It had been two weeks since Neil's outburst. Neither he nor his father had approached the subject again. Chuck had often thought about talking with Neil about that day, but had always postponed it again. Neil seemed to be doing fine – except the amnesia of course. He told himself that maybe his son had just needed to get it all out.

Yesterday the cast from Neil's broken leg had been removed. He still needed his crutches, but he enjoyed his new gained freedom nevertheless. Today he was supposed to get back to school. Chuck had discussed long with Neil's doctor if this wasn't too early. But the doctor had insisted that taking Neil out of school for too long would do more harm than good.

So today was Neil's first day in school and he was accordingly nervous. He still didn't remember anything. He had no idea who his friends were nor did he remember his teachers or what they were talking about in classes at the moment. Holly had done her best at getting him up to date, but she had given him so many information at the same time that he had already forgotten half of it.

His father had offered do drive him to school and now they were sitting in his car in front of the school building.

"Nervous?" Chuck asked quietly.

"Yeah." Neil sighed.

"If you think it's too early, you don't have to start today. You could ..."

"I doesn't matter when I start, Dad, tomorrow it will be as hard as today." Thoughtfully Neil looked at the building. "Maybe in there I get some of my memory back. I'm going to meet all my friends again, perhaps that's helping."

"Yes, maybe." Chuck didn't really think it would help. Those people hadn't been Neil's friends for years. But that was just another thing he couldn't tell him. And the truth was, he didn't really know how many people from his highschool years Neil had stayed friends with over the years. Maybe there were one or two ... Maybe Neil was right and getting back to school would help him get his memory back. "Well, good luck then." He said smiling.

"Thanks." Neil forced himself to smile back and got out of the car. He hadn't gone far away from his father's car when he saw Holly coming towards him with a big smile plastered on her face.

"Welcome back to school of hell." She greeted him and gave him a welcome hug. He still felt uncomfortabe being so close to her. But he didn't want to disappoint her. She had been a huge help – or at least she had tried – those past few weeks and if a little hug made her happy, he wasn't going to take that from her.

"That bad?" Neil replied smiling.

"Well, it's highschool, nothing good to say about that. Come on, I show you your locker."

On their way to Neil's locker, Holly told him about most of the people they passed by. Again it was too much at the same time and Neil began to mix up the names with the faces very quickly. Already he wished he had taken his father's offer to come back here later. He didn't think he would survive a whole day like this.

"Here it is." Holly cut into his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh great, thanks." Hesitantly Neil stood in front of his locker. He couldn't remember the combination to open it. Just another thing he forgot, he thought frustrated.

"It's 200769. I saw you open that locker a hundred times. And thanks to my photographic memory I never forget anything." A young man, about Neil's age, had approached them unnoticed from behind and welcomed Neil with a short pat on the back. "Hi, I'm Kelsey. We know each other since kindergarten. I know you don't remember me. That's okay. This way I don't have to give you back those 50 bucks I owe you." He added grinning.

"Now you do." Neil replied laughing. He already liked Kelsey. He didn't remember him, but he could well imagine that he had been friends with him.

"So, how's your first day?" Kelsey asked.

"Well, it's all new. I hoped I would remember something, but ..." His voice trailed off.

"Don't worry. It will come back. I did some research on the internet. In almost every case the memory comes back. It just takes a while sometimes."

"Kelsey is our computer expert. He's even better when he works with this brother. Where is he, by the way? I usually don't see you two separated." Holly asked.

"Bodanis ... that's my brother," Kelsey said to Neil, "... is down with the flu. Knowing my luck, I'll get it right after him. I have about three more days before I get sick. It's always the same. We're twins, you know. One would think we would get sick at the same time, but no, I always get sick exactly three days later."

After their first meeting, Kelsey stayed with Holly and Neil for the rest of the day. He had noticed fairly early that all this new information was too much for Neil and stopped Holly when her talking got out of hand. Neil really enjoyed having Kelsey around. He didn't feel the pressure that everyone else put on him. Kelsey didn't expect him to remember anything about him. He had simply accepted the fact that Neil had no memory of him anymore and moved on from there.

Surprisingly Neil had no problems following the classes. Sometimes he had the feeling that he even knew more about this school stuff than the other students. Maybe he was some kind of super student, he thought grinning to himself. When it was time for lunch, he already felt that coming back to school today hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

When he, Holly and Kelsey sat in the cafeteria eating lunch, they were approached by a young woman.

"Hey, uhm, Neil Taggert?" She asked shyly.

"Yes, at least that's what everyone is telling me." Neil replied jokingly.

"Uh ..." She was apparently at a loss for words.

"Was there anything specific you wanted?" Neil asked.

"Yes, well, uhm, Principle Adams asked me to help you out with ... everything, you know. School stuff ... because of your amnesia. I'm Julie, by the way, Julie Kensington. I'm the new confidence student for this year."

"Hi, uh, that's ..." Neil started.

"That's really sweet of you, Julie. But Neil already has all the help he needs." Holly interrupted him.

"Oh, of course, I didn't mean to imply that ... uh, it's just that Principle Adams ..." Her voice trailed off and she looked helplessly at Neil.

"Why don't you sit down. There's always room for one more." Neil smiled at her warmly. He felt sorry for her. She looked as lost as he felt at the moment. "This way you can tell Principle Adams that we at least talked."

"Okay, thanks." Julie replied relieved. "I'm really new at this job. I didn't even want it in the first place. I just got it because of my grades. Mr. Adams said that with my influence I might actually get some more people through highschool. And it feels good to help. I always ..."

