The J.D.

Two guardsmen in navy blue uniforms guided me through the worn down gray hallways of the J.D. I never wanted to come back to this place. This wretched place. I looked at the walls; large posters could be seen which read things like: You Are A Good Person; You Just Need To Show It; Drugs Suck, They Kill, Don’t Have Them As Part of Your Meal; and, We Can Help You. I saw my face reflected in their lamination. Is this really what I am? I looked at the guard to my right, and noticed that his face was extremely tan and leathery. He bore the expression of boredom, as he yawned loudly. He looked down at me and frowned, then opened his mouth to say something; I, in turn, shot an annoyed expression back at him. With that, he then slowly closed his mouth, and turned his head to face the other guard who was shaking his head disapprovingly. Our feet clacked on the floor as we walked on. They looked as though they didn’t want to talk to me, as if I were something that shouldn’t be interacted with at all. Gits, I thought. But then I realized that I had no right to think like this, because these people had reason to act this way. Especially after what they think I had done, and even more especially with my record. The hard thing about that is, that after what had really happened; the incident, I would have acted the same way towards myself, as these two men are now acting towards me. This is because, what had happened, would have been completely avoidable if I was never there. And the truth is, I am the one at fault. Or at least, I think so.

The other guard, to my left, who looked familiar, was in his mid-thirties. He stopped shaking his head, and instead whispered to the leathery-faced guard that he would talk to me instead. The leathery face guard nodded, and then looked ahead once more, and got back to the job that he was paid to do. I looked up at the familiar faced guard, he had pinkish skin, a golden mess of spaghetti hair, small piggish eyes, and a pointy nose. He stared down at me, seeming very understanding. “You really shouldn’t have done that Oliver,” he said, fixing his eyes even harder into mine; this broke the friendly vibe, and I immediately recognized him as one of the guardsmen who had been in the rehabilitation rooms with me during my previous visit. I think his name was Dave, but I’m not completely sure. Dave continued speaking: “I really thought we had fixed you, but it appears not.”

“You’re right, Dave,” I responded, holding back what I was really thinking; Do you really think that I would want to come back here? Do you think what I did was on purpose? “I’m very sorry, Dave.”

“My name isn’t Dave,” He pointed angrily at a tag on his vest which read: Dan Tidman; Correction Supervisor. “It’s Dan!”

“I can see that, genius.”

I looked at the other guard, who gave us judging looks; he seemed slightly annoyed; I looked at his tag: Marcus Wiliamo; Transportation and Security. 

The two of them guided me through the halls, and we eventually turned into a wider stretch of corridor, and this time instead of the occasional poster, and bundle of teaching rooms, there were small cells that had small square windows at their tops which were barred. Each cell was lined up one after the other and parallel to the cells on the other wall. I could vividly see some teenagers just like myself, peeking their faces through the bars on the small windows, trying to get a better look at our group of three. One of them, even showing a very crude hand gesture, to which, in response, Dan fiercely pointed his pink index finger between the boy’s eyes, while giving him a cold stare. Me, Dan, and Marcus then continued walking down this stretch of corridor for two minutes before we came to a halt. 

“Well, here’s your room,” Marcus said in a monotone voice, while searching for a key in one of his many inner uniform pockets. “Next nine-teen months you’ll be here; hope they knock that loose screw back in that head of yours.”

He pulled out a large steel key that had the same number etched into it as the cell in front of us: 369. I also noticed that the key had small writing on it which read: Restricted: Duplication Prohibited. I suddenly felt the urge to do the exact opposite of what the key said; and duplicated it.

Marcus walked up to the door, put the key into the lock, turned it, and then went to a small keypad which was to the right of the door, level with the wall, and unnoticed until now by me. “You require higher security then some of our others, for what you did,” he explained, seeing my confusion “Just protocol.”

 Dan walked in front of my line of vision and blocked my view of the keypad, “Wouldn’t want you to see that, would we,” he said seriously, biting his lip and nodding, then he slowly turned back towards Marcus, with his right thumb sticking out and pointing towards me in a signalling fashion, “You got it yet? Oliver is getting jumpy, might, you know… go out of the window.”

I was currently staring at them unconsciously with my eyes out of focus, my back curved and my arms handing, depression was starting to flow over me like a towering tsunami. Then I heard those words, and tensed up. My eyes rolled back into focus, and my pupils narrowed into Dan’s. I felt tears bubbling under my eyes. Dan took notice of this and chuckled uneasily and quickly explained that it was just a joke. How about if you went out of the window instead, you deserve that more than he did, and I would gladly do it purposefully for you.

