"Show some hustle!" The teacher urged impatiently. JD did as she was told. This teacher only cared about making people see, and she could respect that, but the assembly live on tv made this awkward for them all. "Hello Westerburg and welcome to our speacial assembly. I want you to ignore the television cameras and the news crews. They are just here to document this significant moment." She explains after the students all gather in front of the cameras. JD made her way over to Veronica and stood close by as they got ready for this. "Weather or not to kill yourself is one of most important decisions a teenager can make. So you know what I'm gonna do right now?"
"Kill yourself on stage!" A boy asks excitedly.
Music starts up and half the students start to dance. JD moves with them if only for Veronica's sake. "Deep Inside of everyone there's a hot ball of shame. Guilt, regret, anxiety, fears we dare not name. But, if we show the ugly parts that we hide away. They turn out to be beautiful by the light of day! Why not..."
"Shine, shine, shine a light!" The students sing happily.
"On your deepest fears!" She says happily.
"Let in sunlight now!" The students sang.
"And your pain will disappear!"
"Shine, shine, shine."
"And your scars and your flaws."
"Will look lovely because you shine!"
"You shine a light!" She holds the note trying to impress the camera crews.
"Shine, shine, shine a light." The kids danced across the stage. "Shine, shine, shine a light."
"Everydays a battlefield when prides on the line." A punk rock girl sings.
"I attack you weaknesses." A jock sang back too her.
"And pray you don't see mine!" They sang together.
"But if I share my ugly parts!" A nerdy boy says.
"And you me yours! Our love can knock our walls down and unlock all our door." Mrs. Fleming, the puck girl and the nerd sing together.
"Go on!"
"Shine, shine, shine a light." Everyone sings.
"On our deepest fears." Mrs. Fleming.
"Let in sunlight now."
"And your pain will-"
"Disappear!"
"Who wants to share what's in their heart?" She doesn't give anyone the chance to answer. "No volunteers? Fine, I'll start. My name is Pauline. I live alone. My husband left. My kids are grown. In the sixties love was free! That did not work out well for me. The revolution came and went. Tried to change the world and barely made a dent. I have struggled with despair. I've joined and cult. Chopped off my hair. I chant, I pray, but god not there! So Steve! I'm ending our affair!" Everyone gasps looking at the football coach. "And I faked it, every, single time. Woo, it feels fan-freaking-tastic! 1,2 take me home kids!"
"Shine shine shine a light!"
"On your deepest fears!"
"Let in sunlight now!"
"And your pain will disappear!"
"Shine shine shine!"
"And your scars and your flaws!"
"Will look lovely because you shine. Ahh, ahh, ahh.
"You shine! You shine a light!"
"Shine shine shine a light. Shine shine shine a light. Shine shine shine a light. Shine shine shine a light. Shine shine shine a light. Shine shine shine a light. Shine shine shine a light! Shine a light! YEAH!" The song ended and everyone panted.
JD rolled her eyes and smiled softly at Veronica.
"Yeah kids that's great really drag out that pain for all of us!" Mrs. Fleming yelled happily.
"I've thought about killing myself!" Heather MacNamara shouted looking ready to cry.
"What the hell are you doing?" Heather Duke asked angrily. JD clenched her fists and glared the Heather Duke. 'If only looks could kill'
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Mrs. Fleming ran towards the weakest and most caring of the heathers. "Don't stop Heather. It's just you and me your classmates who love you." She encourages her too speak.
"Heather get back in line!" Duke said angrily.
"Zip it." Fleming said glaring at Duke.
"Um... my sort of boyfriend killed himself because he was gay for his linebacker, and my best friend seemed to have it all together, but she gone now too." She swollows the pain and pushes forward. "And my stomachs hurting worse and worse. Every morning on the bus I can feel my heart beating louder and faster. And I'm like: 'Jesus Christ! I'm on the freaking bus again cause all my ride too school are dead!" She sounds like she's going to cry as she clenched she fists and shakes slightly.
