Extra Credit Opportunity!

     Some of you have expressed concerns about your current grade.  If you'd like to earn extra credit (the equivalent of a homework assignment) you should read and comment on the first draft of my short story.  Please use the Praise, Question, Polish format we have discussed in class.

                                                  You Might Want to Stop

     Jessica stared in disbelief at the inside of her locker.  Somehow, someone had gotten into it and shredded all of her papers.  For good measure, they had then coated everything with Silly String.  Leaving the door open, she went to get an administrator.


     Walking in late to math was never Jess's favorite thing.  She had a tenuous relationship with Mrs. Milsack, and a terrible relationship with the Clueless Companions at the back of the room.  Fortunately, Mrs. Milsack was in the middle of her lesson and only nodded for Jess to put her pass on the front desk.
     As soon as she sat down, Jess could hear the whispers from the Companions behind her. 
     "Freak,"  Allison muttered.
     "Stomp any babies with those combat books?" Jason sneered at her.
     Jess sighed and tried to focus on the lesson.  It became slightly harder when the paper balls started hitting her in the back of the head, but woohoo!  For a change, Mrs. Milsack noticed.
     "Jason and Allison, I'll see you after school for detention.  This is your senior year.  Are you really still throwing paper in class?"
     Jess knew there would be hell to pay later, but it was nice to be able to concentrate on her math lesson for a change.
     The rest of the day was uneventful, and Jessica walked into Woodworking Club with relief.  Ty was saving her usual place at their favorite table.
     "How's things?" he asked her.
     "At the risk of sounding like a whiner, not great."  Jess told him about the start of her day.
     Ty sighed when she finished.  "I guess our original strategy of ignoring it isn't helping, huh?"
     "Not really, but I'm not sure what to do.  Ugh.  Can we not talk about it for now?"
     "Sure, " Ty passed her the chisel and they got to work on the sign for the main entrance to the town.  Canterbury was holding a competition, and the students who made the sign the town chose would get a $500 scholarship to the school of their choice.  Money was tight for everyone, so the competition was high.


     "Mom?  Are you home yet?"  Jess threw her leather jacket onto the sofa.
     "Yes.  In the kitchen making dinner.  Tacos in twenty, " her mom called back.
     "Yum!  Be in soon."
     Once in her room, Jess booted up her computer and signed on to her Etsy site.  The jewelry-and-soap making sale were going well, and it looked like Jess would have about $5000 saved by the end of the school year.  It was time-consuming, between making the products and packaging them for shipping, but college wasn't going to pay for itself.
     Jess quickly packaged up the few orders and clattered down the stairs to the kitchen.  The smell of chili powder, cumin, and chicken made her stomach grumble.  Fortunately, it was one of her favorite smells; their half of the duplex would smell like tacos for days because of the closed windows.
     "Hi, Mom.  How was your day? "  Jess gave her mom a quick peck on the cheek as she passed by.  Pouring the lemonade and setting the table, they swapped stories.
     "Well, you definitely win for crap-tastic start of the day, " her mother said.  "Is the school going to do anything?"
     "I don't know.  Probably not.  I'm sure I know who did it...Jason and Allison, of course...but I have no proof."
     "Why do those two always give you such a hard time?" her mom frowned.
     "Not sure.  Mostly I think I scare them."
     "Scare them?  You?  Why on Earth would anyone be scared of you?!"  Her mother chuckled and shook her head.
     Jess made a wry face.  "Thanks, Mom."
     "Oh, no!  Sweetie, I didn't mean..."
     Jess grinned, "I know.  Just kidding."
     While they ate, Jess pondered her mother's question.  Why did Jason and Allison hate her so much?  They had tormented her from her first day at Canterbury High at the beginning of tenth grade.  Yes, she was an outsider, she and her mom having moved to town after the divorce.  Yes, she was known to dress a little differently, and not care too much about her appearance.  But did combat boots  and being from another state make her a bad person?
     Jess suspected that a large part of their dislike came from what she had told her mom:  they were scared of her.  They didn't know what to think about her independence, and her lack of concern about what others thought about her.  That, or they really just needed a life.
     Not that Jess didn't care at all.  Would it be nice to have more than two friends in town?  Of course.  Would it be nice to be asked to do things on the weekend by someone other than her mom?  Sure.
     But Jess had five months to go before she left for college-she'd been accepted at Dartmouth and had a partial scholarship and work study-and the thought of going out of her way to change things wasn't all that appealing.  She'd made an effort in the beginning and everyone except Ty and Maya had rejected her.  "Their loss," was her final conclusion.
     Of course, none of this helped her decide what to do to keep the next five months from being unbearable.