There was a BEEP! And the door clicked open.

I was moved inside the cell, and Dan and Marcus closed the door behind me, and with a swift click I was locked in. I stood there looking around the room. Well here it is, I thought. Home sweet cell.

There were strong white porcelain colored walls, bright white luminescent lights, a metal toilet on the far left side, a desk and seat screwed into place on the ground in front of my small low to the ground rectangular shaped bed, and a singular window just out of my reach with bars firmly placed in front of them on the wall on the very end of the room. The bed on the far right side of the room had white sheets and a singular white pillow. I suddenly remembered the image of my mother. I longed to go back to her, but I doubted that she would want me back after what I had done. But then again I never would know, because I never had the time to talk to her after what had happened.

I looked up and saw a camera glaring down at me. I went over to the stiff bed and sat down; and even with my feet on the ground, my knees were pressed to my stomach. I rubbed the top of my head, flicking through the cuts on it; It hurt. How had my life ended up this way? I thought; but sadly I knew the answer to that. The reason why I had been sentenced to go back to the J.D. was because of the incident, and that all started eight months ago.

———————————————————

It was December, and I was waiting for my two best friends Cornelius and Arthur in the common room of Larkin’s High School; the place where the incident would later happen. When they came, I learned that Cornelius would be leaving us to go into the tenth grade. In fact the day before he was even called to the principal’s office; just for that. The thing is, he never told me, and I learned all of this information from Arthur. I walked away in frustration and jealousy. I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but then again, they were my first ever friends. And I wanted some alone time. Why? Looking back at it now, I simply didn’t want to lose my first ever friends. So I acted, well, not myself; I isolated myself from them, holding the idea that if they really were my friends they would come check on me. Of course, the world doesn’t work like that, and of course, my plan had initially failed. Unfortunately, I hadn’t come to realize that until it was too late.

Even looking back at it now, I still question how this little drama going on inside, well, just my head, turned into this situation where I got put behind bars. But maybe I do now know; it was because of human nature, and I am even demonstrating it now, blaming it on something other than me. But not anymore. The reason that I’m here is because of my actions, actions that were controlled by my senseless emotional ego at the time.

But if it were just my ego, then the situation wouldn’t have been as bad as it was. The real thing that got me into this state was that once I had started to whirl into denial; since my friends never had come back to me, I started using my mother’s pharmaceutical medications. Or in better words: drugs. The addiction that developed after that first pill turned me into a complete wreck, both mentally and physically. My relation with my single loving mother, who had taken care of me my entire life, had started to crumble and disintegrate like that of ash. I had said things about her and my dead father, that now when I think about it, since I can’t rid it of my mind, were utterly disgusting and painful. 

My grades went down in Larkin’s High School, and even if my two friends had come to check on me, I wouldn’t have realized it since I was so out of focus all the time. I was suspended from the school, I was given a physiologist who kept blabbering about me having a vitamin B12 deficiency, and neurological damage, and I was then eventually expelled permanently from the school, not ever welcome back on grounds. I remember taking the script for the show up to my ex-colleges in the theater club; the script that we had all worked so hard on all year, and destroying it with a pair of sharp scissors in front of them as they tried desperately to take it out of my hands, I even cut a few of them. But I laughed at them, and walked away. I started taking more drugs, and the money had all come from my poor mother’s purse. 

I spent most of my time the remainder of the year staying in my room by myself, skipping therapy sessions, and isolating myself from everyone. I ate at night, and trashed my mother’s home for fun. Whenever I saw her, her face and eyes were red and covered in tears, with large bags under her eyes. But the worst part is that I didn’t care, and swore at her and abused her. She refused to give up on me though, but when enough was enough, and she wasn’t able to stop me, she went to others for help. 

I was taken to this very same juvenile center. The boys here called this place the J.D. or Juvie Detention. So then after being arrested, I spent the rest of the school year here, having serious cases of withdrawal, of which I eventually overcame; after swearing on my life that I’d never use my mother’s meds ever again. And they then let me out. I apologized to my mother. And for the week afterwards, I felt so depressed and regretful for what I had done, that I starved myself. I was so sorry for my mother, and so sorry for myself; so much so that whenever I thought about what my life had become I plainly cried on the spot. I decided that I would make things right.

