Jessica’s Journey

 Sequel to Andrews Dilemma

 By, Cain129

Part 10

Special Thanks to Wren Phoenix for the editing.

Synopsis:   After spending the weekend with Scotty and her friends, Jessica returns home and gets ready to return to school and start living a normal life. A lot has happened but she feels ready to finally face the world and whatever life decides to throw at her.

 

 

After I got home Jennifer and Megan asked a million questions about spending the weekend with Scotty.   I took a seat on my bed and told them the entire story. Megan and Jennifer were happy for me and I had to admit that I enjoyed having good friends to share stuff like this with.

“So what did the two of you do this weekend?” I asked, looking over at them.

“Nothing much, we did some shopping and saw a movie with the boyfriends.” Megan said with a grin.

“Nowhere as exciting as your weekend Jessica,” Jennifer said, and her smug smile almost made me blush.

“I had a great weekend and enjoyed myself. There’s a part of me that’s going to miss that place. Scotty and I made several good memories there.”

  “I almost forgot, I didn’t come home empty-handed!” It only took about a minute before I found the bag that I was looking and handed a ball cap and t-shirt to Megan and Jennifer.

“Thanks, Jessica!” the two of them said together

“I’m sorry I couldn’t buy more, but Scotty and I were walking to the CN Tower and the Skydome”

“There fine Jessica,” Megan said, putting her ball cap on.

“Yeah Jessica,” Jennifer said happily, then reached down, pulled her shirt off and slipped into the new one. “Look, it's a perfect fit!”

I smiled. “Scotty and I were talking, and we’re planning another camping trip, this time for all of us.”

“When were you thinking Jessica?” Megan asked excitedly.

“I‘m not sure Megan, sometime after school is out, that’s all I know.”

“Sounds like fun, I can’t wait!” Jennifer exclaimed.

“The campgrounds are nice, there are many hiking trails and even a beautiful lake that’s perfect for swimming. If we want to take a ride, Canada’s Wonderland is close by.”

“So I’m taking it that it's time to start saving up for the trip.” Jennifer said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea Jennifer. It's not that expensive if everyone chips in with renting the campsite, but your still going to need spending money.” I explained.

 

 

Megan and Jennifer helped me unpack, and between the three of us everything was quickly put away. I had to admit, it was good to be home. The three of us stormed the kitchen and laid waste to a container of rocky road ice cream. It had been a while since the three of us had spent time together, and it was nice to just sit back and talk with my sister and friend.”

After finishing up in the kitchen, the three of us moved into the living room. Megan clicked the on button for the television and switched the channel to MTV. They were playing some kind of...garbage! I had to be the only teenager I knew that wasn’t into all the recent rock music.   I didn’t mind the older rock, because there seemed to be at least some kind of meaning behind the songs. But how can you find meaning to a song when you can’t even understand a word they’re saying?

Megan and Jennifer didn’t seem to mind though, as they were up dancing and trying to get me to join them.   Eventually I did, through when it came to dancing I wasn’t what you would call graceful! They were patient with me, and they tried to show me the different moves. I eventually caught on, but I had a long ways to go if I was ever going to be as good as the two of them were.

 

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Janice and Anthony were sitting on Bill’s couch, while he was on the phone. After talking to the police, Janice had called her husband, and hearing how distressed Janice was he gave Bill’s office a call. Anthony and Bill met in college, and they became good friends. When Jessica first moved in, Bill was the one that had helped take care of all the legal matters, including Jessica’s adoption.

Their families had always been close.   Bill was Megan’s god-father, which in his mind now extended to Jessica. When he was asked to check up on what was going on, he started making some calls.   Eventually he was able to put all the pieces together.

After getting off the phone he took a seat across from Janice and Anthony, “All right. I’ve talked to a friend of mine at the DA’s Office.   What he told me is completely off the record, but James Roberts was murdered and they suspect that it was a mob hit.

This is what I was told. Jake Roberts went to a man named Vincent Campanelli for help in finding Jessica. Campanelli at the time was the leader of the 3^rd largest mob organization in North America.   His cousin was assigned to find Jessica, but he double crossed Vincent, killing him and taking control of the organization.

Since then, anyone loyal to his cousin has disappeared, and they are presumed dead. James Roberts and his cousin Brian Wilson, who is believed to be the one that made the introductions between Jake Roberts and Vincent, seem to be the latest victims.

“So you don’t think Jessica is in any danger?” Janice asked, concerned.

“I really don’t think so Janice. The only people that have been targeted are bad cops that were part of Vincent’s organization and people that were loyal to him.

“The police officers that visited you were just trying to throw you off so they could watch your reactions to their questions. It’s a common tactic. One officer plays good cop while the other plays bad cop, and all they saw was a protective mother.” Bill said.

