It had been a normal day at the start. Ninjago High was going through its usual morning routine of checking its students' attendance and sending them off to their morning classes. It was all business as usual until the fire alarm went off and everything fell into chaos. Within a few minutes, all of the students and their teachers were rushing out of the school and to the designated fire safety checkpoint. Chad and his gang were running down the halls, pushing and shoving anyone in their way.
Close behind them, Cole and Dareth were helping up the people that Chad and his gang had pushed to the floor.
Delara was clutching her bag close to her chest, refusing to leave any of her belongings behind. Dogshank was using her large frame to try and shield Clancee and Gene from the running crowd. Kai was all but dragging Jay and Lloyd towards the exit. Soon everyone was outside and the teachers began to do a headcount of all the students. As they did that, Luke's eyes were darting around wildly until they zeroed in on Delara and he scowled, but he didn't do or say anything.
Morro and Nya quickly found their respective romantic partners and embraced them.
Pixal and Zane were helping the teachers make sure everyone was accounted for. They also provided first aid to anyone who was injured in the evacuation. Soon the principal was confident that everyone was outside and now they all had to wait until the firefighters arrived.
"Is this a drill?" Chad asked amidst all the panic.
"It wasn't at Granite Hills High." Dogshank gulped as she and all the other students from that school were noticeably paler.
"This had better be a joke," Delara growled as her eyes zeroed in on Gene, Kai, Lloyd, Morro, and Harumi.
"We didn't do anything!" Gene screeched just as Lawrence burst through the crowd. His face was red and his eyes were burning with fury as he scanned over the students.
"Who set off the fire alarm?!" He roared, but no one spoke up. That is until someone raised a hand and they all turned to see Harumi leaning casually with her hand in the air.
"I just thought I should let you know that the school's on fire." She said with a bittersweet grin and pointed up at the school. They all followed to where her finger was pointing and Lawrence did a double-take when he saw thick, black smoke pouring out of one of the windows on the top floor.
"Get back you stupid shit!" He shouted and shoved Jay back. It seemed that he pushed Jay a little too hard because as he stumbled back he slipped and fell back into a muddy puddle with a cry and a thud. This caught everyone's attention and Cole rushed to help his best friend back to his feet.
"What happened?" He asked as he helped the freckled teen up.
"He pushed me." Jay glared as he wiped the mud off him. Everyone, students and teachers, turned to scowl at Lawrence, but he didn't look scared.
"I didn't touch him! The stupid kid slipped in the mud." He replied, but when they still look enraged, he started to worry. "It's been raining all night, what do you expect?" He snapped, but before anyone could say anything the firefighters arrived. It didn't take them long to out out the fire, but that didn't mean there wasn't a lot of damage. After they were assured it was safe, the principal, Koko, and Lawrence followed a firefighter up to the room where the fire was.
The room was a stationary storage room.
The room had shelves full of pens, pencils, notepads, books, and other essentials like spare calculators, erasers, rulers, and staplers. At least, that's what used to be in that room. The fire had fully engulfed the room and had spread a little into the hallway, but thankfully nothing else was seriously damaged. Inside the room was burnt completely black and most of the items inside were either melted, half-burned, or completely burnt to ash.
"Oh, no! What a mess!" The principal cried as he took in the blackened walls and burnt equipment.
"No matter how bad the fire is, there's always something left behind." The female firefighter reassured him as she examined a sack of burnt sawdust that they collected from the woodshop class and used for the hamsters in the freshmen classes. "See this sawdust? It looks like someone's thrown a match in it." She said, identifying the sack as where the fire began.
"What, you think it might be arson?" Koko asked in concern.
"It could have been an accident, maybe they thought they put it out, but with fuel like this it could smolder away." She mused as she slapped on some gloves and began fishing through the sack for what exactly caused the fire. "A decent smoke alarm would have alerted you a lot sooner." She added in an almost accusing tone at the three educators.
"It's a new system, we replaced all the alarms a few months back." The principal replied nervously.
"That's good, but even a new system won't work without batteries." The male firefighter said and he held up the smoke alarm to reveal that there were no batteries inside. The principal and Koko were shocked, but Lawrence just chuckled bitterly.
"I told you two, you should never have let the young people come up here." He sighed as he shook his head condescendingly, something that annoyed Koko.
"Wait a minute! Who's to say this is our kids' fault?"
