It's time like this I'm glad I'm out of high school. I had to dissect a shark for zoology class. It wasn't a big shark, just a little one. It smelled horrid and it lingered on us all day. I had a dream about it. Thankfully, my science credit in college is coming from Astronomy classes. Hooray!

Enough about that, most of you are waiting to see Randall in this chapter. He won't just be in this chapter and disappear for the rest of the story; he'll have a role to play in the story later.

Read on!

Journal,

This is the last time I'm doing something like this, I swear. This one was for old time's sake. It was calling me to do it. It's not like I caused physical harm to anyone. Mental harm, maybe, but not physical.

But it was a fun day, none the less. I was only going to wear these for one day, but I think I'll wear these on a regular basis.

~*~V~*~

Do these clothes fit me? As far as being the type of clothes I would wear?

….Hell if I know. I've only been out here for a week. I'd wear my old Duval uniform if it wouldn't make everyone stare at me more than they already were. It's Monday morning, and so far, I'm wearing all black. Black jeans, black button up shirt, and black shoes. My blonde hair is even more noticeable against it. Hmm….I'm not sure about the shirt. What else do I have?

I normally don't pay much attention to what I wear, but I'm going for a particular look today. I'm wearing my red contacts now that the infection in my blind eye is almost gone. I look like the fucking anti-Christ with those things on. That's why I care about the clothes I'm wearing. I have to look the part.

Ah, here's a good shirt. It's black, but it has a smiley face drawn on it in a sickly green color. Do I have anything else? A red shirt or a black shirt with red on it would be ideal. Here's one. It's black, but with a red picture of a flame on it. Even better.

I took off the button up and put on the t-shit. I looked on the floor for Duracell before walking back over to my bed. I let her out of her cage while I'm getting ready for school. Get a little exercise before I put her in the cage for seven hours or more. What's that tickling my arm? It's the tag on my shirt. These clothes are still new. I tore the tag off and threw it in the trash. Why didn't I take them all off when I got them? I checked my phone to see what time it was. I have 20 minutes until school starts. Plenty of time left. I grabbed the small box of colored contacts and took out the red ones. I hate the feeling when I first put them in, but it goes away fast. I blinked a couple of times before reaching down and picking up Duracell. I put her back in her cage before heading to the bathroom to wash my hands and check my eyes.

Everything looks good. Great, 'cause if I don't leave now, I'll be late.

I went back in my room, double checked to make sure Duracell had enough food and water, put on my coat, grabbed my backpack (the same one I used in juvie, for extra effect), and my hat….no, I'll leave the hat. The blonde hair needs to be seen. I wear the shades until I get to school. Zack wasn't up yet. He doesn't leave for daycare until an hour later.

I left the house and saw that it was snowing lightly, but not sticking to the ground. It takes a walk to get to school so I wasted no time walking. Last week went by slow. I'm hoping this week goes by faster. Schools bad enough but when it goes by slow you want to rip your hair out.

"Hey!"

Who's that? I turned to see who was calling after me and I see Spinelli running up to me. What does she want?

"What is it?" I asked her.

"As a part of this whole giving you another chance thing, I thought I would walk to school with you," She said. "Do you mind?" That's a good question. Do I? I was planning on using this time to think.

"It's fine," I said as kept walking. Now I know today is going to be long.

"Where were you yesterday? We were all hanging out at my house and we wanted you to come with us, but when we came over to ask you if you wanted to, you weren't home," She asked.

"I was over Principal Prickly house."

"Principal Prickly? What were you doing over at his place?"

"He was the only person who visited me when I was in Duval. I said I would come over when I got out, and I was going to keep that promise. I'm going back over next weekend to help him clean out his attic. He's getting old and needs all the help he can get," I told her. "What'd you all do yesterday?"

"Nothing much. We mostly just watched movies," she said. "Your parents didn't visit you?"

"They did when I first got there, but only once or twice. They didn't come back after that. Didn't answer my phone calls either," I explained. "Prickly did, though. He promised he would the day before I was sentenced." We walked in silence for a long time after that. I was hoping to walk in silence before, but not now since I'm walking with her. There's something about walking with someone else in silence that I don't like. "Sorry about putting that knife to your throat when you were in Duval. I wasn't going to slit your throat."

