What He Heard

Chapter 9

            Following Rune down the deserted first floor hallway to the school’s back stair, Willow reflected on the last time she’d been down here with him. She glanced over, taking stock of her friend. His black eye had long faded to green and yellow, and recently, disappeared. He caught her appraising look and grinned. “Admiring my impressive physique?”

            Willow snorted. “Oh yeah,” she replied sarcastically. “I want you to ravish me.”

            Rune chuckled. “I love that you used the word ravish. It makes it sound so much more…unrealistic. Like a terrible romance novel.”

          Her eyebrows rose. “And how do you know what a terrible romance is like? Are you a closet romance fiend?”

            “Mom likes to read them and leaves them lying around the house. One day I got curious and decided to read one. It was…interesting. People who call them girl smut are not kidding. Especially the one I read,” he said, shaking his head, though his lips kept spreading out into a smile.

            “You are probably the only guy I know who has a, read a romance novel, and b, would admit to it.”

           Rune shrugged. “I’m comfortable enough with who I am to admit that. There’s no shame in it. Well, not a lot. It’s really only people who have images they’re projecting that are at odds with how they really feel that would try and hide something as stupid as that. Besides, I’m so awesome, nothing I do could lessen that.”

            “As always, your self-confidence is astounding,” Willow replied dryly. “It’s a wonder your head hasn’t exploded yet from how much it’s swelled.”

            “I repeat, I’m just too awesome,” Rune said, grinning.

            “Why do I put up with you?”

            Chuckling, he opened his mouth to reply when he suddenly jerked his head towards the stairs, freezing in place. His sudden movement had Willow reacting according to her training, dropping into a defensive stance beside him, her eyes sweeping the area for threats. Seeing none, she frowned at him. “What?”

            Rune turned back to face her, another smile spreading widely across his face. “I sense a story,” he said, jerking his head towards the stairs. “Follow me.”

            Willow hurried along behind him as Rune jogged towards the stairs, her frown deepening. “What do you mean, you sense a story? You’re not Spiderman anymore, so you shouldn’t have any spidey-senses left.”

            “I’ll have you know, I have excellent hearing.”

            “So do I, more so than a normal person’s as you know, and I didn’t hear anything.”

            “Trust me,” Rune said, glancing back at her before taking the first step onto the stairs. “And we need to be quiet from here on out.”

            Willow sighed, but stuck close to Rune, not trusting him not to get himself into trouble. They crept up the stairs, Willow straining her ears for some evidence of what it was that had Rune all excited. She didn’t have to wonder long. Voices came echoing down the stairwell. “…you can contact his parents and tell them to come to the station so we can question him. You may want to do a search of your students’ lockers, to make sure Mr. Wendell here isn’t the only one in possession of narcotics.”

            Sitting side by side on the lower stairs, so only the tops of their heads and their eyes were over the last step, Willow and Rune took in the scene in front of them. Toby Wendell, well known among the students for always having a stash he was willing to sell, stood handcuffed beside his locker. Four police officers were there as well. Two who were busy going through Toby’s locker, one who was keeping an eye on Toby, and the fourth was busy speaking to Mr. Marsden and Mrs. Shandy, the vice-principal.

            Without letting his gaze waver, Rune reached behind, pulled the notebook and tiny pencil he carried everywhere out of his pocket, and began taking notes, a disturbingly excited smile on his face. Willow sighed silently as she watched him, before looking back at the cops. Part of her wondered if they’d timed this to ensure most of the students were in the cafeteria, on a pizza day no less, or if they’d just been lucky. The rest of her focused on what was being said.

            “I assure you, we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again! I’m appalled that one of our students would be doing such a thing,” Mr. Marsden sputtered, his face red and his whole demeanor puffed up, like his dignity was an armour he could use against the backlash he was soon to get from the community.

            The officer, not her Uncle Harris Willow was relieved to see, nodded. “Things should calm down. We recently had a break in the local drug scene and we’re hoping that will curtail these kinds of things.”

            “Thank you officers,” the principal said, not looking at Toby. “My staff and I will be conducting random searches of lockers today. If we find any other contraband, we will be certain to alert you. If you will excuse me, I’ll go tell the secretary to pull up Mr. Wendell’s file so I can get a hold of his parents.”

            “We appreciate it,” the officer said, nodding as Mr. Marsden stalked off towards his office, his forehead deeply furrowed. He turned his attention to Mrs. Shandy. “If you’ll stay here in case they need any help, me and my partner should be taking the boy in now.”

            “Of course,” she replied, eyes wide behind the lenses of her glasses. “Anything you need, we’ll gladly help you with.”

            “Thank you, ma’am,” he said, nodding at her once, before turning to his partner. He jerked his chin towards the door to the parking lot. His partner grabbed Toby’s arm, towing him behind her as all three of them headed towards the cruiser just visible through the glass of the door.

            Willow glanced at Rune, who grinned at her. “Looks like we’ve got out next story,” he breathed. “Now let’s get out of here before they notice us.”

           Slinking back down the stairs with him, Willow only hoped Mr. Marsden didn’t shut them down for this one.