Charlotte's Web

"Charlotte, are you up?" Adrienne yelled up the stairs as Jakob bounced around her feet. Today was the day school was to begin again. Adrienne heard a faint 'yeah' through the door but nothing more. Writing off her lack of enthusiasm as nerves and reluctance, Adrienne left her alone.

"I can't wait to see everyone. I hope that kid with the big ears got caught in the wind and flew away and I hope I'm not stuck with that teacher with the curly nose hairs and... "

Adrienne tuned Jakob's excited babbles out as she put his plate of waffles on the table. Jakob could talk your ear off if given the chance. Her other son Joey, on the other hand, was not looking forward to going back to school.

"What's a matter baby?" she asked as she ruffled her oldest son's hair.

"I hate school." He muttered.

"Well, you have to go."

"Nuh uh! Dad didn't." Joey shot back. Joey had Billie Joe's smart mouth in a handbasket.

"But he got further than you and you're going to go." Adrienne didn't want to hear any nonsense about not going to school. Her sons were going to get diplomas. Billie Joe breezed into the kitchen and caught Adrienne in a kiss. "Wow," She commented when they broke apart. "You're in a good mood."

Billie Joe simply gave her a crooked grin and sat down with the boys at the table. "Hey," He said to Adrienne as she was walking away, "How bout I take Charlotte to school and you take the boys?"

"Noooo." Jakob whined from his seat.

"Uh, okay. Why?"

"I just need to talk to her and," He slid a glance towards his pouting son. "Uh, I'll take the boys to school for the rest of the week." He saw Jakob's protruding bottom lip retract.

Adrienne gave him a suspicious look; he was up to something. "Okay. Well, boy's it's time to go, get your book-bags." Adrienne ushered the boys out of the house.

Billie Joe sat at the table quietly until he heard a pair of feet coming down the stairs. Charlotte came into the kitchen, book-bag half on, looking around.

"Where's Adrienne?" That was the first phrase she had spoken to Billie Joe since the phone incident.

"She took the boys to school. You're riding with me. Did you know you had a hole in your pants."

Charlotte barely brushed an eye at her holey jeans. "Yes."

"I like the socks." A pair of pink and black striped knee socks was visible through the holes. Billie Joe was purposely aggravating her to get her to talk to him.

"Thanks." Charlotte said without meaning as she poured a cup of coffee. "Can we go now?"

"Yeah. What's your shirt say?" Billie Joe picked up his keys and they walked out to the garage.

"Pink Ladies always get their kicks." Charlotte was getting irritated as she yanked her seatbelt on.

"Oh. Does in mean kicks as in street-walker kicks or... ?"

"I have not talked to Brice and I haven't seen him since the airport! There! Now shut up and leave me alone!"

Billie Joe took his eyes off the road for a moment to see Charlotte glaring out her window. There were still small cuts and faint bruises on her face from the attack and there was a bandage on her arm from one of the deeper slashes. She was not smiling, only scowling and it was because of Billie Joe. He sighed.

"Look," He touched her leg to get her attention, "I know I've been a little unbearable lately,"

"That's the understatement of the year."

"Would you let me finish dammit?"

Charlotte fell silent.

"And I haven't been very understanding towards you lately and I'm sorry. I just want what's best for you and I don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry that you felt like I didn't want you here. Truth is; I'm fucking happy you're here. Seeing you a few times a year just wasn't enough for me and if you want to talk to this Brice guy," He spat out, "I can't really do anything to stop you."

"It's about time you realized that you shitty old man." Charlotte snapped as she turned to see him.

Billie Joe slid his eyes to her briefly. "I knew you loved me Lady. I'll pick you up after school okay."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Longview Valley is a great school." Katie gushed as she led Charlotte through the numerous red, white, and black halls of the school. Katie was about a head taller than Charlotte with short brown hair and a rather plump figure. It was her job to show Charlotte around the school as she was the student council president. "Just remember your color code for your classes like green for science and red for maths and you'll find your way. It's really not that difficult... ."

Charlotte soon tuned Katie out. Her peppiness was a bit much for Charlotte at the moment. She could feel the students of the school watch her and start whispering behind her back. Charlotte had never been the 'new girl' before and she was sure that she didn't like it.

Just as Katie began to tell Charlotte about the cliques of the school and who to or not to socialize with, the bell rang. "Okay," Katie began as she took Charlotte's schedule. "You have World History with me first period so I'll take you there."

Charlotte's day, which didn't start off that great, only got worse. She had been lost twice, missed her lunch period, was sent to the office for having holes in her clothes, and not one person had said a kind word to her since the day began, aside from Katie.

Now lost for a third time, a hungry Charlotte desperately looked at the color-coded bars on the doors in search of her last class, Advanced Physics.

"It's green, it's gotta be green. Science should be green." She muttered to herself as she entered a hall with green bars next to the door. "Room 102." She reached the door with the same numbers as her schedule and walked inside. A room full of heads snapped in her direction.

"Excuse me," A rude voice snapped. "I do not like people interrupting my class. Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Charlotte Cauthen and I think I'm in this class." She handed the rude man her schedule.

He checked it over and gave it back to her. "Yes, but if you ever get the urge to interrupt my classroom again, you will be kicked out. Now, sit down. I am Mr. Henderson."

Charlotte sat down in the only empty lab table in the room, which was in the very front right in front of Mr. Henderson's podium. Charlotte could see Katie waving excitedly at her from an adjacent table.

"Now," Mr. Henderson began, "If you will look at your syllabus, you will see... " Someone else walked into the door. "Mr. McNeal." Mr. Henderson stated sourly. "You know the tardy policy."

"Sorry Mr. Henderson but I don't have an excuse." The guy strode into the room amid a light giggling and sat down next to Charlotte, who had not bothered to look up from the blacktop of the table. She could feel a headache coming on. "Hey Charlotte." The guy whispered.

Charlotte's head swirled around to see the blue eyes of Brice, the guy from the airport. "Hi Brice." She was taken aback. She didn't expect to see him here.

"I'm mad at you." He said as he pulled a notebook out. "You didn't give me your real number." He gave her a playful look.

"Yes I did." Charlotte insisted as Mr. Henderson droned about the semester. "It was whatever number you dialed and got that dick who said I didn't live there."

"Well, I got two of those, but you don't live at the Chinese place do you?"

Charlotte laughed softly, "No I don't. It was the other number."

"43. It was okay. I would have found a way to talk to you."

"Oh really?" Charlotte cocked her head to the side. "How?"

"I don't know," Brice said lamely. "But I would have. Morse code, smoke signals, whatever it took. So, how about that coffee after school?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Billie Joe raced to the high school. It was fifteen after three. He was supposed to pick Charlotte up at 2:50. He had planned to just take her around and pretty much do whatever she wanted to make up for him acting so much like an ass.

He wheeled into the practically empty parking lot. He and Charlotte agreed that he would meet her at the steps. There were the steps and Charlotte was nowhere to be found.

"Fuck."