All My Heart

Chapter Six

I quickly scurried out of there as soon as I ended the conversation with Axel. I spotted Isabell near the dorm's entrance and decided to tell her what had happened in the hallway and she didn’t know what to do either about the situation. Then we went to Ben's room to see if he knew anything about Axel. And when we got there we heard beautiful singing and a guitar playing. I did a secret knock on the door so he knew that I was at the door. The singing stopped and we heard footsteps at the door.
“What do you want, Lynn?” he asked.
“Well, we were hoping you knew anything about someone in your class.”
“Who is w-” he stopped his question when he saw Isabela with me.
“Oh it’s you,” he said in a harsh tone.
“Yeah, it is me. Got a problem with that?” Isabell said even more harshly than Ben. 
This is going to be a disaster! First, I’m going to have to break them up from almost killing each other. Then, I'm going to have to clean any wounds I get in the process.
I was so stuck in the thought that I didn’t even realize they were already on the floor strangling each other.
“Hey! HEY!” I said, “Stop it, you two! Before we get in trouble.”
They looked at each other then at me and started laughing.
“What’s so funny all of a sudden?” I ask them and they can barely get a word out of their mouth from all the laughter. Then the both of them finally calmed down and Bonnie started talking.
“W-well I wanted to prank someone and you were the perfect target because you were staring off into the distance.”
“Haha, very funny,” I said in a sarcastic tone while rolling my eyes.
“Well, Isabella and I are good friends so we texted each other while you were spacing out.” Ben stepped into the conversation.
“Oh… umm, ok” I said shyly.
“Yeah, well, we came here to ask you a question in the first place, so…”
“So?” He asked, getting up off the floor.
Isabella saw that I was too uncomfortable with asking Ben the question about Axel.
She looked into my eyes and said. “We wanted to ask you a question since you’ve been at this school longer than us.”
“Oh, let me guess. It's about Axel. He came here earlier and asked if I knew Lynn. I said no because I know that he’s bad news,” He said, sounding very concerned.
“Thanks for letting us know Ben, we will be safe around him,” Isabella said.
“You're welcome,” Ben said, going back to his room.
“Well, now we know that he is asking people if they know you which will be hard because you just arrived two days ago and made SOME friends,” Isabella said as she started walking with me following behind.
“Wow thanks for emphasizing the word ‘some’,” I said, stopping in my tracks.
Even though I only made two friends!
“LYNN,” a faint voice said.
“LYNN!” it sounded like it was coming closer.
“Lynn, I've been looking for you ever since this morning.” And that's when I finally turned around and saw… BONNIE?!
“Bonnie. Hey, how have you been…,” ok umm…Plan A, just have a little small talk and go. Or Plan B, be nice and walk to class with her and Isabella.
“Do you want to walk to class with me?” Bonnie said in a cheerful voice.
“Oh, we-”
“She’s walking to class with me!” Isabella said defensively. And thank god she did. If I were to walk with Bonnie she would only complain about how we are all distant from each other now and not how we used to be, inseparable.
“Oh, ok. Maybe tomorrow then…?” She sounded desperate.
“Umm…well no I can't, I have a meeting with someone,” I said seriously so she wouldn't think I was lying to her.
I am a genius!
“That’s fine, but I don’t remember you ever mentioning that you are interested in opening an investigation with your new friend, illegally, without any training.” Bonnie sounded like she was trying to pull something out of me, but still, that was oddly specific.
Sugar beans, that means someone knows what we are doing!?
I was spacing out so much that I didn’t even realize that Bonnie left Isabella and me.
“Lynn, snap out of it now before I slap you in the face!” Isabella said abruptly.
“OK fine I’ll try to not stare off into space,” I said.
“Good, now let’s head to class,” Isabella said, already walking without me.
“WAIT FOR ME!” I yelled as I started running to catch up with her.
They arrived at gym class. “What are the odds,” I said. “There's a substitute.”
“Haha!” Isabella said, looking at me.
“Hello everyone, my name is Mr. James,” The substitute said, “Yes, that’s my last name, I didn’t have a choice.”
“For the people that were wondering where coach Jett is,” Mr. James said, “He’s got sick and I'm going to be your sub for the rest of eternity.”
“We all know what happened coach," I said, “He died.”
“Oh, I didn't know you guys knew that sorry,” he said. “Well, what do you guys all do in the beginning? I never got a plan or whatever.”
“That’s because he’s dead!” some kid called out in the distance.
“I need some help, Lynn?” The sub said, “Did I get your name right?”
“Yes,” I said, “But, what do you need me to do?”
“I just don't know where we should start.” He said.
“We normally just do warm-ups so… yeah,” I said.
“Ok, thanks,” the sub said, “Then, let’s get started”
“Go take some laps around the place while I go ask somebody something.” He said.
This is not the kind of exercise I thought I would be doing today. I thought to myself as I started jogging.
“Uhm…. Where the heck do I go?” The sub muttered.
And he walked out the door, I thought. What a great sub.

***

“Sorry everyone,” Mr. James said, “it took longer than I thought it would.”
“Oh, look, he’s back,” I told Isabella.
“This is gonna be tough,” she replied.
“Hey ladies,” an approaching voice said.
“Oh, hey Ben!” I was surprised to see him.
“That sub is some guy,” Ben said.
“Well, we can’t blame him, he doesn't know what to do,” I said, “He’ll get used to it just like us”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever," he said.
“Everybody,” Coach James hollered, “To the midcourt line.”
Everyone trekked over to the center of the gym lazily, like they would as if they had been running for ten minutes (they had been). And then, Coach James said to all of us to just hang out for the rest of class until he got everything sorted out.