Picking up the Pieces

Summary: Lars Rodriguez is a loser. He's nearly failing out of his senior year, and he along with his loser friends are the resident stoners. Yet Lars is satisfied with this life. That is until one of his loser friends jumps off the roof. Now Lars' life is flipped upside down as he struggles to find his way. With the help of a pretty girl, can Lars discover his way out of this messed up life, or will he be doomed to stay in it forever?

Author's Note: Hey! I'm back. Here's Part I of the Lars story I talked about at the end of Tweaked. This is not part of any other of my Rocket Power universes, however, it was inspired by some of sentences I created in Teenage Moodswings. This entirely new story. The idea came to me as I read Exit Here by Jason Myers. I have stolen some parts of the stories from there. I own neither Exit Here or Rocket Power. Please enjoy. :)

WARNING: This story will deal with very serious issues. Just to name a few: drugs, sex, alcohol/underage drinking, suicide, rape. If you have a problem dealing with such issues, please excuse yourself from reading this story. Also note, I am not an expert at any of these things, nor have I never been a victim to any of these issues, so therefore, parts of the story may not be completely accurate. However, I have done my best to makes sure that this story is as realistic as it can be. Thank you and please enjoy.

Rated M for Mature.

007 - Despair
After he watches Spudz jump off his roof with a rope around his neck, Lars cries for hours.

Part I:

shatter

v. to break into pieces

As Lars Rodriguez sat in the holding cell with his pals Pi and Animal, he reflected on the day's events that lead him to the police department in the first place. It wasn't the first time Officer Shirley had picked them up for smoking a bowl and drinking in public. In his opinion, it probably wouldn't be their last.

Still, he wondered with they kept interrogating Spuds in private. Usually, they just pick them up, keep them all in a cell for a while, before having their parents pick them up.

Lars simply overlooked this detail as he returned on reflecting on his day.

It had started in the morning. It was the last day of winter break. It was supposedly the last day of winter break of Lars' high school career (that is, if he passes his classes and doesn't fail out of school). As usual, Lars woke up to an empty house for it was past noon when he had awoke. His parents were at work. As for Twister, Lars assumed that he was hanging out with those rocket dorks and the nerd next door.

To be honest, he and Maurice were never really close. Even as kids, they would always bicker. It was mostly due to the fact that Twister was obviously their parent's favorite. When he was a kid, Lars hated him for it. Though now, Lars didn't really care. Then again, he didn't really care about anything anymore.

Lars got out of bed and went to the kitchen. His mother left him breakfast in the microwave, so he heated it up and send a quick text to the guys for the plans for the day. No doubt they would be boozing and smoking like always.

Pi texted him back letting him know that Lars still had two hours to kill before the four of them were going to meet up. Lars smirked, he knew his favorite past time.

Lars boarded to the beach a while later. He soon found his way to Raymundo's rental shop where a certain girl he knew worked.

The girl was name Trina Vargas. She was a fellow senior who was in one of Lars' class. She also had a huge crush on him since their freshmen year. He didn't really know why, but she did. However, she loved to act that she hated his guts. Besides, she was not only insanely pretty, but she was head cheerleader, ASB president, and the most popular girl in OCHS. There's no way she'd want to be even remotely related to the likes of Lars the stoner.

Still, Lars got his kicks annoying her.

He arrived to the rental store to find it closed. There was a sign on the garage-like door, 'Close for the day, sorry for the inconvenience.' Lars groaned before grabbing the sharpie he keeps in his pocket. He drew an obscene drawing on the sign and stalked off.

Guess annoying Trina would have to wait for another day.

Lars boarded his way back to his house when he saw a makeshift street hockey game going on in the cul de sac. Taking a good look, he realized it was the rocket dorks, along with the nerd and his lame-o brother, against the New Zealand kid, the Asian surfer chick, the annoying blonde girl, and the kid with the mask. There were a few kids on the sidelines. None of them were any of Lars kind.

Lars rolled at the game and continued to skate in the middle of it. He heard the Otto and Maurice complaining, but he ignored them. Like he cared anyways.

Lars stalked back to the house, he might as well take a hit from his own bong before meeting his friends.

A few hours later, Lars finally met up with the guys under the pier. He was already a tad high, but when Animal offered him a joint, Lars took it without a question.

"School starts again tomorrow." Pi said nonchalant. He took a drag from his joint.

"You guys should just drop out like me." Animal replied. It was true; he may have been the youngest from the four, but he dropped out of school in the beginning of the school year. His parents had long been dead, and his older brother, his primary care-taker, was the resident drug dealer of Oceanshores.

Spudz mumbled something incoherent. Lars noticed something was up with the taller boy, but he didn't question it. Instead he took a beer from the cooler Animal provided.

"I would, but I'm actually going to college next year." Pi bragged. Lars rolled his eyes. Ever since he had been accepted Ocean Shores State University, he been acting like the bees knees. So he's going to college, whatever. Lars and Spudz were both going to go to the local community college.

