A new month brings a new mystery. A missing key leads to much more troubled than Shawn dreamed it could…
March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb was a goofy adult saying that Shawn had heard most of his life but never understood it until that year. March of '96 roared its arrival by radically changing his home life. On March 1st, Shawn woke up on the couch of the apartment with his feet propped up on a pillow. He sat up, yawned, ran his fingers through his hair, and sleepily blinked several times. His feet were on a pillow on Audrey's lap. Audrey was curled up against Jon with her head on his chest. Jon's arms were wrapped around her. Both were still asleep.
Shawn blinked again, this time in confusion and he couldn't remember what the date was. Was it December? No, he thought, December was a few months ago. Was he dreaming about December? No, he wasn't dreaming about Christmas again because his stomach was growling far too loudly for him to still be asleep. But this had to be a dream because they were at the apartment not Audrey's house. Shawn rested his head against the arm of the couch as he tried to understand where the three of them were that they could be together like this.
Maybe he'd successfully conned Jon into staying overnight at Audrey's. That had to be it. They were at Audrey's and he was just confused. They couldn't be at Jon's because too many people wandered in and out, mostly because Eli was bad at locking the door when he came in and Jon was worse at locking the door when Eli went out. Shawn started to go to sleep again when he heard a familiar set of footsteps.
Eli!
Shawn sat up suddenly panicked as everything became crystal clear. They were at the apartment. It was March 1st, and it was Monday morning!
The clock on the wall showed 6:30 am. How in the world could he explain why Audrey was there so early and asleep on Jon? He jumped up, careful not to kick Audrey awake. However, the teen had no problem punching Jon in the shoulder to wake him up.
Jon glared at him, clearly not appreciating the rude awakening. He hugged Audrey tighter and closed his eyes again.
Shawn stomped his foot trying to get the man's attention. "Eli's here!"
"What!?" In an instant, Jon was fully awake. He heard the doorknob rattle. He was sitting upright but the girl in his arms was still asleep. "Audrey, wake up!"
Shawn raced to the door to check to make sure the deadbolt lock was secured. It was. Eli pounded on the door right where Shawn's ear was.
"Hmmm?" She mumbled drowsily.
Jon shot an annoyed look at the door. "Eli's here."
"Oh? That's nice." The redhead sighed and snuggled closer to him.
Jon and Shawn stared at each other, neither quite sure what to do.
"Hey, Jonny!" Eli called. "Open the door!"
Shawn threw his arms out to the side. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm takin' her to your room. Stall 'im," he said as he picked up the sleeping girl and started to carry her to the back bedroom. "Then you come and stay with her. Eli can't see her walkin' out of a bedroom this early!"
"Then what?" the teen demanded. "Eli's gonna expect you to go with him to school and me to go with Cory. How are we gonna get Audrey out without her being seen and so she's not late to school? If we don't leave by 7 we're all gonna be late."
Jon stared at Shawn for a moment wondering why he was suddenly so concerned with everyone showing up to John Adams High on time. Then he realized the kid was right. "Get her get fully awake. You get ready for school. Then go with her to meet Cory. Use the fire escape."
"Great idea, there's just one problem with that."
"What?"
"You made it so my window won't open all the way."
Jon twisted his lips into a tight, closed "o". "I'll take her to my room. After you're ready, take her out my window."
Shawn grinned. This was the most exciting morning he'd had since he moved in with Jon.
To make up for the excitement of the morning, that afternoon Mr. Feeny handed him a stack of incomplete papers that he'd been hiding from Jon. Shawn was not allowed to go the afternoon's pep rally for the upcoming football game. Instead, he had to go to a tutoring session to get caught up. It wasn't all bad, however. After Jon chewed him out for his academic shortcomings, he got to spend the rest of the day with his tutor who turned out to be Audrey. It surprised him some that Mr. Feeny chose her to oversee him, but then she was pretty much the last one standing- none of the other tutors could handle him. Or wanted to.
Shawn didn't mind missing the pep rally. He didn't care much for football and being with Audrey in the library was most certainly better than sitting in a crowded gymnasium shouting at his friends to only be partially heard. Catching up on missing work wasn't all that bad either as Audrey allowed him to talk so long as he worked.
About half-way through the stack of work a tall, thin shadow fell across the paper he was working on, blocking his light. He looked up sharply into the hazel green eyes of his nemesis. He gritted his teeth together and glared at her.
