She was born Jennifer Olsten. She chose to go by Jen instead when she turned thirteen. She was standing in the hallway waiting for her older brother Alvin to finish in the bathroom. After five minutes, she began to beat on the door.
"I'm busy!" Alvin chirped.
Jen liked to think of him as that chipmunk....
"Come on Alvin! I need to pee!"
"I'm busy Jenny 5309!"
"My name isn't Jenny!"
And just like that- she decided that everyone would call her Jen from then on.
A week later she googled Jenny 5309. she watched the youtube video, then she went in search of her brother. She found him on the curb of their suburban road in Ohio hanging out with his skateboarder friends. A bunch of dweebs who considered themselves "Thrashers."
She walked up to him as he was bragging about doing 360 flips. He looked at her.
"What do you want retard?" He said as his friends leered at her and laughed.
He looked back at his friends for a moment to laugh at his own joke with them. When he looked back
Jen slapped him across the face as hard as she could muster.
Jen played softball since she was nine. So she could slap the shit out of her brother.
He stood there dumbfounded while his friends laughed at him. She stepped on his board flipping it up into his crotch. He let out a squeak and doubled over.
Jen then grabbed the board and threw it over the fence behind his friends who all dived for the ground as it sailed up and over them out into road beyond. Luckily it did not hit the car that was passing at that point but there was the definite sound of screeching tires and cussing.
Alvin looked up at his sister a mixture of fear and hatred in his face.
"I'm telling Dad!" he managed to say over his pain and discomfort.
"That'd be great," Jen said with a big toothy grin. "while you're at it- you can explain to them how you called me a whore, dickweed."
Alvin's story was edited down to the brass tacks when he told his father what Jen had done, it did not include the slap in the face or crotch hit. It was just about her throwing his prized skateboard out into traffic getting it run over by a semi-destroying it in the process. Alvin almost managed not to cry as he pointed at his sister at the dinner table while his older brother Saul had tears in his own eyes from as he struggled not to laugh at Alvin. Her father looked at Jen as this was all reported to him. When Alvin finished his story tears on his red face, her father looked at his daughter and raised a single eyebrow.
Jen looked back at him defiantly, crossed her arms and said.
"You ever hear that Tommy Tutone song about the phone number, Dad?"
Alvin was grounded for a month.
Their father decided it was best that everyone call Jen by her new name and anyone other than her mother caught calling her Jenny would be doing the dishes for life.
Alvin never called her Jenny again.
Jen had four siblings. Saul 4 years older, Alvin 2 years older, and Rebecca 3 years younger. Her mother, Patricia was a librarian at the community library and an avid knitter. Every year, each child got a brand new sweater for Christmas. Only Rebecca ever wore hers. Her father Jack was a car salesman who had dreamed of being a sports star but lost out due to a football injury in college which cost him his dreams. Jack had dropped out of College met Patricia and decided to relive his sports dreams vicariously through his children.
So far, Saul had been his favorite excelling in football to become the youngest all-star quarterback in their hometown of Perrysburg. Alvin had been introduced to several sports but shown no interest in furthering his father's desire and had turned to skateboarding instead. Jack hated the whole skateboarding thing until Alvin had shown his father Tony Hawk and extreme sports. Jack had taken Alvin to several events before concluding that Alvin did not have an athletic gene in his body.
Jen had been introduced to softball and soccer at an early age and to her father's relief been quite good at it. When Jack had started for Rebecca, Patricia had thrust out her knitting needle and told him a flat no on Rebecca following Jen or Saul into sports. Jack had spent a week sleeping on the couch in the den before patting his youngest child lovingly on the head and presenting her with a new barbie.
Jen had wanted a G.I. Joe instead of a new softball bat but her father would not hear of it.
