The Conspiracy Theory of June 17

3.

"So we're sure that we all saw this dream?"

"Yes, Alessia," says Jada, a little exasperated. "I know it's weird, but I trust that you guys are not pulling my leg and we have all just recounted the exact same dream. Same scenes and all."

"But..."

"Alessia, it's true." Says Jessie, eyeing me nervously and trying to change the subject. "And you," she says, turning to Drew, "reckon it's a message of some sort."

"Yes," he says. "What you guys thought up that day, that day in Mrs Mitzeegh's maths classroom, is more-or-less correct."

I open my mouth to object, but I find that I am finally lost for words.

"So...there's a secret organisation of teachers-"

"SHHH!"

"Sorry!" exclaims Jada, a little shocked. "I'm just trying to-

"I know, I know," he sighs and looks down, and we all stare at him until he speaks again. "This is all I'll tell you. Yes, there are organisations, of teachers, and yes, there is tension between the different groups. So yes, there is a..." he lowers his voice to almost a whisper, so quiet I almost miss it, "conspiracy."

"Okay," says Jessie, carefully picking her words, I can tell. "And who is in the group you are in?"

He suddenly jerks his head upwards, as if someone had pinched him out of the blue, but calmly answers. "Mrs Renee."

"As in our English teacher?" remarks Jessie, frowning.

At that exact moment, as if we had summoned her, Mrs Renee walks past our little group, balancing her laptop and a huge pile of papers in her arms. She unlocks the door to the English block, then walks inside, leaving the door wide open.

I watch the door waver in the wind, threatening to slam closed, before Jada asks a question.

"Are people in danger?"

Four words, but honestly all I want to know after having nightmarish visions of my friends, classmates and teachers in places they aren't supposed to be in. If Drew was convinced our theories were true, did that mean people were actually in trouble?

"All those people tied up...they were from here..." Jessie protests when Drew says nothing for a while.

"All those teachers," Jada continues. "It's like what we thought up of in maths, but worse."

"It's exactly that," he finally breaks his silence. We all look up at him in shock. I didn't want to believe him, and I wouldn't until we had more proof, more evidence. And definitely, a better idea of what was real and what wasn't. But still, the dream had shaken me up, and if it was even somewhat real...

I pulled down the arms of my jumper so that they covered my hands too, a bad habit that I had. We all sat in ominous silence, drowning in our own thoughts, before Drew abruptly jumps up, about to leave without saying goodbye.

Jada opens her mouth and looks up at him, an act that indicates she wants to say something, or otherwise run after him, but she does nothing and lets him go.

"Jada, in all seriousness," starts Jessie (Jada and I both brace ourselves because we know whatever she was going to comment was not going to be serious at all) "did he hit his head too hard on the dinner table last night?"

"That's what I was thinking," she says, a dreamy look in her eyes, and both Jessie and I give her weird looks. "No-I mean- he was acting strange last night too. I mean, it could've been because our parents were there, but it was a different kind of weird, like he knew something he shouldn't, like he's about to do something he shouldn't..."