Whoo, my fingers are hurting, my DVD player is burning up. My eyes are going square. But I will finish this, I have to.

A few songs to listen to; Face Down - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Misery - Good Charlotte, Freak On A Leash - Korn

Chapter 4

I found Casey almost immediately walking with Delilah. I caught up with them as soon as Casey mentioned the thing we found in Biology.
'Hey,' I said completely ignoring Delilah who stopped too.
Casey smiled at me, 'hey.'
'I am gonna wait in the car for you.'

Casey glanced at Delilah who looked away.
'Yeah sure.'

I waved him off and walked into the parking lot. Many cars were gone, the bus was loaded with kids and I was kinda glad to see that Zeke had gone too.
I got into the car and turned up the radio while going through todays notes waiting for Casey to hurry whatever he was planning with Delilah so I can go home and start the homework.

It must have been only twenty to thirty minutes before I saw Delilah run out of the building and into her car and she sped away without a moment glance back.
I jumped up and was about to exit my car until Casey came running out and bolted into the car, 'drive!'

I looked at him wearilly and panicked but stepped on the gas and sped away, 'Casey, what's going on?'
'We need to call the police. Go faster!'

'I cant!' I yelled back at him, 'what is going on?'
Casey explained everything and I looked back at him wanting to laugh, 'Casey, teachers dont play fight anymore.'
He gave me a menacing look, I raised my eyebrows, 'your serious.'

'Oh yeah.'
I looked back to the road and dropped him off at his house. He ran inside and came out a minute later with his parents in tow. 'The police are meeting us at the school.'
'Did you call Delilah?' I asked as his parents got into their own car.

He shook his head, 'the police will probably do that.'

I drove back to the school and the police, like Casey said, were already there.
'Case, I am gonna wait in the car.' But he looked at me pleadingly, 'please? Carley, I need someone who believes me.'
I looked away from him.

'You believe me, dont you?'
I looked at him, he seemed so desperate but how was I supposed to believe that he found a dead Ms Brummel in the closet, and saw two teachers attack the Nurse who then looked like she had died then come back alive and then was normal and then everyone else was acting like it was nothing?
Yeah, have your best friend tell you that. You will see what I mean.

'Well, thanks for nothing Carley.' Casey slammed the door to my car shut with a slam and I watched him go into the school with his parents and the police. I rested my head on the steering wheel. 'Okay.'

I unbuckled my seat belt, got out of the car and ran up the steps and into the building.

I saw him above walking into the Faculty Lounge.
'In here?' One of the officers asked.
Casey nodded, 'yes. The body was in the closet.'

I ran up next to him and he seemed surprised, 'okay, say I believe you.' I said in a hushed tone. He took a breath and smiled at me. 'Carley Daniels? You were present?'

I turned around to face Principle Drake. 'Yeah Miss, in my car.'
She nodded and walked into the lounge when the police inspected the closet.

'Hey Casey, sorry for that mix up earlier, didnt mean to scare you.' Coach said to him.
'Seems like there has been a misunderstanding.' Drake said to the officers.

Casey's dad interuppted though, 'still, if we could still see inside the closet.'
Drake slowly and deliberately smirked at me and Casey, 'certainly,' and opened the closet.

I held my breath and so did Casey. Then we heard, 'it's a doll.'
Casey looked incredulously at Coach and Miss Olsen.

'Meet Resuscitation Annie. We use her to teach CPR to the students, although, I guess she does resemble Ms Brummel slightly.' Drake finished off with a smile and Casey went right up to the doll as if he couldnt believe it. I shook my head. This doesnt make believing him any easier.

'You dialled 911 for a dead doll?' The male police officer asked.
Casey looked at him desperately, 'that wasnt there! They put that there.' He looked back towards me and his parents, 'look, I'm not making this up.'
Then I tried to help, 'cant you call Delilah?'

The male police officer broke my little hope though, 'we called her, she isnt home.'
'She was here with me. She saw it too.' Casey pleaded. 'They attacked Nurse Harper!'

