Jacklyn Baker (called_jack) wrote in the_colony, @ 2009-12-02 00:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 00, jacklyn baker, john james searle |
Characters: Jack Baker, John Searle.
Location: Local pool
Summary: Another 'Jack's a girl' revelation, this time to Searle's complete awkwardness.
Rating:G
Since meeting Jack for the first time at the Meadows Mall, they had met up a few more times to get a feel for each other, and pretty soon found out they both had some things in common. Searle was glad for the human interaction, and he always looked forward the next time he would he able to meet with Jack - who Searle thought was a ten or eleven-year-old boy.
That particular day was one the two of them had decided to go out for a joyride on the dirt bike Searle found coming into Las Vegas. Since Searle had moved from a local grocery store into the mattress store at the mall (to sleep), he only had to wander around his new home to get a helmet he thought would fit Jack, and he brought that with him to their meeting place, insisting she wear it in case anything happened her first time riding. Searle himself had taken a few spills in the beginning, but nothing too bad. He'd gone fastest off road, so at least when he'd fallen it had been in dirt instead of on concrete.
They spent hours riding around, taking turns sitting on the bike alone and sometimes actually riding together both on road and off. They started off-road for obvious reasons, being that Searle didn't want Jack to get herself killed. For a teenager, he worried more than average about safety issues most likely, but that had to do with his father being a stickler for safety regulations when it came to his company's work and definitely when it came to his only child working with him. It made Searle aware of dangers that could happen, and being that it seemed most of the world's human population had died out ... there was no one to help Jack if she did get too hurt for Searle to help her in any significant way.
But that didn't stop them from getting dirty. Part of the fun of riding on the dry dirt out west was the dust it kicked up. After they road out of their last dust cloud, Searle was both coughing and laughing. "We're gonna have to find you your own bike. You're good!"
Searle had tought Jack how to drive the dirtbike, lessons she attended with enthusiasm. It made her feel big, being able to drive something. Invulnerable. She liked feeling like she was in control of something for once. Plus, it went really fast. "I want one so bad. That might even be better than skateboarding." Finding her own bike meant hiding it from Jed, though. Jack was still keeping Jed and Searle secret from each other, for no other reason than she wanted to. Beyond that, Jack didn't know if she could explain why she didn't just tell one about the other. It was just something she was doing. She did know that she liked spending time with Searle and didn't want to stop. "Too bad you suck at skateboarding."
"I do not!" Searle protested, but he had to smile a little despite wanting to defend his honor and skill. Standing on the skateboard and rolling several feet had been relatively simple, but once Jack attempted to teach him anything more difficult he had pretty much looked clumsy and unskilled. In other words, he'd sucked. "You can't expect me to be a skateboarding expert already, I hadn't been on one for a long time."
After looking down at himself, Searle noticed how dusty and dirty he was, and glancing over his shoulder he could see Jack was in the same shape. "Hang on, I'm gonna drive us somewhere." Once Jack prepared to move again, Searle lifted his feet and began driving toward the street. While he didn't know his way around flawlessly yet, he drove past a public pool most days when he'd go back and forth from the mall to the grocery store, so he knew where it was well. Considering there was no one else on the road and they were relatively close anyway, the trip took about ten minutes before he was parking his bike in front of a fence that surrounded the pool area in the park.
"I wonder how gross it is in there," he said, looking toward the pool (visible through the fence), then turned his head to grin at Jack. The pool being gross, to him at least, was kind of a good thing. It would be interesting.
Jack decided to get a dirtbike of her own so she wouldn't have to ride behind Searle anymore. It was weird to be pressed against him like that. She climbed off the bike eagerly and pulled off her helmet. There wasn't any reason for the two of them to be at a pool as far she could tell. Sure, they were both covered in dirt and dust, but that was nothing a shower wouldn't fix. "Really gross. It's probably green."
"I wonder what would happen if we swam in it." At this point he was only joking, but that didn't stop Searle from leaving the bike and finding the latch on the fence to let them both through, heading over to the side of the pool. Some of the water had evaporated so it was lower than it should have been, but the deep end still had several feet in it. The color of the water wasn't too welcoming either, as Jack had guessed.
After looking down at the water for a few moments, Searle looked over at Jack. "Let's get in." There was a mischievous smile on his face. This was something they definitely wouldn't have been able to do if the world hadn't more or less ended for humankind. They should probably make the most of it.
Jack grinned back at him and shook her head. "No way I'm getting in there."
"Come on, nothing in there can hurt you." Searle began to toe off his shoes, and hopped a few times as he pulled his socks off while standing up. The cement was cracked beneath his feet and felt gritty. "The last one in there's gonna be the chicken." For effect, Searle bent his arms like chicken wings and bawked at Jack. Their semi-rivalry was fun for him.
Jack pulled a face at Searle, pulling her lip up in a playful sneer. "Bawk bawk nothing." She pointed at the water. "I'm still not getting in there." The water was gross and it wasn't like she could just take her shirt off and jump in anyways.
Searle sighed, pretending to be defeated by Jack's rejection, his hands moving to the bottom hem of his shirt. But he quickly abandoned pulling it over his head in favor of darting in Jack's direction, grabbing her arm so he could pull her toward the pool's edge. "Just say you are or I'm gonna throw you in in your clothes!" he said, laughing.
"No!" Jack planted her feet and pulled against him. Stupid Searle being bigger and older than she was. "No, Searle!"
At that point Searle couldn't contain his laughter, though he wasn't laughing hard enough to weaken his pull on Jack. Since she was so small it was easy to overpower her, and his arm hooked around her waist as he picked her clear off the ground, hurried over to the deep end of the pool and tossed her right in. When Jack surfaced, Searle would still be laughing, and he'd ask "Is it slimy in there?" with a big grin on his face.
