After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 86

The rest of the week in court following Jack's testimony against Ralph was comparatively uneventful. Dana Barnes presented her case against little Percy Madison, number seventeen on the roster, in only four and a half days. He was the youngest of the twenty-two survivors, and there was virtually nothing incriminating in any file or report dated before the island. Barnes dredged up a bit on his post-island life and his new school, but still it provided little evidence to suggest it was only a matter of time before Percy wound up on the wrong side of the law. By the end of the day on Thursday, the case against young Percy was concluded.

And with that, the case against Jack was officially underway as of Friday, July 16th. The vast majority of the boys knew that it was going to take a lot longer to go through Jack's rap sheet than it was Percy's or Ralph's. That Friday, Barnes stuck to the script she read off for the other boys, beginning with reintroducing the physical evidence that confirmed Jack's involvement in Simon's death. After the noon recess that day, three first responders testified to their observations of Jack's behavior during the initial rescue efforts.

All in all, that first day wasn't at all surprising to Jack or anyone else in the Merridew family. So far, it was all procedure, and nothing seemed to separate Jack from the other boys. Not yet anyway.

In spite of the slow and uneventful progression of the trial that week, Jack was still tired as the dead by the end of it. With his case beginning that Friday, the family spent an undue amount of extra time preparing, reviewing the witness lists and the expectations for sitting in the courtroom, as well as what would be expected of Paige and Evan when their turns to take the stand came around. The days were slow and long, and Jack struggled to keep his head on straight. After over seven months, they were coming closer to the end of the prosecution's case.

Brett confirmed with the Merridews that the trial would undoubtedly continue into the fall, and the state was recommending none of the boys return to school for the new year. They'd be much better off focusing on the trial until it's over, and depending on how it ends, they could return to school the following year, a grade behind where they are now.

Jack was perfectly fine with not going back to school for junior year while the trial was still going on. It was hard enough to finish the tenth grade while stuck on the other side of the state. His motivation to complete schoolwork was practically nonexistent, and he overheard his sister begging Evan to agree to keep him out of school so she wouldn't have to spend all her free time bargaining with him to do his work.

Ultimately, the Merridews all agreed that delaying Jack's enrolment for junior year was best. Although, Jack was pretty sure his father agreed to it for Paige's sake more than his. That didn't bother Jack as much as it usually would've though. He wasn't about to argue with getting what he wanted, and he would've been to tired to argue anyway.

This past week in court was easy after Jack was done on the stand. But all bets were off for next week as things would heat up, Jack knew, and he had no intention of wasting the weekend. All he wanted to do was rest and play his 3GO console. Of course, Paige wasn't all that fond of his plans, but she too knew he had a brutal week ahead of him, so she decided to not to push him on it.

Paige spent the afternoon on Saturday the 17th shopping in Savannah's biggest outlet mall while Jack stayed home and played Mario for most of the day. Paige picked up takeout from one of the nicest restaurants in the city after she finished her day of shopping, and the two siblings ate in style in front of the TV that night. Once the food had been mostly demolished, Paige took it upon herself to show every little thing she bought at the mall to her brother, who was only pretending to be barely half interested.

After Paige put all her new clothes and shoes away, she convinced Jack to come with her to a cool local hot spot she accidentally discovered that afternoon. Jack was resistant and pouty at first, lacking any desire to do anything but watch TV or play video games, but he was turned pretty quickly when their cab pulled up in the parking lot of the mysterious establishment Paige refused to tell him anything about.