The Other Half || Jerrie

Chapter Three

By the time Jade Thirlwall was ten, she’d lived in four different countries. She was born in New York and moved in England before she learned to walk. She lived there for two years before she moved to Canada. Jade’s family lived in Canada for eight months before moving to Belgium. At age six she moved to Hong Kong. It was in Hong Kong that she met the Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Like the Thirlwall family, the Pinnock’s moved around a lot. Callum Thirlwall was an ambassador, causing his constant traveling while Deborah Pinnock, Leigh-Anne’s mother, was a business woman who worked for a highly successful computer company.

Leigh was two years older than Jade, but they became instant friends. Leigh very much enjoyed the way Jade would follow her around and listen to all her worldly wisdom.

So when Jade received a letter from her pen pal in fourth grade, telling her about how she was a chess player, Leigh immediately went to Leigh-Anne.

“Can you teach me how to play chess?” Jade asked the older girl.

“Chess is lame,” the eleven-year-old retorted. “How about I teach you how to fence instead?

Leigh nodded and agreed, but secretly asked her fathers later that night how to play. She found the game interesting, but it was fencing with Leigh that Jade fell in love with.

Every day after school, Leigh and Jade would fence together in one of the empty dance studios at their international school. James would pick both Leigh-Anne and Jade up after they practiced. He would drop Leigh-Anne off, then take Jade home.

Jade would spend her evenings doing homework, then would have a family dinner with her dads. Jade loved Hong Kong and her life there was perfect.

The week before fourth grade ended, however, James and Callum broke the news to Jade that they would be moving back to the United States, likely permanently. Jade took the news as well as any near ten-year-old who was being forced to move away from the place she'd loved for the past four years.

Jade was just about ready to leave and call Leigh-Anne to tell her the bad news when her parents explained to her that there was something else. They handed her a wrapped present.

Confused, Jade hesitantly removed the wrapping paper from the gift, revealing a box. Jade scrunched her brow in continued confusion, causing her glasses to fall down her nose. James made a mental note to get his daughter's glasses tightened as he watched her push them back into place before opening the box.

Jade pulled out the t-shirt and looked down at it in confusion. After reading the words on it upside down, she quickly turned the shirt around and gasped in surprise.

“Is this a joke?” Jade asked in surprise.

“No, definitely not a joke,” Callum laughed in response.

Jade grinned as she pulled the t-shirt over her head, messing up her curly brown hair, but not caring in the slightest. It may have been a bit tacky, but the shirt that said “Future Big Sister,” looked better on Jade than her uniform did. Although that could have been as the result of the glow the girl seemed to be emitting.

That night, after having a long conversation with Leigh-Anne, Jade decided to send one last letter to her pen pal before she would lose the connection she had at her school. She and “Grandmaster” had already exchanged a handful of letters through the school and Jade knew she would be sad to let the connection go.

Grandmaster,

I am moving back to the United States! I’m sad because now I have to leave my friends here, but my Dads told me today that I’m going to be a big sister when we get back to the USA. I’m an only child like you said you are, but I always wanted a younger brother or sister, even though they will be ten years younger than me.

Anyway, I don’t know my address yet, do you have an email? Mine is seabiscuit93@h*********m, I hope you email me soon.

Biscuit

+

A week later, Jade received an email from grandmasterartist@aol.com.

Hi!

My mom and dad set up this email address just so I could email you! That’s so cool that you are going to be a big sister, I’m very jealous! Is your mom getting really fat? My aunt got really fat before my cousin was born.

Bye!

After reading the email, Jade decided not to respond. She didn’t know how best to tell her pen pal that she didn’t have a mom. Sure, it was 2003 and people were more okay with gay parents, but Jade had grown up knowing that sometimes people didn’t understand that she had two dads and she didn’t know how to explain it over email. She told herself she’d ask Leigh-Anne how she should respond, but in the craziness with move, she forgot.

The Thirlwall family moved into a three bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City two weeks before Jade turned ten. Two months later, they welcomed newborn Karl into their home and Jade became a big sister. She forgot all about her pen pal.