Paranormalists Chapter 1

So, here's the deal: I've been working on this idea since...5th grade? And it's been evolving and changing since then. This is the latest draft...so, have at it! I'll post the second chapter...whenever I can find a jump drive to move it to the computer with internet.

Chapter 1

Jennifer Brown washed fecal matter off of her hands, dried them on her pants and patted one of her six dogs on the head. She slid the garage door closed after turning the heater on, took a deep breath and pulled the collar of her parka up around her ears and began to walk up the crunched down snow path to her house. Following behind her was the dog, as well as a girl who was slightly taller then her with a very shapely figure and long hair the same exact tone as her skin. Jenni’s sister Jiya was not the exact kind of girl you would expect to work at an animal rescue. In truth, Jiya was the co-founder. The rescue had been set up two years earlier when Jenni began to notice an influx of cats being abandoned on the road leading to her house and began to take the animals in. Soon people came from all over bringing their once faithful family pets because they didn’t think the animal needed to go to the pound just because it bit the face off of one six year old, or something.

Jenni was very good with the animals, she knew damn well she liked them better then she did people. She was good with people too, though, being president of every school club and in line for valedictorian. Being a leader just came naturally Jenni, but in all truth she much preferred to work alone. If she couldn’t be in charge, screw everybody. She had very little patience for anybody who felt it necessary to act like they had the IQ of a retarded rat. One of those people just happened to be somebody she had to associate with on a daily basis, the lab partner that the horrid “Random Draw to Promote Social Interaction” system had stuck her with since tenth grade. She had been hoping and praying that her partner would fail all three of their science course so Jenni would not have to tolerate her. By some weird twist of fate, Suzanne passed with flying colors.

Jiya slipped her rubber boots off as soon as she hit the deck and she turned to look at Jenni. Jenni never could figure out why her sister did her make up on the weekends, but sure as the sky was blue Jiya had foundation, lip gloss and mascara on. Jenni didn’t even wear make up to school. The extent of styling her hair was pulling all of the frizz into two ponytails and strapping them down. Jiya was really insanely pretty. Some days it made Jenni jealous, but Jenni didn’t need to be really insanely pretty. Really insanely pretty girls didn’t get taken seriously in modern society, so Jenni would just stick to being really insanely plain.

“So, Jenn, looking forward to that practical?” Jiya giggled, and Jenni threw a chunk of (mud?) at her sister. “You get to spend an hour and a half in the chem lab with Suzanne Goodfred pulling at your hair and commenting on how good it would look if you straightened it, or if you wore this shade of eyeliner it would like so totally bring out your eyes, like oh my god.” She said ‘god’ like ‘gawd’, and made Jenni frown.

“I don’t want to go there. Some days I just want to kill that girl.”

“But her brother’s hot.” Brandon Goodfred was the school’s golden boy when it came to athletics. There were rumors from envious competitors that he used steroids, but Jenni had a hunch that he was quite the opposite of his sister. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he always knew who you were, or that you never saw him text messaging torrid gossip in the middle of a midterm. Or maybe it just had to do with the fact that Jenni hated Suzanne so much she was desperate to find one good seed in that family.

“Who, Donny? Yeah, he has a nice body but he has that weird cut by his mouth.” Jenni slipped her slippers on and walked into the living room, where her father was taking a nap in his wheelchair. He was a sad sight to see. A former police officer, Mark Brown was being stricken down by ALS and it was taking him fast. It had only been a year ago that he had been diagnosed, and he was almost completely paralyzed and bedridden most of the time. It hurt Jenni’s heart to look at him. She knew it was wrong to think it, but sometimes she wished that her dad died in his sleep so he would have to go through anymore. She kissed his forehead as she walked past, causing a weak smile to tug at the sides of his cheeks.

“Christine! Chuck!” Jenni called as she took a can of Campbell’s out of the pantry and set it on the counter. “Can you make Dad some soup? I need to get an essay finished.” Two identical ten year olds came around the corner, the only difference being the lengths of their hair. Chuck was the boy; his hair was trimmed nice and neat. Christine wore hers in braids. Chuck glanced at Christine and ducked down to get a pot out while Christine opened the can and Jenni slipped out of the kitchen and into the room she shared with Jiya and Christine. There were five kids in the brown family, Jiya being the oldest at 21, then Jenni at 17, the twins at 10 and Maxxy at 3 and a half. Her mom was working full time at a law office since her dad got sick, leaving Jenni and Jiya to look after the younger ones most of the time.

