*Smiles* I just keep making things worse don't I? I love it, because I'm a bit of literary sadist even though I try to hide it (but you all can tell by the plot lines of some of my other stories can't you?).

I said in the beginning that this story was going to be long, and it is. We're eight chapters in and we barely did anything. But we're getting to the good part!

The place I mentioned in the last chapter, the Diamond Ranch Academy, is a real place. I've been seeing ads for it all over the internet and since it said something about out of control teens I clicked on it and did some research. I ultimately decided to add it into the story because it fits in so well. But it's only minor.

Read on!

"So let me get this straight. Instead of dealing with me yourselves you're sending me to a reform school to be somebody else's problem?"

Upon his arrival home after school, TJ found his parents waiting for him in the living room. From the look on their faces he could tell they wanted to talk about something important; probably what he heard them discussing in the kitchen yesterday. Because he was having such a wonderful day he decided to humor them and pretend like he actually gave a damn. What the harm in making them think he was worried about what would happen to him for a few minutes? Going to Diamond Ranch didn't faze him at all. After coming home from Prickly's house he got on his computer and did a little research on that place. What he found was that it was indeed a type of behavior modification camp made for kids that all other methods failed to make them act normally, but he wasn't deterred; in fact he was determined. Those kids in the video who were talking about how they've changed from being unruly children to model citizens looked like they were struggling to fake it for the camera. In a few days he knew he could turn them back into the rebels that they are and raise hell for the school, their parents, and the entire state of Utah. Oh what fun that would be. Even if that didn't work he could always fall off a cliff and sue the school for everything they had and then some. Either way, at the end of the day he would be sent back home with a letter saying that he was a demon spawn sent from hell and that he wasn't allowed back into the state.

"That's right," His father said. "We've tried everything to get you to straighten up but nothing's worked. So maybe this will."

"We didn't want to do this," Said his mother. "But you're leaving us with no choice, TJ. We don't know what has gotten into you but you need to learn to behave. Maybe the people at Diamond Ranch can help you."

"Yeah right," TJ mumbled. "What are a bunch of fucking Mormons gonna teach me? Way to be parent's mom and dad. Send me two states away so you can pretend I don't exist. That's good parenting. I hope you know I'll be back in a week….." before his parents could tell him to watch his mouth sound of a loud knocking on the front door. His parents got up from their seats and answered to door to be met with two police officers.

"Ma'am," one of the officers said. "Is your son home?"

"Yes he is," Said Mrs. Detweiler. Hearing himself being mentioned, TJ came into the hallway to see what exactly was going on. "What's the problem, Officer?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Detweiler we have reason to believe that your son may have had something to do with the fire at Third Street School," Said the Officer.

"….what?"

"Oh yeah," TJ said getting the attention of the adults. "That fire at the school. It was a big fire. Too bad I missed it. It looked like it was good too."

"Your son needs to come with us to the station for questioning," The officer said as he came into the house and began to put their son in handcuffs. "You all can come down to the station but we have to take him down ourselves. It's just a part of protocol." As the officers recited his Miranda rights (I hope I spelled that correctly) TJ was handcuffed and led out the house into the police cruiser parked outside. Once the door was shut and few more words were exchanged between the officers and his parents, the car was driving down the street towards the police station downtown. As the cruiser passed the school TJ took a glance at what remained of it. All of the windows were broken, and the sides were burned from the flames. A small amount of smoke was still coming out of the windows, and firefighters were still there making sure there weren't any flames they missed. Not only did he see the remains of the building but a few of the kids that stuck around a little longer too. When they caught sight of him being driven away in the police car some of them cheered, some of them sent looks of hatred his way, and some of them showed that hatred in the form of hand gestures. Leaning back in his seat, TJ began to wonder how long this ride was going to last. Having to sit with his hands handcuffed behind his back was uncomfortable and he didn't want to have to be like that longer than what was necessary.

~*~LATER~*~

'Why would they bring me here just to leave me in this dank room?'