I got a job at a candy shop at the mall, and helped my mother as much as I could with the money I made. My mother helped me enroll for tenth grade at a public school in September, and before I went to the mall, on the weekdays I would go to summer school held in the public highschool to catch up more on the curriculum. 

———————————————–

I pushed the door open, letting the hot smooth July air swoosh around me like honey and then into the public highschool building. I stepped outside, hearing the door shut behind me, and then walked down the concrete stairs. I felt good. My life was getting better, tomorrow would be the last day of summer school for me; I would finally be able to get my education back on track, and then start enjoying the rest of the summer with my mum. Then I heard the back door of which I had come out burst open, I looked back to see who it was. 

“Elizabeth!” I retorted in surprise. What the hell is she doing here!

“Yes, that’s me.” she said back calmly, she ran down the stairs and then went beside me. She pulled out her phone from a back pocket in her jeans and started clicking around. I peered over to see, but she moved me out of the way.

“What are you, you’re in Larkin’s, why…” 

“I’ll explain later,” she shoved her phone back into the pocket, and swiftly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me further down the sidewalk. I restrained myself from going anywhere, not until she told me why and how she was here. “Come on Oliver!” She said annoyed, apparently unaware that I had no idea why she was so suddenly so eager to seemingly kidnap me; especially after about five months of not seeing me since my ban from Larkin’s High School. I broke out of her grip and stared at her, with uttermost confusion, she stared back at me, but with a more stern look. 

“Why are you here?” I questioned. Raising an eyebrow. I saw Elizabeth glance at her black watch, there was a large crack down the middle of it.

She sighed, and her pupils got even smaller, “This is serious Oliver, I have been looking for three days for you now,” she broke the stare, “Laughing gas, or Nitrous Oxide, mixed with Amyl Nitrite, that’s why you got onto drugs. In your theater I believe there to be a leak right by your small desk space over there. The girl who took your spot passed out over there a week ago, she’s still in the hospital though so I can’t get to her. I’ve been piecing it together. You’re the solution to figure out this problem.” 

She was panting from all the words. She looked alarmed. But I frowned, “I’m at fault for the drug issue, and I couldn’t care less about a leak of gasses,” I said, my voice shaking, then questioned, “Aren’t you the smart one? Can’t you just tell the principal, he’ll listen to you.”

“But I have!” She yelled, I think she assumed that I already knew the whole story behind whatever she was talking about. Unfortunately I didn’t because I was banned from Larkin’s and put in rehabilitation for a few months. “Do you think that I haven’t? They don’t believe me, but with you, I’ll finally have the evidence, and even maybe.”

“Maybe what?” I said, I saw Elizabeth glance back at her watch. 

“Then maybe, you can be accepted back into Larkin’s.” she said. She continued, “All you have to do is come there with me right about now!”

I grunted, thinking deeply. I would like to help her, I thought, I just don’t want to go back to the J.D. for entering the grounds of a school that I’m banned from. “I’ll help, I just want you to explain how we’ll do this.”

Elizabeth smiled, “Well first, we really need to go,” her voice started getting faster, and more agitated, “Your… Well, the,” she made the “the” dramatic and stretched out, “the theatrical production starts in an hour and a half. So we need to get there. You see, they are going to use an open flame, and that doesn’t mix well with the certain gasses that I’m suspicious of.”

“Okay, so then how will we get there,” I questioned, the seriousness in her voice started to leak into mine, “I mean it’s forty-five minutes away.”

“Exactly,” she said, reaching into her pocket, “And that’s why we have got to go fast.”

In one swift movement she swiped me off my feet, caught me by the arms, and clicked a device around my left wrist. “What are you doing?” I shot out.

“Moving,” she restrained me from getting up, and then hit me in the side of the neck. Oh my god, why can’t I move? I tried to struggle, but nothing happened, Elizabeth continued, “Luckily for us, this paralysis only lasts for about fifteen minutes.” She started to drag my limp body quickly across the pavement, my head lolled upside down, and I saw that we were approaching a small car. Elizabeth placed me down on the ground face up, and opened the back door of the car, now parallel to my body.

I realized that I could still speak, “What the hell? Why did you? How?” Was it really necessary to paralyze me? Elizabeth flipped me over like a fish, she tapped on her cracked watch. I stared firmly at her.

She then rolled her eyes, and quickly said, “The nerves in a human neck are connected with the nerves in a human’s spine and the spine is connected to the brain and helps send information to the rest of the body, then if you were to just cut this off, you would effectively lose control of your motor functionalities.”

