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School Days – Chapter Twelve – Story

*Hangs head in shame*
Ok, so I’m rubbish for not updating for ridiculous amounts of time – I’m sorry!
Basically, I kinda lost the flow of the story and couldn’t see how I was going to get it where I wanted it. I went back to uni, got caught up in work and then totally forgot about it.
Then a couple of months ago I stumbled across the file again (i.e. I was procrastinating revision and trying to clear out my computer a little) and decided to give it another go. Suddenly, this chapter just appeared and everything is on track again.
But then I couldn’t access the submission page, and kept getting hit with a stupid error message – I don’t know if anyone else had this problem? Anyway, couldn’t submit the story for weeks but randomly checking the page means that I’m here, apologizing profusely and hoping that you’re all willing to still read my story.
Happy reading, and I hope you’ll forgive me!
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Amy was grinning like a Cheshire cat whilst talking to first Tina, then Ella. Though she mentioned nothing about what had gone on between her and Jake since she had last seen them, both commented on how she seemed to be very happy considering all that was going on within her family. She brushed it off as nothing, assuring them she was just glad to talk to them and escape a little from all the hospital stuff that had been going on. They both accepted this as reasonable, though Ella a little more reluctantly than Tina. Amy?s best friend was annoyingly perceptive at times, and she was sure this wouldn?t be the end of it.

Amy was caught up on most of her classes between the two of them, though Art and French were still huge questions marks in terms of what had been covered the previous day. Having said that, Amy?s art teacher Miss Reynolds was incredibly relaxed and anything they had done would be easily caught up on.

After spending an hour on the phone she felt a little better. She quickly fixed herself some food and turned the television on, determined not to watch anything to serious. She settled on some American sit-com that she watched on occasion but soon found her mind wandering around all that had happened recently.

With her grandfather?s trip to the hospital she had had no time to think over everything that had happened with Jake, and his earlier visit had only served to give her more to ponder. Though she had learned so much, she knew there was more than what he was telling her, and most of it seemed to revolve around his parents.

Thinking about it now, Amy realized that she hadn?t seen his mother the entire time she was at his house which was close to six hours. Where had she been all that time? Amy couldn?t even begin to work this out so instead moved to thinking about his father.

Jake?s dad was obviously incredibly important in whatever he did and made a lot of money out of it, but Amy had no idea what this could be. There was nowhere she could think of in the local area that could provide that kind of job or money and so she was stumped once again.

On top of this, there were all the mysterious phone calls Pierce received from him that meant immediate action. And how had Jake known it would be his father on the phone? Given past evidence, it didn?t surprise Amy that once he had worked this out he knew he would have to leave.

And Pierce didn?t serve to make the equation any easier. He seemed to be so much more than a chauffeur – why would an American come to England to work as a chauffeur, no matter what business his boss worked for? Not only was he huge and incredibly attractive but very intelligent as well, or so Amy believed based on their conversations the previous day. It seemed like he could get a much better job than the one he did have even if the money was probably quite good, which seemed quite likely given the situation of the family and the hours he seemed to work.

At this point, adverts came blaring from the speakers and Amy came to her senses, realising she had missed most of the show she had set out to watch as well as forgetting about her food. She quickly reheated it, actually managing to consume some this time, before retreating to her bedroom and picking up the book she hadn?t had chance to read for most of the past two days.

Even this, though, couldn?t hold her mind and she soon found herself giving up and flopping backwards onto her bed.

Her conversation with Jake had only served to – once again – leave more questions than answers and she was beginning to get exasperated at the emerging pattern. She wished once again that she had his number, or any way to get in contact with him. It was infuriating that it constantly slipped her mind to ask.

She wanted to call him, talk to him, finally get him to answer all the questions running around in her head, all the questions he had avoided answering the previous evening.

Then she realized that she did have a way to try and find something out about Jake, and she couldn?t realize that she hadn?t thought of it before. She ran downstairs and turned on her dad?s laptop.

It took a few minutes to start up properly and Amy?s feet were tapping the entire time. Now she had finally reached this realization, she was impatient to find out if it would actually yield anything. She was aware that it was a little bit stalker-ish, but at this point it seemed like the only way she would actually get any answers.

