The Understorey, Book One of The Leaving Series (28 page)

Jules took forever to pick out music. She
said there was an art to choosing the correct songs, to provide
diverse choices that would suit any mood. I had to admit she was
pretty good at it.

    “Should we ditch today and
stay here?” She asked. “I bet we could get a lot more done if we
did.”
    “Whoa! We just got stow away privileges and you
already want to rock the boat? Any minute now we could capsize and
never make our destination.”
    “You’re right,” she sagged with a sigh. “Let’s
get to school.”

“Aye, aye, cap’n!” I said with a salute.

That day was a B day and I’d only have fourth
period Chemistry with her. I didn’t get to see her that morning but
at least we got to eat lunch together and I was able to finish the
day with her.

The hours ticked by so slowly but I absorbed
the little information I didn’t already know in Economics and
Algebra and ran to the cafeteria to see my Jules. I saw her sitting
at our usual table but didn’t see what I had imagined all morning.
She had her arms folded across her stomach as if in pain and a look
of panic strewn about her perfect face. I instantly ran to her and
pleaded to know what was wrong.

    “Jules! What
happened?”

The tears were just beginning to flow. I
guess they had unconsciously been waiting for me. They knew how
much I hated them. They were a sign of pain in Jules and that was
unacceptable to me. She tried to speak but couldn’t and instead
just handed me, with trembling hands, a folded piece of notebook
paper torn from a binder. It was a printed note and read,

Julia, you’ve got something that I want and
I’m determined to make it mine. I think you know what I mean. Watch
yourself.

My hands tremored and the paper shook
furiously in my hands. I crumpled it up but the frustration didn’t
subside as I’d hoped. I needed to find Jesse and immediately. I
stared out across the cafeteria.

    “I’m going to find Jesse,”
I said as calmly as I possibly could.
I began to stand but she pulled me back to my chair.
    “No, babe, please. Have you considered that it
might be from Taylor?” She asked.

I hadn’t thought of that but I guess I could
see how it could also make sense. Both people made sense as its
author but Jesse was the outright psycho, not to mention the
unveiled threats, not that Jules knew about those. Jesse was the
only one who could have done it, in my book.

    “Damn it!” I said a little
too loudly.

Jules stroked my arm to calm me down but it
wasn’t helping. I could tell that she was scared because her
fingers shook and she was nearly screaming it through our
touch.

    “You know it’s going to be
okay, right?” I asked her.
    “No,” she said.
    “Why would you think otherwise Jules?”
    “Because I know something you don’t,” she
offered begrudgingly.
    “This better not make me want to kill someone,”
I said honestly.
    “Never mind then,” she squeaked.
    “Just tell me Jules,” I clipped.
    “Well, I found it in my messenger bag this
morning in class.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Well, it was early. No one was around. My
messenger bag hadn’t been any place but in my room and your truck
since last night and the note definitely wasn’t in there after
school because I would have seen it when getting out my books to do
my homework after dinner. No one could have had access to it
unless............” She stopped.
    “Unless,” I said, picking up where she left off,
“unless they had been in your house?”
    “Yes,” her lower lip trembled.
    “And it would have had to have been while you
had been sleeping?”
    “Yes.”

I shuddered.
    “We have to take this to the Principal.
Now.”

I grabbed her hand and our stuff and the note
and practically dragged her down the hallway. Principal Rudolph’s
office had never seemed so far before. Of course, when I was hauled
down there after my fight with Jesse it was the shortest walk ever
but now it was a million miles away. Go figure.

I burst into secretary Millie’s office and
demanded I speak with Principal Rudolph. Jules stood beside me,
confident. It was a bit of a ruse. She was frightened and it was
something only I could sense. She was a strong girl, stronger than
anyone I knew, but this was beyond the both of us. It was too
unbelievable to imagine.

    “Principal Rudolph is out
today kids,” Millie said, her head buried in paperwork.
    “Will you tell her that we stopped by?” I
asked.

Without waiting for her response, I dragged
Jules back to the cafeteria. She didn’t want to eat and I didn’t
blame her. We sat at our table and agreed that we should act like
the note we had found didn’t bother us in case someone was watching
and by someone we meant one of Taylor’s cronies, since Taylor
didn’t share this lunch with us and Jesse was gone. I wasn’t taking
any chances. I grabbed Jules’ hand, leaned into her neck and
breathed into her ear that I loved her.

