As the explosion of the universe gets closer, J.D realizes what he wants to do now. Change. Such a simple world with such a big influence.
“Hey kid,” a robust police officers calls him out “you’re not normally hear.”
“Oh, uh, sorry!” Nervously, J.D quickly tells him “I have to go anyways.”
“But-”
“Sorry I do have to run!”
J.D hurriedly runs across town and realizes that its lunch time and Thomas is going to completely murder him-
It’s weird how much J.D is suddenly stopping lately. He can’t help but stop and see, in front of his eyes, Thomas being shoved to the ground. Fear creeps through his limbs, although he doesn’t act. He might make it worse. These aren’t two little girls he’s dealing with.
Well, that’s what he thought was a good plan until he saw Randy thrust his foot in Thomas’s stomach. Thomas’s pain filled gasp shook J.D’s very being. It was the worst thing he had ever heard in his life.
“Hey stop!” He yelped and ran over. “Get away from him,” J.D demanded, coming behind them.
“Oh look who decided to show up,” Austin raised, forcing Thomas up to his feet by his collar. “You’re just in time for the fun.”
“How is this fun?! You guys are being as-”
He could even finish before Randy’s patience weaned and he punched J.D across the mouth. J.D stumbled back, tasting the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Getting angrier and more fed up, J.D growled “Do you feel better now Randy? Huh?” He pushed Randy back, ‘Can you sleep at night now?!”
“Everyone stop!” Christopher shouted, coming out from the school’s entrance. He has his phone pulled out and pointed at Randy, Austin and Brad, “You all might be used to this but I’m not, so I can video tape this all and turn it in…”
After grumbling, the animals let Thomas go and retreated into the school.
“Wow Christopher,” Thomas mumbled weakly, putting his hand over his eye “That was the loudest I’ve ever heard you talk.”
“Jeez Thomas,” J.D sighs and takes his friend’s wrist, revealing the giant shiner it concealed. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine, the pain is only temporary” He shrugs, fixing his messed up tie.
“Wait…” J.D understands now. He asks his only friend this with caution “Does this happen every day?” his mind rapidly searches back, making his words jumbled and obviously confused “I mean, it makes sense. They would just do that and, and you do take so long getting the lunches. Marie and I could never understand why… but you never said or showed…”
He looks up and Thomas’s face is throwing up every defense, but J.D still tells him, “Show me your stomach.”
“No,” Thomas snaps, getting heated.
“Why not?”
“It’s just a no J.D. I’m fine.”
“Then why not show me?”
“Leave it.”
“No Thomas, let me help you-”
“NO!” Thomas yells, clenching his fists and throwing them down “I don’t need your help! Just leave me alone. I don’t need help with any of this. It happens every day and there’s no helping that! Okay! It’s just something I have to face…”
Not listening to another word, Thomas storms off and all J.D could do was watch. Remembering Christopher is there, he mentions “It’s not… he doesn’t have to.”
“I know,” Christopher says, “but how do you break such a long tradition?”
“You make more options.”
Soon the universe will be exploding and Christopher could only go back to class, leaving J.D outside. He doesn’t know what J.D is going to do, but he does knows there’s nothing he could possibly do to help. So he sits in class, everyone is, including Thomas who is avoiding curious stares on his black eye.
Every person in the whole school is just sitting back in the seats they sit in more than any other seat in the world… until the intercom unexpectedly comes on, with J.D on the other end.
He’s infiltrated the principal’s office and is more than nervous speaking to the entire school. “Um,” he begins, instantly causing murmurs of confusion drift around the air, “Hi. My name is John Doe… though most of you, well all of you know me as J.D. Neither of those names are what I wanted to be called by though.”
His voice seems sad looking back on this, “I wanted to be called Johnny, more than anything in the world. I felt so cool being called Johnny… but unfortunately, for me there was already a John and a Johnny in my class when pre-k started, so the teacher dubbed me ‘J.D,’ which obviously stuck through my resentment toward the name… but, uh” he knows where he’s going with this and its upsetting him. He tries not to cry. “Um, there was one person who, in private called me Johnny. But she died.”
