Carson spotted Ebony at her locker. "Ebony, wait up!"

Ebony, hearing Carson's voice, turned the other way and began quickly walking away.

"Come on, Eb! Slow down and let me explain," Carson pleaded, running to catch up.

"No, Carson!" Ebony spun around quickly and faced him. "You listen to me. I told you to choose, and you told me you'd chosen me. Then I find out that you lied? You are nothing but a low-lying serpent who's about to get chopped in half."

"So chopping me in half is going to solve our problems?"

"Where I'm gonna cut, it sure will!"

Carson winced as if he could fill the razor already. He shook it off and looked at Ebony with sorrowful eyes. "Ebony, I can't tell you how sorry I am. I really, truly am. Things just got mixed up somehow; I got confused!"

"Confused, Carson? You're going to justify everything by saying you were confused? You are a true joke," Ebony began walking away.

Carson grabbed Ebony before she could get too far. Ebony, stunned, wheeled around nailed Carson hard in the gut with her elbow. "Don't you ever touch me again," her voice was cold as arctic ice.

Carson, doubled-over, only grunted.

Ebony walked towards her first class, leaving Carson to slide slowly down to the floor. Coming down the hall at that time was Karen.

She smiled when she saw Carson moaning in pain. "Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged into Midway Prep."

Jake quietly walked into Jessica's room. He didn't know how, but he'd managed to evade Dr. Erwin. He glanced at the delicate creature that was slowly but surely gathering strength.

Jake walked over to her bedside and took hold of her hand. "Hey, Jessica. It's me, Jake. I heard you've been sick for a little while."

He didn't receive an answer, but that was only to be expected. "You may or may not hear me, but I have some things to say. I came here to thank you for being such a good friend to me. You know," Jake laughed, "there were times when I could come to you when I couldn't go to anyone else, not even Randall or Matt. You've been a rock for us all for so long, Jessica. You can't even begin to realize the impact that you've had on all of our lives."

Jake stopped for a moment to wipe his eyes. The steady beeping of the heart monitor kept time. Jake knew that as long as the monotonous yet intensely important beat kept on, everything would be OK. He picked up again. "I came here to thank you for all of the good times you've given me. If you don't already know, Kim and I broke up. Things just went horribly wrong and our relationship fell apart. But in the back of my mind the thing that kept me strong was remembering all of the good times we've had: going to Mazoli's Pizza, heading down to the arcade for pinball rounds, and playing in the park with our friends. You don't realize the emotional significance of it all."

Jake again stopped. He wiped his eyes and looked towards the ceiling, as if silently asking for strength to go on. He looked down at Jessica with tears in his eyes. "I just wanted you to know that it's my turn now. It's my turn to be your rock."

"Please, Karen. I'm not in the mood for yet another angry woman right now," Carson said, refusing to look Karen in the eye.

Surprisingly, Karen offered her hand to Carson. He looked up gratefully at Karen. "I am so sorry, Karen. I never should have done you like I did."

"Just because I offer you my hand doesn't mean I'm offering my forgiveness," Karen said coldly, beginning to walk away.

"You know, you two can't walk away from this forever. We're all going to have to face this one day and deal with it," Carson called after her.

Karen stopped and turned around. She said softly, "No, Carson. You're going to have to deal with this. You're the one that's going to have to live with the pain that you've caused both Ebony and me. You're going to be the one that has to look in the mirror at the face of a person who lied, who maniuplated, who used two innocent young women. It's you who has to face it, Carson; not Ebony, and certainly not me."

"We're all a part of this, Karen. We're all going to have to deal with our emotions," Carson persisted.

"No, again I think that's just you, Carson. I'm dealing with my emotions. I was angry at first, extremely angry. But now I'm just disappointed. I thought you were better than the slime that inhabits this school. I guess I was wrong, and this is my second time. But I won't make the mistake of picking up a scumbag like you again, that's for sure," Karen flashed a smile at Carson before walking away, leaving a rejected and lonely Carson to deal with his conscience.

Jake wept silently. His tears glided down his cheeks and onto his lap. "I'm so sorry this had to happen to you, Jessica. I am. You don't deserve this. Not at all. But we'll get through this, you and I. My friends are all I have now, Jessica. But with you, it goes further than that."