"Hello, Shawn," Miss Tompkins said brightly. Her smile was thin and condescending. "How's your work coming?"
"None of your business," he snorted, flipping his paper upside down so that she couldn't see anything.
Audrey gave him a warning poke on the arm.
"Lovely attitude there, Shawn." She gave him a faux smile as she snatched the English paper he was working on.
"Hey!" he cried, shoving his chair back and jumping up. "I'm working on that!"
"I suppose you could call this work," she said with a disdainful edge in her voice. "Shawn, isn't this for Jon's class?"
"Yeah. So?"
"So why do you do this, Shawn?" She put her hand on her hips, with her talons still gripping his paper. "After all he's done for you and you can't even bother to complete the assignments he gives you?"
He despised the way she kept saying his name. Defensiveness and fear cloaked in rebellion consumed Shawn as he tried to get his paper away from her. "I got busy and forgot."
It was the truth, too. Audrey came over the night before it was due and, in his rush, to get his work done so he could spend time with her, he overlooked Jon's assignment. Although he was kept on the hook for it at school, at home there were no consequences. Jon had rushed through checking his homework in so he could spend time with Audrey and missed that Shawn hadn't completed the paper for his class. His said they were both at fault on this one and couldn't a give Shawn a punishment without giving one to himself.
"Oh, Shawn," she shook her head as though he was the most pathetic and hopeless creature to ever walk the earth. "How is poor Jon ever going to be able to trust you?"
"I'll take that, thank you." Audrey sweetly stepped in between the two and firmly took the paper away from Katherine, much to the older woman's surprise. She held the teacher's gaze and gave her a charming smile. "I think poor Jon will trust Shawn just fine."
Shawn lifted his chin so that he was looking down his nose at Miss Tompkins and gave her a triumphant smirk.
The social studies teacher seemed to have difficulty acknowledging Audrey's presence. It was as though she preferred to act as if the younger woman didn't exist. Finally, she turned on the girl with a razor-sharp smile that was almost a sneer. "This isn't your concern, hun."
"It is when you disrupt my tutoring session. "Audrey was much better at presenting a very sweet, childlike demeanor to mask the cunning fox underneath than Katherine was.
"Oh, honey." She was even more condescending to Audrey than she was to Shawn. "I know that at your age you think you know everything, but you are too young to know how to deal with it," she cast a withering look at Shawn, "high school boys."
By this time Shawn had taken his seat again per Audrey's prodding and very clearly heard her mutter, "okay, Grandma," under her breath. He nearly choked trying to contain his laughter. His teacher lightly smacked his knee and frowned at him to stop. For her, he complied.
Katherine put her hand on the chair in front of her, the one Shawn had hung his leather jacket on, and leaned forward, suspicious of what Audrey mumbled. Her fingers curled around the broken-in leather clothing. Suddenly she straightened up, pulling the jacket off the chair and onto the floor. Shawn dove forward to catch it, but Miss Tompkins was too close for him to get it first. She held the jacket up and scrutinized it.
Shawn's pulse raced and the muscles in his upper back cramped in tension. He did not want her touching his things, especially not that jacket.
The teacher looked over the jacket thoroughly before tossing it onto the table. She slipped her hands in her pockets and gave the teen a hard look.
"Finish your paper, Shawn," Audrey told him after he settled the jacket on his chair back, ignoring the other woman's frozen expression of disapproval.
Shawn looked Miss Tompkins right in the eye and said respectfully. "Yes, Miss Andrews. Whatever you say." Then he seriously started to work while keeping an on the other teacher.
Miss Tompkins had clearly lost whatever battle she had come to fight, but she wasn't going to go in complete defeat. She straightened the collar of her denim shirt and lightly cleared her throat.
"I expect that you'll have this done tonight before I come over?"
This remark stopped both Shawn and Audrey dead but Audrey, given the situation that she was in, could not react. Shawn refrained from looking at Audrey and giving her away. Not reacting was extremely difficult.
"I'll have it done before this period is over with if you'll leave me alone."
Katherine straightened up. "I'll see you tonight then."
Shawn couldn't resist taking the bait. "What're you talking about?"
"What does 'I'll see you tonight' usually mean, Shawn?"
"Jon and I have plans together tonight. We won't be home," he frowned. Audrey also had the same plans as them. He wasn't sure how Katherine figured she'd worm her way into this.
