Feels Like Home

"Adrienne. Honey, you need to wake up. It's almost seven." Adrienne's mother, Gloria, stood at her daughter's doorway on Friday morning, worried since Adrienne had not been downstairs yet. She had figured that going to that show was a mistake and now she knew. "What happened to you?" Gloria noticed Adrienne's bruised lip.

"Huh?" Adrienne groggily squinted around until she saw the clock. "Fuck " She screamed as she scrambled out of bed. "I overslept. How could I... oh, why did I got that stupid concert." Adrienne ran past her mother and jumped into the shower. "Is Joey up?" She asked her mother, who followed her in there.

"Yes, yes. He's eating breakfast. This is not like you Adrienne. I knew you going to that show was a mistake. You should have listened to your conscious." Gloria leaned against the sink as Adrienne frantically washed her hair.

"I did." Adrienne said thickly as she pressed her lips together to keep shampoo from getting in her mouth as she talked. "And my conscious' name is Mike-and-Tre'."

"You saw him didn't you."

"Not face to face." Adrienne snapped as she rinsed her hair out. "Could you please get Syd ready?"

After her mother left, Adrienne finished her shower routine in record time and jumped out and threw on a pair of khakis with a white knit sweater, she didn't have time to dress nice today. She cursed herself as she tried to dry her thick hair and put on makeup at the same time. She was throwing her damp hair into a bun on the top of her head as she raced down the stairs. "Okay, let's go." She ushered her kids into the car and sped off.

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

Adrienne ran to her classroom just after the bell had rang. She had senior home room and if she was only a second late, they had the tendency to go insane. When she got into her room, they were all over her desk, writing on the board, and yelling out the windows.

"Sit down " Adrienne yelled as she stalked to her desk and snatched a picture out of Nikki's hands. It just so happened to the be one with her and Billie Joe. "Go to your desk Miss Cole." She hissed, making her bad mood obvious.

Nikki flounced back to her desk, her cheerleading skirt peppy as she twitched her hips. "Geez Ms. Nesser, lighten up, it's gameday. Who was that in the picture, your old flame?" Nikki wiggled her eyebrows.

"Out." Adrienne snapped curtly as she pointed to the door.

"What?" Nikki's sarcastic grin dropped.

"Out Nikki, I can't take your crap anymore. Get out now." Adrienne was filling out a discipline report, her pen pressing hard on the thin paper.

"But," Nikki sputtered. "I'm the head cheerleader and we have a pep-rally today I'll have to sit it out if you send me to the office. You can't do this."

"Watch me." Adrienne stomped to the emergency button that connected the intercom to the office and pressed it hard.

"Yes Ms. Nesser." The principal said into the intercom.

"Mr. Sinclair, I have a student disrupting home room and who refuses to leave after being told to." Adrienne chewed on her tongue as she waited on the response.

"Who's the student?"

"Nikki Cole."

"Miss Cole, come to my office." Mr. Sinclair said firmly through the scratchy intercom.

"But, Mr. Sinclair, I didn't do anything " Nikki's eyes began to well up with tears.

"We'll discuss that in my office. Now, Miss Cole." The intercom was switched off.

Nikki gathered her things and slumped towards the door, her cheerleading skirt no longer as peppy as it was a few minutes ago. She glared at Adrienne as she passed but Adrienne was beyond caring.

Adrienne walked back to her desk and sat down. She flipped open the roll book and took roll. For some reason, venting some anger out on Nikki made her feel better. Not much, but some.

After several unchaotic periods, Adrienne's anger lessened. Her day had not improved as she forgot to pack a lunch and the cafeteria was not very respectable towards her vegetarian diet. During one period, she was making a gesture with her hands and swiped black board marker all over her white top. And all the while, Adrienne's lip throbbed from where Caylyn hit her with a bulky ring the night before.

'Just get through this and the pep-rally.' Adrienne thought to herself as the clock ticked by. Her psychology class was taking their test. She felt so tired from staying out so late the night before and she also felt guilty. She was so close to Billie Joe, so close, but she ran away.

Adrienne smirked. It was no worse than what he did. After all, he left forever for his own personal fear. Adrienne left because she did not want her children drawn into his selfish web. Plus, he had something to keep him warm at night, even if it was made of plastic.

"Ms. Nesser, there's someone at the door for you."

Adrienne jumped as one of her students pointed to the door with his pencil. Adrienne went to the door to see an office aide behind a huge bouquet of red roses and white tiger lilies. "These are for you Ms. Nesser." The office aide said as she passed the bouquet to the teacher. "There's a note on the vase." She turned and left.

Adrienne set the crystal vase of flowers on her desk. Nobody was paying attention to their test anymore. "Who's it from Ms. Nesser?" One of the girls asked.

Adrienne wordlessly picked up the card and read it. She instantly knew by the handwriting who had wrote it before she even read it.

80,

You are so beautiful to me,
Can't you see?
Your still 2000 light-years away,
but I will see you soon.
I promise.

Adrienne stared at the three loopy letters that spelled out the initials BJA. All at once her stomach felt queasy as if she were going to be ill and ticklish as if she were excited. She bit her lip as the bell rang for the pep-rally. "Turn your test in. If you didn't finish it, we'll take the first bit Monday to finish them."

Adrienne, her mind still on the note, grabbed her keys and locked the classroom door behind her and followed the students out to the gym for the pep-rally.

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

"Excuse me, but can you tell me where Adrienne Nesser is?" Billie Joe asked the secretary of Pine High School. The secretary, who had purple hair, looked rather annoyed by his question. Billie Joe noticed she was wearing a Green Day shirt, he groaned on the inside and hoped she wouldn't do anything stupid.

"She should be out at the gym for the pep-rally." The secretary snapped as her trendy bangles clicked together on her arm, not noticing the person who was on her shirt was standing before her.

"Uh, thanks." Billie Joe sighed in relief that he wouldn't have to deal with a trendy fan who jumped onto his bandwagon for the hell of it. "Where's the gym?"

"Just follow the students. It's not that hard." She brushed some violet hair out of her eyes as she turned back to her computer in a miff.

Billie Joe left the office, slightly annoyed by her poor attitude, and followed a hoard of students heading towards a large building he assumed to be the gym. He followed them until he was inside the building and he stepped aside and let them climb onto the bleachers so he could look.

He didn't know how Adrienne would look like. She was still in her twenties in his memory. He thumb-warred Tre' until he told Billie Joe where to find Adrienne and knew she had two kids and that was all he knew.
Billie Joe gazed over the sea of endless faces and remembered why he did not enjoy high school. It was all worship for one group or one star player. The cheering was beginning to make him sick.

A laugh floated to his ears. He knew nobody else in the entire gymnasium heard it, but he did. It was Adrienne's sweet laughter. The laughter that drove him to write numerous songs. The laughter that haunted him in his dreams. He followed the sound with his eyes until he saw her.

She did not look exactly the same as she did years ago, but she still managed to make Billie Joe stop and check his pulse. The 'chunky' comment Caylyn made irked him even more now that he saw Adrienne. She used to have the slender body of a girl, now she had the curvy body of a woman. She now had all the bumps and curves in all the right spots to make Billie Joe's eyes wander and remember.

She was leaning on the wall talking to another teacher waiting for the pep-rally to begin. Her hair was tied into a messy bun on the top of her head and caused some of her natural curls to fall in her face in rebellion. She turned her head to gaze out at the crowd of students but locked eyes with Billie Joe, and her smile of laughter died.