The New Girl

chapter nine

chapter nine - november, 1983

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"You look beautiful Alex. I never thought I'd live to see the day you wear a dress."

Alex turned around and smiled sadly at her brother. Her hair was wavy and left down as she had a simple black dress that went to her knees with sleeves that went to her elbows. She was wearing black dolly shoes.

"Thanks," Alex said smiling at her brother. He was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie.

"You ready to go?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah," Alex said as she sighed. "Let's go." She followed her brother out of the house and into the car. They arrived at the cemetery about ten minutes later and when Alex got out of the car, Alex looked for her friends. Jesse walked over to Joyce Byers while Alex found Mike, Dustin and Lucas standing together not far away from their parents. She fixed her dress before walking over to the boys and smiling lightly.

"Mike," Lucas said, looking behind him and smiling. Mike turned around and his eyes went wide when he saw Alex walking toward them.

"Wow," he said as the blonde approached them, "you look really pretty." Alex smiled and looked down before looking back up at him.

"Thanks," she said smiling. "I think this is the only time I'll wear a dress."

"What about the Snowball?" Dustin asked.

"I don't think I'll be going to that," she said, "nobody will go with me." Mike was about to speak, but they were interrupted by Mrs. Wheeler calling them over.

"Fear not, for I am with you," Pastor Charles said a few minutes later. Alex was standing in front of her brother and in between to Mike and Dustin. "Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." It's times like these that our faith is challenged. How, if He is truly benevolent. . . . could God take from us someone so young, so innocent. It would be easy to turn away from God. . . . but we must remember that nothing, not even tragedy, can separate us from His love. We are here today to find comfort in the truth of scripture and to surround Will and his family. . . ."

While Pastor Charles kept speaking, Dustin nudged his three other friends. Alex turned to him and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Just wait till we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral," he whispered, causing the three of them to giggle lightly. Will had been crushing on Jennifer for a while and Alex smiled lightly when she saw that his crush was crying. Mrs. Wheeler shushed the four friends as they all looked at each other and stayed silent.

Once the funeral was over, Jesse and Alex approached Mrs. Wheeler.

"Joyce," Jesse said as he walked up to her, he ex-husband Lonnie. "I'm so sorry." Jesse's parents and Joyce were close friends in high school, and before they moved to Seattle, Joyce used to babysit Jesse.

"Oh, thank you so much for coming," Lonnie said, as Alex looked at him.

"If there's anything we can do. . . ." Jesse began but Lonnie cut him off.

"I appreciate it," Lonnie said, "thank you so much. Take care, all right? Thanks. Thanks for coming out."

"Joyce?" Alex asked as she walked to the woman, "I'm Alex, I'm one of Will's friends."

"He mentioned you," Joyce said smiling at the girl, "he said you were like his sister."

"We know Will's alive," Alex said as Joyce looked at her, shocked. "We heard him speaking."