Chapter Five – Boom. Shake the Room.
On Tuesday, Gavin had finally decided it was time for Alex to die. After all, he'd given him plenty of time to redeem himself for his unnervingly neat ways and he'd completely blown them after folding up every article of his PE kit after rugby practise on Monday. Alex had to go.
Not only was his neatness getting in the way, Clarice seemed to have taken quite a shine to him. They'd been walking to and from lessons together, laughing jovially in the way people in the films do and Tom had been dumped, walking a couple of feet behind them, muttering Middle Ages curses under his breath. Alex and Clarice were not yet an item, although it was only a matter of time.
It so happened that the opportunity to 'Do Alex In' came on Tuesday break time. Alex had gone out of the classroom, leaving his belongings sitting unsuspectingly on his desk.
Time for Gavin to shine...
*
The last couple of days had actually gone quite well for Alex. After re-building his bike after the banging-against-garage-door incident, Alex had taken every opportunity to prove how fantastic he was to Clarice. It seemed to be working moderately well.
After all, they had been walking from class to class together, with Tom tagging miserably behind. He must have been doing SOMETHING right....
*
Gavin sat back and admired his handiwork. He was quite pleased with himself, actually. Somehow he had managed to sellotape a pipe bomb to Alex's pencilcase. This ingenious bit of sabotage-improvisation would surely be held with a fair bit of esteem in the world of organised crime. He sighed happily and set the bomb. After fiddling with the numbers for a minute (his fingers were too big for the buttons) he exited quickly, under the impression that hanging around an already set bomb probably isn't a good idea.
*
Alex strolled casually down the corridor, acutely aware that Clarice was standing no more than a couple of centimetres to his left. Judging by her awkward sentences and slightly faltering responses, his attempt at being completely irresistible wasn't working. As a last resort as she told him an entertaining yarn concerning her pet kitten and a hire car, he flicked his hair enthusiastically.
Possibly a little too enthusiastically as he nearly head-butted a sign advertising the Lower School Choir. After clarifying he was actually ok and not suffering some sort of concussion, Clarice continued her story and Alex tried to pull together the remains of his self-respect.
By the time they reached the classroom, Clarice had finished her story (the kitten was sick in the backseat cup-holder) and Alex's self-respect was even more miniscule due to a shoelace stumble and another sign head-butt.
Alex crawled over to his seat dejectedly and stared at his hands. He wasn't normally a prat- it was just a condition that came over him whenever he was within a five meter radius of Clarice. Coincidence?
Suddenly, Alex realised that some idiot had sellotaped a pipe bomb to his pencil case. That was weird. Frowning slightly, Alex picked the bomb up and inspected it.
It was Russian, well made but these things happened to bypass Alex, possibly due to the fact it was set to go off in approximately 3.87 seconds.