Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Bailey's POV

After school was always a relief. When I got home and lay down on my bed, it was always a reminder that I’m still breathing. I made it through another day. School wasn’t stressful per se, but it was always nice to come home to a quiet house and relax.

After lying on my bed and staring at the ceiling for several minutes, I decided to work on math homework. I put some music on and took out my book to vaguely look at sines, cosines and tangents but mostly sing along to accompany John Mayer’s amazing guitar playing.

I heard loud stomps up the stairs and Jade burst through my bedroom door. “Me and Mel are going to Dunkin Donuts, wanna come?” I looked down at my paper, I was on number 50, when did I do all those problems?

“Um, actually I think I’m going to go for a run so I’ll stick around here. But could you bring me back a--”

“And I’ll bring you back a pink frosted donut with sprinkles. Bye!”

“pink frosted donut with sprinkles…” I smiled at her perceptiveness and waved goodbye.

After my run, I heard Jade call my name before I even stepped in the door. “Hey Jazz, come in here.” I slipped off my running shoes and walked in to the kitchen where Jade, Melanie and now Kaylie were talking.

“Whoa, where were you?” Melanie asked surprised. “And why did you trade in your face for a red, sweaty, tomato?” I smiled and opened the fridge for a bottle of water.

I leaned against the counter the other girls were seated at. “Ha Ha Melanie, you’re funny.”

“You were gone for a while, where’d you go?” Jade asked as she stole my water and took a sip. Jade never went running with me, but for some strange reason she was always interested in it. I always tried to convince her; it is so relaxing and it always calmed me down when I was upset so when I finished, I was usually in a good mood.

“Just around. Checking out the neighborhoods, new places to go. I’m going to take a shower.”

“Wait up!” I gave Kaylie a weird look and she shrugged. “I want to see your room,” she clarified. I laughed and showed her the way.

“Crap, I can hear everything through your wall. It’s creepy. I could hear when you were squirting shampoo in to your hand,” Kaylie said, pausing my iPod as I walked in the room after taking a shower.

“I know, it’s weird. I can hear my Aunt Clara singing every morning and I can hear Jade talking to herself through my wall,” I laughed.

“That’s some good blackmail.” I smiled and nodded.

==========

TGIF. That was the first thing that came to mind when my eyelids peeled back and took in the sunshine that was heating my room through the window. I had made it exactly one week in Maryland and who knew how many there would be left.

Lutherville wasn’t too bad, in fact, I had surprisingly grown to enjoy some aspects of it. Clara wasn’t hounding me with questions, teachers were welcoming and the kids around the town had the apathetic attitude that I was grateful for. I had made a few friends and talked to a handful of people and I felt comfortable as I rode through my classes at Dulaney.

I already had a pretty solid routine with only five days under my belt, which was comforting and scary all at the same time. The scuffed, peach colored hallways that I walked down every day seemed typical and the people I saw and talked to daily seemed common, like it had always been that way. I guess that was what my intention was when I moved, so it was a good thing that it was becoming a reality, but I never thought it would happen. I didn’t think I could adapt so easily to a place in my life that I never really wanted to be.

English and lunch were my favorite classes of the day. Not because my sister was in it with me, for I was getting used to not seeing her very often, but because Melanie and Kaylie were with us. The two girls where super awesome and it was nice to have Melanie, who connected really well to Jade, and have Kaylie, who preferred to hang with me. Kara was also talking to us often, and I was getting to know her as well as anyone could on the fifth day of talking to her. I felt like we were all part of a group, back in New Jersey, Jade and I had totally different groups of friends. Now, I felt like I had a big support group if I ever needed to ask for help or confess something.

“What kind of soup is it today?” Jade asked me from across the lunch table.

“Good soup,” Melanie replied for me, eating a spoonful of it herself.

“Yeah okay guys, don’t worry, I didn’t want any soup anyways,” I joked and snagged back my spoon from Jade and tried it once for myself.

