Baker Boy

Chapter Twenty

Principal Kensington was in a rage. He stalked out of the medical ward with Deacon trailing behind. His gaze was dark and the temperature surrounding him was plummeting.

With his heart rapidly beating, Deacon hurried to catch up with him. He feared the worst for Aellius and rightly so; Richard Kensington was going to tear him apart.

The police met them on the circular common green. With a flick of his wrist, he directed them to follow him.

When he reached the fourth floor of the Visual Arts dorm, Principal Richard started banging on the doors with no regard for the names written on them.

"Where is he?" he asked, pounding on a couple more doors.

Deacon was frantically reading the names on the doors as the boys started peeking their heads out of the rooms to see what was going on. Finally, they got to the last door, but only after Principal Richard had scared the living daylights from everyone else.

"Here," said Deacon. "He's in here."

However, Richard Kensington had already started pounding on the door. An irritated Eli poked his head out, only to be dragged out of his room by the collar of his shirt.

"Do you know what you did, boy?"

Eli looked at him in confusion, which made Richard Kensington second-guess himself.

"You are Aellius James Johnson, aren't you?"

Nodding slowly, Eli took in the police officers and the quivering Deacon.

Officer Thomas stepped forward, a breathalyser in his hand. He held it up to Eli's face.

"Blow into the mouthpiece please," he said in a firm tone.

A beep filled the spaces in between their words and after about four seconds, it stopped. Officer Thomas directed Eli to release the mouthpiece.

He stared at the screen with his lips pressed into a firm line. Something about the way that he was acting told Deacon that this was not his first time handling these situations.

"Mr Johnson, may I see your identification?" asked Officer Thomas.

From the way Eli's face seemed to drain of colour as he handed over his driving license, Deacon knew that he had not been drinking beer.

"Sir, I'm going to have to take you in," said Officer Thomas as his partner broke out the handcuffs. "You're under arrest for felonious assault and if proven, possession for personal use of cannabis and underage drinking."

Eli's eyes were still unfocused as they led him off. However, Officer Thomas stayed behind to talk to Richard Kensington.

"We'll conduct a search of his room later tonight when the investigators arrive, but now, I'll need to talk to the victim."

"Of course," said Principal Kensington tightly.

They returned to the ward where Andy was eating a grilled chicken sandwich while reading a magazine. She was awake for the most part.

"Good evening, Miss Harper. I'm Officer Thomas." He reached out to shake her hand before taking a seat in the plastic chair beside Principal Kensington.

He pulled out a ballpoint pen and a notepad. Flipping to a new page, he sucked in a breath.

"Was Aellius Johnson under the effect of marijuana when he attacked you?"

Andy nodded. "He was getting high right in front of me at the Brew House. I threw his bong into the sink."

"That's a good piece of evidence," said Officer Thomas as he noted it down. "What about the alcohol – what was he drinking?"