"That's not a problem," she laughed as though he'd just said the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
"We'll be out late," he said flatly.
"You won't be that late. It's a school night," she told him good-naturedly. She leaned over and reached her hand out to him. He recoiled. She gave him a sly smile. "I have a few things to do after school, too. If I miss you then I'll just wait for you guys to come back. I have a key, you know."
She pinched his cheek. Hard. Then Katherine Tompkins sauntered out of the library, leaving Shawn and Audrey sitting in stunned silence.
Jonathan Turner managed to escape from the pep-less pep rally while Mr. Feeny was busy arguing with Frankie Stecchino's father who was unhappy with the lackluster event and wanted to liven it up himself. He made a beeline to the library where he found Audrey and Shawn hunkered down at a table that was hidden behind the bookcases farthest from the door.
He thought they'd be happy to see him. They weren't.
Shawn glared at him then resumed chewing on his pencil as Audrey, who didn't bother to acknowledge that he was there, looked over the teen's work.
"Hi, guys," he said, giving Shawn a look of inquiry. "You two are in great moods. What gives?"
Shawn said nothing and turned his back on his teacher.
"What is that about?" Jon asked. He took a chair and turned it around backwards before sitting down.
Audrey looked at Shawn then at Jon. The seas were choppy and stormy again, a dark gray against green and blue. He hated to see her eyes like that; there was never anything good beneath that look.
"Aud?"
They had to walk on eggshells now more than before given that their relationship had changed. Audrey couldn't just come out and tell him what was upsetting her, not here. Even though she and Shawn had moved to a back table after their encounter with Katherine, they still had to be incredibly careful about who saw them together. She couldn't lose control nor show any emotion. She looked at Shawn again and nodded curtly to him giving him permission to voice what she could not.
"Miss Tompkins has a key." The accusation was sharp and bitter. Shawn turned on him and looked at him directly. His eyes had the very same look as Audrey's but more turbulent. "You lied to me. You said you took your key back from her."
Jon's mouth hung open as he wondered what alternate universe he stumbled into. He could not understand where this key nonsense came from or why Audrey seemed to hold the same belief the boy did.
"She doesn't have a key. I did take it back," he insisted.
Audrey pursed her lips and sat back in her chair, staring at her hands. Shawn turned his back on him again.
"What is this about?"
"Katherine came in here," she told him, very quietly. "She said she would see you tonight. If you were out, she'd be waiting. She said she had a key."
"She said that?" Fear sank into Jon. "In front of you? She said she had a key and was coming over in front of you?" His heart began to race at the thought that Katherine might suspect that Audrey was spending time at his place. Could Eli have said something? His best friend knew that Audrey being over in the afternoons was a big NO in Feeny's book and Eli had no problem keeping this secret from the principal. But the media arts teacher did not know exactly how much time the three of them were actually spending together. Given that Kat used to be his girlfriend Eli might have offhandedly said something to her, not knowing that he shouldn't. Mentally, he cursed himself for not taking Eli into his confidence more.
"Uh-huh."
Jon pulled his keys from his pocket and laid them out on the table. "Shawn, you know there are four keys to my place. You both have one. And I have two," he said, pointing to the twin number 8 keys on the key ring. "She absolutely does not have a key."
Audrey was so relieved she felt like she might pass out.
Shawn was not so easily convinced. "Then why would she say that she did?" he demanded.
"I dunno," Jon said. His brow knit together in deep distress. "She may suspect something. We have got to be more careful."
Audrey nodded. A few students drifted in and caught her attention. She handed Jon one of Shawn's books and a paper of his. The English Lit teacher looked confused for a moment then understood what she was doing. He opened the book and pretended to check over the paper.
The student teacher scooted closer to Shawn and pointed to the sheet of scratch paper in front of him as though there was an error to correct on the blank page. "You aren't dating her anymore," she said in quiet frustration. "Does she really think that pretending that you will change anything? You and Shawn are not her business anymore."
"And it was never George's business in the first place!" he growled, giving the pages of the book irritated flips. "But here we are hidin' the back of the library like we're plannin' a heist!"
"Plannin' a heist?" This comparison sounded so absurd that Shawn couldn't help but laugh.
Jon smiled. "Anyone watchin' us probably thinks we did or will commit a crime the way we've been sneakin' around."
Shawn thought about the absurdity then became sullen. "We have to sneak around to do what other people do out in the open every day," he said morosely. He crossed his arms in a protective way over his chest. "We're not doing anything wrong, but we have to hide. It's not fair."
