The Understorey, Book One of The Leaving Series (21 page)

Her mouth fell wide open, “Touché baby,
touché.”

    That night, after Jules went home, after a
lecture from both my parents, and after her parents got in from New
York, Jules called me.

“Elliott?” She asked.

“Yeah, babe? What’s up?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Have you talked to Maddy
today?” Her voice trickled sarcasm.

“Uh, yeah,” I laughed.

“Did she happen to mention to you anything
that might have happened at church today?”

I swallowed hard.
    “What happened?”
    “Well, I guess Maddy’s been quite the
chatterbox, a regular Ouiser Boudreaux, couldn’t
wait
to
mention our little indiscretion to Mrs. Kitt’s daughter apparently
and as you probably now suspect, Georgia Kitt spread it around like
wildfire. Would you like to take a guess as to her first
stop?”
    “Mrs. Kitt?”
    “Oh yeah and guess what else Elliott?”
    “What?”
    “The old Kittster called my mom.”
    “I’ll kill her.”
    “Yeah? Send my condolences to your mama.”
    “Julia!” I heard in the background.
    “Gotta’ go sweetheart. See you in, I don’t know,
a year?” She laughed and hung up.
    “Maddy!” I screamed, ignoring the searing pain
in my lungs.

Chapter
Four
Anti-Heists and
Confusions

We started school that Monday with a slightly tainted reputation
thanks to Maddy but Jules and I knew the truth. I wouldn’t do
anything to Jules that would make her anything less than the
pristine girl she was, and we didn’t care what people thought, so
we sailed through the tribulation with the greatest ease, except
the part where Jules was grounded for two weeks.

Every year, the seniors taking AP English,
take a trip to London over spring break with Mr. Cray.

This is something both Jules and I had wanted
to do even before we ‘met’ each other. We had thrown ideas back and
forth throughout the weeks about how we would pay for it. Though
Jules’ parents probably could have afforded to fund the entire trip
and then some, Jules never asked them for the money. She assumed,
like me, that she was old enough not to rely on her parents for
such things.

We decided that to afford the trip we would
each make something and sell the goods online. Jules noticed this
ridiculously stupid bird house I had made my mom for mother’s day
the previous year and insisted that would be perfect. She was going
to paint canvases. So, over the two weeks she was under house
arrest, I finished around thirty of those stupid birdhouses and
even had time to add tiny wood details. My mom gasped every time I
showed her one, so I figured they were alright.

Because Maddy felt like crap for snitching,
she promised to be our go between since Jules’ mom and dad refused
to let me get anywhere near Jules during her imprisonment. I sent
Maddy to Jules’ house with them to have them painted. After every
one she dropped off, Jules would call me and rant and rave. Side
note, girls are funny. She would always send Maddy back with
Polaroids of the paintings she’d completed and every single time I
saw a new one I would almost fall over. The girl had talent, which
was very apparent.

When we had plenty of items in stock we
started placing them online. We didn’t have any luck for the first
few weeks but when Jules was no longer grounded and we were able to
scheme together, we had much better results. Jules had an idea to
post them on this website where creatives can market their
stuff.

Finally, through that, we had a couple of
bites. At first, it was easier to sell the birdhouses because they
weren’t as expensive as the paintings, but eventually, after the
first sale, Jules’ paintings moved like hotcakes. Word of mouth had
to have been the key factor there because we were doing little to
no marketing. All the money we made we put into an interest bearing
savings and slowly but surely after a couple of weeks had earned
enough for both of our trips and a little spending cash a
piece.

We even had a few extra dollars to invest in
a couple of pairs of clothing for the trip and we agreed that we
would each get a new suitcase. We even went out and bought the
suitcases early to get ourselves really excited. Jules found this
vintage steam trunk at an antique shop that she, and I quote,
‘
had
to have’. So I replaced the hinges, and oiled the
leather and made it travel worthy. We were set and all that was
left to do was wait for spring break. That was okay because we had
lots to stay busy with.

