1 Chapter One - Fire

I couldn't help but feel anxious as I made my way toward the crowded entrance of my middle school. For some reason I could feel it in the air that something about today was off. It was probably because I just came back from suspension, and the teachers might punish me with tests and overdo home work.

"So how was your suspension?" Mike asked me. Mike was your average, scrawny eleven year old boy. He wore almost the same outfit every week and is considered a nerd. No one understood why I hung out with him. I guess I didn't even understand it myself.

"Same as always I guess."

"School has been a lot more peaceful without you around," he continued. He kept talking, but I ignored whatever he said. Anything he say was almost never important unless it was about school work. I always needed his help with that.

"Oh yeah, and did I mention that Jade is going out with Johnathan now?"

For some reason that caught me off guard. Mike seemed to notice it too. "So what of it?" I replied back. "None of my business anyway."

"Yeah but Johnathan was your boy," Mike continued, "I just thought that it's a little messed up that he's dating her. Especially when he knows how you feel."

"Shut up," I told him. "You know I don't like Jade. Just because her and I always fight doesn't mean others aren't allowed to date her. Anyway, she's usually the reason that I get suspended. I couldn't care less who goes out with her."

I wasn't trying to, but I knew that I hurt Mike feelings. Damn, what a softy. What did I have to hang out with him for? I did feel kind of bad though. "Hey, sorry I told you to shut up bro. I didn't mean it like that."

"It's ok," he replied back.

"Hey do you have the water balloons I told you to get?"

"Yeah," he replied back. "Don't you think that this is little immature?"

"That's why she won't see it coming?"

We were almost near the entrance of the school when I spotted her. Like always she was surrounded by her group of followers.

"Hey Jacky," she waved at me.

I stuck up my middle finger and kept on walking. Yeah that was the Jade Moon. Long black curly hair and bright emerald eyes. No wonder she was the prettiest girl in the school. I got sick of looking at her though. Okay maybe that was a lie. She changed every year, but I've known her since we were in preschool. She has always been annoying.

The cafeteria was the worst thing about this school if you asked me. The eighth graders thought they ruled the whole school. They got a whole section to themselves while we had to share the other half with the seventh graders. They were about as happy as we were about that. All because the eighth graders were going to high school next year and are going to be at the bottom of the food chain again, they want to take advantage of being on top while they still can.

I didn't care one bit. I had a permanent seat at the eighth grade table and they weren't going do anything about it.

"Hey Jack where do you think you're going?" I looked over to see who said that and wasn't surprised to see Eddy and his boys. "Hey didn't you hear me? Where do you think you're going?"

"Put a sock in it," I stuck up my middle finger at him.

Eddy was the perfect example of an eighth grader. He could never learn his lesson though. I already fought him once. That was the second week of school when he tried to stop me from sitting at an eighth grade table. I learned that upperclassmen hate to be outdone by lower class-men; especially by a sixth grader who was fresh out of elementary school.

When I took a seat at an eighth grade table a couple of others kids followed. Mostly seventh graders but there were some sixth graders too. "You pretty much run this school Jack," one of the kids said. "Good to have you back bro," another one said. "Yeah it sucked sitting at the other side while you were gone."

There were only two sixth graders in this school that had the rights to sit at an eighth grade table.

One of them was Jade and the other was me. Jade got to sit there because everyone in the school loved her. I got to sit here because I bullied my way to the top. I was as tall as most of the eighth graders, and that's pretty tall for a kid who's only twelve years old.

Height wasn't the only reason why I'm on top. After a few fights everyone stopped looking at me the wrong way. A few eighth graders learned the hard way when they tried to order me around.

"Yo Jack! You know we have a test in second period today," Jose said.

"Hey Mike you think you can take a picture of your test for me to copy since you have him first period?" I asked.

"Sure!" Mike replied.

***

For some reason something didn't felt right, but I didn't know what it was.

First period was the same as any other day. The history teacher was still on the civil war. I would've thought they'd be done by now. Some kids were asleep while most paid attention.

I was about to close my eyes and rest when an alarming sound rang in my ears. I stood up screaming. Everyone watched me like a total idiot.

"Mr. Star, is there a problem?" the teacher asked.

"Um no sir," I replied having felt completely idiotic. Why did I just screamed? I'm sure I heard a bell ringing. It sounded like the fire alarm. I decided to rest my head on the table a little bit. There it was again. The sound was louder this time. I decided to cover my ears. Then someone violently shook my shoulders. I stood up ready to punch whoever it was in the face.

"Dude get up! There's a fire in the school," someone yelled. I looked around to see the teacher trying to calmly lead everyone out the door. Everyone was violently pushing and shoving. This was nothing like the fire drill. It seemed like everyone forgot what to do. Even the honor kids that followed all the rules were violently pushing and shoving.

Somehow I managed to get out of the school. I stood on the side walk and watched as more people came out. The school really was on fire. Smoke was filling the air and you could tell that it was coming from the cafeteria. The teachers were desperately trying to calm everyone down but to no prevail.

One girl ran toward me shouting something. I chose to ignore it knowing it's probably nothing important. She grabbed my hand and shook it violently.

"What!" I jerked my hand away from her.

She was trying to catch her breath. "Jade is stuck in the first floor bathroom," she said shoving the phone in my face.

"What?"

"Didn't you hear me? Jade is trapped in the first floor bathroom!"

I didn't even consider to take this in, and before I knew it my feet started moving on their own. I ran towards the entrance of the school. I knew exactly where the girl's first floor bathroom was. It was across from the school cafeteria.

The closer I got to the bathroom the worse it was. I already had to slip by two teachers that told me to turn back around. My vision was becoming blurry and I was running out of oxygen. The bathroom door was literally on fire. There were no way for me to get near it.

"Jade!" I yelled. "Are you there?"

"Jack is that you?" someone called back in a hoarse voice.

"Yeah Jade it's me," I replied back.

She started to cough hard. I can tell she was having a hard time breathing. So was I, but there was no way to get to the door. "Listen Jade I need you to open the door!"

"I can't, the handle is too hot," she replied back.

"For crying out loud you're in a bathroom, wet a bunch of paper towels!"

I heard the water running. We was also running out of time. I'm surprised that she hadn't passed out from lack of oxygen. I don't think I can last another minute of this.

The bathroom door opened and there was Jade on the other side. She looked tired and was about to collapsed any moment now. Without even thinking I jumped through the fire grabbing Jade and knocking her down to the floor along with me.

"What was that for?" asked Jade.

"That was me rescuing you," I replied barely being able to breathe.

"No that was you getting yourself trapped in here along with me," she replied. "You're not very good at this rescue thing."

There was too much pain in my chest. I couldn't breathe anymore. This must be what having an asthma attack felt like.

"Jack are you alright?" Jade asked me. She started to scream and shook me. Her voice was faded to the point where her mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear a word she was saying.

Was this the end for me? For us? No! I know that it's too early for me to die here. But, I could feel myself slowly fading away. I was even seeing things. There was a light, but it wasn't far away; it was close. A figure stepped out of it.

I felt myself lifting off the ground. The light was getting closer, or maybe it was I who was getting closer to the light.