'Nurse Harper is epileptic. She's prone to grand mals.' Principle Drake said.
'She had an attack.' Coach put in.
Their story, I have to admit, is very convincing. But if it wasnt my best friend up here desperate for someone to believe him. If he wasnt absolutely adamant, I would believe them too.

Miss Olsen sighed, 'luckily, she carries her medicine in her bag, so we were able to help her.'
'We think it was brought on by this terrible cold she's had. I took her home myself, you can call her if you'd like.'

'It is procedure.' The male officer said. The teachers hung back smugly as the officers, Drake, Casey and his parents went to the office to call Nurse Harper.
I hung back too before saying to Casey I needed to get home. 'You believe me though, right? Carley, please say you believe me.'

I nodded my head and didnt say no more as I went back to my car, started it up and sped outta there to go home.

'Dad?' I called. There was no answer, I should have expected that since his car wasnt in the driveway. He was never home anymore.
Not since Mom.

I sighed and placed my keys on the counter. 'This is too much,' I said to myself. I picked up the phone and decided to call Delilah myself. It was true, no answer.
I sat down on the couch and looked at the ceiling.

Dad didnt come home that night, again. It was no surprise. Ethel came in to check I had enough to eat but apart from that, the friendly neighbour kindness was put to a minimal.
Mom was always the talkative one of the family. I took off my glasses and went to bed early that night. I needed to talk to Casey.

I arrived at school to find Casey being dropped off by his Dad. I didnt get out until he did and met him halfway. He kept looking back at the Coach who was now talking to his Dad.
'Case, we need to talk.'

He nodded and sighed. We walked through the corridors but Casey was weary of everyone, 'snap out of it.' We both jumped when Casey was grabbed by Delilah. 'Whoa! Delilah. Wow, you look-'

She glared at him, 'dont, come on.' And with that, she pulled him away from me. I stood there dumbstruck.
I waved my arms into the air and walked the opposite way to class.

I met Stokely and unfortunately MaryBeth in the classroom. Stokely was looking at Stan, I rolled my eyes. 'Why dont you just go talk to him?'
MaryBeth looked surprised to see me. 'Hey Carley.'
I gave her a polite smile as me and Stokely walked up the aisle to our desks. 'No way.' Stokely glared at me but MaryBeth caught both me and Stokes off guard when she shoved Stokely very conveniently onto Stans lap.

I sat down at my desk next to MaryBeths and shot her a 'good one,' look which she smiled appreciatively.
Stokely stood up quickly, 'Im sorry.'

Stan looked back at MaryBeth and back down at his notes.
Stokely still stood there uncomfortable, 'so you- Are you ready for the big game?'

Stan glanced at her, 'I quit the team.'

I didnt hear more after that, I know Stokely sat down and they got talking but was interuppted by Mr Tate's not so impressive approach to a test.

'Sir, this is the test?' I asked.
He looked at me and took a very big gulp of water, 'it is Miss Daniels. An important one.'

I walked out of Mr Tate's class very confused. I had to write down three names? Three names? Does that mean I failed because I dont have a lot of family that I can remember?

I saw MaryBeth down the hallway and approached her without knowing who she was talking to, 'hey- Oh, hey Zeke.'
I wasnt surprised to see him get out some scat. MaryBeth acknowledged me but went back to looking at Zeke, 'what is that?'

I rolled my eyes, I obviously was not wanted in this conversation, not when it involved them two.
I gave them both a small smile before walking down the hall. Okay, MaryBeth wanted a friend. She has three. But NO, she wants the druggie bad boy into her too.

I took my glasses off to clean them on my shirt frustrated and then put them back on brisquely.

There was a huddle outside, so I went to check it out. Hey, I may be a geek but a good fight now and then is what you need sometimes. Especially today where everyone seems in animation.

Zeke and MaryBeth were there, and Miss Burke?
'Miss Burke?' I called, she turned towards me briefly before marching right up to Zeke.