"Oh come on! Who else is it going to be? Your students are completely out of control!" He snapped. "Why do you think I've been doing overnights all week?" He added and Koko almost rolled his eyes. All week Lawrence had been coming to the school at night and patrolling the empty halls of Ninjago High. The principal, Koko, and all the other teachers tried to tell him that it wasn't necessary. This wasn't Granite Hills High. They didn't have students on the premises in the evenings or over the weekends.
But he insisted that he needed to keep a close eye on the place.
No one could figure out the reason, but no one didn't care. Koko looked like she wanted to argue with him some more, but they all fell silent when the female firefighter suddenly pulled something out of the sawdust. They looked like long, thin sticks. Upon closer inspection, they realized that they were burnt incense sticks.
"I think we've found our firestarter."...
"It wasn't my fault." Dareth whimpered as Lawrence, Koko, and the principal stared down at him. Almost everyone knew that Dareth burnt incense sticks. As soon as he heard that, Lawrence tracked Dareth down like a madman. After the Granite Hills High principal forcibly searched Dareth's backpack and found a box of incense sticks, the principal took the teen, Lawrence, and Koko into his office. The last thing he wanted was to cause a scene after all this business with Granite Hills High and now the fire.
They had Dareth sit in a chair and presented the burnt incense sticks on the principal's desk.
"Dareth, we're not angry, OK?" Koko promised with a soft voice, yet stern eyes. "We just want to know where you got them from."
"My Mom gave them to me, they are supposed to help me with all the stress with the exams and graduation." He replied, unable to look any of them in the eye.
"OK, he's admitted it." Lawrence quickly said and he pulled out a disciplinary form for the principal to fill in.
"Hold on a minute, he didn't say that!" Koko exclaimed. Lawrence rolled his eyes and snatched the burnt sticks off the table. In the blink of an eye, he got into Dareth's face and almost poked the teen's eyes out with the sticks.
"DID YOU BURN THESE OR NOT?!"
"Y-Yes, b-but then I put them out!" He stuttered in terror, but the only thing Lawrence was interested in was the confession. With a satisfied grin, he strolled back over to the principal and Koko and he slammed the sticks back on the desk.
"Dareth doesn't tell lies." The principal said, not liking the way Lawrence was treating Dareth. "Plus he wasn't at Granite Hills High, was he?"
"So?" Lawrence glared as if he was daring the other principal to continue.
"Well, two fires in two schools in less than a week, don't you think there's a connection?" Koko asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, there is! They're both full of teenagers!" He shouted before storming off to who knows where. The principal sighed in frustration at Lawrence's behavior and dismissed Dareth. No one was hurt and the insurance will cover any damages. With that in mind, he gave the boy a week's detention for burning the sticks, hoping that this was the end of it...
Morro groaned as he barely resisted the urge to hold his nose as he walked to his locker. The firemen had cleared out and after the principal had been assured there wasn't any risk he ordered for the students and the teachers to return to class. The hallway with the burnt storeroom was taped off and the classes along that hallway were moved. Unfortunately, Morro's locker was close to the closed hallway. The smell of the burnt walls and items might not affect humans, but with his enhanced werewolf sense of smell, it was very irritating.
Morro just wanted to get his stuff for his next class and leave, but something stopped him.
For a brief second, he picked up a scent other than burnt plaster. Following the scent, the lone wolf arrived at an empty maths classroom. He entered without knocking and was surprised to see Pixal and Zane alone in the room. For a second Morro thought they might be up to something naughty, but then he saw the blackboard. It looked like something out of those crime dramas Mrs. Dobson watched. It was full of pictures of their fellow students with red strings connecting them to either another picture or one of the dozen colorful post-it notes.
"What's all this?" He asked after taking it all in for a moment.
"We are investigating the fires," Pixal replied as she pinned another note on the board.
"What? You guys think they were both started by the same person?" The lone wolf asked and she nodded. "So, what have you found out about the Granite Hills High fire so far?" He asked and the couple thought about what they had learned so far. Most didn't remember much about it, but Gene seemed to have the best memory of the incident. He kept saying how cool it was and how the firemen had to get them out in ladders. From what the couple could gather, the first the students knew about it was when they had been woken up by the fire alarm.
Ultra Violet said that it must have been four in the morning because that was when they had woken up and there was smoke everywhere.
According to Dogshank, the whole place went up within half an hour. Considering how cheap Granite Hills High was, that wasn't a surprise. However, none of them knew how the fire started. The firemen said it had started in the student lounge, but they couldn't find a cause.
"We don't know how the Granite Hills High fire started, and it could have been any one of them, or more than one," Zane explained, clearly frustrated at the lack of information and answers.
