Notes: I wrote a lost chapter for Falling Out of Reach. It's called We Were Only Freshmen. Read it if you want to. There's mention of it in this fic. But I'll barely go over it. As for making Banks Catholic it's simple. There are only three characters that have obvious religions: Goldberg is obviously Jewish and so is Charlie's girlfriend Linda (In the book, her last name is Chavez). And Luis is obviously catholic. We get to play with the religions of the other characters. But of course you can play with Linda's and Luis's if you don't want them to be that of course. I mean Goldberg is the only one to say he's Jewish. I just happen to be Catholic.

Smoke Screen

I opened my eyes not sure, where I was. The only thing I could think of was that my head hurt. I was lying on a hard floor. The last thing I remembered was dancing with Brandy. "Are you okay?" Someone asked from somewhere next to me.

I turned my head and saw the school nurse. "Yeah." I said sitting up. The world spun for a few seconds. But everything came into focus. "What happened?" I asked.

"One of the paper maché fish fell from the ceiling and hit you on the head." She explained.

I got up and looked around. Many people were staring at me. Marcy and Brandy were standing not too far away from me. I walked over to them. "You okay?" Marcy asked.

"Yeah. Just have a headache." I turned to Brandy. "I'm sorry Brandy. I think I'm going to my dorm to sleep off the headache."

"I understand." She said. "I had fun tonight. Well with the exception of that."

"Me too."

I walked her back to her dorm building and then walked to my own. I spent the time walking wondering who did it.

When I got back to my dorm, I took a couple Tylenol. I felt the lump on the back of my head. It wasn't too big but it did hurt. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I woke up late the next day. Thankfully, it was a Sunday so that was all right. Guy had already left. My head was still hurting so I took two more Tylenol. I looked at the clock. Quarter to ten. Too late to get breakfast. The phone rang. "Hello?"

'Hey Adam. It's Marcy. Just calling to see how you are feeling.'

"Have a headache but I'll be fine."

'That's good. You want to go get some coffee at Starrbucks?'

"Maybe some other time. I have something to do. Talk to you later Marc."

'Bye Adam.' She said and hung up.

I knew how I wanted to spend the day. It was not a hard decision. I stopped at a florist to buy a flower for two people I had never met. But I always brought flowers for them when I go visit Jesse.

"Hello Adam." Kelly, the florist, said when I entered the flower shop. "You want the usual flowers?"

Maybe I do come into here often. "Yes thank you Kelly." I paid her and returned to my car. I drove towards the cemetery lost in thought. I wonder if Scooter will be there. He is in town.

I walked into the cemetery and to Sherry and Lacey's graves. Sure enough, Scooter was already there. He turned around when I approached. "Hey." He said.

That's when I noticed Rick Riley standing there. I backed away knowing that he didn't want me at the grave of his daughter and girlfriend. He just looked at me and turned around. Thank goodness. I can never tell what Rick's going to do. I'll put the flowers there when Rick's gone. Course I never told Scooter that I've been putting flowers on the grave.

I stood in front of Jesse's grave. How to start I wondered. This time wouldn't be easy. My hand went up to my still aching head. Maybe I should have taken a couple of Tylenol 3 instead of Extra Strength Tylenol.

I crossed myself. I don't know why, but I always feel closer if I talked aloud. I sighed. "Hey Jesse." I started out. I don't know why but that's always the greeting I used. Even when he was in a coma. "I was a Homecoming Prince last night. That went okay until I was hit on the head by one of the paper mache fish. Um everything's going okay. I really miss you. But I know you are watching all of us Ducks from Heaven."

I turned around and saw both Scooter and Rick looking over at me talking quietly. Great just great. I don't need sympathy especially from a guy who had me beaten up.

Riley left and Scooter came up to me. "Your head okay?" He asked.

"Fine."

"Adam there's some stuff you don't know about Rick. I mean besides Lacey and Sherry deaths. He didn't flunk all of his classes the second half of senior year. He had to make up the classes he failed at the end of his freshmen year. He didn't take the finals. And never took the remakes. So, he ended up having to take another semester of high school. Or he would have if he hadn't done what he did. He's working on getting his GED. He is sorry for what he did. I know you don't believe that but I know he's not lying."

I took in everything he said. "Why did he do it?" I asked.

"He like a lot of the Varsity players of last year, excluding Keith, knew that you were going to be named captain. He didn't want it to happen. He wanted his brother to be captain. To be honest he never liked you."

"I figured as much."

He nodded. "Joey I don't understand. I don't think his anger was directed towards you. More towards Keith. Jealousy. I wasn't there so I can only guess it was all about jealousy."

I put the flowers on the grave. I turned to leave.

"Adam."

"What?"

"Be careful."