Beyond Borders 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4(Updated weekly!)

     So we didnt get to do the grade swap and unlike Pete, I dont feel bad about it. He wants to give it a second try but I told him that it’s too risky. Now the only burden I have is to figure out the right time to tell Louis. Honestly I dont have a clue to what his reaction will be, being that he can be unpredictable. Luckily, I cant use my phone and he’s not allowed to come inside the house to speak with me. Who knew being grounded would come in handy? There is one person I cant avoid and that’s Harry. We’ve made it all morning without mentioning the Louis mission and now here at lunch he’s still acting like his normal weird self.

“Mmmkay so how do you say, ‘I like your sandwich but mine taste better’”

“Harry when are you ever going to use that phrase? You probably havent used it in English.”

“You never know, I might meet a Spanish speaking sandwich enthusiast at a pub.”

I laugh at his ridiculous statement and simmer down to a dorky smile. My hand makes it across the table and holds his. “Te quiero mucho.” I say casually.

He bites his bottom lip. “Oooh what does that mean?”

“It means…” I lean in close “…that you’ll never meet a Spanish speaking sandwich enthusiast.” I flash him a 

sinister smile as he beamingly grins.

                                                          *

The school day passes by and as we leave our last class I manage to convince Harry to tel me study for the rest of the week without revealing the fact that I’m grounded. We hug goodbye and I walk alone to my locker. After dodging the after school rush in the hallways, I organize my books and replace some that I have in hand. While my back is turned I feel something behind me, someone’s breath touching the back of my neck.

“You didnt do it.”

I turn around and there’s Louis, his eyes narrow and his face tense. “I asked you to do one favor for me, just one, and you fuck up.”

“Louis, I’m sorry but we almost got caught and it was a really risky plan to begin with.”

He slams the locker shut and pushes me against them. His eyes burn with rage. “If it was so damn risky then how did you manage to change your marks hmmm?”

I clench my books to my chest. “How did you…”

He smirks “You really havent figured it out yet have you? Are you blind or just plain stupid?” Louis yanks the books from my hands and throws them on the floor causing an ear piercing sound.

“WHAT IS ALL THIS?!” Stacy out of nowhere appears from a classroom. She first looks at my shaky state then at Louis, who’s fumes are escaping from his ears. “Whatever is going on it must stop immediately.” she says with her feet firmly on the ground and her hands on her narrow hips.

“You stay out of this or your going down with her.”

She gasps and smooths her approach. “Now Louis I’m sure we can all sort this out…”

Louis steps closer to me, so close I can see the lines in his iris. There is no smile, no hint of the playful Louis I knew, just this beast with eyes cold as stone.

“You have been warned.” he mumbles before he walks off and leaves both Stacy and I too frightened to move or even to speak.

                                          *

We arrive at Louis’ house and unlike last time, one ring of the doorbell does the trick. A petite woman with brown hair opens the door, his mom I’m assuming.

“Hello, I’m Peter and this is Jaime, we are looking for Louis is he home?”

She smiles. “Of course! Come in, come in.”

                We step inside and instantly the smell of baking goods caresses our senses. As we walk further I notice an all too familiar scenery, balloons, colorful decorations and as we get to the kitchen, a giant streamer with ‘Congratulations’ printed on it is hanging from the ceiling. Louis sits at the kitchen table with a little girl on his lap, they’re coloring. He looks up and gives us the fakest smile I have ever seen.

“Hey you two!” he says with a cheerful tone.

We return his greeting with a limpy wave.

“I’m sorry for all this mess. Louis’ party has to be completely perfect tomorrow that I haven’t had a chance to clean.” Louis’ mom stands behind his chair and hugs him from the neck. “I just cant stop telling you how proud I am of you. You’ve come so far and to be the first to go to uni?” She hugs him tighter. “You’ve proven everyone wrong.”

Louis pats her arm and grins. “I’m glad you’re happy.”

“Course I’m happy! Look how much you’ve accomplished this year: editor of the school paper, the head’s assistant, you were in the school choir and so many other things you weren’t doing last year.”

                Water boiling from a pot starts oozing out the sides and the sizzle alarms her. She leaves the table to take care of it.

“Daisy,” Louis says to the little girl. “Can you finish this page by yourself? I have to talk to my friends.” He slides out of the chair and sets her in his place. Louis signals us to come outside and we follow. Once Pete shuts the glass door behind us, Louis’ act vanishes and reality kicks in.

“You shouldn’t have come here.” He says with his arms crossed across his chest.

