Bye Bye

16

The day went by surprisingly quick. Dean's schedule was almost mind numbingly boring. His first class was presumably a social studies class... but the teacher seemed to have no curriculum or qualifications whatsoever. The next class was math. The teacher was gone, so Mackenzie subbed. It was easy to assume he had no idea what he was doing. 
The only really interesting part of the day was "library time". Everyone was "encouraged" to spend the next hour in the library. It was actually pretty big, there were bean bags in between every shelf and an extensive collection of books on every subject.
That wasn't what caught Dean's attention though.

In one of the corners of the library was a small cornered off room with three computers in it. Apparently if you got enough merits, you could use them to spend half of your library hour using a computer while being closely supervised.

"It's not worth it," John tried to convince Dean during the library hour. They were sitting on the floor in the history section. John was flipping nonchalantly through a book about ancient pottery. "They practically breathe down the back of your neck while you're on there." He sighed and turned a page.

"You got to use them?" Dean asked, a little surprised.

"Uh, yeah?" John seemed momentarily offended. "But anyways, I'm serious," he closed his book and leaned foreword.

"One time I was playing a game and the librarian asked if he could have a turn. Plus he chews gum super loudly. Fucking annoying."  John leaned back and picked up his book again.

Dean glanced back over at the computers, unable to help himself.
Only two guys seemed to be using them right now. One of them had a clunky pair of headphones that were attached to the computer on and was leaned back in his chair, not even looking at the screen.

Headphones.

Dean remembered his broken ones laying on his bed in the dorm. He also remember Justin's tape.

"John...do you have any headphones?" Dean scratched the back of his head.

"No, they're afraid I'll strangle myself with the cord," John said without blinking.

"Ah. Gotcha." Dean pulled his knees up to his chest.

"I know what you're thinking, but Roy doesn't have any either," John said in a weird sing-song voice. "I know because I took his, and they got confiscated from me." He chuckled to himself.

"Does Jude have any?" Dean said hopefully.

"Uhh..." John frowned. "Probably, his nickname is Sub Rosa...actually only I call him that, but he's basically the go to guy for contraband- or anything else for that matter."

Dean sat up, shocked. "Are we talking about the same Jude?" He recalled the time Cleary had encountered them in the hallway. "There's no way..."

John shrugged. "Hey, if you don't believe me go ask him yourself..." 

Dean looked around the room out of curiosity for Jude, but noticed he wasn't anywhere in sight. "Speaking of...where is he?"

John shrugged again. "Beats me, probably up Ed's ass."

Dean choked.

"Haha! I'm just kidding, he has regular doctor appointments during library hours." John put his book back on the shelf and grabbed another.

"Every day? Why?" Dean frowned. Things were getting more and more confusing.

"Hmm, that's  none of your fucking business, is it?" John opened his new book and flipped directly to the end.

"Oh...uh, sorry." Dean ducked his head and turned to the bookshelf behind him. He just couldn't figure John out....