“Hey girls,” I heard a familiar tone behind me. I could tell it was Jack because I heard his “naughty” voice, as he called it, in class everyday. With him were Rian and Alex, boys that weren’t in any of my classes but Jade was making friends with them and I decided that I liked them too, over the past two days they had chosen to sit with us.

“Hey boys,” Melanie said back but in a mocking bored tone. Jade laughed and Kaylie scooted closer to me to make room for the guys.

“Well I’m going to go get food.”

“I’ll come with you,” Alex popped up and followed Jade to get something to eat.

“So Baybay, excited for art class?”

I turned my head down the table to look at Jack. “Yes Jack, I, Bailey, am excited for art class.”

Kaylie looked at me, “Oo, so you have a good start on your paint--”

“Bailey is the king of the class,” Jack interrupted. “The big cheese, number one, the queen bee!”

I rolled my eyes at Jack and continued eating my soup, trying to ignore everyone’s comments that proceeded to come after Jack’s statement.

“Where’d you get all that talent, Baybay?” Jack said flipping his chunky, skunk hair. “Back in your little home town?” I knew what Jack was getting at, I heard his antics everyday in class. Jack mocking me was becoming a regular, just like many of my other deviations that were becoming routine, and like always, the poking fun still drove me up the wall.

Jade and Alex returned with their trays, laughing at something Jade probably did. As they sat down, Jade observed the look on my face and gave me a questioning glance as Jack continued on. “Or is that really where you came from? I mean, where did the Bates twins really come from.”

“Essex,” Jade, Melanie, Alex and I all said at the same time.

“Well yeah, but I mean really.”

“Essex,” Jade, Melanie, Alex and I all said again.

“Come on Baybay, tell us about it. We want to know--”

“Jack,” Jade said pointedly and firmly. “Just drop it.”

“Fine,” Jack pounted and crossed his arms and muttered something under his breath about aliens. I didn’t even have to mouth ‘thank you,’ Jade already nodded in acceptance of my thankfulness.

Finally lunch came to an end and we all got up to dump our trays and walked to our classes in a big group, everyone laughing and joking and talking loudly.

“Bailey,” Kaylie pulled my arm so I was walking next to her. “You okay?”

I tried to act surprised, like I didn’t know what she was talking about. “What are you talking about?”

“Back there,” she jerked her head back towards the lunchroom that we were leaving. “When Jade got back from getting food you got really quiet and seemed upset.”

For the first time since my arrival in Maryland, I felt tears well up in my eyes. I was used to crying, so I was good at holding back the waterworks.

I blinked back my tears as Kaylie and I trailed the group. “I’m fine.”

Kaylie gave me a skeptical once over and shrugged. “Whatever you say, I guess.” She walked to catch up with everyone else.

Just to assure myself, I repeated my statement, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

==========

“I’m fine.” I found myself saying that a lot. Sitting in painting class with Jack seemed to bring the proclamation to the tip of my lips, just waiting for when Jack tried dissecting me. I guess I used it as a defense mechanism.

“You know, you’ve said ‘I’m fine’ to all the questions Jack has asked you,” Tom joked.

“Well maybe because you keep asking the same damn questions,” I said irritated. People always thought I was quiet and nice; I could be a bitch, if you really got me worked up. That’s what Jack and Tom were doing. They continued to ask me stupid questions, seeming like they cared what was bothering me, but really all they were doing was digging up emotions that I hated feeling.

I got up to empty out our table’s water bucket and Jack followed. “Yes?”

“We’re just trying to be nice,” Jack said.

I exhaled dramatically, calming my thoughts for a few seconds as I refilled the water bucket. “Yeah I know, Jack,” I said trying to end where this conversation was going. “You just, I mean, I just, I’m on edge. You know with the…the transition and all.”

