J.D. jumps down onto the floor of Valiant's bedroom and struts over to him, her loosely worn trench-coat dragging behind her like a wedding dress with her shoulders expoused. "Sorry for coming in through the window, dreadful etiquette, I know!" she apologised as she walked right up to Valiant.
Without a single skipped beat, Valiant shoved the girl right out of his room and slamming the door behind her with a commanding "Get out of my house!"
J.D. quickly threw her coat back over her shoulders and made for the door handle but she could not push the door open against the muscularly superior Valiant pressing his own shoulder against the door as he looked down at the twisting handle.
"Hiding in your room?" She ask with shock, "Come on honey, open the door!"
"Get out of my house or I'll scream and my parents will call the police." Valiant warned. Under normal circumstances, Valiant had no reason to believe that statement was anything short of a lie however thanks to J.D. setting Valiant up as suicidal, calling the emergency services on a boy attempting suicide seemed a lot more believable.
"All is forgiven baby." J.D. cooed, "Come on and get dressed, you are my date to the pep rally tonight!"
"Wait, why?" Valiant questioned, keeping his mass against the bedroom door.
"Oh well, our students signed a petition but wait until you see what they ACTUALLY signed!" J.D. giggled with a maniacal glee that sounded like a completely different person. J.D.s tone then started to grow cold.
[J.D.] You chucked me out like I was trash,
For that you should be dead-
J.D. draws out her revolver and aims it at the door handle. Valiant heard the click of a gun and immediately shrunk his profile down while still trying to trap the front door.
J.D. pulls the gun back, finger off the trigger and taps the gun against her temple.
But! But! But!
Then it hit me like a flash,
'What if high school went away instead?'.
Those ass holes are the key,
They're keeping you away from me!
They made you blind, messed up your mind,
But I can set you free!
Valiant was stunned to silent. Was she going to change the whole school? Because I dumped her? She's a monster. She's become a monster. Of my creation. Valiant's thoughts shorted themselves at the thought of somehow turning a girl into a murderer.
You left me and I fell apart,
I punched the wall and cried-
BAM! BAM! BAM!
J.D. punched against the door for each "BAM!" onomatopoeia she casted from her tongue. One punch going over Valiant's kidney.
Then I found you changed my heart and set loose all that truthful shit inside!
And so I built a bomb,
Tonight our school is Vietnam!
Let's guarantee they'll never see their senior prom!
Suddenly J.D.s tone changed to a tremble.
I was meant to be yours!
We were meant to be one!
Don't give up on me now!
An icy cold "Ich Luge" bullet pierced Valiant's heart. She was so mewling and pitiful sounding, he wanted to swing the door open and hug her. Bring her back behind the curtains that would block out all the worlds evils and let them enjoy their love together.
Finish what we've begun!
Valiant pulled his hand away. That J.D. is gone. You cannot bring her back Valiant, you can't save her he hammered into his mind, each ring of the hammer against the thought peg cranking out tears from his eyes.
I was meant to be yours!
J.D.s tone swung back to her giddy maniac state.
So when the high school gym goes boom with everyone inside-
PCHW! PCHW! PCHW!
In the rubble of their tomb,
J.D. holsters her revolver for a parchment written suspiciously in Valiant's handwriting.
We'll plant this note explaining why they died!
J.D. looks down and begins to recite her note.
[J.D. and students] "We, the students of Westerburg High,
Will die."
Valiant notices voices reciting J.D.'s note from inside his bedroom. He slowly turns with his back to the door and looks in horror.
Tens of hundreds of ghosts stood to attention in Valiant room with a cold glares. Wait, they are not real ghosts. One of them looks like Henry McNamara. They were visions.
Visions of the guilt he would feel in the future. No, no Valiant couldn't cope.
"Our burnt bodies may finally get through,
To you.
Your society churns out slaves and blanks,
No thanks.
Signed, the Students of Westerburg High,
Goodbye."
The ghosts all vanished besides the actual ghosts of Henry Chandler, Rae Sweeney and Kate Kelly, floating slightly up to Valiant's high bar.
You win, Valiant conceded. I will hang.
Valiant opened his jacket as he rushed over to his cluttered mess of clothes strewn around his bed.
