How About Seven? ✔

9. Cannon In D Minor

"Have all of you done the assignment?" My Social Science teacher turned to the whiteboard and pointed at the sentence written there in blue marker. Today we were touching a little on psychology. "List down your favourite quotes, and I'll tell you what your choices say about you. Everybody did that? Good. Why don't we start with you then Mr Thompson?"

Dean stood up, slow, and his male friends all whooped and clapped. Clearing his throat loudly he looked down on a sheet of paper and said, "This is from Isaac Asimov. " The teacher looked impressed. "People who know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."

The class laughed. The teacher shook her head, but looked amused. "Do you have another one?"

"Yeah. Alice Roosevelt Longworth. If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." It took a second for the class to get it, and then they laughed even louder.

"Very clever, Mr Thompson. Take a seat." The teacher walked around the desk. "From this we can see that Mr Thompson here has a very healthy self-esteem, perhaps even a little too much. He's a confident guy, bordering on arrogance I should say."

Dean shrugged and gave his friends a high-five.

"Next person. How about you then, Miss Banner?"

Ahaha. This should be good. 

I stood up. I didn't write down the quotes because I had read them when I was much younger, and they had pretty much stayed with me since then. Dean's I was pretty sure he had just found out yesterday. For mine I could almost say that they were my life mottos. 

"This is from Malcolm X." I didn't miss the way the teacher's eyebrows flew sky-high. "If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again." 

Oohs rolled around the class. The teacher spoke. "Hmm. Interesting. Do you have another one  Miss Banner?"

"Leon Trotsky. If you can't acquaint a man with reason, then acquaint his head with the pavement." More oohs.

"Somebody likes it rough!" someone yelled, and his friends laughed as they exchanged high-fives. 

I narrowed my eyes. I'll show you rough, you little pipsquirt. 

"Thank you for sharing, Miss Banner. From this we can conclude that - ah, Miss Banner has a good sense of humor! Next......"

I sat down. It had been two days since Storeroom Stalker jumped me. Two days since I heard my brother's cryptic message. Two days of racking my head trying to figure out what everything meant. 

One day since I contacted my father.

*

"So one of your schoolmates attacked you. Any idea if he was a Blackcroft?" My father's voice was loud and clear over the phone. In the background was a sound like a gushing waterfall, and I guessed that he was in the shower, after which he would probably go down for dinner. The sounds of the water would mask our conversation.

"Judging from his figure I'd say he was young. I'm guessing between sixteen to, I don't know, twenty-six? Somewhere around that range. Anyone we know?"

My father started rattling off names. "Brandon and Trent." Those were Uncle Edward's sons. "Taylor, Jacob and Alecto." Otherwise known as Do Re Mi. "Jasper, Damian, Thomas - "

He stopped himself abruptly. There was that slight skip in my stomach whenever I heard that name, but I kept my voice light. "The last one is dead by the way."

"I know." My father was curt. "But do we know for sure that the guy was Blackcroft?"

"No we don't. He was all covered up and I didn't see any signs of a tattoo. He was either a Blackcroft or one of those alcoholics Eric kept raving about. The thing is, he wasn't after the item in the locker. He was after me. He didn't care about the locker at all, he just wanted to attack me. Why? I was the first person to hear that recording, so if you want the will, you should have been there listening with me, or trying to take it from me. But no, all he wanted to do was to fight me."