No One Knows

When Jessie got home from school on Tuesday, her father and Ollie were in the kitchen. She hadn't seen either of them since her argument with her Dad over the report card the day before. She studied her Dad's face closely when he looked up from the paper at her entrance, looking for any trace of guilt that might suggest he regretted coming down so hard on her. She didn't find any.

"How was school, Jessie?" Ollie asked, pleasantly, picking up a glass from the rack next to the sink and drying it carefully.
"Did you stay there?" John asked, a little less pleasantly, and she noticed Ollie throw him a sharp look.
"It was okay," she replied, "And yeah, I did."

He nodded.

"Good," he said, "But you're still grounded."

She suppressed a sigh. She supposed she deserved it really. Skipping out of school was against the rules, and at least grounding was a normal, civilized punishment.

"Actually, " said Ollie, "We wanted to talk to you about that... didn't we John..."
"Yeah," he said, looking up again, "Take a seat."

She marveled at how calm he seemed after the night before. How in the hell was alcohol legal?

"We're going away for a couple of nights," he said, "To visit my sister. You know, Jane, the one in Sacramento? Well, she's sick. Kidney infection. She just got out of hospital today. So she needs some help. We'll only be gone two nights, and we're leaving in the morning."

Jessie felt her heart leap, but tried not to let it show too much in her face. Breaking into a grin at the news of her aunt having been admitted to hospital with kidney problems probably wasn't the best way to get back into her father's favor.

"Um... okay," she said, "Well... I'll be ok here by myself."
"Billie Joe will be here too," Ollie pointed out.

She sighed. For a blissful moment, she had forgotten about him.

"And just because Ollie and I aren't here to enforce it, doesn't mean you aren't still grounded," said her Dad.

Oh God. Please don't say they were going to leave Billie Joe in charge. Please don't. He may be two years older but she could have sworn her mental level of maturity had at least five years on his. The thought of Billie Joe taking delight in enforcing her grounding made her feel sick. She bit her lip.

"Don't worry," said Ollie, and Jessie saw a flicker of amusement cross her face, "I'm not going to make Billie stand guard over you... . But I am going to make him take you with him to his show."

Her eyes widened. What in the hell was that going to prove?

Before she had a chance to protest, they heard a voice from the hallway.

"You're gonna make me what?!"

It was Billie Joe.

Ollie wearily rubbed her forehead as he came into the kitchen, looking more irate than she'd seen him in a while.

"Why should I have to do that? She's the one who's supposed to be being punished, not me!"
"I know," said Ollie, "But we can't leave Jessie here by herself tomorrow night, and it's hardly a lot of trouble for her to come and watch your gig."
"You haven't been to Gilman Street," Billie Joe protested "I'll have to fucking baby sit her all night!"

He couldn't believe it. This was supposed to be their best gig yet. Their biggest. He'd been looking forward to this for weeks. Billie was coming, and he was desperate to see her. And now he was going to have to look after a sixteen-year-old who didn't like punk and was going to complain the entire night long. And he wouldn't be surprised if his mother would be better at blending in at Gilman Street than Jessie was.

"How, in any way, is this fair?" he demanded, "It isn't my fault she bunked outta school!"
"He's right," chimed in Jessie, "Why are you punishing both of us?"
"Because we'd rather that than not punish you at all," said John, looking maddeningly nonchalant about their protests.
"I'll stay in the house! I won't go anywhere!" pleaded Jessie, "That was what I was supposed to do, right?"
"I can't fucking trust you!" John answered her, looking her in the eye again and raising his voice. "This is the only punishment I can enforce when I won't be here!"
"This is bullshit!" Billie Joe shouted at John, "She's your fucking daughter, why do I have to be the one to see she gets punished? It's nothing to do with me! I have my own life, and it's that band, and I won't let you ruin this for me!"
"Don't you talk to me like that!" John growled, standing up to face Billie Joe.
"I'll talk to you however I like!" Billie Joe shouted, squaring up to him.

He was so angry he could barely think straight.

