My Perfect Detective

Rough Day

"John, wake up! School is in a half hour! Please do not be late!" I heard a hazy voice yell from downstairs. I groaned and rolled over. I cracked an eye open and looked at the time. The LED clock read 8:00am. I got out of bed, changed into blue jeans, red converse and a graphic T-shirt. I grabbed my wallet and phone after fixing my hair, then went downstairs. Mum was in the kitchen, making herself a smoothie. I grab myself two pieces of bread, put them in the toaster and wait for it to ding. I put peanut butter on my toast and eat some of it while I sit on a stool. I pull out my phone and open my messages

(1) Molly Hooper
(2) Hamish Sinclair
I open the message from Molly first, it wouldn't hurt as much...

"Hey John! Classes start today, I sent a PDF of my schedule. I hope we have some classes together! I'm excited for school, I hope you are too. I look forward to hanging out again! See ya at school!" Molly Hooper

Now to the next messages...
"You better have school work done with by Thursday. You're going to my place on Friday and I'm going on a date with Sheila. If you fuck it up I'm going to do what I did last time."
I scrolled down.
"And you can't hide in your room anymore. I took the locks off. Don't open my liquor cabinet or touch my cigars. We won't have any problems then."
I texted him back, but god I hate this man.
"Ok...But school is more important than your hookers, booze and drug habits."
He's technically my legal guardian, in a weird sense. My dad married my mother, and then divorced after my father had cheated on her. My father and mother had split custody of me until he had taken his own life when I was 7. I found out I was adopted and my biological father attempted to claim full custody, but only got half. I realized what I said and dread had set place instantly inside of me. Fuckfuckfuckfuck! Why did I say that???
"Don't you fucking disrespect me. I provide a HOME for your ass. I will make you sleep on the floor of the bathroom if I hear anymore disrespect out of-"
I turned off my phone. I'm sick of that old bastards threats.

I got my backpack, shoes tied and teeth brushed. Mum hugged me and gave me a kiss on the head. "I promise once I'm finished with work I'll try to have a decent vacation with you alright?" I nodded. "Why can't you get full custody?" I said quietly, but not enough so to be silent enough for her to not hear. She sighed. "Because, he's paying child support and I can't afford another court case. I'm sorry John, I'll do my best to provide you a good home and life but his week is where I can't step. I'm sorry..." She trailed off and I sighed. Then got my things all ready, and opened the door. "Bye mum." "Bye John, have a good day."

Walking to school didn't take very long, it took about five minutes. I spent the rest of the morning with Molly, we talked about classes and the latest of what our summers were. She hugged me and said she missed me. Don't get me wrong, Molly is good looking but I've never had an attraction to her. I'm not sure why.

We parted ways and I went to my locker. I put my lunch and raincoat in there. I heard the familiar grunty wheeze of the school bully, and his little posse. I did NOT need him breathing down my neck again. "Hey boys look. It's John Wats-his-face... You owe me money from last year. Hand it over." I refused. "No. I'm not giving you shit." I snapped. He took that by surprise. "You'll regret it Watson. You know this." He shoved me into a locker and his goons held me against it. He punched me while I attempted to escape. I screamed in pain and I felt something warm trickle down my face. I was bleeding again. The group was broken up by a teacher and I slipped away to the bathroom to wash my face and dry the blood from my nose. I sighed and tried to force a smile. Which wasn't very possible. I went along to second hour, and sat down. Molly was next to me. "John! Hey- oh my god. Your face. Are you alright?" I looked at her and shook my head. "I'll be fine. Just a scrap with some kids again..." she frowned. "I'm sorry John." She said and the teacher cut us off. English had started. We learned about the syllabus for the year and then class ended. Molly looked at me. "So we have to read Great Gatsby, do you wanna hang out and study together to get it down with?" She asked. "Sure, I can but on Friday I'll be at Dad's..." I said quietly. She nodded. "It'll get better John, he'll get what he deserves. You could stay at my place?-" I cut her off. "Court orders, we can't afford anymore cases. Thank you though Molly." She nodded sadly and left.

I went to Chemistry. I sat down after the teacher had assigned seats. A boy sat next to me who I'd never seen before. He had curly dark brown hair, and didn't speak a word. Our teacher assigned us partners and we worked on a sheet explaining the different gas laws. It was bullshit. The quiet boy was with me. "I guess we're partners? I'm John-" he cut me off. "You got beat up in the hallway earlier, but I can tell part of the scars on your face aren't from this event. You most likely have an abusive father figure which backs up why you avoid eye contact with males and bite your nails to stubs." He said bluntly and stared at me with a dead panned expression. I blinked and got caught up in processing all of that. "What the fuck. Are you stalking me?" I said, and he sighed. "No. I'm good at deducing things. You're the first person to not move away from me." He said and wrote on his worksheet. "Yeah... We're partners so I can't exactly move away from someone with the worksheet. That makes the work redundant." I said. He nodded. "I'm Sherlock. You're John, as stated. I would say it's nice to meet you but you don't seem to happy with how I introduced myself." He stayed and looked up for a few seconds.

"Uhm. Well, I guess we're stuck with each other till the end of the semester. Do you want to work on the packet together and get it done this weekend?" I asked, trying to be polite. He looked at me while putting his things away. "I suppose. You're better company than my older brother. He's awfully boring. I'll meet you at lunch in the library and then we can decide from there." He stated and I listened like a dog being told commands. "O-oh, okay." I said and packed my things up. He nodded and the bell rang.

We both departed to our next hour class. I went to geography. It was boring and I got nothing out of it. Then came lunch. I went to the library and sat down. I did some work while waiting for Sherlock and he sat down at the table by me. We conversed about homework and working together. "You could probably come my house and work on it after school." I suggested. "That sounds adequate. I don't doubt it'll take at least four days to finish it. Would I be able to come over?" He asked and took out some papers to work on. "Uh, not Friday... I'm at my Dad's..." I said and stopped talking. "That's fine. We can work on it next week then." The lunch bell rang and we went to our last two classes. Then everyone headed home.

When I got home, I kicked my shoes off. Then headed upstairs. Mum wasn't home, she was at a business function for the remainder of the week. I took off my bag and threw it by my desk. I sat on my floor and worked on fixing my busted laptop. Hamish had thrown my laptop into the wall and threatened to bash it with a hammer a month ago. I had replacement parts to put in while I waited for a new one to be sent to my home. My phone buzzed.

(1 missed call) Molly Hooper
I called her back.
"Molly? What's up?"
"You never responded to the schedules. Just reminding you. Are you doing ok after today?"
"Oh. Thanks for reminding me. I'll send a photo when we're done talking. Uh, yeah, my face is tender and a little purple but I'll be alright."
"Alrighty, just be safe ok? I care about you. You're my best friend."
I chuckled a bit. "I'll try my best, thanks Molly."
"No problem. Cya John"
"Bye Molly." Beep. Call ended.

I sighed and went downstairs to make myself some dinner. Salad and chicken nuggets was my dinner. I'm a terrible chef so I make the easiest possible food there is. I finished dinner, put my dishes into the dishwasher and then went upstairs. I closed my door, worked on fixing my laptop and then eventually climbed into bed. Falling asleep felt nice as always but something felt off.