A lot happened during the next week. First of all, Ronald managed to avoid Farrah pretty well everyday at school and Lucas had find a way to make up his panicking to Ronald; he did Ronald’s homework the whole week since Ronald’s arm was hurting a little bit and he couldn’t really write without pain.
The nightmares stayed but didn’t go worse. They stayed the same; Lucas kept dreaming about the dead bodies and Ronald got attacked again and again every night in his sleep. But those nightmares didn’t slow them down, they couldn’t really remember the dreams, only the main points and how they felt when they saw them. It was better that way. Neither of them wanted to vividly remember everything that had happened.
Ronald got his stitches removed at the end of that week. It didn’t hurt at all and the arm was only randomly aching.
“Your scars will look so cool”, Lucas said when Ronald showed him his now stitches-free arm.
“Don’t know about that”, Ronald said sounding unsure.
“But I know”, Lucas said firmly. “Embrace those scars! That’s how you’ll survive in life.”
“If you say so”, Ronald said. “Hey, want to go to the movies today?”
“Sure, is there anything good going?”
“That new comedy movie, I think”, Ronald said. “It’s Friday so I think there will be lots of other people too, we should leave early if we want to get the tickets.”
“Why not just book them online?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
They did their homework really quickly before leaving the house. It was raining so they took a bus to the movie theatre. Lucas bought them tickets and Ronald bought them popcorns and sodas.
Ronald lead the way to the room where all the red seats were seated in a neat order. He looked around and then at Lucas.
“Which seats do we have?” Ronald asked. They were only ones there which was odd. On the other hand they were half an hour early.
“Twenty-four and twenty-five”, Lucas replied.
Ronald found their seats, they sat down and started eating their popcorns. They were halfway done with the popcorns until they realised they probably should have saved them for the actual movie.
“We do this every time”, Lucas sighed.
“When will we learn?” Ronald asked.
“Never”, Lucas stated.
“Should I go buy more?” Ronald asked at the same time as the doors opened and more people walked inside. “It’s not too late yet.”
Lucas nodded in agreement so Ronald got up, squeezed his way out of the theatre and walked down the hallway. He reached the desk and said, “Two large popcorns, please.”
The girl behind the desk started filling the cartons with popcorn and Ronald looked around him as he waited. Good thing he did because suddenly the movie theatre’s door opened and three girls walked inside, one of them being Farrah Livingstone. The girls stopped in front of the man who sells the tickets and Ronald felt butterflies in his stomach.
“Oh shit”, he muttered.
“Here you go, that will be–“, the girl started but couldn’t finish when Ronald already pushed the money in her hands and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Keep the change.”
He lifted his hood over his head and started speed walking away with the popcorns in his hands and hoping Farrah hadn’t seen him.
“Hey, Ronald Quinn!”
Farrah’s voice echoed through the hallway and shivers run through Ronald’s spine. He couldn’t believe Farrah knew his name, he had thought that she didn’t even know he existed.
Keep walking, Ronald told himself before he could do something stupid like stop and make a fool out of himself in front of Farrah again by opening his mouth and then gaping like a dying fish. Like, he hadn’t done anything stupid in front of her in ages but it counted that Lucas had blurted out something about haemorrhoids and made Ronald seem stupid in front of Farrah.
Ronald was glad when he didn’t hear Farrah’s voice again and he entered the movie room quickly and went back to his seat. He handed Lucas’s popcorns to him and sat down.
“I just saw Farrah”, he hissed to Lucas.
“Where?”
“In the lobby”, he whispered because other people were giving them annoyed looks. “She came with her friends. And you will never believe what!”
“What?”
“She tried to talk to me!” he whisper-yelled.
“What!” Lucas said louder than what he had intended and then he lowered his voice and asked, “What did you do?”
“What do you mean what did I do? I ran away, of course!”
“Jeez, that’s not weird at all.”
“I panicked.”
“Now you understand me”, Lucas said and then the lights went off and the commercials started rolling and they had to quiet down and Ronald didn’t get a chance to answer to Lucas.