"Three more months, Shawn," Jon reassured him. He reached across the table to take hold of the teen's forearm in a fatherly gesture. "Audrey's done here at the end of May." He looked at his student teacher then back to his student. "Then we can take steps to make this thing we got here real."
Shawn stared at him, mouth agape, brow furrowed, trying to grasp what his teacher was saying. All Jon had ever said to him was to forget about him and Audrey getting together: it wasn't possible, she was too young, the age gap was too great, he wasn't right for her. Something had radically changed in Jon and somehow, Shawn had missed it.
"What do you mean make this thing real?" he asked suspiciously, half-afraid that the answer would not be what he hoped it would be.
Jon glanced at Audrey, suddenly extremely nervous. He had never said aloud to anyone what he had been thinking about since Christmas. "Well," he said taking a deep inhale, "we gotta take things a step at a time, but you know, start moving toward making the three of a us a permanent thing."
Jon's words came as even more of a surprise to Audrey than they did to Shawn, but there wasn't time to mull them over. Students were swarming the hallway after being dismissed from the event in the gym. "We shouldn't be talking about this here, Jon. The pep rally is over."
He nodded. "We've got plenty of time to talk later."
Shawn looked back and forth between the two adults, unable to believe what he was hearing. Ever since Audrey showed up in September he'd been daydreaming about this very thing: marriage and adoption. Now Jon was saying that is what they would actually do. Shawn should have been elated, but he wasn't. He knew better than to get his hopes up. It was simply too good to be true. And nothing good ever happened to Shawn Hunter.
Hesitantly, he asked, "We just have to make it to the end of May?"
Jon nodded. "We just have to make it to the end of May then we're home free."
Cory and Topanga caught up with Shawn after the pep rally by the lockers. The boys collected their belongings before heading to their sixth period class together. The day was almost over, and Shawn couldn't wait to get home.
"Boy, I have got somethin' to tell you guys," he said letting out a low whistle.
"Yeah?" Cory hoped that his best friend had something interesting planned to make up for that poor excuse for a pep rally.
"I can't tell you anything here."
Topanga gave him an amused smile and assumed he'd had some adventure during his tutoring time. "Why not?" she asked.
"Can't risk the wrong person overhearing."
As Shawn stuffed five shirts that had accumulated in his locker over the week into his book bag a very pretty brunette sauntered up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Hiiiii, Shawn," she greeted him flirtatiously.
"Yeah, hi, Veronica," he said dismissively. Turning back to his friends he asked, "Any chance you can both walk home with me?"
Cory and Topanga exchanged shocked looks. Did Shawn Hunter just ignore Veronica Watson- the girl he went to such great lengths to spend time alone with at the beginning of the school year?
"Shawn," Veronica tried again. This time she took hold of his collar and leaned close to him. "I just broke up with my boyfriend again. I'm free Friday night." She batted her eyelashes at him with a hopeful smile.
"Yeah? That's nice. See ya." With that he pulled Cory, who pulled Topanga, away from Veronica and the lockers.
"You just turned down Veronica Watson!" Topanga cried still stunned.
"Did I?" Shawn looked confused, then shrugged.
"Yeah, you did," Cory confirmed. "What's going on that's better Veronica?"
When he saw the dirty look Topanga was giving him, he quickly added, "that isn't Topanga I mean."
"It's major!" It was so hard not to just tell them right then, but he was overly concerned Miss Tompkins might be shadowing them or might have hired some dumb kid to spy on him. "I mean change my life kind of major."
"Tell us now!" Cory demanded.
Shawn began his routine at the end of the day to make sure he had everything that was most important to take home like his leather jacket and his key.
"Can't. Not here..." Shawn's voice trailed off as he patted his pockets. "Uh-oh."
"Uh-oh what?"
"Uh-oh my key," he said worriedly. "I can't find my key." He patted himself down several times but came up empty handed. "Not again," he grumbled, puffing his bangs out of his face.
It wasn't the first time he'd lost his key to Jon's apartment, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Still Shawn felt like an idiot for making such a big deal out of keys earlier only to lose his. An insistent nagging tugged at his gut as he searched the pockets of his jacket again. He knew he had had the key on him and that there was no way he could have accidentally dropped it.
