Jason tried to subdue his laughter as he raised his hand.
William answered in a frustrated tone, "Yes?"
"You, uh, got something on your shirt."
William looked down at his shirt. The entire thing was stained brown and reeked of soda.
"Thank you Jason, I hadn't noticed," he said unenthusiastically.
Jason chuckled and nudged Jamie, who also began laughing. It wasn't revenge, but it would suffice for now.
William cleared his throat and approached the chalk board to begin the lesson. He paused, searching for a piece of chalk. A cynical grin was growing on Jamie's face.
"Anyone see where the chalk went?" William asked. He turned around and met 20 blank expressions. Most of them weren't paying attention or were asleep, and the rest didn't care enough to help.
William looked around a little more before heading to his desk. He pulled on one of the drawers, but was surprised to find that it did not budge. William yanked again. Nothing. He started pulling on various drawers on the desk, becoming visibly more and more frustrated.
"Come on! Just open already, damnit!" William shouted, kicking the desk in anger. The picture frames on the desk fell to the ground and shattered. There was a loud thump and the drawer popped open. William adjusted his glasses and looked inside. The entire drawer was filled with chalk that was broken up into tiny pieces.
William took a deep breath before whipping around and slamming his hands on Jason's desk. Their faces were inches apart. The man furrowed his eyebrows and talked loudly and clearly for the rest of the room to hear, "Who did it?"
There was silence and some kids looked around at each other. Jason and Jamie exchanged a worried look.
William stood up straight again, slowly walking up and down each aisle. He paused next to a student who was napping. He slammed a thick textbook on the student's desk, right next to his ear. The student jumped up in his seat and began stuttering a "wh-what the hell?"
"I'm talking to you!"
The student looked at him in bewilderment. "...repeat the question?" he said hesitantly.
"Useless...can anyone, ANYONE, tell me who did this? No one?" Will now approached Jamie's desk. "If someone doesn't start talking, you're all writing an essay tonight."
The entire class groaned.
"But sir, this is algebra class? We don't write essays for math."
"Well, now you do." William went to his desk and began writing something on a piece of paper. "Nancy, go take this down to the main office and make 20 copies. If they ask, just tell them I sent you." Nancy got up and followed his directions, giving him a nervous glance before taking the paper from his hand and leaving. The whole class was still unsettled from his outburst.
After Nancy returned with the photocopies, William tried once again to conduct his lesson. He struggled with the little stubs of chalk for a half an hour, grunting every time they slipped from his hand and made him scrape his knuckles on the board. After going through about 15 sticks of chalk, he suddenly turned and chucked the one he was holding at the wall. The chalk whizzed right above a student's head. William faced the board and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You feel pretty smug right now, don't you?"
Jamie adjusted in his seat nervously. William was still facing the board, but Jamie knew that he was talking directly to him.
"Well I can promise you one thing, I won't forget about this. And I'll make sure you don't either."
Was that a threat?
After class, Jason once again followed his silent friend through the halls.
"Did you see his face? He was fuming!" Jason shouted, wrapping his arm around Jamie's shoulders.
"He knew it was me."
"Oh don't worry about it too much. Even if he did, it's not like he'll kill you over it."
"You sure? He sounded pissed! I mean, it was so satisfying to watch him struggle like that, but I don't know how much longer I'll survive having him as a sub."
"James, relax. He'll forget about it by next week, trust me."
"I guess it was pretty cool, huh?"
"Hell yeah! I like it when you let loose James, you're pretty cool," Jason grinned.
Why did hearing that make Jamie so happy?
Jamie stepped outside his room and heard crying from across the hall. It was coming from Emmy's room.
Jamie slowly creaked the door open and found his mother sitting on the little pink bed, clutching a stuffed animal and sobbing.
Jamie took a step forward but hesitated in the doorway. He had avoided going into this room since the incident. It felt wrong going in there without Emmy inside of it, singing to some pop song or playing with her toys. This room used to be so much brighter with her in it. Now it was merely a dark, empty tomb.
"Mom?"
His mother's crying paused, and she picked up her head and wiped at her eyes. "Yes honey?"
"I was going to go to a friend's house," Jamie paused, feeling guilty. A good son would stay with his mother right now and help her. Then again, a good son wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. "Do you need anything?"
