Art.”
“Okay, bye, I guess.” she answered and walked slowly away.
During class, Sean wondered what Ashley meant by a few things. First and foremost, was he cute or the poster? Also, was it a bad thing that she possibly thought that he was putting too much thought and probably energy into finding the person who took his poster? These thoughts stuck in his head for a record breaking forty-five minutes until his attention was turned towards class. A girl named Ruth had to leave early and the teacher said, “Oh no! Now we’re ruthless!”
It was really funny and Sean laughed for maybe the first time since his poster went missing. Sean hadn’t finished laughing at the joke when the class ended and he, once again, found himself in a hallway full of potential suspects. He walked towards his locker and saw John and Paul talking to each other suspiciously close to his locker.
“Hey, John. Hi, Paul.”
The two brothers stopped their conversation and stared at Sean for a few seconds. Then, as if they were one person, they said, “Hi Sean.”
It was weird. Sean thought about how weird it was for a second. Wanting to make the situation less awkward, Sean said, “Well, I’ll see you two later.” As a result, he made the situation more awkward. It happened a lot.
“Alright, see ya” John replied.
Sean couldn’t decide for sure what made the situation so awkward. He knew that just opening his mouth was often a major factor in awkward moments, but in this case could it have been something more? Was it possible that they were discussing him and his poster at that very moment? The names John and Paul just got a little more suspicious.
“Of course,” Sean thought, “Maybe they acted so weird because I never talk to them and I just said hi and stopped like I wanted to talk.” Sean thought about that possibility for a few seconds and said to himself, “Nah, they’re suspicious.”
The day went on much like everyday before it and most likely just like everyday that would follow. During Spanish class, Sean considered making a “Bring It Back” sign in Spanish for any of the Spanish speaking students in the school. He opened to the back of his text book to find the translation. Bring translated to llevar, how ever you say that; It to lo, and Back was de Nuevo. Sean looked at the paper he’d written his answers on. “Llevar Lo De Nuevo” it said.
“That doesn’t look right” He thought and hid the paper in the middle of his book somewhere. “There can’t be any kids here that only speak Spanish anyway.”
Walking out of the classroom after the class had ended, Sean ran into Mr. Dahline, literally. Mr. Dahline was holding a piping hot cup of coffee which spilled on Sean’s arm. It hurt.
“Are you alright, Sean?” Mr. Dahline inquired.
Holding back the tears, Sean answered “Yes.” In a holding back tears high pitched type of voice. “I’m just going to get some cold water on this arm of mine, but first, what’s the school’s stance on theft?”
“Against.” Mr. Dahline answered. “Are you sure you’re alright.”
“Peachy” Sean replied in the same squeaky voice, “and how about crimes of passion.”
“The school is against crime; all crime.”
“Good to know. I’m going to get this hot coffee off my arm now.”
Mr. Dahline undoubtedly thought these questions were beyond strange, especially under the circumstances, but Sean needed them answered all the same. He had decided in the confines of his mind that it was quite possible that there would be a crime of passion within the school in the coming days, and likely, he would be the passionate criminal in question.
The cold water from the bathroom sink soothed Sean’s arm which was red from the heat of the coffee. It still hurt but he didn’t want to let anyone know and risk looking like a sissy. Sean also wanted to use the word sissy in a sentence sometime that day because he thought it was a funny word. It is.
He spent the entire time between classes cooling his burn and was late to Foods. He would have been late anyway so he wasn’t worried about that. It bothered him that he didn’t get to use that time to investigate. Anything could have happened. What if the person felt badly about what they had done and came to apologize and make it right, but reconsidered when he wasn’t at his locker.
Foods class was boring. They learned about eggs. Sean found it fascinating that eggs came from chickens and were incredibly edible. That was a lie. Sean was entirely disgusted by how stupid learning about eggs and where they come from made him feel. He knew where eggs come from. It was the third thing he learned about eggs. First, eggs are white. Second, you can eat eggs in a variety of ways. Third, eggs come from chickens. He had known about eggs for as long as he could remember. Why was he still learning about eggs when he was seventeen years old? The only thing that was worse was the forth question on a quiz they took at the end of class. It was a multiple choice question that said:
Which kind of chicken lays eggs?
A) All Chickens
B) Hens
C) Roosters
The only thing worse than that question was that as the papers were handed up, Sean saw that the girl who sat behind him answered “A” and the girl behind her said “C”. Sean was surrounded by idiots and there was nothing he could do about it.
It was finally the last hour of the day, Computer Art. This was, at the moment, Sean’s favorite class. He sat next to Ashley and, besides that excellence he was really good at all the assignments. First thing was, however, first and there was standing in front of locker 526 and watching as people walked by to be done.
His mind drifted from the task at hand, and Sean just watched how people acted towards each other. There was definitely order to the school. The kids were generally courteous to one another. There didn’t seem to be very much of the stereotypical 80’s movie high school clique mentality. There were groups of friends and people who just didn’t get a long with one another, but for the most part it didn’t seem like there was the separation that John Hughes movies portrayed. He had mixed feelings about this observation. On one hand he was glad that the world had seemingly progressed at least some since then, but on the other hand he felt like he missed out on the adventure aspect of everyday life that was apparently prevalent in the years past.
His lament was interrupted when the bell rang and he realized that he was, once again, late for class. He was late for class a lot, not all the time, but most of it. He often wondered why he didn’t share the urgency that most of the other kids had when it came to being on time, but never came up with a reason that satisfied him.
He walked into the computer lab his final class was held in and like every other class everyone turned and looked at him.
“It’s so nice of you to join us, Sean” the teacher, Mrs. Joster announced.
“Yeah” Sean answered while making his way to his seat, “sorry I’m late.”
Mrs. Joster continued with class.
“What happened to your arm?” Ashley asked.
“I ran into Mr. Dahline in the hallway and he spilled coffee on me.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you cry?”
Sean’s eyes lit up. “No” he said. “What do you think I am, some kind of sissy?”
“Sissy?” Ashley laughed. “I haven’t heard anyone say sissy in like ten years!”
“I’m taking it back” Sean replied.
Sean felt so cool. Besides saying words that people don’t usually say in everyday life, Sean also loved one liners that the hero of an action movie might say, and when he said them, he had no choice but to disguise his voice. So he didn’t say “I’m taking it back” in a way that Justin Timberlake might bring sexy back, but in a way that Zach de la Rocha would lead the youth of the world under the banner of “take the power back”.
“Wow!” Ashley responded, “You’re definitely serious about ‘sissy’!”
“Yeah I get a little out of control about my words sometimes. “Over active imagination” is what the doctor said.” S
ean smiled so that Ashley knew it was a joke.
“Over active imagination, huh? What were you imagining?”
“Umm.” Sean was at a loss for words. “I didn’t really think it through that far.” He was embarrassed.
“I was hoping for a story.” Ashley pretended to cry.
“Give me a second, I’ll think of something.” Sean wasn’t going to think of anything and Ashley knew it.
“It’s ok I’ll be fine without a story.”
“Good” Sean grinned, “Because I’ve got nothing.”
“I know. It was cute watching you try though.”
Ashley went back to paying attention to the class they were in and Sean pretended to pay attention. “She said cute again? What does she mean by cute!?” Sean wondered. He wanted to think about it further, but he had to find his poster. He’d think about Ashley later!
The day ended at last and Sean stayed after school to do more investigating. He felt like a regular Sherlock Holmes or some other famous detective walking the halls watching the every move of every person who walked by. He watched as John and Paul argued about something. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it seemed as though they felt