“Will I be okay then?” I asked worriedly, “I don’t want to look like a fish forever.”

“I said it should go away in fifteen minutes,” she snapped back, while beginning to lift my body off the ground, and with much struggle, shoved me into one of the back seats and buckled the seatbelt around me, she then shrugged “Probably.”

She closed the door, and I was now lolling around in my seat, my head staring out the window, then I heard the front door click open and Elizabeth got in. Then it dawned upon me.

“Uh, you’re sixteen, do you have a driver’s permit,” I said stupidly, “I mean, if you do, then shouldn’t there be an adult that has a license in the car as well?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Elizabeth snapped back. I realized I could now start to move my head; I turned to look in the direction of the driver’s seat, and instead of Elizabeth I saw a fat Spanish man. “I got an uber, I can’t drive that well, I only turned sixteen a month ago.” Elizabeth was sitting in one of the front seats of the car next to the man. “A la escuela de Larkin, tan rápido como puedas y te daré una propina de cincuenta dólares.” She waved a hefty fifty dollar bill in the air in front of the man. She seemed to be bribing him. I stared at the money in her hand blankly. How will I explain to my boss that I missed work?

The man suddenly sprung to life, and lifted his large sluggish eyebrows up, making his eyes finally visible. They were filled with tears of joy. “Yes ma’am.” he said shakily. And then with a movement that seemed to take ages he lifted his right leg up to his chest, and then slammed it down onto the gas. The car flew forward, and I was pressed against my seat, I saw the speedometer read 40 mph. 

“Agghhhh!” I yelled. I saw a stop sign, I moved my hands in front of my face, Oh my god my hands! They can move! They flew in front of my face as the car swerved left, and I was flung violently towards the right door; the seatbelt saved me from going out the window. I looked forward to using my newfound movement abilities; we had run the stop sign. I looked at Elizabeth with confusion and anger, and she simply lolled her head back to look at me and smiled, looking frighteningly calm. Oh god, we are going to die, I thought. I was at a loss for words. We continued zooming through the roads.

Twenty long minutes later, we were in front of the towering brick building of Larkin’s High School. Elizabeth gave the Spanish man the fifty dollar bill, and we stepped out. I was dizzy and fell over into the grass. The world was spinning like a frisbee and I had the feeling that my body was applying a great effort to keep the contents of my stomach in my stomach.

“Wow, that was fast, we have an extra twenty-five minutes,” Elizabeth said shortly, she leaned towards me blocking the sun and casting a shadow over the lump that was my body. She prodded my stomach with her index finger, “It really wasn’t that bad, get up.”

“But I don’t want to,” I don’t want to be here, why did I come? Elizabeth grabbed me by the right arm and heaved me to my feet, I stood there stupidly, I feel like a blobfish. “Now what?”

“Now I am writing down the name of that driver,” Elizabeth drooled sarcastically, then got serious, “But really, he was great. But no, now we go into Larkin’s and we do some tests!”

“On what.” I said blankly, rubbing the back of my head unconsciously.

“On you,” she said simply, I looked at her horrified, then she laughed, “Not in any horrible or weird way. You won’t even know.” I looked at her relieved, and opened my mouth to speak. But then Elizabeth chimed in very darkly, “I save that kind of stuff for the others.”

She was joking, I thought, but just to make sure, I asked, “Is that true?”

“Of course not stupid,” she grabbed me by the arm again then pulled me through the front door of the school, revealing the beautiful interior, “We are wasting time, come on let’s go.”

The inside of the building was majestic, more beautiful than I remembered it. The floor in the entrance hallway was made out of white marble tiles, and where Elizabeth and I were standing I saw a new tile placed with many others which contained the name Joseph Martin. These were the valedictorian tiles; it was a tradition for Larkin’s High School to put the names of each year’s valedictorian on one of these entrance tiles. I looked at the familiar walls, they too were made out of tiles, just maroon, in contrast to white. Maroon was the school color. As Elizabeth continued to pull me through the entrance hallway I saw the two doors on opposite sides of the hall that were the main office N106, and the security office N107. We zoomed past the two doors. I looked upwards.

The ceiling was different, it was a light gray, and hanging from it was a large banner that read: The French Explorers, A Larkin’s Theatrical Performance. Also on the ceiling were two parallel LED lights that lead into a larger room; This room was Larkin’s common room. Elizabeth pulled me out of the short entrance hallway into the commons. The common room floor had an American chestnut finish and was as large as four basketball courts. The floor sparkled, and above it to the right was a huge projector screen, at least fifteen feet wide and at least eight feet tall and to the left was a staircase made of the same American chestnut wood used on the floor. 

