The night has come, now I must find a new place to crash. My home is no longer my home, returning back to Shelbyville isn't an option either. I came here to show Springfield the new Bart, to redeem the old me but things haven't gotten off to a good start.

So here I am now, Nelson's house. It's still got a wrecked car on the un-mowed lawn, it's still got that smell of dead rabbits (I never understood why) and it was still covered in filth that couldn't be washed away with water and soap.

"Hey Bart, what up?" Nelson asked answering his door.

"Not much you know, just… well I might need a place to crash tonight, Milhouse is kinda… well I can't stay at his place right now."

"True, true… well come in." He said, moving out of the door and showing me that his tidiness hasn't improved at all.

"You can crash here tonight, mum's working tonight and dad's… well he's left again," Nelson sighed. I guess I never realised what I had till I lost it. My parents were very good and dad never ran away, well except to Moe's every now and then. They gave me more than I could ever give them but I just stuffed things up.

"Hey, you know that Jessica's getting married to Martin right?" He said before I got the chance to plant my butt on his cockroach infested settee.

"Yeah, so I have heard… what did… well what happened to Jessica after I left?" I ask, Nelson hung around that bad teen cliché, no doubt he would have been around Jessica before she went good.

"Well, for a few weeks she was wondering what happened, one day she kind of… went to your house and when she returned, she wasn't the same Jessica." Nelson said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well… she disappeared completely from sight, no one heard from her in nearly 2 weeks. Then she returned, a mess… this was just a little while after you left. I didn't know what was going on, it wasn't my place to intervene… but then she went very uhh… dark…"

"Dark?"

"Well, in junior high she hung around those Goths, she got addicted to drugs and I never heard from her again. I kind of dropped out of school around 5th form and I heard she turned good after that." I know what Nelson is telling me isn't the truth. I know Jessica and I were close but I think she could deal with my absence a little bit better than that. She was always a tough girl, a bad girl, she had no emotions… there was no way she would just disappear like that. There is no way she would have followed a trend, that's not our style.

"Where is Jessica now?" I ask.

"Well living at home of cause, dude she's still in school." School, that was the one thing I didn't plan on talking about here. Its summer vacation now, I am still enrolled in Shelbyville High… I should have thought the finer details of my plan through much better than I did, or had a plan to have finer details to think about.

"When can I see her… you must know something about where she hangs out…"

"Well its Saturday, time to get some rest if you want to catch up with her sunshine," Nelson said with a dirty smirk. What could he mean by that? Wait… Church? Of cause, her dad's probably still the Reverend around here, if I can catch up with her… the one place I could do that is… at Church.

It's going to be hard to enter such a place, with its overwhelming goodness. I am a bad boy, I have no place to be in a church and I don't want to go their just for Jessica's sake. If I go there… it will be to find a new path. I haven't attended any religious establishment since my departure.

-

The church bells toll, do they toll for me, and me alone? It sure feels that way, so many familiar faces, all turning to me. Some had wide grins, while others had a look of fear. Some looked at me with delight while others loathed my face. Although there were different reactions, there was one thing everyone showed. They were surprised to see me.

"Oh my god, Bart Simpson… is that you?" A pretty, blonde girl said to me. I didn't know who it was so I just nodded my head.

"It's me, Alex… you know… Lisa's friend, I was a new girl that year… well the year you left Springfield." One of Lisa's friends, one of the last people I wanted to run into. No doubt she will know what I did to Lisa.

"Oh, hey, how's life been for you?" That was a stupid question but I didn't really want to talk to her, I was scanning the crowd of people. Slowly each one was entering the church, so many familiar faces but none of them resemble the one I am searching for, except for one. Reverend Lovejoy!

"I been good, thanks for asking." She said with a girlish squeal. Reverend Lovejoy slowly made his way to me, the man I looked up to with fear was now an inch shorter than me. The lines cracked his face, his shiny black hair was starting to turn grey. The one thing that hadn't changed was his piercing, brown eyes, those were the eyes that have always hated me.

"Hello Bart, what brings you back here?"

"I… well, I have done some bad things in this town… and I kind of want to redeem myself."

"That's good for you, and I'm sure someone will believe you. I am only going to say this once so listen careful, STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER." He was still a very intimating guy, I will give him that much. He walked past me and into the church, it was only me and Alex standing outside, everyone had made their way inside by now, that sure did happen quickly.

"Well aren't you going to come?" Alex asked as she prepared to enter the church as well.

"I'll come in a little bit," I say nervously, staring at the large grey steps and white doors.

"I'll save you a seat," Alex said running into the church. Jessica wasn't here, maybe she was the first one in, way before I came here. Should I enter this home of the holy? Do I deserve to enter? I need to enter this church, I need to cleanse my soul, maybe that's why bad things keep happening to me. It's like… Karma, and redemption is hard and without the right path you'll end up in the same place. With God by my side, not only will have the right path, I will have someone that can show me the way. Am I really starting to look for a second chance so hard that I am actually considering this?

"Bart?" Someone called out my name, I turn around to look at who. My heart froze, Jessica!