Chapter Text
Patricia Johnson, or PJ, was a normal highschool nerd. She wore thick glasses, a purple sweater, and had aspirations to become a doctor. Reese was her best friend and she was similar. She wore a green long sleeve, a plaid over dress, and really loved literature.
Reese and PJ stood next to each other in the hallway. PJ’s locker laid wide open as she looked through it for her anatomy textbook. “I just don’t know…I mean, I like Trevor, but, do I really like him?” Reese pondered her dilemma. “Maybe you should ask your aunt Jeri? She’s pretty cool.” PJ suggested. “No…she would probably just tell me to never touch anyone, not even myself.”
Ruth meandered through the halls of Hatchetfeild High. She had a free period and decided to spend it in the hallway. “Hi Ruthie!” Grace Chasity appeared in all of her blue sweatered glory. Ruth wasn’t unfond of Grace, she quite liked her, when she wasn’t talking about chastity. Next to her was her friend Gabe, he was okay.
“Hi Grace…” Ruth said in her rather ‘nerdy’ lisp. “Would you like to sign my petition to put up stalls in between the urinals in the boy’s bathroom?” Grace handed forward a clipboard with many lines on them. “Yeah! If you sign, maybe they’ll actually consider it! Instead of just telling us to pray for the walls to appear.” Gabe added.
Ruth rolled her eyes and signed the petition. She just wanted them to leave, really. They eventually left and moved on to Reese and PJ. “Hey Pattie! How’s it going?” PJ groaned at the nickname Gabe had used. She preferred people to only call her PJ.
“Hey Gabe, hey Grace.” Reese stopped leaning on the adjacent locker. “Asking for people to sign your petition again?” Reese already knew all about the petition since she had previously signed it. “Yup! PJ? You wanna sign?” Gabe subtly leaned forward, trying to put on the charm.
“No thanks, I don’t like signing things.” PJ waved her hand and closed her locker door. “And how come you're wearing that?” PJ was referring to the bright blue shirt that Gabe was wearing that said KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS. “It’s not even winter. It’s March!”
Gabe looked down at his shirt. “What? I like it!” Reese laughed a little. “It’s just a bit…garish, is what PJ is saying. I mean, don’t you think it’s a bit bright?” Gabe scoffs and looked at Grace. “C’mon Grace, we got more people to ask.”
Grace smiled. “Indeed! It our duty stop boys from looking at each other's disgusting daddy parts!” PJ internally winced at Grace’s choice of word. “Yeah…see you two in chemistry.” The two church buddies walked off and left Reese and PJ alone.
“Don’t you think putting up walls is a bit excessive? I mean, it’s not like guys try to actively try to look at each other’s genitalia.” PJ questioned. Reese only shrugged and they headed over to health class.
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“So you are to tutor Caitlyn after school?” Reese and PJ walked through the cafeteria. It was packed with bustling teenagers with a lack of deodorant. Sounds of clanking trays and tables drowned out a lot of the ambient talking.
“Yeah, she says she needs help with some math problems, which isn’t my preferred subject, but I should be able to help her.” They sat down near the trash cans because everywhere else was taken. “Perhaps we should sit with Ruth, Pete, and Richie in Mr. Thompson’s class. We could at least retire to the library.”
Reese’s suggestion wasn’t all bad, but she really didn’t want to eat in Mr. Thompson’s class. He would always caress her shoulders in class. “No…we’d be even more nerdy then.” PJ excused. “Plus, here we can……observe what other people are doing!”
PJ gestured to the other students. Everyone in Hatchetfeild High was a bit peculiar in one way or another. No one here was really ‘normal’. “PJ, everyone here is ignoring us.” Reese reminded her. Either they were too freaky and picked on, or assholes who did the picking on.
“We are the social outcasts. As Nichie says, to live is to suffer, and we are very much living.” Reese ate a spoonful of school chilly. It tasted as strange and off as it usually did.
“Reese….do you ever wish we could be more than just nerds? I mean…” PJ gazed longingly across the room. She had dreams and desires for her future, but what about her present? “…look at us; freaks, forced to sit near the trash cans. We’re so anal it makes us losers. Don’t you ever wish we could be…..cool?”
