it was a season of changes taking place right and left. yet somehow the heat wave never passed. the occasional rain would fall but the humidity would return with the absence of the clouds. the sounds of gunshots were heard and only minutes after they started did the inhabitants of ravenswood realize it was just the 4th of july celebrations. days passed slowly, weeks quickly and specific moments seemed to last forever. the town council voted to open the pool in early may just to give the neighborhood kids something to do. and then one day, oblivious to the girls selling lemonade on the corner, a little boy wandered into town. he was wearing dark jeans and a white t-shirt and no shoes. he wasn't homeless like the freshly manicured mothers seemed to think. no, he had dropped his shoes over the side of the bridge he'd crossed on his way into this town. his father had bought him those shoes and that was enough of a reason to get rid of them. just then a group of teenagers drove by in a convertible with the top down. a song he recognized from his stepmothers collection blared from the car and slowly faded as they turned the corner. he walked over to the curb dodging a broken beer bottle in his path and sat down. there on the side of the road was a 'Hello my name is...' sticker. after fishing half a pencil out of his pocket he scrawled the name jack onto the sticker and stuck it on his shirt. it wasn't his favorite name but it seemed perfect under the circumstances. hello my name is jack a voice said. jack looked up to see a teenage girl, must have been about 16 dressed in all black looking down at him with heavily lined eyes. he continued to stare at her with a can-i-help-you look, till the same convertible he had seen before slowed down to reveal some guy in a baseball cap. alex said the girl pleasure to meet you. she dropped a hersheys bar at his feet trying too hard to make it look like an accident, got in the car and sped off. jack stood up grabbed his dinner and walked in the direction of the school he had seen before. beneath the bleachers in the baseball field seemed the perfect place to sleep