TEACHER'S PET

FIVE

It's been three weeks since the body of Liam Seena was found. Every day there was more and more students talking about the body that had been found in the gym. The body, as if being dead meant you no longer had a name, an identity. The students passed around the picture of Liam Seena hanging in the gym like children passing around candy.

Did they all think it was some kind of prank? They had to know by now someone was actually dead. They weren't stupid children. So was the kids in this school so twisted they wanted to see a dead body? When had that happened? When I went here I would never have looked at a picture of some rotting corpse.

It seemed like Liam didn't have any friends in the school. From the snips of conversations I've overheard, Liam wasn't a very likeable guy. He was arrogant, rude, and kind of an asshole. Looking down on anyone he didn't think was his equal intelligence.

Of course, this didn't play over well with the student here. Liam was only allowed in North West on a scholarship. His parents were normal people. His mother a nurse his father a garbage man. No one with the money or social status that is associated with the students here.

Was that enough for someone to wish you dead? For someone to act on those wishes and actually kill you? I wanted to forget about this murder, this death but everywhere I turn it was there. The students, the teachers, everyone was talking about it.

Everyone likes gossip and this was like a new juices piece of steak that they had their teeth in. The media, of course, couldn't get enough of it either. They weren't allowed on school grounds but that didn't stop them from trying to dig up everything about this case. Everything about Liam had been put on the display for the world to judge. They were acting as if he deserved to die. Did anyone deserve death?

Sitting on my desk my class was in a heated debate about where we were going to go. The subject for today was nature and they couldn't decide if they wanted to draw in the courtyard or take a hike to the lake that's on campus. At the moment the two loudest voices were Mira Towne and Leon Conlon.

"Alright, alright," I clapped my hands together calling them to order. "We'll flip a coin."

"What is this the eighties?" Alana Mccall commented and I dug in my pocket taking out a quarter. Ignoring Alana's comment I looked towards Mira and Leon. Leon was fighting for the hike while Mira was on the side of the courtyard.

"Mira call it," I told her as she and Leon came to the front of the class to stand beside me. Once they were beside me I flipped the coin into the air.

"Heads," Mira yelled out as the coin hit the floor. They backed away as the quarter rolled around before finally falling on its side. Mira and Leon gathered around it looking down at the coin.

"Yes!" Leon yelled fist pumped the air before slapping his friends high fives. Shaking my head I couldn't help but smile a bit as well. North West was a good school because they only accepted student ready and willing to learn. Of course those children parents needed the cash and status went a long way. Still knowing that you were teaching children that actually wanted to learn was invigorating.

"Gather your books and pens you can take your phones if you want pictures. Everything else leave in the classroom." I told them and watched as they all moved around getting their things and following me out of the room.

Walking down the hall, of course there was the normal chatter but for the most part they were respectful of the other classes staying in a line as we left the building. The trail that we were allowed to follow on campus was set off the courtyard. I could hear the students that had wanted to go to the courtyard give heavy signs as we kept moving.

"Mr. V," I turned around when I heard a voice calling my name. Violet caught up with me walking beside me. Now that we were walking the trail towards lake it was more of a cluster of students instead of the line they had been in when we were in the halls.