Cameron rejoined John in the hall after classes were over. "I was called a bitch today," she noted.
John was aghast. "I made a new friend," Cameron added.
"Did she call you that?" John asked confused.
"No, she cried," Cameron answered confusing John even more.
"Jumper!" a male student cried out with joyful enthusiasm.
Students rushed to go outside the halls and into the parking lot. John looked up and saw Jordan on the roof of a very tall building. "Do it!" a male student shouted.
"Shut up," John told him.
Cameron eyed John wondering what he would do. Some other students chatted amongst themselves as they saw what was happening. Some teachers also went outside to find out what was going on.
"I need to save her," John concluded.
"How?" Cameron asked.
"I'll go up there and talk with her. I'll reason with her. No one else is," John said.
John pulled away from Cameron and proceeded to go back into the building. Cameron suddenly held him back. "What are you doing?" John asked.
"No, you can't do this," she told him.
"Why the hell not?" John asked outraged.
"You will expose our position to the enemy," Cameron said.
John knew she was right but didn't want to listen. Every instinct in his body told he had to do something to help her. "She doesn't belong to you. She's not a soldier," Cameron told him.
"I can't just let her die," John protested.
"You can save many others if you keep still," Cameron argued.
Suddenly Jordan fell off the roof and plummeted towards the ground. There was a sick thud as her head hit the pavement first. John looked towards the impact and saw blood pouring out of Jordan's head; her body was not moving.
John felt a sickening sensation as he saw the dead girl's body laying on the ground. He gave Cameron an angry look and threw off her hand. Cameron observed John as he stormed off. She then turned to Jordan's body; her scanners determined her to be deceased. Cameron's computer brain scrolled down her list of contacts and crossed out Jordan's name.
John angrily entered the house with Cameron following him. Sarah watched as John headed to his room without a word. "What's wrong with him?" Sarah asked Cameron.
"A girl at school killed herself. She fell," Cameron said vaguely.
Sarah gave Cameron a surprised look. "I'll go talk with him," she said and went down the hall.
Sarah entered John's room; he was on his bed staring off into space. "Want to talk about it?" she asked him.
"What's the point? She's dead and I couldn't do anything about it," he said.
"If someone wants to end their life no one can stop them," Sarah told him.
John was not comforted by this notion. "I was right there and she stopped me," John said unhappily.
"What would you have done? Been the hero and gotten yourself on the news?" Sarah reasoned.
"What's the point of being a hero if you can't act it?" John asked.
"We're going to destroy Skynet, but before we do, we have to stay off the radar for a little longer," Sarah replied.
The Next Day
John and Cameron discovered a small memorial in a corner. Usually information on clubs and other updates were placed here, but instead there were pictures of Jordan, flowers, and notes. Cameron stopped to stare at the display; she had never seen anything like this before.
"If you want you can write down a note and put it here. There will be grief counseling all day," the guidance counselor said and then walked off.
Some of the students stopped by and started writing some notes on colored paper. "Why are they writing notes?" Cameron asked John.
"She's dead," she added.
"I know. Sometimes when something is so bad the only way to express grief is by writing it down," John explained.
Cameron didn't feel grief or sadness, the concept was still unknown to her. "Should I write a note?" Cameron asked.
John shrugged. "You can if you want," he said.
John and Cameron turned away from the memorial. "She shouldn't have done that," Cameron said once they were clear of a crowd.
"Done what?" John questioned.
"Killed herself. She shouldn't have done that," Cameron judged.
"Well, it happens more often than you think," John said.
"You never gave someone who committed suicide a memorial," Cameron noted.
"You mean the me of the future?" John asked.
"Yes, when someone committed suicide their name was erased from the files. It was if they never existed," Cameron said.
"That's different, it was a war zone," John objected.
"By memorializing her, you are glorifying her death. Encouraging others to do the same," Cameron argued.
John understood what she was saying but couldn't bring himself to agree. "I don't think the memorial will cause someone else to kill themselves," John told her.
"Not this one memorial, but if everyone did the same," Cameron continued.
John stopped walking towards his locker. "What brought this up? Do you believe this, I didn't think you had opinions," John said.
"I don't. They're yours," Cameron said and then walked off.
John entered a warehouse on the school grounds. It was filled with broken cars, pieces of metal, cutting tools, and other types of equipment; it was a metal shop class. An already good mechanic, John decided to take the class.
John went over to the engine of a disabled truck and looked at what was wrong with it. Before he could concentrate on his task, he heard shouting on the other side of the warehouse. A Hispanic teen was having trouble securing tools from his peers. John looked over and saw four students tormenting the kid.
"Come on, give him the tool," John said annoyed.
The four teens saw John's serious expression and decided to give him the tool, they had no need for it anyway. The teen went up to John with a thankful expression.
"Thanks bro," he said appreciatively.
"It was nothing," John said turning back to his truck.
"The name is Morris," Morris introduced.
"John," John replied.
"Need any help?" Morris offered.
"Actually…yeah, this engine looks shot," John said examining it.
The two began working on it and then wrote down everything necessary to fix it. After an hour, the two became a good team surpassing everyone else in the class for the day.