I blasted a concentrated amount of feeling
through her throat and the heat relaxed her at once. The
electricity that flowed between us was as powerful as a
river’s.

We discovered we could control the dosage, so
to speak, but had to be careful because releasing too much made us
sleepy as heck. It soothed us both to experience the exchange and
was quite addicting.

I craved it at night especially. It was when
we were away from each other the longest and I found myself waking
earlier and earlier each day just so I could touch her as quickly
as possible to mollify the necessity for it.

She audibly sighed in relief and that cleared
my head a little. I was too preoccupied with her suffering to start
analyzing the note and deciphering its real meaning. I was
incredibly shocked at the brazenness of the culprit breaking into
her house. I say culprit, I mean Jesse. He’s the only one I know
who would do something so monumentally dangerous for his health. A
week ago, it would have been beyond anything I thought he could
do.

As I held her hand, I studied my fingers
desperate for an additional clue.

    “I think I’m gonna’ call
my Uncle Danny,” I said.
    “You think it’s serious enough that we’d have to
involve the police?”
    “Yeah, I think so, Jules. I mean what’s the harm
in it really? My uncle is bored at the station anyway, this will
give him something to do.”
    After school, Jules and I rode in silence to
Danny’s station. I had the note in the back pocket of my jeans and
could feel the searing heat of its intentions blistering down the
back of my leg. As we rode, I kept Jules’ hand in mine for comfort
and when we arrived my Uncle Danny came rushing out of the door.
I’m guessing he saw us through the window.
    “Hey son!” He called out.
    “Hey Danny!” I said, closing the creaky driver’s
side door.
I pulled my jacket closer to my body to keep the winter air from
chilling me any further than my daunted bones already ached.
    “Well Jules, every time I see you, you just get
prettier and prettier,” he said before turning to me. “You’re
gonna’ have to break ‘em off with a stick Elliott!”
    “That’s actually kind of why we’re here Danny,”
I said.
His eyes turned serious.
    “What’s goin’ on?” He asked, furrowing his
brow.
Uncle Danny was no longer there. We were now speaking to officer
Danny.
    “Well,” I said, pulling the flaming note from my
pocket and handing it to him, “Jules found this note in her
messenger bag this morning.”
He unfolded the note and read its words, then looked at us in
silence.
    I continued, “And basically, it’s not something
we’d have wanted to involve the police in but we think the person
who put it there had broken into Jules’ bedroom to do it.”
    “Wait. Wait, now. You said it was in her
messenger bag. It could have been any of the kids at school. This
could very easily be a joke.”
    “Well, unfortunately we’ve run into a few issues
with some people at school so we know it’s not a joke. Also, I
thought it had to have been put into the pack this morning but
Jules said the messenger bag hadn’t been near anyone at all that
morning except herself and myself, that it hadn’t been in there
last night when she was doing her homework and when she found it
this morning she knew the only way it could have gotten there was
some time while she was sleeping.”

He sat for awhile and deliberated what his
next steps would be.

    “Chances are it’s just
mean teenager crap but I’ll follow up on it either way. I better
call Principal Rudolph at her home and just fill her in. Who are
these
people
giving you trouble Elliott?”
He looked at me suspiciously but decided I wasn’t the type he’d
easily associate with trouble.
    “Uh, Jesse Thomas,” I said reluctantly.
    “Jesse Thomas? Your best friend Jesse
Thomas?”
    “
Ex
-best friend,” I corrected.

“But it could also be Taylor Williams. She
hates me too. We’re just not sure which one,” Jules laughed
nervously.

“Okay,” he said shaking his head, rubbing
chin stubble between his thumb and forefinger. “I’ll be right
back.”

Jules and I heaved ourselves onto the hood of
my truck. The heat from the engine was a comfort. I made sure she
sat closely so our skin would stay in contact and it’d keep me
calm. It was freezing but neither of us made an attempt to go
inside because our contact kept us a balmy ninety-eight point six,
maybe warmer. I don’t think we wanted to hear the conversation he
was having either. We remained silent, keeping a conversation
within ourselves.