"Shut up, both of you!" Ollie shouted, grabbing the back of John's shirt and pulling him back down into his seat. "Billie, I'm not trying to punish you! I just need you to help me out! Okay? It's a favor. And Jessie isn't a baby, I don't expect you to hold her hand, she just has to watch your gig and come home. Jesus! And don't think you can get away with making other arrangements amongst yourselves. Because I heard Mike tell you his brother was filming it, so it'll be pretty obvious who was there and who wasn't."

She fixed a stern glare on Billie Joe, and he glared right back.

Jessie looked over at her Dad and noticed he looked more than a little triumphant. In fact, he seemed to be taking some real delight in the fact that he was managing to punish Billie Joe on the side, and she suspected that was the real reason behind this whole idea, more than the fact that he felt he couldn't trust her.

She looked over at Billie Joe, and he caught her eye, and in the glance that passed between them, they could both tell they were thinking the same thing. John wanted to see them both suffer.

"This is bullshit," reiterated Billie Joe, bitterly, looking back at his mother, before turning out of the room, picking up his guitar and storming out of the house, the front door slamming behind him.

Jessie put her head in her hands and groaned inwardly.
It was the first thing she and Billie Joe ever agreed on.

When she got up for school on Wednesday morning, Billie Joe was awake. That was as unusual as it was unwelcome, because the fact that they operated on almost entirely different time zones was often the only thing that got her through life in the Armstrong house.

She was heading into the kitchen to get some breakfast when she saw him sitting there. The table was covered in electrical junk and he was staring intently at what looked like a broken guitar lead, holding a soldering iron against the bare wires at the end. His nose was screwed up in concentration and his tongue was sticking out the corner of his mouth like a kid trying to color inside the lines.

She hesitated before going in. She knew that she was his least favorite person right then. Or possibly second to least, because she didn't think anyone could match his apparent hate for her father. She had just decided to bypass the kitchen and grab something to eat on the way to school, when she saw Henry hop onto the table top and decided she'd better stand by, just in case she needed to jump in and defend him when Billie Joe tried to lacerate him with his soldering iron.

Billie Joe tutted as Henry weaved his way through all the stuff on the table to rub against his hand. He reached out a finger and gently pushed his nose out of the way, but it didn't discourage Henry, who just tried to rub against his shoulder instead. Billie Joe paused what he was doing.

"Look, Mister," he said, softly, "You better get out of here, unless you want your nose welded to the end of a guitar lead... and I don't think I'd get a very good sound outta you... "

Henry didn't move, and Billie Joe sighed. He smiled slightly, setting his equipment back down on the table and reaching out to stroke the cat's head. He rested his chin on his hand as he scratched behind Henry's ears. Henry leaned into his touch, purring loudly, and Billie Joe was just thinking how cats really were better company than he had thought when Jessie came into the room, having decided that this display of Billie Joe's soft side was way too good an opportunity for humiliation to pass up.

"You really do hate cats, don't you Billie Joe?" she smirked, heading towards the fridge, "I mean, you're really showing him who's boss."

Billie Joe frowned, nudging Henry off the table and picking up his soldering iron and his guitar lead again.

"It almost ended up without any whiskers," he muttered, looking back at his work.

Was he blushing? Jessie grinned. This was too good.

"Well, in that case, it's a good job I came in when I did," she said, "You were obviously just about to go in for the kill..."

She poured some milk onto her cereal and, feeling really quite triumphant, started back out of the room.

He looked up as she left.
"Off to school Jessie?" he asked.
"Yeah... "
"Send my regards," he smirked, "And make sure you stay there. I don't want to have to give your Dad a bad report."

Bastard.

"You have to bring Jessie to Gilman Street?" Mike gaped, when Billie Joe told him the bad news.

He had just turned up at the basement for an early practice with his band mates, the fact that they were all alert, bright eyed and had their instruments in hand before noon showing just how serious they were about that night's gig.

"What did you do to deserve that?"
"Nothing," sighed Billie Joe, "She did. She's grounded, our respective parents are going away and they don't trust her to ground herself. So instead, she has to come to our fucking gig."
"But that's not fair on you!"
"No shit. It was her Dad's idea. And he hates me."
"Doesn't he even realize what Gilman Street's like?" Al asked, "I mean, unless you're watching out for her the whole time... it isn't exactly the best place for a sixteen-year-old girl to be hanging out."
"He won't care about that!" laughed Billie Joe, scornfully, "He doesn't care about anyone except for himself."