"OK, what do we know about our fire?"
"The morning registration was at 8:57 am and according to the system everyone was present; the fire alarm went off at 10:31 am," Pixal replied as she pointed it out on their timeline diagram. Pixal and Zane's next move was clear. They needed to know where everyone was between nine and half ten...
Within half an hour, Pixal and Zane had returned to their little, makeshift investigation room with fresh information. Unfortunately, it didn't help them much. After speaking with everyone they knew, Zane and Pixal returned to their crime den to go over everyone's alibi. Luke was with Gene and Clancee the whole time. Kai was with Cole and Morro, and Delara and Ultra Violet were with Nya and Jay, who were still trying to find Jay's missing money.
The only person who didn't have an alibi was Harumi.
She said that she was in the gym, planning out the next cheerleader routine. Sadly for her, no one could confirm her story. Dareth was in an art class with Chad and Maggie was in home economics. Zane and Pixal were each other's alibi as they were in the library together. With all this information, they had to try and make the pieces fit right.
"Gene had a secret box of fireworks and a lighter; he could be a pyromaniac," Pixal suggested. "Then Harumi took the lighter, and she was alone, so she had no witnesses to corroborate her alibi."
"Yes, but she set off the alarm, she wouldn't have started the fire." Zane pointed out.
"She might have done, it's called hero syndrome." She replied as she circled Harumi's picture with a dark red marker. "People with hero syndrome like to get attention, so they cause an accident on purpose and pretend to help." She explained, but Zane wasn't convinced. Before he could say so, or before Pixal could argue her case, Luke suddenly walked back into the room.
"How's the investigation going?" He asked as he examined the blackboard and his eyes narrowed when he saw the note under Delara's picture with her alibi written on it. "Delara reckons that she was with Violet, Nya, and Jay?"
"They all confirmed it," Pixal replied, noticing Luke's narrowed gaze on the picture. "Do you know something?"
"Even if I did, I wouldn't snitch." He sneered and made to leave, but Zane grabbed his arm to stop.
"If you know something, you had better tell us now." He said and for a split second, it looked Luke was going to say something. But then his teeth gritted and his eyes narrowed and he violently pulled his arm out of Zane's grip.
"I don't." He spat before storming off. Zane used his enhanced hearing to make sure he was gone before he nodded to Pixal.
"Delara could be lying, but so could the others from Granite Hills High, or anyone we interviewed." She growled in frustration at their lack of progress. They had no proof of anything regarding either of the fires. They needed to conduct a forensic investigation, which meant they needed to get into the storeroom. The couple quickly made their way to the taped-off hallway, enlisting Morro's help along the way. They needed a lookout in case a teacher or another student walked by and heard them.
Morro's locker was the closest to the hallway so they figured if he was spotted he would have an excuse to be there.
With Morro and Zane's enhanced senses, Morro could detect if someone was coming and give Zane a quiet warning to either be quiet, hide, or get out of there. After making sure the coast was clear, Morro gave the couple a nod and they began searching the storeroom for anything suspicious. Pixal searched the room thoroughly for matches or anything that could start a fire. Zane put on some rubber gloves and began looking through the sack of sawdust since that was where the fire started.
Just then, Zane felt a few small, strange objects brush against his hands through the sawdust.
He grabbed some objects and pulled them out to properly examine them. But he nearly cursed when he saw what they were.
"Pixal, look at this." He hissed and opened up his hand for her to see.
"Cigarette butts?" She frowned as Zane put them into a plastic bag and sealed it shut to protect the evidence. Now they knew something was afoot, Pixal also started digging into the bag to see what else they could find. She felt something halfway down and when she pulled it out she saw that it was a pack of Grantham's cigarettes. There were several packs and many more cigarette butts.
"Someone has been using this place as a secret smoking spot." She realized in horror.
"Who's in there?!" Lawrence's voice suddenly boomed and before the couple could react the teacher burst into the room, holding Morro's arm in a painfully tight grip...
The teens didn't have time to blink before Lawrence dragged them to the principal's office. Koko was there as well to sort out some paperwork for an upcoming field trip. They were both startled when Lawrence suddenly burst into the room pulling three students behind him. He forced the trio into some chairs and told the two adults that he found them messing around in the burnt stock room. As the principal lectured the teens about endangering themselves, Lawrence was looking for something in a file cabinet.
Zane and Pixal were freaking out.
