Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (24 page)

Even as his hand raced furiously across the
paper, Jack knew it was already too late. He could hear each
footstep from the hallway, he could feel the sweat that was
dripping between his fingers, and he could taste the fear that was
rising from his stomach. Jack realized he was becoming desperate.
He ignored the spitballs launched at his head and the laughter from
the back of the class.

Jack sat in his usual wooden desk, surrounded
by his classmates, and he was overjoyed that his teacher always
came late. Since the beginning of the school year, their teacher
had made it a habit to arrive ten minutes late. None of the
students ever minded, of course, and on this particular Friday
morning, Jack Harris thanked his lucky stars for it.

Adam, his impatient friend who sat next to him,
shifted his eyes toward Jack. “Seriously, Jack, again? Sometimes I
wonder if this happens every week because I coddle you.”

Jack frowned at him. “This time I really
couldn’t do my homework, Adam. I was really, really busy. Man, you
have no idea how nervous I am right now. Just give me a little more
time.”

“
Fine, but hurry up. You really need
to learn how to better yourself, Jack. I can only imagine how much
stress you’re causing yourself by doing this each week. And don’t
put my name on your paper again. Oh crap, you already did. Are you
kidding me, Jack? Are you freaking kidding me?”

Jack felt close to his breaking point. Sweat
dripped down his forehead. He tensed, and he felt a nervous pinch
in his stomach. As if to settle the issue, Melissa glided out of
her desk and walked swiftly over to the two of them. She ripped the
assignment from Jack’s fingers.

“
There’s no way in hell we’re going
through
this
again, Jack. Stop enabling him, Adam. This is
exactly why he never learns.” She shoved the assignment back in
Adam’s face.

Melissa returned to her seat, now only two
desks away from them. She was using the excuse that it was hard for
her to see the board from her previous angle. Mr. Munson wouldn’t
object because Melissa was his favorite student.

“
She’s really been on your case
since she started tutoring you. Where have you been the last few
days?” Adam asked.

“
So much has happened that you
wouldn’t believe.”

Melissa swung around in her desk and shot Jack
a warning glare, as if overhearing their whispered discussion. Jack
winked and ran a finger across his lips, sealing them. Adam simply
shrugged and looked back down at his assignment.

“
Good morning, class,” Mr. Munson
exclaimed as he kicked open the door. “You’re all in luck, because
today we get to learn about ‘Integration by U-Substitution.’ Can
Munson get a what-what?”

As usual, only Melissa and the math geeks in
the front row actually bothered to chant it back to him. Adam
looked like he was tempted but thought the better of it.

“
Are you telling me we’re the first
to find this?” Cemmera asked, a smile forming on her lips. If
Paro’s team didn’t know about this then she’d get her kill for
sure. It was a rarity for an Op. team to stumble upon a murder
without the Investigative team having knowledge of it.

“
I don’t think even the police
know,” Santos said. “From what we found in his wallet, his name is
Harry O’Donnell, age forty-two. He’s an accountant and has no
living family.”

“
Very good, very good. This didn’t
happen that long ago, so we’re getting close. Neil, see if you and
Santos can’t manage to track these guys. Just make sure if you find
‘em, you don’t kill them without me. You two,” she said, pointing
at her two Kinetics, “you’re with me. There’s someone I want to
look into—name is Jack Harris.”

Neil looked confused. “But Cemmera, I just got
the updated file on his registration today. He’s not linked to any
of this.”

Cemmera licked her lips. “I don’t believe that
for one second. In fact, if you look at the evidence I was able to
steal, you’d see that he’s the most probable suspect at this point.
Paro never should have left the Op. department. He’s got no talent
as an investigator. We’ll grab the Harris kid and beat him until he
confesses. Then, we’ll kill him. It’s that simple, works all the
time.”

Cemmera had no idea how the Carebears were able
to miss something so critical. The fire coinciding at the same time
as the murders—it was too much of a coincidence. Were they
blind?

“
We weren’t able to get every
document, Cemmera. What if there’s more to this that we don’t
know?” Santos shifted on his feet.

“
Santos, buddy, just relax. It’s
like adding one and one. You’ve seen the evidence. This is one of
our guys. I can’t wait to hear him scream in pain as he apologizes
for the wrong he’s done. Oh, and by the way, this kill is mine. You
boys had the last few.”

Cemmera felt like drinking—she always did when
filled with the thrill of a hunt. So, this Jack Harris managed to
slip through the cracks, did he? Have no fear, Cemmera Wilson was
here! Her team looked at her like she was a lunatic while she stood
over the dead body, laughing hysterically. Noting her team’s
reaction, she ceased immediately.

There was an awkward four seconds of silence,
and then all four of them cracked up.

I love my team
.

“Well, Mr.
Harris?”

For a moment Jack thought he heard another
person’s voice, but he was probably mistaken. Why would there be a
voice here besides hers?

