Okay, So it's technically past midnight, but if I haven't slept it counts as the same day, right? So it's day four? We're going with day four.

Reviews:

Guest: I'm kind of glad too. She kind of deserved it. And... yeah. Hey, it wasn't due until 1pm and I turned it in at 12:30pm. So, no harm done, right?

Fangirl1347(guest): I'm glad to be of assistance! And I LOVE Somedayonbroadway, so being compared to her is a great honour! And account or no, glad to have you here!

A longer chapter for you. Hope you like it!

~TH~

Jack kept his head down in the hallway. He had skipped half of his classes the day before and desperately hoped no one would call him out on it. It had been a stupid thing to do. Snyder had been at work, so that wasn't a problem, but anything could have happened. He was just lucky Snyder didn't come home and catch him. Panic attack or no, that would have ended badly.

"Hey, Jack!"

Jack stopped at the familiar voice. He should keep walking. He really didn't want to talk to anyone, much less him.

"Heya Dave."

The other boy came and stood beside him. "Listen, about yesterday-"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I get it, I should have been there. It was stupid of me not to and-"

"No, no, Jack," He interrupted, "I wasn't- look, I just wanted to say that I was sorry. We shouldn't have gone through your stuff. And we didn't even give you a chance to explain. I'm sorry."

Jack blinked. That was not what he had been expecting. "It's fine."

"No it's not!"

Jack raised his eyebrows.

"We upset you. We hurt you and there's no excuse for that. Whether you did your project or not, that doesn't give us the excuse to treat you that way."

Jack stood there silently, completely shocked. Then he gave a half smile, "All's forgiven Dave. And listen, I did the project. I had it mostly done, but, it, uh, it got ruined. The entire thing. I have to start over that, that's why I couldn't come. It was ruined right as I was leaving. Here," He pulled out his phone and showed him the picture, "This is what I had before it, y'know."

David stared at it, eyes wide. "Jack, you painted this?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "It's nothin'. Just some basic stuff."

"But Jack, this is amazing! Do you think you can make it again? Before next Friday?"

He shrugged again, "Probably. Like I said, it's nothing special."

"You gotta show Katherine this!"

Jack involuntarily flinched. That was someone he really didn't want to talk to.

David gave a sad smile, "Look, I know she can be… difficult at times, but she's really not a bad person. She just doesn't… get everything. She speaks before she thinks and it backfires. A lot. I'm not saying that you owe her anything, but you should give her a chance. Show her this," he handed the phone back. "She'll be shocked and feel even worse about the whole thing. Trust me."

The bell rang and he checked his watch, "I should probably get to class, see you later!" He gave a short wave and was gone.

~N~

The class that he had been dreading. Drama. He honestly didn't know if he could face Race after yesterday. At this point he'd rather have a sit down with Katherine then walk into the theatre.

He didn't look up or make eye contact with anyone as he made his way to the backroom. Jack didn't even think. He just grabbed a paintbrush and went at the canvas. Just paint. Paint a beautiful world far away. Somewhere people would leave him alone and he could just breathe. Somewhere he didn't have to hide or worry about things like food or clothes. Somewhere where waking up in the morning was a good thing, not something that he dreaded. Somewhere, anywhere but HERE.

He chucked the paintbrush at the door, letting out a frustrated yell. He ran a hand through his hair, breathing heavily.

The door opened and Jack jerked his head up to meet the intruder. It was Medda. Of course it was Medda. As if he hadn't made a fool of himself in front of enough people already.

"Is everything okay baby?" She only took a couple of steps in the room before bending down and picking up the paintbrush. Jack winced slightly when he realized that there was paint on the door and floor.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm fine. Shouldn't have, uh, I shouldn't have done that. It was stupid. I'm sorry."

"It's alright baby, I think it adds… personality." She smiled and held out the paintbrush. He returned the smile best as he could before taking the few steps required to retrieve the brush.

"I heard you are going to be joining us for dinner!" She sounded excited. Not annoyed like Jack expected her to be.

He shrugged, "Maybe, I don't want to impose…" or face Race.

"Really hon, it's no imposition at all! The more the merrier," she smiled again, "Tyler will meet you here after school if you want to come." She turned to leave, then paused, "You know, you remind me a lot of him before he came to live with me. I think you might find that you two have more in common than you think." Then she left, leaving Jack wondering what exactly she meant.

~N~

"Jack Kelly to the office please."

Jack froze in the middle of the hallway.

He'd done it. He'd finally done it. He'd screwed up enough that the office was getting involved. This was the second time in two weeks that he had been called to the office. The first time was just over an elective, but this time, he had skipped class. He had just walked out. They had caught him and now Snyder was going to kill him.

Kids pushed past him on the way to lunch. That's where he should be going. Not to the office. Didn't prisoners get a last meal before execution? Couldn't they have waited an hour? Get him out of History not lunch.

He walked slowly to the office and knocked on the door.

"Come in,"

He went in, trying to stop his hands from shaking. Mr Kloppman looked up, "Jack! Please, have a seat."

Jack did as he was told.

"So," the older gentleman began, "How are you liking Drama?"

Jack shrugged, "It's good. Ms Medda has me on set designs."

"I'm sure they'll be wonderful!"

