Chapter 2

Tuesday afternoon, Jamie and Chuck were sitting at an outside lunch table.

"Do you realize we're the only ones out here?" Jamie asked.

"Lily's eating out here with us," Chuck said. "She went to get a straw for her milk."

"10 minutes ago," Jamie said. "No one takes 10 minutes to get a straw. And she took her food with her."

"Maybe she…"

"She's eating inside because it's warm in the cafeteria and it's freezing out here!" Jamie shouted.

"Will you chill?" Chuck asked.

"It's like 23 degrees out here!" Jamie shouted as he picked up his milk. "My chocolate milk is frozen!"

"So now you have ice cream," Chuck said. "You're welcome."

"Look," Jamie said. "I know it's awkward for you to see Beth. But it's been a month. And besides, you're dating Lily now."

"I know," Chuck said. "But it's still hard to see Beth. She broke my heart Jamie.

"She's a loser," Jamie said. "I would've said the b word but the last time I said it at school, Rimkus heard me and I had to scrape gum from underneath the tables for an hour after school."

"All she cared about was sex," Chuck said. "And because I wasn't ready to have sex, she dumped me. Lily however actually likes me and doesn't care if I'm ready to have sex or not."

"That's right," Jamie said. "Now I'm going to change the subject. Have you started looking into colleges?"

"Time to go inside," Chuck said getting up.

"Sit," Jamie said.

"I'm sitting down because I want to," Chuck said sitting back down.

"I'm serious Chuck," Jamie said. "This school year is almost halfway over and we'll be seniors before we know it."

"Whenever you have a crisis," Chuck said, "why does it always have to include me?"

"Don't you want to go to college?" Jamie asked.

"Yes," Chuck said. "But I'm obsessive about things like you are."

"I always thought I wanted to be a pro-basketball player," Jamie said. "Now that I'm through with playing basketball, I don't know what I want to be."

"How about a singer like your mother," Chuck suggested. "You sing really well."

"I do not," Jamie said.

"Yes you do," Chuck said. "When you sang 'When the Stars Go Blue,' I cried my eyes out because it was so good."

"Wait," Jamie said. "I sang that in Maine. You weren't there."

"Someone who was filmed you singing and posted it online," Chuck said. "You have like 22 million views."

"Wait, what?" Jamie asked.

"Anyway," Chuck said changing the subject. "Let's both take college days tomorrow. We could go visit Tree Hill Community College and Tree Hill State University."

"Good idea," Jamie said. "Now what about video and 22 million views?"

At that moment, the bell rang.

"Time to go," Chuck said. "Better not be late for Kramer's class."

"She's out to get me," Jamie said. "We'd better hurry."

"Okay," Chuck said.

"And you better start explaining why you didn't tell me about that video," Jamie said.