A Jenzie Story: Missing You {Sequel To 'She's The One'}

School

"Good morning everyone! We have a new student, Johnny Orlando." My new teacher, Ms. Garcia tells the class.

"Hi." I say.

"Hi." Everyone says.

I sit in an empty seat next to this girl.

"Hey." She says. "I'm Grace."

"Hi." I say.

"Open page. 248 of your book and lets continue in algebra." Ms. Garcia says. "Do questions 1-15."

Grace groans. "Are you smart?"

"Nah." I say.

"Crap. Neither am I." She says.

The rest of the day continues with me and Grace trying to make sense of what the teachers are trying to say.

In science, Grace is assigned as my partner. We hurry, trying our hardest to copy down our teacher's drawings of the elements. The minute we start drawing it out, she rubs it out.

"Ok, everyone should have gotten the hang of this now." Our science teacher says. "You can do the rest by yourselves."

"What?" Grace mutters.

"Which one are you on?" I ask.

"Neon." She says. "If we have to write out every freaking element I'm gonna scream..."

"We just have to do the first 20." I say.

***

"I'm really glad that's over." Grace says after science. "It gave me such a headache."

"Same."

"Do you wanna meet my friends?"

"Sure." I say.

Grace leads me over to her friends.

"This is Noah, Amelia amd Emma." Grace says.

I look at them and immediately recognise Emma. The blonde haired girl I bumped into in the airport.

"Hi!" Emma says. "We didn't get to introduce ourselves last time."

"Yeah." I say.

"You guys wanna go somewhere?" Emma says suddenly.

"Oh no, sorry." Grace says. "I have to get home. Baysitting."

"Me too. I promised to mind my siblings." Amelia says.

"I can't either." Noah says. "Places to go. Stuff to do."

After Noah, Amelia and Grace have left, Emma turns to me.

"Please don't tell me you have to be somewhere as well!" Emma says. "I'll be so bored."

"I don't have to be somewhere right now." I say. "I have to walk home with Lauren after though. She went somewhere with someone."

"Yes!" Emma says. "You're new to Mermaid Beach aren't ya?"

"Yeah."

"I'll take you sightseeing then!"
Emma says excitedly.

She takes me all around Mermaid Beach. Then, we go into a restaurant to eat.

"That was fun." Emma says after, when we're walking back.

"Yeah." I say happily. "It was."

***

***

I'm walking home with Lauren and I notice she is unusually quiet.

"How was your first day?" I ask her.

"It was alright." She says.

"You miss Hayden don't you?" I say.

"Yeah. It's just that it took us so long to get together and now..."

"I know." I say.

We get to the house and we enter through the front door. We hear some voices from the kitchen so we go and see who it is.

When we enter the kitchen, I freeze. I see Mackenzie and Nadia sitting on the sofa.

"Johnny!" Mackenzie says and races over to meet me.

She hugs me. I blink twice trying to make sense of this.

"We decided to come here for a few days, you know to say hello?" Nadia says spotting the puzzled look on my face. "We  literally just came in like five minutes ago."

Lauren starts pushing me, struggling to look into the kitchen.

"Where's Hayden?" She asks.
"Is he hiding somewhere?"

"Actually, he didn't come." Nadia says awkwardly.

"Oh."

"Had other stuff to do, you know?" Nadia says.

"What stuff?" Lauren challenges.

"Oh you know..."

"No. No I don't know." Lauren says.

"Well, he, umm, you know, had to stay home." Nadia lies. "Mind his little bro."

"Little  brother?" Lauren asks.

"Uh yeah."  Nadia says.

"I wasn't aware Hayden had a little brother." Lauren says.

"Oh really? Neither did I!" Nadia laughs nervously.

Lauren edges towards her.

"Woo! Look at the time! Gotta run!" Nadia says, looking at her imaginary watch.

"Where to?" Lauren questions.

"Out." Nadia says and runs out of the house real quick.

Lauren storms off after her.

Me and Mackenzie laugh.

"Tell me, have you ever eaten a pavlova?" I say.