Immaculate

Chapter 13

The day Emil came back to school, he was escorted in a clown car.

"Why do I need this? I swear, it was just a casual cult! Geez, we were just players. Probably not good for a kid my age to be saying that but it could be worse. Nobody got hurt too badly..." he whined.

Alexson rolled his eyes and sighed next to me.

"What's the matter, dearest?" I asked.

"Nothing." Then he put his face in his hands and shook his head. "Ugh, I can't lie to you, Immaculate. There's something I need to get off my chest. It's been on my mind for the past month. It's been so hard..." he whispered.

I took his hands gently. "What's the matter?"

"Well, when Emil first started the club in fifth grade–"
I pulled my hands away. "Oh. I thought you were going to say something different. Also, what kind of fifth grader starts a cult?"

"More than you'd think. Anyway, I was his best friend. I had nothing to do with it, I swear! But Emil got caught once and blamed it on me. I almost got thrown in the pound with hardened criminals until the lie detector test."

"So...Emil's been to jail before this?"

"No, they just assumed that it was nobody's fault after the test. We were just kids, after all. Children are God's way of saying there is hope in the world."

"I don't think police investigators should have that mindset."

"Anyway, we've clearly never gotten along since."

"I'll say."

We walked into Mr. Canyons' room, and I patted him on the back sympathetically. His skin was warm and soothing under my hand.

"Sit down, class, while I take roll call. Okay. Alexson?"

"Here." Alexson called. Mr. Canyons nodded and grinned maniacally.

"Bobbert?"

"Here." he answered. Mr. Canyons nodded neutrally. He wouldn't care if Bobbert died in class.

"Samantha?"

"Here." she replied. Mr. Canyons nodded neutrally again. He also wouldn't care if Samantha died in class.

"George Gershwin?"

Nobody said here. Mr. Canyons nodded and shed a single tear.

"Thomathy?"

"Here!" Thomathy exclaimed as he scurried into the room on all fours. "Woof woof!" Mr. Canyons glared at him and marked him as a non-refundable item on the list.

"Immaculate?"

"Here." I replied. Mr. Canyons nodded and whooped with joy.

At the end of the list, Mr. Canyons called out "Emil Turbie Twist?"

"Pickles!" Emil yelled back.

"We're not in elementary school," Samantha said.

Mr. Canyons glared at Emil and marked him as a non-refundable item as well. Emil took great pleasure in this for some reason and smirked.

"Okay, class! Today we will be taking a pop field trip to the inner city to learn about stranger danger. Line up in alphabetical order."

We very slowly lined up because we were in high school and had never lined up in alphabetical order in this class before.

"We will be using somebody's property. They have graciously granted us five hours with their mode of transportation. Please be as quiet as possible. We don't wish to disturb the sewer alligators. To encourage you to stay together, I have picked partners for everyone."