The sombre mood around school that morning seemed to permeate through every wall. Pete could feel it and it ate at him mercilessly. Rex had become like a brother to him. It was Rex who had taken the class clown that was Pete and turned him into the class clown who got to rub shoulders with some of the hottest girls and coolest guys in school. To think that right now he might be imprisoned somewhere at the mercy of two lowlifes angered him and made him want to leave the school grounds right now and mount a search for them.
Ms Cann, their English teacher seemed subdued as well. She tried to teach, but nobody seemed interested, least of all Pete.
‘Mandy,’ she said. ‘Mandy?’
Mandy stared out the window, her face pale and eyes distant. In fact, all the girls were like that, having said little to each other at all, even before Ms Cann arrived to take the class.
‘Are you going to answer me, Mandy?’
Mandy completely ignored her and didn’t even acknowledge her with a glance. She continued to stare out the window.
The elderly English teacher sighed. She turned to someone else. ‘Margaret. How about you? Can you tell me what Boxer, the horse in the book represents? George Orwell portrayed him as a particular section of communist society. Can you tell me which section?’
Maggie, turned her eyes to her. ‘I don’t care.’
Ms Cann recoiled. ‘You don’t care?’
‘No. I’m worried about Rex.’
Ms Cann placed her copy of “Animal Farm” down on her desk. ‘Margaret, I understand it’s tough, but we still have to continue on with our learning. The world doesn’t just stand still, just because someone we care about is missing.’
‘It does for me.’
A few of the other girls murmured in agreement.
‘Oh, that’s just silly. Look, I’m as worried as you are, but the best thing we can do is continue with everyday business. Sitting around worrying is not going to accomplish anything.’
‘We should be out looking for him,’ declared Wal.
‘That’s right,’ Pete said. ‘If it was one of us in his shoes and he was here, he’d be walking out this door right now to go find us.’
The other members of the class agreed.
‘That’s the job for the police,’ insisted Ms Cann. ‘They are more equipped to deal with this and if dangerous people are involved, children should stay right out of this. This just demonstrates a lesson for all of us. Violence is no answer for anything. Rex has a habit of using his fists when it comes to dealing with people who offend him. Now look what it’s done, it’s come back to haunt him.’
Pete could not sit by and have Ms Cann criticise his friend. He thought back to Rex’s sixteenth birthday that the Wild Dog gang gate crashed. ‘If it wasn’t for his ability to use his fists, you would have been a lot worse off when those gang members threatened you last term.’ She had been there, trying to put an end to what she saw as immoral behaviour. ‘If it hadn’t been for Rex sticking up for all of us against the leader of that gang, who knows what might have happened?’
The others in the class murmured their agreement.
‘And he was really nice about you sneaking in there trying to film everybody.’
Ms Cann blushed. ‘Yes, well, I am very thankful for his intervention, but please, I forbid any of you to get involved in any kind of search. These men are dangerous and are not above extreme violence to get their way. Stay well clear of them. The police have been very particular about this. They do not want any civilians getting involved. Leave it up to them.’
It was lunchtime and as much as Pete wanted to mope with his friends outside E Block and talk about Rex’s disappearance, he had no choice but to attend the detention Mr Reaper had placed him on. Detentions had become the bane of his existence over the last year or so. Before that, he used to have fun in them, fooling around and doing stupid things. One of his favourite tricks was when he had to write a passage out of a textbook. He’d rearrange words or add his own, making a totally different passage that was a lot more humorous. The teacher on duty only ever sighted the work, as they didn’t have the time to read it, so there was nothing to worry about. Nevertheless, ever since Rex had come to the school, lunchtimes had become a social event, unlike the dull breaks they were before. Regardless, Pete couldn’t help getting himself into trouble, so the lunchtime detention still regularly became a part of his routine.
‘Darn it,’ grumbled Pete unable to concentrate on his passage this time around. He didn’t even bother trying to comprehend what it said and just copied the words down onto his paper, one at a time. He paused to survey the small group of students in the room with him. Tucker was the only one who seemed relaxed. Pete’s fat classmate continued with his work unconcerned with the otherwise heavy atmosphere of the room.
‘Hi Pete.’
He turned his head to see one of his female classmates sitting only a couple of seats away. It was Melissa Mason; quite a nice looker, with her long dark hair, big eyes and full lips, but she lacked a little in the personality department. Generally, she totally ignored him. The only things she had ever said to him in the past were unfit to repeat.
‘Hi, Melissa.’ He pondered why she would bother talking to him at all.
He expected her to ridicule him, but she instead smiled pleasantly. ‘Are you ok?’
‘No, not really.’ Pete was not in the mood to be friendly with her. ‘My pal’s only been kidnapped, that’s all.’
‘I know. It’s so horrible. All Rex wants to do is make sure people are happy and then when some creep makes someone else’s lives a misery and he tries to make it right, all that trouble ends up on his plate. There’s no justice in it.’
Pete nodded. He felt exactly the same way. ‘That Rod Williams was always a complete jerk. It’s hard to believe he has such a nice sister.’ He returned to his work, feeling a little better that there was someone else there who understood something of his frustrations, even if it had to be someone like Melissa.
‘Hey, Pete.’
‘Yeah?’ He turned his eyes to her again.