JD moves closer takes Veronica's hand needing her strength too keep her from doing what she promised not too. Veronica gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"I float in a boat in a raging black ocean. Low in the water with nowhere too go. The tiniest lifeboat, with people I know. Cold, clammy and crowded. The people smell desperate. We'll sink any minute so someone must go. The tiniest lifeboat with people i know." He eyes well with tears and her stance turns angry. "Everyone's pushing! Everyone's fighting! Storms are approaching! There's nowhere to hide! If I say the wrong thing, or I wear the wrong outfit they'll throw me right over the side!" Tears began to trickle down her face and her voice breaks with the weight of her emotions. "I'm hugging my knees, and the captain is pointing." She glares at Heather Duke. "Well who made her captain?" She asks angrily. "Still... the weakest must go. The tiniest lifeboat full of people I know. The tiniest lifeboat... with people I know." She drops her gaze to the floor looking so afraid. Everyone stares at her in silent shock. Every single person at the assembly felt the song almost as much as she felt sing it.
"What's your damage Heather? Are you saying Westerburg isn't a nice place?"
"Leave her alone." JD's voice cut through the air like a knife. Cold and sharp. Everyobe turns too JD. Her voice was deadly quiet and more feminine then anyone, save Veronica had heard.
"You can cut off the head of the beast, but two more grow back in their place." She says angrily. "Apparently they aren't as I sync as you'd want." JD taunts. "Leave her alone Duke, or I'll kill you just like I did Heather Chandler." Veronica elbowed her softly pulling her back into the real world.
"You know what? You don't deserve to wear the Westerburg school colors." She said sadisticly.
"No need to be mean spirited."
"So why don't you hop on your little Lifeboat and catch a narly wave over to Remington!" She said pointing.
"Leave her alone." JD whispered unable to do anything in this crowd.
"Oh look! Heathers gonna cry." The punk girl from earlier said and everyone laughed harder. JD took her hand from Veronica's and clenched her fists so tightly she made her palms bleed. Heather Mac ran off crying.
"You are suspended!" She said grabbing Duke. "Turn off the cameras." She motioned to them.
"Is that all you care about! Tv cameras?" JD and Veronica yell in sync.
"I care about saving lives!" Mrs. Fleming told them angrily. Everyone was eyeing them now. Heather Chandlers ghost appears again. "It was Heather Duke who ruined valuable-
"Valuable?!" Veronica screeched. "None of us want a spectacle! We don't want to be experimented on like Guinea pigs, or patronized like bunny rabbits!" She yells at the teacher in frustration.
"I do not patronize bunny rabbits."
"That's their big secret. The adults are powerless." Heather C whispers to the both of them.
"Heather Mac trusted you!" JD said angrily her voice emotional.
"You were supposed to protect her." Veronica added both of them deeply ashamed for the fate of their generation.
"They can't help us. Nobody can help us." Heather whispers too her.
"Your useless." Veronica spat.
"You're all alone in the ocean."
"You are all idiots!" She motioned to the students angrily.
"Veronica-" JD started. Veronica was going to tell everyone the truth.
"No! Heather Chandler was a monster just like Kurt and Ram!" JD throws her hand over Veronica's mouth the other one gripping tight around her waist. She pushed her away sending her stumbling backwards.
"Veronica!" Mrs. Fleming called.
"This is all you me fault Jessica!" It hit everyone at the same moment including Veronica. She just called JD by her first name everyone just heard this very masculine person, a girl.
"Why would you-!" JD started to respond angrily. Heather Duke burst into laughter. Followed by everyone else in the room save Mrs. Fleming and the couple.
"Some people will say anything for attention." Heather Duke said as she walks away. The students dispersed. JD and Veronica just stood there frozen in their own internal struggles. Veronica took off and JD instantly followed after her.
"Veronica! Veronica!" She ran after her. She ran into the girl's bathroom at full speed and JD followed. She smacked Heather Mac's back making her spit out the pills. JD stood awkwardly by the door.
"Suicide is a private thing!" She yells angrily.
"Throwing away your life to be a statistic in USA Today? That's like the least private thing I can think of!"
"But Heather... and Kurt and Ram." She was crying again.
"If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" After about a second she shrugs.
"Probably..." she said softly. She notices JD staring at them both looking worried.
"Oh..." she pauses to think of something better to say. "If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be human; you'd be a game show host." Heather Mac leans her head into the crook of Veronica's neck. JD comes and sits near them letting Heather know that she was also here for her.
'I need to protect Veronica's friends now. Martha... and apparently now Heather Mac... I'm not sure I can protect them without killing anyone." She clenched her costs. 'I'll have too... for Veronica." Her eyes held a slightly insane glint as she sat with them in her own little world.