Cameron scanned the outside tables where students were busy eating lunch. She finally found John and walked by him. He was chatting with Morris as she sat down. "Hi," Morris said stunned as he saw her.
Cameron glanced at Morris for a quick scan and then turned her attention to John as she sat down. "This is Morris. This is Cameron…she's my cousin," John said awkwardly introducing the Terminator.
"You're cousin," Morris repeated.
Cameron recorded Morris as a new contact in her files. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Some math homework," John said as he continued to write.
"But I already did your homework," Cameron pointed out.
"Well, I still have to study for the test. I need to know this stuff," John reasoned.
"Wait, you do your cousins' homework. Will you do mine?" Morris asked.
"Yes," Cameron said without hesitation.
John shook his head in disgust as Morris took out his books and showed them to Cameron. Morris watched as Cameron worked on the math problems with amazing speed. Cameron's visual scanners translated Morris' handwriting into text. She then correctly identified the solution, and then retranslated the text into Morris' handwriting.
"You're pretty smart," Morris complimented.
"Yes, I am," Cameron replied distracted.
A female student came up to Cameron and interrupted her work. "You have a note from the guidance counselor," she said and gave the note to Cameron.
John stared at Cameron wondering how she would handle the situation. "I must end our study session Morris," Cameron said to Morris.
"I'll be back soon," Cameron said to John and left.
John gave Morris a look of dread. "It's no big deal bro. It's just a guidance counselor," Morris said downplaying the situation.
"I know. It's nothing," John said reverting back to his homework.
Cameron entered the guidance counselor's office. He was sitting behind his desk and offered Cameron a seat. He was in his early thirties, blond haired, blue eyes, pale complexion, and average build. Cameron sat down and then scanned the counselor into her memory.
"How are you feeling?" the counselor began.
"I'm fine," Cameron replied.
"Some of the students have told me that you were the last person to speak with Jordan before she died. Is that true?" the counselor asked.
"Are you asking me if I was the last person to talk to her or what other people have said?" Cameron asked.
"I guess I'm asking if you were?" the counselor pressed.
"I don't know," Cameron replied truthfully.
The counselor gave a slightly frustrated look. "What did she say the last time you spoke with her? Was it disturbing to you?" the counselor continued.
Cameron went back to her conversation logs. "She said her parents were going to kill her. She said she wanted to end her life. She was upset about the graffiti," Cameron said.
"And no, it didn't disturb me," Cameron added.
"Do she say anything about the graffiti, what it meant, or anything?" the counselor asked.
Cameron's computer brain raced to consider all possibilities:
Jordan-affair-older man-scandal-graffiti--parent's going to kill her-suicide--guidance counselor. Her brain tracked down all of the teachers in the school, and then segregated out the males, and then considered all of the single males, and then came up with a list of a few teachers and faculty members. The guidance counselor remained on her list.
"No, is there something you would like to tell me?" Cameron asked as she went into interrogation mode.
"I don't think I told you anything," the guidance counselor said defensively.
"Oh," Cameron corrected herself.
The guidance counselor looked uncomfortable, he was fighting to keep himself professional. A normal student wouldn't have noticed it, but Cameron could see an increase in skin temperature, pupil dilation, etc. Cameron could tell he was nervous about her.
"Are you feeling okay? Are you sad or grieved, because I can schedule more sessions," the guidance counselor offered.
"You already asked me that. I did not know her very well. I'm sorry if I don't show signs of grief," Cameron apologized.
"It's okay," the guidance counselor allowed.
"I'm done with grief counseling and I feel much better now," Cameron said. "May I go?" she asked.
"Sure, go," the guidance counselor said feeling relieved that she was leaving.
Cameron picked up her belongings and left the room. The session took over most of the lunch period. As she came back to the table with John and Morris, the bell rang for their next class.
"Hey, I got to get going," Morris said to John and then turned to Cameron.
"Thanks a lot," he said referring to his math homework.
"No problem," Cameron replied and then turned to John.
"How did it go?" John asked.
"Fine, I have developed a suspicion," she told him.
"Are you sure?" John asked as he walked down the halls with Cameron.
Cameron and John passed by the newly painted wall where the graffiti had been placed the day before. "There is enough circumstantial evidence to prove that he was involved," Cameron said.
"What do we do?" John wondered.
"We do nothing. Any action taken against the guidance counselor will raise our visibility," Cameron concluded.
"But we have to do something. What if he does this again?" John argued.
"Then he does it again," Cameron said without concern.
She then paused and judged his facial expression. "I doubt he will he try to attack you," she said.
"I wasn't thinking about myself. I was thinking about others," John told her.
Cameron could tell that John wasn't going to drop the issue. "If we are to expose him, we must do it indirectly," Cameron said.
"What do you mean?" John asked confused.
Cameron eyed Morris as he closed his locker. "Oh, no, you're not thinking," John protested.
"He may be useful," Cameron pointed out.
"He's a person, not a tool," John told her.
"You must choose what you want John," Cameron replied.
Author's Note: I think it was pretty obvious that the guidance counselor had something to do with Jordan's death, so I hope to expand that out a little more. I am adding chapters at a rapid pace at the moment, so if you want something to happen review quickly.
