Home From Within by Jennifer McCartney, Lisa Maggiore Read Free Book Online Page B

next question, Mrs. Daley stepped out from homeroom and asked to see Jessica for a few minutes. Paul and Jessica looked at each other like two pieces of stuck candy that needed to be pulled apart.
    “We’ll see you tomorrow, Paul,” Mrs. Daley said as she put her arm around Jessica’s shoulder and led her into the classroom. Mrs. Daley’s coat and large multicolored satchel that she carried all her school papers in were on top of the desk.
    “Come, sit down over here,” she said, pointing to a chair as she lifted herself onto the edge of the desk. Jessica could not imagine what Mrs. Daley would want to talk about. She did not think she had done anything bad.
    “Listen, I know this is really none of my business, but I feel I need to make it mine. You’re a good student, the best in my homeroom, but don’t go repeating that.” Jessica smiled.
    “And I’ve been watching the way things are progressing around here. Some boys think they can take advantage of you because of your homeroom job, but I have been very proud of the way you’ve handled yourself. You’ve stayed true to who you are. I can tell your parents taught you well.” Jessica felt a slight flash of nausea over that comment but continued to listen. “And I can see that you and Paul seem to like each other. I have been watching y’all, well I watch everyone, but you two are obvious. I want you to be careful. Things that seem new and exciting can get old and dangerous with a flick of a switch. I’m not telling you what to do. I’m just letting you in on some wisdom that you may want to use when making choices down the road.”
    Jessica felt privileged that Mrs. Daley would stay after school to help her. “Thank you for caring about me.”
    “Aw, I care about all my students,” Mrs. Daley said as she stood up and started putting on her coat. “Even the knuckleheads.”
    Jessica realized that she was late for home and started to panic.
    “Mrs. Daley, could you please write a note so my parents know I was speaking with you after school?”
    Jessica noticed Mrs. Daley looked at her funny. She figured that Mrs. Daley probably heard the anxiety in her voice, but at that moment, she did not care.
    “Are you in some sort of trouble?”
    “I will be unless I have a note. My parents are kinda strict.”
    Mrs. Daley gave her a look but did not say another word and wrote the note in silence. Just as Jessica was about to run out the door, Mrs. Daley asked if she still had her personal number. Jessica said she did.
    “Good. You use that if you need to, baby girl.”
    Jessica ran all the way home forgetting to pull the Heritage sweatpants and shirt over her clothes. When she entered her house, she realized before she took off her coat that she still had the tight clothes on. At that same moment, her father came out of his office and greeted her with a hello.
    “Hi, Dad,” Jessica said, and made a line to hug him, coat on.
    Her father returned her hug and said he enjoyed the letter she wrote him. “Take your coat off. We’ll talk in my office.”
    Jessica panicked—he could not see the clothes. “Uh, I have to go to the bathroom really bad. I’ll be right back down, okay?”
    “All right,” he said.
    She raced upstairs, praying her mother was not in her room. Jessica changed her clothes quickly behind a locked bathroom door and flushed the toilet so it sounded like she actually used it. When she came back downstairs, her father was sitting at his desk sifting through a stack of papers. He looked up and grabbed her letter off his desk, going through each section and asking her questions, almost like an interrogation with a hint of goodwill. Jessica learned early on that this was the best way to acclimate her father back into her life. In her youth, she tried jumping into his lap, internally begging for his protective arms to engulf her as she regurgitated memories from the past couple of months. But he never responded the way she envisioned and was