Bridge To Terabithia 2: The Last Time - Part 2 || ✓

Chapter 24: Bad influence

     Monday morning was a normal day with May Belle, Joyce Ann and Dylan going to school as usual. Since he obviously had no reason to go out, he was left alone in the house with his mother after the kids and his father had left for work. Jess helped around the house for a bit, repairing some stuff, replanting plants in their small green house and going on to milk Miss Bessie who he noticed seemed to have weakened since he left. The poor cow only moo-ed to him twice, and that was only when he came and after he finished milking her.

     Bringing up the subject with his mother, she told him that they'd had Miss Bessie since she was pregnant with Ellie. His father had bought the house with the farm, including Miss Bessie who was only a calf at the time. With that in mind, Jess realized that Miss Bessie had grown far too old and exceeded the average life span of a domestic cow, meaning, they'll lose a cow soon. Before Jess had any friends, Miss Bessie was always his go-to-go person/animal and believe it or not, sometimes, it seemed like she'd understand what he'd be telling her.

Jess was in the shed with Miss Bessie, watching her graze on the hay when he heard someone entering.

"Hey," Leslie settled herself next to him with the stool beside his. She looked at Miss Bessie and smiled, patting the animal gently. "How old is she this year?"

"28. Quite old actually."

"She does look um..." she paused to think of an appropriate word to use without offending the cow. Even she thought that animals could understand humans. "Decrepit?"

     "Decrepit?" Jess snorted.

     Leslie leaned to Jess and whispered, "I didn't want to offend Miss Bessie." She chuckled and sat back up, looking at Miss Bessie and then rubbed her. "You look very young, Miss Bessie." She winked.

Miss Bessie let out a moo and looked as if she was smiling.

The two of them stayed with Miss Bessie for a couple of hours before May Belle and Dylan came back and asked them to go accompany both of them to a friend's party. First reason that Jess refused was because they didn't have a car, and he knew that they were only asking them because their mother said no. Bad influence, probably. But Leslie suggested using Bill's car and insisted that they go.

"See? Leslie wants to!" May Belle whined as she and Dylan followed the two upstairs.

"May Belle, we shouldn't bother them if they don't want to." Dylan said, seeing the annoyed look on Jess's face.

"No, I'd love to go with you guys." Leslie insisted happily. Jess groaned and stopped once they reached the hallway.

"We don't have a car."

"I can ask Bill if we can borrow the car!"

Jess scoffed, shaking his head. "He'll say no, trust me."

     May Belle and Dylan exchanged glances and then looked at Leslie who was grinning. "Wanna bet?"

     "Sure," Jess smirked and then folded his arms. "If he says yes, I'll kiss you. If he says no, then you'll kiss me."

     "Where's the fun in that?" Leslie asked with a disappointed voice.

     "We kiss!"

     "OK, here's a real bet. If I win I'm gonna give you a dare," she glanced at May Belle and Dylan who were looking expectantly at her. "I'll take May Belle and Dylan's suggestions into consideration too." The two teenagers smiled widely. "And if I lose, well, you get to kiss me.

"That seems fair." May Belle and Dylan said together, nodding their heads proudly.

"That doesn't seem fair."