“Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh!”

The obnoxiously loud alarm clock’s buzzer rang in Rick’s ear. He reached his arm over and slapped the top of the alarm clock a couple of times, trying to shut it off. Like usual, he couldn’t find the switch. He forced himself awake and sat up on his bed. He turned, shut off his alarm, and looked over at the clock. It read 6:00 AM. At least it’s Friday, he thought. A frown fell upon his face as he noticed his glasses, perched next to his clock. He stretched and yawned as he stood up at the side of his bed. He stumbled over his bed sheets, which were hanging off the bed, as he walked out of his room and sluggishly made his way to the bathroom. He examined himself in the mirror hanging over the vanity and what he saw staring back at him was a droopy eyed, weary faced, 15 year old. His dirty blond haired was pointed every which way so that he looked like a character from an old cartoon after getting struck by a lightning bolt. He reached over to the sink and turned on the faucet. Cupping his hands, he caught the cold water and splashed his face. The cool and refreshing water seemed to wake him up. He dried off his face with a towel and looked into the mirror again, this time he laughed at how ridiculous his hair looked. After quickly running a comb through the mess and dressing, he went downstairs to eat breakfast.

“Hi honey,” his mom greeted as he walked into the kitchen.

“Sup,” he replied. “So... what’s for breakfast?”

“I don’t know,” His mom replied, “I just made myself some tea.” she picked up a mug full of steaming hot tea and sat down at the kitchen table.

“Ugh. How do you drink that tainted water?” He asked sarcastically as he opened the freezer and pulled out three toaster waffles.

“How do you eat those mushy, soggy, sugary waffles?”

“Hey, don’t you insult these. These are super-duper high quality gourmet Eggo waffles,” He said, opening the toaster oven and placing them in. “Plus, it’s really the only thing that I, with my amazingly superior cooking skills, can make.”

His mom chuckled and sipped her tea. “Ooh. Still hot,” She said placing the mug back on the table. “So is there anything exciting going on today at school?” She inquired.

“What? You mean besides enhancing my skills in learning, researching, and applying concepts in all of the core areas of my studies?”

“Well you are in a sarcastic mood.”

“No, why of course not.”

“You are proving my point for me.”

“Ding!” The toaster oven rang.

“Oh, your super-duper high quality Eggo waffles,”

“No, my super-duper high quality gourmet Eggo waffles,” Rick argued with a playful grin. He put the waffles on a plate, walked over to the table, and sat down with his mom. He raised an eyebrow, “Breakfast is served.”

“I’ll pass,” his mom laughed, “but seriously what do you have that is exciting planned for today?”

Rick thought to himself. “Oh,” he snapped remembering that today was the day of the big party. “Today after school is the first party of the year.”

“That’s exciting, the first party as a freshman,” his mom said. “Will Jared be there?”

“Yeah of course. Everyone is going to be there.”

“Just remember to be careful. Don’t do anything stu-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Rick said, cutting his mom off. He glanced over at the clock, “Oh snap” he said, “Its 6:26. The bus will be here in four minutes.” He scarfed down the rest of his soggy waffles and raced to the front door to grab his bag.

“Don’t forget you glasses,” his mom called.

“Mom we’ve been over this, wearing glasses is pretty much asking to be beat up. I’ve only been a freshman for about two months and I’m not a complete loser like in elementary school. I’ve got a reputation and I’m not about to wear glasses and ruin that. I don’t wear glasses anymore. They’re a thing of the past.”

His mom looked at him skeptically.

“Plus, they’re all the way upstairs, and I’m going to be late,” he said. Then he opened the door and raced out to catch the bus.


He arrived at the bus stop at 6:29. He stared at the ground and tapped his feet together. He examined his new pair of Lebron 11’s. Blue, white, and red, he thought, my colors. The bus pulled around the corner and stopped right in front of him. The doors opened and the stench of the bus permeated through the air and hit him like a brick wall. It smelled like a mixture of gasoline, burnt rubber, and rotten bananas. You would think that after riding the bus to and from school for two months, he would get used to that smell, but no, he didn’t. It was still as strong and potent as the first day of school. He walked up the stairs and turned to see where Jared was sitting.

“Here,” Jared raising his long skinny arm.

Rick stood there next to him.

