Author's Note: This chapter is written in present tense because I wanted to express the memory in the most vivid way possible.

Chapter 6

Chris waits at the bike rack for Jack, after the school's last bell has rung. It is Friday, the kids favorite day when anything is open for doing on the weekend. Waiting for Jack was a regular tradition, and Chris never left without him.

Jack comes out of the school's front doors, a big smile on his face. He holds a paper in his hand, and it has a big A on the top.

"Shit, you got an A on your essay?" Chris asks as they unlock their bikes from the rack.

"Yup. Why, what did you get?" Jack still has that big grin on his face, the same grin that Chris will remember five years later, thinking about Jack after he died.

"Well... Not so good. I pulled a C- on it, but the fucking teacher is always hard on me. I can never figure out what the old bat wants me to write about." Chris wrinkles his face. "Why don't you write my essays for me?"

"Ha. Very funny." Jack wheels his bike out to the road and gets on the seat. "You just need to work harder, and study more. Playing video games doesn't help your grades at all."

The door of the school bursts open, and Klarc Chipper walks out. "What the fuck are you dickwads doing here now? Playing around, jacking each other off?"

Chris rolls his eyes. He is used to constant bullying, and he doesn't really care what the brainless punk really has to say about him. "I think that the school is open to the public, so unless you have a paper that says we can't be here, we can stay as long as we want."

"You think so? I don't think that the school wants some kid with psychotic parents running around the school like he owns the fucking thing." Klarc can never think of anything else to say except for "fucking", or any other curse words that he can find in the peanut he calls a brain.

"What did you just call my parents?" Jack shouts.

Klarc probably can not remember what he says, and he changes the subject. "I heard that being crazy runs in the family, and you'll probably become just as nuts as your fat mom, and just a drunk like your dickless pop."

Jack is furious, and Chris can almost see the blood rushing to his face. "You can make fun of my shitty parents. Go ahead. But it's not my fault they are like they are, and you have no reason to make fun of me because of my background."

Klarc mimics Jack's mouth movements, and then spits at him. "I can to. The reason that they are sucky parents is probably because you were born. When I see your face it makes me wanna take up drinking too."

Jack rushes Klarc, running at him and dropping his bike. He jumps on Klarc, and Chris can only see a flurry of fists before Klarc goes down. "Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit, this isn't good at all." Chris tries to pull Jack off of Klarc, but Jack just keeps punching Klarc. Soon blood is running down Klarc's face and he is unconcious.

Someone calls the police, and an ambulance comes and takes Klarc away. Later Chris finds out that Klarc's nose and jaw are broken. Jack is tried as a juvenile and is sentenced to community service.

Three years later Klarc is found with possession of marijuana in his home, and before he can be taken away and tried as a juvenile, he pulls a gun out from his coat pocket, cocks it, puts it in his mouth, and pulls the trigger.