'Oh man, Im really not in the mood, Miss Burke, I'm clean.' He groaned, he went to walk past but she pushed him back. A slender, red nail panted pale hand across his shoulder.

'Not today,' Zeke continued, 'it's too damn hot and I got zero fucking tolerance.'
I was about to intervene again but it looked like Miss Burke had it handled. 'Eat me, you asshole. I'm the one with no tolerance, you pathetic little runt.'

I furrowed my brows, 'um, Miss Burke, you okay?'
She ignored me as Zeke chuckled, 'what are you gonna do? Are you gonna call my mother?'

'And how am I supposed to do that, little Zekey boy? Do you even know where she is? Europe, Sri Lanka, Japan?'
Zeke made motions with his hands to signal he knew all this already but Miss Burke pressed, 'I wonder what remote location she went to this week to hide from her great big bastard mistake.'

I didnt mean to and hell, I didnt want to but I stepped in front of Zeke. He towered over me but it still put some space in between them.
'Hm, Carley, am I hurting your boyfriend?'

She was, I could tell without looking at his face. His hands were at his sides almost touching my waist. 'I've been taking your shit for too fucking long!' She seethed. I reached behind me subconciously and brushed his hand with mine.
'You dickless, drug induced excuse for a human being.'

'Okay, Miss, this is getting personal. Can we take it down?' I brushed my bangs from my eyes and pushed my glasses further up my nose while still touching hands with Zeke.
'And you, quiet little, My Mommy left me, baby. Am I getting personal now? Huh!'

I looked away from her and suddenly, Zeke actually grasped my hand, I was still in front but I had one arm behind me to hold his hand.
'Whoa, woman, what are you on?' Zeke questioned.

She pushed me back into Zeke hard but not hard enough for us to stumble, I was just pushed back a step, 'woman? Did you just say, woman?' She pushed me again and I stepped back again so I was actually touching Zeke's chest with my back now. A specific part of his body was on my back too, and I turned crimson.

Others around was also looking at her funny, Zeke brought his arm a little higher so we were back to back and he was almost pressing me against him.

'I am sick of you little boy.' She leaned forward as if you grab me or Zeke but Zeke brought his whole arm up and pressed me into him a little more and he turned so I was out of reach,
she still grabbed Zeke's neck though, as if you kiss him but hissed, 'And if I have to see you peddling your little wonder dust again, I'm gonna shove my foot so far up your ass, you'll be sucking my toes til Graduation,' she ran her hand up around his chin, I was still there, pressed against Zeke but I couldnt do a damn thing. Seriously, what was this woman on?

She finally pushed away from us and walked away, leaving the people around us to murmer. Zeke released his hold on me. I took a breath, 'you okay?'
He looked down at me and nodded, 'she got some bad shit.' He chuckled under his breath to lighten the mood. 'You okay?'

'Yeah.' I said. We looked at eachother, I still couldnt believe what position we had been in then. I was defending him and he was defending me and we ended up pressed up together.

I swallowed, 'I need to find Casey.'
He nodded, looked down and back up at me again. His adams apple bobbing, like he was nervous.

I placed a hand on his arm and brushed it off as I walked away and into the building.

I finally found him in the library with Stokely. I walked up to them just as Stokely said, 'All this started when Miss Brummel did a wet and wild in the boys locker room?'
I sat down next to Casey, he glanced at me and smiled. I chuckled at that memory, kinda. It was a funny or kinda horrific ordeal.

Casey nodded, 'I think so.' He leaned forward, 'everybody's been acting really strange, especially the faculty.'
'Tell me about it. It's like they've all turned into fucking pod people or something.' Stokely said.

'Into what people?' I asked.

'Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A small town was taken over by aliens.' Stokely waved it off obviously talking about a book or something.
Casey looked at her seriously though, she looked from me to him, 'that was a joke.'

'Look, what if it really happened?' I looked at him like he was ridiculous. 'What if what really happened?'

Casey looked at me, 'I think something's taking over our school.'

