"And the student body presidents for the freshmen class are… Sadie Starr and Derek West!" the principal announces with enthusiasm. The class surges up to congratulate Sadie on her win (Derek is in a different class.) Jack sits back in his chair and tests his miniature bow made out of toothpicks and twine with a small, sardonic smile on his face.

His eighth period teacher, Ms. Carr, walks over to his desk and looks down at him. "You aren't going to congratulate your classmate, Mr. Napier?"

He looks up at her, still smiling. "Why would I? She has never been anything but rude to me. Besides," he sets a q-tip into his bow, "everybody knew she'd win. She's the prettiest and most popular of the candidates. Ironically, she's also the least graceful when shot with a q-tip."

"Jack…" his teacher warns.

He winks at her, leaps onto his chair, and nails Sadie in the cheek with a q-tip. She shrieks and one of her stiletto heels slams into her boyfriend, Chase's, foot. Jack winces as pandemonium ensues.

"Well, that will put a damper on their relationship," he says, sitting back down.

His teacher gives him a look. "Will you never grow up?"

Carefully, he tucks his bow into its carrying case and slips that into his backpack. "Ms. Carr, I already have grown up. I decided I did not enjoy it, however, and reverted to my 'childish' behavior. Would you like to hear a joke?"

With a long-suffering sigh, she says, "Sure, why not."

He grins. "Sweet. I've got a great one: there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum, and one night…" he laughs. "One night they decide they don't want to live in an asylum anymore. They decide they're going to escape. So like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across the narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town stretching away in moon light… stretching away to freedom."

Ms. Carr raises an eyebrow. "And?"

"Wait for it, wait for it." Jack holds up one finger, still laughing. "Now the first guy jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Because he's afraid of falling, see… so then the first guy has an idea. He says, 'Hey! I have my flash light with me. I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam.' But the second guy just shakes his head. He says…" Jack snorts with laughter, takes a deep breath, and continues, "he says, 'What do you think I am, crazy? You would turn it off when I was half way across.'"

Jack's teacher chuckles. "You're ridiculous, Jack, you know that?"

"That's what jokers are here for," the boy replies slyly, brushing his dark green hair back from his face. "To be ridiculous."

Ms. Carr walks away to try to calm the chaos. Jack's phone buzzes and he takes it out. He doesn't recognize the number, but he answers it anyway, keeping one eye on Ms. Carr just in case she turns and sees him with it.

"Hello?"

"Jack Napier?"

"The one and only."

There's a brief hesitation. "Mr. Napier, my name is Doctor Bennett. Your mother is in the hospital in critical condition."

Jack freezes, mouth half-open. The room is still in uproar around him – somebody ordered pizza and root beer, Sadie is nursing her pride while Chase nurses his foot. Ms. Carr has given up and is sitting at her desk with a book while the kids talk and laugh together. But all the noise fades into the background when Jack receives this news.

"… Mr. Napier?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, yes. What happened?"

There was a gas leak in the store where she was working. One of the employees lit up a cigarette in the locker room, and your mother was in there along with a few others. She's got some serious burns and internal bleeding. We're not sure she's going to pull through."

Squeezing his eyes shut, Jack replies, "Thank you for calling."

"We'll call again when you can come visit her."

"Thank you."

The doctor hangs up. In a daze, Jack hits the end button, stands up, and slips his phone into his pocket. Without really knowing what he's doing, he moves through the crush of students towards the door.

Somebody grabs his shoulder. "Hey, Jack, cheer up," a voice says.

Jack looks up into the face of a smiling peer who he's known all his life, but whose name he cannot remember.

"It's a party, man. Lighten up. Have a slice of pizza."

Jack's eyebrows pull together. Cheer up? For a moment, Jack forgets that this person has no idea what's just happened - that Jack's life has just collapsed into a downward spiral. A flash of anger rises in Jack's chest and he hauls off and slugs the kid in the jaw.

Surprise flits across the boy's face as he's thrown backward into a group of teenagers, who shriek and stumble, dropping pizza and spilling root beer. Sadie looks up at Jack and anger registers in her cold brown eyes, while horror flashes across everybody else's faces.

"Jack!" cries Ms. Carr.

The boy takes a deep breath, feeling only relief and satisfaction at having punched somebody; at having taken his pain out on the world. In a small corner of his mind, he wonders if that's normal. If he's sane.

"What have you done?" Sadie shrieks. "It's like you're determined to ruin my life!"

"Did you seriously just punch him?" asks a boy.

"He punched Peyton!" gasps another girl.

Ms. Carr grabs him by the shoulder and flips him around. "Jack, what on earth were you thinking? You're coming to the office with me this instant."

Voices continue to mutter and chatter nervously behind him.

"Fine," Jack says.

A nurse comes out and asks him if he's Jack Napier. He confirms it and she gazes at him pityingly for a moment before leading him down the hall to a room. He nods his thanks to the nurse before stepping in and closing the door behind him.

"Hey, mom," he says quietly.

The heart monitor beeps softly in reply.

He takes a deep breath and walks around to sit in the chair beside the bed. Pain flashes across his honey-gold eyes as he gazes down at his mother.

"First dad, then you," he says quietly. "You're all I have left, mom. I don't know why dad left but…" he reaches out and takes her hand. Swallows hard. Composes himself.

"I punched a kid today. I don't really know why. I suppose it was probably shock – I'd just gotten the call about you, then he… he told me to cheer up. He didn't know about you, of course, but…" Jack sighs and closes his eyes against the sight of his mother's face, covered in white cloth. "Ms. Carr took me down to the office. The principal heard about you, so he's suspended me for the week. Told me to get some sleep." A cynical laugh escapes him. "Sleep. If you die, mom, I'll probably never sleep again."

He stands abruptly and paces across the room. Emotions bubble up in his chest – anger, pain, frustration. Life is so unfair.

Unfair.

Unfair.

"You don't deserve to die," he whispers. "You're too young, mom. Too pretty." A small laugh rises to his lips. "You're just too pretty to die, mom." He walks back over to her bed and puts his hands on the silver bar next to the mattress. Leans on it. Gazes at his mother.

His eyes close and he runs a hand through his dark green hair. She's not going to make it.

Just to be sure, he glances at the instruments and clipboards around her bed. Her injuries are severe, and he knows that she is exhausted. Working at the store, raising him, dealing with his teachers, and trying to balance out her life had exhausted her completely. She simply doesn't have the strength to bounce back.

He looks down at her again. Kisses her forehead.

"I love you, mom."

"I'm sorry for all the fights we had."

"I'm sorry for being so annoying."

"Thank you for being there for me, no matter what."

"I'm glad you ended up liking my green hair."

"Thank you for never calling me shy. I promise I'll keep getting good grades. I'll graduate high school, I will. Just like you want me to." He sighs. "I don't know what I'll do then, but I'll graduate."

"You don't have to worry about me, mom."

"I'll be fine."

I'll

be

just

fine.