J.D. pockets her completed recital notes and presses herself hard against the door, unaware of Valiant's absense.
We'll watch the smoke pour out the doors.
Bring marshmallows,
We'll make s'mores!
J.D. turned her back on the door and pushing against it, lowered herself to the ground while crossing her arms over herself.
Valiant starts tying together his clothes into a noose to be hanged off the high bar.
We can smile and cuddle while the fire roars!
I was meant to be yours!
We were meant to be one!
I can't make this alone!
Finish what we've begun!
Valiant finally zipped his jacket back up with a clothing noose around his neck tied to the high bar while he stood on the foot of the bed.
J.D. pulled herself to her hands and knees as she looked to the door and pleaded.
You were meant to be mine!
I am all that your need!
You carved open my heart!
Can't just leave me to bleed!
Valiant stepped off and dropped down. The clothing noose sprang straight as Valiant fell limp.
J.D. slammed her clenched fists onto the door.
Valiant!
Open the-open the door, please,
Valiant, open the door.
Valiant, can we not fight anymore please,
Can we not fight anymore?
The silence beyond the door struck panic to J.D. as she rose to her feet.
Valiant, sure, you're scared, I've been there,
I can see you free!
Valiant, don't make me come in there!
I'm gonna count to three!
One.
Two.
J.D.'s father waves out the window towards her.
Fuck it!
J.D. boots the unresisting door down and rushes in to the sight of her boyfriend hanged from the high bar, unmoving. "Oh my God!" she gasps, dropping down as she hugs the boy's ankles, "No! Valiant..."
Please, don't,
Leave me alone.
You, were,
All I could trust.
I, can't,
Do this alone.
With tears soaking J.D.'s face all over again, she looks out of Valiant's bedroom window to see the lit up building of Westerburg High school. She lifts herself up and walks out towards it and out the window, calls out to the mocking visage:
Still, I,
Will if I must!
"Valiant?" Valiant's dad calls from down the stairs.
J.D. looks back in a panic before quickly jumping onto the vine mesh under Valiant's house can climbed down.
"'Made you a snack." Valiant's dad calls out again as he walks the upper floor of the house. He pauses as he spots the opened door of Valiant's room. "Valiant?" he asks worriedly before briskly entering the room and, upon seeing his son hanged from his high bar, screams.
Valiant's eyes jolt open as he hears his dad's scream and he quickly opens his jacket to the clothes wrapped around his waist, "Dad, dad! Relax! Calm down! See? See? I'm alive!"
Valiant's dad pants slowly as he tries to calm down, watching his son untie himself, "What kind of sick joke was that young man? That was not funny" he pants before his wife rushes into the room with a romance novel in hand.
"What's going on?" She enquires.
"Mom, dad, I am very sorry." Valiant started to apologise as he liberated himself from his noose and body support "prank".
"What for?" Valiant's mom asks as Valiant's dad continues to pant from the shocking sight.
"For being a horrible man and making a horrible monster." He concluded before climbing out his bedroom window.
"What?" Valiant's dad responded in confusion before thrusting himself to the window to call his son, "Wait, where are you going now?"
"Out" Valiant answered as soon as he touched the ground and readied himself for a long form sprint.
"When will you be back?" Valiant's mom hollered from over her husband's shoulder.
"Good question!" Valiant exclaimed before sprinting up to the school in pursuit of J.D.
Despite his racing heart and mind, Valiant's head had never felt clearer. He had to stop J.D. And as he reached the front entrance of the school, he reflected.
[Valiant] I wanted someone strong who would protect me.
I let her anger fester and infect me.
Her solution is a lie,
No one here deserves to die,
Except for me and the monster I created.
Yeah!
Valiant kicks the front doors wide open to an empty hallway. Cracking his knuckles, Valiant marched in towards the indoor gym hall.
Yeah!
Heads up, J.D., I'm a dead boy walking!
[All bar Valiant] Hey yo, Westerburg!
[Valiant] Can't hide from me, I'm your dead boy walking!
[All bar Valiant] Hey yo, Westerburg!
