Description: Richie tries to talk Potsie into handing over the gun.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this chapter.


Everyone is freaking out about what Potsie had just done, but Richie remains calm.

"Oh, my God! Is he okay?" Lori Beth asked about Professor Thomas.

"I don't know! He hasn't moved at all." Jennifer said, frightened.

"I've never seen that much blood before in my life." Ralph said, shocked.

"Potsie, why did you do that?" Richie calmly asked.

"I want everyone to sit down." Potsie calmly said.

Everyone sat down, except for Richie. He just stood there and tried to talk Potsie into handing over the gun.

"You don't know what you're doing. Why don't you just give me the gun and let everyone go?" Richie calmly asked.

"No, I can't do that. And I do know what I'm doing." Potsie said.

"You can't keep us in here. It's wrong." Richie said.

"Well, I'm the one with the gun. Now, what the hell does that tell you?" Potsie shouted.

"It just tells us that you're afraid. Just like everyone else here." Richie said.

"You're wrong, Richie. I stopped being afraid the second I murdered my dad."

Everyone was shocked at what Potsie had just revealed.

"Oh my God, Potsie. Why did you kill your father?" Jennifer asked.

"Because he never loved me."

"That's not true, Potsie. I'm sure your dad loved you." Richie said.

"Yeah, well if he did then he had a strange way of showing it." Potsie said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Richie asked.

"It means that my dad beat me all the time. Everything I did was wrong. In his eyes, I was a failure. Did you know that he even blamed me for mom's death?" And I believed him."

"But it wasn't your fault. You didn't know that your mom was going to die." Ralph said.

"I know that it wasn't my fault. I mean I used to believe that it was, but now I realized that it wasn't. Dad just needed someone to blame. So he chose me."

"That was wrong for your father to blame you. And I'm sorry Potsie. I didn't know he beat you. You never told us before." Richie said.

"He always told me to lie about it, if anyone ever asked me what happened. I would have loved to have a dad like yours, Richie or even one like yours, Ralph. A dad who loves me and to share jokes with."

Ten minutes later…

Potsie is looking through the file cabinet, while Richie and the rest of the group are quietly talking.

"It must have been tough for Potsie to grow up with an abusive father." Lori Beth said.

"Why was he so afraid to tell us what was happening to him?" Jennifer asked.

"Probably because his dad would have beaten him if he told the truth. If you think about it, Potsie was protecting the man who made his life a living hell." Ralph stated.

"But Potsie was also protecting himself too." Jennifer said.

"Why didn't I see any of the signs back then? I mean they were right in front of my face. The bruises, the cuts, scrapes, and the broken bones. All the signs of abuse, but I just looked right past it all." Richie said, feeling guilty.

Flashback: Six year old Richie and three year old Joanie are in the living room, fighting over one of Richie's toy cars. Marion is in the kitchen fixing lunch.

"Give that back!" Richie demanded when Joanie took his toy car away from him.

"No I want to play with it!" Joanie said.

"But it's mine. Daddy bought it for me. He bought you the doll. So you can just play with that instead." Richie stated as he grabbed the toy car away from the three year old, and gave her the doll.

Joanie then bit Richie.

"Ow!" Richie screamed, causing Marion to run in there.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Joanie bit me." Richie said, almost crying.

"Did you bite your brother?" Marion asked Joanie.

"Yes." Joanie answered.

"Why did you bite him?"

"Because he took the toy car away from me. And I wanted to play with it." Joanie explained.

"I had it first, mommy." Richie said.

"Joanie is that true?"

"Yes, but I wanted to play with the car. Richie always gets to play with it."

"Well, it is Richie's car and you had no right to take it from him or bite him. Now tell him you're sorry." Marion said.

"No, I don't want to." Joanie said.

"Either you apologize to your brother or go sit down on the couch for a few minutes."

Joanie quietly walked over to the couch and sat down.

Marion walked back into the kitchen when six year old Potsie walked into the door with a black eye and a cast on his left wrist.

"Hello, Mrs. C." Potsie said.

"Hello… Oh my God, Warren what happened to you?" Marion asked, shocked at the site of him.

"I fell while I was roller skating outside." Potsie said, lying.

"Are you okay?" Marion asked, concerned for the child.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I don't like wearing this cast, though. But the doctor says I won't have to wear it for very long. Is Richie here?" Potsie asked, changing the subject.

"Yes, he's in the living room."

"Thank you." Potsie said as he left the kitchen and walked into the living room. "Hello Richie."

"Hello Potsie. Whoa! What happened to you?" Richie asked.

"I fell while I was roller skating outside. Why is Joanie sitting on the couch?"

"Because she's in trouble. She bit me. Do you want to play cars?"

"Sure." Potsie said, as he sat on the floor next to Richie.

Joanie begins to jump on the couch.

"Joanie, stop jumping on the couch. You're not supposed to do that." Richie said.

"No, I don't have to." Joanie said as she continued to jump.

"You better stop or I'm going to tell mommy on you."

Joanie picked up her doll and threw it at Richie, but missed and ended up knocking the lamp off the table, causing it to shatter.

Hearing the loud noise, Marion quickly ran in there to see what had happened.

"Who broke the lamp?" She asked, seeming upset.

Fearing that what happened to him when he broke his mom's favorite vase, would happen to Joanie, Potsie took the blame.

"I broke it. I accidently ran into to it. I'm sorry, Mrs. C." Potsie said.

"No, mommy, he didn't break it. Joanie was jumping on the couch and I told her to stop, but she wouldn't. And then she threw her doll at me, but accidently hit the lamp instead." Richie explained.

"Is that true, Joanie?" Marion asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry mommy." Joanie said, apologizing.

"It's alright. You just need to be more careful next time. Warren, why did you take the blame for breaking the lamp?" Marion asked.

"Because Joanie was already in trouble for biting Richie and I didn't want her to be in trouble again." Potsie said, not revealing the truth to why he really took the blame.

"I appreciate that, but you didn't have to take the blame."Marion said to Potsie.

End of Flashback.

Richie notices that Potsie is looking through the file cabinet.

"Hey Potsie, I really don't think you should be looking through that." He said.

"Why not? He doesn't know I'm going through it. It's not like he can get up from the floor and kick me out of class." Potsie said, joking about the dead Professor Thomas.

"That isn't funny, Potsie." Jennifer said.

"Yeah, Potsie. You shouldn't joke about stuff like that." Lori Beth said.

"Well, he shouldn't have been such a jerk. Then maybe he'd still be alive." Potsie said.

"How long do you plan on keeping us locked up in here?" Richie asked.

Potsie thought for a few moments.

"I'm really not sure. I didn't plan this whole thing out." Potsie said.

"Our families are going to be worried about us, if we don't come home soon. And do you know the first place they'll be looking? Right here." Richie stated.

"Well, they'll be wasting their time then because nobody gets in and nobody gets out." Potsie said.

"This is going to be a long night." Ralph mumbled.


End of chapter three. Chapter four will be up soon. Please review.