All's Fair In Love and War

I'm A Loner, A Rebel (Past)

Playlist
- The Get Up Kids-Woodson
- Neutral Milk Hotel-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
- Tsunami Bomb-The Ultimate Escape
- OM-Advaitic Songs
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It was finally December and the nights were drawing in, a definite chill was starting to linger in the air. It was the time of year where everyone reached to the back of their wardrobes to fish out their thick, warm, Winter coats.

Ben and Callum had officially been at Walford Primary for 3 months now, and although Ben; true to his word, had had Kathy mend Beau for Callum, and everything else on the surface seemed fine and dandy. At school, it was a totally different matter. Ben was making Callum’s life hell.

Callum walked over to his personal drawer in their classroom to take out his reading book as it was his turn to go and read to Mrs Ward for their afternoon Reading Session. The rest of the class were sitting quietly reading to themselves, or had paired up and were reading to one another at their desks, or curled up on the beanbags in the corner of the room.

He slid open his drawer and reached inside for his book that he knew was there, as he had placed it in there that very morning.

No book.

He felt around the entire inside of the drawer, when suddenly, his hand landed on something fuzzy. He hesitated, before crouching down to see what it was. Peering inside he saw something black. Black and hairy

He screamed. Not just a scream that would make you jump. But a scream loud enough that you would be able to hear it from down the other end of the corridor and that was so piercingly high that dogs would come running from all around.

The rest of the kids in the classroom froze in horror. All the colour draining from their faces. One kid dropped the bright orange plastic chair he was dragging and it toppled, landing on a little girl’s foot. She instantaneously started to cry.

There was the sound of shoes slapping lino as someone came racing down the corridor to find out the source of the screaming, closely followed by the sound of another pair and muffled voices.

“In-in here. Where’s Theressa? This is her classroom isn’t it?” An older lady, Mrs Clark, the Year 5 Form Teacher appeared, followed by a gentleman, the school caretaker.

“Yes. Where is she? What on earth is going on?”

The lady walked over to Callum and crouched down in front of him. “Whatever is the matter sweetheart?” She asked him softly as he stood there hyperventilating.

Callum pointed to his classroom tray. “S-Sp-SPIDER!” He shouted and started crying again.

She pulled his tray open to check inside for said spider.

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” They all heard someone yell, feet pounding down the corridor. Mrs Ward burst into the room; one hand braced against the doorframe to catch her breathing, one of Ben’s hands in the other. She had dragged him after her down the corridor when she too had heard the screaming and realised it was coming from her classroom.

“There’s a spider in his tray apparently.” The caretaker explained to her. Some of the girls took a step back and moved to cower behind him at the mention of ‘spider’.

Ben smirked from where he stood with Mrs Ward in the doorway and met Callum’s face with his gaze. Callum swallowed slowly and looked away.