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chapter fifteen
Jessica
smiled to herself as she drove home. She was pretty sure she had succeeded in
intriguing her family. She had almost laughed at the looks on their faces. It
was funny, in a way. How at first it was her leaving and confused, and now it
was them. Of course they weren’t leaving…but that was a minor detail. Of
course, none of her family besides Avery and Zoë had met Alex, but that too
could be worked out. Things were going quite a bit smoother than she had
expected.
“Alex,”
Jessica said in a whiney voice. “Wake up.” It was about a week and a half
later. Jessica’s family had been bugging her about meeting “this wonderful
Alex” and they wanted her home. Isaac still had not asked Lucy, so Jessica’s
wedding would be the first. The entire family wanted to start plans. He rolled
over, still asleep. “Come on. I need to talk to you.” He groaned and opened
his eyes.
“What?” he said groggily.
“Get up. We have stuff to
do.”
“Like what?”
“Like go pick up my mother and
start making plans before she explodes.”
“Aw, Jess, do we hafta?”
“Yes. And you better talk to
your family too.”
“Aw, I don’t want to. My
dad, he’ll get all riled up. He’ll want to know your whole family’s
complete history, and my mom’ll want to run the whole thing, I don’t want to
get them involved too early.”
“What about your sisters?”
“I could call them, I guess. I
don’t know. They would tell my mom and dad.”
“Fine then, Alex Kinllen. You
just stay here and sleep all day. I’m going out. And I’m taking the car,”
Jessica said angrily. She grabbed her purse and keys and stomped out the door.
“Jessie-wait!” SLAM. Alex
sighed and lay back down on the bed.
‡‡‡‡‡‡
Mrs. Hanson, Avery and Zoë sat
on a bench outside of the local mall. They were waiting for Jessica, who was
supposed to show up with Alex. So far, she was 10 minutes late and there was no
sign of her. Zoë sighed her frustrated sigh and sat back on the bench.
“Don’t worry, she’ll be
here,” Mrs. Hanson said. Just then, Jessica hurried up. She seemed as if she
had been in a hurry. She also looked a little gloomy. But most of all, there was
no one with her.
“Hi,” she said a little
uneasily. “Sorry I’m late, but Alex he was already up, and he was writing. I
tried to pull him away, but he wouldn’t have any of it. He said he had to
finish it while it was still in his head. So I came alone.” The lie flowed
easily from her lips. She didn’t want to tell anyone about the little fight
they’d had. Her mom hadn’t even met Alex. If she told her mother that, she
might get a little wary. She didn’t want that. Alex’s family was just a sore
spot for him. They didn’t get along very well. Like he had told her the first
day they met, his father wanted him to go to Harvard and be a doctor or
something, but he would rather be a writer.
“So,” Jessica said, her
voice considerably more cheerful, “where to first?”
“I’m hungry,” Avery spoke
up.
“Well then,” Mrs. Hanson said. “How about lunch?”