The Other Half || Jerrie

Chapter Four

Jade started fifth grade at a private school where, for the first time ever, she was the only student who had grown up in multiple places around the globe. For the first time ever, she was also attending an all-girl’s school.

The Rhythm Schools were a network of schools started by nuns in France over two hundred years ago. The network had spread across the globe with each school bearing similarities to the others, but each also slightly different. In New York City, The Rhythm School was known as the Rhythm School for Girls.

The first day of fifth grade, wearing her kilt and polo, Jade couldn’t help but notice how out of place she was. All of her classmates had grown up in the city and had been attending Rhythm their entire lives. They were all friends with each other and weren’t afraid to mark Jade immediately as the “weird new girl”. Jade missed Leigh terribly.

Each day, Jade would go home from school and tell her Dads how much she loved her new school. She didn’t want them to feel bad about moving her away from her friends. Nobody was outwardly mean to Jade at school, but they never included her in any of their friend groups.

The only time anyone ever made fun of Jade to her face was when Callum picked her up from school one day, instead of James. Ashton Williams overheard Jade call Callum, “Papa” put two and two together, realizing that Jade had two fathers. It wasn’t long before Ash’s gaggle of friends started calling Jade a freak of nature and accusing her of being against God’s will.

By the end of fifth grade, however, the taunts stopped after Aston’s mom came out as a lesbian and left her father for her father’s secretary.

Jade skipped the last day of fifth grade. James had gotten tickets as an early birthday present for Jade to a Yankees-Mets game. Needless to say, Jade much preferred going to the game over the last day of school.

By the end of the seventh inning, the score was tied at 1-1. Both Jade and James’ stomachs were growling so they decided to head to the hot dog stand just outside of their seating section.

The line was long, and Jade was growing impatient. She turned to her father, ready to complain to him, when she noticed that he was strangely focused on the man in front of them in line.

“Dad!” Jade exclaimed, shaking James out of his reverie.

“One second Jadey,” James responded before tapping on the man’s shoulder. “Excuse me?”

The man turned around and narrowed his eyes at James. “Why do I recognize you?” the man asked.

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” James chuckled in response.

“You didn’t go to Cornell, did you?” the man asked. James shook his head. The man paused to think, then looked down at Jade. Seeing Jade seemed to spark something in him, as he then broke out into a large smile. “Your birthday doesn’t happen to be July 1st, 1993, does it?” he asked.

Jade looked up at her father, confused. She felt a little uncomfortable that the random man knew her birthday. While the man’s words elicited confusion from Jade, they brought explanation to James. His face lit up.

“The hospital,” James nodded. “We were in the waiting room together, weren’t we? Sorry, I don’t remember your name. I’m James.”

“Alex, Alexander Edwards,” the man shook James’ hand. “Now what are the odds of us running into each other again?”

“Well it is a Mets-Yankees game,” James laughed, remembering the fact that they had shared that they cheered for different teams.

“Good point,” Alex nodded. “So how have you been the past eleven years?”

“Pretty good,” James nodded. “We’ve been moving around a lot, but finally moved back to the city about a year ago. This one has a little brother now.” James ruffled the hair on top of his daughter’s head. Jade frowned. “How about you?”

“All good here too,” Alex nodded. “We just have Perrie though, that’s my daughter. Who, in fact, is around here somewhere?” He spun around in search of his daughter. In the distance, he spotted a short girl with blonde hair paying for an ice cream cone. “Perrie!” he yelled. The girl, however, didn’t seem to hear her father and returned to their seats.

“Bummer,” James shook his head. Jade went on her tiptoes and craned her neck to see if she could see the girl with her same birthday, but was too short to see over the heads of the wandering baseball fans.

“She’s probably wondering where I wandered off to,” Alex shook his head. “It was good to see you.”

“You too,” James returned, remembering the gratitude he’d felt for the man who calmed him down while he waited otherwise alone for news of his daughter’s birth.

Alex stepped away from James to face his daughter. “So your Dad is a Mets fan, how about you?”

“Mets, duh,” Jade shook her head. “The Yankees are SO overrated.” Both James and Alex laughed at Jade’s response.

“I may not agree with you, but I’m glad you have your convictions Miss. Thirlwall,” Alex responded, finally remembering the last name James had given him years earlier.

“Jade,” the brunette responded. “That’s my name.”

“Well Jade,” Jake extended a hand, “It was a pleasure to meet you. And when the Yankees win, try not to take it personally.”

Jade was raised to be polite, so she shook Alex’s hand, but she was also a child and knew that Alex was just teasing her, so she stuck her tongue out at him.

Alex laughed in response and gave a wave to James before walking off in search of his daughter. James marveled at how extraordinary it was that he had run into Alex again. Alex marveled at the same as he returned to his daughter.

James and Alex ran into each other one last time in Times Square two years later. It was there that they had a longer conversation, this time not about baseball, but rather about schools. James went on about how great the academics were at the Rhythm school, so much so that Alex researched the Rhythm schools and learned that one of the more prestigious schools in his area of Connecticut, Rhythm School was part of the same network.

James and Alex talked about their daughters that day, both expecting to never see each other again, but joking that sheer luck would bring them back together again. It didn’t.

That day at Yankee Stadium was the first second time James met Alex. It was the first time Jade Thirlwall met her future father-in-law. It was also the last.