“
Jack,” Melissa said seductively.
She was in her finest form. She had on her usual tight jeans, white
top, and black boots. She ran her hand down the back of his neck,
caressing his skin and making him shudder. Jack’s heart beat faster
at the touch.

“
Melissa, we shouldn’t,” Jack said.
He knew he wanted this, but at the same time, he knew it was wrong,
all of it. This was not the way things should be—it was forbidden.
But staring into her beautiful eyes while her golden hair flowed in
the soft breeze, he was barely able to control himself.

“
Why not, Jack?” She crawled on top
of him, pushing him down onto the soft grass.

“
Because, Melissa. It is not the
Jedi way.”

All of a sudden, storm troopers came, and Jack
unsheathed his Lightsaber with a crackling hiss. Then she took out
her own Lightsaber, and together they fought off the waves and
waves of storm troopers.

One storm trooper approached Jack and demanded
that he surrender. “Well, Mr. Harris?” the storm trooper asked. “Do
you know the answer to question four on the worksheet?”

Wait, what?

With a deep and sudden breath, Jack’s eyes
popped open. “I’m not surrendering!” he yelled at what he thought
was an imperial storm trooper.

“
That’s very noble of you, Mr.
Harris. But class participation is ten percent of your grade. Were
you sleeping in my class again?”

“
Umm, no Mrs. Titherson, of course
not.”

“
Then why were your eyes
closed?”

“
I was, umm,
dream-thinking?”

Mrs. Titherson ignored the offhand remark and
continued. ”I see. Anyway, question four, Mr. Harris. Your
answer, please?”

Time to roll the dice,
Jack
thought.

“
Is it seven?”

At this, Mrs. Titherson placed the worksheet
she was holding back on top of the teacher’s desk. She removed her
glasses, taking a full twenty seconds to stand in the front of the
room and clean them. Placing the glasses with care back on her old,
wrinkled face, and adjusting them to fit her needs, Mrs. Titherson
picked the worksheet back up from her desk and looked down at
it.

“
The answer to, ‘Describe the treaty
of Versailles’, Mr. Harris, is seven?”

“
Umm, eight?”

The woman showed no emotion. Instead, she
simply picked up her grading book and made a mark. Jack knew what
that meant, and it wasn’t a good thing.

Well, it wasn’t a fair question
anyway,
Jack justified to himself.

Of all the classes Jack had to take, history
was by far the most boring, even if it was the least difficult. But
Jack tried to cheer himself up. Next period was lunch, and it was
the only class he wasn’t currently failing. Oh, who was he kidding?
If it were possible, he’d probably also fail lunch.

When the bell finally rang, Jack made sure he
was the first student out of the door. It wasn’t hard, because the
rest of the class was still asleep at that point. They would need
at least half a minute to snap themselves awake and gather their
things together. Struggling to make his way through the hall, Jack
went to meet up with Adam. He’d be getting out of Biology class,
only two doors down.

Navigating through the school was never easy,
as the hallways were teeming with students. People shoved, pushed,
and did whatever they could to get past the crowds shuffling from
class to class, but Jack had no desire to rush.

He met Adam in the center of the hallway.
“What’s wrong, Jack? Why do you look so down?”

“
Because, I am. I scored a negative
four on my history test. I thought the lowest you could get was a
zero, but I guess I was wrong, which means I’m bad at math
and
history.”

“
Let me see,” Adam said. He grabbed
the paper from Jack’s hands.

“
I don’t understand why I got
question number fourteen wrong,” Jack said.

Adam pulled the paper closer to his face and
examined it. Jack wondered if it was hard to concentrate with the
massive hum of chattering voices coming from every direction as the
students hurried to their next class.

“
Hmm, the question asks, ‘Do you
agree with the United States having a strong central government? If
so, explain why.’ Here’s the problem, Jack. You just wrote the word
no
.”

“
Yeah, cause it only asks you to
explain why if you write yes! But what I don’t get is why Mrs.
Titherson gave me a negative four.”

“
It actually says it right here,
Jack. There’s a note at the bottom. It says, ‘Dear Mr. Harris, for
sucking this badly at history, you deserve even less than nothing.
Study more.’ And there’s also a picture of a sad face.”

“
Can she do that?”

Adam sighed. “Forget it, Jack. Let’s go grab
some food.”

The two began walking. They were heading
towards the end of the second-floor hallway, to the door leading
into one of the school’s many staircases. On both sides of the
hallway were bulletins, school news, and meaningless diagrams on
subjects most people had zero interest in. Or, in Jack’s case,
negative four interest in.

“
Adam, there’s so much you need to
know. But now that we’ve got some alone time, I need to tell you
some stuff. It might not be easy to believe, but you’ll just have
to trust that I’d never lie to you and that I’m not
crazy.”

“
Go ahead,” Adam said. His voice was
neutral, but inside, Jack knew that he was probably battling
impatience and an abnormal curiosity.