I tried extremely hard not to imagine Jesse
sneaking into Jules’ room, slithering his way around, going through
her stuff. I also tried not to think about all the different ways
I’d kill him when I found out for sure that it was him. I tried not
to think about what I was going to say to him at school the next
day as well. I did think about avoiding him altogether and skipping
school but I had to see for myself the way he acted around me,
around us. I knew him well enough to recognize when he was acting
shady, though Jesse 2.0 might be a little harder to decipher.

Jules squeezed my hand tightly into hers to
ease my restlessness. She was reading me. It worked. I closed my
eyes and let the sleepy current soften my rigid torso. I took a
deep breath through my nose and nearly drowned from the heavenly
delirium that was Jules’ perfume. I fought past that and could
smell dark smoke, most likely from a couple miles ahead of us at
the Miller’s house. They always started burning old wood from the
prior winter seasons first and I could smell the burning of dormant
kindling.

I looked up and saw my Uncle Danny hanging up
the phone. He swung his coat over his shoulders and stomped his
heavy boots across the old wood floor of the station and out onto
the little covered porch.

    “I’ve let the Principal
know. She promised to keep an eye on things. I’ve decide it’d be a
good idea if we took a ride over to the Jacobs’ residence and
search around the property for any signs of forced entry.” He
paused and stared at our distressed faces, “I’m sure it’s not a big
deal kids. I’m just taking the necessary precautions.”

Danny came close and patted me on the
shoulder. His kind words did nothing to alleviate my fears and I
was positive it didn’t help Jules either. We knew Jesse and Taylor
and either one of them was capable of jumping the line of
rationality, we’d seen it with our own eyes, but we never thought
it could come to this. My money was still on Jesse though.

Jules and I jumped into my truck and followed
Danny to the Jacobs’ house, again, as quiet as before. When we
arrived, Danny walked us around Jules’ house and asked her where
her window was. She pointed at the windows that belonged to her
room and Danny moved in closely to the one at the back of the
house.

    “I see no signs of entry
here, let’s check the other window at the side of the house,” he
said.

We rounded the corner and saw one of the most
painfully terrifying things I’d ever seen.
Two
sets of old
foot prints, barely visible in the snow leading from the brush to
the side of the house and back. The prints were so faded I had no
idea how large they actually were and therefore unable to figure
out whether it was Taylor’s or Jesse’s prints, or both. Did Jesse
come to the window twice or once with an accomplice?

Against the wall laid two cinder blocks, one
right next to the other, the longer sides parallel with the side of
the house. When we looked closely at the window the paint had been
freshly scratched where the intruder had pried open the bottom of
the ancient window, probably with a crowbar from the width of the
scratch. I watched Jules start to lose it a little bit so I grabbed
her and held her steadily against my side.

    “Strange,” said
Danny.
    “What is?” I asked.
    “Well, I’m sort of flabbergasted as to how Julia
didn’t hear the wood of the window cracking or the intruder?”
Jules blushed slightly and scrunched her nose.
    “I’m an extremely heavy sleeper,” she
admitted.
    “Ahhh,” he said. “Well, whoever it was that
actually entered couldn’t have been that tall. These windows aren’t
very far from the ground. They needed cinder blocks to see or get
inside.”
He pointed at the blocks against the house.
Taylor then?
    “Okay,” Danny said, “I’m going to call Julia’s
parents and let them know what’s going on. Maybe they can stop by a
home improvement store and get some additional locking mechanisms
for the windows. Be right back.”
He left us there staring at the creepiness that was the intruder’s
handiwork.
    “She’s insane,” Jules said, her voice
shaking.
    “Or
they’re
insane. There’s something
else that’s bothering me.”
    “What’s that?” Jules asked.
    “Well, who would risk getting caught boldly
waltzing into your room at night? They must have known that you
were a heavy sleeper, but nobody but myself and your family would
know something like that.........unless you’ve told someone else?
Do you remember talking about it at school with anyone?”
The blood drained from her face and she nodded, keeping her eyes
steady with mine.
    “Don’t you remember?” She asked. “
We
did,
with each other, in front of Jesse. When we came back to school
after Tanen’s party fiasco, you were talking about the night and
broke off to tease me about that fact that I could sleep through a
hurricane. Later,” she trembled, “we were all hanging out at
Thatcher’s. When Jesse thought you weren’t looking, he poked me in
the ribs and told me that if I wasn’t careful he’d come in while I
was asleep and rearrange my furniture.