So my computer crashed. For the tenth time. This month. I haven't been having luck with it. I can't upload documents to update this story from my computer, but i still had one document I uploaded on the site so I got on another computer and wrote the chapter in there. So yeah. I do hope this computer gets fixed or replaced; it's getting on my nerves and I would rather throw it at the wall than deal with it any longer.

This chapter is in another characters point of view, because I thought it would be refreshing. I'll tell you all why I didn't pick the other suggestions at the end of the chapter. This chapter takes place on the same day as the last chapter. Last thing, I'm taking a bit of creative liberty when it comes to pyromania. Just a little.

Read On!

~*~Spinelli's POV~*~

No matter how many times I go through this, it still hurts. It's been what, three or four years since I started this. Hurts every time, like someone sticking a red-hot needle into my skin.

"We're almost done. Just five more minutes..."

That's five minutes I'd rather not go through. I'm in the hospital, but there's nothing wrong with me. I'm here for...well, I get you can call it therapy. They're using lasers to remove the burn marks I got from the fire at the elementary school. I've got scars covering my entire right arm and the very top of my chest. I started this about two months after they healed, at it looks better than how it did before. You can't miss it, but it's even.

"There we go. All done," The therapist, Dr. Lowan said. I looked over my arm before putting it back into the sleeve of my shirt. Dr. Lowan's a woman, and that makes it more comfortable for me to tak my shirt off when needed. Better than having some old dude.

"Same time next week," I said, walking out of the room. I met mom out in the waiting room and we left. I'd come by myself, but I need someone to drive me home. I can't use this arm for entire day after the therapy. It's numb and hard to control my fingers. Luckily, it only lasts for one day. I'd hated it if it kept me from drawing.

"How'd it go, sweetie?" Mom asked as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"Same old, same old," I said, closing my eyes. It'll be a long ride home, and I'm tired. It's only 8:30 a.m., on Saturday of all days. I should be in bed, sleeping. That's what I'm doing as soon as I get home. Breakfast can wait.

GURR

Looks like my stomach has other plans.

"How 'bout we stop somewhere for breakfast?" Mom offered, spotting a few restaurants down the road.

"Sounds like a plan," I said. It's only me and mom; dad's out on one of his missions. I could go for a couple stacks of pancakes right about now. With eggs. And bacon. I don't get girls who eat a piece of toast for breakfast and pretend they're full when it's obvious they're not. When I'm hungry I EAT and I'm proud of it.

I checked my phone and found I had two messages from Francis. We've been dating since we got out of Duval. He acts all tough for his customers and everyone at school, but the guy is a teddy bear. Pure sugar on the inside. You can make him melt if you say the right thing. Or at least I can. Being his girlfriend and all. Mom and Dad don't approve of him though. They say he's shady, a trouble-maker. It's the trench coat and combed back hair, I swear. Being the overprotective parents they are, they don't want me to date him, or talk to him. They don't know about his business. They'd flip their shit if they knew. Still, I date him, because he's the only guy that had the balls to talk to me when I was in bad mood one day in the ninth grade.

We pulled into a nearby IHOP and went inside. It didn't take long for us to get a seat and order food. I ordered and endless stack of pancakes.

"You're not talking to that boy, are you?" Mom asked as a texted Francis. "You know how your father and I feel about him."

"He's harmless, mom," I said, sending the message. "You never told me exactly what it is about him that you don't like. You only met him once. I knew him since elementary school."

"You knew that Detweiler boy, too. People don't stay the same like when they were little."

"Oh, c'mon! The two are completely different," I defended. "Francis never did anything bad in his life. And at least TJ is trying not to make things worse than they already are. Francis is a good guy, mom. Please don't compare the two."

"It's a shame that boy did all those bad things. He would've been a nice boy for you to date," She said.

"Francis is a nice boy for me to date," I told her. "He treats me great and makes me happy. Shouldn't that be enough?"

