Just Not Sure - Chapter 7

Jenna, I think you’re going to need these." Courtney laughed as she handed Jenna the crutches.

"Arghh! I guess I’m not going to be dancing for a while, huh." Jenna moaned, realizing that she couldn’t even walk without the help of her crutches. Because of the knee fracture, she had a cast that went all the way up past her knee. She also had a white bandage that was almost completely hidden by her bangs.

It was Thursday afternoon, and Jenna was finally being released. Chris’ body temperature finally returned to normal late Tuesday night, and they had both been kept overnight, to be on the safe side. The sky was a beautiful azure, and despite the snow on the ground, the weather was warm. The sun shined brightly and Jesse shielded his eyes to find the Trousdale’s car. Chris’ mom had driven up yesterday, and came today to pick them up, bringing along Courtney and Jesse. Everyone else was back at the Taylor cabin, anticipating their return. They had spent all Wednesday night packing, and planned on leaving Thursday evening. That was so the girls could return for school on Friday and get the work they had missed over the beginning of the week. Schoolwork really wasn’t a worry for the guys; they had tutors that could catch them up in no time.

"There she is." Chris spotted his mom’s car, and pointed to it. They all walked towards it, except Jenna, who was kind of hobbling along, still trying to get used to the crutches.

"I don’t want to leave." Jenna said.

"I would think after one night here, you would want to leave!" Jesse said, confused at why Jenna wouldn’t want to leave the hospital.

"No, she means Pennsylvania, Jesse, that was a very blonde thing to say," Courtney said laughing.

"HEY! You’re blonde too! You are the last one who should be making fun of me!" He said defending himself, as everybody burst out laughing.

"I’m really gonna miss you." Courtney said as Jesse slipped his hands into hers. She looked at the ground, and then up at him.

"We can still talk on the phone and online. Plus, we have to do the city thing, remember?" Jesse reassured her. "And when the tour ends, we’re gonna be recording the new CD, which means I’ll be in New York City most of the time."

"Yeah."

Chris and Jenna were discussing the same thing. They had already promised to call, and e-mail each other regularly, and were just trying to enjoy the time they had together now.

Before anyone knew it, they were back at the Taylor’s cabin, getting ready to leave. The Ballingers and McCartneys, as well as Greg and Matt, already packed all of the luggage into the cars, and were ready to go. Everyone was going to leave together, planning to drive in a procession and stop for dinner at the same rest stop.

"All right, guys, you have about two hours until we have to leave. Please eat something in that time span. And don’t go outside; it’s too cold out." Mrs. Miller instructed them.

Greg got up and walked over to the refrigerator. "Guys, we have like no food. English muffins, cold cuts, and peanut butter. That’s it. Oh, and some fruit."

"Peanut Butter!" Jenna and Courtney decided in unison.

"Just peanut butter?" Matt asked, skeptical.

"I swear, you guys are the oddest people I’ve ever met." Chris laughed. "Why would you ever want to eat a spoonful of peanut butter for lunch?"

"Wait a minute… I have an idea… let’s have peanut butter for lunch!" Jesse called out excitedly.

"BLONDE!" Matt exclaimed, "You give blondes a bad name!"

"And that’s insulting coming from another blonde!" Kristin added

"Because we want to." Courtney shrugged still thinking about Chris’ question and totally ignoring the whole conversation.

"WHAT?!?" Frankie asked confused about what Courtney was talking about. "You want to what?"

"Eat peanut butter, duh!" A ditsy Courtney said.

"OH! Look who’s the blonde NOW!" Jesse yelled in Courtney’s face.

"Whatever! The point is I’m having peanut butter for lunch!" She stated.

"We eat what we like!" Jenna shouted, imitating the AppleJacks commercial, causing the debate to end in laughter.

"Fine. If it really makes you happy, eat the peanut butter." Kristin said. "I, on the other hand, am going to act like a normal person and eat a normal ham sandwich."

As everyone sat at the table, eating their lunches, Frankie sighed. "This is the life. Sitting here, eating lunch with my best friends---and girlfriend. No worries, no responsibilities, nothing. I wish we could stay forever."