Previously, he'd lost the key because he never secured it properly or paid much attention to it until it came up missing. The last time he lost it, Jon refused to make another key 1) because Shawn needed to learn to be responsible and 2) he didn't want a bunch of copies of the key to their home floating around for just anyone to find and use. In order to avoid long hours detained at school waiting for Jon to finish his day so he could get into his home, Shawn had resolved not to lose the key again. And when he did find it- in the outside pocket of his book bag- he had managed to hold onto it ever since. That was nearly two months ago. He knew he had it with him when he left the apartment that morning. It had been concealed in the interior pocket of his leather jacket- the pocket without any holes. He had worn his jacket most of the day with a few exceptions when it was in his locker. He didn't know where he could have lost it.
As he went over every conceivable place he had been that day, he remembered his jacket being tossed to the floor by Miss Tompkins. "Oh, no!"
"Now what?" Cory asked with concern.
"The library! I think it fell out of my pocket in the library!"
Cory and Topanga faithfully helped him search for the missing key in the library and everywhere else Shawn went that day, but they couldn't find it. Shawn had to face Jon after school to admit his mistake. When he went to deliver the bad news, he was surprised to find the classroom door locked. Audrey opened it for him but didn't let him in right away. She stood in the doorway holding the door halfway shut while leaning against the door frame.
"Sorry," she told him in a low whisper. "We didn't want any uninvited visitors after school, and I thought I saw a blonde lurking around outside the door. Pretty sure it was just Wendy Jansen, but I couldn't take the chance that it was someone much, much older."
Shawn grinned. He brushed up against her as he entered the classroom and for a moment he wondered if he could pickpocket her key in order to avoid getting into trouble. Jon wouldn't be upset with her if she lost her key; he'd gladly make her as many copies as she wanted. But he dismissed the idea, took a deep breath, and admitted to his teacher what happened.
Jon hung his head in exasperation. He couldn't quite believe the key was missing yet again, even though he knew he should've seen it coming. "What am I gonna do with you, Hunter?" he sighed.
"I tried," Shawn said thinking his effort to hang onto the key this long should count for something. "I did really good for a while."
Audrey walked up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders. "He can use my key," she offered.
"Oh, no, he can't." Jon said sitting on his desk. He laid an arm over his stomach and covered his mouth with his other hand. "Maybe it's at the apartment," he said after a while." It was kinda crazy with Eli coming over so early and Audrey still there."
"Maybe," Shawn said, but he knew it wasn't. He was positive he had it that morning when he and Audrey climbed down the fire escape.
Jon could have punished the teen, and himself, by dragging out his after-school duties to delay going home and making Shawn spend more time at school. He decided against it, however. Key or no key, they had plans.
As they walked out of the classroom, with Audrey had going on ahead so that it wouldn't look the three were together, Jon put a hand on the teen's shoulder and gripped it tight.
"If Kat is waitin' for us when we get back tonight," he said in a low growl. "You are in so much trouble."
Shawn nodded his head in understanding. "If she's waitin' for us when we get back that'll be worse than anything you can come up with."
Shawn's key wasn't at the apartment and Katherine wasn't waiting when they got back from their evening out, but the mystery of the missing key still bugged him because he knew it wasn't due to him being irresponsible.
The next day at school he and Cory met up at their lockers before heading to Mr. Feeny's class. Cory opened his locker with a sharp yank. While he rummaged around looking for his book for his next class, Shawn leaned against the open door.
"Hey, Shawn, I need more light in here. I can't see nothin!"
Considering how much Cory had crammed in his locker, light wasn't going to reach very far no matter how much was let in, but Shawn obliged by stepping back and holding the door open as far as it would go. As he did this something caught his eye. There was something small and shiny wedged in the vents of the door.
"Hey, Cor, what's this?"
"Huh?" Cory stopped his search and looked up. "I don't know. It looks like a key or somethin."
"Weird," Shawn muttered. He grabbed a wooden ruler that was sticking out of a book in the locker and stuck it into the vent. The object fell out and hit the floor.
Cory retrieved it and brought it to Shawn with a strange look on his face. "It's your key, isn't it?"
"My key? What?" He took the key from his friend and examined it. Sure enough it was his brass key with a number 8 on it. "How did it get in there?"
"Beats me," Cory said, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't do it."
"Neither did I."
"Guys," Topanga called out cheerily as she walked up to them. "What's up?"
"Found my key." Shawn held it up to her.
"Where?"
The boys showed her. She wrinkled her nose and studied the locker and key.
