| “Usually.” Candy responded. “Unless I have to go to the Gortonite, which is the school newspaper. I write stories on the band and chorus but I only go like once a week.” Piper said. A large bell rang over the entire school. The girls quickly unassembled their flutes and put them carefully in the cases. They put their music inside their folders and placed both the folders and the cases inside small cubbies on a built in shelf. Students came running into the small room, dropping their cases and putting away their instruments. The girls said good bye to each other and all walked out of the room. Mulder and Scully followed Piper. She walked down a long hallway and turned left into another room. “Period one, time for Math.” Piper said. Her teacher was sitting at her desk waiting for the students. This was the second year that Piper had Miss. Gamble. Not only had she been her teacher for math, but she was also Piper’s homeroom teacher in seventh grade. Piper walked up to her and introduced Mulder and Scully to her teacher. Piper went to the back of the room and took her seat. Mulder sat behind her and Scully sat next to Mulder. The class came and went. Scully paid attention to the lesson, refreshing her memory on how to factor. Mulder looked around the room memorizing each student. He had a photographic memory and he wanted to remember each person in case they became part of the investigation. He quickly recognized Sara sitting on the opposite end of the room. Most of the students remained silent throughout the entire class. A few times Mulder could hear them whispering about the strange people who were sitting as if they were part of the class. The students were used to having Mr. Olsen, the math department head, sit in to take notes on how Miss. Gamble was teaching. The bell to signify the end of class rang and Piper went up a flight of stairs. She basically ignored Mulder and Scully, instead waving to friends in the hallway. Mulder and Scully didn’t seem to mind, since they were too busy trying to see the school for what it really was. Piper walked into her next class room, which happened to be Science. She walked up to her teacher and Mulder and Scully followed. “Mr. Haming, this is…” “Special Agent Dana Scully and my partner Fox Mulder.” Scully said. “We’re investigating a murder.” Mulder said. “Yes, Nick Rosalini was a student in my period five class.” Mr. Haming said. “Sir, Agents Mulder and Scully are following me around today so if it’s not too much trouble they’d like to sit in on the class.” Piper explained. “Actually, sir, if it’s not too much trouble I’d like to go to your period five class to talk to some of the students there.” Scully said. Mr. Haming nodded and Piper went to the back of the room to her seat. Mulder smiled remembering how when he was in high school he was forced to sit in the back because of his height. Mulder and Scully sat in separate chairs in the back. Mr. Haming began the lesson on respiration while Mulder and Scully whispered in the background. “Scully, what am I going to do while you sit in on Mr. Haming’s class?” Mulder asked trying to keep his voice down so not to disrupt the class. “You’re going to continue to follow Piper around.” Scully answered holding her finger to her mouth so Mulder wouldn’t make too much noise. That period ended along with two others. Finally, period five arrived. Mulder continued to follow Piper down to where she was taking her metals class while Scully went back to Mr. Haming. Upstairs, Scully took her usual seat in the back of the room. She scanned the students as they entered. Erin and Hannah were both in the class. Together, they walked up to Scully before the final bell rang. “I thought you were following around Piper.” Hannah said. “Mulder is but I heard Nick was in this class so I thought I’d sit in and maybe talk to some of the students. Mr. Haming is giving me fourth lunch to talk to some of you guys.” Hannah and Erin smiled. They both knew it was rare that Mr. Haming would take time out of class to do anything but teach. He was very strict but to help law enforcement, was a different story. Scully sat back listening to the same lesson that he had taught Piper’s class. First lunch came and Mr. Haming continued to teach. He kept on going right up to the third lunch bell when he dismissed his students to eat. Scully stopped Hannah and Erin before they got out the door. “What lunch does Piper have?” Scully asked. “Well, let’s see. Period five she had her industrial arts classes so…” Hannah began. “She must have fourth.” Piper finished. “You can grab lunch in the teachers cafeteria.” Mr. Haming offered pushing