Prodigies

Chap. 1

Shane POV:

Before the stalker, the janitor's closet, and the kidnapping it was a normal Monday.

First period Mr Desmond, our english teacher, had us work on our essays. Second period, science class, we had to finish our lab reports. Then I found myself sitting in the history classroom, watching as the last few stragglers found their way into class, and waiting for Mr Hendrickson to show up and start third period.

"Isn't this weird Shane?" My friend says from behind me, making me jump.

"Tyler, you need to stop doing that!"

"Sorry."

"Anyways... What's weird?"

"The fact that Mr Hendrickson is late." My eyes immediately flick to the clock.

9:37. Third period started at 9:35.

That is weird

Mr Hendrickson has been here since the dinosaur age so he hates it when anyone is late. He even goes so far as to lock the door the moment the period begins. And nothing is more embarrassing than having to knock on the door to your classroom, drawing the attention of the entire class.

"That makes him a hypocrite, doesn't it?" Tyler asks.

"Well only if he's late. He could be absent" says Reina from two seats to my left. Thankfully James, who sits in between us, is absent today so Reina doesn't have to speak over him.

"Well I wish he was late so I can call him a hypocrite next time I'm late," Morgan said with a laugh. She usually sits on the other side of the room, but Mr Hendrickson is old so when James is absent she sits next to me.

"He wouldn't like that," I say.

"I don't care." Morgan retorts.

"Trust me Momo, we know" Tyler butts in and Morgan smirks.

"Wait, did you say you wish he was late? As in he isn-" Reina's question was cut short by someone clearing their throat. Every head in the room turned to the front. A man stood at the front of the room with his hands folded behind his back.

"Hello class," the man said, "I am Mr. Bob Crowell and you will address me as either Mr. Crowell or Mr. C." Morgan started snickering until she got a glare from Mr. C. That got Morgan quiet.

"Anyways," says Mr Crowell, "Mr Hendrickson is absent today so I will be your substitute history teacher." He started walking down the rows of desks handing out a worksheet. "I am new to this district but I am not afraid of sending troublemakers to the principal's office." Once again he glared at Morgan, "Anyway, Mr Hendrickson has left you a worksheet on the Battle at Gettysburg, so get to work." By then he had finished passing out the assignment and was standing in front of Mr Hendrickson's desk.

Soon the room was filled with the scratching sound of pencils on paper. Mr Crowell surveyed the room once and then started organizing and reorganizing Mr Hendrickson's desk. From behind me I hear Tyler whisper,

"Uh oh. Mr Hendrickson isn't gonna like that." I nod.

Mr Hendrickson is what Reina calls a messy organizer, and he hates it when subs organize his desk. He says 'he can't find things when it's neat'. I look over to my left and see Reina flying through her worksheet and Morgan looking evilly at the leather chair Mr Hendrickson usually sits in. I roll my eyes. Morgan must have heard there was a substitute in History and pranked Mr C. I try to ignore her but the worksheet isn't that interesting and now I'm itching to know what she did. Finally I cracked and passed her a post-it.

What did you do this time?

I tapped her shoulder and waited. I worked a little more on the worksheet until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I opened the note to find the scribbled reply.

I 'accidentally' spilled water on his chair.

I rolled my eyes again. Just then I noticed Reina looking over Morgan's shoulders and shaking her head. She must have read the note too. I passed the note back to Tyler so he could read it. Soon I heard him snickering. I looked back up to the front of the room and saw Mr. Crowell still organizing. A few seconds later Reina's hand shot up.

"I'm done Mr Crowell." Mr. C barely looked up from his obsessive organizing when he said,

"Did you check your work?"

"Yes," Reina replied with a roll of her eyes and a sigh.

"Did you check it twice?" Some kids snickered at that but Reina was undeterred,

"Yes I did Mr. Crowell." This time Mr Crowell rolled his eyes and sighed before saying,

"Alright just bring it up here and hand it to me." Reina did as she was told and walked back to her seat glancing at Morgan who was going between working and glaring at the chair.

I finished my worksheet soon after and handed it in. Other students followed in suite. When both of us were done Tyler and I started up a quiet conversation.

"Is he ever gonna stop?"

"I don't know he's an obsessive organizer"

"I know right"

Then Morgan walked up to the front of the room.

Oh dear. Here we go again.

Morgan stopped in front of the desk and handed in her paper. Then she just stood there. Finally after about a minutes Mr Crowell noticed her.

"Is there something I can do for you miss?"

"Oh... no, not right now. I know we got off on the wrong foot so I just wanted to tell you how comfortable that chair is because you look very tired." Mr C obviously wasn't expecting that because he stopped organizing and looked up.

"Oh. Um, thank you. Why don't you go sit down." Morgan nodded and skipped back to her seat.

For the next few minutes Mr Crowell kept organizing. Finally he stopped. I looked over at Morgan and saw her grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Reina was also looking at the front of the room but she was not smiling. I looked back to Tyler and made eye contact. For a moment Mr Crowell just looked at the desk. I looked up at the clock to see what time it was. 10:24.

One minute until class is over. One minute is all Morgan has to stay out of trouble. My eyes went back to the front of the room.

Just then Mr Crowell sat down with a loud squish. Most of the kids were confused but Tyler, Reina and I all grimaced and Morgan kept on smiling.

"Is there something wrong with the chair Mr Crowell?" asked Morgan as Mr C turned around to look at the chair and gave the class a fine display of his wet pants and mumbled something about water. The class burst into laughter some kids glancing over at Morgan knowing she was the culprit.. Then Mr Crowell made eye contact with her and put two and two together.

"Morgan Rodriguez , you're going to the prin-" Mr Crowell's punishment was cut off by the bell.

Talk about saved by the bell.

Morgan raced out of the class before Mr Crowell could call her back. As the class swarmed out a thought occurred to me but I pushed it back, not noting its importance.

Mr Crowell never took attendance, but he knew Morgans full name...

Ok so I got a little carried away with this chapter... oops!