"Your safety is more important."

"I am safe around him." The waiter came with our food, ending the conversation. I don't want to talk to her about this. We can never agree about anything on the topic. It goes nowhere fast. Instead I focused on my food and what I'm going to do when I get home. I told Francis that I would meet him when I got there. Of course I'm not telling mom, she's scream and give me a lecture that I won't remember.

It took up ten minutes to get home. I skipped jumping straight into bed for walking over to Francis's house. His parents have to be loaded. He lives in a huge mansion. I got lost inside more times than I can count because of the size. His parents are seldom around, though. I only seen them once. It doesn't look like I'll be seeing them today. Only Francis's car is parked outside.

I didn't knock on the door; I pulled out the key Francis gave me to his house months ago. He said it was easier to just give me a key instead of travelling the distance from his room to the front door and keep me waiting. And I had to choke it out of him. As big as this place is, I know my way around now. I found him in the living room, sitting on the couch watching his giant screen TV.

I don't think he heard me come into the room, let alone the house.

...

I got an idea.

I'm getting him back for last Halloween.

I made sure I was quiet as I snuck up on him. I put my keys in my pocket and as I got close enough, I prepared to attack him.

But then...

This asshole turns and grabs me, pulling me over to couch so I had my back on the seat and my legs in the air. Dammit.

"What's goin' on, Spin?" He asked with a cocky grin.

"Nothing much. Just my boyfriend being an ass. The usual," I said, smiling. "What'd you call me over for?"

"Can't I just want to hang out with my girlfriend?" He asked.

"No."

"Well that's what I called you over for. I half expected you not to come, being 9 a.m. on a Saturday. Your bed is usually more important than me on Saturdays," he said, stroking my right hand. "I don't know if this matters or not, but I think you and your friends might want to know something."

"Know what?"

"Detweiler came to me the other day, which is fine in itself because he gets his cigarettes from me. But this time he bought a box a know how they have cartons of cigarettes? A box that size, but full of matches. You might want to check that out, what with his history of lighting schools on fire. Might be a concern."

~*~V~*~

"What do you mean he bought a box of matches?" I left Francis's place after a couple of hours. I called the guys over to my house for...an emergency meeting, I guess that's all I can call it. Seriously though, what would he be doing with a box of matches? He smokes, but do you need that many? He would've saved himself the trouble by buying a few lighters. When me and the other got into my room, I told them what Francis told me. Gus, being the nervous wreck he can be at times, is the first one to freak out. Can't say I wasn't expecting it.

"That's what Francis told me, Gus," I said, laying down on my bed. "He said TJ came up to his and bought a box of them, along with his usual cigarettes. Francis thought we might be concerned."

"Of course we would be 'concerned'! He's gonna light the school on fire!" Gus yelled.

"Gus, calm down. There's a perfectly logic explanation for this, I'm sure," Said Gretchen. God I hope she's right. "Maybe he bought them to light his cigarettes."

"But do you really need that many matches for a pack of cigarettes?" Vince asked. "I'm with Gus on this one. The only thing that someone would use that many matches for is setting a fire."

"I can't believe you guys. You're al so quick to think he's doing something bad," Mikey said, defending him. "He said he's not trying to cause trouble. How about we just ask him why he bought that many?"

"Let me ask you something. If you were coming up with a plan to light a school on fire, would you tell anyone about it?" Gus asked him. Good point.

"What's with you, Ralphie?" I asked. Ralphie's standing in the corner, not saying anything. Should we even get him involved in this? This is more about us and TJ, not him.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. My minds just somewhere else," Ralphie said. "Yeah, I'm going to stay out of this one. He doesn't like me, so I might make things worse. Good luck." We're going to need it.

"Alright. Lets start at his house, it's the closest and he might be there." I said. I got out of bed and headed for the door. It's taking all my willpower to not jump back in. "Are you all coming?"

