Alright, I might as well get this out right now. Thanks so much for the reviews, you all rock. So, because you all replied so promptly, here's another chapter filled with goodness for you all! Enjoy x)

CH.2 !

Jack had dropped Kimiko off at her house and was now sitting at the desk he set up in his basement. He had a few scattered blue prints out, all filed to the brim with his plans on how to upgrade his game system… which, I might add, is of his own design. But none of that mattered to him, his head was filled and buzzing with the past day's events. Within one day, jack had gone from being an elitist with a very specific group of cronies- er, I mean friends, to gaining two new, somehow different than the rest, buds.

Rai was a character all in his own. Jack had never taken the time to talk with him, mainly because he was your typical soccer playing, muscle strutting, jock, and Jack… well Jack was the anti of all that. But now Jack had come to recognize that that old saying about opposites attracting was all true. Rai had a sense of humor unique to anyone he had ever met; even his closely knit network of friends couldn't make him laugh that hard. And because Jack knew that no self respecting cashier would ever take that grimy $5 bill into their hands, he made sure to stick it up on the wall next to his bedpost. Of course, he used no glue at all; instead, the sticky juice-like secretions would be enough to hold it for all eternity… and then some.

Kimiko, however, was a completely different story. Jack couldn't be sure if she was his new friend, enemy, or worst nightmare, for that matter. If there was one word Jack could use to sum up the girl, it would have to be crazy hot head. Ok, so that was three words, but Jack could always just scrunch them together to form the ultra word, crazyhothead. There were instances during their drive home, where Jack wanted nothing more than to push her out of the moving car and out onto the freeway, but there were other times when he had to restrain himself from wrapping her up in a big, glompy bear hug. Hey, he couldn't help it… he did have a crush on her since like… the 5th grade.

After fondly revisiting the events of the day over and over again in his memory, Jack decided it was best to retire early for the night. After all, he would need the rest; tomorrow was gym class.

The next day of school, Jack found himself rushing off to the boy's locker room to get ready for gym. The whole way there he cursed himself for sleeping in. The last thing he needed was to have his Gym teacher get twisted into a bad mood over his tardiness. As he rounded a corner he ran headlong into the big star of the football team, Clay Bailey, who had apparently just finished changing and was off to play some kick ball. Clay stood like a rock as Jack ricocheted off him and onto the ground. "You alright there, pardner?" the big cowboy of a kid asked.

"Swell," Jack huffed, while regaining his posture and walking off in even more of an awful mood than beforehand. He could here Clay saying something to the effect of "glad ta here it, see ya down stairs," but to be quite honest, Jack couldn't care in the least. The last thing he needed for his reputation would get caught talking with the country bumpkin, Clay the Cowboy.

"This is ridiculous, this is so ridiculous! I can't believe how friggin' ridiculous this is! They shouldn't make academically inclined students take gym." The boy grumbled like this for the entirety of the time it took to get himself changed, and most of the way down to the Gymnasium. In fact, he had only stopped once he went to open the gym door and heard his gym teachers terrifying voice come in full force to bombard him.

"Spicer!" he shrieked, while blowing his shiny, red whistle, signaling all the children to stop playing their game of kickball and to listen. "You are late to my class and you wear the wrong type of shoes? You, my lowly boy, are a disappointment. What do you have to say in your defense?"

Completely taken aback by his teacher's rage with him, Jack stuttered out, "s-sorry sir, Mr. Young , Sir."

Mr. Young, however, never excepted apologies that easily, and felt that Jack should pay for insulting the fine class of Gym in front of him. "I will let you redeem yourself, because I am a compassionate person, but it will take some work on your part." Using his index finger as a pointer, he lead Jack across the gymnasium, "see there? Stand in place of that dummy, and all will be forgiven."

Jack stood obediently where he had been instructed, because he had heard the horror stories from kids who didn't listen to Mr. Young, while his teacher informed the class of the day's new activity. "It has been brought to my attention that you all are lacking the skill of aim, a most important skill when it comes to the art of dodge ball. That's why I had brought down the CPR dummy from the health class, you were all going to stand at point blank range from it and throw dodge balls at its face. But there has been a change of plans, Mr. Spicer, here, has volunteered to take the dummy's place."