Mike frowned.

"Don't you think that's sad though?" he asked, thoughtfully "For Jessie, I mean? ...I mean, don't get me wrong, it sucks to all hell that you have to live with John for the summer but... she's had to put up with him by herself this whole time, and she'll probably still have to until she finishes school. She must have a really hard time."

Billie Joe frowned down at his guitar strings. He didn't want to think about Jessie's relationship with John, or what it was like for her to live under his authority. He was worried that if he did, he might start feeling sorry for her, and he didn't want to do that because it was much easier to just hate her and be done with it. Thankfully Al changed the subject.

"Come on Bill," he said, "We'd better get practicing. Cause whatever happens with your baby sitting duties tonight, the least we can do is play a kick ass show."

When Jessie got out of school that day, she took advantage of the fact that her Dad and Ollie would have already left for Sacramento and went to see Eddie in the record store. She hadn't seen him since that weekend, and hadn't had a chance to break the news to him about her dad's ban on working there.

When she got there, Eddie was sitting on the counter with his legs folded under him, playing on his Gameboy and singing along to The Clash's Rock the Casbah.

"Hey," he said, looking up, as she entered, "Were you supposed to be working today?"
"Nope," she said, leaning against the counter, "But I had to come in to talk to you. I have a problem."
He switched off his Gameboy and put it down on the counter next to him.
"What's up?"
"My Dad says I can't work here anymore."
"What? Why not?"
"Cause... he found out I skipped out of school a few times and... "
"-Oh dear... "
"Yeah... "
"I can't believe this. You're quitting on me? Now I'm gonna have to find myself some other random kid to exploit!"
"No, no, I'm not quitting," Jessie said, quickly, "I just need to give him some time to cool off. Once I finish being grounded he probably won't remember. Or I just won't tell him where I am."
"Good idea," said Eddie. "How long are you grounded for?"
"I don't know," she said gloomily, "Probably till I'm eighteen."

He laughed.

"Don't worry," he said, "He'll probably get sick of having you around the house and give up in a week."
"I hope so. But he's gone away to Sacramento for two nights, so at least I'm okay for now. But he doesn't trust me to stay in the house so he's making Billie Joe take me to his stupid gig on Gilman Street tonight."
"You're going to Gilman Street?"
"Unfortunately yes. Billie Joe hit the roof when he found out. I've got a feeling the only thing worse than being at a sweaty club on Gilman Street will be having to spend time in his company. Dick."

Eddie grinned in amusement.

"Ah, Gilman Street's great. I mean, you'll hate it, but that's just cause you don't have any taste"
"I won't get beaten up or anything like that will I?" Jessie asked him fearfully.

He pretended to look thoughtful.

"Nah. I mean they might force you to shoot up or prostitute yourself but I doubt you'll get a proper beating."

She gave him a look, and he grinned.

"It'll be fine Jessie. Just watch out for yourself, and you'll be fine. Besides, by the sounds of it Billie Joe's practically part of the scenery at Gilman Street. You couldn't be going with a better person."
"Like he's going to look after me!" she scoffed, "He'll probably ignore me all night and let me get abducted by some random skinheads."
"I would bet you any amount of money that he isn't as bad as you think."

She looked at him doubtfully.

"Besides," he said, "Nobody can be in a bad mood today. It's punk history in the making."

Jessie scowled.

"Look, I know you said they had talent but I think its going a little far to say-"
"Not the fucking Sweet Children gig," said Eddie, rolling his eyes, "Haven't you heard the new Ramones record is coming out?"
"Oh," she said, with mild interest, "No, I hadn't heard that."
"It's called Brain Drain. It's arriving here at midnight. Me and some friends are having a stake out till then. We start selling it tomorrow. You like the Ramones?"

She shrugged.

"Okay Jessie," he said, "When you're eighteen, or when your Dad un-grounds you - whichever comes first - you are coming in here and I'm gonna give you an education in punk. Okay?"
"Okay," she smiled, picking up her backpack. "That sounds cool. I have to get going now."

"That's a very good idea," said Eddie, picking up his Gameboy again and flicking the switch on the top, "Because I've got six die hard Ramones fans arriving any second, and punks eat little girls like you for breakfast."