‘Umm. I know I’ve been a bit of a bitch to you in the past.’
‘That’s true.’
‘I know I’ve said some pretty nasty things to you. I hope that you haven’t taken those things personally.’
He gazed at her. It felt like he had seen a rose in the middle of the desert… something good amongst all the crap. Could it be that she was apologising to him? He’d never had a girl apologise for being a bitch towards him. ‘You have and I haven’t.’
‘Good, because I didn’t mean any of them. I... I’m sorry about the things I’ve said.’
Pete almost smiled, but then a thought occurred that it wouldn’t be the first time that a girl had pretended to be nice only to turn the tables a few minutes later and start being a bitch again. ‘Why?’ he finally asked. ‘How come you’re sorry now?’
‘Because over the last year I’ve come to realise that you’re not such a bad guy. I tend to jump to conclusions about people sometimes.’ She smiled and it lit up her entire face. Still Pete couldn’t escape the feeling that she might be trying to set him up, pretending that she liked him and then once she had him in her trap, humiliate him in front of his peers. ‘So... is it ok? I’d hate you to keep on hating me.’
‘It’s ok.’ He figured there couldn’t be any harm in just letting her think she had him fooled. Then again, maybe she really was being sincere, so he definitely didn’t want to appear to be a jerk.
‘Great. Maybe we can be friends now?’
‘If you like.’
‘Cool.’
Pete smiled and not knowing what else to say, returned to his work.
Before he could write a word though, Melissa spoke again. ‘It’s so terrible what’s happened to Rex though. Do you think he’ll be alright?’
Pete pondered that for a few seconds. A lot of negative thoughts had flowed through his head, but here was a girl wanting some reassurances. It would look good f
or him if he appeared to be strong. ‘Yeah, he’ll be fine. Rex is tough and he can get himself out of any kind of trouble. And besides, Rod Williams may be a complete scumbag, but I very much doubt he’s a murderer.’
‘Yeah, I guess you’re right.’
Tucker spoke up from across the room. ‘Why don’t you guys just shut up about Cassidy? It’s all I’ve been hearing about all ubbing morning. So he’s missing? Get over it! Man, you’re an ubbhead, Cook.’
Melissa responded before Pete could. ‘Why don’t you just shut up, you fat creep!’
‘You shut up, you stupid cow!’
‘Don’t you call me a cow, you fat git and don’t tell me to shut up!’
Anger brewed inside Pete and he too had harsh words for their loudmouth classmate. ‘You’d better watch your mouth, Tucker. Rex is my friend.’
‘Oooooh, I’m so scared, ubbhead. What you gonna do? Set Rex onto me? Woof woof! Newsflash, Cook, he ain’t around and hopefully we’ll never see him again.’
‘Watch it, Tucker!’ Pete glared, clenching his fist under the table.
Melissa piped up. ‘You are a complete jerk, Pyles and it’s pretty obvious that you aren’t willing to fight your own battles. You need thugs to do your dirty work.’
‘That’s because I don’t like to get my hands dirty. If I wanted to, I could do my own dirty work.’
‘Yeah right!’
‘Dam right I’m right. You better believe it!’
Pete went into one of his impressionist routines. It was a routine he would never have dared do to Tucker’s face in the past, however now he had more confidence. ‘My names Fatty Pyles!’ he said in a stupid voice. ‘I sit around on my bum all day. Oh sorry. I mean, I sit around on my face all day.’
Melissa burst out laughing.
Tucker made a sudden lunge through the desks. Pete leapt to his feet and knocked his chair down in an effort to escape. He pushed some desks and chairs aside and Tucker knocked several more away in an attempt to catch him. Tucker finally managed to trap Pete and twisted his ear violently. ‘Ubbhead! I oughta smack your face in, you cheeky little sod!’
‘Leave him alone, you lousy jerk!’ Melissa snarled. ‘Man you’re a sleazebag. I’d like to see you try something like that on Rex!’
‘If I touched him like that I’d probably end up with some girly disease that he’s caught off one of his groupies.’
‘You’re a maladroit twit, you know that Pyles?’
Tucker grumbled something under his breath and shuffled back to his seat.
Pete fumed and wanted to really give him a piece of his mind, but it occurred to him that Tucker probably only stopped due to high possibility that Rex would be back. At least Pete prayed he would be back, because if he didn’t, Tucker would have free reign over the school.
Pete glanced at Melissa.
She sat there, still glaring at Tucker and it may well have been that Tucker found her intimidating too. ‘Man, he’s a jerk. You should tell Rex what he did when he gets back.’
‘Don’t worry about it. I can fight my own battles, you know.’
‘Huh! You didn’t exactly put up much of...’ Her words trailed off and her eyes softened. ‘Well. At least you’re no wimp. You like riling him up, don’t you?’
Pete grinned. Riling up Tucker was one of his favourite pass times, especially when he knew that he could get away with it.
She grinned. ‘You’re a laugh Pete, you really are.’
Pete studied her for a moment. There almost seemed to be admiration in her eyes. No, there couldn’t be, he simply imagined it. Girls didn’t look at him like that. It was something that just didn’t happen, especially not to him. Nevertheless, she continued to smile. There definitely seemed to be something in it. He sure hoped there was, because it would be nice to have an attractive female on his arm again.
CHAPTER 9:
Sour Grapes