'The Body Snatchers is a story somebody made up, dingus. It's located in the fiction section of the library.'
'So is Schindler's List. All fiction is based on some truth right?' I pointed out.

They looked at me, 'think about it. What does Miss Burke,' I shuddered, 'teach us in English 101? Write what you know.'
Casey picked something up, 'yeah, how do we know this writer guy...'

'Jack Finney,' Stokely interuppted. I smiled.
'...didnt encounter aliens in his high school which led him to write a book about an alien invasion?'

'Your conspiracy theory is flawed.'
'How so?'
Stokely scoffed, 'Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers is a blatant rip off of The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein. So you can completely disregard that entire work.'

Casey was tired, 'whatever. The point is they're here, they've been here and they're here again.'
'You know, Casey, I think you've been racked into the flagpole one too many times.'
I glared at her, and Casey lost it. 'Look, how do you know there's not a conspiracy?' I gave him a nudge to quiten down, 'Maybe X Files is right. Where do all these movies come from anyway? How do we know Spielberg, Lucas, Sonnenfield, Emmerich havent been visited by aliens? You know, maybe they're aliens themselves. Maybe they're simply preparing us for what's to come.'

I considered this, it was a possibility. But I couldnt think of a bunch of my favourite authors and directors are aliens. Casey is talking crazy again, a little.

'You know what, Casey, it's fiction. Okay? It's science fiction.' Stokely said casually.
'Exactly.' Casey was off again, 'everyone gets hung up on the science part, which has nothing to do with it. They're getting at us through the fiction.'

I decided to put in my opinion, So, aliens have just been setting us up over the years, creating this happy little make believe existence with their ET and their Men In Black movies just so nobody would believe it if it really happened?'
Casey and Stokely looked at me, 'I think so,' Casey answered finally, he swallowed, 'yeah.'

Stokely shook her head. He turned towards her, 'your not buying this are you?'
'No, Im not. But its kinda cool.'

I made a face, 'okay so whats missing?' 'Well in the Body Snatchers, they were pods, but where are they? I mean, where are the pods?'

Casey shook his head, 'there are no pods. There's gotta be something else.'
We sat there defeated and then Stokely said something, 'in The Puppet Masters, they were parasites.'

We walked through the hall on a mission, to find Delilah apparently. We found her almost immediately with Stan. 'I filled Stan in.'
'Come with us. Stokely's on to something.' Casey instructed.
Delilah looked at her, 'really?'

We went into the Science Lab and relaxed now that we saw it was empty. But empty in the tank wasnt helpful.
'Shit,' Casey cursed.
'Furlong must have sent it up to the university.' I stated.

'Doubtful.' Casey said.
'Where else could it be?' Stokely asked.

Casey sighed. 'What? What is it?' Delilah asked.
Stan looked a little blank I noticed, 'will someone please tell me what the hell's going on here?'

'Okay, it all started yesterday when I found this thing, this new species.' Casey began.
'Which is now missing,' Stokely intervened.
Stan made a face to go on. And I sighed and lifted my glasses higher up my nose, 'basically-'
'We think aliens are taking over our school.' Casey finished.

Stan looked at us seriously to see if we were joking, we all looked back with a serious expression, he laughed, 'yeah right. Come on.'
'You saw what Brummel did in the shower.' Casey reminded.
'I saw her dead body in the closet,' Delilah put in. 'They've been calling students into the office all day. The students with the most influence on down,' Stokely said.
'Including the new team captain,' I finished for her.

'Looks like you picked the right week to quit football.' Delilah objected.
'You think aliens have infested our school?' Stan asked incredulous.
'That would explain their weird behaviour, wouldnt it?' I asked him. Me and Stan didnt usually talk, but right now. We were onto something. We needed him to understand.

He looked at me, 'give me a fucking break.'
'Seriously, aliens?'

'You have a better explanation Stan?' Casey asked.
'Just listen to yourselves! Our teachers are aliens? No, thats not weird, that fucking psychotic.'