Besides, she told herself, I probably won?t find out that much. Maybe just who he works for, what he does. She consoled herself with the fact that she probably wouldn?t be able to find that much out about a man when the only the she knew about him was his last name.

She pulled up the internet and clicked onto her favorite search engine, typing “Stanford” into the search bar. Hundreds of thousands of hit came up, but all of the first page were to do with Stanford University.
She groaned in frustration, annoyed with herself that it hadn?t occurred to her that this would happen. There was no way she would be able to find anything out about him when he shared a last name with a huge American university. She could spend hours trawling through the results without getting anywhere.

In a last ditch attempt, she clicked the images option, clinging onto a little bit of hope that this might prove more fruitful. That hope soon died as she saw that images relating to Stanford the university were again rife.
She cleared the history – she didn?t want her dad thinking she was thinking about going to university already, let alone in America – and turned the laptop off.
It was whilst she was putting it back in its case that she noticed the letter addressed to her sat on the side. She remembered that it had come yesterday morning but she hadn?t had time to open it then, and she was suddenly curious about what it was.

She pulled it towards her and ripped it open, not having a clue what to expect.
Just before she pulled the letter from the envelope, the phone rang. Amy cursed gently and briefly wondered why important things kept getting interrupted recently, usually by phones ringing.

Sighing, she reached out for the cordless phone, which happened to be sitting right next to her on the kitchen counter. “Hello?”
“Amy?” questioned a voice, somewhat uncertainly.
“Jake!” Amy exclaimed, suddenly brightening up. “How are you? Is everything okay with your dad?”
“I?m good thanks” Jake quickly replied, dismissing Amy?s second question. “I just wanted to make sure I had your number right.”

Amy let go off the fact that he had – once again – avoided talking about his family. “Yeah, you got it down fine. In case you hadn?t already guessed,” she replied, flushing a little and glad he couldn?t see her right then.
Jake chuckled. “Yeah, I suppose you answering is a bit of a give away.” He chuckled again and Amy was glad he appreciated her humor, even if it was only polite laughter.
“Listen,” began Amy, “could I get-”
“Sorry, I?ve got to go,” interrupted Jake before Amy could ask for his number. “Listen, I?m not going to be in school tomorrow but I?ll try and call later on.”

“Okay,” replied Amy slowly, wondering where he was disappearing off to yet again.
“Cool, well hopefully I?ll talk to you soon.”
“Okay, bye,” said Amy, still a little confused.
“See ya,” Jake replied quickly before hanging up.
Amy put the phone down before dropping her head into her hands. Briefly, the thought entered her head that Jake had known what she was about to ask for and cut her off on purpose, but she soon dismissed that as silly. No, it must have been perfectly innocent. Whatever had come up in the past half-hour since he had left meaning he couldn?t be at school tomorrow could easily be important enough that he would have a cut the call short.

She was sure she was worrying about nothing. Or so she tried to tell herself.
Spinning on the stool she had sat down on when she picked up the phone, the half-opened letter once again caught her eye. She was half tempted to ignore it, betting that as soon as she tried to do otherwise something would happen to interrupt her.

After a few contemplative seconds, however, she stretched out and pulled it towards her once again. Slowly, ears listening for any slight disturbance, be it door bell, telephone or rock smashing through a window, she began to pull the paper out of the envelope once again. She had it half way out when she paused, sure she had heard a car pull up.

Amy waited a few seconds before deciding it was nothing. She managed to pull out the letter another inch or so before she heard the sound of the front door opening.
“Amy? Honey? We?re back!” yelled her father as he closed the door behind him.
Amy slid the letter all the way back in and pushed it back, away from the edge of the counter. Hopping down from the stool she walked into the hall, standing quietly as both her parents took their coats off.
“Hey,” she said quietly, wondering if she would ever get to find out what was in that letter but knowing that spending time with her family was the most important thing right now.
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I hope this chapter makes up for the epic wait! Will try to get the next one out in the next few days, and hopefully the internet will let me!

 

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