Elizabeth dragged me towards the steps. “Stop gapping, you’ve seen it before,” she panted, still tugging on my arm, “I mean, come on.”

“It’s so beautiful,” I gapped, much to Elizabeth’s annoyance. The sunroof let in large rays of yellow sunlight carpeting everything in a golden haze, “So majestic.” I ran my hand over the railings of the stairs; The railings were to the right and consisted of glass panes cut to fit the shape of the stairs. On top of the glass were steel bars that had a protrusion every two feet that held up a Birch wood handrail. 

“Oh shut up,” Elizabeth snapped, “Start using your own legs, we are wasting time.”

I simply ignored her, and peered upwards over the railing. The staircase circled around the perimeter of the common room leading into different hallways on three different stories of the building.  And then at the very top; the end of the staircase there was a viewing platform that contained some swivel chairs that looked out onto the schools multi purpose field.

I looked down; under all of this were exactly fourteen rows of wooden tiered seating in a geometrical cube style that faced towards the projector screen; the very top row of which was laid against the left wall under the staircase. There were two-hundred eighty seats altogether in the rows, with each row having exactly twenty seats. The seats were tightly packed next to one another and were bolted to the ground. Then there were two ramps on either side of the rows allowing for anyone if they wanted to walk in and out of the peculiar seating area. 

I looked up at Elizabeth, who looked enraged. “Just follow me okay?” she said with the calmness in her voice starting to chip away. “It really isn’t that hard.”

I came out of my trance, and looked around, stress starting to pang throughout my body, My head felt like it was being compressed. I am banned from this place. If I am recognized… I stopped my train of thought. J.D. echoed through my head. I focused on Elizabeth. She is the smartest girl in this school. She wouldn’t throw away her education and life just to have me here. This must actually be serious. I was starting to get mad. I just went with the flow, and ended up in the place that was a sure gateway back to the J.D. for me. I started shaking. Sweat was dripping from my forehead, I looked towards the entrance hallway. I looked back at Elizabeth who looked concerned. I said it. “Sorry, coming,” I rushed up the stairs, and followed Elizabeth down the hallway on the second floor, “Where are we going?”

“Well first,” Elizabeth came to a halt, and took a hair clip out of her hair, she started fiddling with the door in front of her using the clip in the keyhole. There was a click, and she turned the handle and opened the door, she finished her sentence, “First we have to get some things from the science lab.”

I proceeded to enter with her, but she stopped me, “Hey.”

“Stay out here,” she said, pointing at the floor outside the door, “Just watch if anyone is around as I get the stuff we need.”

Elizabeth hurried into the room, leaving me outside. I heard a beep, coming from my left wrist, there was a device strapped to it. The same one that Elizabeth had put on me when she threw me into the Uber. More cold fuzzy pangs swept through my body. I stumbled around, and eventually decided to just sit where Elizabeth indicated me to stay. I looked at the device, it read something quite alarming: ALERT BLOOD PRESSURE LOW. “Elizabeth!” I called.

“Shhhhh!”

I shushed, then I realized I had my phone on me. I took it out of my back jeans pocket. I unlocked it and looked through my texts. I told my boss that I wouldn’t be at work today, and then told my mother that I was helping a friend. I sighed and put the phone back into my pocket. Just then Elizabeth rushed out of the room holding two buckets, filled with assorted science things, but most eye-catching of all, there were two gas masks. “Gas masks?” asked.

“Yes,” Elizabeth stated calmly, “Gas masks.”

“Now what?” I asked, looking deeper into the contents of the two buckets.

“Now we go to the theater.”

Elizabeth and I headed down the stairs, through some of the many twisting corridors of the school, and finally reached the large underground theater. Elizabeth instructed me on how to put on the gas masks. But before I did, I asked her what was bothering me; “This device, it says that I have low blood pressure.”

And as a response Elizabeth simply said, “So far so good.” And then jotted something down on a Post-It that had been acquired in the science lab. We both put on the gas masks. We looked as though we had come back from some radioactive facility.