[Valiant] And here's your final bell,
Valiant raises his hand and snaps his fingers where, on cue, the school bell rings and before him, a specter of the smiling J.D. he loved from so long appears before him. He approaches to dance with her. The two engage.
It's one more dance and then farewell,
With only a single spin together, Valiant throws the specter aside, the heartbroken girl vanishing into a puff of Valiant's imagination.
Cheek to cheek in Hell with a dead boy walking!
Valiant enters the gym hall, instead of focusing on the cheering students or on Henry McNamara calling round his fellow football players for a 'haka' Valiant starts looking around for J.D.
[Henry McNamara] Come on, Westerburg!
Here we go, Here we go now!
Just as Valiant crossed halfway the distance of the gym hall, Mr Fleming grabs him by the shoulder and spins him to face the bamboozled teacher.
"Valiant! Joslyn Dean told us you'd just committed suicide!" Mr Fleming exclaimed.
"Yeah, well, she's wrong about a lot of things." Valiant answered tersely.
"Oh and I threw together a lovely tribute, especially given the short notice." Mr Fleming sighed.
"Mr Fleming, what's under the gym?" Valiant asked.
"Boiler room."
"That's it!" Valiant surmised and walked onwards to the boiler room.
"Wait Valiant, what is going on?" Mr Fleming puzzled.
[Valiant] Got no time to talk,
I'm a dead boy walking!
[Students] Hey yo, Westerburg!
Valiant rushed out the gym and started to make his way deep into the boiler room down below as he heard the loud cheering of students in the gym fade as he descended deeper and deeper into the boiler room.
[Students] Hey yo, Westerburg!
Tell me what's that sound?
Here comes Westerburg,
Comin' to put you in the ground!
Go go Westerburg,
Give a great big yell!
Westerburg will knock you out,
And send you straight to hell!
Deep in the boiler room, J.D. fiddles away with an explosive as its L.E.D. timer blinks red light into her face as she continues wiring. A voice calls up her attention.
"A Norwegian in the boiler room? Was that another one of your mother's lessons?" Valiant spat. Deep down, somewhere, there was still a small part that of him that loved this small bag of nuts, by Valiant had to press down and unrelentingly on it for now. If he wanted to survive.
J.D. looked up with her eyes kept primed to the explosive in her hands, "Funny, I could have sworn you gave me shit for not giving up the change business and yet, here you are, back from another forged suicide!" she spat back at him.
"Step away from the bomb!" He ordered.
J.D. chuckled, turning her head as she held up the explosive. "This little thing?" She asked, "Oh I'd hardly call this a bomb." She added before placing it back down and standing up to face Valiant, "No, that is just to set off the thermals upstairs." she rose her hands to indicate the wires leading up into the gym, "Those are bombs." she concluded coldly.
J.D. then started to walk towards Valiant, this time with a strong blood drive as she pulled out her revolver. "People are going to look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, 'there's a school that self-destructed not because society didn't care, but because that school was society'." She ranted, Valiant held his ground and watched her load a bullet into her revolver before pointing it up into Valiant's neck. "The only place Henrys and Martins can truly get along is in Heaven!" she screams.
Valiant catches a glance at her trigger finger. It's off the trigger. She's conflicted! Valiant had a chance:
[Valiant] I wish your dad had been a little stronger.
I wish he stayed around a little longer.
J.D.'s eyes turn to surprise as she tries to step away, Valiant strides forward after each sentence to plead reason into her:
I wish your mom were good!
I wish grown-ups understood!
I wish we met before,
They convinced you life is war!
Valiant halted and raised out his hand.
I wish you'd come with me-
His final appeal to the love of his life was cast. J.D. looked down at the hand and trembled slightly at the thought of being with him again. But as she raised out her open hand, she quickly placed it beneath her other hand holding the gun and pulled the hammer back.
"I wish I had more TNT!" she responded, pointing the gun to her boyfriend's head and wrapping her trigger finger over the trigger.
Valiant threw J.D.'s gun into the air with his left hand before turning his open palm into a fist and jabbing her in the throat. This quick action, forces J.D. to drop her gun to the ground as she recoils to hold her throat. Valiant reaches down to grab the gun only for J.D. to tackle the low target onto the ground and causing the gun to skid off away from both of them.