They had never been in trouble with the principal, so this was a bit intimidating for them. Morro wasn't that bothered by it though. To him, this was just a regular occurrence since he was sent to the principal's office at least once every two weeks. It could be for telling a rude teacher or Chad or his gang to fuck off or for forgetting his homework. It had gotten to the point where the principal couldn't be bothered lecturing him anymore. They would just talk about how Morro was doing and at the end of the sessions, the principal would give him a detention.
Lawrence suddenly snapped the filing cabinet shut and started pacing around the office as he flicked through a file.
He wasn't saying anything. An awkward silence filled the office and the two adults and three teens were starting to grow anxious.
"I can forgive your incompetence, Morro." He finally said after a few more minutes. "After all, you're only young, but Zane Julien and Pixal Borg could have been killed today!" He shouted as he turned to look Morro in the eye and he slammed Morro's file hard onto the desk. "Reviewing your record, I can't believe you've kept your place here this long!" He roared, but Morro refused to flinch and give the man a reaction.
"Morro's a good student." Koko glared.
"Well, obviously you think so, you've been covering for him from day one!"
"Why don't we ask why they went up there in the first place?" The principal suggested, scared a fight between the two teachers would break out, and they all turned to the trio expectedly.
"We were investigating, and we found the forensic evidence," Zane answered with a cold voice and an even colder demeanor.
"What's he going on about?" Lawrence scoffed, but his eyes widened when Zane pulled the plastic bag full of cigarette butts and the empty cigarette packs and placed them onto the desk for the teachers to see.
"We found these in the attic, the sack of sawdust was full of them," Pixal explained. "Cigarette butts can smolder for hours." She added and the principal and Koko gasped.
"So that's what happened," Koko said as she held up the bag to get a good look. "Dareth didn't start the fire at all, it was a smoker up there; this changes everything!"
"It changes nothing." Lawrence spat before he swiped the bag out of her hand and the packs off the desk and pocketed them. "The issue is that you are a danger to the other students." He growled at Morro, jabbing a finger into the teen's chest.
"So you don't care who started the fire?" Koko hissed as she pushed herself between Lawrence and Morro.
"Of course I do, you idiot! I'm going to search this place from top to bottom till I find the smoker!" He shouted before he suddenly pushed Koko off to the side, almost completely off her feet, and grabbed Morro by the front of his shirt and pulled him to his feet. "But it's no longer your problem, now go and get the rest of your things together, I want you gone within the hour." He ordered. Though the principal and Koko tried to fight, a harsh, almost killing glare from Lawrence shut them up.
Morro choose not to say anything and left to get his belongings.
God help Lawrence when his foster parents, social worker, and pack heard about this. He knew a lot about the public system. He knew that pupils who had done nothing wrong for expulsion were sometimes expelled if the school didn't expect them to achieve sufficiently high grades in external examinations. This illegal policy seriously harmed the life chances of young people. Since many violent students rebel against school rules, some teachers choose to expel students who had done an act of violence against another pupil for persistent defiance rather than violence.
This was to protect the victim from being assaulted again as revenge for the excluded student's expulsion.
Some regard this process of persistent defiance to be unfair. The pupil would have often been punished once already for each act. Expulsion could be a second punishment imposed after the matter had been settled. Morro or his foster parents could appeal to the school governors against the expulsion. If the appeal failed to reinstate the pupil, a further appeal could be made to an appeals board that sat on the behalf of the local education authority.
The parents of an excluded pupil were entitled to appeal against the expulsion or an exclusion exceeding five days to a panel of school governors acting as a court.
The panel, which consisted of parents and staff, was not legally able to exclude a pupil or extend a term of exclusion. But it could convert a permanent exclusion to a fixed term one, reduce the length of a fixed-term exclusion, or cancel an exclusion. The appeal must occur no sooner than six days after and no more than fifteen days after the exclusion begins. The panel considered oral, written, or physical evidence from the school detailing the case for expulsion, and from the parents of the excluded pupil.
They may argue that the excluded pupil was not responsible for the act for which they had been excluded, or that the punishment was disproportionate to the offense.
If the appeal to the governors was unsuccessful, an expelled or excluded student and their parents may go to an appeals board. This panel, which was appointed by the local education authority, had to be autonomous of the authority, the school, and the parents of the excluded student. The majority of these appeals the panel heard were not against exclusions but were for the admission of pupils into schools. Regardless of whether Morro was allowed to come back to Ninjago High or not, he knew his pack and his foster family would make Lawrence's life a living hell.
But being expelled wasn't what Morro was worried about.
