Part 6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Jack was suddenly aware of Dawson prodding his arm. As he came further back into consciousness he could hear him whispering, "Jack? Wake up, Jack."
"Back with us, McPhee?" Mr. Ames was staring at Jack. But then he looked around; everyone was staring at him.
"Yes... sorry." Jack replied, wishing the ground would swallow him there and then. Jack spent the rest of the homeroom in complete silence, watching the clock in the vain hope that he could speed it up by sheer will power.
When it finally did end and Jack and Dawson walked out the room Mr. Ames stopped them. "What was that about, McPhee? First you fall asleep and then you continue to act as if your mind is somewhere else entirely."
"Sorry, sir, I just haven't been sleeping well."
"Well, that's to be expected and I know it wasn't deliberate on your part. But even so, I'm afraid I have to remind you that, contrary to what you all might think, homeroom is still a lesson and if you behave as such none of us get into the principal's bad books!"
"Well, sorry again. But we gotta book now!"
******
"What?" Jack replied to the look that Dawson was giving him, a sort of mocking disbelief. Dawson said nothing.
"Like I said I haven't been sleeping well!"
Still no reply.
"You know I've been dreaming all wacky-crazy! Andie brought it up this morning, before school!"
"Yeah, I know, you even had to give a full account of your insaneness! It's just that I can't believe that Mr. Ames was so understanding! You missed it yesterday when he gave Stuart Mills detention for being like two minutes late!"
Jack stopped in his tracks, "Stuart Mills?"
"Yeah, you know, from the baseball team. He was the one giving you a hard time in the drama auditions. "
"Oh, yeah," Jack said, half-heartedly.
"All I can say is that either Mr. Ames likes you, or someone up there does!" Dawson said, grinning. Then he saw Jack's worried expression, he was just staring straight ahead, "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine," Then Jack looked up at Dawson, "You go on ahead, I gotta do something."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, go on or you'll be late."
"Well, see ya in class then." Dawson called after Jack as he disappeared back down the corridor.
******
Jack finally found Mr. Ames in the bathroom where he'd put on his cap earlier that morning.
Jack collected himself as he carefully shut the door behind him. "What do you know about what happened to me?"
"Whoa, Jack! Where's this coming from?"
"What do you know?"
"Just that you were attacked, hit with a baseball bat before football practice. All that anyone knows for certain. I'm not one for speculation. Why is it important to you?"
"It has been brought to my attention that you are not always the nicest of people. I have been told about you leapt down Stuart Mills throat yesterday for practically nothing!"
"Is that meant to mean something?"
"Well, it has also occurred to me that you seem to be operating under extreme self-control with me; like you just ignore things that I do that had others done you would have punished them!"
"So are you attacking me because I'm nice to you or because you want me to punish you?"
Jack realised he was right, he had jumped to conclusions, blown up about nothing.
"Anyway, it doesn't look like Mr. Mills will be coming to my detention."
"What? Why?"
"I would have thought you'd have known. Your friend Deputy Witter has taken him in for questioning, apparently because of something that came up with your interview with him yesterday."
"Really?"
"Yep, I'm surprised you weren't informed! But you'd better get to class, Jack, you don't want to be late now!"
"Oh... yeah," Jack said, rather lamely.
"Oh, and Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"The reason I'm nice to you is because I like you and the reason I gave Stuart a detention over seemingly nothing is because I was warned that he's a trouble maker when I started here. I was told not to take any crap from him!"
"Once more this morning I am going to have to apologise to you then!"
"Don't worry about it, just get to class!"
"Right, I'm gone!"
******
The rest of the morning was a pretty normal one, but when the Jack was on his way to lunch he found a large gathering of people around the boy's locker room. Nobody had been allowed in it yet, it was still a crime scene, but for some reason it was now getting a lot of attention.
As he walked closer he could see Doug behind the yellow tape trying to get everyone to move along. When he reached the tape Doug lifted the tape up slightly and got Jack to follow him into the room and shut the door behind them. Jack looked around and saw four other cops going through the lockers.
"What are they looking for?"
"Anything that might be helpful in our inquiry."
"Oh that reminds me, I got the envelope for you." Jack said, pulling it out of his bag.
"Thanks," Doug took out an evidence bag and put the envelope inside.