Jen did not hate sports, she just didn't like the way it made the parents behave at games, her teammates screaming obscenities at the other team. She tried hard to not let it all get to her until one day in mid-spring when she had struck out at the plate and her father had strode across the field in the middle of the inning right up to the umpire and yelled in the man's face, calling him a cheat and a liar and a traitor to his class. The two men had scuffled with a lot of kicking dirt onto each other's shoes until a policeman had arrived to separate them and the game was called off due to a rain storm that no one could see but everyone agreed was about to happen.
In the aftermath, Patricia had to go bail her father out of jail, Jen decided that she was done with watching her father behave like that, so she tried to fake an injury and ended up breaking her wrist.
Blocking an incoming softball with your wrist proved to be both stupid and painful. The end result was no more softball and soccer for that season. Saul became the sole focus of her father and she was relieved.
Then Saul came home one day and informed Dad that he had been cut from the starting lineup for making a "C" in Chemistry. Her dad went nuts, he yelled at Saul who just shrugged at him. When that failed to get a response her dad called the school, and when that failed they moved. Yes, Jack uprooted the whole family from their home in Perrysburg and moved them to Sylvania. He did this on the pretense of changing jobs, but everyone knew it was so Saul could get back into the starting lineup with the Sylvania Southview Cougars.
Jen didn't mind as she had been kicked off the Softball team - she suspected mostly due to her dad costing the team the regionals. She liked the idea of going to a new school where no one had heard of the incident. The only one who took it hard was Alvin who lost his little posse of thrasher skateboarders. Jack ignored Alvin and his whining about it as he focused on making sure that Saul would get scouted for a good college team.
Alvin withdrew into video games and grunge rock until he had little to do with the rest of the family. Rebecca seemed oblivious to all of it happily reading her books and knitting with her mother. Which left Jen on her own with not much to do. It was at this point that Jen realized that she had never taken the time to have a pastime or a hobby that wasn't a sport. The first few weeks in the new neighborhood she would spend her time after school wandering around looking for potential playmates.
One afternoon as May was winding down, she came upon a small girl about her age sitting in an odd little house (a gazebo as she would learn later) playing with teacups and stuffed animals. The girl was talking to each animal as if they were members of a tea party. Jen was impressed with the skill that the girl poured the teas, the gracefulness of her actions and her careful speech as she talked to each of the animals. The girl wore this skirt and blouse that looked like it belonged in a museum.
Jen watched the girl carry on until a boy walked up next to her. She looked at him and realized that the boy wore a miniature version of a tuxedo. She looked at him and he stared back at her in her torn jeans, tee shirt and sneakers.
"Go away." the boy said making a shooing motion with his left hand.
Jen shook her head no.
"Go away!" the boy said louder and made as if to shove Jen.
"Ah, Eric." the girl said looking up from her visiting with a rabbit in a tux similar to the one the boy wore. "I see you have found our new tea party guest."
"She was just leaving," Eric said.
"Nonsense." the girl replied standing up from her table. She glided out to where Jen stood. The girl curtsied gracefully and looked up at Jen, smiling.
"I am Lady Fitzgerald, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," She held out her hand palm down.
Jen reached out a carefully took the girls hand, it was so soft and delicate.
"I am Jen Olsten."
"Lady Olsten, what a lovely name, please join us in the garden gazebo for a spot of tea and refreshment." the girl said still holding onto Jen's hand. Jen glanced at the boy who was scowling.
"Ah, forgive me, Lady Olsten," The girl said. "This young man is my valet, Eric Whinestien."
Jen grinned at this, as she was pretty sure from the sour look on Eric's face that Whinestien was not actually his last name. She nodded as she let the girl guide her to a vacant seat at the table. Jen sat down trying and failing to be graceful as she could manage. Eric made as if to move one of the stuffed animals- a teddy bear in a velveteen vest.
"Eric!" the girl said, "Sir Reginald will not be leaving, he just got here!"
"Ellie, please," Eric whined glaring at Jen.
Ellie ignored him.
"Lady Fitzgerald, may I please sit in a chair?" Eric pleaded.
Ellie, Lady Fitzgerald, paused for a moment tapping her bottom lip, then swept the stuffed cat into her arms and gesturing Eric into the vacant seat opposite Jen.
