By: kf6tac (Brian) and Jamie Sommers
Email: kf6tac@yahoo.com
Rated: PG-13
Synopsis: This story is about Landon and Jamie’s
budding relationship. They’ve had their
first date; Landon has told her he loves her, now they have to face their
friends, their family and their own fears.
Written from both Landon (written in bold print by kf6tac/Brian)
and Jamie’s (written in italic print by Jamie Sommers) POV.
We had one last class together:
English literature. We walked into
class and found the chairs arranged in a circle, since we had taken our time
getting there the only two chairs available were on opposite sides of the
circle, so we couldn’t sit next to one another, but we were able to look
at each other and looking at Landon was just as wonderful as sitting next to
him.
The minute the bell
rang; Mr. Warren immediately began his discussion about Shakespeare. All though his work was highly regarded, I
must admit, I’ve never really been a big fan of his work. I respected it and could appreciate it, but
I never really found romantic notions in tragedies like Romeo and Juliet. If they had just believed in one another,
they would’ve never had to go through the pain that they did, but then again, I
guess it wouldn’t be considered a tragedy, would it?
“ ‘As You Like It’ is
one of my favorite pieces of literature from Shakespeare,” Mr. Warren began
telling us the basic gist of a story about star-crossed lovers, as many of
Shakespeare’s plays are. He began to
call upon people to read certain passages from the play then we would discuss
the meaning of it out loud.
I was somewhat relieved
that he didn’t ask me to do a reading.
‘Five more minutes of class left,’ I thought. Then…
“Jamie? Would you begin reading Rosalind’s speech on
page 126 please?”
‘Me?’ I thought, ‘I know
I’m in the drama department, but Shakespeare was not my best work.’
“Sure.” I took a deep breath and glanced at Landon
who was giving me this look like he was saying, ‘better you than me.’ With a sigh I started reading it, trying to
understand Shakespeare’s vision along the way.
“O, I know where you
are: nay, 'tis true: there was never any thing so sudden but the fight of two
rams and Caesar's thrasonical brag of 'I came, saw, and overcame:'”
“Hold on a second
Jamie. Do you know what she’s saying
here?” He meant Rosalind, the character I was reading.
“Ummm…that…ummm…” I had
no clue. I shook my head ‘no’ and
looked down at the book trying my best to decipher Shakespeare’s code.
“Does anyone know what
she’s saying in this passage?
Anybody?” He looked around the
circle and realized that no one got it.
“This is where Rosalind is admitting that she did in fact have a plan to
get Orlando’s brother and her sister together.
Ahhhh, but something unexpected happened along the way… she fell in
love. Why don’t you continue Jamie and
listen to what she’s saying. Go ahead.”
I looked back at Landon
for a moment, expecting to see that familiar lopsided grin, but found it
replaced with an encouraging smile. I
began, “…for your brother and my sister no sooner met but they looked, no
sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed
but they asked one another the reason, no sooner knew the reason but they
sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to
marriage which they will climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before
marriage: they are in the very wrath of love and they will together; clubs
cannot part them.”
“Thank you Jamie. Does anybody know what it is Shakespeare’s
saying here…what, in fact, Rosalind is saying?”
Before Mr. Warren could
explain it to us, Landon broke the silence.
“She’s saying that
regardless of her ploy to bring them together, they still would’ve gotten
together. They would’ve found each
other in spite of her actions, not because of them. Ya see,” he looked at me with a gentle expression filling his
eyes and huskiness to his voice that had me entranced, making me feel as though
we were the only two people in the room.
“Once they let their walls down they were able to see each other and all
it took was for them to look…to really look at one another, to realize
that there was something more between them…something special…beautiful. That they loved each other and the love they
found is what’ll help them to overcome every obstacle they face in life.” His
voice was so soft, breathy, “That they can make it through anything as long as
they face it together. And that nothing
will ever break them apart as long as they hold onto that love.”
“Very good
Landon!!” Mr. Warren said. “That is one …”
My heart was beating so
fast, I could feel it pulsing in my throat.
