It is an early winter morning as Jamie Crawford prepares for school. He showers, brushes his teeth, and grabs his bags before leaving the house. On his back is his book bag which is filled with books for his new classes he started yesterday. In another hand are his gym clothes which he will need today for his first day of physical education.

The fall semester has ended and a new semester began yesterday. His high school classes will become harder and he will have to be dedicated to them. The first week of new classes is always the hardest. “Thank goodness I buy my lunch from school. If I had to carry another thing, I’d go crazy,” he speaks to himself.

He continues to walk toward the bus stop. He spots Holly Washington, a close friend, also walking towards the bus stop. She is carrying books in her hand as her book bag looks like it’s about to explode. The two finally meet each other at the bus stop, “Hey, Holly. Looks like your missing a book or two,” Jamie jokes. Holly shoots a look of distaste for his humor.

“If I have to get any more books, I’m going to go ballistic. No wonder why scoliosis is on the rise among teenagers. My back is already killing me and it’s only seven in the morning!” she says.

“Well, I don’t mind the books so much as I mind the weather. The snow can be fun, but not when you have to go to the bus stop and wait forever.” As Jamie looks up the hill behind him, he sees the school bus coming over the hump at the top. “Oh thank goodness. I hate just standing here in the cold.”

The bus comes to a stop after skidding a foot because of the snow under the tires and lets them in. Their destination is a social hang out spot that is only open five days a week, school.

Elizabeth Blair begins her first day as chief of police. She has waited for this day her whole life. While on her way to the station, she thinks about how lucky she is, “One minute I’m a regular citizen, then I solve a case and become a great officer of the law. I wonder what’s on the agenda for today. Oh, I guess I make up the agenda. I am the new boss after all.” She smiles and pulls into a parking lot next to the police station. She exits the car and walks inside the building.

She opens the door to her office joyfully. She notices someone sitting at her desk; it’s the old chief and new mayor of the town since. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting you here. Did the mayor change his mind about appointing you to finish his term?” Elizabeth jokes.

“Actually, I just needed to clean everything out. I didn’t realize I have so much. You won’t even notice I’m here. I’m just going to grab my stuff around here and I’ll be out of your hair,” he says as he opens and closes drawers removing his belongings.

“Well, that’s fine. I’m actually surprised you’re here so early. Do you need any help?” Elizabeth asks kindly since nothing is going to ruin her day.

The chief looks up at her and speaking kindly back to her, “No, I’m fine. This shouldn’t take me long.”

“Ok, I’m going to be out in the main room while you work. Take your time,” she says as she leaves her office. She comes out into the main room to see two male officers glaring at her.

Over the past few months Edward Crawford has spent a lot of time sleeping and rarely leaving his house due to the concert tour that was cancelled in the fall. He has become a hermit inside his bedroom. After a week of not seeing him, Bradley Fulton becomes worried. He drives to the Kane Manor, where Edward lives. He walks up to the door.

He knocks a few times then waits. About five minutes passes and Bradley becomes even more worried. He goes back to his car and takes a crowbar out of the trunk. “Edward, if you don’t answer the door, I’m going to break in to make sure you’re okay!” he shouts while looking to the second story. He waits for a minute or two.

Since there is no response he fulfills his promise and breaks the window next to the door. He reaches in through the window and turns the deadbolt lock. He pulls his hand back and tries to enter, but the door doesn’t budge. He walks into the door expecting it to open. He takes a few steps back, “Ouch.”

He unlocks the door this time and walks around the first floor calling to Edward. There is no sound. He goes to the steps and calls one more time before going up. There is still no sound throughout the oversized house. He walks towards Edward’s bedroom door that remains closed.

“Hey, if you’re in there open up. If you don’t, I’m coming in anyway.” He pauses for a moment then speaks again, “I might have broken a window downstairs.” There is another short pause, “Hopefully you don’t sleep naked! Here I come.”

Jamie is in the locker room at school getting ready for his physical education class. He watches as his classmates file in, hoping his best friend is in his class. Soon Oliver Diffendale walks through the door. “I’m glad you’re here. This class is full of freshmen and sophomores,” he tells Oliver.

“Well, too bad the rest aren’t all freshmen and sophomores. We’d smash them in killer ball. Wait, are we allowed to call it killer ball? I know we weren’t allowed to call it dodge ball. Whatever, a sport is a sport no matter what the name of it is,” Oliver says to his best friend.

The two finish changing and go into the gymnasium and sit along the wall. The gym teacher notices that everyone is ready and has them line up along the wall, calling names in the order he wants them to sit. He calls Jamie Crawford, then Oliver Diffendale. “All right! Awesome, we can talk to each other before class starts,” Jamie comments to Oliver.

Another name is called farther down the alphabetical list, Jared Huntingdon. Jamie and Oliver cringe at the name. Jared Huntingdon is a full fledged jock in every sense of the word. He lives for sports and doesn’t believe that gym class is supposed to be a fun educational experience. Instead he believes that it is a competition between his classmates.

“His mother had me try to tutor him in his Spanish. He was hopeless. He only wanted to learn swear words and how to say rude comments,” Oliver says to Jamie. “I taught him to say, ‘I am gay’ in Spanish. He didn’t know any better and went around telling all this friends ‘Soy un homosexual’. They all replied, ‘No, you’re gay’, so it wasn’t very funny,” Oliver continues followed by a sigh.

