Chapter 2

Two weeks later the new choir teacher of Marion Junior high School, in a small town about twenty minutes from Laurel, Mississippi walked into the door, and turned on the television set in the teacher’s lounge. It was on mute, but he saw a newscaster talking about some major event, and watched silently sipping his coffee, until four dead girls popped up on the screen. All of a sudden he smacked the set until it finally turned off and he looked down to the ground hyperventilating. After he had gotten himself collected he looked around the room to make sure that nobody had seen him, all the while thanking God that Mississippi had such superficial background checks for teachers. He then walked into the bathroom, and locked the door behind him. He stared at himself in the mirror, and then blinked repeatedly before taking out his brown contact lenses, and looking back up into his own pale green eyes, and running his hand through his long light brown hair. His hair sure did grow fast, once he let it go. It had only been about two inches long and stark blond before, and now it was almost five inches long. He was amazed that all he had to do to get a job was do a singing audition and pass a relatively easy teaching test, but it was mentioned before that Mississippi’s school standards had really gone down over the years. He jumped at the sound of another teacher coming into the lounge, and he quickly put his contacts back in before opening the door to leave.

“Oh, Hi, Mr. Bowlin.” He had told them that his name was James Bowlin, and it had been very easy to buy fake papers for a Mr. James Abraham Bowlin. The man had never existed, but he sure did have a hell of a record.

“Hello, Mr… um…”

“That’s alright. It’s Mr. Robinson.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s only your first day here, after all. You look pretty young to be a teacher, how old are you?”

“I’m twenty-two.”

“Oh, well, we have a couple of other teachers around your age. I’m sure you’ll meet them sometime soon. How did you get a choir job at such an early age?”

“I was in the music industry for a while. It really makes you grow up fast. Lot’s of experience.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Well, I better get to my room. Class is gonna start soon.” He left the lounge, and Lance glanced back at the television set before following him out. He then walked into the large choir room, and smiled at the preteen girls sitting all over the bleachers. He was sure that he had everything out of his system, and he would only get back at those whose fault it was. Lance wanted to avenge his friends’ death and he knew exactly how he was going to do it. It was the fans’ faults that his friends had died, because it was their faults that he had gotten as bad as he was now. The doctors had finally convinced him that he had some mental problems, and he knew why he had them. He hadn’t been born with them; oh no. Before the fans had come along Lance had been completely sane, so now their former fans had to pay. First he had to gain the trust of his students though.

“Hello, class. I’m Mr. Bowlin, and I’d like to welcome you to Advanced Choir. Now as you know, I am new here, so I’d like to ask how you conduct things here.” He searched the room until his eyes fell on a young girl with her hand sticking straight up in the air. He pointed at her.

“Yes? What is your name?”

“My name is Celestine, Mr. Bowlin. Last week we picked out a song to do for the short competition in two months. We’re supposed to be practicing it.”

“Oh, well that’s great. What song did you choose?” He smiled as he asked her the question.

“’I Thought She Knew’, by *NSYNC.” He felt his insides tearing up, and looked up at the girl trying to hide the anger in his eyes.

“Are you sure that you want to do that. Maybe you should do something a little bit more traditional.”

“Nope. We’re all major *NSYNC fans, or at least were until they all died. We all agreed on it, and nobody’s gonna change our minds.” He saw everything spinning around him, but tried to keep his balance as he coped with the new information. He had expected to see a few fans in his class, but this was completely overwhelming. How did they still have so many fans after what he had done.

“But, what about how they died? I saw it on the news.”

“Well, most of us liked Justin, so it’s okay. We only had a couple of Lance fans.” He didn’t hear her response as the room spun crazily around him and he had to sit down. He breathed deeply and clutched his head as a flashback came into his mind. He saw fans jumping up and down screaming and waving signs around. After a few seconds though, he looked up and saw about five students crowding around him with concerned looks on their faces.

“What’s wrong Mr. Bowlin? Are you okay?” He looked over their faces, and then shook his head yes, biting back on the fear he felt around them. He found himself searching for Lonnie, but then bit back his fear and stood up.

“Everything’s fine, but where did the other girls go?”

“The bell rang to go to second period. Are you gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.”

Chapter 3