The Other Half || Jerrie

Chapter Eight

Jade fell head over heels in love with Danielle Peazer starting the moment she met her. She was from Brooklyn, but bus and subway rides meant nothing to the girls who quickly started spending all their free time out of school together.

Danielle drew Jade out of her shell. Jade had never been anti-social, but she was always the quieter one in her friend group. Danielle exuded life. She had an almost perpetual smile on her face. She greeted bus drivers by their names and made friends with the homeless people who lived in her neighborhood. Sports weren’t something she’d ever been interested in, but she went to every one of Jade’s lacrosse games after Jade made varsity their sophomore year. Although, occasionally she would cheer when she wasn’t supposed to.

James and Callum loved Danielle and always asked Jade to invite her over for dinner. Danielle’s parents were supportive of their daughter’s relationship, but were still coming to terms with Danielle’s sexuality. They weren’t against it, but were still hesitant at times.

Jade and Danielle lost their virginities together on their six month anniversary after convincing Jade’s parents to take five-year-old Karl to see a musical that night.

Jade had never been so happy as she was when she was in love. Love suited her well. It encouraged her to do well in school, to get her work done well so that she could have more time to spend with her girlfriend. Love made Jade happy so that whatever she did, she did gratefully and with all her enthusiasm.

Love was Jade’s strength. Anyone that knew her in love knew that.

In the spring of Jade’s junior year, right in the middle of lacrosse recruiting season, the Network of Rhythm Schools decided to have a lacrosse tournament. It was to be held at the Rhythm School in Connecticut, one of the few co-ed schools.

Jade took the bus with her team the hour away to the suburban school. She sang along to the words of Taylor Swift with Hailee, Eleanor and Selena as they pumped themselves up for the tournament.

Their first game was against the Boston-based Rhythm School, Emphasis. The Emphasis practically destroyed them. They then had a by, where they watched two more schools play each other. They then beat the Ohio-based Rhythm school before moving onto the finals where they played the home field team, Rhythmix.

Before the game started, the Rhythmix girls applied eyeblack, hoping to intimidate their opponents. It had a tendency to drip down their faces after they started sweating, but everyone still thought it looked cool.

Jade played center and found the Emphasis center, a dark-haired girl who went by “Lauren” to be a worthy opponent. The game was a hard one.

In the stands, Danielle stood to the right of Callum, James and Karl, cheering Jade on. To Danielle’s left sat a girl with blonde hair, cheering for the center of the Emphasis team.

Always one for making friends, Danielle introduced her to the girl.

“I’m Danielle,” she smiled at the blonde. “Girlfriend of the Rhythmix center.”

“Perrie,” the blonde returned. “Best friend of the Emphasis center.”

“I suppose that makes us adversaries then,” Danielle teased.

“Oh yeah?” Perrie arched an eyebrow, clearly intrigued by the girl beside her.

“Not really though,” Danielle shrugged. “I mean, you guys are supposed to be one network of schools, so these are more like friendly scrimmages anyway. YEAH! GO RHYTHMIX!” Danielle finished her sentence with a cheer, causing Perrie to jump back slightly in surprise.

Perrie chuckled as she glanced back at the field. “You do realize my team just scored, right?”

“Yes?” Danielle blushed. “No. To be honest I still don’t really know all the rules yet. My girlfriend is still teaching them to me.”

“It’s probably hard to teach you what’s going on when she’s on the field,” Perrie realized.

“Yeah. Her dads are trying to help as well,” Danielle gestured to the two men beside her who weren’t looking at the field, but rather trying to get gum out of their younger son’s hair.

“I used to play, so I can help explain what’s going on,” Perrie volunteered.

“That would be awesome Perrie!” Danielle grinned.

As the game progressed, Danielle listened as Perrie explained everything that was going on. She finally learned when to cheer at the right time for her girlfriend, but also cheered alongside Perrie for the blonde’s best friend.

The game ended with a win for the Rhythmix School and a surprising friendship between Perrie and Danielle. Perrie received a text and was looking down at it as Danielle watched Jesy and Jade shake hands after the game. Though they were both nearly unrecognizable under their masks, covered in sweat and with eye black smearing both their faces, Danielle assumed they were giving each other looks of respect. It had been a close game.

“Perrie, I want to introduce you to my girlfriend,” Danielle turned to her new friend.

Perrie sighed as she looked up from her phone. “I have to run,” she frowned. “My mom just got called into the hospital and she left the stove on by accident. I have to go turn it off before the house burns down.”

“Oh no!” Danielle exclaimed. “Well you should go do that.” She then surprised the blonde by pulling her into a quick, friendly hug. “It was nice to meet you Perrie.”

“You too Danielle,” Perrie responded as she returned the hug.

Danielle watched as Perrie ran off towards her car, not knowing that their lives had crossed for one reason, because of one person.

After Perrie was out of sight and the coaches had dismissed their players, Danielle ran up to Jade and pulled her into a hug before kissing her in the middle of the field, not caring that she was all sweaty and gross.

That summer was filled with outings to the beach and summer jobs at the ice cream shop by Danielle’s beach house. Danielle and Jade were barely apart for more than twelve hours at a time, and they fell even more in love.

They didn’t have their first real argument until junior year, after they’d been dating a year and half. At that point, both girls were crazy busy with school and SAT prep. They went from seeing each other every day, to once a week if they were lucky.

Winter break came with a ski trip to Aspen, and that made things better. They started to realize that come college, they could be spending even less time together.

So instead of getting frustrated at the lack of time they had together, Jade and Danielle started to cherish more the time they were together, and kept all communication on the phone either through calls or texts positive. It wasn’t worth arguing.

Of course they didn’t know at the time how important it was that they were cherishing their time together. Years later, Jade would tell her wife about how she could still remember the details to even the most random of days she spent with her first love, and how the memories were how she reconciled with losing Danielle. Perrie was never jealous of the way Jade spoke about Danielle, because she had met the girl and she knew how special she had been to Jade.