"Hey Jess! Where's your partner in crime?" a voice yelled out, startling Jessica out of her rambling thoughts.
She looked up and saw one of her classmates, James Ernest, who'd pulled his car onto the shoulder of the road.
"Detention." Jessica smiled briefly, as if one word could explain everything. "You know the drill with Clair."
James grinned back at her. He wasn't bad looking, she had to admit as she gave him a longer look. And he has a car. That always works in a guy's favour.
Clair had spent a few weeks earlier in the year, fooling around with James before abruptly getting bored and discarding him.
The poor guy was still sniffing around her, all these months later. Of course. They all were.
Jessica could feel a bead of sweat running behind her left ear. Fuck this disgusting desert heat, she thought. She desperately wanted to ask James for a ride home. But he didn't offer and she refused to mention it first.
Especially because there was already a girl in the passenger seat of his blue Mini Cooper. The girl eyed Jessica with hostility.
Relax, you silly bitch. I'm not going to try and steal him from under your nose. I just don't want to walk all the way home if I can help it.
Instead, Jessica gave James an easy smile. "See you later. I'll tell Clair you said hi."
"Thanks. See ya, Jess." James grinned back and pulled back onto the road.
She watched the blue car until it became a little speck in the distance. Then Jessica kept walking. She was approaching downtown, which she needed to cut through to get home.
"Downtown Abbot Springs." she sneered out loud as the strip of low rise buildings that lined Main Street came into view. "Isn't that an an oxymoron?"
Abbot Springs was a dusty, soulless town of barely ten thousand people, almost three hours northeast of Carson City, Nevada. It was located in a part of the desert so bleak and nondescript, even the Native Indians had probably grown to regret ever settling there.
Sandstorms, resignation and a couple of half abandoned strip malls. That just about summed up the town.
Jessica had to admit there were times when Abbot Springs could look rather charming to the casual eye. Especially in the autumn, when the heat eased back and striking desert sunsets filled the sky with fiery colour.
But it was always, always boring. The kind of soul crushingly boring that drove its young people to fill the long days and nights with pointless pursuits.
Smoking a little pot. Driving a little bit drunk in the desert.
A bit of bullying here and there, sometimes bordering on outright cruelty. Nothing very serious, of course. Unless you were one of those overly sensitive types who just happened to take everything to heart.
There were always a few of those around.
But what else was there to do in such a barren wasteland? How else were the kids supposed to get their kicks?
Jessica stopped for a moment to look through the window of a tired looking general store. Her dry throat positively ached when she saw the vending machine full of cold drinks. She didn't have a dollar on her, though.
So she kept walking.
- - -
Jessica was drenched in sweat by time she finally got home. She let herself into the house and sighed with relief to finally be out of the sun. She flicked on the air conditioner and the sound of the rickety old unit coming to life filled the living room.
Apart from that, the small house was quiet. It always was in the afternoon. Her mother was at still at work.
Her father? Who the hell knew where he was? He'd been some local high school football hero, before he'd skipped out on the town and on his daughter before her birth. Good riddance.
Jessica peeled off her clothes and tossed them on the bathroom floor, then started running the shower. Once she'd washed her hair and scrubbed herself clean under the cool water, she headed back to her room, wrapped in a towel.
She rummaged through her top drawer, trying to find her comb to untangle her hair. Her reflection in the mirror caught her eye. Shoving her glasses back on her nose, she stared at herself for a while.
Strawberry blonde curls falling down her back and a smattering of matching freckles over the bridge of a dainty nose.
Pretty enough, she thought critically of herself. But nothing truly exceptional.
Then again, the number of women in the world blessed with exceptional beauty is pretty low. Everyone has their imperfections. I probably shouldn't be so hard on myself.
Even Clair has her little flaws and she's the most popular girl at school.
Truthfully, Jessica had asked herself many times over the years how Clair could be so pretty when her features were so angular. Catlike amber eyes, high cheekbones and a sharp chin, all under a pixie style crop of dark hair. But Clair made her uniqueness work.
Ultimately, it was her confidence that made her so appealing. Her razor sharp wit and dry humour that made people swarm around her.
Clair had always been the more daring one, always wanting to push the rules to their very limits. Jessica was more cautious by nature.
No wonder everyone always gravitated towards Clair for fun and excitement. She was the life and soul of every party.
Jessica pursed her lips at her reflection and tried to mimic her best friend's trademark sultry pout. She giggled at how silly she looked. "You know what? If I'd grown up having a rich daddy who could bail me out of trouble whenever I needed it, maybe I'd be more of a risk taker too. But I didn't. No daddy in sight. No one's going to come and rescue my ass but me. Right, Otis?"
She glanced at her goldfish. Otis continued swimming around in his fishbowl without a care.