"That would be awesome." Kristin said with a depressed look on her face.

"But we can’t" Matt interrupted, getting up from the table. "Who wants to play pool?"

It was an unanimous vote, and they all went down to the basement (Jenna got some help) to the pool table the Taylors had recently brought up from their Long Island home.

It was 5:30 and the group was at the rest stop, which contained an assortment of different fast food restaurants, good for everyone. They had pushed together 12 tables into 2, making one big table for the parents and one for the kids. 21 people seemed to draw a lot of attention, and before long, the members of Dream Street were being recognized. A couple of fans even approached the table to ask for an autograph. When asked who the girls were, they simply replied "cousins". They finished eating and the eight went outside for one last walk.

"So I guess this is gonna be it for a while." Courtney stated quietly.

"You know you can’t tell anyone about us." Matt told Courtney, Jenna, and Kristin, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, I guess. Why not though?" Jenna asked, not understanding.

"If anyone found out who our girlfriends were, people would be following us, and you, it would just be a nightmare." Frankie explained to the girls, his hand around Kristin’s shoulder.

"And we don’t want our girls getting stalked by killer teenyboppers." Jesse joked, casually slipping his hand in Courtney’s.

"Why are you so quiet tonight?" Frankie asked Kristin, who had barely spoken more than a sentence all night.

"I don’t know. Maybe because I’m going to miss you. I mean, we have no idea when we’re going to see each other again." Kristin said with a look of apprehension.

"Don’t worry." Frankie assured her. "We still have a couple of weeks ‘till the tour. You guys could all come out to the city one weekend, or we could go to Long Island.

"Plus we have to go out to dinner!" Greg reminded them all, not wanting them to forget about introducing him to Amanda.

"Oh yeah!" Matt exclaimed, anxious to see Katy again. "Why don’t we do it next Friday; I think we’re all free." He said, referring to the guys.

"I think we should be good too; we just have to check with Katy and Amanda." Courtney said.

"Good." Chris joked. "Now we only have one more week of Greg complaining about not having a girl."

"Chris!" Jenna hissed, trying to quiet Chris. "You don’t know if it’s gonna work out!"

"Hey!" Greg said, obviously hearing Jenna’s comment. "ALL the ladies love me." He said with a tone of confidence in his voice. The girls shared amused glances before bursting into laugher. "What? What are you laughing at?"

"Yeah Greg. ALL the ladies love you." Jenna said between laughter.

"Hey! What about me?" Chris whined, not wanting to be left out.

"Don’t worry Chris, the ladies love you too. Especially me." She grinned coyly, her eyes sparkling. Chris smiled too, and blushed when everyone else chorused one big "Aww!"

They all watched with dread as the parents approached. That could only mean one thing; it was time to leave.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now." Jenna sighed.

"We’re gonna see you on Friday!" Matt exclaimed in frustration, not understanding why the girls were making such a big deal out of this. And he knew it would only be a matter of hours before Courtney, Kristin, or Jenna would pick up the phone and call Jesse, Frankie, or Chris. If he know girls at all, that would be something he was sure of, especially if they were anything like their friend Katy. He laughed to himself. So far, Katy had called him twice today, and she’d been out of school for two hours. He could tell she would be impatient for next Friday to come; she seemed to miss him a lot. It was hard on the two of them; they barely got to see each other with Katy on Long Island and him in Westchester.

Everybody went around hugging each other and commenting on how much fun they had had. As Kristin finished up her good byes, she turned to Frankie, a solitary tear trickling down her cheek. "Be strong." Frankie whispered as they tightly hugged. Kristin rested her head on Frankie’s shoulder and whispered back to him, "I will. This is going to be tougher than I thought. Too many good byes."

"Yeah, but we’ll make it through. When I get my license I’ll be able to drive out to LI on weekends and stuff, and as for the tour… There’s always the Internet and phone!" Frankie laughed.

"Time to go," Jenna said to Frankie and Kristin. " We’ll meet you at the car."

"I guess this is it," Frankie said, " I love you."

"I love you too." Kristin said back to him. They shared one last kiss and let go of each other’s hands. They looked into each others eyes and Kristin turned and walked to the car without looking back.