And that was how Jen first met Ellie Fitzgerald, her best friend.
"I'm busy!" Alvin chirped.
Jen liked to think of him as that chipmunk....
"Come on Alvin! I need to pee!"
"I'm busy Jenny 5309!"
"My name isn't Jenny!"
And just like that- she decided that everyone would call her Jen from then on.
A week later she googled Jenny 5309. she watched the youtube video, then she went in search of her brother. She found him on the curb of their suburban road in Ohio hanging out with his skateboarder friends. A bunch of dweebs who considered themselves "Thrashers."
She walked up to him as he was bragging about doing 360 flips. He looked at her.
"What do you want retard?" He said as his friends leered at her and laughed.
He looked back at his friends for a moment to laugh at his own joke with them. When he looked back
Jen slapped him across the face as hard as she could muster.
Jen played softball since she was nine. So she could slap the shit out of her brother.
He stood there dumbfounded while his friends laughed at him. She stepped on his board flipping it up into his crotch. He let out a squeak and doubled over.
Jen then grabbed the board and threw it over the fence behind his friends who all dived for the ground as it sailed up and over them out into road beyond. Luckily it did not hit the car that was passing at that point but there was the definite sound of screeching tires and cussing.
Alvin looked up at his sister a mixture of fear and hatred in his face.
"I'm telling Dad!" he managed to say over his pain and discomfort.
"That'd be great," Jen said with a big toothy grin. "while you're at it- you can explain to them how you called me a whore, dickweed."
Alvin's story was edited down to the brass tacks when he told his father what Jen had done, it did not include the slap in the face or crotch hit. It was just about her throwing his prized skateboard out into traffic getting it run over by a semi-destroying it in the process. Alvin almost managed not to cry as he pointed at his sister at the dinner table while his older brother Saul had tears in his own eyes from as he struggled not to laugh at Alvin. Her father looked at Jen as this was all reported to him. When Alvin finished his story tears on his red face, her father looked at his daughter and raised a single eyebrow.
Jen looked back at him defiantly, crossed her arms and said.
"You ever hear that Tommy Tutone song about the phone number, Dad?"
Alvin was grounded for a month.
Their father decided it was best that everyone call Jen by her new name and anyone other than her mother caught calling her Jenny would be doing the dishes for life.
Alvin never called her Jenny again.
Jen had four siblings. Saul 4 years older, Alvin 2 years older, and Rebecca 3 years younger. Her mother, Patricia was a librarian at the community library and an avid knitter. Every year, each child got a brand new sweater for Christmas. Only Rebecca ever wore hers. Her father Jack was a car salesman who had dreamed of being a sports star but lost out due to a football injury in college which cost him his dreams. Jack had dropped out of College met Patricia and decided to relive his sports dreams vicariously through his children.
So far, Saul had been his favorite excelling in football to become the youngest all-star quarterback in their hometown of Perrysburg. Alvin had been introduced to several sports but shown no interest in furthering his father's desire and had turned to skateboarding instead. Jack hated the whole skateboarding thing until Alvin had shown his father Tony Hawk and extreme sports. Jack had taken Alvin to several events before concluding that Alvin did not have an athletic gene in his body.
Jen had been introduced to softball and soccer at an early age and to her father's relief been quite good at it. When Jack had started for Rebecca, Patricia had thrust out her knitting needle and told him a flat no on Rebecca following Jen or Saul into sports. Jack had spent a week sleeping on the couch in the den before patting his youngest child lovingly on the head and presenting her with a new barbie.
Jen had wanted a G.I. Joe instead of a new softball bat but her father would not hear of it.
Jen did not hate sports, she just didn't like the way it made the parents behave at games, her teammates screaming obscenities at the other team. She tried hard to not let it all get to her until one day in mid-spring when she had struck out at the plate and her father had strode across the field in the middle of the inning right up to the umpire and yelled in the man's face, calling him a cheat and a liar and a traitor to his class. The two men had scuffled with a lot of kicking dirt onto each other's shoes until a policeman had arrived to separate them and the game was called off due to a rain storm that no one could see but everyone agreed was about to happen.
