Title: School Rumble

Chapter: 1

Series: Jericho

Rating: PG-13 (safety’s sake)

Genre: Friendship/Romance

Pairing: JakexHeather, MaryxEric, and StanleyxMimi

Plot: Heather is moving out of her childhood town.

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All I own is a clarinet and a closet full of manga. If I did I would have it so Jake and Heather got together.

AN (Updated 10/26/09): Once again I feel like writing this....sorry for the constant confusion when it comes to this story. It feels like I keep putting it online, taking it off, writing, not writing...just real life likes playing mind games on me.

The original title "School Rumble" comes from one of my favorite anime/manga series. I know it's a lame title for this sort of story but well it's easy to remember and I've gotten used to using it to refer to this story.

Now some of you may have read this under JFF but due to the closure of the website (it’s closing in November) I will be reposting it here.

The time frame for this fic is pretty much the current time. Characters will have cell phones, I-pods, etc. Will the attacks occur? Not in this story. Maybe, if I make a sequel but definitely not now.

I would also at this time like to thank my beta ShadesofGreen, for reading and correcting errors for the first two-three chapters as well as for dealing with all of my vents and all of my random ideas.

Chapter One:

The last day of summer vacation quickly hit Kansas much like the day which started the break. The resulting “anti-school” fever was especially bad in the town of New Bern where it was a universal “live it up” day for children and teenagers alike. Even at seven in the evening the streets were filled with various kids trying to get their last games and pranks in before ten o’clock when their parents would start to literally pull them in from the streets. It was completely normal for a local teacher to get loud ‘Boos’ as they drove past the soon to-be returning students. Yet it never went above that so the “adults” of New Bern left it alone and treated it as a type of “childhood tradition.”

At New Bern's local park the local sports teams played their last games of the summer as the Girl Scouts roasted marshmallows and worked on various crafts and activities to get the next merit badge.

The local ice cream shop was also nearing the end of its busy season by having its yearly “Back to School” event when the owners would give any New Bern student (even the high school and soon to be college students) who presented a school I.D with the chance to have a free scoop of ice cream or a small hot fudge sundae. Luckily they could for the most part afford it because there just weren’t as many kids in New Bern as there used to be. Most of the previous two generations had moved to larger towns and even quite a few major cities to pursue their dreams.

New Bern’s high school was also having an event which would allow any resident (student or parent) access to the school swimming pool. Quite a few of the ice cream shop customers were either coming from or going to the school. This year (like in previous years) it was being sponsored by the Student Council and the student lifeguards.

The local stores were trying to get rid of the last of their school supplies by reducing the prices to “next to nothing” levels. However, business was slow and only a few mothers were in there buying extra supplies. It was another extremely well-known and practiced ritual to avoid these stores on the last day of vacation. The local “watering hole” was closed as it always was on the last summer night. The owners had decided to start this tradition a few years back when a few seniors attempted to order a round there. However if one was to ask about the situation the topic would change rapidly. It became New Bern’s own local legend and the only ones who would ever know the true story were a part of that event. Any other place in town was also either avoided or barely noticed on these nights.

It was just an average summer night in a small town which loved its summer.

For Heather Lisinski this was an extremely bittersweet time. Sure in the past she had described this time with those same exact words but this time it was worse than before. Instead of just leaving this year’s break from school behind she was also leaving her entire life behind as well. She was moving away from her home and leaving her best friend behind.

In silence she finished up packing what little was left remaining in her room. The only things she left out were the clothes she was going to wear tomorrow, her cotton pajamas which weren’t as comfortable as her flannel pajamas, and what she needed in order to get ready for the next day. As she began to finish putting the remaining photo albums and novels that she had wanted to keep she found herself staring at the walls and floor of her room. The white walls once had multiple bulletin boards and a few posters for science fiction movies she liked as a child. The old wooden floor once had stacks of books and various other objects thrown on it. In other words the room was once a "disaster zone" and it was now just an empty space.

When she realized she was done she heard a knock at the door and sighed. It had been like this all day. Whenever she would try to get something done someone would be there knocking on the door. Usually it was next door neighbor Mrs. Henderson who had appointed herself as Heather’s chaperone coming over to try to talk Heather’s father who was an ex minister out of moving. Yet he would simply shake his head and tell her that it was too late now to change things.

This move wasn’t going to be canceled. Heather knew her father well enough to know that any chance of that was close to zero. Once his mind was set it was impossible to change it. She had learned that lesson well enough when she had discovered that he had put the family house up for sale.

Once Heather had taken the stairs two steps at a time and slid on the wooden living room floor she made it to the door out of breath.

“Hey there, Heather! Are you holding up alright?”

