Christmas is just around the corner. And a lot of things have happened since the first meeting that Deric's father went to. Not all bad, but none better than they were before. With all of this stuff happening, Deric realizes that he has a problem. He has a problem of bottling up his emotions. Not a serious problem, but a problem that would soon build to a serious situation.

In the past 5 months there has been 6 deaths in the small town of Glide. So everybody's parents are a little on edge. And all of the children know this, but that doesn't always change the way people act. These 6 deaths were all automobile accident caused deaths. One thing you have to know about a small town like Glide is that everyone drives. Driver's License or not.

So one day, Deric and his parents are at a good friends house. They usually go there to hang out and have small parties. It's all fun for the kids and the parents. But Deric and his best friend Danny decide to drive across the street and down the road to a friends house and sit in the hot tub with them. Now Deric nor Danny can drive legally. But it's no big deal considering they drive all the time and none of the parents care. As long as their safe.

It's been about an hour in the hot tub and Danny's parents drive over and tell Deric he has to go home. Well, Deric becomes confused and a little worried. Kevin and Jody (Danny's parents) begin to tell him that his parents are very, very angry with them driving over there. And he understands, considering all of the deaths. But it doesn't help that Deric's parents are drunk and his dad is high. So when he gets home, Kevin comes in to apologize. But when Veronica starts yelling at Deric, Kevin says it's his fault that they drove over to the hot tub. But then Tommy (Deric's dad) walks out and starts yelling at Kevin telling him to get out. Deric goes outside for a second.

But when he come back in Tommy and Kevin wanna fight outside. Then Deric tells them to stop. Tommy yells at Deric and tells him to shut up. At that moment Deric was so scared that something happened to him that had never happened before. He just blew up and all those emotions that were trapped became unleashed, and so did Deric's anger. He started going off about how Tommy is a bad father and how he would rather live with Kevin and Jody. Then he went on about how he does more work than his father and just went on and on and said some very truthful and hurtful things. By this time Kevin had already left.

When Deric stopped, so did his anger. Then there was an awkward silence, and Deric became more scared than he had ever been in his life. His father asked if he was done and Deric never replied. Deric was told to go down stairs to his room and start packing clothes. He had no idea why, but he started down the stairs and so did his father. Then Deric felt something hit his head and Deric fell down the rest of the stairs. He looked up at his father and he was struck again. Deric got up and went to his room and started packing clothes as his father stood in the doorway with an evil hate in his eyes.

Tommy called up Deric's mother and told her to meet them in Cottage Grove. It was midnight by this time. Tommy and Deric got in the car and Deric sat in the back, he was too afraid to sit up front. The drive was long and silent. But the silence was so loud in Deric's mind. When they got to Cottage Grove, Deric sat in his mother's car and stayed there until they left to Salem.

Deric stayed in Salem for a long time. Tommy felt so bad and so sorry, he cried for the whole time he was gone. But Deric didn't. And this incident didn't build hate in his heart either. He prayed a lot and that's why he had no hate. It just made Deric stronger. So Merry Christmas.