Chapter 17: History

“Well, Mr. Harris?”

For a moment Jack thought he heard another person’s voice, but he was probably mistaken. Why would there be a voice here besides hers?

“Jack,” Melissa said seductively. She was in her finest form. She had on her usual tight jeans, white top, and black boots. She ran her hand down the back of his neck, caressing his skin and making him shudder. Jack’s heart beat faster at the touch.

“Melissa, we shouldn’t,” Jack said. He knew he wanted this, but at the same time, he knew it was wrong, all of it. This was not the way things should be—it was forbidden. But staring into her beautiful eyes while her golden hair flowed in the soft breeze, he was barely able to control himself.

“Why not, Jack?” She crawled on top of him, pushing him down onto the soft grass.

“Because, Melissa. It is not the Jedi way.”

All of a sudden, storm troopers came, and Jack unsheathed his Lightsaber with a crackling hiss. Then she took out her own Lightsaber, and together they fought off the waves and waves of storm troopers.

One storm trooper approached Jack and demanded that he surrender. “Well, Mr. Harris?” the storm trooper asked. “Do you know the answer to question four on the worksheet?”

Wait, what?

With a deep and sudden breath, Jack’s eyes popped open. “I’m not surrendering!” he yelled at what he thought was an imperial storm trooper.

“That’s very noble of you, Mr. Harris. But class participation is ten percent of your grade. Were you sleeping in my class again?”

“Umm, no Mrs. Titherson, of course not.”

“Then why were your eyes closed?”

“I was, umm, dream-thinking?”

Mrs. Titherson ignored the offhand remark and continued. ”I see. Anyway, question four, Mr. Harris. Your answer, please?”

Time to roll the dice, Jack thought.

“Is it seven?”

At this, Mrs. Titherson placed the worksheet she was holding back on top of the teacher’s desk. She removed her glasses, taking a full twenty seconds to stand in the front of the room and clean them. Placing the glasses with care back on her old, wrinkled face, and adjusting them to fit her needs, Mrs. Titherson picked the worksheet back up from her desk and looked down at it.

“The answer to, ‘Describe the treaty of Versailles’, Mr. Harris, is seven?”

“Umm, eight?”

The woman showed no emotion. Instead, she simply picked up her grading book and made a mark. Jack knew what that meant, and it wasn’t a good thing.

Well, it wasn’t a fair question anyway, Jack justified to himself.

Of all the classes Jack had to take, history was by far the most boring, even if it was the least difficult. But Jack tried to cheer himself up. Next period was lunch, and it was the only class he wasn’t currently failing. Oh, who was he kidding? If it were possible, he’d probably also fail lunch.

When the bell finally rang, Jack made sure he was the first student out of the door. It wasn’t hard, because the rest of the class was still asleep at that point. They would need at least half a minute to snap themselves awake and gather their things together. Struggling to make his way through the hall, Jack went to meet up with Adam. He’d be getting out of Biology class, only two doors down.

Navigating through the school was never easy, as the hallways were teeming with students. People shoved, pushed, and did whatever they could to get past the crowds shuffling from class to class, but Jack had no desire to rush.

He met Adam in the center of the hallway. “What’s wrong, Jack? Why do you look so down?”

“Because, I am. I scored a negative four on my history test. I thought the lowest you could get was a zero, but I guess I was wrong, which means I’m bad at math and history.”

“Let me see,” Adam said. He grabbed the paper from Jack’s hands.

“I don’t understand why I got question number fourteen wrong,” Jack said.

Adam pulled the paper closer to his face and examined it. Jack wondered if it was hard to concentrate with the massive hum of chattering voices coming from every direction as the students hurried to their next class.

“Hmm, the question asks, ‘Do you agree with the United States having a strong central government? If so, explain why.’ Here’s the problem, Jack. You just wrote the word no.”

“Yeah, cause it only asks you to explain why if you write yes! But what I don’t get is why Mrs. Titherson gave me a negative four.”

