Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed my first chapter! I hope everyone likes this one too! Enjoy and review, please!
Jack's POV
"Come on, Jack, tell us what's wrong!" Jerry tries for about the tenth time in less than a minute. "Jack, come on!" he continues to whine. I am seriously about to lose my temper with him, and luckily Kim chooses that moment to come out of Rudy's office. She sees the annoyed look on my face and steps in between Jerry and me. "Jack, why don't we head back to the house?" she asks me, concern in her eyes. "We just got here," I reply; I guess she's worried that I'll harm Jerry if I stay. "Alright, fine," Kim says.
I go back to beating on the punching dummy, hard. I know that Kim and the guys keep sneaking glances at me as they do their own thing, like breaking boards or sparring, but I just block them out, entering my own little world and emptying all of my confusion and hurt into the dummy. My mom is back. I have a stepdad. I have a sister . . .
"JACK!" I hear Kim scream my name, and I turn towards her, startled. She is snapping her fingers in my face, looking worried, and all of the others, including Rudy, are staring at me. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I ask, "What?"
"Dude, we're going over to Falafel Phil's, you wanna come?" Jerry asks slowly, as if he is talking to someone who doesn't understand English. "Uh, yeah, sure," I say, taking Kim's hand and starting to walk over with them; I can feel Rudy's eyes watching me as I walk out of the dojo. Was they really that concerned about me? I guess he just didn't want a repeat of last year; trust me, I didn't want that either. The bell over the door to the dojo rings as the door closes behind the five of us. I grab the handle of the door to Falafel Phil's, about to pull it open when I see an all too familiar face inside: my mom, with James and baby Erin. She meets my eyes and smiles, motioning for me to come inside; instead I say, "Guys, I'm not hungry, actually," and jog away from the restaurant.
They all look very confused as I leave hurriedly, but I see Kim finally get it when she looks inside and sees who is there. She is about to come after me when the door to Phil's opens, blocking her when she tries to step forward; James comes out and jogs in my direction, soon followed by Kim while Eddie, Milton, and Jerry all just stay where they are and stare after us, looking extremely confused. "Jack, come on, wait a second!" I hear James call out. I risk a look back, and see him not far behind, and I notice that Kim is speeding up to catch me, probably worried that I'll run off again like last time and get myself into trouble again.
I would never put her or my friends through something like that again, so even though I really don't want to talk to James, I slow to a stop so Kim can see that I'm not going anywhere. James gets to me first, looking thankful that I stopped; I just glare at him. Kim gets there a couple of seconds later, panting. "Jack, I admit what you're mother did was wrong, but do you really have to avoid her like that? You're really hurting her, bud."
Kim looks like she wants to say something, but I do first. "Okay, first of all, don't call me 'bud,' and second of all, I'm really hurting her?! She left me for over a year because I was a she thought I was a burden and couldn't even bother to say goodbye to me in person! She left a freakin' note!" I yell at him, angry. The guys come jogging up just as I am finishing my little mini rant. They look from me, to Kim, then too James.
"Okay, I'm confused . . . why'd you run off and who's the dude?" Jerry asks. Well, they had to find out eventually. "The answer to your first question, Jerry, is because my mom is in Falafel Phil's, and the 'dude' is my stepdad," I say, glaring at James when I say the 'stepdad' part.
"Dude, what!?" Jerry demands. "You're mom's back in Seaford?"
"Yeah, right in Falafel Phil's. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I also now have a half-sister named Erin," I say. Don't get me wrong, I had nothing against little Erin, but I figured they should know about her too. All three of the guys just stand there with their mouths open; Kim glares at them until they close them. "Jack, please at least come and talk with your mom," James pleads. "She really missed you over the past year; she mentioned you to me a lot."
"Yeah, she loved me enough to have another kid," I retort back. "I have nothing to say to her."
"Well, at least think of your sister; are you going avoid her for your entire life too, just because you have a grudge against your mom?"
"Well, no . . ."
"Alright then, why don't you come with me then and you can smooth over everything and spend some time with us and your baby sister?" James says kindly, motioning towards Falafel Phil's.
"I'm sorry but it's not that simple; things can't just be 'smoothed over,' James," I say and powerwalk away, followed by my friends; this time, my stepdad obviously realizes that he isn't going to make any progress with me and decides not to follow, which is smart of him because I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't lose my temper and use karate on him if he had followed. "Jack, where are you going?" Kim asks me as she and the guys try to keep up with my fast pace.
"Listen, Kim, guys: I appreciate you being concerned, but I really just want to be alone right now, okay?" I say, stopping and looking at them all in turn. Hoping they get the message, I turn and walk away, satisfied when I don't hear any footsteps following me. I turn left at the corner, continue down, and then turn right, soon arriving at my old house, that had been abandoned for over a year now, just like I had been. Walking up the steps of the front porch, I grab the key out of my pocket (I always kept it with me for some reason, though I hadn't been back here since I moved in with Kim), unlock the door, go upstairs to my old room, and flop down on my old bed, and soon I fall asleep.
Author's Note: Please review! Thanks! Hope you liked this chapter!