This may all seem boring and unnecessary, but its not. Its all necessary to the story. I think. Sometimes these things don't go the way I want.
"Shawn! What the hell!" Gus hissed pulling his arm out of his best friends vice grip.
"Dude!" Shawn hissed pushing Gus through the gym doors and behind a strange sign advertising the terminator for something.
"Did you see him?" he asked the panic clear in his voice.
"See who?" Gus asked wearily all ready suspicious of Shawns answer. Shawn looked up and the ceiling and let his shoulders slump in a dramatic display of exasperation.
"I can't believe you!" He said letting out an epically loud sigh that attracted the attention of quiet a few people.
"Shut up Shawn. Stop being so dramatic and just tell me who you saw." Gus mumbled quietly trying to get Shawn to be less conspicuous.
"Un-"a large hand landed heavily on Shawn's shoulder, cutting off the rest of his sentence. Turning to look at who ever had interrupted him so rudely, Shawn was met with the friendly smile of a tall officer with dark brown hair.
"May I help you?" Shawn asked politely while trying to shrug off the officers bear sized hand. The officer didn't let go.
"Yes, I'm sorry but this is a function for police personal only. No civilians allowed." The cop said smiling pleasantly, showing off a mouth full of sparkling white teeth. Shawn looked around for Lassie or Jules. Of course they were no were in site, he and Gus had run off and hid from them. Well, Shawn had run off and pulled a reluctant Gus with him. Not finding the detectives he switched tactics.
"What about her!" he asked, spotting a chubby girl with long blond hair and a very bright purple shirt with that cartoon character, Flapjack on it. The cop glanced over at the girl who was talking to a crossing guard. "She's not a cop!" Shawn continued. The girl looked to be round 16 and she definitely didn't have that distinctive cop like air about her.
"She's a volunteering student." Mr. Know-it-all replied, removing his hand from Shawn's shoulder finally. Gus stepped in, deciding that Shawn had made a big enough fool out of himself for one day.
"We are consultants for the SBPD. We're here with Head Detective Carlton Lassiter and Detective Juliet O'Hara." He explained using his most charming salesman voice.
"What kind of consultant?" Mr. Cop-man asked taking a step back and looking at the duo again, as if seeing them I'm a completely different light. Shawn smiled widely.
"Shawn Spencer. Head Psychic Detective for the SBPD!" He declared using his made up title and smirking smugly. The cop's eye brows raised and he put his hands on his hips in a way that reminded Shawn of Buzz.
"Really! Well, can you predict something?" The Buzz impersonator asked looking at Shawn expectantly. Shawn smiled internally, enjoying the attention, and ignored Gus's exasperated eye roll.
"Well…Your name is-"Shawn squeezed his eyes shut and placed his finger to his temples as if concentrating hard. Cracking his eye open a little he read the cops name tag for the first time, and nearly broke out laughing. Stealing himself he took a deep breath and let loose his psychic prediction.
"Your name is McDonald, you live alone in an apartment that has recently been flooded and you haven't been able to get someone to go in and fix it yet. You ate captain Crunch this morning and you're taking tap dancing lessons from a tall blond, Russian lady. Named Olga." Shawn explained guessing on the Russian named Olga part. Honestly the guy looked like he was a total mess. It was obvious he was having a bad day, the rest of the little clues were planted all over the cops body as if someone had put them there. Shawn wondered for a few seconds how no one else ever noticed these things. He sighed dramatically as if tired out by his own prediction and slumped into Gus who pushed him forward in irritation. McDonald smiled widely in amazement!
"Wow!" he whispered looking at Shawn in something that resembled a mix of shock and awe. "You got everything right!" he gasped clapping Shawn on the shoulder in a much friendlier manner.
"Even the part about the Russian?" Shawn asked, feeling very pleased with himself. Gus elbowed Shawn in the ribs and Shawn backpedaled,
"I mean, of course I got that part right!" McDonald smiled widely and then turned around,
"Paige!" He called out gaining the chubby blond girls attention. She jogged over and stared at McDonald nervously.
"Yes?" She mumbled quietly, her grey eyes locking onto a spot on the ground.
"Could you please take these two over there and get them name tags so that they aren't harassed by any other cops." He exclaimed jokingly. The blond girl nodded slowly and looked over in Shawn's general direction.
"Okay, um, follow me." She said so quietly Shawn had to strain to hear her. She began walking towards the entrance of the Gym and Shawn couldn't help but try and start up a conversation with the nervous and jittery teenager.
"So, why'd you volunteer for a police convention if you're so nervous around them?" He asked stepping up next to her.
