Author's Little Note Thingy Part 2:~ More swearing here. Four words this time instead of one.

Desi ran down the hall after Cory who was just walking out of the principal's office. He didn't look happy but she didn't care. He didn't care when she fell to the ground, she didn't care if he got his hand slapped because of it.

"Hey wait up!" she called after him. There was no way he didn't hear her, the two of them being alone in the hallway, he just didn't respond. She frowned and quickened her pace. That spring she'd be on the track team. She finally caught up to him and tapped him gently on the shoulder. He turned to her sharply, a very angry expression on his pale face.

"What!" he demanded from her. She was taken aback for a few moments before speaking. He was scary.

"My name is Desi Quincampoix and I work on the school newspaper. You're Dr. Brown's nephew, aren't you?" she asked, figuring getting to him through his relationship to Dr. Brown was better than through his relationship to Ephram.

"Why do you care?" Cory asked continuing on his way. Desi kept pace.

"Well, Dr. Brown is usually note worthy around here, and I was wondering why his nephew would be in town. Did you move here?" she asked him, notebook in hand on the off chance he'd answer her. He turned to her again, still angry.

"It's none of your business," he more warned her than told her. She persisted anyway.

"If I only kept to things that were my business, I'd never have anything to write about," she told him. Now he stopped walking and with a very powerful arm shoved Desi hard against a locker and held her there.

"You are going to stay the Hell out of my face! I'm not fucking around here! I will not hesitate to beat the shit out of you! Understood?" he yelled at her. She nodded. He let her go and started walking down the hallway again. Desi remained where she had been placed, rubbing her shoulder.

Orrie had been called home and Amy had just been called away by her friends who wanted to go shopping, and wanted to get her away from Ephram. Jig and Ephram were walking through the woods to Deerborn St. by a shortcut Ephram had found one day by accident. They weren't really talking much, but every now and then Ephram would snicker. He snickered when Jig would take a look behind them, no doubt searching for her raccoon friend. Finally Jig heard him snickering at her.

"What you find so funny about my being stalked by a forest animal I'll never know," she told him.

"Jig, you're not being stalked by a raccoon! You're imagining it or something!" he told her. She shook her head and sighed.

"I'll prove it to you someday," she warned him.

"Brown!" they heard yelled from behind them. Being in the middle of the woods they both turned around extremely surprised. This time Jig's sense of being followed was not imaginary, only it wasn't the overly friendly raccoon she had been expecting. It was the very quick Cory, whose one year in Boy Scouts taught him how to follow foot prints in the snow.

"Cory, what do you want?" Ephram asked showing obvious distaste. He knew what Cory was like, and, not realizing it himself, he protectively took a step in front of Jig.

"This is bullshit and you know it here! If you weren't such a trouble I wouldn't have to be here!" Cory accused him. Ephram scoffed.

"That's bullshit! You can't be blaming me for you moving here!" Ephram said. Cory took a few steps closer to him.

"Watch me!" he said right into Ephram's face.

"Ephram, let's just go, come on," Jig said tugging on Ephram's coat sleeve. Ephram glanced back at her and then back into Cory's eyes.

"You're just not worth it," Ephram said turning around and letting Jig lead him.

"I'm not worth it huh? Well at least my mother's still alive!" Cory yelled after him. Ephram stopped in his tracks and his hands balled into fists. He turned around, ready to ignore any of Jig's warnings, and charge at Cory. He felt like hollowing out his head. Ephram was about to charge when Jig ran past him at Cory. She started furiously to punch and kick Cory with terrible strength. Ephram watched on in horror hearing Jig sob and yell as she did this, and watching the tears fly from her eyes. Once Cory was on the ground she just started kicking him until Ephram pulled her away. Ephram tripped as he backed up and they both fell to the ground. He still had a tight grip around her chest but she no longer resisted it. She was just wailing hysterically into her hands. Ephram had never been more frightened since he came to Everwood. What was wrong with her? Cory got to his feet, blood dripping from his nose and out of the corner of his mouth. The untouched snow around them was filled with splatters of blood. Cory wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, watched Jig sobbing in Ephram's arms for a few moments, before running off in the direction he had come.

"Jig?" Ephram asked her, worry completely taking over his voice. She just continued to wail in his arms. He had never seen anyone cry so violently.

"Jig! Juliet!" he called to her. On the saying of her real name she yelled and broke free of his grasp. She got to her feet and started running off into the woods. Ephram was so struck in terror he found that he couldn't move. He couldn't get up and run after her. He just leaned forward and placed his face into his hands.

