One More Year

Chapter 10

Okay, So it's technically past midnight, but if I haven't slept it counts as the same day, right? So it's day four? We're going with day four.

A longer chapter for you. Hope you like it!

~TH~

Jack kept his head down in the hallway. He had skipped half of his classes the day before and desperately hoped no one would call him out on it. It had been a stupid thing to do. Snyder had been at work, so that wasn't a problem, but anything could have happened. He was just lucky Snyder didn't come home and catch him. Panic attack or no, that would have ended badly.

"Hey, Jack!"

Jack stopped at the familiar voice. He should keep walking. He really didn't want to talk to anyone, much less him.

"Heya Dave."

The other boy came and stood beside him. "Listen, about yesterday-"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I get it, I should have been there. It was stupid of me not to and-"

"No, no, Jack," He interrupted, "I wasn't- look, I just wanted to say that I was sorry. We shouldn't have gone through your stuff. And we didn't even give you a chance to explain. I'm sorry."

Jack blinked. That was not what he had been expecting. "It's fine."

"No it's not!"

Jack raised his eyebrows.

"We upset you. We hurt you and there's no excuse for that. Whether you did your project or not, that doesn't give us the excuse to treat you that way."

Jack stood there silently, completely shocked. Then he gave a half smile, "All's forgiven Dave. And listen, I did the project. I had it mostly done, but, it, uh, it got ruined. The entire thing. I have to start over that, that's why I couldn't come. It was ruined right as I was leaving. Here," He pulled out his phone and showed him the picture, "This is what I had before it, y'know."

David stared at it, eyes wide. "Jack, you painted this?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "It's nothin'. Just some basic stuff."

"But Jack, this is amazing! Do you think you can make it again? Before next Friday?"

He shrugged again, "Probably. Like I said, it's nothing special."

"You gotta show Katherine this!"

Jack involuntarily flinched. That was someone he really didn't want to talk to.

David gave a sad smile, "Look, I know she can be... difficult at times, but she's really not a bad person. She just doesn't... get everything. She speaks before she thinks and it backfires. A lot. I'm not saying that you owe her anything, but you should give her a chance. Show her this," he handed the phone back. "She'll be shocked and feel even worse about the whole thing. Trust me."

The bell rang and he checked his watch, "I should probably get to class, see you later!" He gave a short wave and was gone.

~N~

The class that he had been dreading. Drama. He honestly didn't know if he could face Race after yesterday. At this point he'd rather have a sit down with Katherine then walk into the theatre.

He didn't look up or make eye contact with anyone as he made his way to the backroom. Jack didn't even think. He just grabbed a paintbrush and went at the canvas. Just paint. Paint a beautiful world far away. Somewhere people would leave him alone and he could just breathe. Somewhere he didn't have to hide or worry about things like food or clothes. Somewhere where waking up in the morning was a good thing, not something that he dreaded. Somewhere, anywhere but HERE.