“Hi,” Jared greeted.

“Move in,” Rick ordered standing above him stone faced.

“I don’t want to sit window today,” Jared complained.

“Well neither do I,” Rick said, “now move over.”

Jared crossed his arms.

Rick raised an eyebrow and put on his famous grin, “Come on buddy, old pal, old friend, old chum. Scoot your boot.”

“Fine,” Jared chuckled. He smiled, shaking his head, as moved his books to the floor and scooted in towards the window. The bus doors shut and the bus started moving. “You really stink.”

“Hey, what can I say,” Rick said.

“Whatever,” Jared said, not caring enough to fight. “So, are you excited for the party?”

“You bet’ya,” Rick announced. “First party of high school. It’s going to be sweet.”

“Yeah,” Jared agreed, “we just have to be careful about it.”

“What?” Rick laughed. “Nark!”

“No, it’s just that it’s our first real party, and I’m nervous about... I don’t know...”

“C’mon it’ll be fine,” Rick ensured.

“Well...” Jared hesitated, “let’s just agree not to do anything stupid.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know... just nothing stupid, okay?”

“Yeah, sure whatever, nark.”

“No, I’m serious Ricky, nothing stupid.”

“I’m serious too,” Rick said, placing his left hand on his heart and his right hand up. “I Rick L. Stevenson do promise not to do anything that may be deemed stupid tonight at the party.” He looked at Jared and grinned, “I can do stupid things tomorrow though, right?”

“Just shut up Ricky,” Jared said.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry, and I won’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And I’ve told you a million times, don’t call me Ricky, call me Rick.”

“Whatever,” Jared said. “Hey Ricky-”

“Watch yourself,” Rick warned, jokingly raising an eyebrow.

“So did you see the new Boy’s Life magazine?” Jared asked, trying to switch topics.

“No, I don’t get Boy’s Life. I haven’t been in boy scouts in like five years.”

“Yeah I know, but there is this really cool article that my dad and I were reading about fly fishing. Do you remember when we went fly fishing?

Rick groaned, “Yeah Jared, I do remember. How could I not? You bring it up all the time.”

“I do not,” Jared refuted.

“Yes, you do,” Rick said, clearly annoyed at Jared for bringing up boy scouts. Ugh. Here we go again, Rick thought. Why can’t he just forget boy scouts. It was so lame, and we did it like five years ago.

“Well maybe I do,” Jared admitted, “but that’s just because it was so fun. When we took the canoes out on Philip's Lake, and then later went fly fishing off the bridge. Man, those were some good times. I remember I caught a huge bass. You were so mad because you couldn’t catch anything-”

Rick started to drown him out and play the Jeopardy theme song in his head.

“-and there was that one time when we went camping around the lake and my dad told our troop ghost stories.” Jared chuckled, “We got so scared. And do you remember that one time-”

Rick thought to himself, No, and I’m surprised you do seeing how it was like five years ago. Just then the bus stopped and the doors opened again. Billy and Craig walked onto the bus and sat across the row from Rick and Jared. “Hey guys,” Rick said, happy that he didn’t have to listen to Jared talk about stupid memories.

“Sup,” Craig said.

“So you guys stoked for the party?” Billy asked.

“Yeah it’s going to be awesome!” Jared answered. Craig and Billy just stared at Jared as he awkwardly scratched his head.

“Ah... did you guys get a lot of homework last night,” Rick asked hastily, trying to change topics.

“No,” Craig and Billy both answered at the same time.

Rick thought quickly, trying to come up with another topic, “I can’t believe that the Giants beat the Redskins last night.”

“Yeah, it was an awesome game,” Billy said. Then Rick, Craig, and Billy talked about the game for the rest of the bus ride.


Rick and Jared, hopped off their bikes and kicked down their kickstands. They started walking up the hill leading to the house.

Once they got to the top, Rick turned to Jared, “You ready for this?”

“Heck yeah,” Jared said.

Rick reached over to the door and knocked three times. A senior answered the door, “What high school are you two from?”

“Ah...” Jared stuttered.

“Roosevelt High School,” Rick said, cutting off Jared.

“Well come on in!” the senior said, stepping to the side.

