When Jim was ten, he decided he should drop out of school.
It is, really, only the logical thing to do. He is stuck in a class full of idiots who all resent him because he actually had two brain cells to rub together. In Jim's mind, it is entirely their fault, anyway, since it really isn't hard to be the smartest kid in the class when everyone else is so incredibly stupid. Is it his fault that the entire school is full of dumb hicks? Not in Jim's mind.
Even his teacher is growing sick of him, he can tell. Every time he answers a question correctly, she gets this tired look on her face, as though having such a smart student is some sort of burden.
Frankly, Jim knows that he should have skipped at least one grade by now, but his Mom still can't look at him for three minutes, let alone the time it would take to have that conversation, and Frank doesn't give a shit about how smart he is. Or, when Frank does care, it is to yell at Jim for being 'too damned smart for your own good'. Either way, the man would never bother to fill out the necessary paperwork for Jim to change to a class with kids as smart as he is. Hell, in Jim's mind, he is the smartest kid in all of Iowa (with the exception of Sam, of course), and so there is really no point in moving up a few grades, since they couldn't teach him anything he doesn't already know.
Jim knows that, even though his plan makes perfect sense to him, no one else will agree or understand. So, instead of taking the hours that it would doubtlessly take to convince his Mom and Frank that it he should stop going to school, Jim decides to just go for it.
Since Sam usually walks him to the bus stop, Jim goes along with it, but he slips off into town when the bus lets everyone off. Even if Sam understood (which Jim was sure he would have), Jim knows Sam would have tried to get him to tell his Mom, and he really doesn't feel like doing that just yet.
He spends the day wandering around the small town, watching people going about their lives, ignoring him. He wonders if any of them have ever felt the same way; as though they were stuck in a world full of idiots. After a moment's thought, he decides that they have not, since he is the only smart person in the town.
He wanders around the town until it is time for school to let out, careful to avoid any cops that he sees, in case they asked why he isn't in school. When it's just about time, he heads back to the bus stop, and catches the bus home, like he usually does.
It never occurs to him that anyone at school would notice his absence (they are all too dumb to notice anything), or that they would call his mother to find out where he was. Really, he should have seen it coming. As soon as he turns down the drive, Jim finds police cars in front of the garage, and his mother, clearly worried, running towards him.
Honestly, he should have expected his plans to backfire. They always do.
He expects yelling and anger from his mother, but when she finally reaches him, she pulls him in for a tight hug, tears running down her cheeks.
Jim expects harsh words and scolding, but what comes out of her mouth instead makes him feel infinitely worse than any amount of yelling ever could. "Oh, Jimmy, I was so worried about you! Don't you ever run off on me again! I thought you were gone for good!"
The whole time she holds him and tells him how worried she was, there is only one thought running through Jim's mind. That thought runs through him and burns itself in his soul, forever reminding him of its existence. It's really quite simple: the whole time when she was yelling at him, and even afterwards, she never once got That Look in her eyes. Even Jim can tell that he royally screwed up, but just this once, his mother is able to look at him for more than a minute without seeing ghosts.