Delia stood in front of the mirror in her room. She held a comb in her hand and ran it a few times through her hair. Once she was satisfied she placed a Sabres baseball cap on her head. She straightened it, tightened it, and smiled. She only wore that particular cap for her aunt and cousins who were from Buffalo. She didn't know if any of them even liked hockey, but Delia thought it was the polite thing to do anyway. She walked out of her room and down the stairs to find her father straightening his tie in the mirror in the hall. She smiled. He always got like that when Aunt Star was around. They usually got into fights, the two of them. Ephram called it the 'Star Wars.' Delia found it funnier than her dad did. Delia's mom used to think it was pretty funny too. Delia frowned at the thought. Aunt Star and her mom had always gotten along. Delia's mom said that was because the first time she had met Star, she was walking over to her with a photo album filled with pictures of Delia's dad as a baby. The two of them had gone through the entire thing, Star telling one story after another. She even gave it to them as a wedding gift. Delia's mom never told her where the photo album was hidden, though. Dr. Brown turned to her.

"Delia, could you not wear the baseball cap tonight, please?" he asked her more as an actual question than a command.

"Why?" Delia asked him.

"Because I want your Aunt Star to see how well we're doing here. Maybe when she sees we're all fine she'll move back to Buffalo where she belongs."

"Maybe the hat will make her think about how much she misses Buffalo," Delia suggested. Dr. Brown paused as he thought about it.

"Good point, keep the hat. Now, don't forget to talk about Murasaki and how well you two are getting along and-," he stopped remembering he had a parental thing to do here, "how is your stomach feeling?"

"Oh, it's fine. The stomach ache only lasted a few hours."

"Good, good. Where's the candy?" he asked her. She frowned.

"Disposed of," she said. Dr. Brown smiled knowing that by 'disposed of,' she didn't mean thrown away.

"Alright, where's your brother?" he asked her. She looked around.

"I'm right here," Ephram said walking down the hallway to them. He was dressed in his normal day clothes, unlike his father and sister, who were dressed to go have dinner. Dr. Brown frowned.

"Why aren't you dressed?" Dr. Brown asked him.

"Well, I was thinking. I'm supposed to be happy here, right?" he asked his father. Dr. Brown nodded.

"Right…"

"Well if I am happy, I'd probably have already made plans to go out with friends tonight, plus, I wouldn't have this bandage on my arm," Ephram said pointing to his bound arm in case his father had forgotten. Dr. Brown bit his lower lip.

"The bandage, right… Maybe you should stay home Ephram…" Dr. Brown told him. Ephram nodded grinning.

"Can I stay home?" Delia asked hopefully.

"Your stomach hurt?" Dr. Brown asked her. She shook her head. "Then you're coming. Ephram, lock up after us?"

"Yea, sure," Ephram said. Dr. Brown put his coat on and helped Delia on with hers. Dr. Brown walked out of the front door to the car and Delia followed him, having just enough time to give Ephram one more pleading look before she closed the door behind her. Ephram and Delia liked their dad, mostly, and Ephram and Delia liked their aunt, mostly, but together they were horrible. Ephram had a tingle of pity for Delia, which he might have acted on, if he didn't have a harder task at hand.

Ephram picked up the phone and dialed the Harper's phone number. He waited a few rings and hoped he didn't interrupt their supper. Edna answered with her gruff, annoyed, 'hello.'

"Hi, is Jig there?" he asked her.

"Oh Ephram, uh, no, she's not home," Edna said. Ephram's face reverted back to worry.

"Well, has she been home yet?" Ephram asked.

"Oh, yea, she came home about an hour ago. But she left again. Look, kid, I gotta go. Bye," she said and hung up before he could reply. Ephram placed the phone back into its cradle. He had two worries at hand. One, Jig wasn't home and off some where doing God knows what. Or two, she was home but didn't want to talk to him. Why would she feel the need to ignore him? They were friends, what couldn't she tell him?

In an attempt to get his mind onto something else he walked over to the dinning room table where his homework was laid out. Purely by chance his eyes glanced outside onto the lawn. They saw the figure of a person standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the back porch. On closer look Ephram found the figure to be Jig. She was just standing there, staring blankly at the porch steps. Ephram grabbed his coat and opened the back door. He walked out onto the porch quietly, knowing that Jig knew he was there even though she didn't show it. He wrapped himself in his jacket and sat down on the top step of the porch so she was finally looking at him. He remained quiet, waiting for her to tell him what she obviously wanted, or needed, to. He'd sit there for hours if he had to.

"I never told you why I came to Everwood, did I?"