The first game Jules could attend after she
was grounded happened to be our homecoming game. That night, Julia
sat in the stands with the most obnoxious mum my mom could have
possibly made. She would have never worn those on her own. In fact,
I’m pretty sure she inwardly gasped when she saw it. She thought
them gaudy, but when my mom brought it out to her while we were
watching television in my living room with my dad and Maddy, she
acted really pleased with it and that warmed my heart. She was good
to my parents. She loved them as if they were her own.

I could hear her shouting for me as we
streamed onto the field between a line of cheerleaders and the
drill team and that revved my adrenaline. We had a couple of
minutes while each team readied themselves for the game. I sat on
the sidelines on the metal bench, my back to Jules and my family.
It would creak each time a player sat down or got up. I tried to
turn my attention toward the game and focused on my feet.

I prayed really hard that it would be a
fairly safe game for me because I was still pretty sore in the ribs
from the fight at Tanen’s. I closed my eyes and searched all the
sounds around me for Jules’ voice. She had stopped shouting for me,
probably talking to my mom, but I knew I could find her voice even
amongst the thousands of people in the stands so I scanned with my
ears.

She usually sat as close to me as she could
get. There was about twenty feet between the field and the stands,
separated by the newly painted running track but I searched anyway.
I could hear the faint rumble of the opposing team’s fans.

Bramwell and all the magnet towns that
surrounded Bluefield High were in attendance that day, eager for
the only real entertainment that was available in the area besides
Charleston. I could also hear the cheerleaders’ voices shout in
unison. Taylor’s voice was more apparent than the others because
its shrill tone grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

I quickly shoved them out of my head along
with the crowd. I heard Coaches Miles and Sanders arguing about a
few plays. I heard some of the guys around me and their
conversations between each other, something about hitting up Babe’s
after the game. I heard my cleat shudder back and forth out of
nervousness across the grass. I heard the metallic hum of the
streaming mesh of field lights beating down on my back.

Their heat produced small beads of sweat on
the back of my neck. It felt nice against the chill in the air. I
heard the stretching of my fingers against the plastic of my
helmet. I shoved all of these noises to the back of my head as well
and searched the stands behind me. I searched until I found my
mom’s voice and sitting right next to it was the most gorgeous
sound in the entire world. It’s melody steadily allayed all the
anxiety I had felt about the game and it melted them away like a
crayon left in the hot summer sun. I let the waxy tension escape
from underneath its papery sheath and sighed at the peace it gave
me.

“So have you thought about college at all?” I
heard my mom ask Jules.

“Yes, I have Shelby. I’m thinking Penn,”
Jules said.

“What a coincidence,” my mom said. “That’s
where Elliott wants to go.”

The sarcasm in her voice cracked me up, but
Jules ignored it. I’m sure Jules saw my shoulders shake with
laughter.
    “Shelby, you know me better than that. Do I look
like the type of girl who follows a man around? I’ve wanted to go
to Penn my entire life. Besides, it has an excellent English
program,” Jules said without skipping a beat.
    “I’m sure it does,” my mom said dryly.

I could just imagine my mom crossing her
arms. She was still pretty sore about us falling asleep at Jules’
and that slightly changed her opinion of Jules. Don’t get me wrong,
my mom still loved Jules like a daughter. She was just disappointed
in her as well as myself was all and thought that we weren’t the
best decision makers when it came to making the important ones
together. She may have been right, but we were young and we made
admittedly made a mistake.

    “What do you and Elliott
plan on doing if y’all break up at Penn?” My mom asked.
This was my mom’s way of ‘helping us grow up’ she would tell
me.
    “We would never,” Jules said.
    But my mom interrupted, “Never say never.”
    “Penn is a big school. I’m sure since we would
have totally different majors we would never even see each other if
it could be helped,” Jules said, trying to appease my mom.
Jules wasn’t one to be messed with, but if she wasn’t careful my
mama was going to slap the sass out of her mouth.
    Jules realized the disrespect and tried to atone
for it, “Shelby, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be smart. It’s just,
I know you think that Elliott and I are co-dependent and I have to
admit that you think correctly and I really can’t think of any
other way then to just let you think it. At least until enough time
passes that you recognize that we found our soul mates a little
earlier than most.”

