AN: This chapter was a lot harder than it should have been. Oh well. Hope you guys enjoy this!
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Suing will be futile.
Chapter 5
The rest of the morning passed pretty uneventfully. Tyler's second period was American Literature. All the class did was spend the time reading "The Scarlet Letter," so there was no way for me to notice any intelligence differences within this group of kids. The boredom radiating off of this group was enough to drive me nuts. Granted, I don't like "The Scarlet Letter" either, but they took it to a whole new level. I at least understand its literary worth and the importance it shows in the culture of the time period it is based off of. But, that could just be because I'm an English major, so of course I would appreciate this book. These kids could care less. 'God, was I this annoying when I was their age?'
His third period was World History in which they spent the time in small groups coming up with the historical significance of the French Revolution. Oh, that was fun to watch. These kids wouldn't understand historical significance if it hit them in the face with a chair. But, I kept to my little corner and stayed out of the way. Lunch could not have come fast enough. I'm about ready to bag the whole thing and just go home, but lunch will be an important time for me to talk to some of the other kids. And when I say "talk" I mean eavesdrop.
The bell signaling the end of third period finally rings and we head off to the cafeteria. Tyler's locker is right by the cafeteria so we head there first so he can drop off his things. While we are there, I pay attention to the conversations around me, hoping to hear something about this drug that is circulating around the school. So far, I haven't heard anything about it and if I don't at least get a little information on it before I leave, this would have been a wasted day. I lean my head against the lockers and close my eyes while I listen to the dull roar around me. Being in the hallways with all the other students is still a strain, but I am slowly able to handle it. I am not excited about going into the cafeteria with the entire student population in one very small room.
As I wait for Tyler to finish arranging everything I pick up on a conversation just down the hallway from us. Two girls are walking slowly towards the cafeteria and speaking in excited tones. The blonde girl of the duo pipes up, "You will not guess what just happened in History. Piper basically confessed to being on that new drug going around school!"
The red-head gasps loud enough for me to hear clear on the other end of the hallway. "She did not!"
"She did!" the other one squeals. "Okay, well, she didn't come right out and say that she was taking it, obviously. The teacher was right there! But, she confessed to going to the nurse's office this morning and being given a pill that will help with her tiredness. Next thing we know, she knows all the answers to the pop quiz that was given today and you know how she is with history."
"I can't believe it. Piper got her hands on that pill before one of us? That's just criminal!"
"I know, right? I can hardly believe it…"
I lose track of the conversation as they enter the cafeteria, but that doesn't matter now. I know exactly where to go to get my hands on the pill. Now it's just a matter of getting some.
While I silently plan my next strategy, Kendra walks up and links arms with Tyler. "Hello, Tyler! You will never guess what I just heard!"
"You just heard that Piper got her hands on Maxmiphil and is now the top student in history even though she sucks at history," I guess before Tyler can even speak. Kendra jumps about a foot in the air and looks at me with wide-eyes. Apparently she didn't even notice I was there. 'Heehee, I love scaring my kids!' "Hello, Kendra. Nice to see you today!"
"Ms. O'Shea!" she whispers loudly and leaning in closer to me, as if to try and keep the conversation private. "What are you doing here?"
"That's Mary to you while I'm inside this building," I start out, trying to get her to shut up before someone hears. "And I'm just looking for new recruits. I'm assuming some of you will be leaving at the end of the semester and I need an idea of who I can fill the empty spots with while you all leave." I sniff loudly, acting like a parent about to lose her precious child.
"Oh, shove off, Mary," she says, adding extra emphasis on the name. "You and I both know that is not the truth. Besides, none of us plan on leaving anytime soon. You're stuck with us for the rest of your life."
"Wow," I reply, crossing my arms and looking her up and down. "I wasn't aware you could sneer so well, Kendra. Be careful, or you might scare all the cute boys away," I taunt, winking at Tyler who is uncomfortably sitting in the middle of all this.
"Oh, be quiet, you," she responds. 'Great comeback'' I think and snicker quietly to myself. "Come on, Tyler, let's go get some chips! I'm starving!"
She drags Tyler off to the cafeteria. He looks back at me and tries to say something to get me to come along. I just wave him off telling him I'll be back later. First I have to go investigate the nurse's office. And then, gorge myself in chips.
The walk to the nurse's office was quiet and uneventful. Almost no one is in the hallways at this point in the afternoon and it is quite refreshing, getting away from the bombardment of emotions that go on in this school, even if it's briefly. The nurse's office is attached next to the office at the front of the school, so it isn't too far from the cafeteria. Hopefully the nurse is on a lunch break so I can infiltrate the office and try and find this drug that she is handing out to the students. If she is there, I can just pretend to be a student and tell her that I am not feeling well and maybe she will give me one to enhance my performance, or whatever. I prefer the first option. I like the thought of being sneaky—makes this much more fun.