The only personal property Jenni really had was a little laptop that she had busted her bank on. She sat on her little single bed and opened the screen, and stretched her fingers. The essay was supposed to be on a novel that they had just read in English 30, but Jenni had much better plans. Yes, she would focus her essay on the novel superficially, but the underlying tones would definitely be about something else. Kind of like a well written rock song, get everybody thinking it’s about sex, drugs and rock and roll until they analyze the lyrics and what do you know there’s a message about suicide, or teen violence, or ending the wars in the Middle East. Jenni liked to fight for what was right, she just wasn’t as literal about it as other people. Other people like Georgina Riley.

Sometimes when Jenni thought about George it made her laugh. The girl was about five feet four and weighed around 112 pounds. She wasn’t very big, but her mouth made up for it. If there was ever a cause, George would fight for it. Her most memorable protest was when she used duct tape and wire to hold herself in front of the cafeteria door to prevent them from cutting the vegetarian options because of budget cuts. She was on the wall for two days before the school board ended the motion. When asked about it later, George was quoted as saying, “Me? Oh, no. I’m no vegetarian. Honestly, I think the pussies should grow some frickin’ balls and eat some goddamn steak before they die from vitamin deficiencies.” Nobody knew much about what George herself believed in, just that she liked to stand up for everybody else.

She had only had two paragraphs to do, the intro and the conclusion. Teachers generally frowned on her method of doing it, her snooty grade 10 English teacher stating, “Jennifer, you must do your introduction first. It is the only coh-rrect method of doing so.” Jenni almost told that teacher where she could stick it, but figured it would be impolite to do so. Jenni had been raised to be courteous, even to know it all bitches of teachers. That was an actual quote from her Dad.

After she had finished typing it, Jenni threw all of her books into her bag, loaded the essay onto a jump drive and looked at the clock. It was almost eight o’clock. Getting up early had always been part of the Brown life, Jenni had been an early riser since about third grade. Now with the Rescue, Jenni and Jiya were up around four to feed the animals, clean their cages every Tuesday and Thursday, exercise the dogs, pet and play with the animals and then catch up on any homework while looking after their Dad and Maxxy. Jiya didn’t have a license, so that left Jenni as the person who ran the carpool (she made Chuck and Christine take the bus in the afternoon...).

The Brown Family minivan was an old Ford Windstar with two bucket seats and a bench in the back, Jenni climbed into the driver’s, Jiya into the passenger, and the twins buckled Maxxy into his car seat and adjusted his little cowboy hat that sat on his head. Grandpa Brown had grown in a white, suburban world, and had grown up watching Westerns. When little Max had been born, Grandpa had declared that he was going to make Maxxy the black John Wayne if it killed him. The entire family had to admit that Max running around with a little pistol and chaps and boots going, “Bang bang!” at everything was perfectly adorable.

“Jenn, Chuck won’t give me back my purse.” Christine whined from the back seat.

“I don’t see why she needs to carry that stupid bag around. It’s not even a purse! It’s a cloth grocery bag.”

“Chuck, give Christine her purse back. Christine, it’s not a purse. It’s a grocery bag.”

“Bang bang!”

And so went the trip. First they went to the playschool, giving a screaming Max to the frazzled daycare lady who in one meeting in which Jenni and Jiya went with their mom referred to Max as “Hell unleashed in an unbridled fury that just happens to carry a western pistol.” Jenni couldn’t see it, Max was always very sweet and calm at home. They then went to the junior high and Chuck and Christine vacated to their respective cliques. Jiya also got out at the middle school; she walked the rest of the way to work so she could burn any excess calories. Finally, Jenni got to school.

Parking the van in the furthest spot from the school (a habit obtained from her mother), she pushed her hair over her shoulders and smoothed a wrinkle in her oversized hoodie. A girl stood a few feet from her with a somewhat sour look on her face, and Jenni frowned. “Hello, Gina.”

Gina Riley was George Riley’s cousin. They lived together since George’s parents had died, and Gina was usually a pretty mellow person. That day, she did not look mellow. “Jennifer, I have an issue. You organized the spring carnival, right?”

“Yes, Gina.” Jenni did not have a very high tolerance for Gina. Although mellow, Gina had her obsessive traits. Jenni described her as the type of person who didn’t vote but still complained about the government.

“Where do you get off having a booth about HIV/AIDS?” Gina was walking at a fast pace to keep up with Jenni, who was trying to evade her. “Nobody at our school should have to worry about that.”

“How do you know that? Anybody can get HIV.”

Gina wrinkled her nose and pushed her brown hair out of her eyes. She always looked so dirty; she didn’t brush her hair and always had a rim of acne around her face. “I’m pretty sure nobody in our school is gay or a heroin addict.”

“That has to be the least sensitive comment I have ever heard. Statistics show that two people in our graduating class will be gay, and straight, non-drug addicts get it too.”

“Since when?”