There was silence, before Kloppman cleared his throat, "Jack, several of your teachers have mentioned to me that you've been sleeping through class."

Here it comes. I'm dead.

"They've also mentioned that you rarely get your homework turned in on time, if at all."

I mean to get it done, it just always ends up at the bottom of my priority list.

"I know it's been a while since we've talked about your home life, you've been in the same one for almost two years now, but I thought this might be a good opportunity to catch up."

Before I'm killed.

"So, how is the home? Do you still like it?"

Jack nodded, "Yeah, it's great."

Come on, try to sound realistic.

"Your foster father, Snyder, you like him? He's nice to you?"

"Yes, sir." Change the subject. "It's my fault. I've been staying up late working on this project. I guess I don't have the best time management skills." He laughed.

When had lying become so hard? He'd always acted like Snyder was great, like he was fine, but these last couple days, he'd barely been able to keep himself together. And now, he was finding that all he wanted to do was tell the truth. Tell the truth and get out. But he couldn't. He knew he couldn't. It would just cause more problems for everybody.

"I think that's true of all teenagers." Kloppman smiled. "I just want to remind you that, I'm here if you need to talk. I know that the transition can be hard, even after all this time. And if you don't want to talk to your principal, we have counselors on staff to help. But you have to let someone know. Maybe get a planner so you can make sure you're doing all of your work. And make sure to get lots of sleep, okay son?"

Like that was going to happen.

"Yes, sir. Um, can I leave now?"

Kloppman nodded, "Go on, you can get to class."

Class? Then he'd missed lunch completely.

"Thank you, sir."

He hadn't said anything about calling Snyder. Jack sighed in relief. So long as he straightened up his act he would be fine.

~N~

David wasn't there.

Jack approached their normal table cautiously. Katherine was sitting there alone. She seemed to be preoccupied on her phone. He sat down across from her and she looked up.

"Uh, hey." She started, sounding less sure of herself than Jack had ever heard. "So, about yesterday, look I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have said, well, anything, that I said. I called you out something that I shouldn't have even known and I hurt you. I really am sorry." She was twisting her hands nervously.

If Jack had been surprised when Davey apologized, he was absolutely shocked now.

"Don't worry about it."

"But I do! I mean, sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain and I end up saying stupid things. That's one of the reasons I write, it's easier to… censor myself."

Jack couldn't help but smile, "Listen Kath, it's fine, really. Believe it or not I've heard worse insults and I've recovered. See, good as new. I Shouldn't have flipped out the way that I did. So, we good?"

"Yeah, we're good." She smiled back. "So, uh, David said you had something to show me?"

He pulled out his phone, "Oh, uh yeah. It's the project. It got ruined right as I was leaving and, that's why I didn't show up. It was almost done too. Don't worry though, I should be able to make a new one before next week."

He handed it over and she gasped. "Jack, you painted that?"

Why did everyone keep having that reaction?

"Yeah, all by myself." He let out a nervous laugh.

"Jack, this, this is amazing! You didn't tell me you could paint."

The nervousness was gone as he let out a real laugh, "I'm pretty sure I did. When we first met. You were too busy deciding you didn' want me around to notice."

"Jack!" She called out playfully.

He raised his hands in mock surrender, "Hey, I calls them how I sees them."

Katherine handed the phone back to him. "Okay, so you can paint and you have been working on it. I can't wait to see the whole thing!"

"Yeah, don't worry about it, okay? I'll finish it before you can even start to worry about it." He winked at her.

Where did this come from? Was he.. Flirting? What? Why would he do that?

Almost immediately David showed up. He seemed rather pleased with himself as he sat down. "So, let's finish this thing up so we can all enjoy our weekend."

~N~

It was 3:45. If Race didn't show up in the next five minute he was leaving. The only reason he was here to begin with was that he was starving. He was almost out of the bars that were left in his locker. They wouldn't last all weekend and he had missed lunch today thanks to his 'talk'. He didn't want to face Race, but wanted food more.

Race was coming down the hall. Then he stopped, making eye contact with Jack. He continued coming up, his pace was slightly quicker, almost excited. "You're here!"

"This is where Ms Medda said to meet, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I just didn't..." He trailed off.

"Expect me to show?"

"Well, yeah."

Well, I didn't expect to be here. So I really can't blame ya.

"So, your brother's?"

"Oh, yeah, right! Do you mind walking? Mamma went to pick up the pizza and I think he already left, said he had to do something first. I mean, if you really don't want to, I can call one of them, I'm sure they wouldn't mind picking one of us up-"

Jack laughed. He didn't know why. This kid knew how to talk. It kind of reminded him of Crutchie. Maybe that's why he couldn't help but smile. "Walking's fine kid, let's just get goin', yeah?"

"Yeah."

~TH~

Their, I redeemed Katherine. Kind of.

Anyway, in case you were wondering, I don't plan on turning this into a Jackrine story. It's just here because, come on, it's Jack Kelly. He flirts. That's just who he is.

So, Jack, right? He's not as closed off. Still closed off, but not NEARLY as bad as before.

And Medda is an absolute doll. I love her so much.

Leave me any thoughts you might have!

Stay safe and God bless,
Jamie