Walter

ONE LAST DANCE

After spending the remainder of the lunch hour talking with Shaun and Kristina, Michael returned to the mundane activities of school such as Math and English. The only nice surprise of the day was finding out Shaun was in his last class of the day, Biology.

Shaun had seen him enter the class and had called him over to sit with him, which he did with enthusiasm.

The highlight of class came when what was supposed to be an informative frog dissection turned into a song and dance routine featuring their frog in center stage. Shaun had made it halfway into 'singing in the rain' before the teacher caught notice of the antics going on at their table. At this point Shaun immediately dropped the frog where it stood and stared at it for a few moments.

It surprised everyone when he leaped from his seat and pointed at the frog with a wide eyed stare.

"OH MY GOD! FRED'S HAD A HEART ATTACK!!!" he exclaimed.

What happened next defied any reasoning and happened so fast that no one was quite sure what to do.

Shaun grabbed the bendy straw from his pop can and inserted the short end into the frog's mouth, holding it in place with his left hand. With his right hand, he used two fingers and put them on the frog's chest. He blew into the straw and then pressed down on its chest while counting out, "1... 2... 3..."

He repeated this a few times before stopping and putting his head to its chest, listening intently.

"NO!" yelled Shaun as he bolted upright. "You're not going to leave me!"

With a crazed look in his eyes, he scanned the room and quickly ran and grabbed one of the other students.

"Come with me. I need your help."

Bradley, who was half of Shaun's size had very little to say about being dragged across the room to where the frog lay.

Once back at the desk, Shaun removed the ear buds from Bradley's ears and pressed them against the frog's chest.

"Clear!" he yelled as he pressed down on its chest.

Faint music could be heard wafting from the ear buds when he raised them to listen to the frog.

"Clear!" he stated once more as he pressed the ear buds down on the frog.

"It's not working, turn it up all the way!" he barked at Bradley.

Too shocked to do otherwise, Bradley turned up the volume.

Indistinct music could be heard emanating from the ear buds. The sound would then be muffled as Shaun pressed them into the frog's chest for a third time.

"CLEAR!"

Staring at the sprawled frog on the table, Shaun let the ear buds slip from his hands.

Ripping a piece of paper from his binder, he furiously began to write, pausing only once to look up at the front of the class before continuing to write unabated. He placed the piece of paper beside the frog, sat down, opened his biology book and began reading as if nothing had happened.

Curious to know what was written upon the piece of paper, Michael leaned forward only to then notice that the whole class had gathered around them and all were just as curious about what had been written.

Name : Freddy Frog

D.O.B. : Unknown

Cause of Death : Possible Cardiac Arrest

Time of Death : 2:17 PM

Notes : Attempted CPR on patient. Autopsy to follow.

The students took turns reading the note as Shaun sat quietly reading his book.

As if expecting something else to happen, the class stood silent, watching him.

Moments passed before he finally looked up, his face showing no hints of what he was thinking.

"What?" he finally said. "He croaked."

Amidst the moans, groans and guffaws, everyone returned to their seats. The teacher stood for a moment watching him before shaking his head and walking back to the front of the classroom.

Michael looked at Shaun who didn't say anything but smile at him.

Hanging around him was going to be interesting indeed, he concluded.