Chapter One: Unexpected Entertainment
"As I am sure you are all aware, today is a very special day. It is our school's founder's day; our Diamond anniversary in fact. We have all gathered here today to celebrate 75 glorious years at Oakwood Academy. Our esteemed mayor has generously allowed us to use this magnificent church…"
Despite his elaborate words and effort to make founder's day an enjoyable occasion, the headmaster had managed to disinterest his entire gathering. Year sevens were snoring, year eights were yawning, teachers were fidgeting and parents were stretching in an effort to appear engaged. The older years had resulted to distracting themselves with various other past times, to avoid falling into the looming daze.
"Psst… Rhea…" whispered a year 11 whilst nudging her friend repeatedly. Rhea turned to gaze at her lazily, gripping two cocktail sticks in her hands. She had contemplated propping her eyes open with them, in order to endure her headmaster's droning.
"Why don't we play Mr Lasso word bingo?" the prodder asked excitedly, reaching for her friend's bag.
"Onyx…" Rhea sighed quietly, attempting to protest. She was interrupted by a shiny black pad and a red pencil case, which were forced into her grasp. "…Fine," the brunette smirked, grabbing a HB pencil from the translucent case. "Hmm..." she murmured, chewing the end of it in thought.
They quickly scribbled down a few words together: 'Sports', 'Outstanding', 'Year', 'Pride' and various others until they had formed a list of 10. They stared intently at Mr Lasso, who raised his eyebrows appreciatively at them, pleased to finally have an interested audience to preach to.
"Oakwood has experienced an outstanding year thus far..."
"Two in one," giggled Onyx, crossing them off the list happily. She focused her icy grey eyes on her headteacher, waiting for him to utter the remaining words.
"... and though some houses are more skilled at Sports than others..."
"There's another," indicated Rhea, with a tilt of her head. Mr Lasso interpreted her motion as a nod of approval, smiling to himself as he continued.
"Our GCSE and A level results have been tremendous; the best we have ever witnessed..." He rambled on, adding wide gestures to his presentation in the hope of attracting more attention.
"Still only three..." muttered Onyx disappointedly. She reviewed the scrawny writing on the pad and glanced up at her friend, a grin emerging on her face. "Hey...Rhea?"
"Hmm?"
"Let's make this game more fun!"
"How so?" smiled Rhea, her green eyes twinkling from curiosity.
"Um, I was thinking about playing hangman at the same time..." elaborated Onyx slowly. The thought sounded much better in her head and she wasn't quite certain how to phrase it. "I mean, every time he mentions one of the words we've written down, we... well, you – you can draw better than me anyway – draw on one of his body parts..."
"Ah, ok..." nodded Rhea, grasping the general idea. "So 10 body parts for 10 words: Head, torso, two arms, two hands, two legs and two feet?"
"Yeah, sounds good," agreed Onyx, glad that her friend understood. She repositioned the sketch book on Rhea's lap, silently encouraging her to begin drawing.
"Oh, right," she complied, picking up the pencil again in her left hand. She squinted as she began to sketch out Mr Lasso's face; his ageing eyes bordered by his thinning brows, his deep wrinkles below his fading comb over.
"That's great," praised Onyx merrily. "Looks just like him!"
Rhea was so engrossed in her work that she barely acknowledged the compliment. His broken glasses, patchy skin, drooping ears... Her dark haired friend watched steadily, admiring the tonal detail of the artwork. A couple minutes past and then a neck connecting a shirt-covered torso appeared.
"I like how his tie's flowing that way... It's almost, lifeless."
"Items of clothing don't have lives in the first place," chuckled Rhea, snapping back to reality. She drew on the right arm, then stopped to listen to the remainder of his speech.
"I am filled with pride to mention that..."
Another arm coupled the one on the right.
"I thank my students' teachers for their..."
Hands bonded onto the empty wrists.
"I am certain that these standards will continue..."
Two legs burst from under his torso.
"And without further ado, I announce that we should all stand to sing our beautiful national anthem..."
And with his feet he stood, and with his feet he fell.
Screams roared throughout the cathedral. Echoes rebounded off the stain glass windows, causing them to shatter into a multitude of colourful shards. Rhea glanced up from her paper and choked on her own breath. There, where her cheerful headmaster should have been standing, was a pale white body, hanging by a rope around its neck.