“You lied to your mom? That’s sick how you have her baking a cake and praising you for all your lies.” I put my hands on my hips. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Whoa there Jaime, we didn’t come here for that.” Pete takes a step closer to Louis. “We want to help you and sort all this out. I’ll sneak in tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow? Tomorrow is too late!” He bellows “The scores are properly documented tomorrow. Once they are printed on paper, there is no way to change them. There is no way you can help.”

Pete retreats next to me, at lost for words. Louis’ eyes soften, almost as if he’s about to cry.

“Louis we’re sorry. We’re your friends and we are just trying to help you. I know it doesn’t sound promising but there is always next year…”

Just when I thought we were making progress to putting this behind us, Louis throws his head back and cackles . “You are not my friends. I was never your friend.” He taps his forehead with his finger. “Think Jaime, I was using you. Don’t you see? Everything I did for you was to get here but obviously you’re not as smart as your records say you are. You’re just another American twat.”

My senses take over and my body violent rushes toward him as he finishes speaking. Pete grabs my arm and pulls me back.

“Are you sure you want to do that in front of my baby sisters?” He points to the upstairs window where two little girls have their faces pushed against it, watching us like hawks.  I shake Pete off me. “Same old Jaime, always doing what you are told.”

That’s it, I cant handle his sneering eyes and vicious smiles. My fist clenches into a ball and I swing it across his face. The impact and the pain that came with it immediately radiates through my wrist and shoulder. Louis yells out in pain and struggles to keep his balance. The girls from above are yelling and banging against the window. Pete is standing there clenching his hair, jaw dropped and speechless. My body still has all control of me; the adrenaline still flows heavily through my veins. I jump the wooded fence and set off running down the street; running as far as my legs could take me. Unfortunately I only make it down the block before my legs start to cramp up and I stop at the end of the street to take a breath.

“Jaimeee!”

I turn around to see Pete running to my location. His ivory tone face is now pinkish red, either from the run or the cold. Before he starts talking he bends over and puts his hands on his knees.  A few seconds later he wheezes out a couple of words. “You. Are. Insane!”

My mind reboots and my actions are followed with thoughts. I just punched Louis in the face. Right in the face! Which hurt like hell too. I inspect my hand and yes there is damage. My knuckles are bright red, oozing with blood. I try to close my hand but it feels like I’m scrapping it on concrete.

“You alright there mate?” Pete asks, now full of breath.

“Looks like I won’t be writing any time soon.”

I don’t know if it’s hysteria or this situation is really that comical but Pete starts to laugh. He tries to suppress it but bursts in high pitch laughter. Like a contagious plague, it catches on and I too fall into uncontrollable, unexplainable merriment. Like two madmen, we laugh and continue our journey home.

                            *

We stop right before the corner to turn to finally arrive home. The problem is that a walk that should have taken only twenty minutes turned to an hour. The sun has now set which means that Mrs. Alcott probably called us down for dinner and found out that we weren’t home.

“I’ll just tell her that I convinced you to go. She’ll have to let it slide.”

I shrug with disbelief. “Well that’s only excuse we have. Why not?”

                We take a deep breath and exhale as we approach the corner. Still in sync, we turn and as soon as our faces directly point down the street, our eyes bulge at the sight of flashing red and blue lights outside of Pete’s house. He called the cops. That little bitch called the cops!

“Oh we are so screwed. My parents are going to kill me!” Pete whimpers. “I’m going to jail before I even get my driver’s license. What if I get raped?!”

“Pete snap out of it! I’m the one who hit Louis remember? We have to go in; it does no good running away. Just stay calm.” 

                As we walk towards the house, I’m not going to lie, I’m scared shitless. What kind of charges are there in England for hitting someone? God why did I hit him?

                Surprisingly, the front door is open, which is unusual for the Alcott’s; second thing I notice is the eerie abstinence of noise; as soon as Pete closes the door behind us that all changes. Mrs. Alcott is the first one to appear from the living room. Her eyes and nose are scrunched up; she comes charging toward us with a stern finger in front of her.

“Where have you been young lady?! You have loads of explaining to do and not only to me either.”

Two cops show up behind her along with Mr. Alcott. The cop with a thick mustache takes out a notepad. “You must be Jaime”

I nod.

“We received a phone call informing us that you have stolen six hundred quid worth of clothing.”

“Clothes? Is this what this is about?”

“What else would it be?” barks Mrs. Alcott

As discretely as possible, I move my injured hand to my back.

“Jaime, did you steal the clothes or not.” Says the cop.

