Chapter 10 - I Hate Mondays

Jack laid in bed staring at the ceiling. Fucking school. Like he didn't have enough problems.

He waited until the time was seven-fifty, ten minutes before class actually started. Then he climbed out of bed. He ended up missing his first class entirely. And he waltzed into his second period class as though that was the most normal thing to do.

The class was quietly doing worksheets. Jack almost shuddered. The horror. The teacher looked up once and went back to reading some papers. She was a middle-aged woman with rimless glasses and dyed-red hair. Her heavy-set, chunky rear was parked comfortably on the cushioned computer chair. "Don't bother sitting. Go to the office."

Jack gave her a sideways glance as he flashed a toothy, charismatic smile. "Oh come on, you don't mean that."

She rolled her eyes and took of her glasses. She looked sternly at Jack and said, "I mean it."

Jack took his backpack off his shoulders and slouched a little. "Please? I'll behave."

She frowned, her eyes darting ever so slightly to Jack's jaw. She gave him a worried glance, but said nothing about the bulge on his jaw. She shoo-ed him towards his desk with a pen in her hand. "Go. Sit down. We'll talk after class."

Jack smiled again and sauntered to his desk.

Next to his desk there was a blond girl. Well, her hair was dyed charcoal black. It was really quite striking since her hair was so straight. Marisa looked like one of those haunting manga drawings come to life. She even had the huge luminous eyes to go with it. Jack wasn't what most people would call head-over-heels, but he was deeply taken with her. She smelled like sweet berries and looked like a goddess. What else was there? Well, she did laugh at his jokes. Most people didn't. Probably because they were too morbid. Unfortunately, thought, she wasn't too smart. She probably laughed to fill in the gap, not because she actually thought he was funny.

She waved coyly at him as he walked over. Jack smiled and slid down into his seat. She was on his right, and too far away for him to give her a kiss. She just patted his hand went back to work.

He knew she wouldn't notice the bump on his face. She wasn't the most observant person around. And even if she did notice it, it wasn't a conscious thought. She was, he hated to say, like an animal in that sense - noticing things but not questioning it. She was one of those girls who only had their looks going for them. One of those girls who ended up finding some rich guy to take care of them.

The teacher came over and handed Jack a worksheet, but he just spent the class daydreaming about wreaking havoc on the school so that he wouldn't have to do this fucking worksheet. If somehow, there was no school anymore for a while. Hey, did you hear? Someone blew up the school-- No, no. Hey, someone blew up all the schools in the county. Maybe he could send an email to the school office and say there was a bomb somewhere in the school. Then they would have to evacuate everyone. Then he wouldn't have to sit here and do this fucking worksheet.

He hadn't even noticed that the class was over. He felt a tap on his shoulder. "Huh?" He looked over to his left and saw Marisa standing there. She smiled at him. "You have to hand in your worksheet."

Jack looked at the despicable sheet of photocopied paper with black dots all over it. He had only answered two questions on American History. He picked up his things and shoved them violently inside his bookbag. Holding just the worksheet, he walked over to the teacher's desk and let it drift onto her desk. He was about to walk out with Marisa when the teacher said, "Wait. Jack I want to speak with you."

Jack heaved a sigh of annoyance and looked at Marisa, indicating he wanted her to wait outside. She didn't question him, but did as she was told.

When all the students had left, the teacher cleared her throat. Jack stood in front of her desk and waited for her to speak.

"Jack, do you need to see a counselor?"

"No."

"Listen. There are facilities here to help students who have problems, either at home, with other students or gangs or anything like that."

"So?"

She cleared her throat again. "So I think that maybe they could be of some service to you. Do you need someone to help you?"

Jack leaned down and closer, even though there was no one else in the room. He looked into the teacher's grayish eyes surrounded by lumpy mascara and blue eyeshadow. He said quietly with the stillness of an early morning lake, "I don't need anyone."

Without waiting for an answer, Jack walked out. He realized that was becoming his motto. Well there was nothing that held more truth. He actually didn't need anyone. Even his own mother, whom he supposed he loved more than anyone else in the world. But when he was honest with himself, he knew he needed something. Some sublime relationship to complete him. He knew Marisa wasn't it. In fact, he wasn't even with her for any real reason. Maybe it was just to comform. He wondered sometimes if he was gay, since he didn't really feel much for Marisa, who was a gorgeous girl. But he decided he probably wasn't, since he felt nothing at all for any men as far as he could remember. He didn't even harbor any homophobic tendencies, which he supposed were characteristic of men who were afraid of gays, becasue eventually, they were afraid of being gay. Yeah, he thought. I'm not gay.

Marisa was leaning on the dark-green metal lockers a few feet away. There was a guy talking to her. His name was Thomas, but since he hated his name everyone called him Tim, even though Tim was a shorter name for Timothy. He usually wore black clothes, forgetting that real goths don't wear hundred-dollar shirts or Prada sunglasses. Real goths weren't rick pricks. He was just a spoiled brat complaining about nothing. They were still friends anyway.

