ʀᴀɪꜱɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴀᴋᴇꜱ ➸ Jacob Barber

𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓈𝓉

Admittedly, after their teacher had been arrested for apparent murder, Y/N and Jacob were both slightly shaken up. Jacob was definitely more nervous about the situation than Y/N, he'd been spending every single lunchtime with the man. Being that close to another murder investigation definitely wasn't keeping him too happy, Y/N thought. 

Nonetheless, Jacob still sat at the kitchen counter going over his math work. Scribbling ferociously. "Jake, you don't need to do that. You know that, right?" Y/N asked him and when he made no attempt to stop working, she leaned over the kitchen counter to take the book from him.

But he grabbed it and shut the book closed just before she could, looking up at her with big nervous eyes. "Just leave me alone! This is... keeping me calm, okay?" Jacob told her before sighing and standing up from his seat, heading over to the staircase.

"Where are you going now?" Y/N questioned, really feeling as though she should have been keeping a close eye on her best friend. He was probably in a vulnerable state and needed someone there with him, right?

Jacob looked over his shoulder at her, "To my room to finish this." He told her, waving his little workbook around before disappearing up the stairs. Y/N made an attempt to take after him but then her phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She sighed softly and looked at what was causing the relentless buzzing in her pocket.

Sarah and Derek are video calling you. Accept/Decline.

Y/N smiled and sat herself back down at the kitchen counter where Jacob had been sat mere moments ago, giggling happily as she propped her phone up against a fruit bowl. Despite the fact she now lived hours away from the two, she'd still made quite a bit of effort to stay in contact with them. She accepted the request and watched the two pixelated faces appear on screen.

"Hey guys!" Y/N smiled and gave a short wave to the two of them, listening to them both reply.

"Y/N, looking lovely this evening." Derek beamed through the screen. Y/N replied to his compliment with a short laugh.

"It's not evening here just yet, still afternoon." She grinned softly as she got comfortable at the kitchen counter, making small talk with the two of them for a good twenty-minutes. Apparently there'd been a big fight at lunchtime back at home, Sarah and Derek described the entertaining details of it. It consisted of a port-a-loo, a car key and a flowerbed. Quite an entertaining story, Y/N thought. But that was nothing compared to what had happened for her and Jacob.

"They were both covered in-" 

"Derek, don't mention the shit." Sarah sighed softly, cutting the giggling boy off. Clearly overly excited by the events of his day. "Got anything to top that story, Y/N?"

Y/N smiled to herself, "Well, actually, a teacher was arrested today." She told them, watching them both lean closer to the screen while they asked questions. "Yeah, apparently he killed this guy called Daniel Clark. Jacob was a part of the teachers maths club, I think he's pretty shaken up." 

"Doubt it." Derek muttered to himself before raising his voice again. "That's crazy, though. Did you know the kid? Did Jake know the kid?" 

"No, I didn't. Jacob said he didn't know him either. Andy's working on the case right now, he's-" Y/N was cut off by the sound of the front door unlocking with a click. Speak of the devil. "Got to go guys, Andy's coming." She told them both before waving goodbye and hanging up as Andy walked into the room.

He sighed softly and threw his keys down on the counter before shutting the door and smiling at Y/N, holding a paper bag of some sort of takeaway food. "Hey, kiddo. Everything alright?" 

Y/N nodded and smiled, jumping down from her seat at the kitchen table and taking the bag of food from Andy, heading to the cupboards to grab plates for dinner. "Any luck on the case?" She asked, kind of relieved that his case had come to a head, having something to actually sue for. 

Andy smiled and kicked off his shoes, sitting down on top of the counter. "Yeah, now I actually have someone to charge something for. Poor kid, of course."

"How do you know it's him?"

"Found the body in a storage unit uptown, the guy who owned the block had complaints about a smell. Went in to take a look and found the kids body half dissolved in a barrel. The unit was under the name of James Wallace and boom, we've got our killer." Andy grinned to himself before realising it wasn't really something to be excited about. 

"Wow." Y/N sighed softly as she put the food from the bag out onto the plates, a graphic image of the boy she'd seen on the TV screen earlier that morning half decomposed. She grimaced.

Andy looked over at her and jumped down from the counter, "I'll do that, kid. Just go and grab Jacob for me, would you? Tell him that dinner is ready." Y/N nodded as Andy took over putting the food out onto the plates.

She headed up the stairs, the floorboards creaking under her feet as she walked. She got to the top of the stairs and headed down the hallway until she got to Jacob's room, pushing the door open.

Jacob looked up at her from his chest of drawers, slamming them shut quickly as she entered, looking as if he'd just ran a marathon. Y/N squinted at him, "You okay?"

He nodded and scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. What's up?"

"Dinner's ready." She told him simply, eyes wandering over to the chest of drawers he'd just shut before he obscured her view by walking closer to her.

"Good, I'm starving." He answered, placing his hand on her arm and guiding her out of the room with him. Nothing to see here, his action told her.