"Then why would you do it in the first place? You scared the hell out me!"

"Remember when I said I had psychopathic tendencies? That was a part of it." I still have that knife. I didn't get rid of it when I left Duval. I have that, and the gun that I used when I broke out of Duval. But the gun is unloaded, the safety is on, and it's in a shoe box at the top of my closet out of reach where Zack can't get to it.

"Those psychopathic tendencies….what are those exactly? Do you hear voices in your head?" Oh God, Alex. I haven't heard from him in a long time. Thank God. He was getting on my last nerve. I can't even slit his throat so he would die and leave me alone for good.

"Spinelli, you don't want to know what goes on in my head. If you did, you wouldn't want to be walking next to me, let alone be in the same state. Just know I'm not going to act on it, alright?"

"And you want us to trust you on this?" The irony is I'm going to scare the shit out of people today by just existing. And blinking my eyes. My red eyes. That make me look like the devil incarnate.

"Yeah, trust me." By know we've reached school. I have an extra five minutes….can I wait until lunch for a cigarette? …..no, I can't. I stopped before going outside and reached in my pocket for them and the lighter.

"You smoke?"

"Mmm-hmm," I mumbled as I lit it. "I won't be out here too long. You don't have to wait for me." She didn't say anything as she went inside. I'm the only one out here. A few minutes of peace before class starts. I took off the shades and blinked to adjust to the brightness and hooked the shades on the neck of my shirt using one of the arms. I feel safer with them there and not in my bag where they can break.

Have you ever had that feeling that you were being watched? That's what I'm feeling at this moment. It's weird. I was always being watched at one time or another in Duval, whether it was the guards, Tommy Gun, or one of the guys, but this is weird. It's not a normal 'being watched' either. It's that I don't know who's watching.

I have an idea of who it is, but I don't have time for this. I have to get to class. I tossed what was left of my cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. I ran my fingers through my hair a few times before opening the doors and heading inside.

Not even five steps inside and I'm already getting looks of anguish and fear. I give them a smile.

And the get the fuck out of my way. Nice.

Let me get to class before I'm too wrapped up in the moment. They'll be plenty of time today to bathe in the growing cesspool that is everyone's urge to call in the SWAT Team.

~*~V~*~

"Umm…TJ, is there any reason why your eyes are red?" Vince asked as we worked on dissecting a shark in biology class. Yeah right, I'm the only one doing anything; slicing and cutting this mother fucker looking for a duodenum. Vince is standing by being a pussy. This shark does stink though, I'll give him that.

"They're red because….I don't know. Maybe God woke up one day and said 'fuck it, I'll give the little anti-Christ red eyes, it looks better and I'm having a slow day in the creation department.' Or you know, whatever," I said, slicing into the shark. "Not that I'm evil or nothin'."

"I'm not a genius or anything, but that's not a natural eye color," He said, trying to hold in his breakfast. "Shouldn't you get that checked out by, I don't know, a doctor?"

"Why?" I asked, turning to face him.

"Because you're freaking some people out," Said Vince. "And it can't be healthy."

"That's their problem," I said, returning to the dead shark in front of me. "I have no problem with my eyes. Do you?"

"I think it's kind of creepy looking."

"That's too bad. Hey, how about instead of whining, you help me cut open Jaws over here?" I asked, handing him the tool the teacher gave us. I did my half, it's his turn. I'm not trying to smell like fish for the rest of the day; it's only second period. "You're not squeamish, are you?"

"It's a dead shark. It's probably rotting somewhere on its corpse," He said poking at it. "What ever happened to dissecting frogs?"

"I hear they dissect human bodies in college," I said in an attempt to make him vomit.

"That's not legal, is it?"

"I dunno. If they do, I'd like to learn how to I can tear apart all those bodies in my garage without making a mess," I told him. Now I'm simply being evil. "They're taking up too much space and they smell worse than the shark."

"…..you're kidding, right?" He asked with a nervous laugh. I smiled (which I'm sure looks worse at this point) and took off my rubber gloves. "That's a joke to try and scare us, isn't it?"

