After Bridge to Terabithia

The Tuesday after Labor Day, Jess and May Belle waited at the end of the gravel road for the school bus. They were the only ones at the stop, since no one had moved into Leslie's old house after the Burke's left. After ten minutes of waiting under overcast skies, a yellow, Twinkie like bus, labeled Lark Creek School pulled up. Sitting in the driver's seat was Kenny, the bus driver, wearing his trademark baseball cap and super polarized sunglasses. "Morning, Kenny, murmured Jess. "Mornin' Ace," replied Kenny as pulled the door closed.

Jess took a double take as he looked up from his feet down through the single aisle of the bus. Somethings changed, but others stayed the same. Gone was Janice Avery and her eight grade friends from the back of the bus. In their places were the seventh graders of last year. There were some new faces in each grade, but the most unfamiliar faces were those of the adorable first graders.

Maybelle plopped herself down in her new second grade seat. "Come on Jess! Sit down! You're holding up the bus! I want to get to school! Jeez," cried Maybelle. Quickly, Jess came to and slipped into the seat with May Belle. Jess sat in silence, but Maybelle was almost standing in her seat talking to her friend Alexandra about how "boring" her summer was.

After what felt like forever, the bus finally pulled up to it's slot at school. Everyone then tried to fit through the cramped aisle anxious about the beginning of school. Jess nonchalantly moved his way through the mosh pit, but once he reached the door, he stopped. There in the middle of the grey, concrete sidewalk was a bronze statue of Leslie Burke. She was in the exact same position as in his painting, except the Terabithia coat of arms was gone. It stood about six feet tall, including her pedestal. Jess was in awe. They did it! They did right, too! They even got her shoes right. Suddenly, he was snapped back into reality at the words, "Keep moving' Ace. You're holding the whole line up." He bolted forward and off the bus. Maybe this year will go all right. Little did he know, it would be the contrary.

When the bell rang, Jess walked into his new classroom with the rest of his new classmates. The small, wooden desks were situated in nice, neat columns of six desks in five rows. Written neatly in a sort of fancy script was the class seating chart. I've seen that writing before, but where? As he looked for his, he saw a few names that he recognized. He knew Kassidy, the girl who used to sit behind Scott Hoager and wore a sky blue head band, Steve, a sporty boy who liked to play sports almost 24/7, and Madison, the nerdy teacher's pet. Besides those names, he hadn't even heard of the others.

Jess' seat was in the third row, and the third seat back. Kassidy sat in front of him, still with her blue headband, and a girl named Ali sat behind. The only thing that worried him was that he was right betwixt Elliot Ross and Jordan Jennings. From what Jess had heard that morning in the halls, these two were now the worst bullies in school, now that Janice Avery had graduated High School. Apparently they were sixth graders last year, but got held back. If Scott Hoager and Gary Fultcher had been bad for no good reason, than these guys would make is life a living Hell.

The teacher entered the room as the last bell rang. She turned and said, "Good morning, everybody! My name is Ms. Edmunds and I'm gonna be your teacher this year!" All Jess could do was stare with his eyes wide. He had developed this over a number of years, during music class. All he used to do was stare longingly at the beautiful Julia Edmunds. "I bet you guys are all wondering, 'Why's Ms. Edmunds teaching 6th grade?' Well I have a little deal with Principal Turner. I'm trying out being a 'normal' teacher and depending on how I do... I might become a full time teacher!" Oh my gosh! Jess thought,I'll have Ms. Edmunds as my teacher for a full year! He smiled. That's were he went wrong. Elliot and Jordan, who hadn't been paying attention, looked over and saw Jess' face glowing at the idea of Ms. Edmunds as the teacher. Ms. Edmunds had the class do a few games to get to know one another. Jess learned the names of a few of his classmates. There was Stacy, Meg, two Laura's, Lee, and a Rachel, as well as Eric, Charlie, Connor, and Gerard. While the morning was great,by contrast, lunch and recess weren't.

At lunch, all of the students ate in the cafeteria. When he entered, Jess took his paper bag lunch and sat down at his usual alone near the far corner of the cafeteria. He was just started to eat his PB& J when suddenly his head was slammed into the table. His head hurt, but it didn't hurt too bad. When he looked up, he saw Elliot giving Jordan a high-five. Great, he thought, last year Hoager and Fultcher, this year Ross and Jennings. He tried to finish his lunch in peace, but every so often he would feel the sting of a spit ball or paper wasp. Eventually he just threw away his food and walked out to the playground.