"Why didn't I get told that Stuart Mills had been taken in for questioning?" "You did, Jack! I tried to call to tell you first thing this morning but I guess you'd already left for school. So I called the school and left a message for you!"
Jack took Doug's word for it, "It must have got lost somewhere then."
Doug and Jack were walking through Jack's movements from the other day when there was a call from the other side of the room, "Doug!"
Doug made his way to the officer who had called his name; Jack followed a few steps behind. The cop pulled back the locker door so that they could see inside. Sat in the locker was a fat red marker pen, a camera and a couple of photograph sleeves. There were no photos in the sleeves but the negatives were still in their slots. As the items were placed in evidence bags and sealed, Doug read out the number on the locker – 233 – and looked for the corresponding name on the list on his clipboard.
"Well, what do you know? Its-"Doug began.
"Stuart Mills'." Jack finished for him.
******
Ten minutes later the cops were gone and Jack was outside on the grass with his friends again. They were eating lunch, once more listening to music.
"So what were the cops doing here?"
"You really are dense aren't you Pacey!" Joey started, "Jack got attacked in the locker room so where else are they going to start looking for clues and the like?"
"Oh, right, gotcha."
"Yeah," Jack explained, "They were going through the lockers and everything!"
"What, but they're private, are they even allowed to do that? 'Cos I mean the name pretty much gives it away 'locker', featured syllable 'lock'!" Jen put in.
"I'm with Jen on this one; I mean our lockers are for our personal possessions!"
"By that you don't by any chance mean you had 'Playboy's' in your locker do you Pace?"
"My lips are sealed!" which earned sniggers and chuckles all round.
"So they're on their way to arrest Stuart now?"
"Yeah, they still have him in because of the questioning, but they're on their way back to formally arrest him for GBH."
"Well, he deserves it, is all I can say!"
"Thanks sis," Jack smiled as Andie put her arm protectively around her brother's back.
******
The group went past the Drama department later during the lunch hour to check if the cast list had been posted yet. As they approached Mr. Ames's office he walked out into the hallway and began to tack up the list.
"Great timing guys!"
"Well we try," said Dawson
Joey caught sight of the name of play at the top of the piece of paper of the drama teacher's shoulder. "A Midsummer's Night Dream, huh?"
"Yes, well, you guys did such a great job in the auditions I decided to use it for the real thing!"
"I guess we don't have to look at the cast list then!"
"No, you're all in and you're playing the same characters as in the audition."
"Well, thank you, we'll be moving along now."
"Okay, auditions start next Monday!"
"Sure, see you then!"
The six friends moved off; Jack did a double take as he passed the door but the door had already closed when he looked the second time. They continued along the corridor but Jack couldn't shake the feeling that he'd missed something important.
******
The rest of the afternoon went normally; or as normally as is possible when you've recently been brutally attacked at school, the entire student body knows about it, the police have just been investigating and are now on way to arrest one of the more popular sports 'stars'! Jack was overjoyed when he finally began to make his way toward the house. He put his key in the lock, let himself into the house and made his way into the kitchen. He was just about to get himself a glass of water when he saw the flashing counter on the answer machine. He pushed the button to play the fist of the three messages.
"Jack? Its Doug. It's about 7am now. I'm ringi-." The message was cut short as Jack pressed the delete button to erase the message and skip onto the next one. As the message started to play Jack picked up the same glass he'd used the night before from the sideboard and filled it with water.
"Its Doug again, Jack. Just to let you know that when we went back to arrest Stuart he miraculously remembered he had an alibi. We've checked it out and he was driving round with a group of guys from the baseball team in his father's car. We've had to release him from custody."
Jack didn't understand. He'd been so sure it was Stuart. And what about all those things in his locker? It just didn't make any sense. Then the third message started up.
"Looks like you got the wrong the guy, McPhee!" The voice was distant and muffled, like whoever it was, was speaking through something thick and heavy. "You won't find me out. You won't even know who I am until it's too late!" Jack dropped the glass and it smashed, spraying glass and water across the floor.
For a short time Jack just stood there, frozen, too scared to move. Then the phone rang. It rang a couple of times before Jack picked up.
"H-hello?" Jack managed to squeeze out in a hoarse whisper.
"Knock knock, McPhee," it was the same distant voice as before. Then came two loud thudding knocks on the front door.
To Be Continued...