“Are they still going to want to talk to Jessica?” Anthony asked his friend

“It’s possible that they will, Anthony.” Bill told him. “But it will be quick considering the child was in bed at the time of his death and they’re more concerned with arresting Rocco Campanelli.”

“If you want I could be there for the questioning, but I really don’t think you’ll need me. It might make them think that you have something to hide.”

“Thanks Bill, I guess we just needed some reassurances for our own peace of mind.” Anthony said, feeling a little better now.

“It’s not a problem Anthony, that’s what I’m here for.” Bill said, smiling.

 

 

Across town Sarah and Janet had just finished supper and were busy doing the dishes when they heard a knock at the door. Janet turned to her sister. “Are you expecting anyone?”

“Not until later, around 7pm,” Sarah said as she dried a dish

“I’ll be right back,” Janet said, leaving Sarah to continue doing the dishes.

A few minutes later Janet returned, followed by two officers. “Sarah, they want to talk to you.” Janet said, worried that her sister had done something stupid.

“Mrs. Roberts, could we have a few minutes of your time?” asked one of the officers.

Sarah finished drying the plate she was holding, then took a seat at the table. “So what is this all about?” asked Sarah, feeling uneasy.

“I’m Detective Walker and this is my partner, Detective Hernandez. We are here concerning your brother in-law, James Roberts.”

“What about him?” Sarah said, not really sounding that concerned.

“He was murdered.” Detective Walker said frowning.

“Good for him, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.” Sarah said sarcastically.

“I take it that the two of you weren’t very close.” Detective Hernandez said with a smile.

“The bastard assaulted my daughter! Do you have any idea who killed him, I’d like to thank them.” Sarah said with a smile.

“We are still working on that but could you tell us where you were on Saturday night between 2 and 3 am?” Detective Walker asked.

“Let’s see, oh yes, I was sleeping.” Sarah said looking over at Janet.

“I can verify, she was here me, the two of us had watched a movie that ended around 2 am.” Janet said with a smile.

“Alright that is about it, by the way what movie did you watch?” asked Detective Walker.

“They had a Mel Gibson marathon on, I think they were playing Braveheart.” Janet said.

“I love that movie.” Detective Hernandez said.   “Thanks for your time I believe we have all the information we need, have a good night.”

 

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After the police had left, Janet angrily turned to her sister. “I can’t believe you made me lie for you! You killed him, didn’t you Sarah?”    

“Yes I did, the bastard hurt my daughter and your niece, and he deserved it! She’s finally happy and he would have done everything in his power to make her suffer. I couldn’t have that.”

“Sarah, if the police find out, you’ll spend the rest of your life in jail.” Janet said, tearfully.

“It’s a small price to pay for my daughter. I was a terrible mother to Andrew and I’m not going to make the same mistakes with Jessica. If that means I spend the rest of my life behind bars to protect her, I will!” Sarah said, slamming her fist into the table.

 

“Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen, because I’ll be right behind you, Sarah. You just made me your accomplice.” Janet said sadly.

“I’m sorry Janet, the last thing I wanted to do was involve you.”

“Well it’s too late now, what’s done is done.” Janet said, frowning.

 

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Shortly after Jennifer left for home, Megan and I went upstairs to her room. After living here for the last 3 months, I still couldn’t get over how many stuffed animals she had. When I looked at her room, it looked like any other teenage girls room, with the exception of mine.

The big difference between our rooms was, mine didn’t really show much of my personality, whereas Megan’s had pictures all over the place.

It was painted pink with white trim, and it looked like a girl’s room. Mine, on the other hand, looked like something that was just thrown together, which in a sense it was exactly that. As I looked at Megan’s room, I started coming up with ideas for my own. I was part of this family now and I was here to stay, so why not make the room my own?

Megan looked over at me. “What’s on your mind, Sis?”

“I was thinking how different your room is compared to mine. Do you think Mom and Dad would let me remodel it, Megan?”

“What do you have in mind, Jessica?” asked Megan.

“Maybe changing the color to something like yours and clear out all the music equipment, then get some matching furniture.”

“I doubt that they would mind, Dad can always setup the studio in the basement anyway. We can always have everyone over and have a painting party.” Megan said smiling

“That would be fun Megan! We could order pizza and pick up some munchies...”

“Mom and Dad should be home soon, we’ll bring it up to them and make plans.” Megan said happily.

 

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I still had a lot of homework to catch up on, as did Megan. So I returned to my room and started digging through my assignments. I had an assignment that was still due. I had been putting it off because of the nature of the report. I was supposed to write a story based on my own life, but because most of my life was fiction, at least to everyone at school, I couldn’t seem to figure out what to say without telling everyone the truth about who I really was.

The first time that I saw it I said there was no way in hell was I going to write it, even if I used the edited version it would still bring up to many bad memories. The problem was did I really want to share that kind of pain with my classmates?

