On the Track of Loss (Jason Peirce Series #2), Page 2

Chapter Two

  I was in the locker room cooling down ten minutes later. "Hey, Jason. What are you doing today? Wanna head into Blue Jay and catch a movie?" It was Charlie, our best pole vaulter in a decade according to our coach. I wasn't exactly friends with the guy, but we weren't strangers either. He was a five foot seven stick of a kid. His hair was disproportionately large. He had a dark tan and eyes like coal.

  "Not today, I've got a study session with Wendy, then Dad wants to grab a steak somewhere. Maybe next time?" I pulled on a green t-shirt and khaki shorts while answering.

  "Oh. Sure. So, you looking forward to your re-match with that guy down the mountain? What was his name again?" He sat down on the bench, waiting for me to finish up.

  "Yeah I can't wait. Jack... something. I really don't remember. I just hope he hasn't gotten any faster." I laughed at myself and Charlie joined in as I shut my locker and spun the lock. "How 'bout you? Any arch-nemeses down there?"

  "Nah, I have a friend that joined their team this year, though. He's doing the high-jump though, so there won't be any competition between me and him." We headed out and around the school. I had given Wendy my keys out of my backpack before heading into the locker room. When we made our way to the parking lot I saw that she had started the heater. It was a normal, cold day on the Arrowhead Mountain and the few other cars all had foggy windows. Charlie stopped at a brown Jeep. "Alright, I'll see you Monday, Jace."

  "Later." I said as I opened the door of my black Crown Victoria. The warm air washed over me as I shut the driver's door. I was met with a sideways hug and peck on the cheek.

  "How was practice?" Wendy let go and buckled up. I followed suit and reached for the radio.

  "Too easy. I need to run harder the next few days. Monday is coming fast. And you? How are the photos coming along?" She had been snapping pictures while the team trained.

  "I think I got a few good shots. Gotta develop them to be sure though. I need to get myself up to date soon. Film just takes too long for all the pictures I'm taking. Mr. Phillips wants the shots tomorrow which means tonight will be spent with the chemicals."

  "Car comes first though. When is the mechanic going to be done with it?"

  "Oh, he called after school let out. Turns out that a pipe overheated and cracked in addition to the wheel problem. He's not sure just yet. The parts are on order." She had been on her way to my house when her Camaro came to a bumpy stop next to Lake Gregory. My Dad and I got to her before the tow truck. Dad took a look and said that the wheel spindle had broken in two. We had been carpooling to and from school since.

  "So, are we studying at your place or mine?" She thought for a few seconds.

  "Yours. Mom and Dad are out 'til about eight. They wouldn't be happy." Not that I would do anything to incite her police officer father's wrath. But Wendy and I thought along the same lines.

  "Alright, so what's the subject today? Math? English? History?"

  "I was kind of thinking we do some studying on each other." What on Earth could that have meant? Wouldn't she have preferred being at her house for that? But no, she had been clear that we were going to my house. "You know, like Twenty Questions. We've been friends for so long, but I feel like there is so much I don't know about you." She laughed at the look on my face as she finished talking.

  "Oh... That sounds great. I've got nothing lower than B's anyways." The rest of the short drive home was spent listening to the radio. A country station that Wendy liked and was growing on me.

  "Okay, so... What is your favorite color?" That had to have been the twelfth time she had asked me the same question. A week before, I had told her that my color preference varied from day to day, and sometimes it would change from hour to hour.

  "Right now? I'm leaning towards a kind of blue/green... Turquoise maybe." I smiled as she looked at her sweater and proceeded to throw a pencil at me. I wasn't referring to her sweater though. That was clearly a bright teal. "What? It's hard not to like the color of your eyes!" She turned a dark shade of scarlet.

  "Oh... Stop That." She giggled through her embarrassment. "Your turn."

  I paused for a few seconds then asked, "If you could have dinner with any celebrity, alive or dead, who would it be and what would you do at dinner?"