If possible, at that very instant, Jack's entire face went a shade paler than it had been a minute ago. He looked on in horror as the entire class lined up in front of him, no further than 10 ft. away, and each with a rose red dodge ball in hand. The first of 20 kids wound up, readying himself for the shot, when he was stopped by a voice coming from the near back of the line. "Mr. Chase Young, sir… uhhh… I don't believe this is very practical. I mean, I don't really get how peggin' Jack like this is gonna help us turn into better Dodgeball players."

Jack and Clay stood side by side as the slew of juniors and seniors wound up to make the shot. Jack, now having Clay beside him, wasn't at all as frightened as before. Though incredibly selfish, Jack had made up his mind to just use Clay as a human shield when the time came. And when it did, let me tell you, it was like being on the battle front of some strangely odd war that used red rubber balls in the place of bullets.

To Jack, it almost seemed like a slow motion shot taken directly out of some big motion picture film… perhaps the Chronicles of Riddick. The dodge balls flew in from all directions, and just when Jack was about to duck behind Clay's massive body, something out of the ordinary happened. Clay jumped in front of him, taking on all the arsenal himself. Jack watched form behind as Clay stood with his chest puffed out. "This… this is amazing… is that country bumpkin taking all the heat for me?" For a short instance, Jack peered around Clay's massive shoulders to see that he was, indeed, taking all the blows for Jack.

Confused, bewildered, and a little shaken, Jack left the gym class with Clay by his side. "What was that for?" he asked, peering up at the massive boy.

The words Clay spoke were kind, "well, ya see. I figured you an' I never really get to talkin' much. An' then I saw you up there, 'bout to get pummeled in like a beef slab my momma's fixin' to cook, an' well… I thought it might be a good time to set things right between us."

To be honest, Jack was at a loss for words. Was Clay trying to tell him that he thought Jack was weak? Or was he just trying to be nice. Either way, Jack wasn't having any of it, because it didn't matter what angle you looked at it from, every spin you put on it pointed straight to pity favors, and Jack Spicer needs no pity. "Listen Clay, I'm real touched you put yourself through that to protect fragile little me-"

"Oh, it's no problem pardner."

Jack's expression went flat, "I wasn't done yet, cowboy. I just want to make it perfectly clear to you that I could have handled it on my own. I don't need your country ass tryin' to save me when a few kids with rubber balls come at me, got it?" The boy would have continued further, if it wasn't for the fact that Clay had already wandered off into another hallway…presumably to get away from Jack and his bitching. But it didn't really matter, because now Jack had caught sight of a far more endearing person than Clay Cowpoke 101.

Kimiko was just heading out of her Math class, completely flogged by a group of her yuppie friends. Not sure what to do, Jack slowly edged his way up to her, making sure not to look too obvious, but at the same time, letting her know he was coming for her. But just before he was about to open his mouth and let out a few words, something in him decided it would be better to just wimp out and walk away. However, Kim, realizing that Jack hadn't been heading over to talk with her after all (or so she thought) decided this to be the opportune moment to get a laugh.

With the speed of greased lightning, she shot her leg right in front of Jack's path. Before he knew what had hit him, he was laying face first on the linoleum tiles of the east-wing hall, while entire flocks of teens stood and gawked at his embarrassing fumble. Amongst some of the kids who were laughing, was Kimiko and her friends. "Jack, you're so awkward," she tee-heed, while looking back to her comrades for support. With the new found esteem-boost provided by those with her, she went on, "can you get any clumsier? It's like you have one left foot and a peg leg… it's embarrassing, really. They should just call you Peg Legged Jack the Pitiful Pirate. Hey, that really works out nicely!"

It was indescribable, the anger Jack felt toward the girl at that moment in time. One more comment out of her snide mouth and he swore he would billow steam from his ears and rip her to shreds. But to Jack's great undying luck, there wouldn't be, because out of nowhere, a familiar face showed itself through the masses of bored school kids.

Raimundo came bounding down the hall at him. One hand was balled up into a fist and the other was used to push innocent bystanders aside. He was shouting through such thick sheets of rage, even Jimmy, the angriest kid in school, couldn't understand him.