Jack was suddenly aware of Dawson prodding his arm. As he came further back into consciousness he could hear him whispering, "Jack? Wake up, Jack."
"Back with us, McPhee?" Mr. Ames was staring at Jack. But then he looked around; everyone was staring at him.
"Yes... sorry." Jack replied, wishing the ground would swallow him there and then. Jack spent the rest of the homeroom in complete silence, watching the clock in the vain hope that he could speed it up by sheer will power.
When it finally did end and Jack and Dawson walked out the room Mr. Ames stopped them. "What was that about, McPhee? First you fall asleep and then you continue to act as if your mind is somewhere else entirely."
"Sorry, sir, I just haven't been sleeping well."
"Well, that's to be expected and I know it wasn't deliberate on your part. But even so, I'm afraid I have to remind you that, contrary to what you all might think, homeroom is still a lesson and if you behave as such none of us get into the principal's bad books!"
"Well, sorry again. But we gotta book now!"
******
"What?" Jack replied to the look that Dawson was giving him, a sort of mocking disbelief. Dawson said nothing.
"Like I said I haven't been sleeping well!"
Still no reply.
"You know I've been dreaming all wacky-crazy! Andie brought it up this morning, before school!"
"Yeah, I know, you even had to give a full account of your insaneness! It's just that I can't believe that Mr. Ames was so understanding! You missed it yesterday when he gave Stuart Mills detention for being like two minutes late!"
Jack stopped in his tracks, "Stuart Mills?"
"Yeah, you know, from the baseball team. He was the one giving you a hard time in the drama auditions. "
"Oh, yeah," Jack said, half-heartedly.
"All I can say is that either Mr. Ames likes you, or someone up there does!" Dawson said, grinning. Then he saw Jack's worried expression, he was just staring straight ahead, "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine," Then Jack looked up at Dawson, "You go on ahead, I gotta do something."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, go on or you'll be late."
"Well, see ya in class then." Dawson called after Jack as he disappeared back down the corridor.
******
Jack finally found Mr. Ames in the bathroom where he'd put on his cap earlier that morning.
Jack collected himself as he carefully shut the door behind him. "What do you know about what happened to me?"
"Whoa, Jack! Where's this coming from?"
"What do you know?"
"Just that you were attacked, hit with a baseball bat before football practice. All that anyone knows for certain. I'm not one for speculation. Why is it important to you?"
"It has been brought to my attention that you are not always the nicest of people. I have been told about you leapt down Stuart Mills throat yesterday for practically nothing!"
"Is that meant to mean something?"
"Well, it has also occurred to me that you seem to be operating under extreme self-control with me; like you just ignore things that I do that had others done you would have punished them!"
"So are you attacking me because I'm nice to you or because you want me to punish you?"
Jack realised he was right, he had jumped to conclusions, blown up about nothing.
"Anyway, it doesn't look like Mr. Mills will be coming to my detention."
"What? Why?"
"I would have thought you'd have known. Your friend Deputy Witter has taken him in for questioning, apparently because of something that came up with your interview with him yesterday."
"Really?"
"Yep, I'm surprised you weren't informed! But you'd better get to class, Jack, you don't want to be late now!"
"Oh... yeah," Jack said, rather lamely.
"Oh, and Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"The reason I'm nice to you is because I like you and the reason I gave Stuart a detention over seemingly nothing is because I was warned that he's a trouble maker when I started here. I was told not to take any crap from him!"
"Once more this morning I am going to have to apologise to you then!"
"Don't worry about it, just get to class!"
"Right, I'm gone!"
******
The rest of the morning was a pretty normal one, but when the Jack was on his way to lunch he found a large gathering of people around the boy's locker room. Nobody had been allowed in it yet, it was still a crime scene, but for some reason it was now getting a lot of attention.
As he walked closer he could see Doug behind the yellow tape trying to get everyone to move along. When he reached the tape Doug lifted the tape up slightly and got Jack to follow him into the room and shut the door behind them. Jack looked around and saw four other cops going through the lockers.
"What are they looking for?"
"Anything that might be helpful in our inquiry."
"Oh that reminds me, I got the envelope for you." Jack said, pulling it out of his bag.
"Thanks," Doug took out an evidence bag and put the envelope inside.
