Oh man. There was this kid, let's call him Jim. Jim was a bit off, but a super nice guy, and actually pretty popular. Jim didn't really have much of a filter, but was never mean or inappropriate, just weirdly eager about everything. The rumor I heard was that his brain chemistry prevented him from feeling sadness, which explained why he was always so upbeat. Also could have been the drugs. He had no problem letting you know (no matter who you were) that he was buying/selling/growing/consuming mushrooms, weed, pills, whatever he came across.

Worth noting, Jim was super into science, and another prevalent theory was that he had some kind of autism-spectrum affinity for chemistry. So when people started saying he was making bombs in his garage, no one was too surprised. I mean, this was the guy who was dressing up as a banana between classes and chasing his buddy (clad in a gorilla costume) through the halls while maintaining an A+ in AP Chemistry and AP Physics. Funny and friendly, but weird. The rumors started from his buddy Hans, a kid who had moved to town from Germany, who said he almost got his hand blown off while helping him make explosives.

Anyway, nothing major happened with Jim during school, he never blew up a building or OD'd or anything, and I didn't think about him for a while, until I went back home during a break and my mom mentioned that his house had been cordoned off by the cops and they were disassembling his meth lab. No sign of him, but tons of drugs and a handful of explosives. Weirdest part of hearing this was, I had just seen a post from him to facebook. The next few weeks, he continued to post pictures and nonchalant comments on facebook. The last post I saw from him, he was at a wedding in China with his high school girlfriend. Didn't look like they were planning on coming back stateside. Never heard anything about him after that.