Okay...I haven't figured out the comments yet, but I wanted to say thank you for all the feedback I've been given. I'm going to try and legnthen my chapters a bit (I know I tend to rush) and I'm going to try and upload more often. Thank you again!

Virgil didn't remember leaving the building, or getting in the car. He didn't remember putting his seat belt on, or the car starting...all he knew, was that he was looking at his mother, and he couldn't bring himself to look away, for fear that she wouldn't be there again.

"Virgil," she said uneasily after he had been staring at her for a while, "Why are you looking at me like that?" He didn't answer--couldn't answer--for a while. When he finally found his voice, it came out choked and scratchy.

"Yo-Y-You're alive," he stuttered. She looked at him strangely.

"Did someone tell you otherwise at the Juvenile Hall?"

"Five years ago...at the gang wars..." was all he could manage.

"Virgil, I came to see you yesterday to let you know you could stay back at home." She focused purposefully on the road ahead.

"You did?" Virgil snapped back into reality. "But...I wasn't at Juvenile hall yesterday...I've never been there in my life." She didn't look at him, but her look became stern.

"Virgil, that isn't funny." He found, for the first time, that he could look away from her, and looked down. An uncomfortable pause settled between them.

"So, is dad at home too?" he asked. This time she looked at him, slightly angry.

"That isn't funny either," she said.

"Sorry," he said, afraid to ask for Sharon, expecting the same kind of answer. Of all the times he'd imagined a reunion with his mother, none of them had been like this.

"Virgil," she said after a few moments, "you know I will always love you, no matter what you do. But bringing up subjects like that hurt. I loved your father very much." Virgil felt shivers running up and down his spine. Had she said "loved"? why would she use a past tense like that? "I went and saw him yesterday," she continued. "I put flowers on the grave--"

"GRAVE?" Virgil asked, shocked. When he'd lost his mother, it had hurt, but his father would always be there...was always there. Nothing ever phased him! For the first time, Jean looked concerned.

"You were there at his service three years ago," she sighed. "I know you two didn't get along, and that really helped me when you showed up with Sharon."

"Er..." Virgil said, pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind to go over later...if he had the presence of mind to do so at the time. He definitely didn't now. "How is Sharon, by the way?" he asked.
"The new part she has in the movie will really help her name get out there," Jean smiled for the first time since Virgil had seen her.

"Movie part?" Virgil asked, ever more confused.

"Yes, the one I told you about, that I can't explain. Actually, she couldn't really explain it to me either. She said she had to keep it under wraps." Virgil nodded, hoping that something he would hear or see today wouldn't threaten to send him to an early grave from shock. He shook his head when he realized how that sounded. He could just see the headlines. "Static dies from Shock!" He chuckled to himself, when he realized his mother had continued.

"...said she wishes she could be here," she was saying. "But they've got her working so hard. The good thing is, as rubber band girl, she–"

"As WHAT?" Virgil asked again. Jean looked over at him, concerned again. Than she reached her hand over and felt his forehead.

"You feel fine, have you lost your memory or something? Did whatever happen to you in the courtroom do something to you?"

"I don't know," he said numbly, "I think so...but...none of this makes sense!"

"None of what?" Jean asked, turning onto their street. Virgil recognized it immediately. At least they lived in the same neighborhood.

"None of anything!" he said. "The last thing I remember is trying to help someone, and than I was in the courtroom, and my life has changed!"

"How?" Jean asked patiently.

"For one thing, when I woke up this morning, my best friend was still talking to me, I had never been to Juvenile Hall in my life, and no one knew who I was or what I could do!" He looked down and lowered his voice to a whisper. "The only good thing that has happened to me today, is that you're alive." He looked up. "Mom, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure, honey," she said as they pulled in front of their house. "I really don't know.