Neither of them noticed Jack right away, since there were still people in the hallways. Sometimes Jack didn't like the way Tim looked at Marisa. They were all friends, sure. But he didn't like that.

Jack took a couple of long easy strides towards them, surprising them. They looked guilty for sure.

Jack narrowed his eyes a little thoughtfully and stared at Marisa. "You're not that stupid are you?" He asked her nastily.

She gave an tittered awkwardly and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Jack glanced at Tim, who looked equally uneasy.

After a few tense moments Jack shrugged and leaned back on the lockers next to Marisa. "Nothing."

The other two let out a quiet sigh of relief and exchanged glances. Jack knew they shared the next class together, but he had his own to go to.

He stayed there, however. The other two, after much silence and many sneaky looks at each other, finally focused on Jack. "We'll see you at lunch, okay?" Marisa said patronizingly. Jack just stared at her, cutting into her bluish, almost Liz-Taylor-violet eyes with his own darkly brown ones. "I really hope you're not that stupid," Jack said dangerously, and walked past them without another glance.

His next class was Chemistry. If his relationship with Marisa fell out - well, when it did - at least he had his one true love. It would never betray him, never cheat him, never leave him without an explanation or answer. Even love and emotions were chemicals. Everything was methodical and connected through chemistry. No one appreciated it more than he did. No one understood it as well as he did. Not even his own teacher, just a short fat man who, along with his Chemistry teaching position, coached football. What a waste of such a vital position.

He wished he could be the teacher. Not to teach of course. Who'd want to waste their time teaching the delicate balances and reactions of chemistry to a bunch of idiotic teenagers who cared about what to wear the next day and what was happening in other people's lives because their own was so fucking boring?

No, he wanted access to the labs. He would get the keys. He would get the whole entire chemistry lab all to himself. The Bunsen burners attached to the coutners. The sleek curved taps that tapered down into the black sinks. The test tubes and flasks and beakers, tongs and crucibles. The unmistakable scent of corrosive and dangerous chemicals. What a great place to let your creativity flow.

Today they were making scented bath salts. The teacher had told them to remember to bring some oil of essence. Jack didn't know what the fuck that was, he wasn't some girl. He just ended up borrowing some from a person next to him. Turns out they didn't need the whole bottle anyway, which was so small it probably held only a grant total of about seven drops.

After about forty-five minutes, with his hands smelling like some rotten flowers, Jack left the class feeling pretty disappointed. Why couldn't they just do whatever they wanted? Maybe someone would accidentally mix the wrong things together and cause a fire. Maybe they would release noxious gas that would choke everyone. Where was the fun in going by the book?

Jack was one of the first to get to the cafeteria. Lunch was pizza and chocolate pudding. It would have been nice if the pizza wasn't just a block of lard and the pudding wasn't a lumpy dead monster.

Jack poked the pudding, half-expecting it to move like that thing from The Addams Family movie. But it didn't. He was strangely disappointed. Nothing interesting ever happened.

That was, with the exception of Tim and Marisa walking into the cafeteria with their arms around each other. Jack didn't really notice what was happening. He went back to his food. When the sight did register in his head, he did a double take. But they had already parted, since they had seen Jack looking. The two of them stopped walking in, and after a moment of staring at Jack from across the cavernous cafeteria, they turned and walked out.

Jack simply sat there. Not really hurt or anything. He hadn't really liked Marisa anyway. She really was that stupid. He had been hoping he was wrong. Well, that had been his own mistake. He didn't think the three of them would be friends anymore.

Jack knew already that he was going to make them pay. A good scare sounded right. No one was going to make a fool out of him.

He left his food on the table and his bookbag slumped on the floor. He ran after them and found them turn a corner out of the hallway that led to the cafeteria. He jogged around the corner and caught up to them.

"Hey, guys, what's going on?" He asked cheerily. He was not out of breath. Marisa was already backing away, expecting a fight. Jack was only about five-and-a-half feet tall. Maybe a bit taller. Tim was already six feet tall, with a muscular build.

"Jack, listen, we're sorry," Tim started.

Jack instantly lost his benign tone. "Save it!" He snapped savagely. Marisa yelped and Tim flinched a little.

"How long?" Jack asked.

Marisa frowned slightly, and looked at Tim, who shook his head. "That's not important," he said.

Jack nodded once, slowly, his body fully controlled, even though he was about to explode with fury at being cheated. "Is that right?"

"Look, we're sorry this happened."

"Not as sorry as you should be."

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A/N: Okay, I'm sure that everyone by now is expecting some sort of madness-induced Joker violence, and don't worry, you won't be disappointed. All in good time. Remember the slouched, twitchy man with the painted face... Jack becomes him.