"I think someone took it and tried to return it," she said matter-a-factly.
The boys squinted curiously at her.
"What makes you think that?" Cory asked.
"Well, if I had taken something like this and wanted to return it without giving it directly to the person, then I'd probably put it in the locker through the vents, too."
Shawn crossed his arms over his chest and considered what she was saying seriously. "What makes you think it was taken and I didn't just lose it?"
"It's your key but it was in Cory's locker. So there's really only two possibilities that make sense: someone took it, got spooked, and put in the wrong locker or they took it and returned it but got your lockers mixed up. Or..." her voice trailed off as she scrutinized the key further.
"Or what?" Shawn asked, putting his nose up to the key in her hand.
"Or you've started wearing Chanel in vamp and someone just found this key, knew it was yours, and tried to return it," she said with a smirk.
"Chanel in Vamp. What's that?" he asked, straightening up. Whatever it was sounded edgy and interesting.
"It's a really popular nail polish color," she said. Topanga held the key out to him and pointed to a deep red splotch on one side of the key over the eight. "It looks exactly like that."
Cory shrugged. "A girl stole the key. So Shawn's got another secret admirer. What else is new?"
Shawn stared at the red mark with a frown. Why would anyone, especially a girl, take his key and then return it without doing anything with it or letting him know they were interested in some way? There was something more to it and Shawn had a sinking feeling that it was something not good.
"Could the nail polish be Audrey's?" Cory asked.
Topanga shook her head. "Audrey wears either Essie's Ballet Slippers or Hard Candy in sky or mint. But mostly she wears Ballet Slippers."
The boys stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language.
"What?!" she cried defensively. "Trini's really into nail polish lately!"
Shawn took a deep breath. "Well, Jon'll be happy I found my key. I just hope he doesn't ask where I found it."
Their plans for the night included Shawn's best friends and a night out at the movies. After dropping Cory and Topanga off at their respective homes, it was a little after 9:15. The sound of the local classic rock station greeted them as Jon, Shawn, and Audrey walked through the door.
Jon turned off the radio and gave Shawn a miffed look. "Really, Shawn? Could you not have turned this off before we left?"
"I didn't have it on," the teen protested, flopping down on the couch, and putting his feet on the coffee table. "That's your music. I don't listen to your music."
"Well, someone left it off on."
"Probably the guy who listens to that noise."
Jon leaned over the couch so that he was looking down at Shawn. "You wanna say that again?"
Shawn looked up at him and said in all seriousness, "I didn't do it."
"Fine," the teacher said deciding this wasn't a battle worth fighting. He turned to Audrey. "I'll be back in just a minute."
As he turned to go to his room, he noticed a light coming down the hallway." Hunter! You didn't leave the radio on so tell me who didn't leave the lights on in your room?"
Shawn twisted around on the couch to face his teacher. "Huh? I didn't."
"Shawn," Jon walked back down to the living room, "who else is gonna turn the lights on in your room?"
"I dunno, but I didn't!
"You know electricity isn't free!"
"Stooop," the teen whined putting his hands over his ears. When Jon was in lecture mode as he was as bad as Mr. Matthews. "You sound like such a dad."
"Guess what? I'm gonna sound even more like one in two seconds."
Because of the look Audrey was giving him, Shawn sat on the couch in silence as Jon scolded him for wasting resources. His attitude was lousy, however, as he was fairly sure he didn't leave the lights on in the room. He couldn't be 100% sure though as he was in a big hurry to leave earlier. The radio, however, he did not even have on, and he was not about to let that one go.
"Fine," he huffed. "I'm sorry about the lights. But I didn't leave the radio on."
"So what- we got ghosts now that like to listen to the radio and are afraid of the dark?" the teacher asked sarcastically.
"I dunno," he shrugged defensively. "But Jon, if the radio had been left on wouldn't you have heard it before we left and told me to turn it off?"
Jon considered this and had to acknowledge that the kid was right. The radio was not on when they left. "Okay, I'll give you that one. May there was a power surge or something that kicked it on."
"Thank you." He slid back down on the couch and slouched down, still irritated by the accusations.
Jon got up from the couch and gave Audrey's arm a squeeze. "I'll be back in a minute. I wanna change this shirt."
His bedroom was dark when he walked in, except for the thin ray of light coming from underneath the closet door. There shouldn't have been a light coming from anywhere in the room. He didn't even go into his closet after school; he just discarded his tie on the bed before he and Shawn left again to meet with Audrey and pick up Shawn's friends.