Together Elizabeth and I crept our way through the seats in the theater. On the stage I could see my past theatrical club acquaintances rehearsing The French Explorers. This made me more alert. We crept backstage, and then towards my old desk space. Elizabeth took out a weird piece of equipment that I had never seen before and moved it around the desk space. She did this for about twenty minutes. It hummed. I kept glancing backwards to make sure that nobody had noticed, but after a while, I just plainly watched Elizabeth using the equipment. For a long time in the silence I forgot that we were backstage, and felt as though me and Elizabeth were a detective duo.  

“Yes, yes,” Elizabeth muttered, “There’s more than just air in here! And when I state air, I mean everything in air, the carbon dioxide, the water vapor, the…”

A new voice slid in, cutting her off, I sprung to my feet, and my day dreams came to an abrupt end, “We get it.” I looked every which way to find where the voice had come from, and saw that now not only me and Elizabeth were around the desk space, but rather, most of the theatrical crew.

“Oh, hello Shawn,” Elizabeth said, standing up properly, “I was just running a couple of tests.”

“That isn’t what we are bothered about,” Shawn growled, he pointed a thin light brown finger in between my eyes, “It’s him.”

“Oh yes, Oliver,” Elizabeth said, looking towards me, I glared through the mask at her, I’m screwed, “Yes, he’s helping me run this test. I’m afraid you can’t run this performance today, it’s quite unsafe in this theater. It’s a miracle that you all are still standing.”

“Oh, we will be running this performance today,” Shawn snarled, the rest of the crew nodded in shared agreement, “You have no idea how many setbacks we have had.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, many, but no more, especially not today,” Shawn looked legitimately scary, he looked like some sort of poltergeist, and the darkness of the backstage made it worse, “Sylvia, please escort Elizabeth out.”

I looked to Elizabeth, who stood there calmly; I however was trembling with fear, like a small animal. I saw Sylvia; a tall muscular girl with pink hair, she stepped out of the crowd, and moved toward Elizabeth who showed no signs of emotion. Even as this landmass of a girl was heading straight towards her. Instead of fighting back, Elizabeth simply let Slyvia guide her out of the backstage area, only turning around once to give me an uplifting wink. Elizabeth had her phone out. My heart fell like a sack of potatoes to the bottom of my appendix. I stood there staring horrified at Shawn. Did Elizabeth just betray me? No, no, no, no, not the J.D. I can’t, I, I, tears were forming in my eyes; great pearls of them.

“Shawn, please, I’m sorry,” I stuttered, Shawn started moving closer to me, I moved back stumbling into the desk behind me, “You know I wasn’t in the right mind.”

“Apparently you still aren’t,” he snarled, he looked back at the crew; who although looked frightened by the state that Shawn was currently in, still seemed to show more resentment towards me, “Should we make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else? Maybe we can report him back to the correction facility…”

“No,” I cried, tears streaming down my face. This stupid git, stupid Elizabeth, this was all to send me back to the J.D. They want to get back at me for what I had done. I had a flashback of the crew the day I destroyed the script; they looked just like me, and Shawn had it the worst; for he was the main director alongside me. My voice cracked, “Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

“You’re sorry means nothing,” Shawn spat, he reached for my face, and tore the gas mask off, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with our theater.”

I coughed, and breathed in, tears still streaming down my face. There is nothing wrong, I thought as I breathed in big gulps of air, I’m so stupid; I can still breathe. I heard Shawn tell the crew that I’d be fine, and then tell them that the show would start in five minutes. I saw Shawn walk over to a table and pocket a lighter into his costume. But I just lay there, the show started, and my tears all dried up. My vision got fuzzy; so badly fuzzy that everything around me started becoming one colorless blob, Kill me. My head started aching terribly, and this blob started dancing to the music coming from the stage. I heard applause, each one ringing like a gunshot. I lost sense of time. I felt numb and confused, then it struck me: Elizabeth wasn’t lying. There really is something in the air. This is how drugs were, this is how I remember it. But instead of lying around in this strange weird fun feeling, I picked up the gas mask, tied it back on my face, and stood up on my wobbly legs. The device on my left wrist was going haywire, and flashing red. But why would Elizabeth just leave like that? I straightened myself up; The truth is I don’t know, and I don’t care. I need to save these people. I would go out of the backstage area and tell the audience that they were in danger.

Then it dawned on me; if I were to do that, I would be sent back to the J.D. I looked further down the backstage area; at the exit. My heart pumped, the device on my wrist kept beeping. I could go out now. But if these people really do get hurt… I stood there sweaty and shaking. I heard Shawn’s voice, he was on the stage, “Now we must light the torch of foreign connections!”