With an exhausted sigh TJ banged his head against the gray table in front of him. When he finally arrived at the police station he was immediately brought inside, put into the room he was currently in and left alone by himself. The good thing was that the handcuffs were taken off of him. The bad thing was that it's been about twenty minutes since he was brought here and no one had bothered to take time out of their day to explain why he was there. It wouldn't have been so bad on any other day, but today he had plans and this put a hitch in them. The room was dark, only lit from a single light hanging from the ceiling, it was barely warm enough to keep anyone who happened to be inside from shivering, and the table and chairs inside where needlessly uncomfortable. Those officers couldn't come back in soon enough. What was taking them so long? Maybe they couldn't do anything until his parents arrived and that what was keeping them from doing anything. No, that was too easy of an excuse.

"I have things to do, you know!" He yelled hoping that someone who might just be passing the door would hear. Still, nothing. "If no one's coming in here I'm going to sleep. This is fucking ridiculous…" Laying his head down TJ closed his eyes and bean to drift off to sleep.

~*~TWENTY MINUTES LATER~*~

An annoying poke to his shoulder woke TJ from his sleep and he was met with the sight of two officers in the room. Sitting up in his chair he looked behind him and saw his parents sitting in the chairs against the wall.

'It's about time someone showed up,' he thought to himself. He watched as one of the officers closed the door and the other tossed a rather thick file on the table. A few minutes of awkward silence passed before either one of them bothered to speak up.

"Listen kid," one of the officers whose badge read Officer Lincoln said. "What do you know about the fire at your school?"

"The fire?" TJ repeated. "I know that it was big and I missed it. I bet it was beautiful too. Fire's a beautiful thing, you see officer. It's so strong but gentle at the same time. I always carry a lighter around with me to look at it when I want to."

"That would be good reason for you to start it, would it?"

"Start what?"

"The fire!" The officer yelled. "We talked to some of the students at your school and they say you started the fire!"

~*~EARILER~*~

As the students of Third Street watch the firefighters struggle to put the fire out they could hear more sirens approaching the scene. Some of the students that did get out quick enough were sitting on the ground together to make it easier for the EMT's to find and treat them. By a stroke of luck every student was in class at the time, and every one of those students managed to get out, but a few were burned, some more severely than others. But they were happy nothing worse happened to them. A few of the kids turned to see three ambulances and a few police cars pull up. The EMT's quickly got to work assessing the severity of the burns. Ten students had gotten hurt; a first grader, a second grader, three fourth graders, and five sixth graders were hurt in the fire, including Butch, upside down girl, Ashley B., Hustler Kid, and Spinelli.

Soon the fire was subdued and the officers were allowed to get a closer look of the outside of the school for any clue while others began to talk to the students to see if they knew anything.

"You know who did it?" Gordy shouted over the officers behind the crowd gain the attention of those around him. "Don't look at me like that," He told his fellow classmates. "You all know as much as I do that Detweiler started this fire! Only he would do something like this! Remember when I talked to him on top of the jungle gym and he said he would set the school on fire just to 'shut us up?'" Shouts of agreements came from the crowd.

"Today he told us that he would set the school fire to get us to leave him alone!" Spinelli shouted as she was lifted into one of the ambulances. As the students agreed more and more of them stepped forwarded to tell the officers of what had been done to them and the threats that have been made.

~*~END FLASHBACK~*~

"Oh those guys? They would say anything to get me to leave them alone."

"So why won't you?" The officer with the badge labeled Officer Berbater.

"It so much fun messing with them you know?" TJ said with a laugh as he put his feet on the table and leaned back the chair he was sitting in. "Watching them freak out when something happens to them is fun. It's hilarious when they try to get me to stop too, but that's not going to happen. It was too much fun just to stop. It only got worse because of them. They destroyed my bike, so I destroy them. It's only fair. Then they had to snitch about me drinking and that just pissed me off. So if they wanted to keep fighting back I was going to keep fighting until they know that I'm in charge. And I had fun doing it. What's wrong with a little fun? Aren't I allowed to have fun?"

"So spreading itching and sneezing powder all over the playground was 'fun?'" Officer Lincoln asked him.

"Yes."

"And spreading vermin, shooting paintball guns, and launching illegal fireworks was 'fun?'"

