**Samantha**

The weekend was over and it was time for school. It was time for 7th period and I was making my way to my locker with Rusty by my side. She had history next and my locker was in the same direction of her class. I had study hall today so I was stopping by my locker to grab my homework from other classes before heading over to the library.

"So how was English?" I asked as we weaved through the flow of traffic.

"Oh it was torture. Ms .White has us reading Hamlet."

"Eww, I hate that book... To be or not to b-"

"Oh hush up you!" Rusty cuts me off with a smack to the arm.

"I couldn't resist. What part of the story are you on?" I asked.

"On the part where he puts on the play for his uncle."

"Well at least you're past all the boring stuff." I said as we reached my locker.

"True. Well I'm off, I'll see you 8th period."

"Yeah, okay. Bye, Rusty."

"Bye!" She replies before turning and disappearing in the crowd.

With a last wave at Rusty I turn back to my locker entering my combination. Once I had it open I grab the books I would need for homework. When I had everything I'd need I shut my locker and was on my way.

The bell had just rang when I walked into the library. Walking in further I was called over by some friends that happened to be there.

"Sammy! C 'mere a minute." Amy called waving me over to her table where she and three other girls sat.

In the seat next to Amber was her twin sister Amanda. The two girls were identical as far as facial appearances went but the big difference between them is that Amber is a blonde and Amanda is a redhead. On Amber's other side was Rachel, she was sitting in the middle of the table so she had view of everyone walking in and out of the library. Rachel was probably the one that spotted and alerted the others. Last but not least was Michelle, the pretty half Asian half German girl with long black hair.

"Hey guys, what's up?" I greeted walking over to the girls.

"So, is it true?" Michelle asked looking at me expectedly.

I stared at her waiting for her to elaborate. When she didn't I looked at the others around the table.

"Is what true?" I asked confused.

"True that the city boy beat Chuck Cranston in a bus race this weekend?" Amanda clarified.

"How could you guys possibly know about that?" I asked looking around the table.

Amber scoffed, "Sammy you know as well as anyone that nothing stays secret in a small town." She said looking at me like I was dumb. "So let's have it, is it true or just hearsay?"

I grinned, "Sorry guys but I don't kiss and tell." I told them with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Come on Sammy! You're his friend aren't you? You were there weren't you? You would be the one to know what happened." Rachel said impatiently.

"Exactly I'm his friend so I'm not going to say anything." I told her. "Besides it sounds like you guys know all the information anyway. All I'm going to be doing is repeating what you've already heard."

"You're such a buzz kill, Sammy." Amber said looking unhappy that she didn't get her way.

"I think I'll live." I replied with a smirk.

"Speaking of the city boy..." Rachel started waiting until I looked at her to continue. "He's looking over here right now and I don't think it's us he's staring at."

"What?"

"Look for yourself." Sarah teases nodding her head behind me. Cocking my brow at her I glance over my shoulder, immediately my eyes found what Rachel was talking about.

There at one of the tables was the one and only Ren MacCormack. He already had a stack of books on the table working on some assignment. I couldn't help but notice that he was in fact staring in our direction. As our eyes met he gave me a smirk, which I was only too happy to returned with a wink. Turning away from him I turned back to the girls.

"He is staring over here, isn't he? I'm gonna go ask him what he's looking at. Don't wait up." I tell them. After saying a quick goodbye to everyone I make my way to Ren's table. As I walked away I could hear the fierce whispers of gossip begin.

I took the chair right next to his and slid in next to him, deliberately bumping elbows causing him to scratch a line across his paper reaching from one end to the other. He looked down at his paper saw the line and sighed dropping his head and sighed dramatically.

"Hello..." Ren said, picking his head back up and looking at me.

I grinned, "Hey yourself, handsome. Now, I know you've heard this before but, do you come here often?" I asked wiggling my eyebrow suggestively.

Ren smiles and starts laughing.

"Because I come here quite often and let me tell you, I've never seen you here once." I tease laughing with him.

"Does that line ever work?" He asks once he stops laughing.