Recess was right after lunch, so whenever students finished lunch early, they would try to squeeze in a few extra minutes of play time before everyone else. Today wasn't one of those days. Because it was the first day, everyone was sitting at their friends about what they did that summer. So Jess was the only one on the playground. He sat on the swings for a while thinking about what had happened that day. I have Ms. Edmunds as my teacher, he thought, I've got some cool people for classmates. The only bad thing is that I have the school's worst bullies after me for no reason. He continued to contemplate until the recess bell rang.

Every student in Lark Creek School poured out of the cafeteria in hordes and onto the playground and from there they spread out. The seventh and eighth graders went to go play football; the first graders played hopscotch and ran around. The second and third graders took over the swings and jungle-gym (Jess was forced to relocate after a scary band of first graders gave him the evil eye.). While every other grade had their own "place" the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders took priority of the grassy field the school owns. Most played various games on the majority of field, but a few took a 100-meter section, marked it off, and had the grade races. This is where Jess was headed now.

Last year, Jess had trained and prepared for the big race on the first day of school, only to be beaten by Leslie. Since that day, Jess hadn't raced, except for the footraces he had with Leslie to Terabithia. He didn't know why, but he was mysteriously drawn to that small segment of field. When he arrived the, the fourth grade race had just begun. He watched as six fourth grade boys sprinted down the field. I can do better than that, he thought to himself. The winner of the race had been a shortish boy with raven black hair named Billie Joe. Next up came the fifth graders, and at the GO the racers sprinted down the field. Jess had half expected to see a thin, blonde girl to join in. The fifth grade winner was a tall boy named Frank, but Jess found him a little odd seeing as he wore black eyeliner. My turn.

Jess mozied over to the line. On his left was Scott Hoager, just like last year. And beside Hoager was Gary Fultcher, and so it went down the line. Jess bent down and readied himself for the signal. "On your marks... get set... GO!" Jess and the other racers bolted down the field. Jess could feel his heart thumping in his chest and the wind against his face. Then suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he saw Leslie running beside him. She was a little older, but her hair, face, clothes, and shoes were the same. He could here her say, "Come on Jess! I know you can do better than that!" He pushed himself harder and harder until he was ahead of the rest by at least thirty feet. But while he was ahead of everyone else, Leslie always right beside him; it was like she had never died. He continued to focus on the thin, chalk line ahead and pumped his legs harder. He was almost there when he felt himself sliding in the dirt.

Jess felt grass and soil enter his mouth and fill his nose, and his knees scraping on the dirt. He thought, I tripped! But I never trip in a race! He then heared the crowd cheer; the race was over. He slowly looked up and saw Leslie fading away. No, he thought, Not again. He pulled himself out of the dirt and looked around for who or what tripped him. He didn't have to look far for the answer. There was Elliot and Jordan smirking at him from the sidelines.He felt rage building up inside him as he stormed over to them. "What's the matter, Aarons? Didn't you have a nice trip?" asked Elliot, "You got back in time for fall." He and Jordan broke out into laughter. "What's your problem?" retorted Jess, "I haven't done anything to you guys." Elliot answered, "Jesse, Jesse, Jesse. It's not about what you've done... its more of the fact that you exist." "Yeah," yelled Jordan who also said, "You looked pretty excited to have Ms. Edmunds to be our teacher. You two goin' out or somethin'?" The anger inside Jess flared. "Don't you dare talk about her like that!" "Don't talk to us like that, you little pig," yelled Elliot. Then, Jess felt the wind knocked out of him as Elliot's fist collided with his stomach. He fell to the ground, wheezing and watched Elliot and Jordan strut off. He just let unconsciousness set in peacefully.

Jess awoke twenty minutes later as the class bell rang. Dang it! he thought, I'm gonna be late for class! The place in his stomach that Elliot had punched him hurt a lot, but he still made his way up to the school. Jess wandered back into classroom as Ms. Edmunds began the afternoon lesson, and he felt a wave of embarrassment pass through him. "Sorry, Ms. Edmunds. I promise I won't be late again," he said sheepishly as he sat down in his seat betwixt the two demons. He turned his head to both and they both snickered. Jess sank low into his chair and focused on the chalkboard. They continued to torture him for the remainder of the day. They even slammed him into his locker at the end of the day. Luckily they didn't ride his bus so when he climbed on, he pressed his head against the window. This had been the most alone he had ever felt ever since Leslie died.