School normalized things again. When Jack set foot back in Glorion Middle, he felt as if everything with his breakdown and with Miss Collins hadn't even happened. His mother had taken him to a different doctor—just for a checkup—but even that seemed as if it had been lost in some murky dream. He was scared to go back to school, because he wasn't certain whether his teachers would realize he was off his medicine. As it turned out, they were all notified of it anyway; the nurse told him when she called him down to her office during first hour. And he was going to stay in all his regular classes—wouldn't even have to go to his end room—unless he started to lose himself again and needed the help.

But Jack was determined to focus as hard as he could. Now that he knew what it was like to be under an influence not his own, he never wanted to go back. And part of him still worried his mother would change her mind and insist he start taking it again if he did poorly.

Grace was there, at school. She made all his efforts to stay focused worthwhile. They talked during lunch. Since Jack was out of the resource room, he didn't have classes with Grace, and now that he knew she was like him, the time at lunch when he could talk to her was like gold.

There was one day, not long after he had returned to school, that he learned Grace had been through what he had with the medicine, although she was still taking some of it.

She started a conversation with saying, "I'm adopted, you know," which Jack had heard her say about a million times as a conversation starter. He didn't really know why she always felt obligated to say that. "And when my mother first got me, she knew I was too busy. That was what she called it—too busy. Cute, huh? It really meant that she couldn't get me to sit still. And I agreed. Anyway, there were a lot of medicines we tried, just like you. Well, you didn't try a lot, did you? Just the one. But I tried some different ones, and when I was on the bad ones, I totally wasn't myself. It's hard to explain . . . all I knew was that when I was on them, I wasn't as happy as when I was off them. And my mom noticed that, so she kept trying different ones until I finally found one that is best for me. It's not as strong, so that's why sometimes I just have so much energy and am so distracted by everything around me—you know, everything like you are. But I'm a little different from you because it's like, the things don't just distract me; they make me want to move around. You don't really get all jiggly like me. You just get distracted. But anyway, I'm on this stuff now and it makes me ok, but at the same time, it doesn't totally make me zone out. Sometimes my doctor, or one of my teachers, say they think I should be on higher medicine, but my mom and I don't think so, because this is what makes me happy. And you know what? Is it really worth getting some good grades if I'm not happy? I don't think so.

"Plus, mom thinks I also need to learn to control myself. She says that medicine shouldn't control me. Maybe I have more to deal with than someone who doesn't see and hear all this stuff, but she says I shouldn't rely on medicine, or else I'll always see it as an excuse for when I fail. Which makes sense, right? I mean, this is me—it's who I am. So why should I change myself with some drugs? I need to be who I am, even if who I am is different and has to try harder than everyone else. Besides, everything I see and hear and know?—I wouldn't give that up for anything."

Jack looked hard at her. "Really? You wouldn't?"

"Nope. It's me! It's part of me, just like it's part of you."

He shook his head. "I don't know. I feel like it causes a lot of trouble. None of this would have happened if I hadn't seen something that night Kyle fell."

Grace rolled her eyes. "Don't go blaming yourself again! I thought that was all done with." She reached across the table and grabbed his arm. "Listen. No more feeling sorry for yourself, remember? That won't help anything. You need to work on fixing things."

Withdrawing his arm, Jack sighed, sat back in his chair. Felt frustrated. "How? How am I supposed to fix anything? I don't know what I can do!"

"It will come, Jack" offered Grace sincerely. "It will. I really believe that. I don't know how it will come, but it will. And then you'll just know. Like Anne said. One morning she just knew it was over and she'd won. That will happen to you, too."

He sighed again. Shook his head again. Didn't know whether or not he should bother believing her. There was so much that needed to be done. And there were things he had no control over. The hope he'd regained from visiting Miss Collins was fading as the reality of his situation preyed on him.

"I can't bring back my dad, Grace," was what he said next, quietly and sadly. "I don't know where he is, so I can't just call and ask him to come home. My mom won't talk to me about it, either, so there's not much I can say to her. And the hole outside? I can't fix that. What am I supposed to do, fill it in? I can't. I can't fix Kyle's legs, either. There's none of it I know how to fix."

"Listen to yourself, Jack. No wonder you feel like there's nothing you can do!" Grace widened her eyes. She saw something he hadn't seen, suddenly. "You're actually trying to put things back together. Like, you want to go find your dad and make him come home. Or you want to get out your doctor kit and fix Kyle's legs. But don't you get it? None of this was caused by something so real. It started because of what you saw and heard, and remember—what you see and hear isn't true like they know it." She motioned to the general student population around them. "So how do you think you can make everything normal by doing normal things? You can't physically put everything back into place. You have to use what you know."

Jack stared doubtfully at her. "None of that can help. I don't even understand everything I sense, so how can I use it?"

The lunchroom was becoming boisterous. Students were starting to get up and roam; the bell was near ringing.

Grace leaned in closer to Jack so he could hear her.

The world dulled—turned gray—around them. The sound of the other students was drowned by the whispering that seemed to center only around the boy and girl seated at their table. It moved around them in waves.

"I think," said Grace, a speck of light settling on one of her earrings, "that when the time comes, you'll just . . . know."

Jack stared directly at her eyes and felt his own self reflected there. She understood him. Whether the world re-formed or not, he'd found someone who knew . . . who knew what it was like. And he wasn't sure how the miracle of meeting her had happened, but it had, and he was intensely grateful for Grace.

The blue of her eyes released him as she blinked, and he found himself sad.

"And you know what?" Grace added as the bell rang and the other students regained color. "I'm always around, if you want to just call and talk. You know, like you can call me up and be like, 'Grace! I saw this little black thing and am wondering if you know what it was and whether it could get my dad back!'" She laughed.

In spite of himself, Jack laughed as well, softly at first, then more confidently. Grace was there. He'd somehow do this.

The two of them got up and went to class.