Former classmates

With mixed emotions Jenny accepted Jason's answer and they got up to prepare for what they had planned today. In less than an hour, they were out of the door and well on their way to their first stop. While their evenings were filled with family visits, their days were spent with showing Jason different parts of Jenny's childhood. Today they were visiting Jenny's primary school and high school. Her primary school was up first and she introduced him there to her former teachers, showing him her seat in the different classrooms, even playing on the playground where she had spent many hours of her school days. After that they headed to her high school, which was a twenty-minute bike ride away. Showing Jason, the distance she had to cross to reach her school. Summer break in the Netherlands hadn't started yet, so the school still had students roaming the halls who were on their way to a test or had just finished one. After visiting the cafeteria with Jason for lunch, they walked out into the halls, where she ran into one of her former classmates "Jenny? Is that you?"

Once the girl had confirmed Jenny's identity for herself, she turned around to call the rest of her classmates, who had been just around the corner on their way to back from a test. Her former classmates instantly recognized her and soon she was surrounded by many people, who had many questions. "Jenny you are back! Who is that handsome boy?" "I thought you said you moved, what brings you by?" "Did you miss us and the school so much that you moved back?" A few of them started talking to Jason, who was standing by Jenny's side, with an arm on her shoulder and a stoic expression on his face, when Jenny explained "This is Jason, he is my fiancé. He doesn't speak Dutch. If you want to talk to him, you can speak in English." The eyes of the people around her grew and the reactions were all over the place. "Did you just say fiancé?!" "When did you get engaged?!" "You are only seventeen, are you crazy?" "At least you bagged yourself a handsome one!"

Once the question fire started, Jason had taken a step to the side. When a few of the girls had tried to start to talking to him, he had tapped Jenny on the shoulder and had said "Why don't you catch up with them, I'll go to the bathroom and after that explore a bit." He wasn't very fond of crowds nor strangers, feeling he had met and been kind to enough people these past few days, he decided to sit this one out. If any of these people were worth his time, Jenny would surely introduce them to him. Besides, he didn't feel like witnessing the awkwardness caused when one person in a crowd speaks a different language. People would fall back into their default language when they weren't focusing on speaking the other language and once they noticed they would be apologizing and trying to translate what they had said before, all so he could half participate. It didn't seem worth the effort. He headed for the bathroom and when he returned, he glanced over in Jenny's direction to see if Jenny needed him to escape from them.

However, at this moment he saw a new guy joining the crowd. He seemed clearly surprised by Jenny's presence, so Jason assumed he too must have been a former classmate of hers. He was about to look away again, when he noticed some disturbance in the crowd. When he turned around again, he saw the guy that had just arrived, walk away from the crowd and shortly behind him was Jenny. Where he was barely glancing before, this sight had caught his attention fully. Following their movements like a hawk.

He watched the changes in the boy's expression from a distance, as he was facing Jenny's back. It started a bit hesitant and shifted into hopeful, before it turned a bit sad and disappointed. If he had to judge by the atmosphere, the conversation they were having was a confession. Usually, he would try to read their lip movements to get an idea of what was being discussed, but they were speaking Dutch, so he didn't understand his words. Suddenly Jenny turned around, apparently looking for Jason. When she spotted him, she smiled and waved him over. With a confused expression, Jason walked up to them and he was finally filled in on what was happening. "Jason, could you tell him what you are to me?" Jason's eyes turned cold and sharp, asserting instant dominance over the guy standing in front of him who was waiting for his answer. "My fiancé, why?" It appeared his guess was right, and Jenny had just been confessed to, but it seemed the guy didn't believe her reason for rejecting him. Telling her that if she didn't like him a 'no' would have sufficed, she didn't need to make up such elaborate lies. Being faced with Jason's strong presence and clear words, he had no more words to say. He just walked away with a lost expression and nothing more than a "Oh...I'm sorry..."

Once the boy was gone, Jason turned to Jenny and asked "Who was that guy? Confessing after seeing someone after half a year." Jenny giggled at the sight of his upset expression and explained that he was one of her guy friends that she hung out with during school. He had been home with a cold in the time she had announced her leave and everything after that had gone by quite fast. They weren't close enough for her to visit him and at that time that wasn't something that was on her mind either. "I thought he wanted to talk to me in private because he hadn't been able to say goodbye back then or ask me for my reason for leaving, I didn't expect a confession. Apparently, he had been having a crush on me for some time and was shocked to find me gone when he came to school after a week at home. Now that he saw me again, he decided to take the shot he hadn't been able to take, not knowing that I am already a taken woman." "Well, I guess that message has been told loud and clear today, for all your other "guy" friends as well." Jenny couldn't help but laugh again at her jealous prince, who looked like he was huffing and puffing away all the men in her vicinity.

After an eventful visit to her school, Jenny used the following days to take him to parks she often visited, the beach near her house and the large one a few towns over, the club where she used to play soccer and the places she had volunteered. Each place seemed happier to see her than the one before. Showing Jason that Jenny had been very loved. Making him feel a bit guilty that he had taken her away from this place, but also even more determined to give it his all to make her happy back in England as well. So that losing this, would be worth it to have her life over there. So that she wouldn't miss it too much and so that she wouldn't even consider moving back!