All traces of amusement were removed from Jack's face as Kendricks tried to wriggle himself out of Jack's grasp. Jack stared at his foe with an intensity that could not be escaped. Finally, Kendricks stopped moving. When Jack determined he was calm enough he let him go, and he watched as Kendricks weaseled his way down the hallway through the same double doors that Catherine had entered just moments before.
Heart racing, Jack grabbed his book bag off the marble floor and slung it over his shoulder with a huff. Slowly, he pushed open the often-used double doors and walked through. He was about to walk down the steep stairway when a soft voice called his name from the third floor landing. It was Catherine. She looked less stressed now, less scared. Her hair, once in a high bun atop her head now hung in strands around her face, frizzy and unkempt. Jack stood perfectly still, surprised at her presence. He stared as she walked down the stairs towards him, an expression of relief on her face.
“I just want to thank you for sticking up for me. I'm quite used to dealing with him myself.”
“He shouldn't be chasing after you or yelling at you like that.”
“He is mad at me because he wanted people to think I was his girlfriend.”
This surprised Jack. He had automatically assumed that the two were an item. Trying to lighten the mood, Jack let out a smirk.
“Yeah, I wouldn't go out with him either.”
Catherine chuckled.
“My grandmother doesn't like him much. Actually threatened to get a restraining order on him if he doesn't stop calling the house 80 times a night, but I talked her out of it.”
“Maybe you should let her,” Jack suggested.
Catherine knew he was right, but stayed silent.
“You should be careful with him... He's got a temper. I’ve known him a long time, and he is not all there,” Jack warned Catherine. “And he's not one to try and keep a cool head.”
“Thanks again, Jack,” said Catherine as she looked up to him, momentarily glancing into his eyes. “Would you mind giving me a ride home?”
“Sure, though I don't think he'll be bothering you much from now on.”
“I hope not,” Catherine responded.
As they made their way down the stair well, Catherine grabbed Jack's hand and didn't let go. Hiding in the shadows of the school court yard, Bernard watched the pair, his face scowling with deep contempt as the girl he spent his nights fawning over walked away, hand-in-hand, with the boy who bested him in everything. In that moment, Bernard Kendricks’ obsession was born.
Chapter Eleven
Nostalgia
Morrow Manor
Fox Hollow, PA
October 8, 1997
Jack’s Point of View
“In order to understand any story,” began Jack, “you have to start at the beginning. If I were to tell you what happened with Catherine, without providing some back history, you would have a million questions. So the beginning doesn't start on the day she was born, or on the day we started going out. The beginning is marked as the day Catherine came to town.”
“She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She was the daughter of some big-wig executive of the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Arts. Her mother came from old money. Catherine’s grandfather was the president of some oil refinery in Delaware. Catherine and her mother did not see eye to eye… on anything. From what I was told, life was not easy for Catherine under her mother's rule. She could be very cold and controlling, only praising or lavishing attention upon her when she did exactly as she was told. Her mother, unlike her father, did not appreciate the fine arts, and discouraged Catherine from creative expression, even when it was used as an outlet. Even as a young girl, she wasn't well. She was diagnosed with depression at the young age of twelve. Catherine’s mother had her hospitalized for a month when she was thirteen when she refused to come out of her room and take a break from her art work. Her mother told the doctors that she was talking to herself. To the day she died, Catherine denied this story adamantly.”
“When her mother couldn't deal with her anymore, she shipped her off to her mother-in-law's house in Gabbard's Bend, where she would remain until she moved in here, after we were married. For the first three years, she was homeschooled by Ernestine, her grandmother, according to her mother's request, but when she entered the tenth grade, Ernestine found the work too hard, and Catherine was interested in making new friends, so she enrolled her at Steeplechase. She spent her first year at school largely ignoring me. She was real chummy with Kendricks and his group of friends at first, and she made it clear that I was much too uncivilized for their brand of conversation. At this point in time, Kendricks and I largely ignored each other. We dealt in different circles. He was too scrawny for the football club, and I couldn’t care less about the chess club. We moved in different circles; we just had eyes for the same girl.”