As Valiant and J.D. started to rush for the gun and enter a grappling contest to wrestle the gun free from the other, The students upstairs cheer.
[Students] Hey yo, Westerburg!
Tell me what's that sound?
Here comes Westerburg,
Comin' to put you in the ground!
Go go Westerburg,
Give a great big yell!
Westerburg will knock you out,
And send you straight to-
BANG!
J.D. and Valiant lock eyes with each other as they realise the gun has fired. The two back away from each other and look at down to themselves.
In Valiant's hands, a smoking gun. He let his finger rest on the trigger again.
In J.D.'s hands, a bullet wound.
"Di-didn't your mommy ever tell you not to hit girls?" she wheezed before dropping down to the ground.
Without sparing a moment to dwell on his actions, Valiant dropped the gun and rushed over to the live bomb. He looked at the display and saw it counting down. Tearing off the bomb from the wires riding up the wall did not seem to do anything. With little recourse, Valiant had to get this bomb clear! He ran out the school.
The running to school and back out with this bomb had finally caught up with him at the start of the football field. Taking a knee over the top of this bomb, Valiant looks down at his notebook diary. With the threat of death looming closer every second and yet his body too shagged to move further, Valiant imagined his diary entry.
"Dear Diary,
The great irony about all of this, is that I never got to write a suicide note."
"How clever." A wounded J.D. remarks as she hobbles towards Valiant with her bullet wound. "Dragging the trigger bomb off to the football field so that nobody gets hurt...well, besides you."
Valiant wheezed, "I have to die. All I have brought to this world is heartbreak and death, this is my retribution."
J.D. snapped, "Not you!" she walked up to him and crouched down to him, "Me."
Valiant looked up and saw that J.D. was crying, her face was so wet from tears, "All I do is destroy, just like my mother. I never thought once, just once, maybe I should try creating something."
J.D. reached down to grab the bomb from Valiant and slowly pryed it out of his hands, "But you're different. You can do something with your life."
As J.D. started to walk away, Valiant straightened up and tugged her sleeve. "No, you can still change. Please, promise me." Valiant pleaded, tears swelling up in his eyes and flowing down like rivers, "Promise me you'll throw it and just run! Run away! You can still change and be an architect or something. If they find the bombs, I'll take the rap! Just promise me you'll survive."
J.D. wanted to cry even more. Here he has the chance to run away from the grim reaper and he still wanted to save her, he would bargain for her life yet not his own?
"Ok." J.D. lied.
[J.D.] I am damaged,
Far too damaged,
[Valiant] But you're not beyond repair!
Let's stick around here,
Make things better,
Just throw that bomb out there.
J.D. nodded to him as she started to hold the bomb up as thought going for a football toss.
[J.D.] Please stand back now.
Valiant steps back, legs still feeling weak from this entire experience.
Little further.
Valiant stepped back again, this time beyond grabbing range, just as J.D. wanted. She smiled and looked back and gave the bomb a little shake jokingly.
Don't know what this thing will do.
Just as she pulls her arm back to throw, quickly she tugs her arm back and sprints with the bomb tight to her chest. Valiant, realising he's been tricked again, tries to chase her over the grass.
Hope you'll miss me,
Wish you'd kiss me.
Then you'd know I worship you.
Valiant collapsed onto the field, his legs could barely move from the burning sensation of exhaustion. J.D. turns towards him and calls out to him as she continues pacing away.
I'll trade my life for yours.
[Valiant] Oh my God-
Valiant desperately tries to crawl on his arms alone towards her.
[J.D.] And once I disappear,
[Valiant] Wait, hold on-
Valiant collapses to the ground, his arms stiffen as Valiant tries to pull himself back up to his feet.
[J.D.] Clean up the mess down here.
[Valiant] Not this way!
Valiant tries to reach out to her from his pitiful stance by reaching out to here many yards away.
With a tear soaked smile, a bomb cradled in her arms like a child she would never have, J.D. chants out to Valiant.
[J.D.] Our love is God.
Our love is God.
Our love is God.
Our love is God.
Sitting up to his knees, Valiant calls back to her the last words she'd ever hear.