This echoed and bounced through my head, Oh shoot, this isn’t good at all, I had made my decision; I ran onto the stage, as fast as I could, and body slammed into Shawn, who stumbled backwards with the lighter in his hand. The stage lights blazed in my eyes, and the whole audience started yelling and booing remarks at me, Shawn, and the other students on stage looked as though they wanted to kill me. I stood there staring awkwardly at the angry audience. I don’t blame them, I just broke on stage.

 “You ruin everything!” Shawn screamed, I looked back to see him, he was picking up a glass cup from the table on the stage, tears were flowing out of his red eyes.. Shawn don’t. He ran towards me and smashed the cup over my head. I felt blood prickle down my forehead underneath the mask. Some adults had started standing up and headed towards the stage, as well as some concerned and upset teachers, and one enraged principal. 

“You are forbidden on this property,” Dr. Budny screamed; he was the principal, and his face was all red with rage, “You’re assaulting a student! I’m calling the police!”

Well there goes my chance of coming back to this school. I stumbled around the stage gripping the top of my head; little fragments of glass stuck in it. It was stinging cold, yet felt warm and bloopy.

“Guys, you have to listen, there’s a gas leak, it’s not safe in here, you have to get out!” I hollered, I turned to look at the students on stage, they were all running into the backstage, all except one; Shawn.

“It’s fine in here boy!” Dr. Budny Screamed.

I turned to look at Shawn, who was starting to grip another glass cup; so I moved back. My head feeling like a fuzzy warm peach. I’m screwed, I’m screwed, I’m screwed. Pain was swelling like crazy over my head, I fell down onto my back. I heard someone scream: “Help! Somebody please stop them! They’re hurting each other!” 

“You have no idea what I’ve gone through for this!” Shawn snarled, he lifted the glass to strike again.  You have no idea what I’ve gone through, and yet I’m here where I don’t belong saving you! I thought. 

“Shawn please, I’m just trying to help.” I reasoned, putting my right hand over the injury on my head, as I crawled even further back towards the curtains.

“Some help.” he spat, he threw the glass in my face, just slightly cracking the gas mask, it shattered, the shards of which went into my arms. The device was still ringing on my wrist. Shawn tightly gripped the lighter. And headed towards the torch. “I’m finishing this act.”

“Shawn no!” I reached painfully to try and stop him, but it was too late, the second a spark had flown from the lighter, the air ignited in a blue ball of flame which shot down through the whole theater setting the curtains ablaze, and skimming the audience’s heads. I felt the simmering heat fly around me, like a wave; and the device on my left wrist stopped beeping, and melted to the point where the screen had become part of the band. I pulled it off. I looked at Shawn, he had gotten the full blast; he was lying on the stage floor, unconscious, and with his eyebrows smoking.

The adults in the theater quickly rushed onto the stage, and called 911. Some tried to hold me down, but I ran; I ran out the exit door in the backstage area, up, up the stairs, through hallways, and then finally reaching the common room. Dr. Budny ran close behind me, I climbed up the staircase, all the way up to the viewing platform at the very top. Dead end.

I turned around to see Dr. Budny blocking my way out. I knew that there was no arguing with this man, so I simply gave up. “Take me sir, I’m sorry.”

Dr. Budny smiled a scary uncertain smile, it was disturbing. He stepped closer to me.

“Oh, I won’t be taking you,” he signaled to the front entrance, where policemen were coming in by the dozens, “Back to the J.D. I’m afraid, Mr. Harnolo.”

“How do you know that I call it the J.D?”

Dr. Budny didn’t answer my question, but rather said, “You know, you are a lost cause Oliver.” He shook his head disapprovingly. 

“No he isn’t” I rubbed my eyes in astonishment; Elizabeth clacked up the stairs, pointing a finger at the fat, and short figure of Dr. Budny “And you are in big trouble; you see…”

Dr. Budny cut her off, “Shut up Elizabeth,” he stared even harder at me, “We can’t change what has already been done.”

Elizabeth opened her mouth to say something, but then just seemed to give up. She stayed in the same place; on the final step. I looked back and forth between Dr. Budny, and Elizabeth. I was panting, I wanted to curl up into a ball, and then roll down the stairs away from this school. Away from Larkin’s. Dr. Budny grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and yelled so everyone could hear, “I’ve got him!” Spit spattered my face.

I heard the police’s shoes thumping up the staircase, “Let go of me!” I pushed Dr. Budny off of me and he tripped, falling on his bosom. Elizabeth chuckled. But she still stayed in the same place.

