"Good morning, class," Mr. Engelbright says as he walks into the classroom. "How are you all today?"

The tall, black-haired boy aims a tiny bow and arrow built out of toothpicks and twine at a girl across the classroom and shoots it as the class responds. The q-tip hits its mark and the girl shrieks in indignation, causing all the boys to laugh and all the girls' eyes to turn to Jack, who has already hidden the bow and is sitting, writing innocently in his notebook.

Mr. Engelbright sighs in a long-suffering way. "Let's start today with a riddle."

"Aren't you going to send him to detention?" the girl shrieks.

"There's no proof to say it was Jack, Sadie. I will not discuss this further." He turns to the board and writes down the riddle, leaving Sadie fuming in Jack's general direction.

After he's done writing, he caps the whiteboard marker and turns back to the class. "Today's riddle is this: three men walk into the exact same bar and order the exact same drink. Only one man dies. How is this? Yes or no questions only."

Jack's eyes flash up to the board and scan the riddle. Same bar. Same drink. "Were the drinks poisoned?"

"No."

"Did all the drinks have ice?"

"Yes…"

"Was the ice poisoned?"

"Give somebody else a chance, Jack."

Ignoring him blatantly, the boy says, "The two men who live drank quickly, while the man who died drank slowly, allowing the ice and therefore the poison to melt into his drink." Jack leans on the table and examines the words on the board. "But the story seems to be invalid anyway, since there is no apparent motive or organization to the crime. If the killer had wanted all three of them dead, he would have simply had the drinks poisoned, rather than going to the trouble of poisoning the ice."

Mr. Engelbright sighs. "Perhaps the killer thought it was a game, Jack. Sometimes people who kill don't need a reason other than that it's fun."

Running his fingers through his dark hair, the boy sits back, contemplating his teacher's response as the class moves on to the day's mathematics. Are there really people out there, Jack wonders, who kill because it's fun? They've got to have motive, haven't they? Perhaps they see it as experimental. Or that they're doing good for the world.

People wouldn't just kill for fun.

That's horrible.

Jack shudders and looks up at the board, dragging his mind away from killing and to math. He's got to learn this lesson if he wants to score a B in this class.

Six excruciating hours later, the bell rings, sending kids scrambling from the room. Jack packs his backpack as the area empties. As he's pulling it on, Mr. Engelbright calls, "Jack, come here. I'd like to talk to you."

Now it's Jack's turn to sigh. He closes his eyes briefly and walks over to his teacher.

"Yes, sir?"

"You shot Sadie Anderson this morning."

"It was just a q-tip. I'm certain that it didn't hurt her."

"I know it didn't hurt her. The point is not whether it hurt her, Jack. The point is that you shot a q-tip at her."

The boy groans and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Okay, what about it?"

"Your behavior is out of hand."

"I pay attention during class!"

"Jack, you can't go through life shooting q-tips at people and just paying attention when it's required. You're in fifth grade. You need to grow up."

"Why?"

"Because someday you're going to be an adult. You can't spend your whole life joking around. Life isn't a joke. You need to learn responsibility and you need to take responsibility for your childish actions. Even better, you need to stop being childish. This is the time when you train for adulthood and you need to take it seriously."

Jack takes a deep breath, gazing steadily at his teacher. "I honestly would rather not."

"Why?" his teacher pleads.

"Because if I did, I'd end up a down-to-earth, simple old man like you, with a boring job and a boring life. And I'd rather be on the street than stuck in a boring life."

Mr. Engelbright raises an eyebrow. "My life is hardly boring with people like you around."

The boy laughs and takes a step back. "I'm a joker, Mr. Engelbright. I always will be. I don't take life seriously, because too many people do. I think that there need to be people in the world who lighten it up. I've chosen to be one of those people, and I'm not sorry that I shot poor dear Sadie with a q-tip."

Mr. Engelbright massages his temples. "You shouldn't have."

"It was funny."

"You're right. It was. It doesn't mean it was right."

"I didn't hurt anybody."

"You hurt her pride."

"Q-tips don't hurt pride. Paradigms hurt pride. She hurt her own pride because she thought it was embarrassing to be shot with a q-tip. Girls are touchy. Not my fault."

With a helpless laugh, Mr. Engelbright gestures for him to leave. "Get out of here, Jack. You're going to miss the bus."

The boy smiles and bows with a flourish before turning and walking out of the room. He doesn't actually ride the bus, but Mr. Engelbright doesn't need to be told that. Jack is just glad he got out of there without detention.