Erin and Hannah out of the room. Scully nodded and followed them downstairs toward the cafeteria. She went in the back and was introduced to a few of the teachers. She ate a piece of pizza, which tasted like cardboard and a container of fries that were cold. She smiled, remembering how the food at her own junior high tasted just as bad. Twenty minutes later, a man silenced the crowd of students using a microphone. He dismissed the students after telling them to clear their tables and clean up after themselves. The teenagers all retreated to their classrooms and Scully met Mr. Haming’s class back in the classroom. Mr. Haming waited a minute for all of the students to take their seats before he introduced Scully. “Class, this is Special Agent Scully with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As some of you know, the reason why Nick can’t be here with us today is because he was recently murdered when playing a harmless game of manhunt.” Some of the class bowed their heads while others gasped, not knowing Nick had been killed. Scully noted their reactions seeing if anyone was actually happy for what happened to Nick. “Some of you may know agent Scully while others of you may not, but I hope you’ll give her the same respect that you give any guest that visits the school.” Mr. Haming continued. Erin and Hannah smiled at each other. They could just imagine paying respect to the woman whom had slept over Piper’s house and made them all breakfast. “No one here is under suspicion.” Scully assured. “I just want to talk to a couple of Nick’s classmates.” “You guys can talk quietly while Agent Scully talks to one person at a time, but keep the noise level at a minimum.” Mr. Haming said. Scully nodded a thank you to him and walked to where Erin was sitting. She was in the back of the room in the last row. Scully realized the students must have been seated according to alphabetical order. Erin saw Scully coming and she caught Hannah’s attention to tell her to come sit with them. Hannah stood up and did as Erin wanted. She went over and sat in between Scully and Erin. “Girls, do you know who Nick was the closest to in this class?” Scully asked. “Um…you might try Jim Guild, and Ian Nelson. They were playing man hunt with us at the time.” Erin said. “It’s hard to be able to say exactly who his friends were since we never really knew much about him.” Hannah responded. “How often do you guys play manhunt?” Scully asked. “Usually every Friday, sometimes Saturdays.” Hannah said. “Who usually plays?” Scully asked. “The usuals are Jim, Ian, and me. We’ll invite Kyla, Candy, Erin, Nick, and Piper. Oh…and plus my brother, Russ. It’s just a fun game that we enjoy playing.” Hannah said. “Obviously, it wasn’t too fun for Nick Rosalini.” Erin added in. Scully stood up and walked to the boys Hannah had named. She spoke to each of them about Nick’s life and the way he felt, especially if he had been depressed recently. As far as the boys knew, he was a happy, normal teenager, but Scully couldn’t be sure how much their testimony was worth. Like Hannah said it’s hard to distinguish friends from foe. Downstairs, Piper was sucking on her index finger. She was trying to put together a tower that could support weight using popsicle sticks. To stick the sticks together, they used hot glue guns but Piper had just burned herself. Mulder sat at the table next to her. His face was buried in his hands. Apparently, he was having the best day of his life. He picked up a stick and handed it to Piper. “You know, agent Mulder, Erin and I were talking last night.” Piper said. “Why does that not surprise me?” Mulder asked himself. “Well, we realized that you and Agent Scully must be having a hard time on this case since there’s no evidence or suspects so we think we came up with a plan.” Piper slowly put the popsicle stick to the spot she had just glued. She held it there for a few seconds waiting for it to stick. The teacher walked around the room observing the students towers. Some were in the shape of triangles, others were squares, and some still had no shape at all. The tower was a test to see if it could hold a cup of water without leaning on anything else. It was an interesting task that intrigued the students. “So, what’s your plan?” Mulder asked handing her another stick. “We were thinking of organizing a special game of manhunt tonight. You guys would play with us so you could know what was going on. You would be on separate teams, since no one will play after what happened unless a FBI Agent is looking after us. I don’t want to see anyone else die but maybe it’s the only way to find out what’s going on.” |