Walking up to the office, I notice the door is shut. I knock on the door, praying that there is no answer. I look around while I wait a few seconds. Still no one in the halls. It's kind of eerie with no students around. I knock once more when I get no response after 20 seconds of waiting. When the same amount of time has passed, I grasp the doorknob, look down both ways for good measure, and open the door. I'm actually surprised the door isn't locked, considering it is the nurse's station. The lights are out and I don't see anyone sleeping in the two cots that are set up. I shut the door quietly and turn on the light. I look at my watch and give myself exactly five minutes to look around. I don't want to push it too long and risk having the nurse come back while I am ransacking her office.
I start at the table set between the two beds up against the far wall. After rummaging around in there for a moment, I only find bandages and gauze. Definitely not what I am looking for. Next is the long counter set up on the wall adjacent to the door, the only other place the pills could be located in the room. While I look in the overhead cupboards a thought suddenly strikes me: What if she (I'm assuming the nurse is a she) keeps the pills on her at all times? Then my search will be pointless and I will have to come back and ask her for them anyway. I really prefer that not to be the case. I continue my search, moving on to the bottom drawers once I figure out the top cupboards are mainly gloves, paper towel, and liquid medicine. The first drawer is nothing but syringes, which makes me shudder, and I quickly decide to move on. The second drawer is full of a variety of band-aids. A student has the option of choosing between Hello Kitty, Spongebob, Harry Potter, Transformers, the Peanuts, and many other cartoon characters. I approve of the selection. I grab a small band-aid that says "Ninja fight" on it and pocket it for later. I am so wearing this as a fashion sense, not for any legitimate injury.
I move on to the last drawer before I look under the drawers and into the bottom cupboards. "Jackpot," I whisper when I open the door. This one is filled with pill bottles of all different colors and varieties. Now here comes the tricky part—finding the one I am looking for. I look at my watch and notice I only have a minute left before I have to leave. I start searching through each pill bottle, starting with the clear orange ones then moving on to the other obscure ones. So, far, no such luck. A lot of these are specific prescriptions for students that need to be administered to them by an adult. It's hard to weed through all of these long prescription names and remain focused on my task. That bottle is here, I can just feel it!
The last bottle I pick up is a big, fat, white one with a blue label. The handwriting on it marks it with the word I have been searching for, Maxmiphil. 'Finally!' I found it! 'Now, to grab a couple pills and get the heck out of here without getting caught!' I unscrew the lid and pop two pills into the palm of my hand. They are little inconspicuous capsules, looking like any other prescription pill a physician might prescribe to someone. As unthreatening as they seem, I still need to somehow get them analyzed… How I am going to manage that one is a mystery to me, but one step at a time. I carefully screw the lid back on, place it where I found it, shut the drawer and pocket the pills. Looking at my watch, I notice I stayed in here a minute longer than I wanted to. Lunch is still in full swing though, so I will at least be able to get something to eat before the second half of the day. I walk over to the door and shut off the light before opening it. I crack it open, stick my head out and look both ways down the hallway. Still no one around, thank God. I slip out, shut the door quietly and head off in the direction of the cafeteria with my prize in hand, er, pocket, and daydream about a very large stack of chips in front me. Maybe I'll even tease some of my kids when I get there.
As I walk I start to think about my next step. 'Well, now I have them. I obviously need to figure out what is in these things. But how am I going to manage that?' Suddenly, I realize just how in over my head I really am. I have literally no help in this. Maybe I can get one of the chemistry teachers to help me out. I have no idea if they can actually help me with this. Well, it's worth it to at least ask.
I walk into the cafeteria and get slammed in the face again with the raw emotional energy these students are sending out. How none of the other adults can feel it I will never understand. I take a deep breath and head over to the food line. I grab my chips and a drink and look around the cafeteria. I see my kids sitting off in the far corner out of the way of the rest of the school. I can tell they are having a good time though, if their smiles are anything to go by. Jerry is telling a very detailed story about something and apparently it is highly amusing. I smile fondly, glad they have each other now. I continue scanning the cafeteria and see John Smith sitting by himself off the right side of the room. I frown slightly. 'Why is he by himself?' I look back at my students briefly before making my decision to sit with John. 'Besides,' I think as I walk over, 'maybe he can help me out.'
"So, why is it that you are sitting alone, Mr. Smith? Seems awfully depressing," I say, plopping my tray down across from him and taking a seat on the bench. "Especially considering you are the new one here," I continue, popping a chip in my mouth. "I would figure you're the type to try and get to know everyone and everything."