"I can't believe I haven't seen what's been in front of my eyes all this time. Your uncanny knowing of what's going on, your sense of understanding. It's everything I thought I'd found in Kim but hadn't."

Jessica didn't move. Jake turned his head and wept some more. "If only I could tell you, Jessica! Why can't it be like old times? Why? Everything could go back to the way it is. Kate & Sharon will be sitting on a blanket in the park watching Meredith spin 'round and 'round in circles while you laughed and spun with Meredith. We were all happy then. Why can't we just have it all back?"

Jake wiped away his tears. "Before I leave today, I just want you to know, consciously or not, that I love you, Jessica. With everything that I'm worth, I love you."

Jake got up from Jessica's bedside. Before leaving, he placed a butterfly kiss on Jessica's warm, smooth cheek before walking out, wondering if he'd ever see the girl he knew was the one he dreamed often about the way she used to be, with the chance to build a strong relationship with her. With the chance to finally bring happiness to her life as well as his own.

"Ever since I arrived at Midway Prep last year, they've been jealous of me," Randall began his story. "They have been jealous of my intelligence, my skills, and my future. Everyone knows that I have the chance to be a part of the Fortune 500, everyone. But they'd never admit it. No, instead they choose to point and laugh, to put me down unmercifully and try and rob me of my pride and self-esteem. I wouldn't let them, though. That's was infuriated them. They shoved me out of their social circles, exluded me from important social events, and even attempted to ruin me academically by saying that I cheated."

Matt whistled. "Did they really? Wow, you never said..."

"No, I never said because it wasn't important," Randall interrupted. "I never paid any attention to their efforts to drag me down into their pits of self-insecurities. I refused to...that is until last summer."

"What happened?"

"Last spring I applied for a spot in the World's Junior Peace Administration."

"What's that?"

"It's a worldwide organization comprised of teens across the world who get together to talk about problems and who do service efforts all across the world in an attempt, to be put frankly, to solve all the world's problems. God, it was the chance of a lifetime!" Randall cried vehemently. "I had all the scores, all the community service requirements, everything I needed to become a part of the association. They knew it, too."

Randall paused for a moment. His eyes glazed over as if he were recalling the event that lay in the shadows of his past. "On the night of March 15th, I completed my application form. I'd had it signed by my teachers, my principals, my counselors, and even my parents, whom I hardly ever talk to. I had all of the signatures and papers I needed to get in. That night, a group of kids broke into my room. One of them put a pillow over my face while the others must have gone through my stuff and taken my papers."

Randall let out a sound that was almost a sob. "I thought I was going to die, man. I really did! Then, just as quickly as they had come, the pillow was off my face and they had disappeared. I turned on the light and looked for my papers, but they were gone." Randall's voice lowered and turned steely. "I haven't seen them sense. I lost the chance of a lifetime, Matt. I'll never again get the chance to become a part of the organization. They won't recruit for another eight years, and by that time I'll be too old. That would have looked good on my resumè, it would have given me worldwide exposure, and everything else I would've needed. They robbed me of that, Matt. Those da** idiots robbed me of that!"

"Woah, man. Just calm down," Matt tried putting a reassuring hand on Randall's shoulder.

Randall jerked violently away. "No! I will not calm down! They took away my future, Matt. I'd been planning to become a part of the Administration for years!"

"Why didn't you tell an adult or someone?"

"It wouldn't have done any good!" Randall cried helplessly. "The deadline was the 18th I never would have gotten new papers and new signatures in three days. Never!"

"That must be rough, man."

"Rough doesn't even begin to describe it! You can't imagine the hurt I felt, the emptiness that I held in me because I'd lost my dreams. No, they stole them from me! Then, before I knew it, my dejection turned into something more useful: hatred. I vowed that day to make sure that every last one of the people who taunted me and took away my future would pay for what they did, and they will. I'm not going to let them have the satisfaction of going on with their lives, keeping their hopes and ambitions close to them, when I'm left with nothing. I don't care who it was who was in my room that night; they're all responsible! Every last one of them. I sweat to you on my life that they will feel the same pain, the same dejection that I did if it is the last thing that I do!"

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