I'm Just Septic-Eyed

Chapter 9: But if You Do

A/N: I honestly didn't think this story would get this much attention so quickly.

Sean sat stiffly in his seat as Mr. Morrison explained the lesson. Something about logarithms, Sean wasn't paying attention. He was focusing on the body next to him; making sure nothing happened. Well, if I go missing, at least they'll have a math lesson to remember me by, Sean thought to himself. It was almost an attempt to lighten his mood. It didn't work, but he needed some way to calm down. Sam wasn't doing anything. Yet.

Goosebumps ran down Sean's body. The fact that Sam could do anything at any moment certainly wasn't comforting. Sean felt Chica's head rest on his lap. He put his hand on her and stroked her fur. That began to sooth Sean's nerves a bit. He just couldn't help but still be on edge.

Sean eventually began to calm down after about half an hour. Sam hadn't made a move since class started and it would be over soon. Sean exhaled a bit and let his fingers trace over the next problem he was supposed to do. He punched the problem onto his paper and began to solve it. A number here, a plus sign there, this was one of the big reasons to hate math. It was so long and complicated that Sean could hardly keep up when the lessons where being taught. It didn't really help that he couldn't see the steps that were being taken. But he always managed to scrape by.

The numbers stopped flowing smoothly. Sean was stuck on the problem. He ran his fingers over the bumps he made in an attempt to find any mistakes or as if some force would just decide to put the answer under his fingertips. Neither of those came to fruition. He tapped his fingers on the desk and thought about what to do. He hated asking Mr. Morrison because he was new to reading braille. Sean always felt like he bothered him with a heavily labored task. Sean sighed and stood up. There was no other option, really. He told Chica to stay and he made his way over to his professor's desk. If there was anything in his way he knew people would tell him or move it.

When Sean got up to the desk he heard someone say their thanks and walk in another direction. "Hello, Jack," Mr. Morrison said with a smile. "What can I do ya for?"

Sean returned the smile. "Uh, I kinda got stuck on this problem here." He guided his paper to Mr. Morrison's desk. "I don't know what I did wrong."

"Well let's see." Sean heard Mr. Morrison adjust the paper. "You'll have to bear with me a bit."

"I understand."

Sean teetered on his heels while he waited patiently. He turned his head away from Mr. Morrison in order to not make him feel like Sean was staring at him; even though they both knew Sean couldn't see. He just thought it would make his teacher feel more at ease. Mr. Morrison made a hum to show he found the problem. "I see what you did wrong, look," Sean leaned closer to get his hands ready to feel and his ears ready to listen. "You switched these two numbers around. Five is supposed to go right here and twelve-point-two goes there."

Sean created a noise of understanding. "Alright, thanks." He smiled and took his paper from Mr. Morrison.

"Anytime, Jack."

As Sean followed the familiar path to his desk he heard Chica make a noise. It wasn't a bark but a yelp. Sean was temporarily confused as Chica hadn't made a noise like that before. He heard everyone turn to look toward the sound. It then clicked that Sam was left alone with Chica. Sean rushed over to his dog as quickly as he could without tripping over his feet. He put his paper on the desk and knelt down to Chica. The dog trotted over to him, allowing him to feel for anything that might not have been there before. She appeared to be fine.

Sean stood up and clenched his fists. "What did you do to her?" His voice came out louder than he intended it to. A few of the students who had returned to do their work turned back to look at Sean. Somewhere someone got off their chair. It creaked when it was relieved of that person's weight.

"What are you talking about?" Sam sounded offended. Sean could hear he was lying. "I didn't do anything."

"Lying bastard," Sean growled low enough to be heard by only Sam.

The smirk could be heard in his voice as Sam responded coolly, "I would never."

"What's going on here?" It was Mr. Morrison. Sean grimaced. He was hoping that Mr. Morrison wouldn't get involved. "Is there a problem between you two?"

"Just a misunderstanding it seems," Sam's voice was completely under control. It was too cool, too confident. "I accidentally dropped my notebook on this dog here. I didn't mean to, really. I'm sorry about that, Jack."

Sean held his tongue. It was all lies. He never heard a notebook fall. But Mr. Morrison ate it all up. Sam had been convincing to an untrained ear. "Alright," the words that would probably haunt Sean for the rest of his life came from one of his favorite people. "Just don't let that happen again. We don't want anything happening to Jack's dog."

"Of course not." There was a sickening smile.

Sean felt the heat drain from his body starting at his toes as soon as he heard Mr. Morrison leave. Nothing good could come of this. He pulled out his chair and went to sit down but a hand clasped his shoulder. Sean stiffened. "It was a test, y'know?" The voice was right by his ear. That voice that was always laced with the right tone to use. It caused Sean to shudder. "You failed it."

Bags zipped up and notebooks with pencils were put somewhere for safe keeping. Class was over. Mr. Morrison said something about next session but Sean couldn't hear it. All he could hear were Sam's words. He made a big mistake.

Sean made sure Sam left before he himself went to pack up. By then he guessed that the students had already gone and a few lingered to talk to Mr. Morrison as he heard voices still. He grabbed onto Chica's harness tightly and they walked out of the classroom. He had to make sure Mark wouldn't find out this time.