"Cool story bro," Animal said sarcastically. Pi flipped him the bird which earned a laugh from Lars and Animal. Spudz simply nodded.

"Dude, what's up? You're being a buzz kill." Animal complained taking a swish from his beer.

"I… my… fuck…" Spudz shut his mouth and remained silent. Lars glanced at Pi. They shrugged at each other.

"Well, whatever it is bro, relax. It's our last day of break. Try to chill." Lars reassured the older boy. The orange-haired boy just nodded and took a gulp from his bottle.

The four of them just sat and talked. Pi mentioned his 15 year old girlfriend, April, and going to college again to the guys' displeasure. Animal mentioned the sketch deals he helped conduct and the girls he made sleep with him in exchange for drugs. Lars just complained how he couldn't find Trina this morning and how much of a lame-o Twister was. Spudz remained quiet most of the time.

An hour later they found themselves caught by Officer Shirley who wasn't surprised to find them, but still disappointed.

"Rodriguez, you're free to go." Officer Shirley said with a maternal concern. Lars just shrugged and expected to see his dad. To his surprise, it wasn't his parents picking up, but Raymundo and Tito.

"Yo Raymundo, where are my parental units?" he ignored Lars' question and continued to finish the paperwork. Then the older man grabbed Lars by the back of the neck and led him out the door where his car was. In the past few years, Lars had grown to be taller than both men to a height of 6'0". Still he wasn't as tall as Twister and Otto, which sucked.

Raymundo opened the car door for him. When he entered the car, he noticed the backseat was filled with all of his stuff from home.

"What the hell? Why's all my stuff here?" Once again, the older men were silent. Lars expected to return to the cul de sac, but to his surprise, Raymundo had driven them back to the shack. He parked the car in front of the restaurant and gestured for Lars to get out of the car.

"What are we doing here?" Lars asked confused. Finally Raymundo asked talked to him.

"Your parents kicked you out."

"What?"

"Your parents are fed up with you and the drugs. They don't want you to come back home."

"So why am I here?"

"You're staying with me," Tito answered. Lars nodded. It was a known fact that Tito was a bachelor. He didn't expect his parents to kick him out so soon. He knew it was going to happen eventually, but he thought they would've waited until after Lars finished high school.

Raymundo and Tito listed a whole bunch of nonsense AKA rules that Lars was to abide by. He was listening, but his mind was elsewhere.

A couple weeks later, Lars found himself at Spudz's house. He was supposed to be in school, but the three hooligans decided to ditch together. To Spudz request, they went to his house and didn't invite Animal. Spudz had an announcement apparently.

"So what's up?" Pi asked as he pulled into to Spudz place. He parked in front of the garage. The ginger shook his head.

"Wait here," he mumbled. He slipped out of the back seat and practically ran into his house. Lars leaned against the passenger window and stared at the two story house.

"What's up with him?" He asked mindlessly.

"No clue bro." Pi scrunched his face up. "How's life in Shore Shack?"

"Lame," Lars answered turning his face towards Pi. Raymundo picked him up from school to go to the Shack. He'd have to work from 3-7. Then it was "homework" time from 7-9, and then reflection time for the rest of the night. Tito had an alarm set-up that would go off if Lars tried to sneak out. Lars had tried finding a way out, but no avail. Raymundo and Tito were good.

"They don't let me do shit."

"Yeah bro, but at least we're hanging out now."

"Fosho. How's April?"

"Ugh… she's been a bitch lately. I don't know."

"Lame-o. You should dump her." Lars joked.

"Maybe I will." The two laughed. "Geez, what's taking Spudz so long?" Pi complained. Lars shrugged. He looked up out the window and noticed a familiar orange mess on the roof that wasn't there a few minutes earlier. He rushed out of the car.

"SPUDZ? WHAT ARE DOING?" Lars screamed. The boy in question was standing on the roof with a rope around his neck. The rope around his neck was attached to the balcony off the front of the house.

"I'm going to kill myself." He said loud enough for them to hear. For the first time in their lives, Pi and Lars wished they couldn't understand the other boy's speech impediment.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" Lars continued to scream.

"My life is over." Spudz cried calmly.

"Come on man! Don't do this!" Pi yelled.

"No. You guys don't understand."

"YES. WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS."

"They're sending me to jail. I'll never survive anyways, it's not like I have something to live for."

"No, it's not. They're not going to charge you with anything!

"That's bullshit. They're sending me to jail because I'm eighteen now."

"PLEASE. DON'T JUMP."

"Fuck this world guys. It's never been kind to me." Spudz inched his way closer to the edge of the roof.

"SPUDZ STOP. WE'RE FRIENDS. REMEMBER GOON SQUAD FOREVER?" Tears were streaming down all their faces.

"COME ON MAN. BEST BROS FOR LIFE."

"Please Spudz…"

"PLEASE." The ginger gave one last smile.

"Thanks guys." He mumbled before jumping off the roof.

Crack.

Gasp.

Swing.

Scream.

Shattered.

END PART I