My stomach was churning, my palms sweating. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I knew he was talking about
us, about what we had faced today with our friends, but he had no clue the
obstacles that were in front of us. I
was in love with him. So much in love
with him, but was that love strong enough to overcome any obstacle? I knew the answer before I even asked myself
the question. ‘Yes. Yes it was.’
The bell rang and we
were off to face the remainder of the day on our own.
“So, I guess I’ll see ya
after school.” I loved the way his lips moved when he said the word, ‘school.’
“I guess so,” I could
barely speak, barely breath. “Have a
good day.”
“You too.”
We weren’t moving. We just stood there in the hallway, staring
at each other, holding hands. I
couldn’t seem to let go of his hands…of him and for the first time since we
began dating, I was the one to lean in for a kiss. It was just a brief touch of our lips, but I could feel it cause
my heart to swell.
The clock was ticking
and it was getting closer and closer to our next period. There was always the afternoon break, but we
were going to be on opposite sides of the campus so by the time we met up,
there would be hardly enough time to get to our last class. There was no conceivable way for us to see
each other until the end of the school day--which neither one of us was too
happy about--on the plus side, the remainder of the day passed by uneventfully,
and very, VERY slowly.
I didn’t think I’d ever
sit in a circle again after kindergarten ended. I mean – doesn’t everyone sit in rows facing the chalkboard? I guess I was wrong though, because a circle
was exactly what I saw when Jamie and I walked into English lit. class. We got in just a little bit before the bell,
so we didn’t exactly have much of a choice in sitting across from each
other. It was good enough for me
though, I couldn’t ask for a prettier face to sit across from than
Jamie’s. I guess Mr. Warren planned to
discuss Shakespeare that day; Warren was a total Shakespeare buff. I myself, was not a fan of
Shakespeare’s. By the time senior year
hit, Cliff’s Notes were already my best friends in English class.
We were talking about “As
you Like It” today, and even though I thumbed through the Cliff’s Notes the
night before I really didn’t feel like talking much. Shakespeare was tough for me to understand, and more likely than
not my responses in class were met with silence. I just sat there grinning at Jamie – I figured other people could
probably see me, but what the heck. I
could grin if I wanted to. Mr. Warren
called on Jamie to read the last section of our assignment for the day in the
last couple of minutes in class. I
thought to myself that Jamie would do great, the amazing actress she was and
all. When Warren called on her though,
I saw her facial expression change from anticipating the bell to one of… some
sort of disappointment. I realized then
that Jamie wasn’t a fan of Shakespeare either.
I never would have guessed.
She got through the first
chunk of lines all right though. Then
Warren stopped her and asked her to explain the meaning of the passage. She seemed pretty lost when she finally
shook her head ‘no.’ I looked around
the room, and noticed that even Janet, one of our class’s biggest Shakespeare
followers, looked pretty perplexed. I
looked back at Jamie, hoping she would look up. I just wanted to mouth to her “It’s okay.” But she kept looking at her book, so I
settled back and waited for Mr. Warren to just explain the darn thing so we
could move on. He finally figured out
that no one really knew what Shakespeare was talking about, so he explained to
us that the passage was describing this girl Rosalind’s plan to hook her sister
up with some guy named Orlando’s brother, only she somehow fell head over heels
for the Orlando while she was trying.
Warren asked Jamie to
finish up, and she looked up. I looked
at her and smiled the friendliest and most loving smile I could conjure
up. I wanted her to know that I thought
she was great no matter what. She
finished the section of the play, but this time I was listening intently to
what she was reading. Elizabethan
English was some pretty weird stuff, but I realized that behind all that fluff,
Shakespeare was talking about the inevitability of love. How Rosalind’s sister and Orlando’s brother
would have fallen in love even if Rosalind had just sat at home and done
nothing. I thought about Jamie and her
faith, how she never doubted anything that came her way. She always accepted it as part of God’s plan
for her, and I guess for her some things were just inevitable. Like falling in love with me.
When Mr. Warren asked for a response this
time, I knew exactly what I was going to say.