As soon as they walked in, the music started pumping. The house was jam-packed with kids that were partying. The party was as crowded as a Yankee game.

A huge grin spread across Rick’s face, “Dude, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

“Y...yeah,” Jared said nervously, “Remember what you promised, noth-”

“Yeah, yeah. Nothing stupid,” Rick cut Jared off.

They walked around the house a little bit. Jared was very nervous. Eyes wide, he frantically looked around. Rick, on the other hand, was having a blast. “You see,” he said, “this is what high school is all about.”

“No, it’s not,” Jared retorted. “It’s about-”

“Hey Rick!” someone called. Out of the crowd emerged Craig.

“Can you believe this? This is sick,” Rick said.

“Yeah I know,” Craig said. He looked over at Jared and his face harden, “Hello Jared.”

“Hi,” Jared replied awkwardly laughing.

Craig looked back at Rick and his face got excited again, “Billy, James, and Riley are here. Follow me.”

Craig walked back into the crowd with Rick, and Jared followed. Jared leaned in and whispered, “Do you think that the parents know we’re here.”

“What do you mean, the kid-that’s-throwing-it’s parents?” Rick asked to clarify

Jared nodded.

“No, and it’s better that way. Then they can’t stop us.”

“Stop us from what?” Jared asked.

Rick shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“What would we be doing that parents wouldn’t want us to be doing, because that classifies whatever we are doing as stupid,” Jared said frantically, clearly getting nervous.

“Dude chill out,” Rick said with a skeptical look on his face.

“But-”

Rick had had enough of Jared’s pestering and pushed ahead into the crowd. They finally reached Billy who was sitting on a couch with Riley. James was on the floor.

Billy’s face lit up, “What’s up?”

“This is,” Rick answered. He and Jared sat down next to James on the floor, and Craig walked through and sat on the couch with Billy and Riley.

“Dude, did you hear what happened to Mr. Martin?” Craig asked.

“No, what?” Rick asked.

“Dude, you are not going to believe this,” Billy said, “It’s crazy.” Then Billy, Craig, Rick and Riley started talking about rumors.

“Hey Jared,” James said.

“Hi James,” Jared said.

“Are you okay?” James asked, “You look pale.”

“I don’t know, I’m just nervous that something is going to go wrong,” Jared explained.

“Don’t worry buddy, we’ve got your back,” James assured.

“No, Craig and Billy hate me and Riley just follows them around as if he is their shadow.” Jared said.

“Come on, they don’t hate you. Don’t worry, Rick and I have your back.”

“Plus,” Jared looked over at Rick who was preoccupied with his own conversation, “Rick has been distancing himself from me lately. I don’t know, it's just...” Jared trailed off.

“No, I’m sure you’re just misreading him, and don’t worry. Just have fun. If all else fails, I’ve got your back,” James assured.

“Thanks James, you’re a great friend.”

At that moment, three seniors walked over with red solo cups in their hands. The senior in the middle had a tray with many other cups in his hand. The smell of alcohol filled the air and one of them was swaying back and forth having clearly been drinking. “What’s up?” the one in front asked.

“Yeah wazzzzz up,” the drunk one said.

Jared shifted uncomfortably.

The senior in front turned to the drunk one, “Dude, you are totally wasted.”

“Na man, isssss all cooooool,” He said, slurring his words.

The senior in front turned to all of them, “I’m Leo. This is Crunch,” he said, gesturing to the one on his right, “and this is Adam,” he said, gesturing to the drunk one on his left.”

“No thhhhhhat’s my name silly,” Adam said.

“So you guys having fun?” Leo asked.

“Yeah,” Billy said.

“This is rad,” Craig answered.

“Great,” Leo said.

“What’s your name again?” James asked. “Is it Crunch?”

“Yeah man, that’s my nickname,” Crunch answered.

“Want to know how he got that nickname?” Leo asked.

“Sure,” Rick said.

“I got it because I once beat up a kid so badly that I broke both his arms,” Crunch informed.

“So we call him Crunch,” Leo said. “You know, like the crunching of bones.” He started to laugh.

Jared’s eyes got bigger and he started to sweat.

“Don’t worry,” Crunch said looking at Jared, “we aren’t going to hurt you.”

“Yeah, you guys seem cool, we just came over to offer you guys a drink,” Leo said placing the tray in the middle of them.

