandered to their friends and cars. The three sat quietly, not wanting to move. “But I’m not ready to walk.” Jeremy whined. Janice gave him a pointed look before standing.
“I’m with the boy.” Carrie complained.
“Such children.” Janice chided. “When I come back from the restroom, you two better be ready to leave.” They nodded obediently before laying their heads back. Janice shook hers before turning, looking for the women’s room. “Excuse me?” She asked a retreating back when she rounded a corner. The man turned around and she met a familiar pair of ocean blue eyes.
“Hi there, Ms. Shyness.” Matt greeted her.
“Hey there, Matt.” Janice smiled.
“So what you need? Or do you just love me?” He inquired. Janice rolled her eyes.
“Can you point me to the restroom?” She asked. He nodded as he slipped his arm on her shoulders, in a friendly way.
“Why point when I can show?” He smiled and led her down the way her she came. Matt took her to another corridor and stopped at a door with a small picture of a woman. “Your destination, m’lady.” He bowed.
“Thanks. See you at school tomorrow.” She giggled before steeping into the restroom. After finishing her busy, she washed her hands and walked back to the two sleeping figures. She poked Jeremy in the side and he jolted awake. When he noticed it was just Janice he groaned, waking up Carrie in the action. “Ready?” Janice chirped. They nodded mutely and watched Janice skip to the car. Her flats slinked on the gravel outside the church.
“So what are we doing now?” Jeremy questioned from the backseat.
“I’m dropping you two at the mall, I need to run an errand. Watch a movie or something.” Carrie shrugged. True to her word, Carrie pulled in front of the mall wand tossed a wad of cash at Janice. “See you two in about three hours.” She said before peeling out of the parking lot. The two missionaries blinked.
“She literally just left us.” Janice gapped. Jeremy laughed before grabbing her hand and pulling her into the mall. “We look so out of place.” Janice complained. The two were in nice dress clothes while everyone else in the mall was wearing sweats and thick coats.
“Why should we care?” Jeremy asked. They walked through the mall, searching for something to keep them occupied.
“You wanna watch a movie?” Janice asked when she stopped beside the theater.
“What’s good?” Jeremy shrugged. Janice replied with a shrug of her own. Heaven wasn’t well caught up on the latest movies and such. Usually the missionaries would have DVD copies of everything. Janice and Jeremy looked over the movie posters. One was a picture of a teddy bear with a bunch of women surrounding him, not something that looks ideal for two God sent people. Janice crossed behind Jeremy to look at the other movie posters, but instead of studying them, she felt her eyes drift to Jeremy.
Janice admired the way he leaned back with his feet flat on the ground. The dress shirt and pants made him look dashingly handsome. It felt weird under Janice’s thought that instead of looking like the thirty ear old he was, he was stuck in an immature body, not that it was bothering Janice.
She remembered the first time Jeremy came to heaven. He looked so confused on how his body looked different. He had told her when he was settled in that the day he found out how he was going to die he accidently fell down the stairs, giving him bruises. So when he discovered their was no bruises he knew that he had gone back a year and became 18 again. Now thinking about, Janice thought about how strange they must have looked. Jeremy, an 18-year-old boy, sitting crossed-legged across form an 11-year-old girl on her bed would have cracked Janice up. “Are you checking me out?” Jeremy asked Janice, bringing her out of her haze.
“No!” Janice hid her embarrassment with her hair when she saw a spark of amusement in his eyes. “Of course not!” Janice was indeed checking out Jeremy, but she didn’t mean to get caught.
“Yes, you were!” Jeremy gave her a huge grin.
“Shut your face!” Janice squealed when Jeremy went to grab her. He held her waist and dragged her to his body. Her back collided with his chest and she struggled out of his hold.
“Janice was checking me out! Janice was checking me out!” Jeremy sang in her ear while swaying them back and forth. Despite Janice’s reaction of swatting him away, her heart was pounding. “Aren’t you the cutest?” Jeremy pinched her cheek. She blushed even more causing him to laugh over her shoulder.
“You’re so irritating!” Janice moaned. Jeremy nodded and set his chin on her head after he wrapped his arms around her waist. Suddenly Janice felt insecure. Did her hair smell nice? Did his back hurt? Did her height bother him?
“Look at the cute little couple!” They turned to see Matt come up behind them.