Cautiously, he approached the door and gingerly opened it. There was nothing inside that shouldn't have been. He frowned. He didn't remember leaving the light on earlier in the day. Unlike Shawn, he was pretty good about turning them off. But this, along with the radio and the lights on in Shawn's room, filled him with foreboding. He turned on his heel and left the closet. Flipping on the lights, he checked his bedroom thoroughly to make sure there was nothing out of place. Nothing was as far as he could tell. He slowly backed out of room and went straight Shawn's room. Nothing in the boy's room seemed amiss but he didn't know Shawn's room well.
"Shawn," he said rejoining Audrey in the living room with a dark look on his face. "Go check your room out and make sure everything is where it should be."
"Why?" Shawn had found something he wanted to watch on TV and didn't appreciate being disturbed.
"Just do it, huh?"
Shawn shrugged and did what he was told. When he returned to take back his seat on the couch both Jon and Audrey looked deeply concerned.
"What? I didn't do it." This was one time he had absolutely nothing to do with whatever was going on.
"Yeah, I know," Jon said seriously. "I don't think you left the lights or the radio on either."
Shawn sat on the edge of the couch cushion, suddenly worried. Both of his teachers were tense and somber. "What changed your mind?"
"My closet light was on."
Shawn looked at the adults not sure he was understanding Jon correctly. "Wait, you think someone's been here?"
"Looks like it."
"Who?"
"No idea."
Shawn was genuinely concerned now. Briefly he wondered if any of his family or friends from the trailer park had paid them a visit. "How'd they get in? It doesn't look like anyone broke in."
"I don't know," Jon said quietly. He took Audrey's hand in his more for his comfort than hers.
"We're the only ones with keys," Shawn said slowly.
"Yeah," Jon said pressing his lips together in a thin line. "That's what I can't figure out."
The next morning, Shawn found himself alone in the kitchen for much longer than was normal on a Saturday. Twice he'd yelled at Jon to hurry up, Audrey would be over soon. Twice his teacher had yelled back that he was getting dressed. Shawn grabbed a handful of Lucky Charms and shoved them into his mouth. Jon was taking forever to get ready this morning and they weren't even doing anything special.
Jon walked out of his closet in jeans and a tank top. "Hunter, have you been borrowin' my clothes lately?"
Shawn gave him an offended look and through the cereal in his mouth said, "I haven't shopped in your closet in forever. You don't have much I like. Your style is better than Cory's but not by a whole lot."
Jon gave him a withering look. "Have you been stashin' any of my stuff at Audrey's again?"
"Uh-uh."
"Then have you seen my black sweater with the red stripe across it?"
"Not since you last wore it."
Jon snorted in annoyance. The sweater couldn't have just disappeared. "You sure you don't have it?"
Shawn rolled his eyes as he took another handful of cereal. "Have you ever seen me wear anything that would make you think I want it?"
"You could just say no."
"No."
Jon returned to his bedroom muttering something that sounded very rude under his breath. His mood wasn't much better when he returned to the living just as Audrey was walking in.
"Mornin'," he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey." She returned the kiss the caught his expression and a frown touched her features. "What's going on?"
Shawn bounced on the couch with the box of cereal. "Jon's mad he can't find one of his ugly sweaters."
In response, Jon picked up one of the couch pillows and smacked the back of the teen's head with it. Shawn grabbed the other pillow and returned fire. He managed to completely miss Jon but sank the pillow into the fish tank by the window. It was a one in a million shot and he was pretty pleased with himself.
Audrey laughed. "What sweater are you missing?"
"The black one with the red stripe."
She wrinkled her nose in thought. "You haven't worn that one in a while, but it was in your closet when I did laundry Thursday."
"Yeah, about that, Aud," Jon said momentarily forgetting about his lost clothing. "You gotta stop doing our laundry, and the cleaning, and the cooking."
"Why?" asked Shawn. "She does a lot better job than either of us."
"That's the problem," Jon told him. "She's doing our work and she doesn't even live here." Immediately, Shawn jumped with a goofy grin on his face. Jon put his hand up. "And before you say anything about that, the chores around here from now on are going to be done by us on a weekly basis. That's non-negotiable."
Shawn smirked and sat back down. For all the times Jon had said that, very little ever changed.
Continued…