If Social Services caught wind of his being expelled they might think he wasn't settling in here. Ever since he had returned, Morro had been on extremely thin ice and his social worker warned that one more mistake he would be relocated. Foster kids got moved around all the time. They could be moved to a different house, a different city, or a different state altogether. This could be the last straw for Morro's social worker and no one could know where he would end up if that did happen.
It didn't take him long to gather his belongings, but as he made his way to the entrance he saw his friends and his girlfriend.
Zane and Pixal had told everyone what had happened in the office and they wanted to say goodbye.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye." He sighed sadly and Harumi suddenly hugged him tightly, knocking the air out of him. No one saw her teary eyes glaring daggers into the floor as if it was Lawrence's head. There was no way she was going to let her boyfriend, her first real friend, leave for a few years. To her, that was complete nonsense. Morro could come live with her until he aged out of the system. She would have no problem getting her parents to agree to that.
She seemed to have a special talent in getting her parents and other people to do what she wanted.
"Nah, you'll be back, you always are," Kai said with a grin, but the people who knew him could tell he was hiding how upset he was.
"Thanks; it's glad to know you're all on my side." Morro chuckled softly, but the sound of someone clearing their throat caught their attention. They turned and saw Lawrence holding the large glass doors open for the lone wolf and looking very impatient. "Don't worry asshole, I'm going." Morro snarled as he reluctantly pulled Harumi's arms off him and promised to call her and the others when he knew what Social Services were going to do with him.
After saying his goodbyes, Morro grabbed his bag and headed for the car park to wait for one of the Dobsons to pick him up.
The principal had called them and they said one of them would come and collect him. But after half an hour of waiting, Morro was seriously considering running home when his hearing suddenly caught onto something. With the stealth of a skilled ninja, Morro made his way to the side of the building and peered around the corner just in time to see Luke Cummingham closing one of the dumpsters and sneaking back into the school through a side door.
The werewolf waited for a second to make sure the coast was clear before walking over to the dumpster and opening it.
There was nothing inside since the garbage men had been that morning. There was something in the dumpster, however, and when Morro realized what it was he gasped. Without thinking another second he grabbed it and ran back towards the entrance of the school. He burst in and started tracking Luke down. Unfortunately for Morro, he ran into Lawrence first.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" He bellowed but Morro pushed past him and continued his hunt. With Lawrence thundering after him, Morro sniffed out his victim and quickly found him whispering something to Clancee in the middle of a crowded hallway.
"LUKE!" He roared, catching everyone's attention. Luke glared at him, but his annoyance turned to horror when Morro held something up. "Yours, I believe? I saw you throw these out." He smirked as he held up a pack of Grantham's cigarettes. Also known as the mystery smoker's choice. Everyone in the hallway gasped and whispered amongst themselves. Luke was growing paler and was sweating profusely. Lawrence was strangely silent ever since Morro revealed the pack of cigarettes.
"Clancee, do you know anything about these?"
"I-I-I found them inside of my locker." He admitted through scared, chattering teeth.
"Someone put them there, so Clancee gave them to me and I threw them out," Luke added, finally finding his face. But this seemed to snap Lawrence out of his dazed state.
"You admit it! Clancee had cigarettes and you helped him hide them!"
"No, that's not what I said!" Luke denied, but Lawrence refused to listen.
"You both have detention and I'll be passing these to the fire investigators!" He shouted as he snatched the pack out of Morro's grip and rounded back on the lone wolf. "You, get out; and the rest of you go to your class!" He roared and the students all scattered like scared sheep. Morro scowled at him, but ultimately said nothing and left without any more trouble...
When lunch rolled around, the cafeteria was dealy silent aside from the hushed and whispered gossip some students shared about the day's events. Morro had been sent home not too long away and opinions were split. Most of the students of Ninjago High, the teachers, and all of the Granite Hills High students agreed to keep their opinions to themselves in fear of what Lawrence would do to them. Some students, like Chad, Maggie, and their respective friend groups agreed that Morro being kicked out of the school was for the best.
It seemed that the only ones who were willing to fight for Morro were his friends.
Cole was clutching his lunch cutlery so hard that they were bending before he politely excused himself from the cafeteria before he did something stupid. Kai, Harumi, and Nya looked ready to slaughter Lawrence without any hesitation. Even Jay was angry at Lawrence if his clenched jaw and the daggers he was glaring at his lunch were anything to go by. Lloyd had sent a text to his mother and uncle, hoping that they could use their resources to get Morro back into the school.