Jamie thinking about the rest of his day asks, “This reminds me, are you going to quiz bowl practice after school? Maybe Jared will be in his mother’s room and you can teach him some other phrases!”

The gym teacher instructs the class to jog around the gymnasium until he blows the whistle. All the students stand up and start running around.

After Myles Montgomery and Irwin Armstrong arrived back to the town of Kane, they had some explaining to do. Myles explained all about the robbery and abuse to his mother that supposedly happened right before they left California. Mrs. Margaret Montgomery felt sorry for her son and was just excited to see him home. The only question left in her mind was about Irwin. Myles fed her more lies by stating that Irwin was the one that helped scare off the robbers and has been helping him with his California troubles. Once this was all spelled out to her, she accepted Irwin as one of her own. Eventually Myles persuaded her into letting Irwin stay with them. She even thinks it was her idea.

Currently Myles and Irwin are spending a lot of their time together plotting to bring Edward Crawford (Myles’ cousin) down. Irwin looks down the hallway and then walks into Myles’ bedroom, “The coast is clear, your mom’s no where to be seen.”

“She’s at work. She won’t be home until later tonight. The only day we have to worry about her being around will be Sunday. That’s the only day the newspaper office is closed. Now, what can we do to bring my cousin begging to us for forgiveness?” Myles explains.

Irwin looks at him a bit puzzled, “Forgiveness for what? It’s been a while since we talked about your past. Refresh my memory, please.”

Myles explains, “While we were in middle school I tried to turn Edward into a fool by saying this girl liked him. He thought I was his best friend and asked the girl to a dance. To my surprise the girl accepted and the two went to the dance together. This left me completely upset and angry. So I made a plan to spread gossip about him and the other girl to try to split them up. They started dating before the dance. The two got very close. I said that they were having sexual relations and soon it began to snowball into Edward having diseases and such. Isn’t gossip great? Anyway, this gossip got back to the girl’s parents and they demanded that the two stop seeing each other right before the dance. The night of the dance Edward stayed home while I worked on my plan. I went to the dance and ended up dating this girl a few days after. Edward was crushed. I had the girl; he had diseases. However, after that school year my parents decided to move just outside of Kane. This caused us to break up. Long distance relationships never last. I was very upset about that, but what could I do. He didn’t really have any diseases, and I no longer had the girl. He’s always one up on me, it seems. Just look at our lives now. He’s a popular celebrity and I’m still nobody!”

Irwin becomes sarcastic with Myles, “Awe, poor baby. The mean Edward has more friends than you. Don’t worry; I’ll be your friend.”

“Quit goofing off. We have work to do,” Myles becomes angry with Irwin. “Obviously this didn’t happen to you, so you don’t understand!”

At the front desk in the police department two policemen look at Elizabeth. She doesn’t pay any attention to them. She finds things to keep her busy such as filing papers. The two men hold cups of coffee and whisper to one another so Elizabeth won’t hear them.

“Can you believe she’s the new chief? She’s only been here two years or so. She caused so much trouble for the old chief. I should have been next in line. What makes her so special?” the one whispers to the other then takes a sip of his coffee.

“She has solved two major cases since she’s been here. What have you done?” the other says in a quiet voice. “I know I wouldn’t want the job. It’s too much responsibility and work. If we do something wrong, the chief usually gets the blame.”

The other officer brushes the question off his shoulder as he ponders the last statement made. He becomes mute with a devilish smile on his face. “Well then, I guess she’s lucky to have the job. We couldn’t possibly cause her any trouble. Right?” he comments to his partner.

“Whatever you’re smiling about, I don’t think I want to get involved. Come on, let’s go patrolling.” The two leave the station as the old chief comes out of Elizabeth’s office.

He puts a box on the front desk. “Elizabeth, I’m leaving this department in good hands. If you have any trouble, just let me know,” the past chief puts his hand on her shoulder and smiles.

“I’m sure I will give you a call later this week to check up on things and probably ask you a few questions,” she tells him.

“That’s perfectly fine. It’s no easy task running this place, but you’ll be okay. Well, I’m going to take my things and skedaddle,” he says as he picks up the box and leaves the building.

Elizabeth is left alone inside the station. She goes into her office carrying file folders. She notices an envelope from the chief on the top of her desk. She opens it.

Bradley opens the door to Edward’s bedroom. Scattered on the floor are video game, computer game, and DVD cases. Beside the bed his nightstand has a small pile of dirty dishes. The curtains are closed which makes it dark in the room. Bradley looks around the room for signs of life.

The bed is covered in printed cheat codes from the internet. The blankets are thrown about and it is hard to judge if a body is hiding under there. From under the blankets on the bed Edward stirs, “Go away.” Bradley grabs his chest who thinks he just had a heart attack.

“For the love of Pete; you scared me to death. What on earth have you been doing? It looks like you’ve been living in here,” Bradley says as he regains composure.

“I’m distancing myself from society, if you don’t mind. You are a part of society, so let’s distance away from each other,” Edward tells him.

In disbelief Bradley says, “Oh come on, you’re being ridiculous.” He walks over to the bed, trying his best to avoid the mess on the floor, “Get up, and let’s clean this pig sty.” Bradley grabs Edward’s upper arm and pulls him up.