Reese shook her head. She placed a tender hand onto PJ’s shoulders and stared at her straight in the eyes. “We are cool! As my aunt Jeri says, virginity rocks! As I recall, both of us are virgins!” Reese gave a less than reassuring smile to PJ.
She placed her tray to the side and jolted up. “We’re lame Reese! Look at us! I wanna be somebody! I stopped tutoring Max Jägerman because I wanted to stay alive, but what am I alive for?” Reese lamented. She wanted to find her purpose in life. Her reason to keep going.
“I thought you wanted to be a doctor. Is that not why you are alive?” Reese reminded her. “Patricia Johnson has like, 10 years before she becomes a doctor! PJ has no time to waste! We’re in our senior year Reese!”
Reese looked apprehensively at PJ. She wanted to be supportive of one of her only friends, but at the same time, she didn’t think it was a worthy endeavor. How could they just decide to be cool? They had at most 3 months to become cool before school ended.
Reese shook her head, smiling. “Fine, let’s try to be cool.”
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Reese got home later that day to her aunt Jeri. “Reese, do you know where the Holy Bible is?” Since Reese’s parents passed away when she was young, she was given to her aunt to be raised by. Aunt Jeri wasn’t a bad caretaker…she was just never around. They lived near the forest and it was always a struggle to walk to school in the early morning. Not to mention the fact that Aunt Jeri would alway disappear into the woods almost daily.
“Have you checked the mantle, yet?” Reese replied. Aunt Jeri checked it and, sure enough, it was there! “Ah-ha! Thanks Reese!” Aunt Jeri grabbed the Bible and Reese left for her room. They lived in a one story house so her room was near the living room.
“Oh! I’m going into the woods and won’t be back till midnight! Do be a dear and, don’t burn the house down Reese's Pieces?” Aunt Jeri requested. “Yes Aunt Jeri.” Reese left her door open so that the ac could come in. She only had a fan in her room and Reese didn’t like being sweaty as she read. “And if Boy Jerry comes by, do tell him I’m in the woods, yes?”
Reese let out an affirming noise and it was soon followed up by the sound of the front door closing. Yup, Aunt Jeri was never there. Almost as though she had a different kid, somewhere else. Reese didn’t mind anymore. Everytime her aunt would leave, she’d just make herself dinner and curl up with a nice book.
She just needed her books and all would be well. It didn’t matter if she had no mom and dad. She had her Plato and J. R. R. Tolkien. She had all she could ever want really.
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When PJ got home she was reminded of the home she had. PJ lived in a trailer with a hard working mom and a less than stellar step-dad. Her fathers picture next to the front door haunted her. “Where have you been?! I still need dinner!” Her step-dad Hugh yelled from the couch. Since her mom always worked, PJ was the one to make dinner for her and her step-dad.
“I was busy tutoring a classmate…” PJ explained. Her step-dad merely scoffed and turned back to the TV. “Figures. Woman. Always have a fucking excuse. WHY aren’t ya making DINNER?!” PJ winced and made her way to the kitchen.
She decided to cook baked potatoes since all she had to do was pop them in the microwave and add a slab of butter on them. “Fucking HURRY UP PJ!!” The baked potato was placed on a plate with some butter and sour cream and given to her step-dad. “Stupid bitch….” He dug in and PJ entered her room.
Her room was on the other side of the wall which held the TV. She could hear every yell her step-dad howled out. She hated it here, hated it in Hachetfield High, in Hatchetfeild, in this dumb trailer. She stared over at her dad’s picture on her bedside table.
“I’ll be a doctor Dad…I’ll help peope just like you Dad….and I’ll get out of Hatchetfeild…..”
PJ’s father, Patrick Johnson, was born and raised in Hatchetfeild. He always wanted to leave but then he and her mother had PJ. They temporarily bought this trailer since they were poor and things were mostly good. Then PJ turned 10 and her dad got sick. It turned out to be cancer, and around a year later he had passed away.
PJ made up her mind when her dad got cancer. She would become a doctor and would specialize in Cancer Research. She’d be somebody. She’d get out of Hatchetfeild like her dad never could and she’d help people.
She just needed a bit more time. A bit more time to finish school. A bit more time to go to college. A bit more time in Hatchetfeild. A bit more time with her step-dad Hugh.