The wait was longer than I meant for it to be, but this chapter is fairly long so hopefully, you're not too mad...

I moved and will be starting college this week so if I'm a little slow at updating that is why. I will try to keep updating but we shall see how classes go.

Anyway, here's the next chapter!

As promised it's from Katherine's POV.

Just a minor warning that I get kind of politics at the end. It's nothing major or (hopefully) controversial but I didn't want you to be caught off guard lol. I didn't go as deep in as I could have but there's a bit in there. If you disagree, please no hate in comments. (I don't see this being a problem because ya'll are awesome but I feel obligated to say it.)

Enjoy!

~TH~

Katherine paced back and forth in front of the library. Jack wasn't here. He wasn't here with that infuriatingly attractive grin or his obnoxious nonchalance. He. Wasn't. Here. He wasn't answering any of her texts. David had at least texted her that he'd be late. But no Jack.

She was torn. She was ticked to be completely honest. Bad home or no, this project was important. She needed him here today. Any other day she would probably be annoyed but no like this. Not with the uncontrollable anger and anxiety that came when a project didn't go right. But… she was scared too. Scared for Jack. Was he sick again? Like last time? He never seemed to really get better, maybe whatever sickness he had was still going on and he had passed out at home again. Maybe he was too sick to come to school and she would get a text soon. Maybe?

Katherine hated to admit it, but she liked Jack. Like LIKED liked him. That made her… uncomfortable. Jack was not the… boyfriend type. Not in the sense she was used to at least. He wasn't rich . He wasn't a family friend of her fathers. He wasn't the top of his class. He didn't go to parties. He wasn't popular. He wasn't much of anything, as cruel as it sounded. He was just a person. Just a boy with adorable dimples and surprisingly fun to be around when he wasn't driving her crazy with his secrets and distractedness.

It would never work out.

But she wouldn't mind getting to know him better. Maybe.

If he ever showed up!

"Katherine!" David was jogging towards her, pushing past the hallway goers with an urgency she didn't recognize.

"Have you heard from Jack?" She started immediately. "He won't answer me and I haven't seen him all day and he was supposed to meet us here! We present after lunch and we need his part of the project-"

"He's not coming." David cut in, looking distracted, his eyes darting around the hall.

"He's not- what do you mean he's not coming! We are supposed to present in less than two hours! He has to be here or we get docked points! And what about his painting! I can not believe this!" All concern she was feeling had now disappeared. All that remained was the anger and disbelief. Jack had bailed on them. Again.

David looked slightly panicked. "Katherine just, shh, calm down, I-" He grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her into the library. She allowed him, too shocked to say anything, as they made their way to a back, rarely used corner.

They stopped, Katherine looked at David quizzically and he just looked nervous back. "Spot was right." He finally says, his voice quiet and holding a weight Katherine couldn't quite figure out.

"What do you mean Spot was right?" Still feeling too angry to put the pieces together.

"About, about Jack. And about him… about his injuries not being his fault."

She sighed at how crypicic he was being. "David what are you-" Her mouth stopped moving as her brain finally connected the dots. Jack didn't keep getting hurt, someone was hurting Jack. Jack didn't get into fights. Someone was intentionally beating on Jack. And that sickness that never really seems to get better… bruises aren't typically part of a sickness and it wasn't like he had been coughing or sneezing. Someone had been hurting him. Someone was causing him pain and she didn't notice. And she called herself a reporter.

"Someone's hurting him." She finally whispered, looking into David's eyes and hoping she was wrong. Instead he nodded. "Who?" she asked.

"His foster dad." the words were spit out with more venom than Katherine could ever remember hearing. "He's been hurting him. Bad. I think Spot knew. Race too. I… I suspected but…" He trailed off.

Katherine was angry again. But now the anger was not focused at Jack but at his foster father. "We need to do something!"

"I-it's too late." David said, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. He leaned his forehead on his knees.

Katherine felt ice pierce through her heart. Wait. He wasn't…. Dead? No. It couldn't have gone that far…. Right? There was no way that…. Not now. WIthout her noticing.

She slid down beside David feeling overwhelming guilt for every unkind word and thought she'd ever had towards him. "I-Is he…?" She had to ask. Had to know for sure…

"He's alive. Apparently his dad got bad. Really bad. Race was there. Called the police. My dad… apparently it was bad. But he-he stabbed him, Jack. He's in the hospital right now. It's… bad." He paused. "I overheard my dad talking to my mom about it… Race texted me but only said Jack was in the hospital. But what my dad was talking about… it… sounds… bad, Katherine. Just… I can't imagine… living like that. Barely eating, barely sleeping, being some old man's punching bag…. And they found a closet with a lock on it. The walls had… scratch marks like someone had tried to… claw their way out. I just… I don't know what to say."

Katherine had never felt so awful in her life. She had accused Jack of being lazy, of not caring. Everything… made so much sense. How had she not noticed? All those comments about freedom. About things she had assumed were references to third world plights but where his personal cry for help. A cry for help that she had ignored. She claimed a crush on a guy that she had watched be abused while she sat back and complained about him missing meetings.

"The project is in the drama room." David cleared his throat and blinked rapidly. "We should go get it."

"Are we… presenting today?" She suddenly didn't want to. What she really wanted to do was to visit Jack. To see him. Make sure that he was alive, breathing. To say she was sorry for every unkind word.