"Yes."

"And setting the school on fire was fun as well?" Asked Officer Berbater.

"I didn't set it on fire," said TJ, smiling. "As brilliant as I think that was, it wasn't me."

"This what's this?" the officer picked something off of the floor and set it on the table. Looking closer at it, TJ could see that it was his backpack, charred at the edges with smoke still coming from it.

"Aww, that's mine," He said. "I had comics in there. They're probably ash now…"

"This was found where the fire started," said Officer Lincoln. "Can you explain why?"

"No not really," he said grabbing the remains of the backpack and looking inside only to see a pile of ash. "It sucks though because I was planning on reading that comic tomorrow in class."

"Look kid, we know you started the fire," The officer said. "Just admit that you did it and we won't have a problem."

"If that's the case we already have a problem," TJ told them. "Because I didn't do it."

"Your friends said that you said you were planning on doing it today!"

"And I say their spouting shit out of their mouths."

"Listen," Officer Berbater said. "If you admit that you did it then this doesn't have to go to court. The School Board wants to press charges for this!"

"But I didn't do it," Said TJ laughing. "They can't really punish me for what I didn't do." The two officers let out an exasperated sigh before turning to face his parents.

"I suggest you folks find your kid a lawyer," They told them. "You all are free to go."

"Thank God," TJ said getting out of his seat. "I thought you were going to try that good cop bad cop bullshit on me." Before leaving his parent had to sign a few papers at the front desk of the station. Looking out the window TJ could see a large crowd consisting of parents and their kids. He recognized them as being from the school right away.

'Figures they would be out there,' he thought. Even from inside he could hear them screaming. It was more that obvious they were angry at him. 'Probably about that fire. Oh….this is hysterical.' Of course they would be at the police station. Their kids would've told them about the fire and they would be down there to report it without question. Especially the parents of the kids who were burned. As they made their way to the car, he and his parents were met with the onslaught of insult thrown their way from the frustrated adults. For the past year and a half they had to deal with their kids coming home with something in their hair, something that made them sick, or an injury caused by him and it was driving them crazy. Now it seemed like justice was being served for the first time. Was a safe school too much to ask for?

As they express their anger in the form of yells and screams at the child, TJ tried to hide his laughter but wasn't doing a very good job of it. It was funny; how they were reacting to this was just funny. But it wasn't funny how he did have enough time left to do what he wanted to do after school. It was important to him too. Once his parents didn't allow him to do much of anything lately he looked forward to sneaking out and going over to his principals house; the guy was pretty much the only person he really respected at this point. But now his plans were scrapped. Oh well, there was always tomorrow.

I'm thinking of becoming a beta reader.

Also, I need to ask someone this question. What's up with authors pairing up Butch and Hustler kid? I'm not against it or anything (actually find the couple to be cute), it just seems like it came out of almost nowhere.

One more thing, I need last names! For lawyers and a few for other reasons that will be used in the story later. I'm not good with names 'cause I think of nicknames first then the real names.

RandallXSpinelli: I don't about the show's location. You're right about that fact that it almost never rains, but that could found in a lot of kids shows. Probably somewhere towards the south or the mid-west I'd imagine. But since I mentioned that the place they want to send him to is two states over and the place is in Utah, for this story the show might be in either Kansas, Montana, California (I'm a little reluctant for it to be in Cali) Washington, or Oregon. Take your pick. :D But I think in one episode they gave coordinates to the playground and I think that if you use the numbers they give you could actually pinpoint on the map where the show takes place.

Mable: Yes he does. :P What those problems are, are yet to be known. But we're getting there so stick around! And those are some interesting voices going on in your head!

Donna Nnov: that was a long rant. :) I had to read it five times actually. Not that I mind or anything. Yeah I was kind of on the fence with that issue. Something's going on in that head of his; the question is what exactly that is. I haven't figured it out yet but we'll see at some point in the story I promise you that. And apparently Third Street is nearby you! :P LMAO. Reading that gave me a good laugh. And try to remember what changed your mind, 'm interested in what that was!

Please Review!