"Why didn't I get told that Stuart Mills had been taken in for questioning?" "You did, Jack! I tried to call to tell you first thing this morning but I guess you'd already left for school. So I called the school and left a message for you!"
Jack took Doug's word for it, "It must have got lost somewhere then."
Doug and Jack were walking through Jack's movements from the other day when there was a call from the other side of the room, "Doug!"
Doug made his way to the officer who had called his name; Jack followed a few steps behind. The cop pulled back the locker door so that they could see inside. Sat in the locker was a fat red marker pen, a camera and a couple of photograph sleeves. There were no photos in the sleeves but the negatives were still in their slots. As the items were placed in evidence bags and sealed, Doug read out the number on the locker – 233 – and looked for the corresponding name on the list on his clipboard.
"Well, what do you know? Its-"Doug began.
"Stuart Mills'." Jack finished for him.
******
Ten minutes later the cops were gone and Jack was outside on the grass with his friends again. They were eating lunch, once more listening to music.
"So what were the cops doing here?"
"You really are dense aren't you Pacey!" Joey started, "Jack got attacked in the locker room so where else are they going to start looking for clues and the like?"
"Oh, right, gotcha."
"Yeah," Jack explained, "They were going through the lockers and everything!"
"What, but they're private, are they even allowed to do that? 'Cos I mean the name pretty much gives it away 'locker', featured syllable 'lock'!" Jen put in.
"I'm with Jen on this one; I mean our lockers are for our personal possessions!"
"By that you don't by any chance mean you had 'Playboy's' in your locker do you Pace?"
"My lips are sealed!" which earned sniggers and chuckles all round.
"So they're on their way to arrest Stuart now?"
"Yeah, they still have him in because of the questioning, but they're on their way back to formally arrest him for GBH."
"Well, he deserves it, is all I can say!"
"Thanks sis," Jack smiled as Andie put her arm protectively around her brother's back.
******
The group went past the Drama department later during the lunch hour to check if the cast list had been posted yet. As they approached Mr. Ames's office he walked out into the hallway and began to tack up the list.
"Great timing guys!"
"Well we try," said Dawson
Joey caught sight of the name of play at the top of the piece of paper of the drama teacher's shoulder. "A Midsummer's Night Dream, huh?"
"Yes, well, you guys did such a great job in the auditions I decided to use it for the real thing!"
"I guess we don't have to look at the cast list then!"
"No, you're all in and you're playing the same characters as in the audition."
"Well, thank you, we'll be moving along now."
"Okay, auditions start next Monday!"
"Sure, see you then!"
The six friends moved off; Jack did a double take as he passed the door but the door had already closed when he looked the second time. They continued along the corridor but Jack couldn't shake the feeling that he'd missed something important.
******
The rest of the afternoon went normally; or as normally as is possible when you've recently been brutally attacked at school, the entire student body knows about it, the police have just been investigating and are now on way to arrest one of the more popular sports 'stars'! Jack was overjoyed when he finally began to make his way toward the house. He put his key in the lock, let himself into the house and made his way into the kitchen. He was just about to get himself a glass of water when he saw the flashing counter on the answer machine. He pushed the button to play the fist of the three messages.
"Jack? Its Doug. It's about 7am now. I'm ringi-." The message was cut short as Jack pressed the delete button to erase the message and skip onto the next one. As the message started to play Jack picked up the same glass he'd used the night before from the sideboard and filled it with water.
"Its Doug again, Jack. Just to let you know that when we went back to arrest Stuart he miraculously remembered he had an alibi. We've checked it out and he was driving round with a group of guys from the baseball team in his father's car. We've had to release him from custody."
Jack didn't understand. He'd been so sure it was Stuart. And what about all those things in his locker? It just didn't make any sense. Then the third message started up.
"Looks like you got the wrong the guy, McPhee!" The voice was distant and muffled, like whoever it was, was speaking through something thick and heavy. "You won't find me out. You won't even know who I am until it's too late!" Jack dropped the glass and it smashed, spraying glass and water across the floor.
For a short time Jack just stood there, frozen, too scared to move. Then the phone rang. It rang a couple of times before Jack picked up.
"H-hello?" Jack managed to squeeze out in a hoarse whisper.
"Knock knock, McPhee," it was the same distant voice as before. Then came two loud thudding knocks on the front door.
To Be Continued...