"If that's what you want to believe."

~*~V~*~

I would say things are going as planned today. Frightened a few innocent civilians, turned in my homework, and so far I avoided Ashley A., and her whorish ways. It's going well. I made it to lunch without a hitch.

But I still have that feeling of being watched. I'm taking a few minutes from lunch to go outside and smoke. Everyone is looking, especially since someone bumped into me in the hall and I dropped my lighter. Their eye's bugged out of their heads.

Jesus it's cold out here…..

….

Did I just hear something? I did. And I think I know where it came from, too. I walked over to the trash cans where I heard the noise come from quietly. I took off the top and….

Oh shit, look who it is. It's the rat.

I grabbed him by the back of his trench coat and lifted him out of the trashcan.

"Oh, uh…h-hey. Long time now see," He said with his voice shaking. He still has that damn hunchback. That can't be healthy.

"What do want, Randall?"

"What, a guy can't sit in a trashcan in peace?" He asked me.

"No, he can't. You were spying on my, weren't you?"

"Well…uh…you see—"

"A yes or no would be enough, Weems," I said, interrupting his babbling.

"….yes," He said putting his hands up to protect himself. "Don't kill me! I was only doing my job!"

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you," I said, putting him back down on his feet. "I was looking around for you."

"For me? Why? Are you after retribution for all those times I snitched on you guys back at Third Street?"

"Didn't I just say I wasn't going to hurt you? I was expecting you to be up my ass the moment I set foot in town, and I was right, wasn't I? I need your help."

"What do you need me for?"

"I need you to get the word around that I'm not going to hurt anyone and that I'm mostly harmless. I know people are gonna come up to you and ask you if you have any dirt on me. You need to tell them that I'm not up to anything."

"Why would I do that?"

"Mostly harmless, Randall. Mostly. I can still kick your ass if you don't! if it makes you feel any better, you can keep stalking me like the poor little twisted freak you are. You won't find anything. But you have to keep your end of the deal, got it?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No, you don't," I said, heading back inside. "But don't worry. I'm mostly harmless." I went back into the lunchroom. I'm not in the mood for what they were serving in the lines, so I went straight to the salad bar. Vegetables are delicious after not eating them for four years. It was easy getting to the front of the line when everyone got out of my way without me saying a word. I sat at one of the empty tables in the corner, and I hoped to eat alone because dealing with everyone during gym was going be both a bitch, and something that puts a smile on my face, but that doesn't look like that's going to happen because they're coming over. And who the hell is that dude?

"I know we all agreed to try and start off on the right foot, but I didn't mean spend this much time together," I said. "You all were fine eating over there last time I checked. Why'd you all come over here?"

"Because eating alone makes you look lonely," Said Mikey. "And we want to introduce you to a friend of ours." He motioned over to that guy who I never seen before.

…

Holy fuck.

This guy.

He looks like me. Exactly like me. Well, if I wasn't bleaching my hair blonde, let my blue eyes show, and didn't have the blind eye, he is what I would look like. Fucking clone. Somewhere between now and before I entered the Twilight Zone.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"My name's Ralphie," he said holding his hand out. What is this, a job interview? I reluctantly took his hand a shook it. I don't like him already. You know how when someone who you never met before in your entire life and you know you're not going to like them, even before they get two words out of their mouth? It's like that. There's something off about him and I don't like it. "They told me all about you."

"They did, huh? Then you must have some really big balls to stand here and talk to me. Where were you last week?"

"I was out with the flu." Still don't trust him. Is this who they replaced me with? Jesus, they could've at least picked someone who didn't look like me. Looks like they were trying too hard.

I feel as if I know him from somewhere. It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't name it. It's important, I can tell. Mmm….

Where do I know him from?

I got the whole 'mostly harmless' from a phrase in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I love that book. A character, Ford (yes, like the car), describes Earth as being 'mostly harmless.' Love it. Good book, too.

Hiddenbehindthecurtains: Randall is a strange one, isn't he? I'm going to turn that down by a lot in this story. There's only so much strangeness I can write believably.

Reviews are highly appreciated!