Todd Strasser - Wish You Were Dead

“It’s about the missing kids, dummy,” Jake snapped. “What else?”

“That was completely uncalled for, Jake,” Ms. Skelling scolded. “You can apologize to Maura immediately or go directly to Mr. Edwards’s office.”

The class went silent. Glowering, Jake hunkered down at his desk. Across the room, Maura’s face grew red.

“Well?” Ms. Skelling demanded.

“I’m so sorry, Maura,” Jake snarled sarcastically.

Ms. Skelling narrowed her eyes. “You think I’m joking? Not only will you go to the office, but you’ll sit here every day after school for the rest of the semester. Which means you can kiss lacrosse good-bye.”

Jake grimaced and stared down at his desk. “I’m sorry, Maura.”

“That’s better,” said Ms. Skelling. “I don’t know how Mrs. Towner ran this homeroom. But you will refrain from calling each other names in my presence. Especially during a crisis like this. We will treat each other with dignity and respect.”

The announcement came over the PA to go down to the auditorium for the assembly. I ran into Courtney in the hall.

“We missed you last night,” she said.

After what happened at the stable, I’d completely forgotten about the get-together. I decided not to tell her about my car. Things were already code red in the gossip-and-rumor department. “How was it?”

Courtney shrugged. “Pretty much what you’d expect. Everybody’s freaked. But it was better than being alone, I guess.”

We got into the auditorium and took our seats. Wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt, and red tie, Principal Edwards stepped up to the podium on the stage. “I assume you all saw the media when you came to school this morning,” he began. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about them as long as they stay off school property. We’ll just have to live with them until this situation resolves itself.”

He paused while murmurs rippled through the audience, then continued: “As I’m sure you all know by now, another student disappeared over the weekend. I don’t want to alarm you, but I would be acting irresponsibly if I didn’t take prudent steps to protect students until we all understand what’s going on. To that end, I am recommending that all of you participate in a voluntary curfew beginning each evening at dark.”

The fact that there wasn’t a single groan or peep of protest from the crowd in the auditorium was a sign of how seriously everyone was taking the disappearances of Lucy and Adam.

“If you must go out at night,” the principal continued, “I urge you to go with a friend or family member. Under no circumstances should anyone be out alone after dark. In addition, I would strongly suggest that you make every effort to curtail parties and keggers and all other forms of get-togethers that involve the consumption of alcohol.”

The principal paused and, in the silence that followed, the kids in the audience looked around as if expecting at least one wise guy to make a crack. But no one said a thing.

“On a more positive note,” the principal went on, “we don’t expect this situation to go on much longer. I spoke to Police Chief Farley this morning, and he told me they are making progress in the investigation. They have now identified a person of interest who they are eager to speak to. As you leave after the assembly, you’ll be given a sheet of paper with a sketch and some information. If you have seen this person, or know anything about him, please come to the school office immediately. You may go. Please proceed to your first-period classes.”

As everyone got up, whispers and muttering flittered through the auditorium. “This is unreal,” Courtney mumbled. “It’s like, can this really be happening? Here? I’m waiting for someone to pinch me.”

“At least they’re making progress,” I said as we inched our way toward the aisle, packed with kids slowly making their way toward the exits. Among them was Tyler in his black trench coat. Our eyes met, and he paused and waited for us. Despite all that was happening, I felt myself growing excited and nervous at the prospect of speaking to him.

“Crazy stuff, huh?” he said when Courtney and I joined him in the aisle.

“Totally,” Courtney agreed.

He gazed at me, as if awaiting my reply. “I thought we were going to be on the dispatching desk together on Saturday night,” I said.

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Tyler averted his eyes and stared at the floor. “Something came up.”

“Dave said you suddenly decided to go away for the weekend?”

“Uh, right,” Tyler mumbled, as if he’d forgotten.

I knew he was lying because I’d seen him in his car on Sunday afternoon. Then again, it wasn’t as if we were in a relationship where he was required to tell me the truth. We were hardly even friends at this point. But still, it irked me. No one likes being lied to.

At the exit, we were each handed a sketch of a man wearing a baseball cap. He was described as being about 5′10″ and weighing approximately 170 pounds. He had brown eyes and wavy brown hair. One of his front teeth had a chip in it.

“I bet this is the description Reilly gave at the police station,” Courtney said as we headed down the hall.

Tyler stopped. “She saw the guy?” He seemed especially startled.

“At the kegger Saturday night,” Courtney said. “Before Adam vanished. He asked her who the popular kids in the grade were.”

Tyler’s brow furrowed, and I wondered why this news would have such an impact on him. Our eyes met. “This is too strange to be true,” he said, although to my ear it sounded forced, as if he thought that was what we would expect him to say.

We kept walking. I felt torn between my attraction for him and my apprehensions. There was so much I didn’t know about him. Was it foolish to let myself feel the way I did?

Then, unexpectedly, Tyler said, “Hey, Courtney, think I could have a word with Madison in private?”

Courtney gave me a quick, searching look to make sure I wanted to be alone with him. I nodded, and she said to Tyler, “Be my guest,” then gave me a wink and angled off.

“You angry at me or something?” he asked once she was gone.

“What makes you think that?”

“Just the way you’re acting.”

I decided to be honest. “You told Dave you were going away for the weekend, but you were in town on Sunday afternoon.”

Tyler seemed taken aback. “Yeah, well, I felt like I had to give him a good reason to take my place.”

“So you lied?”

He frowned. “Whoa, maybe I lied to him , but not to you. I mean, what’s the big deal? Tell me you’ve never made up an excuse to get out of something last-minute?”

He was right. People made up excuses like that all the time. So maybe I wasn’t really upset because he’d lied. Maybe I was upset because he’d chosen to do something else rather than be with me. By now we’d reached my physics class. “I’m, uh, in here,” I said, once again feeling mixed up and uncertain.

“See ya,” Tyler replied tersely, and continued on, clearly annoyed.

I knew I wouldn’t see him again until lunch, and spent most of the morning trying to think of what I could say to make things better between us. Finally it was lunchtime, and I walked to the cafeteria more quickly than usual, only to be disappointed when he wasn’t there.

“Did you hear what happened after the assembly?” Courtney asked when I sat down. “A bunch of kids went to the office. Like, they all say they saw or talked to this guy? And it was always the same thing? He wanted to know about the popular kids?”

I stared at her, wide-eyed. So it was possible that the “mystery guy” had learned that Lucy, Adam, and I were friends. And that meant he could have left the note at the guardhouse. But why?