Red Herrings

Prologue

September 14th, 2014

Dead silence. Dead silence is what loomed when Ms. Debblestud sauntered into the 6th grade classroom. Wherever she trod, a collection of disgusted and fearful faces seemed to form in her presence. To some, she was the devil; today, she's Northhill Elemtary's head math teacher. Aaron and Sadie sat parallel to each other on the classroom benches, Sadie daring to lean over and whisper to the boy on her right. Her hair ribbons swishing to the side with the movement.

"She smells like poop." The comment was enough to make Aaron giggle, his body shaking with every breath he took. Much to their displeasure, it caught the attention of the monster at the front of the room. Her grim stare enough to make Aaron halt and stare in fear.

"Morgan one and Morgan two," the woman bellowed. "care to share the joke with the class?"

Aaron stumbled on his words trying to muster up the courage to respond to the woman. All of his nerve seemed to disappear when he was in her vicinity.

"You seem to have lost your tongue."

She walked swiftly between benches until she stood flush in front of the pair.

"Morgan," her hands now on her hips. "If you ignore my question again, the outcome will not be pleasant."

Sadie shifted in her seat, her eyes staring defiantly into those of Ms. Debblestud's.

"Perhaps your sister would be more compliant, hm?" She poked, shifting her gaze to the second of them.

"Morgan." She glared at the girl. "Care to share?"

"No sir."

As if it wasn't difficult enough, the class grew even more silent. Her peers were dumfounded; they could not believe that she'd just said that to Ms. Debblestud. Aaron on the other hand, couldn't tell if it was an honest mistake or if his sister was just plain psychotic. If their father were here he would surely say that Sadie had 'huge donkey balls.'

As sure as grass is green, the woman's nostrils flared and her scowl grew even stronger. Sadie stood innocently, dubious to the fact that she just offended the rearing beast in front of her.

"You two." She paused regaining her composure. "Lunch detention with Mr. Lyons."

"But I didn-" Aaron was the first to protest.

"Lunch." The woman dismissed and turned on her heel, walking to her former position at the front of the room.

"Now," she clasped her hands at the front of her grey button-up. "Math time."

The rest of the day flew by relatively quickly, but they both had their after school plans on their mind. Sadie and Aaron stood at the front of the door to Mr. Lyons' classroom, neither of them daring to knock.

"This is so your fault!" Aaron whisper-yelled.

"No it's not! It was an accident." Sadie looked away, rubbing her arm.

"I don't believe you."

"So?"

"This is so bad." The boy had his hands over his face. "Mom is going to take away the Nintendo."

Sadie didn't understand why he was making it such a big deal. "So what?"

"So what?" He questioned, wide eyed. "I just got to the final gym in Pokémon and if I don't play, my team will die."

"That's not how it works!"

"Yes it is"

"No it's not!"