Chapter One of Remember Me

Chapter One

“Where do you want me to put this?”
Poor Edward, I thought as I looked over and saw him in the door way of my room. He was holding a very large box which was labeled ‘books.’ It was definitely that box that gave the movers in New York a little trouble.
“Right over here by the book shelf Edward. And thanks again for letting me move in. This is a pretty nice place.”
“Yeah well,” Edward put the box down and straightened up holding his lower back, “That’s everything. You sure brought a lot of stuff. I thought it was just a year?”
“It is. It’s just that I’ll have to work while I’m here. You know by the computer. So I still need everything. But thanks again for letting me stay here. You sure James doesn’t mind?”
“Of course not,” Edward replied while waving his hand at me as if it was nothing, “Besides you are helping with rent, remember?”
That was the thing about Edward. It didn’t matter who you were as long as you promised to help pay for the rent then you could stay as long as you wanted. Which was a good thing for me in fact. I didn’t really know what I was going to do with my life while I was in New York but I knew one thing was for sure.
I was looking for something. Or someone.
And she wasn’t in New York.
I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Henry Lefroy. Yes, the guy you see on the billboards on I-42 talking about the latest gadget that will better your life in some way or form. I had been working for Better Life for nearly three years in New York City. That’s right, the big apple. Now how did a guy like me make it through three years in New York City? Well, that’s one of the things I’m going to ask God once I get to heaven.
But anyways back on track. So here I am sitting in one of the upstairs bedrooms in my brother’s house looking out at Henderson Park. Henderson Park wasn’t really big. In fact it wasn’t even big enough to be classified as its own town on the map, but it did have a school, church, and even a Wal-Mart so I classified it as a town.
Anyways here I was back in Henderson Park, Maine also known as the last place on earth I thought God would send me to find her, but it’s where I’m at now so I might as well start looking around. It couldn’t hurt could it?
“Hey, Henry, are you just going to stand there all day looking out that window or are you going to start un-packing?”
Edward’s voice startled me. I jumped a little and then turned around realizing he had been in the room the whole time and was already unpacking the books he brought in. Well might as well get to work.
It took most of the day to un-pack everything and get me settled in but once everything was in its place I sat down on my bed admiring my work. Edward on the other hand fell on my bed and released a long sign of exhaustion. Leave it to Edward to move a few boxes around and then call it a day. I sat quietly on my bed upright and looked out the window again.
Well he really did pick a perfect spot to buy a house, I thought to myself as I looked out the window. It was just like one of those neighborhoods where everyone knows everyone, everyone’s yard is done by the same person and every house still looked completely different. It was a quiet neighborhood, but at that it was peaceful. Not to mention beautiful. I always loved Maine as I grew up but knew I would never come back. I longed for city life and Maine was just too plain for me.
“I don’t know about you but I sure am hungry.”
Again, leave it to Edward to tell you what he thinks and when he thinks it. Some how though I knew that this was going to cost me some money. In fact I was right.
“So since I helped you un-pack, I believe that means you have dinner duty tonight.”Dinner duty, I started to wonder what he meant but then it clicked; I’ll be getting the check tonight I guess. Which was ok with me. I had been the one to come begging my brother for a place to stay and he was generous enough to say yes I could live with him. The least I could do was pick up a check for them. Nothing too big if you asked me.
Yeah, well that was before I saw how much they eat. I for one knew my limitations and ate within those boundaries. Edward and James on the other hand took the phrase, all you can eat, and ate every thing they could eat. Long story short, that was the last time I let my brother help me with anything.
It has been a week since I moved in with Edward and James and I was actually starting to like living in Henderson Park. It was in the middle of August so the weather was nice outside. So nice in fact I actually woke up early for a jog. Now you know that I must be in a good mood to wake up early to run. Or maybe it was just God. But once I saw her I got my answer.
It was God.
Before you freak out or something I didn’t say anything to the girl. I was just running and enjoying God’s beautiful creation and then I looked over and saw her.
She was stepping out of her house in a pair of worn jeans and a printed t-shirt of some band from the 70’s or something. Her brown hair was flowing in the wind and came to about the small of her back. She was beautiful from what I could see but she wasn’t staying for long. She had a jacket over one arm with a book lying on top of it and a purse over the other shoulder. She had keys out and that’s when I realized she was going somewhere.
That somewhere happened to be school.
Great she’s still in school, I thought to myself as I continued to jog by. But then I heard a voice.
This is she, beloved, the one I have for you.
So either I’m completely crazy or that was God. Again my answer was God.
Um, God, you do remember she is still in high school?
Trust me, beloved, she is the one for you.
No objection there. In fact I was almost overjoyed. Finally the person I had been searching for. Finally the one I was waiting for. The one I was sure I would find in Henderson Park, Maine. I saw her. I stopped dead cold where I was and watched as she pulled out of her drive way in her light blue BMW convertible and headed in the direction to the school.
That’s when I realized something about her I hadn’t before. Her car matched her eyes. In the few seconds that I was actually close enough to her car before she sped off, she caught a glimpse of me and smiled. As she smiled her eyes began to sparkle in the sunlight and the blue-ness of her eyes shown so bright it was almost hard to miss.
Thank you, God. She is beautiful.
There is more to her than the outside, beloved.
I know. But thanks anyways. I can’t wait till she graduates.
Neither can I, beloved. But things won’t be easy.