     Lunch the next day was a case-study in indigestion.  As she'd expected, Jason and Allison were in full-attack mode because of their detentions.  Another pea landed on the table near her, and she decided to go to the library.
     As Jess moved across the cafeteria, Allison stepped in her way.  Jess was startled; Allison was usually cowardly in her attacks.  Jess stopped and waited, and it seemed that the whole caff grew quiet.
     "Why don't you go back to the truck stop you came from, freak?" Allison asked, her voice penetrating even the buzz around the snack line.
     "Don't you mean the cave I came from, Allison?" Jess calmly replied.  A few students snickered.  Allison turned red.
     "Always have an answer, don't you, freak," was her lame comeback.
     Jess raised an eyebrow and said nothing.  More snickers from the crowd.  This pushed Allison over the edge.
     "You and your kind should be aborted before you're born, " she snarled.  "You think you don't have to follow anyone else's rules or fit in.  You dress strange, you don't behave like any self-respecting girl, and you think you're better than everyone else."  Allison's tirade ended in an almost-scream.
    "Huh, " was all Jess could think to reply.  She moved to step around Allison, but the other girl blocked her way.  Jess started to wonder if she was going to have to fight, but Principal Davis came in and one of Allison's friends came and brought her back to her seat.  Jess high-tailed it to the library.


     Things were obviously getting worse.  Still mystified over why Allison cared enough to give her such a hard time, Jess had no idea how to respond.  Should she fight back?  She, Ty, and Maya had originally thought that ignoring the problem was the best choice.  Ignoring Jason and Allison didn't seem to deter them, though.
     Absent-mindedly, Jess typed their names in the library computer.  She was startled when a news article with both of their names popped up.  It was from what would have been the spring of freshman year.  Jess scanned it quickly.
     "...the men leave behind families... Jason Anderson is survived by his wife, Laura and their son, Jason Anderson, Jr.  Dalton McCabe leaves behind his wife, Julie, and their children, Derek and Allison."
     For the second time that day, all Jess could think to say was, "Huh."


     Ty side-stepped Jess's unbalanced skid to a stop where he had just been standing.  Maya giggled and said, "Your mom should have named you Grace."  Jess stuck her tongue out at her.
     "You two owe me, "Jess said.
     "Why this time?" Ty asked.
     "Um, is there perhaps some information about Jason and Allison that you forgot to share with me?"
     Maya glanced at Ty and her shoulders drooped.  "Damn, " was all she said.
     Ty grimaced.  "No, we didn't forget to tell you."
     Jess just stared.
     "How'd you find out?" Maya asked.
     Jess relayed her discovery in the library.  "What do you mean you didn't..."
     "We didn't tell you on purpose," Ty interrupted.
     Jess could feel her face getting hot.  "I'm going to assume that you had a good reason for omitting this information."
     "Yup," was all Ty said.
     Maya could sense that Jess was getting ready to slug them.  "Truth, or carefully concocted, on-the-fly lie?" she asked.
     "Really?" There was an edge in Jess's voice.
     "Okay.  Truth.  We didn't tell you because we didn't want you to think of it as ammo."
     Jess nodded, turned, and walked away.