"I don't know, you tell me. I've only ever tried it with one person." I told him, leaning in slightly.

"It might be." He admits with a cute smile on his lips.

Deciding to be a tease I lean in just a little bit more, we were so close that if I move the tiniest bit our lips would be touching. Ren stares at my lips for a second then his eyes shoot back up to mine and lock there.

"That's good to know." We stay like that looking at each other then with a smile I look way. Pulling away I start removing my backpack and taking out my work. When I glance over I see that Ren is still staring at me, I grin.

"Is there something on my face?" I ask jokingly touching around my mouth and cheeks.

"You're cute." Is the only thing Ren said before turning back to his work.

"So what subject are you working on?" I ask him, peering over his shoulder a bit.

"An essay for English." Ren replies.

"What's it about?" I ask him. Ren goes to answer when Rich Sawyer, one of Chuck's idiot friends, sauntered toward our table.

"Hey, man. Chuck's pretty sore about losing that race." He laughs. "I mean, you blew up the man's bus dude." He laughed, leaning both arms on the table.

When Ren didn't comment Rich continued. "Yeah... Bomont blows, dude." Grabbing the seat on Ren's other side. "I don't have to tell you that, though, do I?" he asked.

"Yeah. I've been to Chicago. St. Louis. Been up to some of the clubs in New York City. I've been around. Just like you, man." Rich tells him.

"Oh, yeah?" Ren asks clearly getting tired of this guy.

"Yeah." Rich says.

"I'm gonna go look for a book." I tell them not wanting to be a part of the conversation anymore I push out my chair.

"I'll come with you. I need to find something too." Stands and follows behind me.

Stopping in a random spot Ren leans into my ear, "Anything to get away from that guy." Ren whispers in my ear causing me to laugh.

"I know what you mean. That guy is shady." I whisper back.

"Tell me about it." Ren retorts his warm breath on my ear before he turns and starts looking for a book. I didn't really need a book, I had just said that as an excuse to get away from Rich. So deciding to help Ren find his book I walk over and snatch his paper out of his hand and start looking over the titles of book listed on it.

"Psst. Hey." Someone called behind us. Tuning I see Rich with his face stuffed between the books in the shelf.

"You get high? Cause I do... every damn day. If you want, you, me and Ms. Sexy Thing right here can go burn one right after school." He nodded at us Ren steps in front of me blocking me from Rich's view. "You know, city mouse, country mouse... Blazing!"

"More like a rat." I muttered softly.

"What makes you think I'm anything like you?" Ren asks looking at Rich like he was insane for even comparing them to each other.

"Hold on a second." Rich says before he disappears.

"C'mon." Ren says grabbing my hand leading us out to the main room. A whistle from behind stops us. Placing me behind him again Ren turns to the Rich.

"This is what we call a take-homer." He says walking right up to Ren and slipping a joint in his hoodie pocket. "You need anything else?"

"I don't want this." Quickly pulling the joint out of his pocket and trying force it back into the guys hand but he didn't take it.

"It's cool. It's cool." He says starts walking away.

"No, it's not cool. Take this..." Ren tells him following behind him.

"We can go down to the railroad tracks and chief one now." Rich continued to ignore him.

"No seriously, takes this." Ren pulled him to a stop and shoved the joint in Rich's face. The boys are interrupted by the librarian notices what's going on and starts yelling at them.

"Hey!" He yells pointing at Rich and the joint in Ren's hand. "What is that?"

"What's what? "Ren asks back hiding the joint behind his back.

"In your hand. Let me see it." The librarian told Ren. While the man was distracted, Rich started walking away going around the tables and getting closer to the exit. But he wasn't that slick cause the librarian caught him

"Young man. Hey!" The old man yelled after Rich who took off at a dead sprint out the door. The librarian went to follow him.

"Ren, the restroom. Flush it down the toilet." I whispered to him Ren nodded and took off toward the restroom. Just as he took off the librarian turned about and saw him.

"Hey!" he yelled running after Ren.

Hoping to buy Ren sometime I intercepted Mr. Parker, walking into his path and forcing him to a stop making him go around me.

