The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson by Paige Toon Page B

father in London, an aged musician, serial womaniser and recovering alcoholic.
    Sounds familiar. Johnny has been described like this, too.
    He dropped out of school to concentrate on his music, took on his father’s surname and formed Fence in his late teens. They signed a record deal and were global superstars by the time Johnny was twenty.
    I would have been born around this time.
    At the age of twenty-three, the band split.
    How old would I have been then? Three?
    Johnny had a well-publicised breakdown, spiralling out of control with drink and drugs.
    Like father like daughter?
    Two years later, he came back as a solo artist and was more successful than ever. He met his wife-to-be, Meg Stiles, when she went to work for him as his personal assistant.
    He was 30 when they met, which means I was about ten. I was consumed with the identity of my real dad around this time. Libby would remember.
    They now have two children together: Barney, three, and a baby boy called Phoenix.
    I have half brothers. I’ve never had any siblings. Stuart couldn’t. Am I the only one like me out there? Or are there others that I don’t know about, that the world doesn’t know about?
    My head is still prickling with this thought a while later, when I open up YouTube and watch some music videos. It freaks me out to see that I actually look like Johnny: the same piercing green eyes, the same colour hair. A shiver goes up and down my spine. What will everyone say when they find out the truth?
    I manage to avoid talking to people pretty much all day, but later when I’m walking to the staff car park, I spy Natalie with a group of Year Elevens.
    ‘Hey!’ she says.
    ‘Hi,’ I reply.
    ‘Just finished my final exam.’
    ‘Bollocks!’ I exclaim. ‘Of course you did! Sorry, I meant to text you and wish you good luck.’ I’ve been so preoccupied. She was going home after Winter Hill yesterday to revise. Not that she thought you could do much revision for Maths. ‘By now, you either know it or you don’t,’ were her words.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tom and Chris coming out of the hall. I try to focus on my friend.
    ‘How did it go?’ I ask her.
    ‘It was alright, actually,’ she says casually. ‘I’m relieved I’ve finally finished. You coming to Dougie’s tonight? His end of exams party is going to be great.’
    ‘Um, I don’t think so . . .’ Tom and Chris reach our group and start joking around with their mates. They’re all on a high after finishing their exams.
    ‘Seriously?’ Natalie asks. I look back at her to see her face has dropped.
    ‘I can’t,’ I reply regretfully.
    She smiles kindly. ‘Next year will fly by, Jess,’ she says, mistaking my mood. She thinks I’m upset because they’re all leaving and I’m staying. And a couple of days ago, that would have been my biggest problem – I’ve been dreading it for weeks – but not now. Now I have bigger things on my mind.
    ‘Come on, come with us. Help me celebrate.’
    ‘No, really, I’ve got to get home.’
    Tom looks over at me. ‘You going to Dougie’s tonight, Jessie?’
    My butterflies lift their dozy heads as he looks at me hopefully, but even they are too consumed with other things to bother taking flight in my stomach.
    ‘No, I can’t,’ I tell him, noticing Stuart come out of the door near the staff room. I lift my hand up to wave at him and he nods his acknowledgement.
    ‘Are you grounded?’ Tom asks.
    ‘Nope, just gotta go,’ I tell him, backing away. ‘See you later,’ I say to Natalie. She looks put out, but hopefully she’ll understand soon enough. Tom looks disappointed, too.
    I jog over to Stuart. He raises one eyebrow at me over the hood of his car.
    ‘What?’ I ask.
    ‘I’m just waiting for you to ask if you can go out with your friends,’ he says.
    ‘No.’ I open the car door and climb inside.
    ‘Huh,’ he says as he appears next to me and starts up the ignition.
    ‘Any news?’ I ask eagerly.
    ‘No.’ He