"What's the matter, Peter?" Jen asked when she saw his expression of horror. "What's on the back of your head?" She went behind him to see what his fingers had found.
"Ewww. Peter, don't freak, but you've got gum in your hair..."
But Peter, in fact, did freak out. Just a little.
"Gum? How did gum get in my hair? Is it... chewed up? Are you SURE it's gum? Jen? What are you doing?!" Peter yelled after Jen as she started jogging away.
"I'm going to get some peanut butter!" She called back.

Confused, Peter called out, "Peanut butter?" By this time, Jen had already rushed off. What was she getting peanut butter for? He heard Miranda's laughter and turned around. "I should have known it was you." Of course. Miranda would love for me to have to shave some of my hair off.

Kayla saw Jen jogging down the hallway, looking distressed. Kayla wondered if her friend had somehow overheard Nicole's conversation with Peter. "Jen?" she said, walking up to the girl. "Is something wrong?"

Catching her breath, Jen said, "Someone put gum in Peter's hair. So, I'm looking for peanut butter to get it out of his hair."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miranda chuckled, "Yeah, too bad you'll have to shave it off. But after how you were last year and the years before that, I don't feel sorry for you. Besides, you're a drug addict." She walked off, laughing.
Peter sank down against his locker, wishing he could crawl into a hole. Maybe he had brougth this on himself for when he was a bully and because of his struggle with addiction to his medicine. He hugged his books closer and waited for Jen. Finally, a voice beside him said, "Hey."
He turned and noticed Jen with a tube of peanut butter.
She grinned at him. "Asked the nice cafeteria lady."
Peter managed to get a chuckle at the picture forming in his head of Jen asking for peanut butter and was grateful to have her help. When she finally got the gum out, he gave her a hug. "Thanks. I better go wash it out." He quickly went into the bathroom to rinse out the peanut butter then came back out with semi-wet hair. "I guess we take the peanut butter back now?"

Kayla was sitting at her desk in the classroom when she saw Peter and Jen walk in, looking relieved. Kayla craned her neck to see Peter's hair. It was a little bit damp, but he'd managed to get the peanut butter out. She gave him a relieved grin and a thumbs-up.

Peter smiled at Kayla, giving her a thumbs up too. Then, he took Jen's hand in his and took his seat next to Kayla, while Jen sat on the other side. "I am so excited about soccer tryouts!"

(OOC: Peanut Butter gets gum out?)

"We've heard that already," Zach rolled his eyes. "Soc-cer! Soc-cer!" he chanted, giving Peter a stack of papers. "Pass it down to the person on your left."

Peter rolled his eyes, as he took the paper from Zach. "Thanks." She gave Zach a smirk, then passed the papers to Jen. Try outs were next month. before Justin's trial. So, he could try out and still go. Flexing his muscles, he decided that afterschool, he would head to the gym.

Kayla smiled and took the papers from Jen. She reached over and passed the papers to Nicole, who was on her left. Nicole frowned and narrowed her eyes at Kayla as she took the papers.

Kayla sighed inwardly. Why was Nicole doing this? Kayla pushed her old friend out of her mind and tried to focus on something else.

Peter leaned towards Zach and whispered, "Meet me at the gym after school. We're gonna see who can go the longest on the treadmill."

Zach gave Peter a funny look, complete with dramatic eye twitches. "Uh...," he began. "Okay, sure, but I have to be back home by around.. five anyway. I hope you tire quickly."

One month later, it was time for soccer try outs. Peter was up and had to kick a ball around cones, which he did successfully. Then, the boys were divided into groups to see how they could work as a team. The groups that played against each other were of similar skill and motivation to see how they would work with each other. Peter was teamed up with Zach.

Kayla called Jen that afternoon. "Hey, how are you doing?" she asked.

Jen was drowining in depressing thoughts obver how horrible of a dad she has when the phone rang. "Kayla! Want to go see Peter at tryouts?"

"Okay, that sounds like fun. I'll head over to your house and we can go together, okay?" Kayla hung up and trotted downstairs, told her mother where she was going, and headed over to Jen's house.