My heart was pounding as
I spoke up. “She’s saying that regardless
of her ploy to bring them together, they still would’ve gotten together. They would’ve found each other in spite of
her actions, not because of them. Ya
see,” I said, gazing at Jamie and admiring her for her faith and her
certainty, “Once they let their walls
down they were able to see each other and all it took was for them to look…to really look at one another, to realize that there was something more between
them…something special…beautiful. That
they loved each other and the love they found is what’ll help them to overcome
every obstacle they face in life. That
they can make it through anything as long as they face it together. And that nothing will ever break them apart
as long as they hold onto that love.”
And I knew it was all true. Not
just for the play, but for Jamie and me as well. I never let her into my life before I got forced into the spring
play, but once I did… I was forced to forget all my pre-conceived opinions of
her. Between running lines with her,
rehearsing with the class, and actually performing on stage, I realized that
there was a whole lot more to Jamie Sullivan than I had ever known. And she helped me learn that there was a lot
more to me, too.
Mr. Warren looked really
surprised at my response, but before he could finish up his thoughts the bell
rang. I picked up my stuff and watched
as Jamie walked over to meet me. I was
mesmerized by her, and I knew that no matter what, we would get through
anything. I wasn’t going to let Dean
and his crowd of followers stop us from being together. Her father, well I could change his mind too
if I just worked hard enough at it. And
once he was convinced, everything would be all right. I just knew it.
It took me awhile to
realize that Jamie was already standing right in front of me. We walked into the hall, and we just stood
there again. I was completely lost in
her eyes, and from what I could tell she was lost in me too. I knew we had to get to our own classes
though, but before I turned to leave she leaned in to kiss me. It was just a short kiss, but I still felt
the sparks surging through my body from head to toe. I almost had to tear myself away from her to move on to
psychology.
Trigonometry. I never realized how much I hated that class
until the moment I had to walk away from Landon to go there. ‘This is ridiculous. I mean...it’s just a couple of hours,
right? I’ll be fine. It’s not like I haven’t survived the past 18
years without him. I did just fine
without Landon Carter before, so I’ll do just fine now.’ No matter how many times I told myself that
it always ended with the same sentiment, ‘ Yeah…sure you will Jamie.’
I sighed as I walked
towards my last class of the day—I still had drama, but that never really
seemed like a class to me. As I walked
into the room I noticed Eric sitting in the back, he lifted his head up to look
at me and for a moment I thought he was going to say something, but he didn’t. He just turned around and started talking to
the kid next to him. Sitting in my
customary seat—front row, next to the window—I took out my book and got settled
in for the longest 50 minutes of my life.
For a girl that was grateful for every second God saw fit to give her,
all I kept thinking was, ‘ will this class ever end?’
I spent the entire
period doing something I would never think of doing before--I was
doodling. I just picked up my pencil
and started scribbling stupid things down on my paper like, Jamie and Landon
forever and Landon loves Jamie. When
the bell rang I looked down at my notebook and noticed that I had filled up not
only the entire page with meaningless drawings of hearts and flowers and
sentiments of love, but I had gotten some on the desk as well. This was not something I
did. Doodling was something other girls
did, not me. Definitely, not me! ‘Then why is your book covered with it?’ I
thought.
I’m not actually all
that sure what happened today in psychology.
I know that there was something being said about some weird “Oedipus
complex”, along with some other psychological things. I figured I’d just read the book later on and figure it all
out. It’s not like there was any math
involved. All I could do during class
was think about Jamie. And since there
was no one from Dean’s circle in that class, I could do a lot of thinking. I sat in the back, like usual, just
day-dreaming the time away. Mr. Olsen…
well he was lost somewhere in a textbook reading to us about different
subconscious thoughts and all that type of stuff. When the bell rang for my ten-minute break, I walked quickly out
to my locker. After what happened in
the cafeteria at lunch, I had been planning to just empty it out. I didn’t want to have to deal with Dean
every time I needed a book. I figured I
could just share with Jamie or something until I could talk to Principal Kelly
about getting a new one.
While I was busy
removing all my books, I heard someone come up behind me.
“Hey man, what are you
doin’?” I didn’t need to turn around to
know that it was Eric.