She was actually shocked to discover that it was her best friend in the world, Ted Lewis, wearing a gray t-shirt and worn jeans. He was trying so hard to sound untroubled when in reality it was the opposite. He was bothered by the sudden move. He was bothered by her father for that matter as well. He was appalled with the entire family.

She tried to smile as she sighed, “Yeah I'm alright.”

He frowned at her attempted smile and how she gave her answer with a sigh and then said, “I know you have to leave early tomorrow but do you want to hang out one more time before you go?”

Heather didn’t need to pause to think about her answer.

She knew that her father was out at the local diner eating dinner alone since he refused to even look at what Heather would make for their dinner. Heather couldn't blame him one bit especially after the ten or twenty times she'd had to quickly choke down her food just so she could eat. Then there was that time she almost poisoned a few people at Ted's Halloween party when she had made homemade punch. In all honesty there was just no cooking ability in Heather's body. But she could find her way around a garage better than most of the guy's at school and she was good at handling multiple tasks at once.

Ted noticed that when she had given her answer that her eyes gained the light that he hadn't seen since school ended that past May but that light then quickly vanished. He sighed realizing that she must have thought about her father and where he had run off to. He frowned and felt his hands turning into fists. Just how the hell could he run off to do god-knows-what and leave his daughter behind? Especially now of all times! He knew that she was packing the last of her things as well as the kitchenware. What if she would have gotten hurt carrying all of those boxes?

He choked out the question. "Where did your dad go?"

To which she replied with a simple matter of fact, "I guess he went out to eat."

Ted wanted to punch the door at moment as he blurted out, "That son of a bitch! He needs to be at home with you once in a while and to be a damn father! I mean, my dad isn't great but he'd at least be there when things get bad!"

'All that man ever does is run away! His wife died and he ran away from his family, job, faith, and how his home!'

Heather saw Ted's eyes and gently grabbed his hand. She sternly spoke to him "Ted it's fine. I can take care of myself. He doesn't need to be here if he isn't comfortable being here. Things just haven't been good for a while. That's all there is to it."

Ted sighed knowing there wasn't anything he could do especially since she sounded so confidant about being fine. He worried about her a lot especially since she took that trip with her grandfather after her mother's death eight years ago. She didn't remember anything about it but that's when things had gone from bad to worse. That's when her father quit being a minister and began to work long hours in the factory. He then dropped the rest of the family, and began to leave Heather alone for long amounts of time because he wasn't ever home or he was asleep. He couldn't even remember the rest of things that had happened. There was just too much.

"So where are we going Ted?"

He shook his head and sighed, "I was thinking about the ice cream place but I passed by it a while ago and there were tons of people."

Heather then smiled "What about just walking around then?"

Ted blushed when he saw her smiling. For a moment he had to look away but then looked back towards her and nodded his reply. It was hard to believe that she was only sixteen. She seemed to be older than her years especially when she suggested ideas like that. As they began to walk he asked questions about the house and where she moving to. He knew that she was moving to Jericho but that was about it.

Heather quietly listened to him as he listed nine or ten questions about the house and eventually groaned out, "All I know is that it's in Jericho and that I'm going to the high school there."

"So he wouldn't tell you anything about it besides that?"

She sighed "No. He wouldn't tell me anything else about it."

Ted cussed and then said, "I guess that means your going to to have to let me know when you get there and get settled in tomorrow." He then added "So how do you feel about this?"

Heather took a few steps ahead of him. After a few minutes of silence answered with a quiet, "I don't want to move but if that's what father wants then I can't say anything about it," before stopping completely.

"Ugh that's it! Heather, you obviously don't want to go there...so why don't you try to talk to him about this!"

She turned around and then shouted at the top of her lungs in frustration, "I tried to and it didn't work! He wouldn't listen to me! He just walked out the second I started to talk about it! His mind is set on moving! But after thinking about it I've decided to just accept the fact that I'm leaving here! I don't want to but I'm going to give it a chance now. The house is sold and the new owners are coming here next week so what right do I have to ruin their chance at being happy there!?"

Ted froze. She had never once raised her voice in her entire life. Yet she was right about that last part. The house was sold and the new family was going to move in there next week. They were coming from out of state and after coming all that way they should be able to go to their new home. He stopped and choked out a quiet, "I'm sorry."

Heather stopped and then shut her eyes and quietly muttered "I'm the one who needs to apologize, Ted. I'm sorry." She sighed. "it's just things haven't been good for a long time and I've been trying to act as if they were good or at least better than they really were."

He then attempted to speak again but, Heather stopped him by saying, "I'm going to go home and try to get some sleep. I'll call you when I get settled."

She then started towards her house when she remembered all the nice things everyone in New Bern would say about her. Things like how kind, gentle, and selfless she was. It would be that moment when she would be completely sure that she wasn't any of those things.

She was just human and humans could only take so much before snapping under pressure.

To Be Continued