Thomas in his seat felt his own heart aching at the mention of her name, actually he’s never heard anyone admit she’s dead. He placed his hand over his mouth to muffle out a sob as ‘Johnny’ went on:
“She was just like all of us. She did the same thing day in and day out, until… until she decided to free herself. The only thing she ever did out of the routine was kill herself.” Beginning to lose control, Johnny’s voice quivered “You see… she was sad. No, she was so miserable. People, people here bullied her to the point where she thought she lost all happiness that she could never find it again.”
At that moment, Thomas’s tears poured out, down his cheeks and wet his hand, chocking back his weeping. While the rest of school grew silent, some out of discomfort, awkwardness, confusion and for some, they were silenced by the familiarity of his speech.
Johnny tells them, “But she never told me this, because she thought it was an unwritten rule that she had go through all that pain. It’s not. You all have to know you shouldn’t have to be insulted or hurt in any way. Those bruises on your body and that sting in your heart aren’t right and you definitely don’t deserve them… and for those who think that the pain passes, you’ll only feel it later.”
And that was it, Thomas burst with every tear he had kept in side for so long, “that’s not fair,” he sobbed and shook his head, “That’s really not fair.”
“Everyone here deserves to be happy… what do you want to do right now?” Johnny asks them, eagerly. “What’s something impulsive you want to do right now?”
The students glanced at each other, watching for someone to take action. They want to se if anyone really can.
“We’ve all been taught that we have to do the same thing every day, but that’s not making us happy. What’s wrong with being happy?”
A girl, Lilly Harper has had long hair all her life and has hated it her whole life. However her parents never allowed her to cut it because every girl in the family has long hair so she has to too. Calmly, the girl stood and walked to the teacher’s desk, taking a pair of scissors she grabbed her pony tail and cut her hair.
Her hair fell in oddly lengthen pairs and clumps, but still, when she finished she smiled and shrieked out of pure giddiness. Her hands shook out that hair and she couldn’t help but jump around and dance.
In another classroom, a boy took his jacket off and threw it on the ground, sighing in a smile “Boy that feels good.”
While in Thomas’s classroom, a girl grabs all her papers and throws them in the air. She implores her other students, grinning as wide as she can “do it!”
And they do, all the students pick their papers up to launch them, they throw them at each other and back in air, just laughing. They’re being happy.
As the universe is exploding, Johnny says one last thing, “Don’t you want to look back on your life and know that you couldn’t have made it any better…”
In the office he’s unaware of the chaos forming outside, so it’s silent when he sets the microphone down. He sighs before he exists, expecting a mob of teachers there to harass him, except there’s not. Outside the office he sees students running around, throwing paper airplanes, kissing each other, sliding down the halls, having a paper ball fight, cutting hair, taking off their clothes and from the corner of his eyes he even sees a teacher doing a kart-wheel.
“Oh my god…” He can only mumble as he walks through this madness. Out of everything else, he can only see the smiles. People are smiling, smiling in ways he’s never seen before.
Making himself smile, he strolls down the halls, but stops seeing Randy, Austin and Brad still in a classroom. They seem frustrated and confused, Brad’s stare even catches Johnny’s. They’re pleading to him… “Guess it’s hard to get a grasp on things when the people you’ve made miserable for so long are happy.”
“You!” He hears a shout before being tackled into a hug. This person moves back, revealing himself as Thomas who sighs, tilting his head “You know, if you said so, I would’ve called you Johnny…”
“I know…” Johnny admits embarrassed and the two hug again, but stop when Christopher catches Thomas’s eye.
Without warning, Thomas pushing Johnny to the side and starts storming Christopher’s way, easily getting his attention. “Christopher Puckett! You know you wanted this!”
Shocking Johnny in place, Thomas grabs Christopher and pulls him into a kiss and Christopher has no problem with it, kissing him back.
“That explains so much,” Johnny chuckled and decided not to disturb that. He decides to walk outside and look up at the sky, because he’s happy when he doesn’t have to be in control of anything. He can just be himself, someone he hasn’t been for a while.
Johnny smiles at this thought.
On the day the universe exploded, everyone was smiling.