The weekend passed by faster than Ronald could say ‘sleep’ and Monday rolled in. It had become a habit of his to avoid Farrah in school so he didn’t struggle with it, after all he had some kind of Farrah-radar which started peeping inside his head as soon as the girl came anywhere near him.
Ronald and Lucas were in their English class when suddenly a bored woman’s voice said through the speakers, “Ronald Quinn, report yourself in the principals office immediately.”
“What did you do?” Lucas asked, sounding offended that Ronald had done something bad without him. He wanted to always be part of every mischievous thing that took place.
“Nothing, I swear!” Ronald said. “I have no idea what is going on.”
“You heard, Mr. Quinn”, the teacher said. “Off you go.”
Ronald packed his stuff and with heavy feet he walked out of the classroom and headed towards the principal’s office. He was almost there when another announcement came.
“Lucas Boyd, report yourself in the principals office immediately.”
Now this is getting weird, Ronald thought and knocked on the principal’s office’s door.
“Come in”, said a low man’s voice.
Ronald opened the door and walked in.
“Sit”, the principal said.
Ronald did as he was told and wiggled his fingers nervously. What could this be about? What had happened? What had he done?
“I suppose you know why you are here”, the principal said.
“No, Sir”, Ronald said.
“No?” the principal asked and then lifted a paper up and said, “I have received reports from several teachers that the homework you’ve returned during the past week were not your handwriting, but Lucas Boyd’s.”
All the nervousness disappeared from Ronald’s body and he sighed in relief, realising it was nothing serious and then it hit him. Shit, Lucas and him had got busted.
“Have nothing to say, Mr. Quinn?” the principal asked, looking at Ronald from behind his small, round eyeglasses. The principal was a corpulent, greying man who wasn’t exactly mean or strict. He just always seemed to know a little bit more than what he let on.
“No, Sir”, Ronald said, feeling defeated.
“You don’t want to defend yourself? Or Mr. Boyd?”
“No, Sir”, Ronald repeated.
There was a knock on the door and after getting the permission to enter Lucas stepped inside, looking confused but he soon frowned when he saw Ronald’s face.
“Ah yes, Mr. Boyd”, the principal said. “Come in. We were just about to start talking about you two’s punishment.”
“What did we do?” Lucas asked.
“We got busted”, Ronald said.
“The teachers recognized your handwriting, Mr. Boyd, from Mr. Quinn’s homework”, the principal said and Lucas frowned even more. “Tell me, Mr. Boyd. Are you right handed?”
“Yes?” Lucas said but it sounded more like a question.
“And did you write Mr. Quinn’s homework with your right hand?”
“Yes”, Lucas said, now sounding just simply confused.
“Ah yes, that is where you made your mistake, boy”, the principal said like as if he had solved a mystery in Sherlock Holmes style. “You should’ve used your left hand.”
“Damn it”, Lucas whispered. “Thank you, Sir. I will remember it next time!”
“There will be no next time”, the principal said sternly, clearly not amused by Lucas’s more or less joking tone. “A week’s detention for both of you. And I’m going to have to call your parents.”
Lucas opened his mouth to protest but Ronald kicked him in the leg and Lucas shut his mouth. Ronald didn’t want the week’s detention turn into two weeks.
“The detention starts today”, the principal said. “Understood?”
“Understood”, they muttered.
“I trust both of you know where the detention classroom is.”
“Yes, Sir”, they said, a little bit more proud than what they should have been.
“Dismissed”, the principal said and Ronald and Lucas walked out of the office without another word, although Lucas tried to salute the principal but Ronald managed to drag him out before that.
After school they dragged themselves into the classroom where the detention would be held. There was two other students too. One punk girl who sat in the back of the classroom staring at his feet and one soccer player who was scrolling through his phone. Ronald and Lucas joined them and sat down in the middle of the classroom.
When the teacher who was going to supervise them walked in, everyone straightened up and looked at her. The teacher was Mrs. McCarthy.
“Okay, kids”, she said with a clear voice. “During this two hour detention you will write an essay about why what you did was wrong. I will collect them at the end of the detention. I will not allow talking, phones or eating. Everything that would please you is forbidden, got it?”