Jack yelled until she hit the water, landing with an awkward splash. She emerged, sputtering and spitting out water from her mouth. Instead of answering Searle, she glared. Treading water was difficult in her sneakers so she climbed out of the pool, her baggy T-shirt now clinging to her. "You suck so much."
At first, Jack climbing out of the pool, soaking wet in her street clothes was even funnier than pushing her in, but when she straightened up her t-shirt clung to her in a very peculiar way for a ten year old boy. Searle's laughter died, and he still held his stomach (because it ached from laughing so hard), but his expression was one of confusion instead of mirth. "... Jack is a boy's name, right?"
There had to be a better way to do this. She knew she didn't want to be Jacklyn but she didn't know how many more of these stupid awkward conversations she could have. Jack's scowl deeped and she crossed her arms over her chest. Necessity had forced her to add a sports bra to her wardrobe and that, combined with her baggy clothing, was enough to hide what very little she had from view. But not when she was wet. Jack could see the outline of her bra beneath her shirt and that was deathly embarrassing in front of Searle. "Jack's my name."
Jack wasn't the only one who was embarrassed. As the situation hit him full force, color rose up in Searle's cheeks as he realized who he was dealing with. A young girl, not a little boy. The sports bra he could clearly see outlined said as much. And though Searle knew it wasn't exactly a big deal, and it didn't make him think any less of Jack (differently, yes, that was inevitable), but it was pretty lame to mistake someone's sex.
"Uhm," he stammered, trying to get over the awkwardness of his realization. "Sorry ... about pushing you in."
"Whatever. It's your fault my shoes are wet." Jack could see Searle blushing and she looked down at the concrete. "Searle, what's your real name?" It only seemed fair for him to give up a secret in exchange for hers.
He offered her a half-hearted smile when she mentioned her shoes, even if he wasn't sure if she was trying to lighten the mood or truly was angry at him for it. "John James ... Searle," he answered, hesitating on his last name only because, well, she knew it already. "You want my shoes?" Searle nudged one of his hiking boots with a bare foot.
John. Her daddy's name had been John, though he'd been known as Jack. Her eyes clouded for a moment. "You could have been Jack, too. Mine's Jacklyn Baker but call me Jacklyn and I'll kill you," she said, trying to get a grip on herself. She could only shake her head at his offer to let her have his shoes.
This time he did laugh genuinely, but it was more of a puff of air leaving his mouth than full-on laughter. Grabbing his socks from the ground, Searle plopped himself down on the concrete to pull them on, then his shoes. "Everyone calls me Searle. Or, they did.... Where I come from there were a lot of Johns and Jacks." After a pause, he added "I won't call you Jacklyn."
Unable to help it, Searle peered at Jack curiously for a second or two before he busied himself tying up his shoelaces. It was just weird to know she was a girl now. He wasn't sure how to act.
Jack looked away when she noticed Searle watching her, concentrating instead on brushing back the hair plastered to her forehead. "You ever go by James?"
"Not really, no one's called me James before. Sometimes my mom would call me John James when I did something bad," he admitted, smiling fondly at the memory, but his smile was tinged with pain. It had been a while since the death of his parents and, well, everyone in that town, but it was still pretty fresh in his mind. Once he got his shoes on, Searle picked himself up and dusted off his pants a little.
Hearing Searle mention his parents reminded Jack of her own. She needed to think about something else because her parents were gone and they weren't ever coming back. "You kind of look like a James," Jack told him. "And it's easier to pronounce than Searle."
"You can call me that if you want, but I think Searle sounds tougher." Whether it really did or not was up for debate. "Hey, you want to drive? We'll drop you off wherever you live."
Jack laughed. "So does Jack. And yeah, I'll drive. Maybe if I go fast enough, I'll dry off. But just to the meeting place, okay?" She couldn't remember when Jed would be back and if they both drove up at the same time, it would ruin her last secret.
"Okay." Searle nodded, then walked to the bike. That Jack didn't want him to see where she lived meant, to him, she didn't trust him fully. In all fairness, it might have been because he just threw her into a gross, old pool, but part of him wasn't happy she didn't want him to know where she lived. All in time though, probably. She might not be as starved for human contact as he was, for whatever reason.
Jack pulled her helmet on, grimacing at the feeling of it on her wet hair. Once Searle was settled behind her, she started the bike. He hadn't been wrong when he said that she was good and after Searle's lessons, she was confident in driving it now. Motorcycles were fun. The trip to the intersection where she and Searle met up didn't take long and then they were climbing off the bike. "Okay, I'm going to go home and change. Let's go skateboarding next time. You need to get better, it's embarassing."
At first Searle wasn't sure if he should hold onto Jack, but a second later he felt stupid for thinking anything like that. The nerves came from finding out she was a girl so unexpectedly. He'd definitely get over them, and he did hold onto her. It was kind of a necessity he did, anyway.
By the time they got to their meeting place Searle was a bit damp from hanging onto Jack, but he said nothing about it. "Yeah, you have time tomorrow? My schedule's pretty open," he joked.
"I can't tomorrow, I gotta go someplace." Tomorrow, she was going out with Jed and she couldn't get away. She felt awful for Searle though. It was hard when you didn't have anyone to talk to. "Day after that, I promise."
"Okay, I'll meet you here." Smiling, Searle waited a beat before he revved up the engine of the dirt bike and started down the street toward the mall. It was a bummer he'd have to spend the whole next day alone, but at least he would be looking forward to hanging out with Jack the next day. This was definitely less lonely than his trip across the country had been.