Decoding Jenny

“Get in the car.” Seth argued with me as I straddled my bike outside his window.
“No.” I said still determined not to give into the battle.

At about the same time our little argument was occurring my friends had figured out that Seth would never like them. I think they gave up on him; but by doing that I was also on the black list. From then on there it was just Seth and me; I never needed that many people before. Although if I had the chance to go back and fix it maybe their friendships would have been good to have but you can’t change the past.

“Come on Hayley. My truck will not eat you. It doesn’t like humans; it figured that out last time when my last passenger tasted like old socks.” He smirked at me and I just glared at him.

“Funny.” I deadpanned. “I’ll just meet you at my house. Besides I like to ride.” Okay it necessarily all wasn’t true but most of it was. But it wasn’t like I had a choice either because one second I was standing on the ground in all of my five foot –four glory to being picked up from the waist and a voice whispered into my ear, “Get into the car or you’d better sleep with you eyes open.” Carter.

“Carter! Put me down! I will not ride in a car!” But my screaming was no match for my six foot tall brother to open the passenger side door while holding me off the ground then carefully set me on the seat. He then reached over –as if I were a three year old in need of assistance- put on my seatbelt for me. “uhff.” I pouted. I’d lost. He’d won. There was no getting around it.

“You’re welcome Lee.” He said looking straight at me then he looked over at Seth who was laughing said, “ She doesn’t bite…anymore. But still don’t be nice to It until It is out of the car.” Said Carter as he laughed more, “Seth she will eventually tell you how to get to our house; I just don’t know how long that will be.” He waved good-bye then walked over to his truck –boys and trucks it is like they never grow up- and got in while he talked up a petite brunette girl from his class. I think her name was Alison.

“That’s the infamous Carter huh?” Seth spoke as he pulled out of the lot. “All those phone calls and I still hadn’t met your brother. What a nice friend you are.” He said that all the while each word was coated in sarcasm.

“I’ve been called the ‘Ice Queen’ your words have no meaning to me.” I was the ‘Ice Queen’ and Jen was the ‘Fire Queen’. Again it is one of those things you just don’t want to ask about.

The ride was quiet the rest of the way to my house except for the radio playing country music with static as noise. Once he pulled up to my house the clock in his truck read three twenty. My tantrum didn’t waste much time. I must’ve been losing my touch. Jenny use to lock herself in a room when I had one of those tantrums while Carter would attempt at soothing me or solving the problem a way that he saw fit. I’d always preferred Jenny’s way to his.

I unlocked the door and yelled/screamed down the hallway, “Mom! Seth and I are going to do a project before dinner. We’ll be in the den!” But I stood there waiting for her reply.

I heard movement from upstairs and then saw my mom come down. Her brown hair was pulled up into a bun on top of her head while she wore a nice pair of dark jeans and a colorful long sleeve blouse. It was the best I’d seen her dress since the accident. She smiled then said, “Seth. It is nice to meet you. I’m glad you could come over for dinner although Hayley forgot to mention that to me.” She looked at me with a look from the mother I use to know and said, “Carter called and said he is bringing a date and that you invited Seth.” We just stared at each other for a while longer then I told her the project must be done. We were off.

“Slight change of plans then.” I said angrily. We couldn’t continue with the quest because Carter had a girl coming over which he would spend all his time chatting with. “We can’t do the ‘quest’ since Carter –whom we were going to question- has a date. But…” I said as my mind churned, “ We can always go and look for some.”

“ As long as we get dinner I’m okay with it.” He smiled down at me. But little did I know that tonight would be one heck of a night; crazy didn’t even come close to describing it. Fate was unwinding and the truth would spill like rain down from the heavy clouds of our conscience.

We were going to ask some more questions because sitting there in my house was simply just not an option. “Okay Seth.” I said after I looked at the clock that read four o’clock. “We need to ask some other people. So lets go to the police station and ask what they know.” Even though they won’t know what happened before; they will know what happened afterward.
“Okay. But how are we going to get them to talk to us?”
“Just leave that up to me, okay?”

Again I rode in his car. Yet I still was gripping onto the door handle for dear life. Seth pulled into a parking space near the front door with a sign ‘police’ above it. We both got out of his car and walked up the steps. Seth then turned to me and said, “Are you sure that they will talk to us?”

I smiled it was the one thing for sure that I could get them to do, “ I’m one hundred percent sure that they will.” Seth opened the doors and we walked inside. It was a large building with the police insignia imprinted on the wall. It was very chilly inside. I spotted a desk with an officer and motioned Seth to follow me.

“Excuse me.” I said as maturely as possible.
“Yes.”, Said the man behind the desk.

“I was wondering if you could help me find the officer who went to the accident scene in November. The accident where two teenagers were killed. The driver was drunk.” I didn’t know what else to say other than their names but I wanted to keep it as minimal as possible.

“I’m sorry I can’t get you the officer. You can’t get the information without proof of relation to the victims or stated otherwise by the courts. I would also need their names.” Well there went all chances of this being a minimal truth session.

“The driver was Justin Levin who was a senior at Clearview High school. The passenger was.” I paused so I could muster up the courage and then continued, “Jennifer Michelle Geralds also in the senior class. Also my older sister.” I don’t know what happens to people when you tell them the victim they are referring her as is your sister but it makes them putty in your hands. “Is that enough?” I asked as I sighed.

“Yes it is. Let me go get the file.” He said then got up and went through another big door.