“Yes, Mrs. McCarthy”, everyone mumbled and started taking out their pens and papers. Ronald followed their example and took out his pen and paper.
He wrote the title, ‘Why It Was Wrong That My Best Friend Did My Homework’, and then he underlined it and stopped.
He had no idea what to write.
“This is going to be a long two hours”, Lucas whispered and Ronald nodded in agreement. Mrs. McCarthy shushed them.
They eventually got out of the detention and Lucas and Ronald said goodbye at the school’s doors and then went on their separate ways.
Ronald headed home and walked on the street, kicking random rocks on the ground. His butt felt sore from all the sitting he had done on that day but hey, at least he had managed to write the essay he was ordered to. It had been the shittiest essay, full of lies, that he had ever written but if the teacher accepted it then Ronald had nothing to complain.
As he was halfway on his journey to home he started hearing footsteps behind him. He glanced behind him and saw a man dressed in dark colours walking behind him, just enough distance between them so that Ronald couldn’t see his face.
It was probably nothing, but after making a few turns and the man was still behind him, Ronald started to feel paranoid. Except was it being paranoid if they are actually after you? He started jogging, then running and finally he was sprinting in full speed ahead. He didn’t dare to glance behind him because he was afraid he would be his clumsy self and trip on his own feet.
He turned around the corner, stopped running when breathing had become harder and leaned his hands against his knees and took deep breaths. When he looked up he could almost see his home’s roof.
He looked behind him but didn’t see anyone nor did he hear a thing. He sighed in relief, turned around and slammed into someone’s chest.
“Don’t scream”, the man said with a low, raspy voice that could shake the mountains when he grabbed Ronald’s arm to steady him and prevent him from falling on his arse.
Ronald couldn’t have screamed even if he wanted to because he was so confused and scared, his heart beating fast like a race horse in a competition. He felt like something had stuck in his throat. He stared at the man. Black wavy hair reaching his shoulders, black beard and moustache, dark and intimidating eyes, red shirt that revealed a bit of his chest and a leather jacket… wait a second.
“I have seen you before”, Ronald said.
The nightmares stayed but didn’t go worse. They stayed the same; Lucas kept dreaming about the dead bodies and Ronald got attacked again and again every night in his sleep. But those nightmares didn’t slow them down, they couldn’t really remember the dreams, only the main points and how they felt when they saw them. It was better that way. Neither of them wanted to vividly remember everything that had happened.
Ronald got his stitches removed at the end of that week. It didn’t hurt at all and the arm was only randomly aching.
“Your scars will look so cool”, Lucas said when Ronald showed him his now stitches-free arm.
“Don’t know about that”, Ronald said sounding unsure.
“But I know”, Lucas said firmly. “Embrace those scars! That’s how you’ll survive in life.”
“If you say so”, Ronald said. “Hey, want to go to the movies today?”
“Sure, is there anything good going?”
“That new comedy movie, I think”, Ronald said. “It’s Friday so I think there will be lots of other people too, we should leave early if we want to get the tickets.”
“Why not just book them online?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
They did their homework really quickly before leaving the house. It was raining so they took a bus to the movie theatre. Lucas bought them tickets and Ronald bought them popcorns and sodas.
Ronald lead the way to the room where all the red seats were seated in a neat order. He looked around and then at Lucas.
“Which seats do we have?” Ronald asked. They were only ones there which was odd. On the other hand they were half an hour early.
“Twenty-four and twenty-five”, Lucas replied.
Ronald found their seats, they sat down and started eating their popcorns. They were halfway done with the popcorns until they realised they probably should have saved them for the actual movie.
“We do this every time”, Lucas sighed.
“When will we learn?” Ronald asked.
“Never”, Lucas stated.
“Should I go buy more?” Ronald asked at the same time as the doors opened and more people walked inside. “It’s not too late yet.”
Lucas nodded in agreement so Ronald got up, squeezed his way out of the theatre and walked down the hallway. He reached the desk and said, “Two large popcorns, please.”