"Shawn, leave her alone." Gus snapped knowing that Shawn was probably going to irritate the poor girl.
"I'm not scared of Cops." The girl mumbled walking up to a table covered in all sorts of name tags. Shawn and Gus stood behind the table and watched as Paige bent over and dug under the table, looking for something.
"I'm just scared of people in general." She stood up, a name tag and a marker in hand and passed them over to Gus.
"Well, then why did you volunteer to work around a bunch of people?" Shawn asked pulling the marker and name tags out of Gus's hands and setting them on the table.
"Hey!" Gus snapped indignantly, but was ignored. Paige fidgeted with the name tags in front of her and replied,
"Well, because my friend wanted me to come help her." She mumbled taking back the blue sharpie when Shawn was done writing his name on both name tags. Pulling off the back of the sticker Shawn slapped his name onto his shirt and then handed Gus his name tag. Gus glared angrily at it but decided it would be best not to make a big deal out of the name that Shawn had written down. Paige scooted to the edge of the table when she saw that the two consultants were taken care of.
"Well, if you, um, need me I'll just be over there at the SWAT team table." She whispered,
"But it was nice meeting you, Shawn. And you too," She paused and looked away from Gus as if slightly embarrassed, "um, Nancy Drew…" turning on her heel she walked away briskly. Shawn broke out into a fit of giggles and held up his hand for Gus to fist bump.
"Why would I fist bump you for giving me a stupid name!" Gus snapped eyeing Shawn's raised fist angrily.
"Well, it was Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, or Bill Bucker." Shawn laughed turning around and scanning the gym for Lassie or Jules.
"Bill Buckner was not a Detective Shawn." Gus snapped also scanning the gym for the two detectives. Spotting them the pharmaceutical rep gasped loudly.
"Shawn!" He gapped looking over at his best friend. Shawn made eye contact with Gus knowingly. "Is that-" Shawn nodded gravely.
"Uncle Matt." He mumbled, most of the hyperactive energy whooshing away at the sight of his mother's brother. Gus shook his head. Suddenly Shawn's erratic dash into the other room made so much more sense.
"Let's go, before he sees us…" Shawn mumbled tugging on Gus's sleeve. Gus made a clicking noise in his throat.
"Uh, Shawn. I think he's spotted us…." He said pulling his arm away from Shawn who had started to make a break for the other Gym again. Shawn looked up and gulped loudly. Lassie and Jules were heading their way, an angry looking Chief of police following closely behind.
"Shawn!" Chief Sanders barked pushing past Lassiter and Juliet rudely. Shawn winced, his Uncle's tone of voice bringing up bad memories. Shawn nodded at his uncle curtly. His normal hyperactive demeanor somewhat subdued much to the amazement of Juliet and Lassiter. Unfortunately, Gus recognized Shawn's angry reaction all to well.
"It's been a long time boy." Alex continued, talking in a way that most would mistake as a friendly nostalgic greeting. Shawn sighed inwardly and looked over at Gus for help. Both of them knew, when it came to Uncle Alex, there was no such thing as 'friendly'. Noticing Shawn's look Alex glanced over at Gus, his eye brows rising slightly in shock as if just noticing Shawn best friend for the first time.
"Burton!" Alex snapped, a small amount of the perpetual irritation melting away from his face. A very, very small amount.
"Um, Hello." Gus greeted holding his hand out shyly. Alex took it and shook vigorously forcing Gus to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from wincing.
"I can't believe you're still hanging around my little sister's kid!" Alex barked out a harsh laugh, waiting for Gus's reply. Gus just nodded, much to Lassiter's amazement. The Head Detective had been waiting for Gus's rebuttal. All morning both Shawn and Gus had been going at each other with childlike and petty insults. Seeing Gus pass up a chance to insult his best friend was definitely setting alarm bells off in Lassiter's mind. Pushing the thoughts aside, Lassiter continued to watch the exchange, with a little more interest. Alex let go of Gus's hand and set his Glare back on Shawn.
"You doing anything useful with your life yet? Or are you still a lazy, immature, waste of oxygen?" Arlington's chief snapped, causing Lassiter's eye brows to rise in surprise once again. He didn't detect a hint of playful joking in this mans voice. Just pure contempt. A strange noise came from his right, looking over he saw that it had come from his partner. Juliet was glaring at the exchange happening before her. Her fists clenched tightly and her cheeks slightly pink.
"No." Shawn snapped back, his scowl matching his Uncle's.