Henderson Park High later that day…

“OMG. Jane! It that the car your parents bought you?”
Great, I always have to run into Catherine Hicks in the parking lot, I thought to myself as I got out of my new baby. Apparently I wasn’t just driving some random car to school, but Catherine was always big on pointing out the oblivious.
“Yeah, Catherine, I just got it yesterday.”
I grabbed my jacket, my books, and my purse from the seat behind me and then locked the doors to my car. It was a beauty I had to admit and I knew Catherine would probably be wanting a ride later. A ride I would not be willing to give. At least not to her.
“Hey babe,” the familiar voice came from behind me started to comfort me.
Jason was here.
“Hey, you, where’d you come from?” I started to say turning around and reaching for his hand. He gently grabbed it and pulled me closer to him so he could reach down and kiss me good morning, as he did every morning. Today though the kiss lingered on a little more than it usually did till I finally pulled away needing some air.
“Loving the new car by the way.”
“Thanks,” he placed his arm around my shoulders as we walked up to the school building. The place of torture. The place that come June I would never have to see again. Thank goodness for that too. Public school education was really started to get on my nerves.
By the way I’m Jane-Elizabeth Swan, but most of you already knew that. I mean my father is the CEO of the company Better Life. Sure there wasn’t an actually a near by building but being the CEO he got to decide where he wanted to live, which was Maine, and he got to decide if he wanted to work from home, which he did. Basically my family is known to get what we want. Well at least I am.
To be honest though, I didn’t want that much. I already had everything. Perfect boyfriend, perfect hair, perfect car, perfect grades (for the most part, I wasn’t failing), and life was just perfect. I was the captain of the varsity cheerleading team, student body president, and most likely to win homecoming queen. I was the talk of the school and mainly the boy’s locker room, which I didn’t mind. I mean Jason could brag all he wanted but we both know that nothing has really happened, yet.
But to be honest, again, I didn’t want anything to happen. I just wanted the perfect senior year. And I was sure I was going to get it to.
Nothing could go wrong.
That week of school was amazing. Everything was going right with the world. Even in my house. I mean my mother for one stopped trying to invade into my personal life and actually made some pretty decent food. My dad kept buying me things for no apparent reason, which I never minded. Even my younger brother, who always annoyed the crap out of me, was actually behaving. It only took them 17 years to finally realize that I was the one who got what I wanted; not the whole family, but at least they had realized it now. Things were looking up.
Then things went back down.
Want to know why? It was Sunday. Church day as others like to call it.
Church was always a bore to me. The guy talked about the same thing every day. It was always some lecture about how we are all going to die one day and either end up in hell or heaven. I personally wanted to go to heaven so I could have a real mansion but how big was this mansion going to be again? I mean if it was all small and crap then I’d probably make my parent’s trade with me because I was the one who ALWAYS got what I wanted, when I wanted it.
Anyways back to reality. So I found myself again sitting in the chapel listening to Pastor Michael talk about heaven and hell again while I was thinking of something else.
Jason.
He had something planned for the next weekend. It was suppose to be our one month anniversary but I didn’t think Jason was the type of guy to celebrate. I mean after all he was the captain of the football team and starting quarterback. Which is why I dated him because I was the captain of the varsity cheerleading team and it was just known that we would date. Like it was a rule. But anyways he had something special and I wanted to know what.
I started thinking about what I would wear. If we went out to eat then I would so dress all up, but if it was a movie or something then I would find a cute skirt at the mall the next day and some form of top. Who knows maybe I would go get that skirt anyways just because it was so cute! Like seriously.
Finally Pastor Michael was done talking and we could leave. I got up quickly and turned to head outside to call Chloe and make mall arrangements for tomorrow. After all a girl never goes to the mall without her best friend to make sure she only buys things that look good on her. Though I knew the skirt would look good on me, hey, it would probably look good on Catherine Hicks; I still wanted Chloe to be there. But that’s when I ran into him.
He was tall, well taller than me. His brown hair was wavy and smooth looking. He even had a little sparkle in his green eyes as he looked at me. But you know, he was looking at me. Who wouldn’t have a sparkle in their eye after looking at me?
“I’m sorry, Ms…”
“Swan,” I replied, “Jane-Elizabeth Swan.”
“Please to meet you Ms. Swan. I’m Mr. Lefroy, Henry Lefroy. You are quite the busy one aren’t you?”
Why in the world was this freak talking to me, I started to think to myself. But might as well be polite seeing that I was still in a church and all.
“Yeah,” I jokingly said adding a short laugh at the end, “Would you please excuse me though?”
“Leaving so soon? Isn’t there some sort of fellowship after church?”
“I don’t know. I need to be outside though. Goodbye Mr. Lefroy.”
“Ms. Swan, I was wondering if maybe, seeing you don’t fellowship at church, if we could fellowship outside of church? Get some coffee or something?”
This guy isn’t seriously asking me out is he? I was about to go insane.
“Look, you’re a nice guy and all, but I have a boyfriend. Now I must get outside. Besides, I hardly know you.”
“That’s alright. You may go I guess.”
He guessed, I was beginning to wonder, what type of guy is he? First of all I had just met the guy and was in no means about to go for coffee with him. Second of all I had a boyfriend. A boyfriend. But this guy still felt the courage to guilt me. Well it wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t going to change. In fact I stepped quickly away from the man and made my way outside. There was no way I was going to see that freak again.