“You shhhhhould try thhhhhem, they’re rrrrreally good,” Adam said.

“Quiet bonehead,” Crunch said.

“So you guys cool, or lame?” Leo asked.

“We’re cool,” Rick said defending himself. “What, do you think we’re afraid?”

“Go ahead then,” Crunch said, “do it.”

“Ah-ah-ah,” Rick stuttered.

“You’re lame,” Leo said.

“Yeah, lllllame,” Adam repeated.

“I’m not lame, I’ll do it,” Rick said.

“No Rick, don’t do it,” Jared moaned.

“What about you? The scared one. You do it.” Crunch said.

“Ah-ah-ah, no. My mom would kill me,” Jared said. He was panting.

“What are you serious, using the mom trick? Who cares?” Crunch said.

“My mom would literally slit my throat, but that doesn’t stop me,” Leo said. “You guys are such rejects.”

“Yeah, we thought you guys were cool,” Crunch said.

Jared sighed, glad that they were going and Rick was slowly sinking down. “Hey wait!” Billy called, “We’ll do it.”

“Alright, do it,” Leo said.

“Riley, you go first,” Craig said hastily, trying to shift the attention off himself.

“Okay,” Riley said picking up a cup. He swirled it around and looked into it.

“You have to drink the whole thing,” Crunch said.

“Okay,” Riley said. Then he quickly drank down the drink and put the cup back down, empty.

“Nice,” Leo said.

“You four are cool. It’s just these two that are losers,” Crunch said.

“Later bros,” Leo said, then the three of them walked away and disappeared back into the crowd.

“Nice dude,” Billy said giving Riley a high five. Riley smiled, happy that he pleased them. Billy and Craig each picked up a cup and looked into it.

Billy raised his, “Here’s to being cool.”

“And not lame,” Craig added, looking at Rick and Jared. Then they each drank a bit.

“How is it?” James asked.

“Pretty good,” Craig said.

Rick stood up and looked over at Jared furiously, “What the heck man? What was that?”

Jared stood up and started to back away slowly, “What?”

“You made me look like a total loser in front of everyone.”

“Are you kidding? I just saved you from having to drink alcohol,” Jared said.

Rick squinted his eyes, “You disgust me.”

Jared winced. James put his hand on his shoulder, “Dude, chill out. Give it a rest.”

Rick slapped James’ arm off his shoulder, “Don’t get involved in this.”

“It’s fine, none of us think of you any differently,” James said.

“Yeah we do,” Billy said. He and Craig were just sitting on the couch watching the show. Riley just sat there cluelessly, still shocked that he just drank alcohol.

Rick pushed James down onto the floor. James lay there, shocked. Rick turned to Jared, “You are so unbelievably annoying, always talking about boy scouts, which by the way was five whole years ago. I don’t care a single bit about boy scouts. You always make me look like a fool, looking after you, but do you know what? I’m done. I don’t care if our parents are friends, I’m done.” Rick reached down and grabbed a cup. He looked towards Jared and took a long slow sip.

Jared couldn’t take it any more. “Stop,” he yelled, as he slapped the cup out of his hand, spilling the alcohol all over Rick.

“Leave!” Rick shrieked looking down at his shirt.

Something in Jared snapped, something that had never happened to him, “I can’t believe you. All I do is try to help you, because I care about you, and this is the thanks I get? Do you honestly think that you are taking care of me? You say I make you look like a fool, but I don’t. You do that yourself. Do you think Craig or Billy are your friends? They are just using you, just as they used Riley to take a drink. James is the only decent one here and you just pushed him onto the ground. Ricky, Rick, what difference does it make? This whole new image thing is ridiculous.” Jared’s voice softened, “You’re trying to fit in with kids that you don’t belong with. You don’t belong with Craig and Billy. At least, I thought you didn’t, but today you proved me wrong. You’ve been shutting me out. Why?” Jared paused. Then his voice got even harsher than before, “I hate you! I really hate you, Rick! I’m done. You can go get drunk with your sorry excuses for friends because I just don’t care anymore. I hate you!” With that, Jared turned around and ran.

Rick stood there just staring at the spot where Jared had been.