“Totally understand, Bailey.” I strained my lips to force a sweet smile up at him. “So Baybay, let me tell you about a time my son Alex and I brought the “Do It” to Nike,” Jack said in his weird voice again as he swung an arm around my shoulders when I started walking back to the table. Here we go again…

Finally the end of the hour at the end of the week. I was ready to go home and relax and unwind from all the new events, but of course, I couldn’t leave quietly without that one special someone.

“You know, if you don’t smile once and a while your little pretty face just might get stuck like that.”

“Goodbye, Jack.”

“Aw come on Bailey,” Jack said hugging me.

I pushed him off my side. “And you know, if you don’t stop smothering me, I just might end up like that water you spit up on me five minutes ago and you just might end up like the gum on the bottom of your shoe.”

“There’s no gum on the bottom of my--” He paused as he foot smothered the chewed blue gum that was resting on the floor. “Damn, shit, motherfucker!”

He finally peeled the gum off his shoe and ran to catch up to me. “Dang Baybay, you’re good. Where do they teach you that stuff?”

“You’re born with it,” I replied sardonically.

“In Jersey?” he asked with his Jersey accent that he used whenever he tried mocking me.

I finally spotted Jade leaning against the wall by the exit talking to Melanie and Alex, so I made a beeline towards them. “Hey guys,” I smiled at them all.

“Hey Bailey,” Alex greeted for everyone. “Ready to go?” he asked a few moments later, swinging his keys on his finger.

“Alex is driving us home since Melanie has a quick doctor’s appointment,” Jade said, answering my unasked question. I nodded and felt a familiar arm swing around my shoulder.

“Guess what that means, Baybay! We’re Alex’s shitty car buddies!” I cracked a smile at Jack.

“What the hell, Jack?!?!” I yelled after I felt something wet in my ear. I pushed him off me and yanked his shirt towards me and tried wiping his tongue saliva out of my ear.

Alex just laughed and Jade looked terrified at what she just witnessed. “Yeah…Jack does that.”

I continued looking at him wide-eyed as we walked out to the car. Jack was always hyper, but licking my ear? By the way Alex spoke he made it sound like it was a normal occurrence around Jack, and by the looked of it I would be experiencing a lot of Jack’s “habits” because even as we walked out in the parking lot, with me shrugging off his arm every time he repeatedly swung in on my shoulder, it was obvious he wouldn’t be dropping the subject of Jade and I anytime soon.

==========

“Hey. You busy?” Jade asked as I was perched on my bed looking through an art magazine.

“No. Why?”

“Melanie just invited us over to hang at her house with Kara and Kaylie. You want in?” I nodded and excitedly slipped on my shoes. Hanging out with the girls was really fun for me. Especially since I just moved and I was already having a blast, which was not expected.

Kaylie, Kara, Jade, Melanie and I were listening to music and chatting about people for a while. It was awesome how well we got along. “Hey, people are downstairs for you guys. And you might wanna turn that off before they hear it. You know how they get when they hear that music,” I hear Matt say as he passed by Melanie’s room. We eagerly got up and ran down the stairs and bounded toward the door where we found Alex, Jack and Rian were goofing off. Everyone greeted each other happily and then there was Jack.

“Bailey!” Jack ran towards me and engulfed me in his arms. “I thought I would have to live the whole weekend without seeing you, but what a surprise!”

I made sure to keep my ears a safe distance away from his tongue as I forcefully wiggled out of his suffocating grasp. He looked a little taken aback at my forcefulness, but I wasn’t in the mood for this. I liked hanging around, even Jack, I really did, but I just all of a sudden I felt that weird feeling I was feeling earlier. I felt myself needing to cry and then telling myself I’m fine. I quickly made my way to my shoes and squeezed past everyone, except Jade.

“I’ve gotta go,” I said quietly to her. Jade nodded her head sympathetically.

“Jazz, where are you going?” she whispered. I started opening the door and everyone else’s conversations buzz slowly stopped as uttered my last words.

“Running.”