The Inheritance Book 1

Ch 12 The Note: Jarrett Jennings [Saturday Night, Week One]

Someone tapped on Jarrett's door just before lights out. It was Elizabeth. A nervous excitement started up inside him. Then he saw the tear streaks on her cheeks and the excitement changed into concern.

"What's wrong?"

"Shh." She pointed around at the other bedroom doors. Some of them were halfway open. "Can you get Sione and meet me in the loft?" she whispered.

"Yeah, sure." He was maybe a little disappointed that she wanted to talk to both of them, but mostly relieved that it wasn't gonna be all on him to cheer her up. He wasn't good at that shit.

He was barefoot and wearing only his thrifted SpongeBob pajama shorts. He dug through a drawer for a decent t-shirt. He found a gray one that wasn't too wrinkled, threw it on, and went next door to get Maui.

The loft was the castle-worship room. All the pictures and paintings in it were of castles, mostly this one. Right in the middle of the room was a mini-Trecorin inside a glass case.

The loft had the best and most private hangout place in the whole castle. The couches and chairs were off in the far back corner.

Elizabeth was sitting in the middle of the big couch, crying. Maui sat down on one side of her, so Jarrett sat on the other.

"You okay?" Maui put his arm around her shoulders.

Jarrett's familiar old enemy, jealousy, jabbed at him. He wished he could comfort Elizabeth like that. He fought back the jealousy. It wasn't Maui's fault that Jarrett was too fucking shy to try.

She shook her head. "I went to the bathroom to get ready for bed and when I came back, that was under my door." She pointed to a folded-up paper on the coffee table, then covered her face with her hands.

Jarrett reached for it but Maui grabbed it first. He was okay with that because at least Maui didn't have his arm around her anymore.

Maui opened and read the note.

"Seriously?" he said. "This is so stupid. Don't believe it because it's not true! Sounds like someone is super jealous and hoping to scare you. "

"Let me see," Jarrett said.

Maui passed the note to him.

The message was written in black ink on a regular piece of notebook paper:

In case you haven't figured it out yet, no one likes you, including the old lady. Even Jarrett and Sione talk shit about you behind your back. And it's obvious that you won't win the contest. So just go home, bitch. Everyone will be much happier. If you stay, something bad might happen.

Jarrett threw the paper back onto the coffee table. "Yeah, I think this is complete bullshit. Any idea who wrote it?"

"Well," Elizabeth looked up at Jarrett. "It's got to be one of the girls. None of them like me. I'm pretty sure they are the ones who talk shit about me behind my back."

The fire in her beautiful tiger eyes went straight to Jarrett's face. Even though the lights were low, he knew she could see the flaming redness in his cheeks. He couldn't stand it and got up off the couch to walk around behind it.

Elizabeth took a mirror out of her bag, and checked her face. She brushed her fingers lightly at the tear marks under her eyes. "Sorry guys, I look like a mess."

"No you don't," Maui told her.

Jarrett could have added that she couldn't look like a mess even if she tried. That she was so beautiful, it was hard not to stare at her. And when she was around, he could barely think or talk. But he would strangle on the words before he could get them out.