"Hey! Stop! Hey! Stop, stop!" He yelled, pushing passed me and running into the boys bathroom after Ren.

I waited watching the door for any sign of Ren or the librarian. I didn't have to wait long because not a minute later the restroom door swung open again with the librarian leading Ren out by the grip he had on Ren's arm. I watched silently as the two walked out of the library and out into the hall more than likely heading to the principles office. Since it was still class time I couldn't leave the library to follow after them so I was left with no choice but to return back to the table I had been sharing with Ren and wait for the dismissal bell to ring. Sitting down I noticed Ren's things were still scattered around the table, the librarian hadn't let him get his things before they left, so I started packing his things away into his backpack. I was in the library for another 15 minutes before the bell rang and I stood grabbed my backpack along with Ren's and walked out into the hall. Rusty was waiting for me outside of the library and when she spotted she shot me a confused look when she saw the second backpack.

"Who's backpack is that?"

"It's Ren's."

"And why do you have it?"

"I have it cause that dipshit, Rich got Ren in trouble and when Mr. Parker was taking him to the principle he left it behind." I fumed as I started heading in the direction of the office.

"Rich? Ain't that the guy that walked into class one day higher than a kite?" Rusty asked as she followed behind me.

"One in the same." I answered accidentally bumping into someone and muttering a quick apology as I continued walking.

"So now what? You're gonna go wait for him outside the principals office to give him back his bag?" Rusty asked.

"That was the initial plan, yes." I replied.

"Then I'll go with you. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't wait with you while you waited for you man?" Rusty asked teasingly as she lock her arm through mine walking side by side with me.

"You're good for being a pain in the ass." I sassed getting a laugh in reply.

"You love me!" Rusty sang.

"Grudgingly." I said in mock seriousness. We were about to turn the corner when suddenly someone crashed right into us almost knocking us over.

"Hey, Ren, where's the fire?" I jokingly ask when I noticed he was the one that walked into us.

"Sorry Sammy, Rusty. I gotta go." He says moving to walk around us but before he could I latch onto his wrist.

"Hey what's wrong? What happen in Dunbar's office?" I ask him trying to meet his eyes.

"It's nothing." He says tugging his wrist out of my hand.

"Bullshit." I say calling his bluff. He doesn't say anything just shakes his head at me and walks away from us.

"Ren!" I shout after him but he doesn't turn around. I thought of running after him but hesitated not knowing if it was a good idea. Rusty must have noticed my internal debate because she spoke up.

"Go after him." Rusty ordered from beside me.

"What?" I asked turning to her in confusion. She gave me a look as she released my arm and pushed me in the direction of Ren's retreating form.

"Go."

I stare at her for a moment then slowly start to grin.

"Yes ma'am." I say then briskly walked after Ren as fast as my legs can carry me before he completely disappeared. I have to practically run to catch up with him. When I was close enough I grabbed his hoody and pulled him back hard.

At the sudden tug he whipped around. When her turned he had his hand raised slightly like he was gonna punch whoever had grabbed him. But when he saw it was me he put his arm down.

"What!?" He practically yelled at me through clench up teeth. He didn't try to hide what he was feeling as his face displayed his anger and frustration. I didn't back down, I stared right back at him.

"Where are you going?" I ask him waiting for an answer but he doesn't give one, instead he asks a question of his own.

"Do you wanna get out of here?" He asks me his eyes flicking back and forth between mine with a piercing gaze. I stare up at him just studying his face for a seconds before nodding.

"Let's go." I tell him. He nods once before reaching out to grab my hand in his and leading me out of the school. Stepping outside he heads to the parking lot towards his car all the while still holding my hand. His grip tightening.

As we're walking I noticed Ariel walking around the courtyard with Derek beside her. She was laughing at something Derek said, grabbing his arm and running her fingers through his hair.

Looking up she to caught sight of Ren and I. I watched as she paused in her walking and said something to Derek before she starts running towards us. Derek staring after her with a pissed off expression shakes his head to himself before disappearing into the school.