"Yeah, you're the perfect picture student." Holly interrupted her sarcastically.

When Julie looked like she would start crying any minute, Neil felt even more sorry for her. He didn't understand why Holly was being so mean to her, she seemed like a nice girl, a bit strange maybe, but still nice. "Come on, it's nice of her to help others. And I'd be really grateful if you'd help me out. At least when I have another stupid question, I know who I can come to." He smiled at Julie comforting.

"You can always ask me." Holly replied quickly, the jealousy clearly audible in her voice.

"I know that. And that's great. I have you, Kelsey and now Julie. The more the better." Neil looked at Kelsey for help. He figured they should talk about something else before this turned into an ugly fight between the two girls. He couldn't understand why Holly was so upset. Julie was really just trying to help.

"Hey Neil, why don't you come over after school? If you're not afraid of catching the flu, I could introduce you to my brother. We could hang out a bit. You can drive with me. My car just got back from the garage and is as good as new." Kelsey had obviously read Neil's thoughts.

"Sounds great. I just call my Dad that he doesn't have to pick me up after school." Neil replied gratefully for the change of subject.

"Okay, it's a deal than. Holly, you want to come too?"

"Yes, sure." Holly replied, smiling. But her smile quickly faded at Kelsey's next question.

"What about you, Julie?"

"What? Me? Oh, uhm ... yes sure." Julie answered, beaming with joy.

XXXXXXX

The afternoon went by quickly and Neil had enjoyed every second of it. Both Kelsey and his brother, Bodanis, acted natural around him and since Julie hadn't known him until today, he was actually able to forget about his amnesia for a few hours. Only Holly brought back the memory of it a few times. It was just the little things, like when she took his hand in hers. Those little intimacies only reminded him that he still didn't know anything about their shared past and he still hadn't been able to feel anything more for her than friendship. He felt bad about that as he could see clearly that she had deeper feelings for him. But despite that, the afternoon was great and he was in a really good mood when Kelsey drove him home.

"Hey Dad, I'm back." He called out.

"You're late." Chuck replied earnest when he saw his son stepping into the living room.

"Yeah, we kinda got carried away. Kelsey and Bodanis showed me this awesome new program they invented. Those guys are amazing. I mean, I know I'm good with computers, but they ... they are geniuses." Neil chuckled. "And Julie knows a great deal about that stuff too. Once we started talking, we didn't even realized how fast the time went by. Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"So you were just hanging before the computer? Nothing else?" Chuck asked. The whole afternoon he had been worried what Neil might be doing.

Neil felt taken aback by his father's question. "Don't worry, we didn't drink any alcohol nor did we take drugs." He replied coldly. "I still got homework to do. I'm in my room." Without waiting for his father to respond, Neil turned around and left.

Chuck cursed himself. Apparently, Neil hadn't forgotten about their talk two weeks ago. Whatever Holly had told him, he still remembered it. And he probably still felt as if Chuck held those things against him. He needed to talk with Neil. Somehow he had to made it right that even though Neil had changed and turned into the son he had always wished for, he had never forgiven Neil for the mistakes he had made in his youth. And he should do it fast. He was afraid that without his memory, Neil would fall back into old habits.

XXXXXXX

Angry Neil sat in his room. Two weeks ago his father had told him that he was proud of him and that he had changed. And just now he had implied that Neil had lied to him. His father was telling him a bunch of lies and that angered him even more. He didn't know who he was supposed to believe. He knew that Kurt and Angela hadn't told him the truth about their camping trip. Everyone else who had heard the story had told him how much he hated camping. So why would he want to do it all of the sudden? And Holly ... she kept telling him about this great relationship they had, but he felt nothing. If he had loved her before his accident, these feelings should still be there. He might have forgotten about her, but his feelings – he still knew he loved his father, even despite their disagreements and he still had these warm feelings for his mother even though she wasn't around anymore to remind him of her. But Holly – there was nothing. A sudden memory flashed through his mind.

"If you don't love me anymore, just say so. You spend more and more time away from me, you keep forgetting our dates ... You are like this whole other person. I don't even know you anymore." Holly yelled at him.

"Holly, please, I'm trying, but ..." Helplessly Neil looked at his longtime girlfriend.

"You know what, I don't want to hear it. It's over, you hear me? That's what you want, isn't it? You're free to do whatever you want."

"Holly, please ..."

But she didn't listen to him any longer. She quickly turned around and ran away. Neil watched her leaving. He had wanted to tell her that is wasn't true, that he still loved her. But the truth was, he was relieved it was over. Whatever his feelings for Holly had been, he didn't feel that way for her anymore.

A stabbing pain in his head pushed the memory off Neil's mind. Groaning he held his head and laid down on his bed. He had remembered something. But it made no sense. Holly had told him they were still together. Everyone had told him that. But this was a true memory, he was sure of that. They had broken up because he didn't love her anymore. She had told him so herself. And yet she acted like everything was okay between them. Just another damn lie.

His head was still hurting badly. He thought about going downstairs and getting a pill, but decided against it. He would just ran into his father again and he wasn't interested in any more of his stories. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. Maybe, if he concentrated hard enough, he would remember anything else. But no matter how hard he tried, no other memory would come back to him. Eventually he fell asleep.

Tbc

A.N.: Blue Eyed Dragon Girl, Tai and lapdance22, thanks for your reviews. I love getting feedback :-) I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I hope you haven't lost interest in this story. Tai, I agree with you, I think the show deserved a chance to show how good it really is. Unfortunately it never got that. Thank you for reading and please keep reviewing. :-)