“Hey, Matt.” Jeremy nodded while Janice blushed.
“What y’all doing here?” He questioned when they were close enough to have a normal conversation.
“Trying to pick a movie.” Janice told him in a ‘duh’ voice. Matt raised an eyebrow.
“Didn’t look like that to me…”
“So, what are you doing here?” Jeremy rushed out.
“Meeting my date.” Matt wiggled his eyebrows at them. “We were going to watch a movie, you wanna join? It could be like a double date.” Matt suggested.
“Sure, what movie?” Jeremy said before Janice could reply or even give her opinion. She glared up at Jeremy, since they were still wrapped together, which he sent back a cheeky smile.
“How about this one? It is a date right?” Matt pointed to a poster of a man and woman with their forehead pressed together. Even being a missionary in heaven, Janice did not need to be told that that was Channing Tatum, even though she didn’t really admire his acting, she could recognize that body anywhere. She was well caught up in the local girl news, and he was one of them.
“Yeah that’s fine with me. Janice?” Jeremy looked down at her.
“Thanks for asking.” Janice snorted. Jeremy and Matt laughed and the boy wrapped around her squashed her hair. Janice jumped back in dismissal. She grumbled under her breath but was quickly overtaken by a squeal.
“Matt!” A bouncy blonde screamed while she tackled Matt. Janice felt her eyes widened, would she have to spend two hours with this girl? It wasn’t right for Janice to judge the girl so fast; she shook the thought out of her head. Matt chuckled. “How was that?” The blonde asked him as she pulled away. She was a pretty girl who had high cheekbones. She was tall and very skinny, something that Janice always wanted.
“That was actually pretty good. Maybe you should tune down the volume a little.” He advised with a smile. Janice and Jeremy cocked their heads to the side with confusion. “Oh, sorry! This is Penelope.” He introduced his friend. The blonde teen turned around, only noticing the two now, and offered them a smile.
“Call me Penny, Penelope is such an old-school name!” She laughed as she stuck out her hand to Janice.
“Janice.” Janice introduced herself.
“Jeremy.” He said after shaking Penny’s hand.
“Nice to meet y’all! Sorry about that girly thing earlier. Me and Matty had a bet that I couldn’t act like Melissa Sam. Sorry, I mean this rich tooth drama queen that goes to our school.” Penny spoke fast. Janice liked that.
“No worries!” Janice laughed. Never judge a book by its cover.
“So are you guys joining us for the movie?” Penny asked. The two strangers nodded and followed behind their new friends. Penny pulled Janice behind the two conversing boys as they walked to buy tickets. “So you’re new here?”
“How’d yah guess?” Janice laughed.
“Well first of all no one local wears fancy clothes like that at the mall. Second, I would have noticed such a cute couple like you two a long tome ago. And three, it’s a small town. Everyone knows everyone.” Penny teased Janice. She returned a smile and then launched into questions. “Are you two like, married or something?” Janice stopped walking and bent over in laughter. Jeremy and Matt looked back at them in amusement. Penny’s face grew bright red.
“Oh no! We had family problems back home so we moved in with my aunt.” Janice explained with a grin on her face.
“Oh, sorry.” Penny blushed in her moment.
“No, it’s okay! I just never heard that one before.” Penny laughed along with Janice this time.
“What are you two crazy people laughing about?” Matt asked as he handed over money for his and Penny’s tickets.
“You.” Janice teased. Penny giggled and attached herself to Matt’s arm.
“I like Penny.” Jeremy said when Janice approached him from behind.
“Me too.” Then she wrapped her arms around his waist. Janice froze. Where had she gotten this confidence? Janice couldn’t find the nerve to pull away. Jeremy didn’t comment but wrapped his arm around her too. He took their tickets and walked inside the theatre. Spending two hours in a dark rook with Jeremy was going to kill Janice. Ad somehow in a weird way she felt like it was okay to die at that moment.
Pun not intended.
A/N: Hey guys! So my best friend went to NY for a vacation and she went to see the Newsies. She got me hooked on Andrew Keenan-Bolger and I was going to ask her how the play went but then I went on FB instead. She had posted on my wall that she had gotten his autograph for me! So now I'm just like, the happiest child ever. ANYWAYS!!! Do you think I need to upload more often? I mean since summer school is over after this week, it's a possiblilty that I could upload earlier. It's just a thought :) See you next week?