“What’s it look
like? I’m emptying my locker. Something tells me I’m not exactly welcome
here anymore.” I just kept emptying my
locker, not even bothering to turn my face.
“No man, that’s not what
I meant. I want to know what you’re doing.”
I dropped my last book
onto the pile on the floor and turned to face Eric. “I think I should be the one asking you that question. Where were you in that cafeteria huh? Look, I expected this kind of crap from
everyone else but not from you. I
thought you’d be cool with it.”
Eric was taken aback by
my comment, apparently. He stumbled a
bit getting his next words out. “Well…
uh, man… I couldn’t just bail on Dean.”
“But you can bail on me,
right? You couldn’t bail on Dean, who
you’ve only known since we started high school… so instead you bailed on me,
your friend since we were in kindergarten?”
More silence. They say silence is golden, but in a
situation like this… it was just the opposite.
I knew I was losing Eric, that every second no one said anything the gap
between us was getting bigger and bigger.
What could I do though? My
thoughts raced at what seemed like an incredible speed. I tried to remember what changed me… what
finally got me to open up. ‘The answer
to that is obvious Carter--it was Jamie.
But Eric doesn’t have Jamie.’
The reality of that was painful… the only reason I changed was because
Jamie became a part of my life. And
without someone like Jamie, it looked like Eric was just going to be another
lost cause… unless…. Some sort of a plan slowly formed in my mind. It was a risky long shot, but…
I turned back and shut
my locker. As I picked up my books to
leave, I said to Eric, “Look Eric, I thought I saw something in you. Something good. But… I was very wrong.”
As I walked away, I
hoped Jamie’s words could be the jump-start that Eric needed, just as they had
been for me.
Since we had finished
with the play, drama class was back to basics.
Miss Garber spent a lot of time teaching us the fine art of Improvisations
and mirroring techniques. We got to do
skits and sometimes we would just sit around the piano and sing show
tunes. Today we were doing relaxation
exercises—lying down on the stage with our eyes closed, tensing up every
muscle, starting at our toes, until gradually you were tensing up your entire
body then relaxing it. I lied down on
stage between Sally — who hadn’t said anything to me since lunch — and
Eddie. I closed my eyes and the next
thing I knew I was looking up at Landon.
I had fallen asleep on stage and since Miss. Garber had a habit of
ignoring the last bell of the day, he had come to drama to pick me up and take
me home. Everyone was gone, with the
exception of Miss. Garber and Eddie.
“Hey,” he said
softly. He tilted his head to the side
and pursed his lips, “was class really that boring?”
I began to sit up. “No,” but I got a twitch in my back, and
winced in pain.
“Hey…take it easy. I can’t imagine this stage floor makes a
very good mattress. Here,” he put his
hand behind my back and gently guided me to my feet. “Let me give you a hand.”
I stood up and shook my
head a little—trying to get my bearings about me—and asked, “Where is
everybody?”
“Well…sleeping beauty
finally woke up,” Eddie teased. “Have a
nice nap?”
“Mmmmm,” I looked around
and asked again, “Where did everyone go?”
“I imagine they went
home,” said Miss. Garber. “School has
been dismissed for almost twenty minutes now.”
“Twenty minutes?” I couldn’t believe it.
Apparently I had fallen
asleep and Miss. Garber took that as a compliment to her relaxation
exercises. She had informed the class
to leave quietly, and Eddie volunteered to stick around and wait for me to
wake, just in case I needed a ride home.
He and Miss. Garber were still basking in the glow of the play’s success
so they didn’t notice when Landon walked in and woke me, himself.
I was quiet on the way
home, I didn’t really know what to say, plus I was still a little groggy. I knew Landon was going to ask me why I fell
asleep, but I just didn’t know what I was going to tell him. ‘Don’t lie to him,’ I told myself. ‘Whatever you do, don’t lie to him. If he asks you, just tell the truth.’ Fortunately he didn’t ask. He just held onto my hand and drove, that’s
when I noticed the pile of books in the backseat of his car.
“Boy, you must really
have a lot of homework!”