"Hey, MacCormack. Samantha." She greets us once she's reached our side. Ren doesn't bother gracing her with an answer instead brushing right past her as he lead us to his car.

"Hello Ariel. Sorry but we're in a hurry." I say as we pass by her. Taking her eyes off Ren she snaps them to me, following after us when Ren speeds up.

"What's the rush?" Ariel asks me trying to keep pace. Thinking fast I answer her question with the first thing that pops into my head.

"We're skipping class. We decided to get an early start on the weekend." Ariel gives me a disbelieving look but let's my response slid in favor of turning her gaze back to Ren.

"Really? What are you doing this weekend Ren? I was thinking if you didn't have anything planned maybe we could hang out or something? Go watch a movie?" Ariel asks.

Rolling my eyes at Ariel's not so subtle flirting, I glance over at Ren to see what his answers was gonna be. But he didn't, he acted as if Ariel never said anything. The only indication that Ren heard her was the clenching of his jaw and his crushing grip on my hand. I raised my brow at his reaction. Why was Ren ignoring Ariel?

"Dude, you trying to ignore me or something?" Ariel asked him, voicing my unspoken question. Ren doesn't speak until we reached his car once we did he lets go of my hand, and throws open the drivers door.

"I'm doing my best to ignore you!" Ren snaps angrily in Ariel's face. His words stop her in place and while she's frozen Ren motions me forward and to the drivers door motioning me to climb through.

I do so throwing our backpacks into the backseat and climbing over the center console before settling into the passenger seat. Just as I put my seatbelt on, Ren follows after me slamming his door loudly behind him and turns the key in the ignition bringing the yellow bug to life. Quickly backing out of the parking spot he throws the car in drive and zooms out of the school. As were speeding down the road Ren grabs his iPod, his knuckles turning white at the force he's holding the little white device. With a few swipes of his thumb music blasts with force through the speakers. He yanks on the worn out robe above our heads and revs the engine.

"Where are we going?" I yell over the blaring music, grabbing the overhead bar on the passenger side as we swerve around a minivan.

"I don't know. I just had to get away." He says still speeding down the road.

"Well we can't just drive around, speeding! Well get pulled over and locked up for the night and my grandmother won't be happy if that happens again." I say, catching his eye when he cocks his brow at me.

"It's a long story." I sigh looking out the window when I notice a familiar building that I knew for a fact was abandoned.

"Turn in there!" I shout pointing to the right.

Jerking the wheel he suddenly does a sharp turn into an old factory. Driving around to the back of the building he jerks the wheel again an narrowly drives through an open garage door. Screeching to a stop Ren parks.

"Are you okay?" I ask him, cautiously watching him as he breaths heavily and raggedly through his nose.

He sits there for a few moments and I jump when he starts slamming his hands, palms open, on the steering wheel a few times before getting out of his car, making sure to slam his door with a loud bang on the way out.

Silently I watch as he paces around for a bit then turns back to the door reaching in through his open window and yanks his iPod out with him. Soon catch hells blues by the white stripes suddenly starts blasting through the speakers. I just sit and watch him as he starts shouting insulting invisible enemies.

"You got that music cranked pretty loud, Mr. MacCormack. Yeah! No shit, Barney Fife! Try being a cop in Boston, you huckleberry! Shut up! I'm talking! Mr. Dunbar. Mr. Douchebag! Mr. Dumb-Ass. With your righteousness and your little vest. Stop tying to act like you know me! Don't act like you know me. Don't try and act like you know my mother! You don't know the pain she went through every day. You don't know shit! You don't know shit!" Ren yelled at the top of his lungs. At some point during his screaming match with himself I opened the window and unbuckled my seatbelt, climbing through and perching myself on the windowsill. Folded my arms on the roof of the car with my chin resting on my forearms I watched as Ren turned up the music to as far as it would dare to go before he started dancing out his frustrations.

