Missing

8

Chapter Eight

The Next Monday

"I give up!" I moaned as I walked down the crowded corridors, Meg walking beside me nodding her head. I could tell she wasn't listening, she was too preoccupied thinking about her new boyfriend.

"Huh?" She murmured, her eyes wandering off looking for Jack the Jock- her new thing. I rolled my eyes and carried on walking, knowing that sooner or later she would be interested.

"I said I give up on this whole Mark thing!" I was exasperated, in the whole week there had been no new leads and chances of finding Mark were next to none. He had been missing for weeks and most people had decided that Mark had either left the country or was dead.

"You can't just give up on it! You started it so you have to solve it!" I sighed, of course Meg wanted me to continue. She loved the mystery, the drama, the excitement. She didn't understand the frustration I was facing in my brain.

My locker hadn't been touched since the note was found in it and I had managed to find an empty locker where I was storing my books; I hated to admit how scared I was of it. Grabbing my English book I began to walk to my next class, hoping that the drone of my teacher's voice would help me forget the problems in my life. I'm sure it would have if I wasn't pulled aside by the headmaster.

"Kansas- a word," the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, everyone knew that a talk to the headmaster meant nothing but trouble. Walking behind him I tried to think of anything bad I had done in the past few days but I cane up blank. I knew what he wanted to talk about and I wasn't going to enjoy it. It would be about Mark.

The infamous chair stood in front of me and gulping I walked over to it while Mr Andrews (the headmaster) sat down. I wasn't excited about what was to come.

"I brought you in here to talk to you about Mark, the police say you are involved in the investigation?" He looked at me in the eye waiting for me to reply.

"Yes, although I think I wasn't thinking straight," it felt good to admit it to him, hopefully he would agree with me and give me a reason to stop pursuing the case. Unfortunately he gave me the opposite.

"I think you should carry on with it- its good to always finish what you start! Anyway from what I've heard, you've made the most discoveries in the whole thing; the diary, the friends etc. I believe in you Kansas," my heart dropped at the last part because I knew that I couldn't back out. There was no way that I could look the man in his face and tell him that I had given up.

After a few more exchanges I left the office with an annoyed face, somehow I had been convinced twice in one day to carry on with the case that was causing me sleepless nights. Shaking my head, I almost laughed to myself- it was driving me insane.

"Kansas," I banged the locker next to me, I was done being called and lectured about Mark. I already knew who it was. Brent.

"What?" I snapped at him and he looked a bit taken aback at my response but nevertheless he continued.

"Don't give up on him," I was confused, how did Brent know?

"How do you know I was going to give up?" I was puzzled, Brent never talked to me let alone knew how I was feeling.

"These walls have ears," he tapped the wall next to him and with that walked off, as many people did, leaving me with a cryptic message.

"Can no one talk normally? Can no one tell me what they actually mean?" I shouted to the empty corridor and then sat on the ground leaning against one of the so called 'hearing' walls. A single, solitary tear fell down my cheek and I breathed out in anger; I didn't want to be in the position I was. I just wanted everything to go back to normal, to the humdrum life I was accustomed to.

The constant attention was a burden on my shoulders, I needed an escape. I suppose that's something we have in common, I thought to myself, Mark and I. We both wanted to escape, its just he was the clever one and ran before the commitments became too much.