57IN CASE OF SIEGE
A Bridge to Terabithia Fanfiction
by
Mad Tom
Chapter 7
The next morning- Monday- Jess finished his morning chores early enough to be on the driveway with May Belle when Leslie stepped out her own front door. She was back to wearing high-tops and her hobbling was so slight that he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't already been aware of her blisters. "Hey!" he smiled at her.
"Hey, Jess!" she grinned as she joined them. She gave him a quick kiss and held his hand as the three of them continued on to the main road. "Good morning, May Belle."
"Hi, Leslie," May Belle replied. She grinned in self-satisfaction at the couple's handholding.
"You seem to be walking a lot more comfortably," Jess nodded to Leslie.
"Yeah, I'm doing pretty good. Thanks." She looked at him. "Did your folks tell you? My parents called the school first thing this morning and made an appointment to see Mr. Turner this afternoon with your mom."
"Yeah. My dad's gonna try to get out of work early and make it too."
They crossed the main road to wait for the bus. When it came into view from around the bend, Jess and Leslie let go of each other's hands but continued to smile at each other. As the bus pulled up and Mr. Kenny opened the door, they let May Belle step up ahead of them.
There was an unusual, odd silence throughout the bus as Jess and Leslie went up the steps. Alexandra was sitting in a seat by herself in the middle, staring silently out the window.
"Hey, Alexandra!" May Belle said cheerfully as she sat next to her. Alexandra turned and smiled briefly, but when Leslie and Jess took the empty seat immediately behind them, the freckled redhead suddenly pushed past May Belle and dashed for an empty seat several rows toward the front of the bus. May Belle got up and joined her.
"Weird!" Jess whispered to Leslie as they squinted at his sister and her friend. The odd silence continued as Mr. Kenny closed the doors and drove on. They looked around and noticed the back row center seats normally taken by Janice and Carla were taken up by two other Eighth Grade girls, with Billy Morris, the tall, swarthy, long-haired Eighth Grader who was the informal "Alpha Male" of the clique, in the corner seat. None of them were speaking, and they all averted eye contact with Jess and Leslie as the two of them looked backward. As the engine revved up and the bus accelerated, conversation among the others slowly picked up in inaudible whispers.
"Why do you think they're all so quiet around us?" Leslie whispered.
"I'm not sure... It's like they know something's going to happen. To us!"
They sat silently for the remainder of the drive, self-conscious of the strange glances from most of the other kids. When the bus pulled up to the school, Alexandra was the first one off the bus with May Belle following closely.
Although the level of noise in the hallways was normal for a Monday morning before the start of class, the two of them continued to get several of the same kind of awkward glances they'd gotten on the bus, including from kids they only knew from seeing around and not by name. "This is not good!" Leslie murmured.
The noise level was likewise normal in Mrs. Myers' classroom, at least at first. When the two of them walked in, it dropped considerably in a quick ripple effect ahead of them as they stepped through the door and went to their seats. Almost immediately, the two of them realized that the other kids were actually moving out of their way in addition to falling silent. Even Scott Hoager and Gary Fulcher gave Jess a wide berth and remained totally silent as he settled in at his desk. He looked over to Leslie, who returned his raised-eyebrow look and shrugged.
"Jesse, Leslie," Mrs. Myers called as she stepped into the room. "A word with both of you out in the hallway, please."
They both stepped forward and out the door after her.
"You two are not to get on the bus after the dismissal bell," she told them in a soft, matter-of-fact tone. "You're both to go straight to the Main Office."
"For detention?" Leslie asked anxiously.
"I'm not sure. That'll be up to Mr. Turner. I understand all four of your parents are coming in for a conference with him at three o'clock this afternoon. I may be asked to sit in, both of you may be called in. Normally the two of you would each get a day's detention for each class you cut on Friday, but Mr. Turner won't make that determination until after the meeting."
"Yes, Ma'am," Leslie nodded. Jess said nothing but nodded in concurrence. Mrs. Myers returned the nod, and they all returned inside. The entire class was unusually silent as everyone took their seats.
Jess couldn't stand it. He turned to Fulcher. "What?" he mumbled sarcastically. "No 'dead meat' comments this morning?"
Fulcher held up his hands. "Whoa, dude! I didn't say anything, did I?"
Jess squinted his eyes at him just as the bell rang.
Classes went on as usual, but Jess and Leslie didn't get a chance to talk to each other alone for the first two periods. When Mrs. Myers allowed a lavatory break between second and third periods, several other class members went along with Jess and Leslie, including Hoager, Fulcher and Madison Moore. While they were not alone on the walk down the hall, the level of conversation was loud enough for the two of them to whisper to each other without being overheard.
"Do you have any more of a clue as to what's going on?" Leslie asked.
"No," Jess shrugged. "I've been sitting two rows over from you as usual all morning. I haven't heard anything you haven't."
"I know. Maybe we'll overhear something in the lav."
"I'll wait for you out here if I'm done first," Jess said.
"Me too."
They split up and went to their respective lavatories. As Leslie went into a stall to relieve herself, she noticed that the conversation among the other girls who had accompanied her dropped off to only a few very soft, inaudible whispers as soon as they entered. After she was finished and went to wash her hands, the other girls continued to avoid eye contact as they filtered out of the Girls Room and back into the hallway. Leslie couldn't decide if this was better or worse than the malicious giggling they exhibited last Friday when they revealed to her that the word was out about the phony Willard Hughes love note.
She stepped back out in the hall. Jess was nowhere to be seen as the other Fifth Graders had started making their way back to the classroom, and she got out just in time to see three older boys enter the Boys Room. She gasped.
While relieving himself, Jess was very aware of the palpable silence among his classmates, and became even more conscious that they seemed to be rushing themselves to finish up and leave the lavatory. He was washing up as the last of his classmates stepped out and left him alone in the room, and before the door swung shut, a hand inserted itself and three larger Eighth Grade boys stepped in. Jess felt the blood draining from his face as he saw that the boy at the front was a slender, good looking youngster in a warmup suit, with blue eyes and blonde hair: Willard Hughes.
Author's notes:
This is an unusually short chapter, I know, but I had to place a chapter break right here. I had considered just making it a part of the previous chapter, but I also needed a break where I placed it at the end of that chapter as well.
The "tall, swarthy long haired" boy is merely identified as "Eighth Grade Boy" in the credits, but he is essentially the same character as Billy Morris in the book.
Madison doesn't have a last name in the movie. In the book, the character's name was Wanda Kay Moore.