  Wendy thought for a few seconds before saying, "Eric Michael Hopper." I tilted my head in confusion. "He's not really a big celebrity, but I've got this feeling that he will be some day. He's a singer from Georgia that friended me online a couple years ago. He has some amazing music. Anyways, I'd take him to Papagayos in the Village and ask him to sing some songs. Maybe they'd get the stage opened and an impromptu concert would form. Then, after everyone has had their fill of music, I'd try to talk him into letting me be his official photographer!" Wendy laughed and I smiled when I saw that she was in her own little world for a minute.

  "Your turn." I prompted.

  "Oh, right. Okay so, If your house was on fire, what would you grab first?" She looked around the room at the few valuable items I owned.

  "Right now? You." I smiled and looked her in the eye to say that I was serious.

  "Oh, you know what I meant!" She threw another pencil at me. "Like, if the house caught fire tonight at midnight, when I'm at home. What would be the first thing you grab?"

  "Okay, I guess in that situation, the first thing I would grab is my wallet. Then if there was enough time, I'd get my mom's old violin." I looked away from Wendy to the spot on the wall where the fiddle sat on the other side. After the move from Big Bear, Dad had the instrument packed away for a couple of years. I came across it while looking for my Game Boy one day and then we had it put into a huge shadow box frame and hung on the wall. "Then, maybe my phone."

  "Just maybe?"

  "Okay, I'd probably grab that before my wallet." We laughed together before I continued. "Now, what do you think of when I say, adventure?"

  "Riverside, a few weeks ago." She says in a serious sounding tone, a slight frown forming on her lips.

  "Hey, it's all right. We just need to get through the trial and we'll never see them again."

  "I... I know that. It's just that it happened so fast. All of it, and then we were laughing down the street to go eat. What kind of people are we?"

  "You're kids." Wendy and I jumped at the sudden intrusion of my Dad, leaning against my door frame. "You're kids that have been shaped by the world around you. By video games, and TV shows, and movies. Jason's been through the violence once before, and maybe that helped him, or maybe it was something else. What matters is that we all made it through okay. The truth is that you are both strong. You didn't sit by and let the bad guys hurt you. You used your heads and got through it. I hope to God that you never have to go through something like that again. But I'm proud to know that you can get through it if you do." He took a few steps forward and offered us his hands. When we took hold, he pulled us up and into a light hug. "I came to tell you that I made tacos, so come and eat."

  And we did.

  The tacos went pretty quickly. Then Dad drove Wendy home for the night. It was still fairly early in the evening, so I decided to go for another run through the neighborhood. All of Crestline is mountainous, so it didn't take long before I was breathing hard and sweating. I ran by a local church and through the upper Crestline store fronts. It was my normal loop that I could never really get used to. At the entrance and exit to the Crestline cutoff of the highway I stopped and inhaled the scent of barbequed steaks. Dad hadn't said why he changed his mind about going out for dinner, but it didn't matter. The Mexican substitute was great. After a minute, I continued running along the winding roads.

  As I made the last turn back onto my street I spotted the moving truck. Dad had mentioned that we had new neighbors over dinner, but I hadn't noticed all day. When I saw the truck I took a minute to slow down and see if I might catch a glimpse of the new people. The truck was parked towards the end of the house's long driveway, which I thought to be very strange until I saw the rea
son why. The smallest car I had ever seen was pulling out of the trailer and down a steep ramp. I stopped in my tracks when the car came to a stop at the top of the driveway. Out of this black and blue miniature vehicle stepped a five-foot-seven-inch dream in a white tank top and cutoff jeans. She fixed her light blonde hair and reached back into the car for a box.

  I came to my senses and started moving again as I watched her. She backed out of the door with her box and noticed me watching her while running. I thought I saw her shoot a slight grin at me when my toes decided to catch a pot hole in the road. I tumbled to the ground and heard a slight snickering as I rolled back onto my knees and stood up. She was gone. Into the house probably. I looked around to see if anyone else had seen my fall. No one else was around, so I started walking again.

  When I got home I went straight to my room, got clothes, took a shower, and crawled into bed. My mind lingered on the gorgeous new girl on the street as I fell into a deep sleep.