I sat down on a table and Casey tried to reason with him but he wasnt having none of it. 'Come on guys, this is nuts.'
'Then leave Stan. Why are you hanging around? Go win a Pulitzer.'
'Blow me Delilah 'cause Im sick of your shit.'

'Oh then get the fuck outta here and take your freak dyke with you.'
Stokely, feeling insulted, 'fuck you tit bags.'
'Will everybody calm down please?' I asked calmly. I was sick of this. Science is bad. Bad! I hate Science.

'All right. So, Casey,' Stan began again and I rolled my eyes, 'Let's go alien for a second. Why here? Why Ohio?'
Casey considered this for a moment then answered him, 'if you were gonna take over the world, would you blow up the White House Independance Day style, or sneak in through the back door?'

Suddenly, there was screaming by the door and everyone jumped to see Zeke holding his stomach like he was in pain. To be honest, he scared me way too damn much to care if he actually was.

MaryBeth follows and it makes me angry about what they could be doing together, now. She giggles as he rasps. 'Casey, Man the only person in this school who is an alien, is you man.'
'Fuck you Zeke.' Casey bites.
'Oh,' Zeke fakes hurt.

'What's going on here?' Again everyone jumps and turns to the door to find Mr Furlong there. 'Shouldnt you people be in class?'

Zeke spoke up, 'well its like Mr Furlong, Casey here, thinks your an alien.'
I looked up at Zeke and he glances at me but I shoot him a look and continue looking at Mr Furlong for a reaction, he laughs weirdly.
'The whole faculty actually,' Stan pipes up.

Pulling down the blind to the exit door, Mr Furlong asks, 'is that true?' Turning around he looks menacing, 'Casey?'
'The, uh, thing he found yesterday- Where is it?' I asked. 'I sent it to the university Carley.' He spat my name out.

'Do they know what it is?' Stokely asked.
He shrugs.

'Look, sorry to impose and disrupt Mr Furlong but-' Zeke begins but Mr Furlong grabs his arm stopping him.
'If you'd kindly take your seats, this will be over quite quickly. Now sit down!' He throws Zeke over the desk and Casey runs toward Mr Furlong.

I reach out to grab him but he is already getting held up by his neck. Delilah runs but gets pushed over the desk too. I run and claw at his arm but he easilly throws me backwards into Stokely and Stan.
We crumble to the floor and in time, watch Zeke get a blade from a paper cutter, 'put him the fuck down, Furlong.'
'This is for the best, Zeke.' Furlong says, Casey turns blue. But he throws him down and he falls back into me, Stokes and Stan who crumble back down to the floor.

Zeke lashes out and cuts four fingers off his hand. And we all scramble to get away from the little worms his fingers turned into in less than a second.

'Goddamn it!' Furlong pushes Zeke down to the table and pins him.
I get up suddenly but Zeke has already jabbed a wonder dust pen into Furlongs eye. I push him forcefully back and Zeke gets up and moves him arm in front of me.

Furlong isnt over yet though as he again, pushes Zeke backwards. Zeke pushes me away as he goes crashing back into the empty tank. His body shattering it to pieces.
I get pushed to the ground and watch helplessly as Furlong approaches Zeke again.
But before anything can happen, a foam appears around his eye where Zeke stabbed him. He stumbles backwards and I let out a cry as I have to move before Furlong crashes into me.
He falls behind a desk and its silent.

Stan throws the blade back to Zeke who catches it and pops another wonder dust.
I stand by Casey and watch with the others as Zeke approaches the desk and we all see, Furlong is actually dead.
The bell rings overhead.

'This is usually the point where somebody says; 'lets get the fuck outta here.' Stokely says.
Without missing a beat, Stan says, 'lets get the fuck outta here.'

Whoo, long one and more to update. Hope you liked. It was hard to write and I took three breaks for this one. I had to keep pausing the movie to get the right lines for the explanation and stuff, so sorry if its boring. How is that for Zeke and Carley though huh? A little fluff. More will come later, dont worry. They are gonna kiss before the end & shit, so dont skip to the end.