Melissa was breathing hard as she halted at the front desk. A slight women with fire-red hair looked up at her, " Yes?" she asked in a slightly annoyed voice.

Melissa swallowed hard under the secretary's glare, " I'm here to visit someone."

"Who." the secretary asked, clearly bored.

" Cody Jackson."

The secretary looked a little surprised, like she wasn't expecting him to have any visitors any time soon. She fumbled with the pager, " Officer Randal to the front desk."

The same hefty officer from yesterday came into view. As an almost instant reaction, Melissa pouted at him, a full blown glare would not be to appropriate. " What is it?"

This girl wants to go see Cody Jackson, is he permitted to have any visitors?"

" Well of course, but I don't see why anyone would want to see that little dirt-bag." He turned to face Melissa for the first time, she didn't appear to be part of any sort of crime. Did that guy hang out with her?

He turned to her," Right this way ma'am."

________________________________________________________________

Jackson was in the corner of his cell, staring at the blank wall opposite him. He sighed, why was he in here, he hadn't done anything wrong. This time. I guess it as fair to assume he had something to do with the crime, because of his previous record. He had been to juvi 4 times since he was 12. The first time was for holding up the gas station, because his "friends" dared him to. The second was for just well, hanging out with bad people in a bad neighborhood. The other 2 were for getting into fights at his old schools.

Some people may think he was bad guy, getting into all those fights. But those guys were the bad ones. One time an entire football team pummeled his in the alley beside the school, the principle did nothing about it. The next day he went up to the team captain, and... The next day he was, one again, on the bus to juvi-hall.

Sometimes Jackson had some pretty dark thoughts, but who could blame him. When a gang of 8 guys twice your age will kill you if you step within their territory, or just without reason sometimes. Life was a scary thing.

He ran his hand through his hair, what was he going to do? Even if he did get out of this mess, he had nowhere to go. He might as well just curl up in a corner and die. As far as he knew, his mom was dead, he hadn't spoken to her since he was 7. nobody would want to take him in after this. And those gangs would most likely be out, searching for him. Things had told him they weren't done with him quite yet. They would murder him as soon as they got the chance. he gulped.

Just then Officer Randel came down the hall, " Cody Jackson you have a visitor." He started sweating, what if it was it was the gang leader, Smithy? Had he come to finish the job. Just as they rounded the corner, he saw Melissa.

Oh no! This was worse than Smithy, she had probably came to disown him as a friend. What would she say when she saw him behind bars? It would probably start with: You little punk, I hate your guts, you filthy criminal! All he could hope for, for the moment, was that he could hold back the tears as he lost his only real friend. That probably wouldn't even work out, considering a single tear rolled down his cheek as Melissa laid her hand on the cool steal bars of the cell.