Afraid - Chapter Four

Kain McGellen had always prided himself for being able to relate with students. When he was a teenager he knew he wanted to be a teacher. He wanted to be the teacher the kids saw as a friend rather than someone unapproachable and distant. So, after university, he searched through city after city for the perfect teaching position but with no luck. No luck, that is, until he visited one location in particular – Amity Park. He made his way to Casper High where he found himself at gunpoint.

Shocking, no?

There he was, being threatened by a fourteen year old student with a gun and he didn't even have the job yet.

Instead of panicking, Kain allowed the teen to slowly back away from the police while bringing him along for the ride. Once out of sight, the teen put the gun away and made to run for it – he didn't make it very far. Kain grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him to the ground in a sitting position. At 29 years, Kain had little experience with this kind of situation, but that didn't stop him.

The boy was trembling in Kain's grip – he was obviously terrified. Kain asked the teen why he had the police after him. The teen didn't answer. Kain, sensing that he wasn't going to get an answer, started to tell the teen some jokes. The boy was shocked by this turn of events and eventually found himself quietly laughing with the man. Kain asked the teen again. This time, the boy – who's name was found to be Mark – told Kain that he'd been found in the possession of drugs. Kain was shocked at first, but remembering his own teen years, found himself asking who the drugs really belonged to. Mark had then openly gaped at Kain but eventually gained the willpower to explain that a bully in the year above him had pushed the drugs in his hands before rushing off to get the headmistress who then called the police. Mark had panicked and punched an officer in the face before grabbing the man's gun and speeding out of the school where he'd bumped into Kain.

Without any hesitation, Kain told the teen to return to the school and turn himself in. Mark had once again tried to get away but Kain calmly explained to him that it was better to explain the situation to the police without having to be dragged back – oh, and he wanted to check that hot policewoman out again. The teen once again found himself smiling and made his way back to the school with Kain.

It turned out that the bully was notorious for being reported for drugs so when Mark told the police the story, they had no trouble realising who the real culprit was. The bully's locker was searched and once more drugs were found it was decided that Mark was innocent and free to go (although he was to never threaten anyone with a gun again).

Spotting the opportunity at hand, Kain asked the headmistress if there were any teaching positions available. The woman having recognised Kain as the man that had convinced the student to return, decided to give him a trial job. The trial never ended.

So Kain McGellen became the History teacher of Casper High and the friend of the students (although the man's perverted ways did cause a few of the girls to keep their distance).

Then he met Daniel Fenton.

Daniel was an enigma to Kain, the boy was bullied, had low grades and was unpopular but had never really had anything to show for it (apart from the bruises he received from Mr. Baxter). That was until a few months ago. Daniel had come into the school late more often with black bags under his eyes and his grades were dropping. Kain couldn't understand the sudden change so he'd approached the boy. They had talked quite often and could even be considered friends but Kain still didn't have any answers, only more questions.

One day, having just tried and succeeded (sort of) to trick his best friend, L-man, into telling him what was bothering him (something about some kid's essay), he found Daniel sighing over and over again in the cafeteria – he wouldn't have been surprised if the boy had started banging his head against it (although, maybe he already had).

"Hey kid, what's with all the sighing?" asked Kain as he approached the teen from behind before sitting down next to him.

"Hey Mr. McGellen," replied Danny as he turned his head to look at the man.

Kain put on a grin, "Are you going to answer me or am I going to have to give you a lecture on the Treaty of Versailles?" That caught the boy's attention.

"It's nothing really, Mr. McGellen, it's just about a piece of homework…"

"Did your dad mistake it for fudge again?"

"No…although I wish he had, it would have been so much easier."

"Ok, now I'm worried, you wish your dad had eaten your homework?"

Danny glared, "Why are you so annoying?"

"Why are you so depressed?" retorted the teacher.

"Ah, touché."

"…You know 'touché'?"

"…I hate you."

"Is that any way to talk to your teacher?"

"You don't even teach me History," deadpanned the teen.

There was a short silence as both parties tried to think of something to say.

"Sooo….are you going to tell me what's bothering you?" asked Kain.

Danny sighed, "You're not going to leave me alone until I do, are you?"

"Kain beamed at him, "Nope!"

"…Don't sound so happy," said started Danny, "anyway, like I said, it's about a piece of homework. We had to write an essay, you see, and it was about what we're afraid of. I didn't want to write about my real fears (it's kind of personal) but I really needed to vent about them so I wrote two essays, one with fake fears and the other with my real fears," Kain nodded in understanding, "the point is, I gave in the wrong essay, I gave in my real fears and now Mr. Lancer is bound to have read them!"

"Ohhhh, so it was Mr. Lancer who set the essay," commented Kain. Danny clasped a hand over his mouth.

"I shouldn't have said that," groaned the ebony haired teen.

"Wait…it was Mr. Lancer who set the essay?! Oh damn…" gasped Kain in realisation.

Was Danny the student Mr. Lancer had mentioned earlier? Kain let a menacing grin slip onto his face, if Danny was the student…well, there was a lot he could do with this…

It was Danny's last period of the day – English with Mr Lancer. Said teacher was currently giving out the essay's he'd set the week before. Danny had his head in his hands, this was it, Mr Lancer was bound to have read the essay, he was bound to have made the connections! What was he going to do?