[Valiant] Say hi to God.
A golden flash pricks Valiant's eyes before the thunderous blast knocks the heartbroken Valiant down onto his back and out of consciousness.
From this ethereal state of unconsciousness, Valiant continues to lie on his back in an abyss of darkness. Henry Chandler walks over to him, appearing far more fleshed out than Valiant had grown accustomed to.
"I'm dead I take it." he pipes up to the standing Henry Chandler looking down on him.
"Nope, just unconscious. Really, you should consider that a miracle if it didn't mean you'd be out until the next day."
Valiant sighs, "Did-did J.D. li-"
"Don't kid yourself. You were out for a night and you were far out of range of that thing. You saw her still holding that bomb until the flash." Henry Chandler, "Sorry Valiant...but she's as good as dead."
Valiant drooped his head over to the side Henry Chandler was standing on, "You don't have to convince me to feel the cold justice of death any more, next chance I get, its gunshot to the head city!"
Henry Chandler quickly groans, "That's the exact opposite reason why I'm here!"
"Huh?"
"Look, Its true that I have been sort of pushing for you to do that. But when I saw you apologise to Henry Duke, especially after I told you to kill him out of impulse...I got it." Henry Chandler explained before sitting beside Valiant, "I realised the that could have been human error...then you got Kate and Rae killed."
"Yeah, sort of realised then J.D.'s understanding of revenge is a bit off." Valiant groaned, slowly trying to sit himself up to Henry Chandler's level.
"I basically coloured my impression of you as being an ass hole and planed my own revenge by tormenting your head. All that changed when you saved Henry McNamara. After that, I thought, I could channel myself into helping you finish her off, take her down in your stead...then she sacrificed herself for you and- well shit, here I am." Chandler confessed with a shrug.
Valiant pulled up his knees as he asked, "So, does this mean your ghost is going to stop haunting me."
"Well, that ghost was more your guilt made manifest than any real supernatural powers. Why else would I make a comparative between a snake and mongoose when you were arguing with Martin? The real Henry Chandler flunked comparatives remember?" Chandler asked.
Valiant nodded before groaning, "Oh shit, I am going to have to set a lot of things right when I wake back up."
"Yeah, Henry Duke and Martin Dunnstock's going to be a challenge. But hey, you have Henry McNamara on your side to help you. Plus, you got less weight in the form of me haunting you at every turn." Chandler reassured, patting Valiant on the back before standing up. "Well, I might as well fade from your mind, try to remember me not as an ass hole ghost-"
Valiant laid back and smirked, "But as an ass hole friend?"
Henry Chandler winked to Valiant, "Damn right. Good luck in the land of the living Valiant. Do right by Henry Duke for me...also." He turned and shouted to Valiant before floating out the abyss, "CORN NUTS!"
Valiant felt his eyes open to the sound of the school bell ringing. Morning, looks like Henry Chandler was right.
He sat up in aching pain to look over to the small blast crater where J.D. once stood. As selfish as it was, he still wished she got to heaven so she could look down on him to see how well he cleaned up, like she said she would.
At least let one of her promises be fulfilled God, thanks.
Valiant stood up and massaged his neck as he followed students into the school. Noticing some students repelling themselves away from him, Valiant figured he'd need a clean at some point. A deep clean. One that repairs jackets and knows god methods for washing dried gunpowder. Or whatever this black stuff was all over him.
Henry McNamara rushed up to Valiant and called to him in shock, "Valiant! Where have you been? The whole school has been told you were dead!" Despite the filthy state of Valiant, the bright yellow quarterback had no shame in dirtying himself in hugging Valiant.
Henry Duke follows behind him to make a quick jab at Valiant's expense, "Ugh, you look like hell."
Valiant pulls away from Henry McNamara and turns to Henry Duke, "I just got back" he responded before grabbing Henry Duke by the shoulder, "Listen, I get that this power has been all you've ever strived for, and Henry Chandler acted like a dick to you when he held it. But you don't need to walk that path, I want to help you live life like you were still friends with Henry McNamara and me. If you need a moment to talk privately, let me know, I'll try to give your first appointment priority on my busy schedule."