That killed me. She’d never admitted that out
loud before. Though it was sort of implied and felt, I’d never
heard her say the words. I wanted to jump into the stands and kiss
her face.

    “You’re right Jules. I do
think that but you assume that I don’t also see how he looks at
you. That boy is head over heels in love with you and there is no
doubt in my mind that one day you’ll become my daughter
officially
some day. I just want to make sure that he gets
the education, no, that you
both
get the education you
deserve. I want to see the two of you get out of this town and its
rut and make something of yourselves.”
    “Thanks Shelby and I hope you know I mean no
disrespect. I can promise you that Elliott is going to be the best
student that ever came out of Penn, even with me there. I’ll make
sure of that. He has big plans and the day I saw him standing still
in that hallway outside Mrs. Kitt’s class was the day that his
plans became mine and mine became his. We’ll link them together and
I know it will balance, because it’s our destiny.”

That was a little dramatic, but that was
Jules and I loved that about her. I could tell the game was about
to start because they got really quiet and Jules’ anxiety for my
safety seared into the back of my head.

Coach Miles slapped me on the shoulder,
jarring my eyes open, and began to go over the first play. I ran
onto the field and glanced back at my mom and Jules. My dad was
standing next to my mom and Maddy next to him. I could see the
whites of Jules’ knuckles and felt a little sorry for her. She
always had that same look in her eyes when I played, like she
anticipated the worst. She worried about me needlessly though, I
never got hurt, not severely anyway.

    I felt the bite of the
wintery season on my exposed calves and arms and face. It was the
perfect weather to play. In a few minutes, I’d be perfectly warm
from running up and down the field and I had to admit, I was
looking forward to the game.

We won the coin toss and we all got into
position. It was a heck of a game and both teams fought tooth and
nail. During the fourth quarter, with seven seconds left in the
game, we had possession and were tied. It was third down,
forty-five yards to the end zone and it was up to me to close the
game for good. My coach called his final time-out and we ran
in.

    “Listen Gray! No overtime
boy. I’m in the mood to celebrate now and I don’t feel like
waiting.” He turned to everyone in the huddle. “Y’all with me?” He
screamed.
Everyone hollered in agreement, “Greenbacks!” and we went screaming
back onto the field.

I could feel the stiffness in the crowd.
Everyone was perched at the edge of their bleacher waiting to see
if I was the clutch player they needed. I had the uncanny ability
to stay calm under pressure though and to me, this may as well have
been the first play of the game, not the last.

We lined up. I could see the breaths of my
team and opponents swirl in the chill night air. The sweat dripped
down the defensive linemen like they had poured water over the top
of their head. The pressure was on. We planned on mixing things up.
They just
knew
I was going to throw to Jesse, our top wide
receiver, but we had someone special hiding under the pretense of
defensive left tackle.

We gave the opposing team the impression that
our tight end was
injured
and we were using the tackle as a
stand in of sorts. Ol’ Reliable, James Cappelli, two hundred pounds
of pure muscle, and we were saving him for just such an
occasion.

Cappelli was what you would call an enigma.
The guy was large, goofy looking, but could run faster than a
speeding bullet. So, when Matthew Tanen snapped the ball I eyed
Jesse carefully, giving them the old dog and pony show. How I
fooled them I’m not sure, I’m a terrible actor, but when the play
began I slyly threw Cappelli the ball. He blasted down the field
like a flash of light and when he stepped foot into the end zone,
the opposing team were still scratching their heads.

The defensive end who was supposed to be
covering Cappelli decided to lunge toward Jesse to see if he could
get some of the glory, but instead might as well have been caught
with his finger up his nose. That enraged him and like a fool, I
started to laugh hysterically.