Jamie didn’t show up at
her locker after school, so I dumped my books in the backseat of my car and
went looking for her. I figured that
the last person who saw her would be Miss Garber, although the woman could be a
little air-headed sometimes and might not have paid that close attention. When I got to the drama room though, I was
treated with an interesting surprise – Jamie, asleep all by herself on the
stage.
‘Well,’ I thought to
myself. ‘Perhaps I should wake her with
a kiss.’ I promptly snapped out of it
though. I was no Prince Charming.
She woke up as I
approached her though, so we didn’t have too much of a problem. Jamie seemed to have lost her sense of time
during that little nap, and she wondered where everyone had disappeared off to
before Miss Garber told her that school had been out for almost twenty
minutes. After a little trouble getting
up off the stage, Jamie and I were headed back home in my car. She was quiet most of the time, although she
reacted with genuine surprise when she saw the stack of books on my backseat.
“Boy, you must really
have a lot of homework!” she said to me.
I laughed, and then told
her, “Naw, I just emptied out my locker since I didn’t want to be around Dean
and his crowd anymore. Is it alright if
I share yours until I talk to Kelly about getting another one?”
She thought about it for
a little while, then replied, “Sure Landon.
I know we’re technically not supposed to share lockers buuuuut… I don’t
think you’ll steal my books or anything.”
She smiled at me and nudged my elbow a bit when she said that. “You’ll just have to promise to remember
which books are yours and which are mine, so we don’t cause any problems at the
end of the year.”
As I turned the corner,
my psych textbook flipped open and one of my worksheets fell to the floor of
the car. “Oh yeah,” she added
jokingly. “You also wouldn’t want to
forget your homework because you took one of my books by accident.”
I pulled up to the
sidewalk in front of her house. I
didn’t want to leave her yet, so I asked if I could stay and do some homework
with her.
“Landon, you know you’re
not allowed in the house without my father here.”
I had almost forgotten
that the Reverend was usually at the church in the afternoons. “Well… I can be a good boy and stay on the
porch. I won’t cause any trouble, I
promise.”
“Alright,” she said as
we both got out of the car. “You can
set your stuff down there by the swing and I’ll go inside to get us something
to drink.”
I smiled as I watched
Jamie walk into her house. Anyone
passing by probably would have wondered why Landon Carter was standing on the
local reverend’s porch beaming like an idiot, but I didn’t care. If they didn’t know by now that I was
completely in love with the Reverend’s daughter, they’d find out soon anyways.
I went inside and made a
pitcher of iced tea and put it on a tray with two glasses, then I found some
cookies and put that on there as well. As
I was walking back out to the porch I heard a voice, but I wasn’t really sure
who it was. We weren’t expecting any
company and my father wasn’t due to come home any time soon, so I was quite
curious to see who it was that decided to pay us a visit. When I looked out the screen door I noticed
Landon talking, the only thing was, no one else was out there.
“Who are you talking
to?” I looked around the porch and set
the tray down on the little table.
“Ummm…” he had this look
on his face like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “That was quick. I thought you’d take longer.”
“It’s just iced tea and
cookies,” I looked at him again and asked, “Landon? Who were you talking to?”
“Well…uh…nobody really…I
was just sort of…ummm…” he lifted his eyes and looked right at me. “I was just having a conversation.”
“I saw that. With who?”
The play was long over and as far as I knew he hadn’t taken on any other
acting roles.
“Ummm…you. See, I wanted to ask you to go out with me
on Friday night to the high school carnival, so I thought I should practice
first.” He looked like he had the first
time he asked me out, a little giddy but mostly shy.
“Oh. Good idea. So what did I say? Am I going?” I was trying not to giggle, but he was just so cute.
He rolled his eyes at me
and grinned as he took a step towards me, “I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Well I guess there’s
only one way for you to find out.” I
took a step closer to him.
“I guess so.” He took another step towards me. When we were finally within reaching
distance of each other, he put his hands on my upper arms and slowly ran them
down to capture my fingers between his own.
“Jamie, would you go out with me on Friday night to the carnival?”
“I’d love to.” Now all I had to do was ask my dad.