A.L.E.N - Between Shadows (Chapter 2)

Act 12

Julie quickly returned to the school, and her friend Sam was waiting for her in the classroom when she yelled, "I'm so sorry! For being...," but the teacher, Mr. Ross, wasn't even in the classroom.

As she paused and then asked, "Where is Mr. Ross?" she looked at her classmates.

And a group of popular girls just laughed, and one of them replied, "Oh Julie, later, as always...! And you know what that means...?" Julie looks down, embarrassed.

Sam immediately gets up and defends Julie by saying to the girl, "Get lost, Jennifer."

And Jennifer tries to tease Sam, "Just because you're Mr. Ross's daughter doesn't mean you can always save your little friend," and Sam starts to get angry at Jennifer, but Julie tries to calm her down.

As Julie said to her, "Sam, don't let her get to you...," and Sam just nodded.

Finally, all of a sudden, Mr. Ross came into the classroom with a document in his hand, looking around confused. "What's going on here?"

Jennifer immediately took advice and said, "Julie came late again, Mr. Ross," and he crossed arms and looked very serious at Julie.

Julie tries to explain it: "I can explain... I was at the library, trying to find and get some information about the town, and I lost track of time. I'm sorry...," and Julie picks out the book from her backpack and shows it to the teacher. "Here, I found it at the library. This book is from one of the sons of the Walf's family."

And Mr. Ross looked at the book with a serious, but also suspicious, look and added, "'Fire' from Alexander Walf."

Julie looks surprised. "Wait, you know who wrote that book?" Then she said with excitement, "I mean, it would be a good suggestion from our project..." She pointed back and forth to Sam.

Mr. Ross interrupts Julie's excitement by saying, "This wouldn't help," and returns the book to Julie.

Julie tries to understand it: "Mr. Ross, this book may not be exactly the thing from the project, but maybe the author is. I know that he has been dead since that accident back in 1977."

But Mr. Ross tries to interrupt Julie. "Looks, Julie...,"

However, Julie didn't listen, so she continued with an idea: "But hear me out, what if we find out who this Alexander Walf was? And I also find out that this book was written in the 1980s and not the 1970s, and that leaves us with a clue about why Alexander Walf survived that horrible fire incident," and Mr. Ross had enough.

Mr. Ross raised his hand and replied, "Julie, that is enough!" He said, "I see that you are very excited about your findings about this author; however, it doesn't have to do with anything about the town itself. I suggest that you and your group come up with another idea for the project."

Julie looks down, and Sam nods and says with a low tone, almost upset, "Of course, Mr. Ross. We will find something that is related to the town."

And Mr. Ross nods, "Alright, good," and looks around. "Everyone, go back to your seats, please. The class has already started." and he started his class by writing on the green board.

As everyone was sitting quietly on their desks, Julie wasn't happy about it, and she noticed that Mr. Ross was worried about something.

Later in the afternoon, Mr. Ross was sitting on his chair, looking at a letter from someone, until another teacher asked him, "Hey Edward? We are organizing a Halloween party for the students; do you want to come and help us?"

Edward Ross looks at his colleague and says, "I will be ready there; I just have to pack up some things." The other teacher just nods, "Sure. Don't be late. It's good to have an extra hand," and she walks away.

Edward just laughed with a close-lipped smile and, looking aside, saw the tape on the table that made him recognize an old friend.