The Framing

Fourteen.

January 13th, 1:45pm. Study hall.

I walked into study hall as the bell rang and sat with Alex in the back of the room by the windows. "What happened to your face?" I asked when he looked up at me. He had a cut above his eyebrow.

"It's from gym," he said, "I got pushed down and fell into one of those gym mats."

"Did you go to the nurse?" I asked.

"No I'm fine," he said.

"It looks like it hurts," I told him.

"Well it doesn't feel that great."

"Who pushed you?" I asked.

"I don't remember," he said, "we were playing dodgeball and I fell."

"That sucks," I said. We sat around for a few more minutes, but our teacher never arrived.

"Where is he?" Alex asked. Other students were starting to wonder as well. I went up and peeked my head into the hall and looked around but I never saw him.

"I didn't see him," I said and sat back down with Alex.

"You know if your teacher doesn't arrive within the first ten minutes you're allowed to leave," he said.

"Is that actually true?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"I mean, where would we even go?"

"Home," he said.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked.

Alex got up and shut the door to the classroom and pulled the blind down to cover the window. "This way if someone walks by they won't see that we don't have a teacher in here," he said.

Alex and I sat around until the bell rang. "This is my last week of detention," I said as we walked into the hallway.

"I can't believe the semester is almost over," he said, "we're nearly halfway done."

"Do you mind waiting for me?" I asked.

"I can't," he said, "I'm meeting my aunt at the house before she goes back to the airport tonight."

"Oh damn, where is she going?"

"Zimbabwe," he said.

"Really?" I asked.

"I have no fucking clue," he said. We stopped at my locker and I grabbed my bag, then he walked me to detention.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said and walked away. I walked into detention and took my usual spot in the back.

I zoned out for the entire hour and fifteen minutes it takes for detention to be over. I went from staring out the window, to staring at my desk. When it was finally 4:00, the teacher let us all go. I walked downstairs and outside to the student parking lot.

As I approached my car, I noticed someone standing in front of it. I was hesitant, but I continued walking towards it. "Hello?" I asked. My heart was pounding through my chest, but then Thomas turned around.

"Jesus you scared the shit out of me," I said, "what are you doing out here anyway?"

"I have a problem," he said.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Can we get in your car first?"

"Uh sure," I said and unlocked it. We both sat down and buckled up.

"What's going on?" I asked and started to leave the parking lot.

"After study hall, I went to my locker and found this," he said. He opened his book bag and pulled out a knife. It was the exact same type that was hidden in my locker a few months ago.

"Holy shit," I said, "have you told anyone else?"

"I was going to tell Alex but he must have left before I got outside. I waited for him until I missed my bus, then I started waiting for you."

"Why do you think someone is targeting both of us?" I asked.

"I don't know if it's just the two of us," he said.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Well, what if Alex has the same problem? Or your other friends... Nate and John?"

"Call Alex," I told him and turned my car around. I started driving to his house.

"He isn't picking up," he said.

"He told me he was having dinner with his aunt before she leaves to go to the airport tonight," I said.

I pulled into the street that Alex lives on and saw that his car was in the driveway, but his aunt's was gone. Thomas and I walked up his walkway and rang the doorbell. Alex opened it and was confused when he saw us.

"Dude we have a problem," Thomas said.

"What's going on?" He asked and let us in.

"Where's your aunt?" I asked.

"She had to leave earlier than expected," he said, "she left like five minutes ago why?"

Thomas pulled the knife out of his bag and showed it to Alex. "What is that?" He asked.

"It was in my locker."

"So now both of you are having this problem?" Alex asked.

"Yeah but that's not really the issue," I said, "we were scared that the same thing was happening to you."

"I haven't gone to my locker today," he said.

"I think the gym at the school is still unlocked if you wanna go right now," I said. The three of them hopped into my car and I started driving to school.

I parked by the gym and the three of us cut through to get to the school and went to Alex's locker. He put the combination in and opened it.

"Do you see anything?" I asked. He had to go through all his clutter, but luckily he never found a weapon.

"Oh thank god," he said.

"You should still be careful," Thomas said, "even though it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't in the future."

"I know," Alex said.

I walked with them back to my car. "Now I have to come up with a lie to my parents for why I didn't get home on time," I said.

"Uh, I think I just found an excuse for you," Alex said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. He pointed to my car which had a screwdriver sticking out of the tire.