"our little secret" (a student/ teacher relationship)

chapter 11

 All at once I heard people shouting with panic. Who was screaming and why?

I jumped to my feet and started walking quickly backwards away from the scream and ran right into Lukas.

“Bah!” I squeaked. (Very unattractively if I may say so myself.)

“Shhh! Stay here.” Came Lukas’s calm voice from behind me.

“Lukas ohmigosh did u hear that? I mean of course you did, didn’t you? I think everyone heard that” I was babbling nervously.

“Savannah chill, of course I heard it. Don’t go anywhere, stay with your friends by the fire.” He murmured quietly in my ear while patting me reassuringly on the back.

I just stood there in shock and watched him gather with the chaperones that suddenly appeared as if in thin air. I couldn’t hear any of them talking except for the occasional louder than necessary sentence from Mr. Hudgens. “We can’t just leave her out there! She screamed for crying out loud.” He said to --a teacher I recognized as-- Mr. Teely’s face.

“well what would you have us do Lukas, go get her?” Teely shot back.

“You really are a coward Jason!” Lukas said to him while glaring in his direction. Mr. Teely was a whole foot taller than Lukas and looked like a professional couch potato. None of the students liked him because he tended to be sarcastic and cruel to them.

“Enough!” Mrs. Lenard told them. “We cannot just leave her there, has anyone done a head count or at least tried to find out who went missing?”

They all snapped around at once and started counting heads and the shocked teenagers did the same; trying to find out which one of their friends was missing.

After about 2 minutes one of the students (a girl from my Spanish II class) said my friend Rebecca Little is gone, I can’t find her. She told me she was going to get some marsh mellows to roast, I don’t know why she hasn’t come back!” she told us sobbing the last word a little. I was her inch closer to Mr. Hudgens as if preparing to leap on him at any second and play damsel in distress. I rolled my eyes and focused on what Mr. Hudgens was going to say. But before he got anything out a group of girls who everyone knew were loser pot heads called out “Hey our friend Kristen Carter was supposed to come back from the uhh… she was going pee earlier.” They all sort of looked away guiltily.

All of the sudden Hudgens got a serious glint in his eye and I knew he wanted to lash out at them for breaking the rules.” “The rules are:  going to the bathroom without a buddy or notifying a teacher is forbidden.” “Why didn’t you tell anyone where she was going?” a Chaperone I didn’t recognize asked her .

“We- we didn’t know anything bad would happen I don’t understand, she was just going to the bathroom.”

“Pssh- right, or she was going to fry whatever brain cells she has left.” I said without thinking.

I quickly slapped my hands over my mouth and looked at Hudgens.

He glared at me quickly and looked away as if nothing happened. “I’m going to get them, I need at least 5 chaperones here and whoever wants can come with me, decide now.” Said Mr. Locklin. A science professor that a lot of people liked because he was also handsome and cool too.  Mr. Hudgens looked at me longingly like he wanted to stay but left with Mr. Locklin to go checkout who screamed in the woods.

**********

“Remind me what we’re doing here again.” Said an annoyed Casey.

“Will you stop screaming,” I said a bit irked. If she didn’t want to come then why did she follow me into the woods after the chaperones? “I want to know what’s happening and I can’t let Mr. Hudgens go in there by himself.”

Shit! I realized I slipped up a little too late.

“Why all the interest in Hudgens’s safety all of the sudden? And what are you possibly going to do if he were to get himself into a situation that required ass kicking… or worst?”

“Will you quit talking so loud? You didn’t have to follow me in here you know.” I said, taking the defensive route instead of fessing up that I would rather slit my wrist than let Hudgens face trained assassins on his own (not that he couldn’t handle himself). I briefly remembered back a few months ago to the first day I saw Lukas behind the school facing off with those Asian guys. I gave an involuntary shiver.  “look its cold why don’t we just go back I’m sure they will find the girls and it will all be a huge prank.” She said looking terrified.

“Shhh! There they are.” I pointed them out to her. They were about 12 feet in front of us now and they all had flashlights.

“KRISTEN!!! REBECCA!!!”  Mr. Locklin shouted.

“Eeek!” Casey squeaked, before I smacked my hand over her mouth.

All of the sudden all five flashlights were on us. Busted! I caught Mr. Hudgens eying me and he looked exasperated.

“What are you doing here?” Mrs. Lynn said.

“We wanted to see who screamed.” I told her; embarrassed.

“Young Lady that is no excuse! Do you realize you as well as your friend Casey have broken the rules! Detention for you both when we get back!”

I heard Lukas’s unmistakable chuckle and felt a sudden urge to smack him for once again being a jerk.

“But Mrs. L-“Casey started but abruptly stopped when she saw what was hanging off of a tree about six feet away. She had a look of horror on her face and covered her mouth while shaking her head no over and over again.

 “What is it Cas?” I asked her bluntly.

Somewhere inside me I knew she was looking at something and that something was close by but I couldn’t find it in me to look, I just kept asking what was wrong. I faintly heard the teachers and chaperones in the background shouting in chaos but couldn’t make myself turn away from Casey’s face. She was now hunched over throwing up with tears streaming down her face.

“Get them out of here NOW!” I heard Hudgens scream to the teachers.

 “Call 911 and get Mrs. Block and her friend back to the campgrounds. I want all busses loaded up and ready to leave immediately!” he snapped.

I felt myself being pulled along with a sobbing Casey back the way we came and finally I snapped and turned to get a quick look at what horror had Casey crying and the grownups freaking out. I knew I was about to witness something bad. Something very bad, but what I didn’t think I was going to see was Kristen and Rebecca’s’ bodies stuck to a tree with a knife in their middles keeping them upright.

I let out a distorted scream/ moan that was apparently louder than I had thought for Lukas was right beside me now supporting my weight with one hand around my waist. Hmm funny, I didn’t even see him near me… I thought drunkenly.

 “Shhh it’s alright, you’re going home now ok? Don’t worry nothing is going to happen to you.” He told me quietly in my ear. I noticed the teachers giving us questioning looks and wanted to push him off of me but he wouldn’t let me.

 “Stop it,” he murmured.

“I don’t care if they see, now if you don’t stop I’ll carry you there.”

I quickly stop fighting him and kept walking but kept feeling self-conscious. How could this be happening? All the assassin drama had felt superficial until this; it was kind of like a wakeup call. I felt tears streaming down my cheeks as i realized those girls would never get to be with their friends or see their families again. Never again thanks to those monsters. I wiped my eyes and tried to support some of my own weight and Lukas let me this time but never let me go. As we reached the clearing all the students huddled with the chaperones and teachers fell silent and no one uttered a word until Mr. Locklin spoke in a clear, strong voice.

 “Everyone grab your belongings and board the buses immediately, whatever you can’t grab in two minutes, leave it. Murmurs broke out between friends and chaperones and teachers who were not in the know of what we’d just witnessed. “All teachers and chaperones need to stay here for an emergency meet, everyone else, and go straight to your tents and busses now.”

TO BE CONTINUED…..

ONLY HALF OF THE CHAPPIE HEHE