In the aftermath, Patricia had to go bail her father out of jail, Jen decided that she was done with watching her father behave like that, so she tried to fake an injury and ended up breaking her wrist.
Blocking an incoming softball with your wrist proved to be both stupid and painful. The end result was no more softball and soccer for that season. Saul became the sole focus of her father and she was relieved.
Then Saul came home one day and informed Dad that he had been cut from the starting lineup for making a "C" in Chemistry. Her dad went nuts, he yelled at Saul who just shrugged at him. When that failed to get a response her dad called the school, and when that failed they moved. Yes, Jack uprooted the whole family from their home in Perrysburg and moved them to Sylvania. He did this on the pretense of changing jobs, but everyone knew it was so Saul could get back into the starting lineup with the Sylvania Southview Cougars.
Jen didn't mind as she had been kicked off the Softball team - she suspected mostly due to her dad costing the team the regionals. She liked the idea of going to a new school where no one had heard of the incident. The only one who took it hard was Alvin who lost his little posse of thrasher skateboarders. Jack ignored Alvin and his whining about it as he focused on making sure that Saul would get scouted for a good college team.
Alvin withdrew into video games and grunge rock until he had little to do with the rest of the family. Rebecca seemed oblivious to all of it happily reading her books and knitting with her mother. Which left Jen on her own with not much to do. It was at this point that Jen realized that she had never taken the time to have a pastime or a hobby that wasn't a sport. The first few weeks in the new neighborhood she would spend her time after school wandering around looking for potential playmates.
One afternoon as May was winding down, she came upon a small girl about her age sitting in an odd little house (a gazebo as she would learn later) playing with teacups and stuffed animals. The girl was talking to each animal as if they were members of a tea party. Jen was impressed with the skill that the girl poured the teas, the gracefulness of her actions and her careful speech as she talked to each of the animals. The girl wore this skirt and blouse that looked like it belonged in a museum.
Jen watched the girl carry on until a boy walked up next to her. She looked at him and realized that the boy wore a miniature version of a tuxedo. She looked at him and he stared back at her in her torn jeans, tee shirt and sneakers.
"Go away." the boy said making a shooing motion with his left hand.
Jen shook her head no.
"Go away!" the boy said louder and made as if to shove Jen.
"Ah, Eric." the girl said looking up from her visiting with a rabbit in a tux similar to the one the boy wore. "I see you have found our new tea party guest."
"She was just leaving," Eric said.
"Nonsense." the girl replied standing up from her table. She glided out to where Jen stood. The girl curtsied gracefully and looked up at Jen, smiling.
"I am Lady Fitzgerald, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," She held out her hand palm down.
Jen reached out a carefully took the girls hand, it was so soft and delicate.
"I am Jen Olsten."
"Lady Olsten, what a lovely name, please join us in the garden gazebo for a spot of tea and refreshment." the girl said still holding onto Jen's hand. Jen glanced at the boy who was scowling.
"Ah, forgive me, Lady Olsten," The girl said. "This young man is my valet, Eric Whinestien."
Jen grinned at this, as she was pretty sure from the sour look on Eric's face that Whinestien was not actually his last name. She nodded as she let the girl guide her to a vacant seat at the table. Jen sat down trying and failing to be graceful as she could manage. Eric made as if to move one of the stuffed animals- a teddy bear in a velveteen vest.
"Eric!" the girl said, "Sir Reginald will not be leaving, he just got here!"
"Ellie, please," Eric whined glaring at Jen.
Ellie ignored him.
"Lady Fitzgerald, may I please sit in a chair?" Eric pleaded.
Ellie, Lady Fitzgerald, paused for a moment tapping her bottom lip, then swept the stuffed cat into her arms and gesturing Eric into the vacant seat opposite Jen.
And that was how Jen first met Ellie Fitzgerald, her best friend.
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