That was it, the jig was up. Rai must have obviously figured out that Jack had a crush on his ex-girlfriend. And everyone knows the code… y'know, the one where you don't date your friend's ex, it was just a sneaky and snake like thing to do. But had Rai really gotten the chance to get to know Jack, he would have realized that that was all Jack really was; a sneaky snake. In an attempt to surrender before the beating began, Jack put his hands up, hand cuff style, to prove he would go quietly. But just as Jack was about to beg for Rai's mercy (because you just don't mess with a kid who's got fangs and devil horns on at the moment) the unthinkable happened.

Instead of bowling over Jack, which is what everyone watching had been hoping for, Rai tackled Kimiko to the ground instead. Now that he was face to face with his adversary, his words became slightly more comprehensible, "you stupid piece of crap, jerk! I swear! You always have to try and ruin everything I have going for me. But what did Jack ever do to you, except show you up at being a better friend to me than your sorry ass!"

Jack had to be honest, that was a complete shocker. Especially because he was about to double cross Rai right then and there. But here Rai was, just trying to be a genuinely good friend, if not a bit on the over protective side. As the two of them stood themselves back up and brushed the hallway dirt off their clothes Kim adorned her patented pouty face. "oh Raimundo, I'm hurt to here you say such mean things to me, especially because I was only going to ask your friend for a ride home after school's let out."

Both Raimundo and Jack made the universally known "whuh?" face at each other, and then looked on at Kim with disbelief. "… What do you mean… you want me to give you a ride home?" This girl was driving Jack up the wall. First she trips him and publicly humiliates him, and then she's asking for another ride home.

Batting her lashes profusely, Kim went on, "well yeah, Jack, here, was so nice to me while he drove me home yesterday, I thought maybe we could do it again today!" Without saying another word, she skipped off merrily with her team of super friends, leaving the two perplexed boys in her dust.

Rai walked with jack the rest of the way to their Chem class, honing in on a few questions he would like to take up with his new "so called" amigo. As they entered the class, he decided to drop the first question, "so, Jack man, you gave Kim a ride home yesterday?"

Jack held up his hands in defense, "well… it's not like I wanted to or anything," the two took their seats, "it's like this. I wasn't exactly paying attention to the road while I drove out of here yesterday, and well… I think I almost hit your ex-girlfriend."

"You almost hit her?" Rai's face went bleak and sallow for a second, and then came back to life with newly birthed fits of laughter. "That's great!." He went on sniggering about this new image that had just been placed in his head for a couple of moments more, and then got back to his talk with Jack. "So then, why was it that you had to give her a ride home, then?"

Figuring he wasn't completely lying, Jack went on to tell Rai his story without feeling the least bit guilty. "She, like, completely forced me into it. Damn… she's scary, man!" This last comment only erupted more chuckles from his buddy. In fact, he only stopped because the teacher stepped in, wanting to get class underway. "Tell me the rest later." He whispered, while putting on his innocent school boy face, and looking up at the chalkboard.

After class, Raimundo had Jack walk with him to every subject he had next on his agenda, in order that he could tell him the story about how he almost ran Kimiko over, again and again. Each time Jack reiterated it to him, it seemed to become more and more hilarious. For the most part, this was how Jack's day carried on, pretty much all the way through until his lovely study hall.

Once again, he found himself, by his lonesome I the deep cellars of the school. Though he enjoyed the company of his new friends, he still much preferred the silence and solitude to all their yapping. As he pulled his welding goggles over his eyes, preparing to singe the ends of some metal wires to a circuit board, his usual confidant smirk curled upon his lips. He hummed a little tune to himself while sparks went flying, feeling completely at one with his element. It was only after he pulled the goggles on that he was free to let his mind wander.

What was with that girl, Kimiko? She ran either hot or cold, there was no happy medium for her. Jack knew how he felt about her, but he could never get a clear message from her end. Though, it didn't really matter in the end. He liked it when she played games with him; not matter how cruel and nasty they were. As Jack finished up for the day, he decided he would just have to ride this wave out and see whether or not it would leave him stranded on a desert island, or take him up onto it's beach. But one thing was for sure, he would have to play things careful. If he didn't, he could lose either a great new companion, namely Raimundo, or his crush since the 5th grade. Why couldn't things be easy for him?

Ok, so that's it for Chapter 2. tell me what you think, won't you?