fates_jaye | Niagara Falls, Friday (Reply)

For a minute, Mahandra just stares at her. "Oh my god."

"Yeah," Jaye says with a nod, stabbing her straw into her lemonade. There's something vaguely ironic about that, in a very Alanis-ish sense.

"We send you off to school and you become determined to wind up on a talk show."

She frowns. "Which one?"

"I don't know, is Ricki still on?"

Jaye has to admit that she hasn't watched a talk show since right around junior high. "Possibly. Maybe Montel?"

"You couldn't handle Montel."

"Maybe Montel couldn't handle me."

Mahandra throws a fry at her. "See, this is why you're single."

Jaye pouts.

"It's okay," Mahandra tells her, and picks up the fry from the table to offer it to Jaye.

"That's disgusting," she says, but is smiling. "I'm okay."

"Good. I'm tired of your emo. I never used that word before you left, what the hell."

"Oh my god!"

Jaye startles at the squeaky voice, turning around to see the perky blonde form of Gretchen Speck standing behind her. And just when she'd gone nearly a year of visits home without running into her. "Hi, Gretchen," she says, faking a smile.

Completely ignoring Mahandra, Gretchen walks right up to the table and beams, "Fancy meeting you here! I haven't seen you in what, almost a year!"

"I've been... you know." Jaye waves vaguely. "Away."

"Yeah, I heard you got sent to like a school for delinquents," Gretchen frowns, tilting her head like she's assessing whether or not to get her pepper spray.

"I'm only dangerous to those who don't understand me."

"No one understands you," Mahandra mutters.

Gretchen's eyes go wide and she looks at Mahandra, just noticing her. "Oh, hi, Janet! I didn't see you there."

There's a long stare, and then, "It's Mahandra."

"...Right." She turns back to Jaye. "Are you just in town for the weekend?"

She nods. "I'm here till Sunday and then they come and take me back to the home."

Gretchen look at her blankly. "Okay! Listen, if you're going to be in town all that time, we should totally hang out. Go shopping or something."

Jaye is not much of a shopper. At least, not with Gretchen Speck. "Gee, Gretchen, that sounds great, but I have a-"

Out of the corner of her eye, Jaye sees the image on the placemat look up at her. "You should go."

God freaking dammit. "Absolutely nothing to do."

Mahandra stares at her.

"Oh, that would be awesome!" Gretchen says brightly.

"Mahandra and I were going to hang, but we can come out for a while," Jaye flails.

Mahandra continues staring.

Gretchen's smile goes a little frozen. "Oh, sure, if she has nothing better to do," she says, like Mahandra's not even there. "Meet me at the mall at say, one-ish? We'll do lunch."

Jaye's not sure anyone ever has actually said "do lunch", but whatever. "Sure."

"Bye, Jaye! Bye, Janet!" And with a toss of her hair, she's heading back to the counter to get her Diet Coke. Just a Diet Coke. Small. Jaye doesn't get it.

Mahandra's glaring at her. "Did you just shanghai me on a shopping date with Gretchen Speck?"

Jaye holds up the placemat. "It seemed like a good idea to him!"

Mahandra frowns at it. "Whose idea was it to use a decapitated chicken on their menus and placemats?"

"A sick mind." Jaye says, turning it to frown herself.

"Like yours."

"You flatter me."

*****

When Aaron comes back into the living room with Monopoly, Jaye rethinks radio from the other night and decides that no, this is her hell. "Did you just randomly get caught up in the Parker Brothers spirit?" she asks.

Only Sharon's already helping to set up the board like it's a habit. "It's game night," she explains.

"Since when do you have a game night?" Notice how Jaye has not moved from her position in the living room chair.

Aaron shrugs. "Just after you left last time. We do it every week now."

"We decided to make today's game something an odd number of people could play," Karen adds, coming into the room to take a seat. "The pizza is on its way."

This is surreal.

"I'm the thimble!" Sharon decides happily. Jaye decides that she would make a really bad lesbian as she can't pick out whether there's subtext there.

The pizza arrives during the second trip around the board. Jaye has gotten stuck with being the iron, as everyone claimed the good pieces. That's just fine because she's already deciding to lose, which is a given when you're playing with Sharon. Apparently it's possible to be competitive at Monopoly. Who knew?

Over a slice of pizza, Darrin asks, "When do your classes start?"

"I'm trying not to think about that," she says. "I've decided it's very far off into the future and that's okay with me."

"Monday's Labor Day, they have to be starting soon."

"I signed up for stuff, but don't have my schedule yet. I did good during the summer, though."

"What grades did you get?" Aaron asks.

Jaye realizes that I did good probably isn't the same as I got an A! "A's and B's," she answers.

Sharon frowns. "That would mean you actually put some sort of effort into something."

"Or they were really easy classes," Aaron adds helpfully.

"Is it so hard to believe that I would actually try at something?" Jaye asks.

"Yes," says Sharon and Aaron, and their parents are even kind of nodding.

Jaye sighs, and a moment later Aaron is rolling the iron playing piece over her nose. She swats at him and he puts it back, only for Sharon to look outraged. "You just skipped her ahead two spots! She is not on St. Charles' Place!"

"I thought she was," Darrin offers.

"I don't care," says Aaron.

"I care! If she rolls a one, a three, a four or a six she's on one of my properties. That affects how the game is played!" Sharon insists, and she's even starting to get up from her seat a little.

Aaron leans over to Jaye and hisses, "I think I see a vein popping out."

"If I roll a two, I bet it pops," Jaye whispers back.

For the record, teaming up with Aaron against their sister? Much more fun than being teamed up against. She's going to have to remember this for the future.

"Who taught you to not obey the rules?" Sharon asks Aaron.

Karen sighs. "Sharon, that isn't attractive."

Sharon glares at her and takes a seat, but gleefully takes Jaye's money when she rolls a four.

By the time it's over, Jaye doesn't have a headache, and she's thinking maybe coming back here was actually a good idea for once.

[NFB due to distance.
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