“You,” Dr. Budny yelled all red faced, and started to stand back up, “You are a loser! A worthless piece of rubbish!” I didn’t know how to respond to that. And just stared at him blankly.

 He then charged towards me like a bull; I had never seen anyone so angry. If I don’t move I’m going to die. I heard Elizabeth yell: “Watch out!”, and I saw the policemen’s heads rising upwards as they finally got to the viewing platform as well; I jumped aside, out of the path of Dr. Budny, and then as quickly as ever, the principal smashed through the window of the viewing platform, and fell three stories down in a shower of glass onto the pavement. I looked away, my organs churned, and I actually threw up all over the floor.

Elizabeth looked absolutely horrified. And we stared at each other. Then the police held me down, and I was arrested. They pulled off my mask as I was moved into their police car. And then I was sent back to the awful J.D.

——————————————————————-

Now that you know what has happened. I’m sorry to inform you that I’m still here; sulking on my cell’s bed in the J.D. But just then I heard a BEEP! And the door clicked open. What is it now? Can you let a man sulk in his cell in peace?

Marcus was in the entrance, and smiled down at me. “You have visitors,” he said, turning around, “Would you like to see them?”

“Uh, yes please,” I answered shakily, I got up and brushed the tears off my face, I rubbed my eyes so I could see clearer. Who had come to see me? So quickly, just ten minutes after I had gotten here? I followed Marcus out into the corridor. 

Marcus guided me through the halls, and we got to the visitor’s entrance. Marcus let me into a small room, to which, to my astonishment, both Elizabeth, and my mother were sitting.

Tears started to form in my eyes, the bottom of my mouth started trembling; but before anything could have happened, my mother stood up, and gave me a hug.

“It’s not your fault,” she said soothingly, “Me and your friend have the evidence.”

“Mum,” I said, “It was awful.”

Elizabeth cut in, “You two stop the mother-son stuff, we only have fifteen minutes together, and so far we have wasted three!”

I looked up at my mother who said “Your friend is right, you should probably hear what she has to say.”

“Okay,” I said, slowly sliding out of the embrace, “What do you have, Elizabeth?”

“I’m glad you asked,” she said, then winked at me, “You know when that Slyvia girl took me back out of the backstage area.”

“How could I forget?”

“Exactly, so I let her take me out,” Elizabeth paused, then took her phone out of her pocket, holding it high, “And while she did that, I called up that very same Uber that brought us to the school; this is because I had all my evidence, and assumed that sooner or later you would be found in the backstage, so I was going to go to the police department, and turn in all of the evidence, while also defending your case.”

“And that’s why you weren’t put on trial; They thought that you were just being high again, not hurting people intentionally.” My mother said.

“What happened next?” I asked.

“Well after submitting the evidence, which I converted from post-it notes, into an explanatory document on my phone, I came back to the school,” Elizabeth explained, “I told the policemen that you were being influenced by gas; which I think they thought was a drug, but whatever.”

“Whatever?” I gasped.

“Well would you rather be charged for the destruction of the theater?”

“No.”

“So let me continue,” Elizabeth swung her hair back, “After re-entering the school, I returned all the supplies I had taken, then I went back to check on you; luckily for me though, you ran right past my second floor hallway, and I was able to follow you up to the very top.”

“What about Budny,” I asked, “When the police came they saw him go out the window.”

“Exactly,” Elizabeth said, “If you really think about it from the police’s view; Budny was going to assault a minor, who in self defense got out of the way, and Budny just fell forward. He’s still alive, if you’re wondering.”

My heart lifted. Could this really be true? But I’d still have to stay in this place. 

“But…” I started, but Elizabeth cut me off, seemingly reading my mind. Why had Budny known the name I gave this place?

“The reason Dr. Budny knew that you call this place the J.D. was because he went here when he was your age; he apparently had anger issues.”

I gaped. 

“Okay times up,” Elizabeth said, pointing at her cracked black watch, “We’ll shorten your sentence, don’t worry.”

I looked once more at my mother, and gave her a hug. I’m still loved, I thought.

“I love you Oliver,” my mother said, “I’ll visit you every day here, until they let you out.”

Marcus came back into the room, and guided me out, back to my cell. On our way back, Dan laughed at me, pointing at me, but I just smiled back at him; which caught him by surprise. And once I was put back in my cell|, rather than crying and sulking, I laughed. I smiled. The J.D. wasn’t going to be miserable. Not this time.