He was krumping, jumping, flipping he starts doing his gymnastics moves on an old rusty pole. For the next half an hour all I hear is music blasting, things breaking, banging on the walls, and Ren's shoes thumping against the ground as he dances and runs all over the old factory. At one point during he spontaneous dance montage he jumps up onto the roof of his car and starts ballerina spinning until he looses his footing and crashes to the bottom of a dumping pit in the factory. Landing on broken crates, glass, cardboard boxes and who knows what-else. After that he climbs out of the pit and opens the trunk of his car popping open a beer and taking a sip before throwing it across the room and goes right back to dancing.

He runs up to the second floor and disappears from view and hear what I think is a window breaking before I see him again. I watch him and almost have a heart attack when I see him find a chain connected to a pulley system on the ceiling and does like Tarzan swinging from it like a vine.

"Whoo!"

"Ren! What the hell!?" I yelled climbing off my perch and run around the car all the while my eyes are glued to Ren's swinging form 15ft off the ground. When the pulley reached the end of its rail track it gave a violent jerking stop causing the chain slip off the pulley that caused Ren to fall and crash to the ground with a thud.

"Oh my god, Ren!" I gasp running over to his fallen form. "Are you okay?" I ask falling to my knees by him and making sure he wasn't hurt.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ren groaned rolling over onto his back. He laid there for a minute trying to get his breathing back in check. "I'm great."

"You're also stupid."

"Yeah." He mumbles closing his eyes and throwing his arm over his face.

With a sigh I lean forward until I'm hovering over him. Placing my hands on the ground near each side of his head looking down at him. I stay like that until he moves his arm away and stares up at me. We stay like that looking at each other in silence until finally I break it.

"You want to get out of here? I wanna show you something." I ask with a smile tilting my head slightly. He's quiet, staring at me contemplating my words until finally nods his head.

"Great! Now, get up. And this time I'm driving." I tell him pulling away from him and getting to my feet.

"Why do you need to drive?" He asks.

-Railroad Tracks-

"Where are we?" Ren asked as he took in the surroundings of the train yard.

"The yearbook." I answer him, heading in the direction of the graffiti covered train cart.

"The what?" Ren asks from behind me.

"Everyone calls it the yearbook. I don't know when it started, maybe 10 years ago? The story is a couple of seniors came here one day, skipping class or whatever, and started tagging on the walls and it just went on from there." I explain as we reach the cart, climbing the stairs leading up into the train cart. Ren enters after me taking in all the art scribbled over every inch of the inside.

"What is all this?" Ren asks eyes still glancing around.

"Quotes. Poems. Drawings. Song Lyrics and whatever else people decided to put down." I answer while looking for a lighter to light one of the camping lanterns someone left behind. After successfully finding one and lighting up the room I place the lantern on one of the make shift tables where I find the portable cassette player. Looking at the tape that was already inside the recorder I scoff and take it out throwing it somewhere on the table. Reaching into my pocket I pull out one of my own tapes placing it into the player.

"What do people do here? Just hang out?" Ren asked as he dropped down onto the couch, which was bench seat from the back of a pickup truck, someone left there situated against the wall.

"Yeah, and other stuff. Friends of mine, and myself included, come here to relax. Sometimes we drink, smoke," I pause pushing play on the player, "listen and dance to music we're not suppose to listen to." I tell him, Tom Sawyer by Rush playing through the air. Leaving the tape player where it was I turn up the volume as far as it would go before turning and making my way over to the couch and plopping down next to Ren.

"Those two are mine. 'When life gives a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.' And 'What we do in life, echoes in eternity.'" I said raising my arm and pointing out each quote to him.

"What inspired that?" Ren asks as he passes me one of the beers he brought with him.

"A couple of things did actually." I said popping open my can and taking a drink from it.

"Really? I'd love to hear them." Ren said as he settled into his spot.

"I'll show you mine, if you show me yours." I tell him with a grin, playfully nudging him with my elbow.

"What do you mean?" Ren asks looking at me and arching his brow.

"What happen in principle Dunbar's office today?" I ask him in all seriousness.

"Nothing. I just got in trouble for the joint, well almost got in trouble. He gave me a speech, the normal stuff." He said shrugging his shoulder like the whole thing was no big deal.