“Officer I honestly do not have any idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t been shopping since…” my voice turns into a whisper. “…the holiday trip.”

 I push everyone aside and run upstairs to my room. The officers probably thinking I’m running away chase after me. Once at my room, I open the wardrobe and pull the TopShop bags filled with unused clothes out from the corner.

Louis stole these. Louis called the police and put the blame on me!

  Everyone tries to squeeze inside the room at the same time.

“Officer this is what you’re looking for but I swear I didn’t steal them!”

They give me a look or disbelief. “If you didn’t steal them, then you must have the receipt.”

This is my chance, I can get back at Louis but if I tell them would they believe me? My hand starts to sting a little. Even if they did, Louis would tell them I punched him and he surely has proof of that.

“Well” says the officer impatiently.

“I didn’t steal them okay. A…” I cringe “…friend brought them to me one day as a gift. I didn’t know any of it was stolen.”

“And who was this friend?” the officer takes out his notepad again.

“That’s not important.”

“Not important?! Do you realize a theft has been committed?”

“They’re just clothes!” I reach in the bag and grab a handful. “Take them! They’re all unused. The ones I have worn I’ll pay for but please just let this go.” I clasp my hands together and plead the officers to sympathy.

The look at each other and take a while to decide. Finally they answer my plea. “We’ll take the bags as long as you pay what you said you would pay PLUS a fine of 200 quid, Is that clear?”

I salute him. “Yes sir.”

They approach the bags and each take three in hand. Slowly they exit the room and soon the house. A giant relief sweeps over me but the look on Mrs. Alcott’s face is still in need of information.

“You sneak out to do who knows what. You injure your hand and you steal clothes.”

“I didn’t…”

She lifts a finger and stops me from retaliating. “There is too much going on here that you’re not telling me. I need answers now!”

“MUM!” Pete jumps in “Can we talk about this tomorrow? It’s been a long night don’t you think?”

She glares at him “Don’t think I’m only referring to her behavior. I’ve received several phone calls about you missing classes and not turning in course work.” She stares us down then walks out of the room.

Before exiting Mr. Alcott turns around “We’ll discuss this in the morning.” He weakly smiles and shuts the door.

I wait until their footsteps can no longer be heard, then collapse on my bed. What. A. Shit. Day.

Pete slaps the light switch off and joins me on the bed. The only light shining through is the bright moonlight from a crack in the curtains and the only sounds are the whispers from downstairs. 

———————————————————————————

The next morning Pete lightly taps me on the shoulder. Slowly my eyes open and instead of seeing a sunlit room, the room is still dark. The glowing red numbers on the digital clock read 5:30am, two hours before our initial wake up time. He taps me again, only harder this time.

“So you really want to be here when my parents wake up?” he whispers.

My eyes shoot open.

“Yeah didn’t think so.”

Quickly I unwrap myself from the comfort of my bed and spring into my morning routine. Pete and I slept in our uniforms so a quick brushing of the teeth and hair, then as quietly as mice, we exit the house. Outside, the sky is a light lavender, the streetlights are slightly dim and the cool morning has fogged up the windshields of all the cars on the road. It isn’t until we leave our street that we start talking.

“So last night while in bed,” Pete begins “I was thinking about what Louis’ mom was rambling about, you know about all of his ‘achievements’.”

I nod for him to continue.

“Last year, if I remember correctly, Carrie was first in line to be editor for this year and yet Louis is editor. AND” he lifts a finger “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before but to be in the school choir you have to audition. It was a one day only audition and Louis wasn’t there!”

I rub my chin in thought. “His mom also said something about being an assistant?”

Pete snaps his fingers “Yeah! The head’s assistant!”

“Okay so how does one gain such a position? The principal would have to trust you a lot or know you personally.”

“Last time I heard it was through teacher recommenDATION!” 

We look at each other simultaneously when the answer hits us, our mouths open yet smiling at the same time. The excitement of our discover overwhelms us and out of nowhere we slap high five. Stacy! Stacy helped Louis get the position! Pete lets out a dorky laugh and I stop him from getting too eager.

“This is great and all but all we’ve done is confirmed that Louis is a scheming son of a bitch. What good does that do us?”

Pete gives me a puzzled look “I thought you wanted to get back at him?

I lift up my right hand. The blood around the wounds is crusty and scabby. “I kinda already did that.”

                There’s no need to stoop down to Louis level, my violent act was uncalled for and I do feel bad about it, but hopefully if I don’t do anything else, he will stop as well.