The girl behind the desk started filling the cartons with popcorn and Ronald looked around him as he waited. Good thing he did because suddenly the movie theatre’s door opened and three girls walked inside, one of them being Farrah Livingstone. The girls stopped in front of the man who sells the tickets and Ronald felt butterflies in his stomach.
“Oh shit”, he muttered.
“Here you go, that will be–“, the girl started but couldn’t finish when Ronald already pushed the money in her hands and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Keep the change.”
He lifted his hood over his head and started speed walking away with the popcorns in his hands and hoping Farrah hadn’t seen him.
“Hey, Ronald Quinn!”
Farrah’s voice echoed through the hallway and shivers run through Ronald’s spine. He couldn’t believe Farrah knew his name, he had thought that she didn’t even know he existed.
Keep walking, Ronald told himself before he could do something stupid like stop and make a fool out of himself in front of Farrah again by opening his mouth and then gaping like a dying fish. Like, he hadn’t done anything stupid in front of her in ages but it counted that Lucas had blurted out something about haemorrhoids and made Ronald seem stupid in front of Farrah.
Ronald was glad when he didn’t hear Farrah’s voice again and he entered the movie room quickly and went back to his seat. He handed Lucas’s popcorns to him and sat down.
“I just saw Farrah”, he hissed to Lucas.
“Where?”
“In the lobby”, he whispered because other people were giving them annoyed looks. “She came with her friends. And you will never believe what!”
“What?”
“She tried to talk to me!” he whisper-yelled.
“What!” Lucas said louder than what he had intended and then he lowered his voice and asked, “What did you do?”
“What do you mean what did I do? I ran away, of course!”
“Jeez, that’s not weird at all.”
“I panicked.”
“Now you understand me”, Lucas said and then the lights went off and the commercials started rolling and they had to quiet down and Ronald didn’t get a chance to answer to Lucas.
The weekend passed by faster than Ronald could say ‘sleep’ and Monday rolled in. It had become a habit of his to avoid Farrah in school so he didn’t struggle with it, after all he had some kind of Farrah-radar which started peeping inside his head as soon as the girl came anywhere near him.
Ronald and Lucas were in their English class when suddenly a bored woman’s voice said through the speakers, “Ronald Quinn, report yourself in the principals office immediately.”
“What did you do?” Lucas asked, sounding offended that Ronald had done something bad without him. He wanted to always be part of every mischievous thing that took place.
“Nothing, I swear!” Ronald said. “I have no idea what is going on.”
“You heard, Mr. Quinn”, the teacher said. “Off you go.”
Ronald packed his stuff and with heavy feet he walked out of the classroom and headed towards the principal’s office. He was almost there when another announcement came.
“Lucas Boyd, report yourself in the principals office immediately.”
Now this is getting weird, Ronald thought and knocked on the principal’s office’s door.
“Come in”, said a low man’s voice.
Ronald opened the door and walked in.
“Sit”, the principal said.
Ronald did as he was told and wiggled his fingers nervously. What could this be about? What had happened? What had he done?
“I suppose you know why you are here”, the principal said.
“No, Sir”, Ronald said.
“No?” the principal asked and then lifted a paper up and said, “I have received reports from several teachers that the homework you’ve returned during the past week were not your handwriting, but Lucas Boyd’s.”
All the nervousness disappeared from Ronald’s body and he sighed in relief, realising it was nothing serious and then it hit him. Shit, Lucas and him had got busted.
“Have nothing to say, Mr. Quinn?” the principal asked, looking at Ronald from behind his small, round eyeglasses. The principal was a corpulent, greying man who wasn’t exactly mean or strict. He just always seemed to know a little bit more than what he let on.
“No, Sir”, Ronald said, feeling defeated.
“You don’t want to defend yourself? Or Mr. Boyd?”
“No, Sir”, Ronald repeated.
There was a knock on the door and after getting the permission to enter Lucas stepped inside, looking confused but he soon frowned when he saw Ronald’s face.
“Ah yes, Mr. Boyd”, the principal said. “Come in. We were just about to start talking about you two’s punishment.”
