Star Pupil

Chapter fifteen

One moment I'm talking to Zara, next thing I see is this giant faceless figure carrying none other than Mr. Keith on his shoulders over to what it may look like...a school bus? OK, a school pupil killer driving in a school bus? If he's trying to be scary, he would have to drive in this armoured car from that movie Jeepers Creepers.

Zara and I are now watching through the front door window, looking at Charlie opening one of the bus' under-storage and loading the dead body into it. Soon as he closes it, he goes back into Mr. Keith's home and proceeds to switch off the power.

By that I mean literally walking into the house, finding the electricity box and destroying the fuses inside the box with his bare hands! What sort of guy is he? I asked to myself.

"What the hell?" Zara whispered. We are shivering a bit here. "He must have broken the power-box or something." I replied, as we see him walking out of the house, just casually like nothing happened! By the time he got into the bus to start her up, I am trying to figure out how the hell I would drive a car!

"What are you doing?" Zara asked me. "Trying to operate this thing." I said. OK, what do I know about this? I go back to when I was eight, I was in Mum's car on her lap, steering the wheel and knowing how to operate the gearstick.

Not to mention the pedals, like the throttle for instance, this was below my right foot. So I know that the brake is below my left foot! Holy shit, he's driving outta here, need to get the car going! "Jake, he's getting away, move it!" said Zara, seeing the bus driving away.

"Hang on!" I said, shifting the gearstick on driving mode before slowly driving up off the driveway. "Put your seatbelt on!" I said, as I slipped the seatbelt on me with her doing the same. Shit, I forgot about the steering wheel!

I started to take control of the car by putting my hands on the wheel, turning left to keep up with the school bus. "Will you put the lights on?" Zara asked me. "No, if I do that, we'll get busted." I said. "If we start speeding behind him, we'll get busted." Should have thought about driving illegally before doing it...But it's for the best!

I can see Charlie's driving down to the end of the street so we moved up a little further before he made his turn, crashing against a couple oncoming cars in his way. Has he got road rage inside him? He sure could do with going back to driving school!

"Jake, he went that way! Turn!" Zara screamed, as I started turning the wheel to left before keeping it nice and steady again. "Right, which way did he go?" I asked Zara, while looking over to the interception to the motorway. "He's heading to the M1!" she pointed at his bus, turning into the M1.

I started to floor the car through the red light, nearly crashing against a few cars in our way, past the busy interception and into the motorway! Shit! I haven't even learnt how to drive and already I'm driving past oncoming cars in the fucking motorway!!! Mum will definitely ground me for doing this!

"Oh, god, I can't see him!" said Zara, worriedly. We could not see anything except oncoming cars in front of us until we spotted Charlie's yellow school bus! "There he is! Right, I'm gonna stay on his tail!" I said, keeping my foot on the accelerator and hands on the steering wheel.

2/4 miles later...

A couple more miles in, we're still right behind him, past the Cityside and back on the motorway to none other than Boothwood. Well, we're technically NOT THERE yet! "Jake, has anybody told you you're an excellent driver?" Zara asked me. I wasn't sure if she was sarcastic or being serious.

"You think so?" I asked her, while keeping my eye on the road. I wish I can look at her when I'm speaking to her but the #1 rule of driving is to keep my eyes on the road! "Mmmm-hmmm, babe! I've never met anybody who can drive without a driver's license before." This conversation we're having at the moment is lifting me up. I'm still upset from what happened to Mr. Keith back there, but thank god we got the whole story on my iPhone.

Later, we got up to the end of the M1 motorway, which took us to the entrance for the main town centre of Boothwood. The yellow bus then took a turn in the roundabout before speeding past the Boothwood Regional College.

As we kept up a little further, we followed the bus all the way through the road, down past Worsley Village before driving behind all the way to...Boothwood School? I know I've rushed it a bit but just wanna get to this part of the story.

We waited at the bottom of the road to see Charlie driving up to the main gates, pulling in through the driveway and onto the back car park behind the main building. Soon as we're done, we slowly pulled up to the main gates.

"He's hiding in our school? Why?" Zara wondered, while I parked us over to the driveway in a dark spot, turning off the car. "This is where we're gonna find out." I said to Zara, as we took of our seatbelts and got out of the car.

Looking to where Charlie was headed to, we ran past the PE hall and to the back car park while keeping our noises down so we wouldn't get caught. As we ducked back to the side of the PE hall building, I had a wee peek to my corner.

Seeing where he's going...Looks like he's pulling up to the woods on the gravel playing fields. Why he would go up there, I thought to myself.

"Come on." I whispered to Zara, as we started sneakily past the car park and up to the hill. It makes me think back when I was in detention before all of this shit, just walking out of my room into an empty school at night; it isn't as weird as now Zara and I are running on the school grounds at night.

Soon as we got to the same spot we were today (which was in the woods), we stopped running to crouch down and sneak up into the woods. From what I can see from where we are, it appears to be that Charlie has parked his bus just near an old mansion-like bungalow.

Never seen a mansion-like bungalow in my life, I'm sure whoever used to lived in it must be have been pensioner billionaires or something. Good god, it's dark, can't see a fucking thing here. I forgot that the only forest that has light on is the Trail of Lights.

Luckily, Zara has got very excellent eyesight in the dark, it's like you don't need to give her nightvision goggles. "Here, babe, this way." She said, holding my hand as we ventured on through the woods until we got to the bungalow's old driveway.

School bus in position, no driver inside, but a whole bunch-a blood and dirt on it!

"This must be his hideout, then?" Zara asked me. "Sure is. Remember keep quiet." I said, getting my IPhone out so that I can snap a picture of the house and bus in frame using "night-time mode" without the flash.

Looking at the bungalow, it is covered entirely in leaves and all of the windows are like boarded up. Next to the back door lies this tree, I don't if there's any crows there or not. I'm talking rubbish right now.

Zara and I started to sneak up to the school bus' storage boot and seeing the trail of blood, we followed it all the way up to this red door in front of us. Peering in, I can see a little bit of light there. I wonder if Charlie's up to something there. Better find out...