Chapter 1: The First Day of School

The morning sun rises early and birds are flying around. It seems like it'll be a great day. LJ gets packed up for school, excited by the prospect that he's finally able to learn again after going through all the hardships in the past. Michael and Lincoln are in the kitchen cooking. Lincoln is cooking his specialty for LJ, Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast. Michael stands around, drinking his coffee. "So are you taking LJ to school for the first day?"

"Yeah. I have to make sure he gets there alright. I'm still shakin' up from what's happened in the past four months. It still doesn't feel right being in one place." He flips over the pancakes in the pan.

"I couldn't sleep at all last night either. It just didn't feel right. Sara slept pretty well though so I'm glad." He takes another sip of his coffee and goes to the table.

"So, did you actually do it last night?"

"What?"

"Did you actually do it last night?" Lincoln takes the pancakes out of the pan and puts it on the plate. He brings it over to the table.

"Linc, what exactly are you talking about?"

"Don't lie to me. I know you did it last night with Sara." LJ walks in from his room into the living room, but stays quiet as he listens to the conversation. Lincoln and Michael don't notice that LJ is standing there.

"Linc, shut up. I didn't do anything last night with Sara."

"Oh please, boy doesn't just go into the same room with girl just to sleep. You know you wanted to do it."

"So what, you probably did the same thing with Veronica." LJ snickers and Lincoln and Michael turn around to see LJ sitting on the couch behind them.

"You didn't hear anything."

"Okay, I didn't hear about how you and Uncle Mike did it last night with Veronica and Sara." LJ laughs. "I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard moaning from both sides of the wall." Sara and Veronica wake up and walk into the dining room. "Wow that smells lovely." Sara sniffs the air some more and grows ravenous.

"Lincoln's specialty, Blueberry Pancakes." Sara and Veronica sit at the table. LJ takes a look at the time and notices it is 7:55.

"I'm going to be late!" LJ grabs his pancakes and puts them into a paper bag. "Bye dad! Bye Uncle! Bye Veronica! Bye Auntie Sara!" LJ runs out the door and heads straight for school which is two miles away.

"Weren't you going drop him off?" Michael asks as he grabs his pancake and puts it on his plate.

"Oops." Lincoln grabs his pancake and eats it in one bite.

LJ runs but happens to see a trailer park on the way to school. He takes no mind of it and runs as fast as he can. After about fifteen minutes of running from Veronica's house, he finally approaches his school, Wentworthville High. He walks into the school, happy to be back and learning. He sees that nothing has changed in the past four months. But everyone seemed to stare at him as he walked to his locker. Some girls began to gossip when LJ walked by them.

"Isn't he that Burrows kid?" she whispered to her friend.

"Yeah he is." They both continue to stare at LJ.

"Don't you feel bad for him?" said another one of the girls.

"Yeah, I am. But I'm even more surprised to see him here in school again."

LJ passes his locker and stops there. He remembers his combination from last year and it opens for him. To his surprise, there were a lot of letters in there. He picks one of them up and opens it. It says "I can't believe you killed your mom. Don't ever come back again!" LJ feels remorse for his mom again, Lisa Rix. He picks up a pink letter on his foot. He opens it and it says "LJ, I know you didn't do it. I wish you were here to read this letter. I feel really bad for everything that you have to go through now. I hope you're alright." It was from one of the girl's in his class, Chanelle. He feels relieved that there are people who care about him. He takes all the letters, except Chanelle's and throws them away. He puts his bag in his locker, takes his books, and heads for his first class.

He walks by the computer room to find a single kid in there. He was sort of small, but rather strong. He was messing with the computers. LJ gets really curious and walks into the room.

"Look, I'm not done fixing your computer yet, Mr. Shumis." He said as he starts a program on the computer. The kid turns around to talk to Mr. Shumis face to face, but he sees LJ instead. "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were Mr. Shumis. He's been bothering me to fix his stupid computer since yesterday." He takes another quick look at LJ. "Hey, aren't you LJ Burrows?"

"Yeah," LJ replies as he looks at the computer. "Why are you all alone in this room here?"

"It's the only place where I can work in peace without having Coach Ruder getting all up in my face for being sent to Juvie before the big game last year." He turns around and continues the program. "What are you doing here anyways? I didn't think you and your dad would be coming back to Chicago. It's an even bigger shock to actually see you here at your old school."

"I decided that I wanted to finish my education and go to college." LJ watches him and tries to figure out what he's doing. He looks around and sees a football jersey sticking outside of the bag. "So, what position do you play?"

"Running-back." He continues to type. "Well I'm almost done and the bell should be ringing soon."

"Shouldn't you be hanging with the football team instead of being in here, working?"

"I would, but the whole team hates me for screwing them over on the big game."

"What were you sent to Juvie for?"

"For looking at your dad's, and uncle's case." LJ was surprised to hear that someone actually believed that someone actually believed they were innocent to begin with.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because unlike all the dumb people who actually read the news and believed your dad was guilty, I didn't, especially after he appealed not guilty." He finishes fixing the computer. Just as he finishes, the bell rings. "Stupid Mr. Shumis. If someone takes his computer, it's not my problem." He packs up his bag and gets ready to leave the room.

"Hey wait." The kid turns around.

"Yeah?"

"What's your name? You know mine, but I don't know yours."

"It's Jake Sienel."

"How would you like to meet my family after school today?"

"Sure. I wouldn't mind meeting your family. I would love to hear all of your stories on the run too." Jake leaves the room and heads up to his class. LJ walks out as well and heads to his class, happy with the fact that he made a new friend on the first day of school.