Unfortunately, Pixal had pointed out that that might not be the best idea.
With what had happened with Morro and the system and their werewolf side people might start getting suspicious, especially if Ninjago High falls under investigation again. Someone might wonder why Morro was allowed to stay with his foster family and the school. If they start digging it might lead back to Lloyd's family and their connections. That would be disastrous for everyone. Zane was sat outside for his lunch to get away from it all. He couldn't help but feel guilty for Morro being kicked out of Ninjago High.
It was his idea for Morro to keep a lookout and because of that Lawrence used it against the lone wolf.
They needed to find a way to fix this, but he wondered if they could. As the pale teen ate his lunch, however, Luke suddenly stepped out of the cafeteria and made a beeline for him. He stopped in front of him and Zane waited patiently to see what he had to say. But if Luke was coming over here to try and apologies for Morro's situation or try and make excuses then Zane didn't want to hear it.
"I need to talk to you." He finally said and although Zane was a little cautious, he nodded and after sending a text to Pixal they all returned to their makeshift investigation room. She was already there waiting for them. They waited for Zane to signal that there was no one around and when he did they both turned to Luke for answers. "As I said, I'm no snitch, but she's pushed it too far this time." He snarled as he glared off to the side.
"Who has?" Pixal asked in confusion.
"The others can look after themselves, so can I; but framing Clancee? That's just wrong." He growled.
"Who framed Clancee? What are you trying to tell us?" Zane asked calmly but it was clear they were growing impatient.
"The morning of the Granite Hills High fire, I woke up early, almost like I knew something was gonna happen." He recounted as he thought back to that day. He had woken up far earlier than he ever had and before everyone else. Something told him to look out the dorm window, so he did. "Delara was carrying something, and whatever it was, it was on fire." He added remembering looking out the window and seeing Delara. She was in her pajamas and walking into the bushes and trees beside the school.
She was carrying something between two couch cushions, but Luke couldn't make out what it was because of all the smoke coming off it.
A few minutes later he saw Delara running back into the school without the cushions or whatever it was that was burning.
"It was none of my business, so I went back to bed and didn't think any more about it; that is until the fire alarm went off." He added grimly, finishing his story of the Granite Hills High fire.
"Thank you for telling us," Pixal said and Luke nodded before walking away. As soon as he was gone, Zane and Pixal shared an angry, yet determined look. They needed to find and talk to Delara...
Delara was ecstatic as she all but skipped down the halls. Jay's money was sitting comfortably in her locker and she could put it to better use than leaving it with a junkyard kid. She could buy a personalized leather handbag with a canvas strap, some jewelry, or maybe some new clothes like a custom denim jacket. She did feel a bit guilty for stealing from him, especially when he had been so nice to her, but she couldn't dwell on it. She had been taught since birth that you did what you could in this world to survive, whether you begged, borrowed, or stole.
Guilt made you doubt yourself and if you started doubting yourself it will lead to chaos.
Delara learned quickly in Granite Hills to never doubt herself and to always trust her gut. It wasn't anything personal against Jay. That and she had just survived TWO fires in less than a month and felt like she needed a reward. When she rounded the corner, however, she was surprised and annoyed to see Pixal, Zane, and Morro blocking her path. After Luke confessed what happened to them, Zane and Pixal called Morro and snuck him back into the building, knowing that he would want answers too.
"What?" She growled impatiently at the trio.
"Where were you when the Granite Hills High fire started?" Pixal demanded and Delara's attitude immediately changed.
"I don't know anything about the fire at Granite Hills High! Why is everyone always having a go at me?!" She exclaimed as she buried her face in her hands and started sobbing. Too bad for Delara, neither of them was stupid and she was one of the worst actors they had ever seen.
"Drop the act, Delara! You were seen tossing something on fire into the bushes, so just tell us what happened." Morro glared and Delara stopped her fake crying and scowled at the couple.
"It was an accident, OK?" She snapped as she crossed her arms in defiance. "The night before the fire, I was straightening my hair, and then early the next morning, I woke up and realized I'd left the straighteners on." She explained as she remembered sitting in one of the common rooms next to her dorm, straightening her raven locks. She had woken up earlier to the faint smell of smoke. She followed the smoke and found the entire couch and most of the room engulfed in a light smoke cloud and her straighteners were sizzling on the couch.
Without thinking it through, Delara had unplugged the straighteners and opened a window to vent the smoke out.
She then grabbed a pair of cushions and used them to pick up the straighteners so she could get rid of them.
