When he was eight, Jim decided to dye his hair black.
He has the entire day to himself, Sam being out with friends and his Mom off-planet. So, when his "Uncle Frank" is passed out drunk on the couch, Jim leaves the house and walks the three miles into town, not paying attention to the passing of time as he goes.
By the time he gets into town, buys the dye (with credits from the drunk's pocket), and gets back home, it is dark out, but he never even thought about what would happen if Sam came home in the middle of his escapades. Luckily, Sam is still out and the man on the couch still snoring loudly.
As quietly as he can, Jim goes to the upstairs bathroom, following the instructions exactly as they are on the box. In under an hour, his hair is jet black, almost the polar opposite of his natural color, but he doesn't get to dwell on that, since Sam comes home just as Jim is throwing away the box.
The first words out of his brother's mouth are not endearing, to say the least. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I-I, I just…" Jim is so stunned at his brother's reaction that he can't even form a complete sentence.
"What, Jim? What did you think you were doing? Do you want to send Mom into another attack when she gets home? Do you want Frank to have another reason to yell at you? I bet you never even thought about the consequences, did you?"
The accusatory tone that Sam uses cuts Jim like a knife. This is Sam, his brother, his protector. Sam, who has always stood up for him and guided him through life. Eventually, Jim manages to cut through the haze of hurt and betrayal and fear enough to respond. "Sam, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad, I just…"
"What, Jim?" Sam's tone doesn't soften. "What made you decide to go into town, unsupervised, and then to mutilate your hair? What, please tell, made you think that this was a good idea?"
Faced with Sam's disapproval, Jim can only look down as he mutters quietly, "I'm just so sick of it…"
Sam's expression softens, as does his voice, upon seeing how vulnerable Jim looks. Sounding more like Jim's brother every second, he asks, "What are you sick of?"
When he opens his mouth, Jim realizes how stupid it sounds, but this is Sam. Sam can know the truth. "I'm sick of everyone looking at me as if they're seeing a ghost. Especially Mom." He pauses for a moment, not daring to check his brother's expression for fear of any anger that may be lurking there, before continuing, "I just thought that, maybe if my hair was black, Mom would remember that I'm not just Dad's ghost, back to haunt her." Jim takes another deep breath, bracing himself for the negative reaction he knows is coming, before adding in a whisper, "I just wanted her to see me for who I really am; her son."
Though Jim is expecting Sam to continue with his scolding, it is not the reaction he receives. Sam seems at a loss for words, as though he has not expected Jim to be so insightful, as though he thought Jim hadn't noticed the way their Mom seemed to stare at him as though he were George Kirk, back to torment her.
When Sam speaks, it is clear he is not nearly as mad as he was before, although his tone is still stern. "Jim, you shouldn't have dyed your hair. It was a stupid thing to do, and even if Mom can't bring herself to yell at you, Frank certainly will. You know he will. And I can't always save you from him. We just have to hope that your hair will be back to normal by the time Mom gets back."
Jim spends the rest of the night in his room, trying to avoid Frank's wrath for as long as possible. As predicted, though, when Jim goes down for breakfast the next morning and Frank got a look at what he had done, the man promptly freaks out.
Jim sits through the yelling, knowing better than to talk back (as much as he would have loved to do so, he knew it would only make the yelling worse), and thinking about how nice it would be to get out of this place; to get away from stupid adults and stupid kids and ghosts and bad memories and missing parents. He takes the verbal lashing in silence, dreaming of finally getting out of Riverside and then as far away from the place as he can possibly get.