A shadow fell over Danny's desk – Mr Lancer's shadow to be precise. The teacher cleared his throat to gain Danny's attention, Danny looked up with apprehensive eyes. It was the moment of truth, he wished he'd made a will, he probably wasn't going to get out of this alive.

To the teen's surprise, the man didn't have a cold or angry expression on his face, in fact, if Danny didn't know any better, he'd say Mr Lancer was blushing! What was going on here? Surely the teacher wanted to 'discuss' his so called essay?

"I apologise Mr. Fenton," started Mr. Lancer, "I distinctly remember you handing in your essay to me at the end of last week but it appears that I have managed to misplace it over the week-end. I was not able to mark it so you have not received a grade," By now Danny was openly gaping at the man, "I apologise once again and – Mr. Fenton could you please close that mouth of yours before you start catching flies?"

"O-o f course Mr. Lancer" Danny managed to stammer out before promptly snapping his mouth shut. Mr. Lancer cleared his throat again.

"Now as I was saying," continued the man, "I will not ask you to redo the essay as it was my fault that the work could not be marked, instead, I shall give you a default A for the assignment, is that clear Mr. Fenton?"

Danny nodded his head vigorously, "Yes Mr. Lancer, thank you!"

The rest of the lesson continued as normal but Danny was still in shock when the bell rang for dismissal. He left school, his face still contorted in shock, without bothering to wait up for Sam or Tucker – they would understand.

Mr. Lancer slumped in his chair as all the students left for home. The worst was over – he hoped. In the end, he's decided not to tell Daniel that he'd read the essay, it would be easier, for now, to wait and see what happens. If the need ever came to be, he would reveal the truth to the boy, just not right now.

The teacher was about to pack his back and leave when a certain immature adult slammed his classroom door open.

"OH L-MAAAAN!!" exclaimed Kain, Mr. Lancer groaned.

"Don't call me that!" yelled the balding teacher.

Kain pouted, "I just came here to give my good OLD friend, L-man, some moral support."

Mr. Lancer was surrounded by an aura of gloom, "He…called…me…OLD!"

"You're so sensitive about your age!" laughed the other man.

"Maybe I wouldn't be if you stopped jabbing at my age!"

"But that's no fun!" whined Kain. Mr. Lancer just growled once more in the other man's direction.

"Anyway, how'd the lesson with the dreaded Essay of Doom go?" asked Kain.

Mr. Lancer sighed, "I didn't tell the student that I'd read it."

Kain sent him a concerned look, "Are you sure it's a good idea to put this confrontation off?"

The English teacher was puzzled by this, "What do you mean?"

"This essay must have had something important in it if it's troubled you so much so you can't just let this go. You're going to have to talk with this student sooner or later, I would've thought sooner would have been better than later," explained the unusually serious History teacher.

Mr. Lancer slammed his head on the table.

"I swear, slamming heads on a table is a new trend…You're not trying to be 'hip' again are you L-man?"

"Shut up, Kain, just shut up."

When he got home, Danny immediately rushed up to his room and dumped his bag on his bed. He then went on to smothering his face with his pillow while he screamed his frustrations out. If Mr. Lancer didn't have his essay then who in the name of those evil banana peels had it? With his luck it'd be someone so devious that they'd post it on one of those popular sites like Mypsace or Facebook or something…

He was so screwed.

"Danny! It's dinner time sweetie!" yelled his mother from downstairs. Mmm…dinner….dinner was the solution to everything.

Sam and Tucker were worried about Danny, their friend was knee deep in trouble (again) and there appeared to be nothing they could do about it. They didn't know what to do apart from offer moral support. They wanted to do more to help their friend, they wanted to be useful.

But what on earth could they do?

"Hey Tucker," said Sam.

"Yeah?"

"Got any ideas?"

"Well…I do have one," replied the technology obsessed teen.

Sam looked at him eagerly, "What is it?"

"We could always break into Mr. Lancer's house and steal the essay."

Sam stared at her friend, was he seriously suggesting this?

"I'm seriously suggesting this."

Okay, so maybe he was.

Sam threw a pillow at the boy. "What makes you think we can break into someone's house? A teacher's house no less!"

Tucker threw the pillow back, "Not us, Danny, he could just phase through the walls, find the essay and phase back out with it."

"It's still breaking and entering!"

"Technically, nothing's being broken!"

"ARRGGHH!"

The argument continued for a few minutes until Sam finally relented and decided it was for their friend's own good.

"Fine, we'll ask Danny if he'll do it tomorrow," stated the Goth.

"Speaking of Danny," started Tucker, "why are we having this sleepover without him?"

"Because he never showed up," pouted Sam, "I bet he's feasting on some damn chocolate instead of hanging with us – AGAIN!"

In Danny's house, Danny could be found stuffing his face with some sweet sweet chocolate – that was until he sneezed and ended up throwing his chocolate out the window.

"Damn those people! Why did they have to think about me right then? WHY? The chocolate was so good!"