“What did we do?” Lucas asked.
“We got busted”, Ronald said.
“The teachers recognized your handwriting, Mr. Boyd, from Mr. Quinn’s homework”, the principal said and Lucas frowned even more. “Tell me, Mr. Boyd. Are you right handed?”
“Yes?” Lucas said but it sounded more like a question.
“And did you write Mr. Quinn’s homework with your right hand?”
“Yes”, Lucas said, now sounding just simply confused.
“Ah yes, that is where you made your mistake, boy”, the principal said like as if he had solved a mystery in Sherlock Holmes style. “You should’ve used your left hand.”
“Damn it”, Lucas whispered. “Thank you, Sir. I will remember it next time!”
“There will be no next time”, the principal said sternly, clearly not amused by Lucas’s more or less joking tone. “A week’s detention for both of you. And I’m going to have to call your parents.”
Lucas opened his mouth to protest but Ronald kicked him in the leg and Lucas shut his mouth. Ronald didn’t want the week’s detention turn into two weeks.
“The detention starts today”, the principal said. “Understood?”
“Understood”, they muttered.
“I trust both of you know where the detention classroom is.”
“Yes, Sir”, they said, a little bit more proud than what they should have been.
“Dismissed”, the principal said and Ronald and Lucas walked out of the office without another word, although Lucas tried to salute the principal but Ronald managed to drag him out before that.
After school they dragged themselves into the classroom where the detention would be held. There was two other students too. One punk girl who sat in the back of the classroom staring at his feet and one soccer player who was scrolling through his phone. Ronald and Lucas joined them and sat down in the middle of the classroom.
When the teacher who was going to supervise them walked in, everyone straightened up and looked at her. The teacher was Mrs. McCarthy.
“Okay, kids”, she said with a clear voice. “During this two hour detention you will write an essay about why what you did was wrong. I will collect them at the end of the detention. I will not allow talking, phones or eating. Everything that would please you is forbidden, got it?”
“Yes, Mrs. McCarthy”, everyone mumbled and started taking out their pens and papers. Ronald followed their example and took out his pen and paper.
He wrote the title, ‘Why It Was Wrong That My Best Friend Did My Homework’, and then he underlined it and stopped.
He had no idea what to write.
“This is going to be a long two hours”, Lucas whispered and Ronald nodded in agreement. Mrs. McCarthy shushed them.
They eventually got out of the detention and Lucas and Ronald said goodbye at the school’s doors and then went on their separate ways.
Ronald headed home and walked on the street, kicking random rocks on the ground. His butt felt sore from all the sitting he had done on that day but hey, at least he had managed to write the essay he was ordered to. It had been the shittiest essay, full of lies, that he had ever written but if the teacher accepted it then Ronald had nothing to complain.
As he was halfway on his journey to home he started hearing footsteps behind him. He glanced behind him and saw a man dressed in dark colours walking behind him, just enough distance between them so that Ronald couldn’t see his face.
It was probably nothing, but after making a few turns and the man was still behind him, Ronald started to feel paranoid. Except was it being paranoid if they are actually after you? He started jogging, then running and finally he was sprinting in full speed ahead. He didn’t dare to glance behind him because he was afraid he would be his clumsy self and trip on his own feet.
He turned around the corner, stopped running when breathing had become harder and leaned his hands against his knees and took deep breaths. When he looked up he could almost see his home’s roof.
He looked behind him but didn’t see anyone nor did he hear a thing. He sighed in relief, turned around and slammed into someone’s chest.
“Don’t scream”, the man said with a low, raspy voice that could shake the mountains when he grabbed Ronald’s arm to steady him and prevent him from falling on his arse.
Ronald couldn’t have screamed even if he wanted to because he was so confused and scared, his heart beating fast like a race horse in a competition. He felt like something had stuck in his throat. He stared at the man. Black wavy hair reaching his shoulders, black beard and moustache, dark and intimidating eyes, red shirt that revealed a bit of his chest and a leather jacket… wait a second.
“I have seen you before”, Ronald said.