     Processing her soap and jewelry orders, Jess was able to let her mind wander.  Had Ty and Maya really thought Jess would use the information in the article against Jason and Allison?  Why would her friends want to protect those two jerks, anyway?
      More importantly, would she use the information against them?  Jess stopped packaging soap and thought about her options.
     She checked to see if Maya and Ty were online, and when she saw they were, she opened up a three-way chat.
Mayagrrl:  R u really mad?
Jesster:  Not anymore.
Mayagrrl:  U know we're on ur side?
Jesster:  Yeah.  Drew that conclusion.
Tybee123:  What now?
Jesster:  First I want to know why you protected them?
Mayagrrl:  Meet at Dunk's in 15?
Jesster:  K
Tybee123:  K


     "Okay, spill," Jess said.  The three sat crowded around a small table, coffee steaming in front of them.
     "The spring before you moved here, Jason and Allison's dads robbed the Fidelity Trust in downtown Concord.  They were armed, and they shot at police while escaping.  The police shot out the tires in the Chevy Blazer, Anderson lost control, the Blazer rolled, and both of them were killed," Ty said.
     "Yes, I know all that from the article.  I'm more interested in why you protected Jason and Allison when they're almost as horrible to you as they are to me."
     "After their dads died, Jason and Allison were kind of like pariahs at school...,"  Maya hesitated.  "It was awful to see.  I mean, they'd just lost their dads, and no one would sit near them, people openly made fun of them... The school wound up intervening, and we all had to sit through hours of 'sensitivity training.'"
     Jess sipped her coffee and waited.
     "The school's goal was to get most of the kids to move on.  Jason, Allison, and the close friends that had turned on them had even more counseling, and by the summer things were getting back to...well, as normal as they ever are around here," Ty said.  "We wanted to just leave it all behind.  I mean, I won't lie, it was kind of nice for the hostilities to be directed at others for a while, but...I guess Maya and I kind of felt bad for them.  You know, empathy from experience and all."
     Jess nodded.  She knew that her friends had struggled in Canterbury; Maya was the only Vietnamese kid in town, and Ty had two moms.  They had each been targets since their families had moved to town; it's why the three of them stuck together.  But...
     "I get it.  But I'm still a little hurt that you thought I'd use it against them.  What does that say you think about me?"
     Maya sighed.  "I know.  We're sorry, Jess."
     Jess grinned.  "I guess I can't be too mad at you.  I have to admit that some interesting revenge fantasies crossed my mind when I read the article."
    Ty asked, "So what are you going to do now?"


     Jess arrived early to math and walked right to where Jason and Allison were sitting at the back of the classroom.  She handed each of them an envelope, and walked to her seat.  Not turning around was so hard, Jess's skin felt itchy from resisting the urge.
     Inside each envelope was a printed copy of the newspaper article she'd found and a letter she'd written.
         
           Dear Allison (or Jason),
    
                     I stumbled across this article while I was in the library the other day.  I was surprised that in the two and a
           half years I've lived here, I never saw this story.  But then, you made sure no one at school would talk to me about 
           it, didn't you?
                    I don't know why you're such cretins and feel you have a right to be awful to me.  Maybe you were thinking
           that if you could deflect the negative attention my way, everyone would forget about you.  Or maybe you're just not
           nice people.  Either way, I've had enough.
                    The next move is yours.  But rest uncomfortably knowing that I have a plan in mind to make your lives
           unbearable for the next five months if you don't lay off.
                                                        
                                                                                                           Sincerely,
                                                                                                                          Jess

     Mrs. Milsack gave a rousing lecture on trigonometric proofs, and Jess heard exactly none of it.  She kept waiting for the paper balls to hit her in the back of the head.  She wasn't sure if it was a good thing that Jason and Allison were so silent.  When the bell rang to end class, Jess bailed as fast as she could.
     Sitting in lunch a few periods later, Jess was tense.  Nothing had happened, and waiting wasn't one of her strong suits.  Ty and Maya kept glancing at her, but didn't say anything.  They weren't thrilled with the plan-Maya had called it emotional blackmail-but had decided that ultimately it was Jess's decision.  If Jason and Allison actually took the threat seriously, the reprehensible behavior would stop.  If they didn't...
     Jess suddenly sucked in air and started to cough.  Ty and Maya turned and saw the Clueless Companions headed to their table.  They stopped in front of Jess, and Allison said one word.
     "Truce."