David didn't answer, staring at the opposite wall. "Yes," he finally said, "but not the way we have it now. Come on" He said standing up and reaching his hands out towards Katherine. "We need to hurry if we want to get it done before class."

~N~

Katherine had never been so nervous in her life. She stood beside David as he shuffled hastily written notecards. The teacher was looking at them with a slightly disappointed look. Last minute really wasn't their thing.

"Freedom," David began, "Our topic was freedom. What is freedom? Who is free? Are all Americans free?"

"Our group was assigned three people." Katherine stepped forward. "You'll notice that there are only two of us here."

David nodded, "And you could throw a million different reasons out there. Some might assume it's laziness. Some might think illness. There's many reasons, both valid and unvalid, to miss such an important assignment. But there's truly only one right reason."

"He wasn't free to come." Katherine felt something in her heart break along with her voice. "He couldn't. Because we think in our upper or middle class way and assume everyone is like us. We assume that everyone has enough money. That everyone can come and go as they please. Sure we might have differences, but at the core, we all have the same advantages."

"But it's not true." David sounded upset at the admission. "It's not. Yes America is free. Yes we have freedoms. But not every person is free. Some sleep outside during a New York winter and hope for the best. Some eat only what people throw in the trash or what they are able to steal without getting caught, or what they get in the free lunch program. And some…" he wavered slightly. Katherine watched as he swallowed and took a deep breath. "And some live with people… with parents, with guardians, with relatives, that say they can't leave the house. They do things to them that we can't even imagine because our lives are great, so is't everybody elses?"

"Freedom isn't something everyone has, regardless of where they live. Being in America doesn't guarantee freedom. Some people are living in captivity even in plain view. Some people have been hiding for so long that we look at their glass prisons and assume it has a door. We assume any mess they are in is because of their own stupid mistakes. But that's impossible. Because they never had the freedom to make those decisions. And that's on us. That's on us." She whispered the last part, feeling the weight of the words sit heavy on her chest.

David picked back up, his voice slowly breaking with every sentence. "Freedom. Something that we all take for granted. We may complain that our parents give us 'no freedom'. That this school is a prison. But we have more freedom than some people have ever known. You have three meals a day, sometimes more. You have a house. You have the right to do your homework. You have the right to not be hit. You have the right to decide what happens to your body." He broke off.

"And if you don't have those freedoms." Katherine had never felt so strongly about anything in her life. If Jack had only told someone sooner... If she had only noticed… "There is help. Talk to a teacher you trust, or to the principal. Talk to one of the counselors. Call the police or social services. Even an abuse hotline. Don't suffer in silence. Because…. Because when you wait for too long sometimes…. Sometimes it becomes too late."

"Pay attention to those around you." David again found his voice. "Look for those without freedoms. You may be the only way they'll get freedom. Don't let your friends…. Suffer just because, because you're scared or because you are oblivious or because you just want to ignore it and move on with life."

Katherine nodded, feeling overwhelmed with guilt. "It could make the difference between someone having freedom and someone living in captivity in their own home. It could… it could be the difference between life and death."

"Freedom," David's voice had strengthened, sounding so forceful that he barely sounded like himself. "It's not guaranteed. Sometimes you have to fight for your own freedom. Sometimes you have to fight for others. But what are we if not standing for each other? If we sit around and expect the adults to fight for our freedom in things like this they can't. They don't see what we see. They see us in a classroom, but they don't see the way they flinched when you patted them on the back. They don't notice that they wear the same clothes everyday. They may not even see them in class everyday. But you do. You see and you can help. We have to help. We have to ensure freedom for not only ourselves but also for others."

Katherine looked imploringly at the class. "This is not what we had written." She glanced towards the teacher. "We have an entire other project written and planned. But it seems so miniscule. So unimportant. Because what is a paper outlining American freedom when some of the people in this very school don't have it. Why talk about freedom of assembly when some people are being locked in their houses with no outside contact. Why discuss freedom of speech when some people have their every word monitored and are punished for even a slight disagreement of ideas. Why praise freedom of consumption when not only are people not able to choose what they eat, but they aren't even sure if they'll be able to eat. Why boast in a freedom that some Americans, while some students at this very school, have been living without even the most basic of freedoms."

The class was staring at them with open mouths. No one made crude jokes in the back. No one was making under the desk texts. Only wide eyes, some with tears. There were a few people staring at the desk Jack usually sat in. Maybe they had noticed too. Maybe they had made assumptions. Maybe they didn't care. Maybe they were just now putting the pieces together.

David ripped the covering off of the painting. There were gasps as the beautiful work was unveiled. An eagle, breaking through its cage and making its way towards a clear blue sky. A picture of freedom.

"Jack made this." He said. "Because sometimes no matter how bad things are on the outside there is still beauty on the inside. And maybe we shouldn't underestimate people based on what's on the outside." He took a shaky breath. "And th-that's all."

The bell rang. No one moved. Katherine picked up the painting and walked out the door, unable to take the stares any longer. David followed her out.

"Do you think she'll fail us?" he asked, looking uncertain.

"I don't know," Katherine stopped, looking him directly in the eyes. "And honestly, I don't care."

He smiled. "So long as we're in agreement."

It was funny. Her grade was hanging in the balance and yet she had never felt so at peace.

~TH~

Well there ya go!

Please let me know what you thought as this chapter took forever to write (actually editing is what took forever but still).

Next week we will get back to Jack!

God bless and stay safe,
Jamie