"I'm actually working with the SBPD. Solved all of my cases too, how's your solve rate?" Shawn snapped. Leaving out the Head Psychic part, which did not go unnoticed by Lassiter. Alex glared at his nephew but before he could respond Shawn made a little, 'oh' noise and smacked his head as if he had just realized something.
"That's right; you don't actually have any real crime here in Arlington. The most action you see is teenagers making out in the back seat of their cars. Good thing too, you're looking a little bit bigger around the middle since the last time I saw you, Uncle." Shawn snapped smacking his Uncles protruding stomach. Alex's face turned a dangerous shade of red and Lassiter swore he saw hesitation and even a little bit of fear flash across Shawn's face.
"You're still the little smart ass you were when I last saw you, aren't you boy." Alex growled quietly. Without waiting for a response Alex grabbed Shawn around the bicep tightly.
"You'll excuse us Detectives, Gus, but I need to have a chat with my Nephew." Alex through over his shoulder, dragging Shawn off towards the main entrance of the gym.
"What was that about?" Lassiter asked actually feeling slightly concerned about Shawn. He was a member of the SBPD after all and as such Shawn was his responsibility for the duration of the trip.
"That's Shawn's Uncle. Ever since I can remember Uncle Alex has been…" Gus hesitated and glanced back at the door his best friend and his best friend's Uncle had disappeared behind.
"Mean?" Juliet supplied taking a deep calming breath. Gus nodded.
"Yeah, but for some reason he's always just really hated Shawn. Even when Shawn was really little. He used to always yell at him and call him a bunch of names." Gus continued running a hand over his bald head.
"How young are we talking?" Lassiter asked intrigued. Gus shrugged,
"Well, the first time I ever saw Alex was at Shawn's family reunion when we were both, six or sevenish." Lassiter made a face. It was one thing to harass a grown man, but harassing a seven year old boy? Even if he was Shawn? That seemed a little harsh. Even for him. Noticing Juliet's look of pure unadulterated rage Gus place a hand on the female detectives shoulder.
"Try Lamaze breathing. When it comes to Shawn, nothing works better." Juliet took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
PSYCH!
Alex shoved Shawn up against a wall. Wincing Shawn rubbed his sore arm and watched his uncle pace back and forth in front of him smugly.
"You little shit!" Alex finally snapped getting right up in Shawn's face. Shawn rolled his eyes and waved a hand in front of his nose confidently.
"Dude, I know its gunna sound cliché, but, breath. Mint." Shawn smiled slightly and let his hand fall to his side. His uncle's face was turning a dark shade of purple and Shawn knew there was only so much button pressing he could do before he got decked in the face. Alex raised a finger and pointed it in Shawn's face. Shawn flinched and looked at it cross eyed, but before he had a chance to call Shawn all the bad things that where running through his mind, the sound of frantic footsteps reached their ears. Simultaneously looking to their left they saw a girl walking down the hallway slowly. Both men stared at her silently, When the girl reached them and stood in front of the two quietly. Taking in her appearance, Shawn realized it was the girl that had given him and Gus their name tags. Upon further inspection he saw that the girl's shoes were covered in blood.
"Paige?" He asked reaching out and touching her shoulder. She looked up at Shawn, her grey eyes wide in terror. Grabbing Shawn's sleeve she pulled on it.
"She needs your help." Paige mumbled tugging on Shawn's sleeve harder. Alex grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled it away from Shawn's sleeve.
"This idiot won't be able to help you, now tell me who needs help." He snapped letting go of the girls hand when she yanked it away.
"She needs help!" Paige repeated a little more firmly. Shawn nodded.
"Okay." He started, hearing the panic raising in the girls voice.
"She needs your help!" This time Paige scram the phrase loudly and pointed down the hallway tears welling up and cascading down her cheeks. Shawn didn't need anymore initiation, taking off down the hallway he left the crying girl to his uncle. Passing a few class rooms, Shawn reached the end of the hallway which let out into a huge open space, Shawn assumed that this was the schools cafeteria, if the lunch tables placed around the room were anything to go by.
"Hello?" The pseudo psychic called out, looking for whoever it was that needed help. When he didn't receive an answer he looked down and found Paige's bloody foot prints. They were leading to the opposite side of the cafeteria into a separate hallway. Treading carefully, so as not to disturb any evidence, Shawn followed the bloody foot prints to a stair case. He ran a hand threw his hair at the sight that greeted him. Sprawled across the bottom part of the stairs was a body.
"Well, shit." Shawn sighed putting his hand on his hips.
Uncle Matt. Man, I'm gunna have fun with him. Hehe, he is so going to be one angry, ass holeish JERK! Its gunna be so angsty and great! More action in the next chapter, I PROMISE!