"I threw them outside and when I got back the fire had spread." She finished as she recalled throwing the straighteners into a deep puddle to put it out. After she was sure they had stopped burning she had run back inside to check the damage. If Lawrence found out what had happened Delara would be for a living hell. When Delara burst into the room, however, she was horrified to see the entire couch being devoured by a rapidly growing fire.
Before Delara could think of what to do the smoke alarms went off and the rest was history.
As she finished telling her story, the others were confused. Pixal turned to Zane and Morro because they should be able to tell if Delara was lying or not thanks to their powers. There were a few of the potential red flags the researchers identified that might indicate that people were deceptive. They might be being vague and offer few details. They might repeat questions before answering them and speaking in sentence fragments. They could keep failing to provide specific details when a story is challenged.
Or they might exhibit grooming behaviors such as playing with their hair or pressing fingers to their lips.
Their heartbeat and breathing also increased. Yet Delara hadn't shown any of these signs as she told them what had happened. They couldn't smell smoke on her either like they usually did with smokers. Delara may have started the Granite Hills High fire, yet it was clear that she had nothing to do with the Ninjago High fire. But if she didn't start it, then who did?
"DELARA! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Lawrence's voice boomed through the halls, scaring all four of them. Upon realizing that there were no exits nearby and running would probably alert Lawrence to his presence, Morro bolted into a nearby stock room and Zane and Pixal began walking away to try and act like they were on their next lesson. Delara leaned against the wall and tried to act as casual as possible. The teacher soon marched around the corner and his eyes zeroed in on her.
"There's a phone call for you in the office, it's the hospital." He growled and Delara quickly scurried away. From inside the stock room, Morro waited for Lawrence to leave so he could escape. As he fidgeted around nervously, Morro felt something under his shoe and when he looked down he was surprised. The ground of the stock room was littered with cigarette butts. Before Morro could work out what this meant, he suddenly heard Lawrence moving.
He almost cursed when he realized the teacher was approaching the room he was hiding in.
As quickly and as quietly as he could, Morro hid behind the shelves in the corner to the right of the door. He hoped that the shadows and his dark clothes would help hide him. At the last second, he pulled out his phone, opened his camera, and hit record. If Lawrence found him and did something, Morro wanted evidence. Lawrence suddenly slammed the door open and stepped into the room. Morro was to his side in the corner but thankfully it seemed that the shadows were hiding him well.
Not noticing Morro recording him, Lawrence let out a loud, tired groan and pulled something out of his pocket.
He fiddled with it for a moment before the object slipped through his fingers and onto the floor. Morro got a good look at it before Lawrence picked it back up and he almost gasped. It was a packet of Grantham cigarettes...
Lawrence finally thought things were working out. He had finally gotten rid of that foster kid. Yeah, his friends and foster parents might fight it but all he had to do was show the school board all the reports in Morro's and they will see Lawrence was right. After he was finished with him, the only place Morro could only hope of getting an education would be in the youth offenders' prison. All the fights between the students had seemed to stop as well.
Jay's money was still missing but whoever stole must have spent it by now, so Lawrence wasn't too bothered about that.
Now all he had to do was CONVINCE Koko and the principal to resign and then he can start whipping these teachers and teenagers into shape. Lawrence finally thought things were working out until he reached the office. The principal, Koko, Pixal, Zane, and, to Lawrence's shock and rage, Morro were all there waiting for him. Before Lawrence could demand answers or throw Morro out again, the teen raised his phone. Lawrence was ready to verbally tear this kid to shreds until he saw the video Morro had taken.
The video of him smoking the same cigarettes that started the Ninjago High fire.
After the almost three and a half minute video ended Morro turned off his phone and they all glared at Lawrence.
"Well?" Koko snarled, but Lawrence wasn't fazed by this.
"OK, I felt pressured and I had the odd cigarette." He shrugged with a smirk.
"Uh, I think you did a bit more than that." Morro sneered. "You were on overnight duty and it was raining last night." He said, remembering what Lawrence had said that morning.
"You couldn't be bothered to go outside, so you decided to go up to the attic instead because you knew you were safe as you had taken the batteries out of the fire alarm; you had smoked there before," Pixal explained, remembering how the smoke alarm didn't have batteries and all the cigarette butts in the sack of sawdust.
"You put the cigarette end in the sawdust but you hadn't put it out properly and by the morning, it was too late," Zane added solemnly.
