It's Gonna Take A Little Time... A Little Time To Think Things Over...

Chapter 29: Misunderstanding

TRIGGER WARNING: DRUG USAGE

JACKSON
"Waking up Jackson! Waking up!" I was jolted into reality from my wonderful dream of walking in a park with Pam, by none other than the bubbly Ronald. Ah geez. I sat up with a groan, rubbing my eyes groggily.

"What's up R-Rooon?" I yawned halfway through the sentence, stretching my arms above my head. He was practically bouncing off the walls. "I is using gift to waking Jackson up!" Ronald exclaimed, and before I could ask, he crashed the cymbals he got from David right next to my ears.

"Ow! Damn it, Ron!" I huffed, holding my ears as they rang. He chortled with laughter before bolting out of my room. I stood with a grunt and glanced around my room.

I had gotten a homemade puppet from Ken, a light-sword necklace from Jolie, a picture from Timothy, a Lost Lady script from Brenda, a hug and record from David, a anger management book from Exer (I'll show him anger management), and a hiss from the cat.

Tiá and Tió had gotten me an assortment of things, my favorite being a tape of the first Galaxy Wars and a couple of Galaxy Wars comics. But my favorite gift of all was a heartfelt letter from Pamela, where she had written about how much she liked me, along with leaving lipstick marks on the parchment, and spraying some of her cinnamon cocoa perfume on it, so it smelled like her.

I sighed happily. Christma Eve had been radical, and I could still smell the cinnamon. Wait, I could smell cinnamon. I walked downstairs to see Tiá making hot chocolate. "Hey honey, I'm making your favorite! Hot chocolate with whipped cream and cinnamon." Tiá smiles at me, placing the steaming mug into my hands.

I take a sip and it's nice and comforting. The aroma wafts around the kitchen, and I trot into the living room, flopping onto the couch and flipping the television on. I switched the channel to MTV and watched the new Madonna music video, Like a Prayer. I wonder what my friends were doing.

EXER
"Er, Dad, I don't think we should give Lucy catnip."
"What's the worst that could happen? It's Christmas, or at least, it was Christmas."
That was my father's response five seconds after he poured a heap of cat cocaine into Lucy's bowl, and the second she gave it one whiff she started bouncing off the walls. Literally.

"DAD, GIVING A MAGICAL CAT THE EQUIVALENT OF DRUGS IS A HORRIBLE IDEA!" I screeched as I dodged the fuzzy bullet that was my cat. Lucy ran amuck, darting under Dad's arms as he desperately tried to restrain her. Then, just as I realized I should probably take the catnip away, Lucy stopped, looked me dead in the eye, and dashed to the bowl.

"LUCY, NO!" I yelled, practically in slow motion, and dove for the dish, but it is was too late. The kitten faceplanted right into the catnip. Lucy immediately fell asleep, snoring into the dish. I looked at Dad, he looked at me, and we both burst into laughter.

I scooped Lucy up into my arms, brushing her face off, and Dad picked the bowl up, dumping the dish into the trash. He placed a fresh bowl into the ground and poured water into it. I went upstairs, still cradling Lucy in my arms.

I entered my room, shut the door, and flopped onto my bed, cuddling Lucy, I slowly fell asleep.

PAMELA
I knocked on the door, waiting for it to open. I'm pretty sure it was Exer's dad who opened it up with a creak and smiled at me. "Oh hey, are you one of Exer's friends?" He smiled at me.

"Oh yes, is he here?" I asked, adjusting the duffel bag I had on my shoulder. He nodded and held out a hand. "I'm Mr. Campbell." I smiled and took his hand, shaking it before walking inside.

"His door is upstairs, first in the left." Mr. Campbell smiled. I ran upstairs, and knocked on the door. There was no response, so I opened the door and entered his room. I saw Exer, asleep in his room, cuddling his cat. Exer was on top of his blankets, wearing slate grey fuzzy socks, a Johnny Depp T-shirt, and ruby soccer shorts.

I sat in his bed, gently shaking his shoulder. Exer rubbed his eyes with a groan, sitting up and glancing at me with a start. "Pamela? What are you doing here?" Exer asked me, looking confused. I pulled the duffel bag onto my legs and opened it, revealing about a dozen books and a few films I rented from the video store.

He reached into the bag, pulling out a book called 'Paranormal Prophecies' and he looked at me, eyebrows raised.
"We are going to look at these books and watch a couple flicks, maybe something could tell us about Jackson and his diary and you and your powers."

After my explanation, Exer gave me a wide grin. "That's a great idea Pamela!" He immediately opened a book and began to read, and I turned one of the films on using the TV in Exer's room. After a couple hours Exer finished one book, I finished two, we wrote notes down, and watched two movies.

So far we haven't really found anything new or meaningful, the most important piece of information we found was about the brain and its reactions and patterns to different emotions, which could cause a psychedelic trigger from the brain.

After we finished all the literature and the flicks, it was five forty five and we had gained practically nothing but exhaustion. Exer flopped back down on his bed, yawning. He patted the spot next to him and I laid down. He hugged Lucy to his chest, and after about three minutes, he fell asleep.

I on the other hand was fighting the urge to take a nap and thought about all the info we had written. None of it was vital as of right now, but it might be when we understand it more.

"Dayyyy I want to go fishinggg..." Exer mumbled, and rolled over, hugging by arm. I felt Lucy crawl onto my chest, purring, as she fell asleep. As Exer snored into my shoulder, I felt a smile grow on my face. I was glad we had become friends.

My eyes shut as I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

JACKSON
"Bye Tiá, I'm going to visit my possible brother!" I called as I waved bye to Ron and David, who were watching MTV as they played charades. I shut the door, and strolled down the sidewalk, humming to myself. I knew where Exer's house was because of that time he had to drive back to get his notes.

I walked to the side of his house, and my intuition told me that he was the second window upstairs. I didn't want to talk to Harry, so I scaled up a tree, and jumped to the windowsill. I peeked in, to make sure I got the right room, and I felt my heart drop.

Exer was on his bed, hugging Pamela's arm, his head on her shoulder, and they were asleep. I saw the devil cat on Pamela's chest and glowered. So THIS was how Exer was gonna play? Well I can serve right back.

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