Trapped

Chapter 2

I only received 1 note between Tuesday and Friday, it read:

Don't pretend not to know, I'll make you know.
-J

"The notes are getting threatening, good thing my list came in today." Gerald said once I told him about the note. We were sitting in his bedroom on Friday afternoon.
"Show me."
"Here." He handed me the list of names. "Each name has their class next to it, it's arranged by grade and class so say thank you for my dedication."
"Thank you." I said with a smile and then looked at the list:

Jessica Husher 602
James Ramlal 602
June Féng 603
Jamal Joshi 603
Jade Baudin 614
Jose Martinez 621
Jaya Mani 703
Julie Kalpar 705
Jessica Reynolds 710
Jonathan Dubois 710
Jerry Barnaby 720
Jin Sū 721
Jay Barnaby 721
Johnson Ly 801
Jaclyn Ramlal 804
Johnny Walters 805

"None of these sound familiar." I told Gerald after reading the list.
"So let's work off the idea that you're not who your stalker thinks you are, we're going to have to start digging for more clues onto who has motivation to do this to whoever they think you are; I can talk to my contacts and see if the J's they know have been accused of cheating on any tests recently." Gerald suggested.
"That sounds like a good plan."
"Ok, I'll get in contact with my um... Contacts, and tell you about any new developments."
"Thanks again for doing this Gerald."
"You don't need to thank me; like I said, this is what I love to do."

On Saturday I went to the mall with Grace and told her all about Gerald's impressive detective skills. "He has 'contacts' in every grade?" Grace asked sceptically.
"I know, that's what I said! But he really does, and he even got me a list of suspects."
"A list of suspects? How?"
"Well, all the notes I've received have been signed 'J', so he asked his contacts to tell him every person they knew with a J in their name."
"So you know who your stalker is?"
"Well, no. None of the names rang a bell; but now Gerald is getting information on each of the people from his contacts." I explained.
"Ooh, can I help him?" Grace asked hopefully.b
"Don't ask me, ask him." Coincidentally, Grace's phone rang and it was Gerald calling her. "Hey Gerald." Grace said as she answered the phone; she listened for a second before passing me the phone.
"What's up?" I asked.
"All my contacts are scheduled to skype me about the stalker thing tomorrow, want to come help me?"
"Only if Grace can come too." She looked excited by what I had said.
"Sure, the more the merrier."

So the next day Grace and I sat in Gerald's bedroom while he fiddled with his computer. "Come on skype, don't be a poo." He complained. The website kept crashing and Gerald was getting all flustered. "Our first call is at 12:30 and it's 12:20, you have to work." He yelled at the screen, even though it couldn't answer back.
"Gerald calm down and just try again." Grace soothed.
"Try again?! I just tried 6,000,000 times!"
"More like 6." I corrected.
"Oh wait, I got it." He said and Grace rolled her eyes; Gerald situated himself on the bed between Grace and I. We didn't have to wait long to get our first call, it was from Trevor Simpson, a fellow grade 8 student. "Hey Trevor." Gerald greeted.
"Hey Gerald, so you need information on the names I collected huh?" Trevor said.
"I sure do."
"Ok. To start, I say watch out for that Jaclyn person, she's trouble."
"Ha ha Trevor, but Jaclyn's in our class, so we know she's the exact opposite of trouble." Grace put in, Jaclyn was a well behaved and kind student.
"Alright, alright; but honestly, Johnny Walters is someone you should look out for."
"Why?" I inquired.
"He's a bit of a prankster, likes to play around with people's emotions you know?" I nodded in understanding. "Also, Jay Barnaby likes to push boundaries and take people out of their comfort zones." Some of the suspects sounded pretty shady, but I still wasn't sure about any of them being my stalker. "Jessica Husher and Johnson Ly are nothing to worry about though, they're pretty chill."
"Is that all you've got?" Gerald inquired.
"That's it." Trevor replied.
"Ok, thanks." The call then ended and in a matter of seconds Tanya and Priya Dyal made their call. "Hey Priya, Tanya."
"Hi Gerald." The girls greeted in unison.
"Let's get down to business, shall we?" He said.
"Yeah, we want to warn you about June Féng in 603; she thinks she so great, but she's just self-centred." Priya complained.
"Priya, that's more of a problem to you then us, we want to know real people to look out for." Gerald told her.
"Ugh, fine. Tanya, you tell him about Jin Sū."
"Oh yeah, Jin Sū is horrible, he treats us like idiots just because we're 1 year younger than him." Tanya explained.
"Again, not exactly what we're looking for." Gerald said. "Is there anyone that we shouldn't worry about?"
"Jade Baudin, Jaclyn Ramlal and Jamal Joshi." Priya listed.
"Ok thanks." The next call was from Chen Lau and he was right down to business.
"Jamal Joshi and Jose Martinez are too wimpy to pull off such an elaborate scheme, Johnny Walters is who you should be looking out for."
"So we've heard." I put in. "Johnny Walters seems like trouble."
"He is, most of the others you shouldn't have to worry about, people like Jaya Mani and Jonathan Dubois are especially innocent."
"We'll note that down." Gerald remarked. Chen ended his call as quickly as he'd started it and Jose Martinez was next in line to dish out info.
"June Féng, James Ramlal and Julie Kalpar are all innocent; along with myself of course. But Johnny Walters and Jay Barnaby are suspicious, they're good at pulling nasty pranks." Jose told us, a lot of the contacts said the same things.
"Jessica Husher would never do something like this, neither would June Féng." Casey Mirren explained.
"Jessica Reynolds is guilt free, but Jay Barnaby is definitely not." Ana Crnecevic said.
"Johnson Ly and Jaclyn Ramlal aren't the kind of people who would do this kind of thing, so they're probably not your stalkers, but Johnny Walters and Jay Barnaby on the other hand..." Carla Wu reported.
"The Barnaby's are quite the interesting pair, Jerry would never have the guts to send creepy notes to someone, even if he really was mad at them; but Jay is the exact opposite, he'd send creepy notes for no reason at all." Noora Loharani told us.
"Watch out for Jerry Barnaby's brother and that Johnny Walters guy too." Zahid Pitfi warned.
"Jamal Joshi is my best friend and he's innocent!" Yuti Bali exclaimed.
"All I know is that Jay Barnaby is an interesting character, but you probably already know that." Lacey Carter said.

After all the calls we reviewed all the information we'd collected. "So it looks like Johnny Walters and Jay Barnaby are our biggest suspects." Gerald stated.
"But why would they want to do this to me?" I inquired, I barely knew either of these people.
"They'll prank anyone, a lot of the contacts pointed that out." Grace responded.
"But based on the notes I've received I'm not being pranked, someone really thinks I've been spreading rumours about them." I explained.
"Then maybe it's none of the people on the list." She suggested.
"Who could it be other than the people on the list? We know it has to be someone in the school." Gerald argued.
"No, maybe she's right, you only have a limited number of contacts; they're bound to not know about everyone." I said.
"I guess, I dunno, we'll wait and see I suppose." He stuttered.
"Yup. I'll keep an eye out for anymore notes or suspicious people." I told him. I would have to wait until Monday before the search for my stalker could continue.