"While everyone was blaming Dareth, you thought you were safe, and then we found the cigarette butts so you had to pin the blame on someone else; Clancee seemed like a soft target so you framed him, but he found the cigarettes before you could pretend to find them," Morro growled as he thought about Lawrence using the spare key to unlock Clancee's locker and hiding the cigarettes inside.
"OK, look, I know the fire was an accident, and one lie led to another, but Clancee's vulnerable; how could you do that to him?" Koko asked, genuinely shocked and disgusted that an educator could do something like this, especially a child as vulnerable and damaged as Clancee.
"Do what? You've got no evidence whatsoever." Lawrence smirked a sick little chuckle.
"We'll let the police decide that." Pixal hissed venomously. "I'm sure the cause of the fire is the only thing they would uncover after a thorough investigation." She implied and that wiped that smug grin off Lawrence's face. If the police did start investigating his actions here, not to mention at Granite Hills High, he would most certainly go to jail. Even if it was only for a few months, when Lawrence would get out his life would be over. The media would be all over him and he would probably have to move countries to hope of ever getting a job again.
But he couldn't do that with no money and with no job he couldn't get money.
For a split second he had horrible visions of being a homeless loser, probably hooked on some kind of drug, and doing ANYTHING to get by. But what he didn't know was that the principal wanted to keep this from getting out to the public. If Ninjago High got any more bad press they might be closed down and that would leave himself and the teachers out of work. It would also leave the students scattered to find their education. But he knew that he couldn't just leave it.
While teachers can report another teacher anonymously or through their schools, they cannot avoid the responsibility.
Not reporting abuse is considered a misdemeanor or worse. It can result in up to six months in jail, a fine of up to one thousand dollars, or both. But luckily for everyone involved, even Lawrence, the principal had a plan that didn't involve the police.
"Or you could take a seat... and write your letter of resignation." He smirked, holding up a pen and the form...
The final bell of the day rang to signal the end of the school day and the start of the weekend. Most of the other kids had already run off, got into their cars, climbed into the buses, all on their way home. The principal had received a call from the school board to say that Granite Hills High had been mostly repaired and the students could return. But since Lawrence would not be returning to the school they had to go job hunting for a new headmaster.
The principal had suggested an old friend of his from college for the job.
She was a former vice-principal and school councilour who would be perfect for the job and could hopefully undo all the damage Lawrence had done. To make things even better, the insurance company had paid out and Ninjago High had more than enough money to fix the damage from the fire. Lawrence kept his eyes to the ground as he took a walk of shame to the school's front doors for the last time. Reluctantly, he had signed that blasted resignation letter.
The principal made sure that Lawrence knew he planned to report the incident with the school board, but they knew no repercussions would come of it aside from it going on his record.
Lawrence would never work in the education field ever again. He might be out of a job and humiliated, but anything was better than prison. Morro was following close behind, glaring daggers at the former teacher's back. He still technically wasn't allowed on school grounds but the principal assured him and his foster parents that Morro would be back in school by Monday. As Lawrence was about to leave, however, he stopped and turned to Morro, staring for a moment before finding his voice.
"Um, Morro..." He muttered, but trailed off and was unable to meet the lone wolf's eyes.
"What?" Morro snapped impatiently.
"Do you know if Koko, your friends, or the principal will tell anybody about what we discussed?" He whispered, almost as if he was scared there was someone nearby, listening in.
"No, they won't say a word because they're decent people." He hissed and Lawrence nodded in understanding. He made to leave again, but stopped and turned back to the teen.
"You know, Clancee does need specialist care, but there's no money, so an incident like this might have helped him get it." He commented, thinking back on the Ninjago High's insurance money and all the extra funds that had been given to Granite Hills High after it was rebuilt. There should be more than enough to Clancee the help he desperately needed.
"You just keep telling yourself that." Morro sneered in disgust at this human being, wanting him to leave already.
"I was like you once," Lawrence said stoically before finally leaving. Morro paused for a second, but shrugged it off and went to celebrate with the teachers, his friends, and a few other students who had stayed behind. All the teachers and all the students who stayed cheered, sang, danced, or just enjoyed themselves as they tore down all of Lawrence's dreaded rules posters, padlocks, and chains. Tomorrow was a new day for everyone, and maybe, just maybe Lawrence would find his heart again and learn what compassion was.
But whether he did or didn't, Morro didn't care that much.
He was just happy everything was going back to normal and that the students from Granite Hills High would be returning to a safer environment...
NEXT CHAPTER: One of the members of the wild wolf pack has fallen sick but when traditional medicine is not working, Skylor forces the pack to do something they never would have before...