“It actually says it right here, Jack. There’s a note at the bottom. It says, ‘Dear Mr. Harris, for sucking this badly at history, you deserve even less than nothing. Study more.’ And there’s also a picture of a sad face.”

“Can she do that?”

Adam sighed. “Forget it, Jack. Let’s go grab some food.”

The two began walking. They were heading towards the end of the second-floor hallway, to the door leading into one of the school’s many staircases. On both sides of the hallway were bulletins, school news, and meaningless diagrams on subjects most people had zero interest in. Or, in Jack’s case, negative four interest in.

“Adam, there’s so much you need to know. But now that we’ve got some alone time, I need to tell you some stuff. It might not be easy to believe, but you’ll just have to trust that I’d never lie to you and that I’m not crazy.”

“Go ahead,” Adam said. His voice was neutral, but inside, Jack knew that he was probably battling impatience and an abnormal curiosity.

“So, after I left your house on Monday, I went home to meet Melissa for tutoring, right? And then—”

“Hey guys,” Melissa said, appearing from literally out of nowhere. She gave Jack a pat on the back. “What’cha talking about?”

Adam and Jack answered at the same time.

“History,” Adam said.

“Naruto,” Jack said.

“The history of Naruto, he means,” Adam corrected.

“That the one with the ninjas?”

The three walked together down the narrow staircase, pushing open a door leading to yet another set. The lunchroom was located in the basement, a wise choice on the part of the school. During the end of the school year, when summer was rearing its head, it was the only place that didn’t feel like the center of an oven—the one spot to escape the boiling temperatures of the upper floors. Melissa followed Jack and Adam into the lunchroom.

“Let’s get on line,” Jack said.

Adam squinted at him. “On line? Have you been spending time in New York or something? It’s, ‘Get in line.’”

Jack frowned at Officer Grammar. The three of them got on line behind the already long train of students waiting for food. Melissa, as she had been doing since the beginning of the day, was still snapping her head from left to right, scanning the room for any sign of trouble. Jack was starting to think she was taking things too seriously.

The line moved at a crawl while Adam and Melissa made nonsensical small talk. Jack wasn’t in the mood to have any conversations other than the one he’d been about to have with Adam. If he could just lose Melissa for a few minutes, he’d be able to tell Adam everything, and his friend would know what to do—he always did. Sometimes Jack wondered if Adam was even human. His intelligence was something to fear.

“What’ll it be?” the lunch lady asked.

Adam gave Jack a look of warning. “Don’t start.”

Jack tried his best to make a good choice, he really did, but he was getting fed up with the lackluster culinary options. It was almost cruel that the school expected the students to eat this stuff.

Jack smiled. “Janice, is there literally nothing else on the menu today?”

The woman looked ready to rip the hair out of her head. “Harris, the few days you were absent were the best days I’ve had in years. Just pick something, would ya? You’re holding up the line again.”

“Well, it’s not my fault,” Jack argued. “I have to pick between a circular piece of re-heated ‘pizza’ and a peanut butter sandwich. Oh, and the pizza never tastes like real pizza.”

“Your point? Don’t blame me for that, Harris. I don’t make this stuff.”

“Well maybe that’s the problem. What kind of lunch-lady doesn’t make lunch, Janice? You’ve lost your passion for this business. Chef Ramsay would not stand for this.”

“Just pick something already, Harris!”

Jack walked away with his mediocre lunch, followed closely by Adam and Melissa. The lunchroom was probably the largest room in the school, with wide white tables and vending machines in every corner. The three took a seat in the back, at one of the few tables that still had any room. Too many people had lunch fifth period, so it was no surprise that every day it was crowded.

“So, Melissa. You and Jack seem to have become good friends lately, anything going on there?”

Jack almost spit out the first bite of his food. Was Adam nuts? Was he trying to embarrass Jack into Oblivion? Or Skyrim?

“That’s our business. Wouldn’t you just love to find out?”

