The Long Road to Recovery

Prologue

Jess relaxed in her chair as one of her closest friends pushed her into the school. She hadn't been to school in over a month. A lot had happened, a lot had changed, in that time. Will's family had sold their house and moved in with Jess and her family. Their house had gone quickly, it was in a good location and had many good selling qualities. They got more than they had originally expected to get. Alice had always been a stay at home mom, she had only had one child, incapable of having more after Will. She was happier than ever to be taking care of two 3 and 5 year-old boys. Sean had just turned 3 recently. It took him a while to get used to seeing Alice all the time, instead of his mom. Kyle understood, he was willing to allow Alice take care of him right from the beginning. Will had switched schools, now he was attending the same school as Jess. They were both happy about that. Jess had even started talking to all her old friends again. They were all very understanding and willing to let her back into their lives.

Jess was letting her hair grow out. She was trying to get rid of the purple colour. She had been told her brown hair looked much better on her than the purple.

The biggest change of all in the past month and a half, was Jess's outlook. Her family had suffered through a major tragedy 3 years earlier, and another one had happened recently. The second was what had started this change.

One thing Jess was sure would never change was what she always had in her bag. The day their mother had died, he little brother, Kyle, had given her a gift he had picked out the day before. Jess always kept the teddy bear in her backpack, with the card, and the necklace around her neck.

As happy as Jess seemed, everyone knew she still had a long road to recovery. The tragedies in their family had hit her the hardest. She had been the only full witness to her father's murder and had also been the only other to suffer from that incident. The rest of her family had been away visiting relatives that night.

A/N I apologize for this being so short and scattered. I'm going to go over it later and organize it a little better. I just wanted to get this started. I think this story is going to address some of the unanswered questions from 'Alone in the Rain.' The first being what exactly that man wanted with Jess's dad, the second being what exactly a bunch of 11-12-year-olds were doing waiting for pizza at 2 in the morning… And anything else I come across that was never explained. Please review and tell me what you think.