Henry Duke raised an eyebrow, "Th-thanks but, what busy schedule?"
"That's the second part." Valiant added before pulling Henry Duke towards him by his tie and kissing him and quickly untying the tie from his neck. "Until you can clear your woes, I'll take over."
Valiant started to walk further into the school, calling loudly out to the student populous as Henry Duke and Henry McNamara flank behind Valiant as he fixes his tie around his neck.
[Valiant] Listen up kids,
War is over,
Brand new sheriff's come to town.
We are done with acting evil,
Lay all your weapons down.
Valiant pushes open the doors to the cafeteria in search for friend. Spotting him, Valiant makes his walk over to the far end of the socially inferior kids' table.
We're all damaged, we're all frightened,
We're all freaks but that's alright.
We'll endure it, we'll survive it,
Martin are you free tonight?
He stops in front of the scooter of the still moderately bandaged from injury Martin Dunnstock, who looks up to Valiant in surprise.
"Wh-what?" Martin asks.
"See, my date for the prep rally kinda blew-" Valiant started, cautiously rethinking his next sentence despite looking like "blew up" would be the answer. "-me off. So I was wonder if you were doing anything tonight we could, maybe, have a movie night. Pop some Jiffy Pop, rent a video. Preferably one with a happy ending." And no ghosts, but Valiant was not going to say that out loud.
Martin looked down, his thoughts mulling over over these hectic past few days as he opens his mouth and utters, "Are there any happy endings?"
I can't promise no more Henrys,
No offense intended guys, Valiant thought to himself, quickly realising Henry McNamara and Henry Duke had been following him on his sheriff declaration rally up to this point.
High school may not ever end,
Still I miss you,
I'd be honored,
If you'd let me be your friend!
[Martin] My friend!
The pair start to lead the rally out the cafeteria, Valiant hitches a ride on Martin's scooter as they speed down the halls to round the students up, much to the chagrin of the lagging behind teachers.
[Valiant and Martin] We can be seventeen, we can learn how to chill,
If no one loves me now, some day somebody will.
With essentially the entire school behind them and the Gym hall populated once more, Valiant jumps off Martin's scooter and the two stop, Valiant coaxes the initially reluctant Henry McNamara to join them as the pair hold hands.
We can be seventeen, still time to make things right,
One day we'll change the world, but let's kick back tonight.
With that declaration, the doors out to the fields fly open as all the students start pairing off with holding hands. Henry Duke intially tries to pull his hand away from a nerdy girl before rolling his eyes and offering it over to her. Henry McNamara, Valiant Sawyer and Martin Dunnstock lead the couples and such out of the school.
[Boys] Let's go be seventeen, take off our coats and dance,
[Girls] You know, you know, you know, we can be beautiful.
[Boys] Act like we're all still kids, cause this may be our final chance,
Always be seventeen, celebrate you and I, maybe we won't grow old.
The teachers, who initially, hold back, decide to throw their hands up and watch them flood onto the football field singing.
Valiant leads them out until realising where he is, he chooses to halt, standing over the dark patch where his girlfriend once told of their love. With a tear in his eye, he sings with all the students and the distant teachers.
[All] And maybe then we'll never die.
In his minds eye, Valiant sees Henry Chandler hold Rae Sweeney and Kate Kelly's hands and float down to join the students in song. He starts to wonder where J.D. is before a pair of arms reach up and hug the back of his neck. Looking down, J.D. smiles and shares a tear with her boyfriend.
We'll make it beautiful,
We'll make it beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
For the rest of Valiant Sawyer's school year, he and his friends of Martin Dunnstock, Henry McNamara and Henry Duke enjoyed their lives with worries only a typical seventeen year old should. No murders to pose as suicides, no ghosts manifesting from your overactive, guilt driven mind and certainly no explosives rigged to blow up the school!
Of course that did leave plenty of make-overs, fake notes, cat fights, corn nuts, drunken sex, hangover cocktails, drunken attempts at threesomes, fake rumors, people coming out as gay, painful truths, singing, broken doors, croquet matches and more to carry them through their college years and beyond but, that's all for a much more talented writer than I to tell over a period of time more plentiful than my own.