I would have to leave Andrew out of the equation, but abuse is abuse. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re male or female. There was a part of me that was afraid to share my story, but as I started writing everything down, something happened and I found that it started to write itself.

As I wrote, I talked about some of my earliest memories of what it was like, growing up with the emotional turmoil that ensued as a result of my father’s drinking, and then the physical abuse that eventually followed and what it was like once I moved in with the Tanners.

I gave an edited version of what really happened.   I wanted to be as honest as possible and told the story about how lost that I had been, when I first moved in with the Tanner’s and how my life had changed since moving I moved in. It was already public knowledge when it came to the kidnapping, so I chose to be honest and told most of the details.

When I finely finished, I felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders, but I was still unsure if I really wanted to pass it in. Most of the kids had normal live and didn’t really have the kind of childhood that I had experienced.

  Most of the stuff that I had written, I was still dealing with, and it hurt to think about, but it was honest for the most part.   The only thing missing was Andrew and his story would have to remain a secret. Some things are better left unsaid.

After I finished, I closed my binder. I had done enough homework for now, and I needed a drink. I made my way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. I reached inside to grab a can of root beer and almost knocked over Mom’s bottle of wine cooler.  

  I thought for a minute that it would be nice, I remembered my birth mother used to drink the same kind and every now and then I used to sneak a drink. I loved the taste of it. I didn’t really think much about it and opened the bottle and took a drink.

  It still tasted good I thought to myself as I swallowed down a little more then put the cover back on and placed it back into the fridge and made my way into the living room and plopped down on the couch then switched on the Television, turning it to CMT and started watching the top 10 videos.

There were only a few new songs that had been released and only one of them I really liked I would eventually pull the song up on the internet and print out the tabs for it.

As I sat on the couch, I opened my can of root beer and took a drink and thought about what I really wanted to do. Should I turn in the report or not, in the end I decided to talk to mom about it before I decided on doing anything.

 

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As I laid down on the couch watching the music videos, I found myself starting to drift off and had falling asleep and didn’t even hear mom and dad coming inside until the sound of the door closing woke me up.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked over, “Baby, your home.” Mom said smiling

“How was your weekend honey?” Dad asked as he hung up his jacket.

“Hi Mommy, Daddy, I had a great weekend, It was a lot of fun.” I said sitting up, making room on the couch for them to sit.

“Honey, your father and I have something that we need to talk to you about.” Mom said, joining me on the couch.

“If you are going to tell me about Uncle James, I already know.” I said frowning.

“How Jessica, we only just found out ourselves.” Daddy said surprised to find out I already knew

“Amy ended up having to work, the night Uncle James died. She told me before the camping trip.”

“I didn’t know. Are you all right?” Mom asked me.

“It was a shock but to be honest, Uncle James and I were never close. I guess if the two of us were, it would have bothered me. I just tried to put it behind me and had a good time camping, I never really gave him much thought at all.” I admitted sadly.

“Amy and I did spend some time talking about that and some other stuff though, and it did help.”

“It’s good that you have someone like her, everyone needs a friend like that.” Dad said with a smile.

“There was something that I wanted to talk to the both of you about though.” I said.

“What is it honey?” Mom asked.

“It’s about a school assignment I have to do for my life skills class. We’re supposed to write about ourselves and how we became the people that we are now.” I already wrote the report but I am not sure if I should pass it in or not.”

Dad looked over at me, “I can see your problem honey.”

“That’s just it; I don’t have a past like the other kids and I can’t really tell the truth.” I said with a frown.

“Maybe your father and I should read what you have written so far,” Mom suggested.

“All right,” I said and went to my room, returned and gave it to my mom to read.

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Mom read it aloud so that Dad wouldn’t have to read it also and when she was finished she turned to me. “I think that it’s fine but are you sure that you want to pass it in?” Mom asked.

“No, I don’t really want to pass it in, but what other choice do I have? It’s the honest truth, I don’t have a normal childhood to write about.”

“Do you have to read it aloud Jessica?” Dad asked.

“Yes, we have to read it aloud to the class, otherwise it wouldn’t be a problem.” I said, frustrated.

“Maybe we can talk to your teacher and she can let you do another assignment to make up the grade.” Dad suggested. “They know about the kidnapping, we will just tell them it’s not healthy to have you relive that trauma, again. I am sure they will understand.”

“Do you really think so, Daddy?”

“I’ll call the school in the morning and talk to the principle. I can’t guarantee anything, Jessica and you should bring the report to school in case your teacher wants to read it.” He said.

“Thanks Daddy, I said and gave him a hug.

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Later that night Megan and I talked to Mom and Dad about doing the remodel on my room. Both of them thought it was a good idea, and we started making arrangements. The rest of the night was spent watching movies together. It was nice to be home and able to spend time with my family. As much as I loved the weekend I had spent with Scotty and my friends, it was good to be home.