She didn’t say no! Jack thought triumphantly. Well, she didn’t say yes, either. I’ll have to pull out all the moves on her when I take her on that date she owes me.

Thinking of which, Jack had quite a few possibilities in mind. There was the arcade, bowling, the movies, and plenty of other good choices. He couldn’t wait to have Melissa all to himself for a day. And to think, all he had to do was punch her in the face. After all the years that Jack had been struggling with women, in the end, all it took was to try and knock one out.

“I’ll be right back,” Jack said. He picked up his lunch and crossed to the table at the opposite end of the room. He sat down and dropped his plate on the table, then tried to have a chat with its sole occupant.

“You again,” the boy across from Jack said, “I’m fine being alone, you know?”

“No, you’re not, Andy. We’re friends, aren’t we? Come sit with us over at our table. There’s plenty of room, and it has be lonely sitting here all by yourself every day.”

Andy looked even more bitter than usual. His face was withered and held a pale sickness. There were bags under his eyes, as if red from hours of crying. He looked tired, beaten, and worn. It really bothered Jack.

There’s gotta be something I can do.

“Andy, cheer up. Want me to come over today?”

“Do I even have a choice?” he groaned. “You stop by whenever you feel like it, and my mom just lets you in without asking me.”

Jack laughed. “I’ll bring over some anime, and we’ll have fun. Hey, is something wrong? I mean like, seriously wrong? You really don’t look well.”

Andy looked into Jack’s eyes. He had been glancing around the room, but now his gaze fell fully upon Jack.

“What is a life worth?” The question came out of nowhere. Jack had no idea how to answer it.

“What is my life worth, Jack? What makes me have a right to live?”

“Ah … well, because you’re you, Andy. What other reason is there?”

For the slightest of moments, Andy smiled. It was replaced soon after with a sullen look.

“I knew you’d have an answer like that. Hey, do you think we could talk later? In private, I mean. There’s something I really need to talk to you about. It’s not easy for me to say.”

“Umm, sure, whatever … I mean, yeah, of course.”

“After lunch, meet me in the third floor bathroom. Make sure you come alone. And Jack,” he whispered, “try to keep an open mind.”

****

Paro was deep in thought. His elbows rested on the glass table in their planning room. He had promised Melissa they would be within half a mile at all times, and yet he was still here working. He needed to finish up and get back.

He tried to find some connection, some reasoning behind the killings. He had seen their faces, both of them. It was only for a brief moment, but between Melissa’s descriptions and his own view of the two, he had a pretty good picture. Yet, he still didn’t have the slightest idea of who or what he was dealing with. There was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Paro yelled behind him.

Paro jumped out of his seat when he saw the tears in Sarah’s eyes. She was clutching a small white paper and trembling. Paro had never seen her this upset before. Even with all that they had seen, Paro had never witnessed such a look of pure anguish on her face. Small strands of her black hair were moist from contact with her sobbing eyes. They were red, and the way she craned her neck told Paro that she was having trouble looking at him.

Paro forced himself to contain his growing alarm. But what was wrong? He glided over and gently lifted up her head, making her meet his gaze. “Sarah, please, calm down. Tell me what’s wrong.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but released her words between pants and sobs. “It-It-It’s Jack, Paro.”

Paro held his breath, fear beginning to creep into his bones. Had something happened? He had assumed they would be fine alone until at least the end of the school day. Were they attacked in the middle of class? Paro forced the thoughts from his mind, ripping them from his brain.

“Did something happen?” Paro asked, forcing his voice to remain calm.

“No,” she said. She buried her face into his shoulder. His shirt became moist with her tears. “But he’s a good person. I only knew him for a little while but I liked him. He’s innocent and kind. I don’t want them to take him away! He’ll never see the light of day again. It’s not fair!”

“Calm down. Please, Sarah. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who is taking Jack away? Why would they?”

“Paro,” she sobbed, unfolding the small piece of paper. “He’s an Unrestricted.”