“Since always. Now, go away, Gina.” Jenni opened the front doors of the school and slammed them behind her, taking a deep, calming breath as she did. Sometimes the people at her school made her angry. There really was nothing she hated more then pure stupidity. She wandered to her locker, got her books and began to wandered into Chem class.

Before she opened the door, an elderly man approached her. He was dressed in grey scrubs and was pushing a janitorial cart, something that seemed interesting to Jenni. She hadn't been aware that they had hired a new janitor. "Difficulties, Miss Brown?" At first she tried to figure out how he knew her name, but once she glanced at the Student of the Week poster next to the Chem door, she figured it out.

"Oh, no, I just have a final today." She said, going to open the door.

"Well, consider it practise for what's to come." He smiled knowingly, before walking off down the hallway.

"Okay, then..." Jenni muttered, before actually entering the classroom.

Donny Goodfred was already in the class, with his buddy Mark Grogan. It generally made Jenni giggle whenever Donny referred to Mark as his “buddy,” she was well aware of the old saying, “Pals are pals and friends are friends but buddies sleep together”. Mark looked very pale next to Donny, as always. Donny had his short reddish blonde hair spiked a little bit, his standard grin across his face. A little scar next to his mouth made his grin look a little funny, but some people said it added character. Donny was tall and muscular, compared to Mark, who was short and wiry. It was almost your standard hero/sidekick relationship, except for the fact that both of them were good guys and Mark was the cool, funny popular guy.

“Hey, Jenn,” Donny called, and Mark punched him in the shoulder kind of jokingly. “Did you see Gina? She said she was looking for you.”

“Oh, yeah. I saw Gina.” Jenni said sort of bitterly, setting her stuff by hers and Suzanne’s station, before wandering towards the boys. “She was bitching me out because of the HIV/AIDS booth for the carnival.”

“Okay, then. What was her issue? Handing out condoms?” Mark asked, and Jenni shook her head.

“No, it has to do with the fact that there are no gay people or heroin users in our school.”

“That’s slightly insensitive.” Donny said bluntly. “Have you noticed she’s been getting really bitchy lately?”

“Dude, maybe she’s on the rag.” The boys both thought Mark’s comment was hilarious and started laughing, but Jenni frowned. “Aw, come on, Jenn. I’m only joshing.” She shook her head a little bit and laughed slightly, as more people began to enter the class. One of the people who entered was Suzanne, who said goodbye to her lackeys and walked over to Mark. Jenni frowned. It was a regular show, Suzanne in her tiny brand name hoodie, skinny jeans and flats would lead him along like a dog on a string and then if he ever did ask her to be his girlfriend would reject him quick. Oh, how Jenni hated people like that.

Suzanne came and stood next to Jenni at their station, putting on her fake smile. “Oh my God, Jenni, I saw the perfect hair cut for you yesterday.” She took one of Jenni’s curls on her finger and inspected it. “See, it was in a shag cut with beautiful copper highlights…like have you seen X-Men 3?”

“I don’t much watch movies.”

“Oh, well, it was like Halle Berry’s hair only not white and black, like dark brown and copper.” Suzanne was so clichéd it made Jenni sick. She had her designer hand bag and designer clothes, her hair always done perfectly (usually pin straight and of course it was bleach-blonde…) and Jenni bet that if dogs were allowed on school grounds Suzanne would have a purse dog. She just didn’t get it…Brandon was so extremely normal in comparison to his sister. “So, ready for the big practical?”

“Let’s just get it over with.” Jenni mumbled. The teacher was still out in the staff room or wherever, there were only four people in the room. It was kind of odd; normally George Riley was there by then. “Do you know where George is?” She asked anybody.

“Last I heard she was camped out in front of the old theatre.” Mark pointed out, flipping a coin up into the air. “That one I can understand.”

“What’s up?” Suzanne asked.

“They’re closing it down because of lack of funding.” Donny said, with a scowl.

“Really? That’s pretty dumb.” Suzanne said in her standard airy way before continuing. “What do you think Lizzie Mannings would have said?”

“I dunno.” Jenni and Mark looked over at each other. It was a regular occurrence for them when they’d talk about something, the Goodfreds would reference somebody they once knew in Hawaii and the other two would be completely lost. “I don’t think she’d be impressed.”

“Who’s Lizzie Mannings?” Jenni asked.

“She was this girl who went to school with us in Honolulu. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at—six, was it?” Suzanne asked Donny, who nodded. “Yeah, well, before she died at like eight she was crazy insane with all performing arts stuff. Like this one time they tried to cut all the drama and music programs from local schools for funding and her and my mum—” Donny coughed and Suzanne stopped talking. “So, yeah.”