"Oh, well," he says, leaning his head back and taking a look around. "Sometimes the best way to get to know a place is to throw yourself in to the culture. Eat the food, use the wrong lingo, listen to the gossip. All quite fascinating, really." He takes a bite of his own food and smiles wide at me. "Besides, you're sitting with me now. I would hardly call that alone."
I roll my eyes and keep eating the chips. Really, they are so good! "I've got something to tell you about what we were discussing earlier," I finally say once I'm done chewing.
"Yeah? And what might that be?"
I pull out the pills from my pocket and place them on the table in between us. I eat some more of my chips and look at John, gauging his reaction. He stares at them for a minute before looking up at me over the top of glasses. "Is this what I think it is?"
I nod, sipping at my drink, watching him watching me. It's a little unnerving, his stare. He is really hard to read. Usually when I sense a person's emotions, they are pretty straight-forward: someone is happy or they are not, there is no in-between. This guy does not follow the same conventions as the rest of the people I have encountered. In fact, he completely throws those conventions out the window and seems to create his own. I sense happiness, but it is toned down, like he is almost reluctant to feel it. Then there is the pride, which doesn't make much sense. Why would he be feeling pride right now? Going a little deeper, there's also annoyance and wariness. Then even deeper, almost completely covered up by the others is worry and fear. 'He's not afraid for me, is he? We only just met, why would he be worried about me? It can't be for me. He must be thinking of the implications of what these drugs mean for the students. Yeah, that's it.'
"May I ask how you came by this?" he asks, pulling me out of my analysis. Not that it was much of an analysis anyway. He still hasn't stopped staring at me, and I momentarily forget about my food. His eyes demand that I answer him.
"Well, when I was out in the hallway, I heard these two girls talking about the nurse giving another girl the pill because she was feeling tired. I decided to go check out the nurse's office to see if I couldn't find the pill myself." I shrug, breaking eye contact to look down at my tray. I feel like a small child under his stare and it makes me pretty uncomfortable. His feelings of annoyance and worry are growing the more I talk. I don't understand it. I start playing with some of the chips on my tray as I continue talking. "There was no one there and the door was unlocked. I only spent five minutes looking. I would have left if I didn't find the pills in that amount of time. And if the nurse had been there, I would have simply told her I was feeling a little run-down and hopefully she would have given me the pill herself. I am masquerading as a student today." I look back up at him. I don't know why, but I feel I have to defend myself for my actions. I think it's the annoyance that is starting to radiate off of him in waves. Yeah, that's definitely it.
He holds my eyes once I look back up at him as he slowly reaches over and grabs the pills. "You do know how dangerous that could have been, right?" he finally murmurs. "You could have gotten yourself into a seriously bad situation with absolutely no backup and no plan."
"Dangerous, how? Even if the nurse had been there, it's not like she was going to lock me in the room and hold me hostage. The room locks on the inside and there is a window in case of an emergency."
"There are many ways to put a person in danger without locking them in a room, Lily," he muttered, looking much older than he should. There is a pain in his eyes that runs so deep. I begin to wonder who this man really is, and why his eyes look so old.
We stare at each other for another minute, a silent exchange going between us. He finally breaks eye contact to look at the pills. He rolls them between his fingers, staring at them with narrowed eyes. "They look normal enough," I state as I resume eating my food. However, it tastes like cardboard in my mouth and I seem to have lost my appetite. "They were actually why I wanted to talk to you. I have absolutely no idea of how to analyze those little devils to figure out what is in them and what their side-effects might be." He looks up at me as I talk, understanding starting to dawn in his eyes. "You wouldn't happen to know a way that we can get those analyzed, would you?"
"'We?'" he asks.
"Yes, we. Whether or not you like it, Mr. Smith, you are officially a member of my detective agency. You see, like you pointed out, I have no back up whatsoever if something suddenly goes sour with this investigation, and I refuse to get my kids involved. Would you be willing to help with my cause and make sure no one is harming these students?" I hold out my hand, sticking my nose in the air pompously. I am perfectly okay with sounding a little bossy right now. Like he pointed out, I need back up, and I refuse to take no for an answer.
He looks at my hand a second longer then grasps it within his own. "Well, Ms. O'Shea, you seem to have gotten yourself a partner in crime."
"Tsk," I reprimand, wagging my finger. "Partner in investigation. No crimes have thus been committed and I don't plan on committing any crimes in the future."
He smiles his 100 watt smile at me. "Alright, partner, first things first. We need to get these analyzed. I will take care of that myself." When I give him a confused look, he explains further. "I have a device that will get the compounds in this analyzed and identified in no time. With that information we should be able to ascertain the side-effects of the drug and determine if it is harmful to the students. After that, I guess we shall see. Oh, this should be brilliant!"
'Brillliant,' I think. 'Yeah, it'll be brilliant alright. And completely fun.'