~*~V~*~

Good thing TJ's house is right down the street. It was only a two-minute walk to get there, probably less. I knocked on the door and waited for an answer, but nothing.

"Maybe he's not here," Gus said.

"Nice try Gus. You're staying here with us," I said, knocking on the door again. Still nothing. But I did hear something knock on what sounded like glass. We looked around for where it would've come from and found Zack looking at us through the window. "Hey little man. Can you open the door for us?"

"Are you here to babysit me?" Zack asked after he opened the door.

"No, we're here looking for your brother. Do you know where he is?"

"He said he was going over Ashley's house," He said. "I wanted to come but he said no."

"Where are your mom and dad?"

"Momma went to the store and daddy is in the backyard mowing the lawn. I didn't go with momma 'cause I wanted to watch Bugs Bunny."

"Well thanks for tell us where he is, Zack. Make sure you lock the door after closing it, okay?"

"'Kay."

"Looks like we're going over miss powderpuffs house. Who's car are we taking?"

~*~V~*~

"Yeah, he was here," Ashley A. said, popping her gum and filling her nails in the doorway of her house. We took Vince's car over, 'cause it's more of a distance we were willing to walk, or, for me, to go at all. "He left saying he was going on a walk."

"Do you know where?" Gretchen asked her.

"The park, probably. He's always there. Think it might be all the rabbits that live there this time of year. Go look there and stop bothering me. It's Saturday!" The she slammed the door in our faces. Fucking bitch. I don't regret fighting her and going to Duval for it. Not one bit.

"Looks like we're going to the park."

~*~V~*~

"We're been looking around for hours. He's obviously not here," Vince said. After we got to the park, we split up to cover more ground. The park isn't large, but to make sure we didn't miss any area's we took our time looking. Three hours. Dammit. We would've ended this hours ago if he would just pick up his phone. We tried calling and texting, but he won't answer us. "Any ideas?"

"How about the lake? We haven't looked there," Gretchen suggested. Why didn't we think of that before we got here? No one goes to the lake except us, mostly due to the only way getting there is through the woods...

Let's get this over with.

~*~V~*~

"It's about time we found him." Once we got close enough, we could see the lake through the last remaining trees of the woods. And w could see TJ too. Thank God. I was going to give up and wait until Monday at school if he wasn't there.

...

Wait...what is he doing?

Is that...is that a fire?

"What are you doing, TJ?" Vince asked to get his attention. It worked, because he turned around to face of.

"Nothing," TJ said, turning back to the fire burning in the trashcan. "It's nothing."

"It's a fire," Gus said.

"Yes it is." Why is he acting so casual about this?

"You said you were going to control this problem," Said Vince.

"I am. The fire isn't out of control," He said. "It's in a trashcan, where it can't spread."

"But it's still a fire," Gretchen said.

"It's not going any father than this, I swear." He stod up and kicked the trashcan into the water, putting it out. He didn't say a word as he walked past us and into the woods.

...Can we trust him? We said we would when we promised to give him another chance...

What are we supposed to do with this?

Do we tell someone?

"Gretchen, what do you know about pyromaniacs?" Gus asked.

"It's an impulse control disorder, like compulsve gambling, or kleptomania. They starts fires to relieve tension, or it could just make them feel good. WIth therapy it can be controlled, but...if they set one fire, even a small one, it can get out of hand fast."

"And you all think I'm crazy for being worried."

Okay, Gus, we get it.

What the hell are we gonna do?

Did you all like this chapter? I think it turned out better than I thought it would.

Let's see, I didn't choose to write in Alex's or Zack's POV because they're OC and I feel like if I did, this story would be going off the tracks. I didn't choose his parents because they weren't in the story enough to call for a POV chapter.

I move back to college a week from now! Where did this summer go? I have no clue, but I got farther into the story than I thought I would. Sorry it took me so long to update, my mind was in other places. I'll try to get the next chapter up in a few days. Until then...

Please Review!