“Jared wait,” James called as he ran after him. After about 30 seconds he returned. “He’s gone. He left.”

“Good, we don’t need him anyway,” Rick said.

“Come on guys, let’s get back to the fun,” Billy said.

“Yeah, I never liked him,” Craig said.

“Come on James,” Rick said, “Pop a squat.”

“Look guys I’m sorry but...I’ve got to go. I’m going to go find Jared,” James said. Then he vanished into the crowd.

“Alright guys,” Rick said, “Let’s drink.”



“Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh!”

The obnoxiously loud alarm clock’s buzzing rang in Rick’s ear. He reached his arm over and slapped the top of the alarm clock a couple of times, trying to shut it off. Today however, he was able to hit the button. My lucky day, he thought, a couple more minutes of sleep.

Suddenly the door bell rang. He could vaguely hear what they were saying.

“Hello?” his mom asked, “Are you one of Rick’s friends?”

Huh. Jared? Rick thought.

“Yes. I’m James,” James said.

What? James? James has never come over, Rick thought. What if he’s here to tell my Mom I was drinking?

The thought of that shook him awake. He quickly got dressed, put his glasses in his pocket, just in case his mom flipped, and raced downstairs.

“Oh I’m sorry, Rick is sle-”

“-Right here,” Rick said.

“I thought you were sleeping,” she said.

“No. I’m awake,” Rick said. “Hey James, let’s go into the basement.”

“W-well, it concerns your mom to,” James said.

“That’s too bad,” Rick said giving one of his famous grins. He lead James down to the basement. “Listen,” he said, “if you think you are going to weasel me out-” Rick cut himself off as he met James’ eyes. He looked as pale as a ghost.

James blinked a couple of times, almost as if he was fighting back tears.

Rick got serious, “What?”

“Jared is dead. H-h-he was ran over,” James said.

The grin was completely gone from Rick’s face and his stomach felt like it had been flipped upside down. “What?” Rick said, not fully taking everything in.

“When I left the party I went looking for Jared. I couldn’t find him anywhere, so when I saw his bike was gone I assumed he had ridden home. So I went home and called his house to see if he was okay...” James started to cry, “No one picked up. I was scared because I didn’t know where he was and I couldn’t get in contact with his parents. So my parents and I drove to his house, but no one was there. So, we looked around town for him ourselves.” James paused not able to continue.

“And? What? What happened?” Rick asked frantically.

“We found him,” James continued, “We found him dead on the street. Adam had hit him. Next to him were Joe and Adam. Crunch was leaned against the car crying. When I asked Joe what happened, he said that Adam had been driving because they thought it would be funny. Adam hit Jared. When it happened they all got out to see what they hit. It was Jared. It was Jared. My parents went to his house to tell his parents, but I couldn’t bear being there. So I came here to tell you.”

Rick ran up the stairs.

“Where are you going?” his mom asked.

“I need some fresh air. I’m going to Philip's lake.”

“But that’s so far.”

Rick didn’t listen. He ran out the door, leaving his mom wondering why, and James sobbing in the basement. He kept running and didn’t stop until he was on top of the bridge that went across the lake. There were so many thoughts going through his head. Once he got midway over the bridge, he leaned to the side, and threw up. He stood up and looked over the bridge. He took his glasses off and rested them on the rail on the side of the bridge. He kept thinking about what Jared had said to him. He was right, about everything, Rick thought. I am a terrible friend and a terrible person. No one had ever seen him so angry. How could I push him so far? Why...did I push him so far?

He kept replaying his last few words, “You can go get drunk with your sorry excuses for friends because I just don’t care anymore. I hate you!” Rick winced. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”

“I hate me too Jared,” Rick said out loud. He quietly started to cry. When he finally stopped, he looked up at the lake. The reflection of the bridge in the water danced around. It was as beautiful as Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. “You really loved this lake, didn’t you Jared? We had some good times here, you and me.”

He paused and thought about what Jared had told him, “You’re trying to fit in with kids that you don’t belong with. You don’t belong with Craig and Billy.” and “Ricky, Rick, what difference does it make?”

“I don’t want to be Rick anymore. I want to be Ricky. Enough with all of this new image nonsense.” Rick was done with his new image, so he put on his glasses, looked over the lake, and his life was never the same again.