"No, I'm okay sweetie. Are you going to be back soon? The sun's already setting."
"Yeah ma, I'll be back in about an hour. I promise." Jamie grimaced as he said the last part, knowing that he had made too many broken promises for that to even matter anymore.
Jamie found himself once again in Jason's driveway. He didn't plan on bringing him along, but he was starting to get a taste for breaking and entering, and Jason was the perfect man for the job.
Remembering what happened last time, Jamie instead headed for Jason's window. He wrapped lightly on the glass and waited. The window slid open, revealing Jason's confused face.
"What's up?"
"I need your help."
"Oh! Are we breaking into somewhere again?"
"Yeah."
"Where?"
"Afton's house"
"You're insane! What if he catches us?"
Jamie chuckled, finding it amusing that for the first time in their friendship, Jason was the one being cautious.
"He's gonna be out with his wife for a doctor's appointment till 7:30"
"And how exactly did you figure this out?"
"I heard him talking to Mr. Emily about it."
"Ah I see, spying then?"
"I wasn't spying, I just happened to overhear their conversation!"
"Sure James."
"Just shut up and open the door, okay?"
On command, Jamie heard a click come from inside the Aftons' front door.
Jason turned back at Jamie and made a very serious face. "We're in," he said, just as serious.
Jamie rolled his eyes and headed inside. Upstairs, he systematically opened each door down the long hallway and looked inside. He finally found what he assumed to be Wiliam's room and tip-toed inside, making sure to not disturb anything laying on the ground. He started sifting through William's things, opening and closing drawers, looking under the bed, and finding absolutely nothing. Wait. Why would William hide something in his and his wife's room?
At that thought, Jamie left the room and headed for the office. He checked every square inch of the room and was disappointed to find himself once again empty handed.
Jamie finally realized how suspiciously quiet Jason was being, and went looking for him.
Jamie headed back downstairs and heard a clatter coming from the kitchen. Following the sound, he found Jason rummaging through the fridge.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jamie whispered.
"What? I was hungry!" Jason responded. "So did you find anything?"
"Not yet," Jamie replied, trying to mask the disappointment in his voice.
"Did you check the laundry room?"
"What?"
"You said that the other kid's sister saw William with a laundry bag on the night of his murder, right?"
Realization struck Jamie's face as he rushed into the laundry room, excitedly throwing around laundry baskets, clothing, and detergent.
Jason finished off the plate of lasagna that he found in the back of the fridge, and heard Jamie shout from the other room, "JASON YOU'RE A GENIUS!"
"I know," he replied, making his way towards the garbage.
Jamie ran back into the kitchen holding a bag of clothes and wearing a large grin.
"There's that million dollar smile! What'dja find?" Jason asked.
"There's a bunch of bloodied clothes in here! Afton must've been wearing these during the murders!"
"Up top!" Jason said, offering a high-five. After Jamie returned it, Jason went back to rummaging around the garbage pail.
"...what are you doing?" Jamie asked.
"Don't worry about it, James," Jason nonchalantly replied, pulling out a hat that had "#1 dad" stitched to the front in colorful letters. He put the hat on, then clicked his tongue and gave Jamie a set of finger guns. Jamie chuckled.
"Doesn't this hat make me look hot?" Jason asked.
"Haha, yeah, you're gonna be a real chic magnet now."
Jason chuckled a little awkwardly, then froze as headlights lit up the kitchen. Jamie bolted upstairs and Jason began frantically dumping the trash back into the garbage pail. A minute later there was the sound of keys gangling at the front door. Jason, finished with the kitchen, now rushed upstairs, going up two steps at a time. He nearly tripped.
Jason collided into Jamie in the hallway, and the two could hear the front door opening. "Sh*t!" Jamie whispered, heading for the office window.
After tumbling out of the window and most definitely breaking a couple bones on the fall, the two boys began running home.
"That was freaking insane!" Jamie exclaimed, trying to catch his breath.
Jason responded, just as excited, "That was so cool! He was literally right there! Oh my god I think I broke my arm! If I get a cast, will you sign it?"
Jamie laughed. "Only if you sign mine first!"
