After reading the text, Jack had shut everyone out for a while. He stayed home from school and only came out of his room for food and bathroom breaks. He had gotten texts from his friends, including David, but didn't reply.

It was a rough week for everyone in the house. Medda and Crutchie had tried to talk with Jack every day after the breakup, doing things like knocking on his door, sending him texts, talking to him on the rare occasion he left his bedroom, but there was no luck for anyone with him.

It had been a week and a half since the breakup, and Jack was starting to recover. It was Saturday now. Jack walked down the stairs to the kitchen, and was greeted by Crutchie.

"Hey, Jack," Crutchie said softly. "How are you doing?"

Jack shrugged. "'Betcha you can guess." He opened a cabinet, pulled out a box of crackers, and sat at the table.

The two sat silently for a moment. After locking himself in his room for a week and a half, Jack wanted to speak, but felt there wasn't anything to talk about.

"Y'know, Jack," Crutchie started, "The guys miss you. They been wonderin' how you been."

"Do they know?" Jack asked. "Like, about Amelia?"

Crutchie nodded. "Whole school does. You know her."

Jack nodded and sighed. "'Course. Why wouldn't she have spread it all over, it's Amelia."

"You know about Estella?"

"Estella?"

"She posted a picture on her Instagram a few days ago," Crutchie said, pulling out his phone. He took a moment to find the post. "Caption was, 'Goodbye to the sweetest treasure in all of France! I will miss you dearly!'"

"Lemme see." Jack reached his hand across the table. Crutchie put his phone in his hand.

Jack stared at the post in disbelief. It had a photo of Amelia and some other girl, smiling at the camera in the first post. The photos looked more or less the same as he flicked through them, all but the last photo. The last one showed Amelia and the other girl kissing.

"She already moved on," Jack said in disbelief. He passed the phone back to his brother. He stared at his hands, clenching them into fists.

"Jack?" Crutchie asked. "Are you alright?"

Jack stood up, shoved his chair under the table, and stomped his way upstairs.

Jack had time to cool off. He made it to school every day of the week so far, but he avoided his friends when he could. He asked Crutchie to let the others know that he wanted some time to himself, so they backed off most the time. They all were very worried about him, though.

Today was a Wednesday, so it was a workday in his history class. It was also a day that he would be meeting with David to work on their project about fear.

David always arrived a couple minutes late, since the class he had before tended to keep him late. But this time, he was there way before class was supposed to start.

Jack entered the classroom, surprised to see David already there. He walked to the table David had claimed. He set his bag down on the ground next to his chair and sat down.

"Hey," David said. "How're you holding up?"

Jack shrugged. He kicked his feet up on the table. "You're here early."

"Last class was canceled," David said. "Teachers had a meeting."

"Ah." Jack pulled his phone out and started playing games, and David worked on his schoolwork.

It took about fifteen minutes for class to start. They were given no instructions, seeing as it was a workday. Since it was almost the end of the project, they had a lot to work on in a short period of time.

"So, Jack." David fidgeted with his hands. "Were you able to work on anything for the project? I mean, it's okay if not, but I just… Yeah."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, put it all in the task management log. Worked ahead."

"That's unlike you," David said.

"I took time off school and left you alone in class, so I figured I'd work ahead," Jack shrugged. "Not a big deal."

David nodded. "So, we are almost done, then. I'll check what we need to do next." He searched for their task management log. "All we have to do now is… Did you work on the set?"

"Yeah, Medda said I can use anything from the theatre, and I have the sketch for the backdrop done too. Just gotta paint," Jack said. "Want pictures? I got a few." He pulled his phone out and started showing him the photos of the set for their skit. Most of the work was for the set since both David and Jack had done plays. The teachers wanted to see more of the technical side, so Jack was making the set, while David was writing the script, finding actors, and doing anything technology related.

"This looks amazing, Jack," David said while looking at the set photos. "I like that one a lot. This is amazing," he said, pointing out his favorite backdrop.

"Ay, take it easy. Just a bunch of trees." Jack said, putting his phone away in his pocket.

"Really good trees," David said. "I like it, it'll be perfect for the second scene. Oh, and I finished the script."

"Is it shared with me?" Jack asked, pulling his laptop out and turning it on.
"Yeah, it is. Sent last week," David said.

Jack pulled open the script. He tried reading, but thoughts of Amelia filled his mind instead. She still had his sweater. Was he going to get it back? Did he even want it back after the breakup? Was she talking about him behind his back? Why did she move on so quickly? These thoughts swirled around his head as he struggled to read the script.

"Jack? Are you alright?" David tapped Jack's shoulder.

He jumped. "Oh, uh, yeah." He said, startled. "Just uh, a little distracted."

"The breakup?"

"'Scuse you?"

"Oh, ah." David's face went red. "Were you thinking about Amelia?"

Jack sighed. "Yeah, it's about Amelia."

"Oh." David paused. He went back to his laptop, typing quickly.

"What're you doin'?" Jack asked.

"Hold on," David said. He took a deep breath. "What do you call a fake noodle?"

"I don't know, what?"

"An impasta. Want to hear a joke about paper?"

"David, what are you doing? We have work to do," Jack pointed out.

"We get ahead for a reason," David said. "This is more important anyway. I won't tell

that joke though, it's tearable."

Jack snickered. "That one was bad."

"Why did the coffee file a police report? It got mugged." He paused a moment, looking uncertain. "Do you want to hear more?"

"Yeah, actually," Jack said.

David smiled. "Why don't skeletons go trick or treating?"

"I don't know, Dave. Why don't they?"

"They have no body to go with."

Jack laughed. "Ay, I got one. Two fish are in a tank. One fish asks the other, 'do you know how to drive this thing'?"

David groaned. "Oh, that's my dad's favorite."

"Yeah? I may get along with your dad, I love that one," Jack explained.

"Don't even get me started on the other ones he does. They're the worst," David said. Jack snickered in response.

"You feeling better?" David asked.

"Yeah," Jack said. "Thanks, Dave."

The two spent the rest of class chatting since they were so far ahead anyway. Jack left class feeling better than he had since the breakup.