"Really?" I ask giving him my best bullshit look. When he nods I continue.

"Ren, if it was a normal scolding you wouldn't have been as pissed as you we're this afternoon. How dumb do you think I am?"

"I never said that. I don't think you're dumb at all."

"Good answer. Now, come on, tell me what happened." I say encouragingly, urging him to share with me. I wanted him to trust me and let me help him emotionally get everything off his chest and off his mind. Sitting the next to me, he looked so exhausted. Like he's carrying the weight of the world with him.

"While he was ripping into me trying to get me to snitch he brought up my mom. A few months ago my mom passed away; she had leukemia. She was sick for a long time, my dad left us and I was the one there with her through the whole thing. I was with her through all her doctor visits, all the hospital bills, chemotherapy, and I was there when the doctor told her the cancer came back. And today, Dunbar had the balls to bring up my mom and say that she was a trouble maker that moved away and got knocked up cause she didn't follow the rules and was reckless." Ren snapped glare firmly fixated on his beer can.

"Sorry about your mom, Ren." I said softly after a moment of silence staring at his profile.

"It's alright. It doesn't hurt as much now to talk about it." He told me turning towards me and offering a weak smile. "It's your turn."

"Already? Where do I start? Well I guess since we're on the topic of mothers I'll start there. Granted, out in the world somewhere my mother is very much alive but to me she might as well be dead. According to my grandmother, my mom was a party animal. She was always out partying all night and wouldn't be back until the sun came up. She was a lousy judge of character, she got mixed with the wrong people. Drinking, smoking, doing drugs and sleeping around. My mom fooled around with a lot of different people sometimes men other times women. She didn't care who she shared her bed with, she was just looking for a great time. That's how she ended up having me. I'm the result of a drugged up, alcohol blurred one night stand. Mom got knocked up and as soon as she could leave the hospital she hopped in her car, drove all the way down here and left me on my grandmothers porch. She was gone before the dust cleared. It's because of the way she decided to live her life that everyone in this god forsaken town is judging me for her mistakes. They have it in their minds that I'm gonna end up just like her."

"I'm sorry, Sammy." Ren apologizes but I ignore it. I didn't want sympathy right now.

"I hate this town. I hate these faces and these people that always turn in my direction and whisper behind my back everywhere I go," I mumble taking a deep chug from my beer, "Whatever. Look at all the fucks I give. Every last one of them, they're wrong. As far as I'm concerned my true mother is my grandma Maggie, not Sandra Olivia Airs."

A heavy silence falls over us as we sit there in the abandoned train car but the silence is neither awkward or uncomfortable it's just there. Hanging in the air like a fog, thick and muggy. When suddenly the silence is broken by the sound of a train whistle blaring in the distance.

"Is that a train?" Ren asks in slight confusion.

"Yeah it is," I say when I hear a second whistle sound slightly louder than the last one, "Come on hurry!" I say shooting out of my seat and out of the yearbook.

"Where you going?" I hear Ren running behind me. I don't answer instead I run out and up to the train tracks; stopping a few feet from them and listening as the distant sounds of the train got closer and louder. I hear Ren stop behind me just a few steps over my right shoulder.

"Sometimes after football games we come out here, and when the train passes we just make out like crazy," I pause glancing over my shoulder at Ren when the train rounds the corner coming into view, "Or, we just play chicken."

"Are you gonna play chicken?" Ren asks stepping closer to me and looking ready to stop me depending on my answer.

"I'm not that desperate for attention." I laughed watching as the train gets closer and closer until it finally passes us and continues on it way. Its when the last car finally drives by that Ren speaks up.

"So is this the part were we start making out like crazy?" He asked with a grin.

"There wasn't a football game."

"Okay next football game, we'll come back." Ren says so casually that I can't help but laugh.

After calming down I ask, "So, do you have any plans tomorrow?"

"Well I was gonna go-" Ren started but I cut him off before he could continue.

"Great! Tomorrow night we're going out to the city to have some fun."