The bell had rung; class had now begun. Students put away their study guides and wait patiently as the teacher walks around placing an exam on each person's desk. Some appeared nervous, while others looked confident.
Dwight felt a mixture between nervousness and a sense of preparedness for what lay ahead. The teacher looked up at the clock, giving everyone a gesture to start. Students flipped the page, reading question number one. Dwight looked dumbfounded, unable to remember a single thing he studied for.
A couple minutes in, Dwight had no idea what to do; his hand was shaking. At the same time, many students had already gone to question number two or three, which only fueled Dwight's anxiety. The only noticeable sound came from outside the room, where students could be heard walking in the halls.
Dwight leans back in his seat, reading in his mind what's on the paper while contemplating what to write down. After a while, he finally attempts question number one but still has trouble understanding. The teacher would get up off her seat and roam past each table, making sure nobody was cheating.
To Dwight's shock, half an hour had already passed. In his mind, he could not believe it. Students were already halfway through the exam. Dwight gripped his pencil tightly due to being stressed out. When it seemed like an F would be in his future, Dwight felt a tap on his shoulder.
Turning around, Dwight sees one of his classmates that sat nearby looking in his direction. The person was not someone he had ever spoken to before; he wore a black jacket that appeared to make him look bigger and hand long, dark-colored hair that flowed down his shoulders.
Before Dwight was able to speak, the random student motioned for Dwight to stay quiet for a moment. He points in the teacher's direction and waits for her to look another way. As soon as she faced the computer, the random student instantly passed Dwight his paper that had all his work shown without alerting anyone.
Placing his hand over the work, blocking the view, Dwight saw a post-it note attached. Confused, he looked back at the guy, who winked at him in return. That is when the teacher called out, reminding them that everyone had twenty minutes left before third period ended and exams would be over.
Dwight lowers his head on the desk trying to look less obvious while quietly reading the note attached.
"Hey. You don't know me, and I don't know much about you. But if you want to pass this exam with at least an 80, copy my work. Make some adjustments with the wording, and do not look my way until you are finished. If you get caught, you are on your own." -ย Drex
After reading to himself, Dwight had no idea what to think at that moment. But without hesitation, he rushes to copy down the answers. Dwight made sure to change the grammar to sound more like his writing and purposely got a few questions wrong so their work did not appear too similar.
The class reached its remaining ten minutes. Most of the students had already left class early. Dwight finished writing the last question and felt a wave of relief. He sneakily gave the new guy, named Drex, a nod as a sign of appreciation. The teacher checks the clock and waits for class to end.
Drex gets up from his seat and grabs his bookbag. He turns in his exam for the teacher to grade as she looks over his work, allowing him to go on with his day. Dwight could only watch him walk out without looking back. That's when the clock had five minutes left, leaving Dwight to ponder if he should give his exam right after Drex, who sat nearby.
Two other students wrapped up their test four minutes later, which gave Dwight an opportunity to turn his work in. As the teacher looked through each of the remaining students' exams, she told them good job before letting them leave. When it got to Dwight's turn, he was ready.
Suddenly, the bell finally rang, class was officially over. Teachers in different classes notified students holding a pencil that exam day was now officially over. Most seniors came out looking exhausted, drained and stressed out while a short amount of them felt confident handing in their exams.
Dwight fell into the mix of stressed and relief category. But now being told exams were over made all those concerns a distant memory. It was finished, his most important part of the day was complete and now he was left alone with his thoughts.
Passing through the halls everyone around him was heard speaking and enjoying one another's company. He barely could focus straight from all the yelling that reminded him of his earlier conversation with Oliver. The words finally set in hitting Dwight harder thinking about it again.
"๐๐ต๐ข๐บ ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ด๐ฆ๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ด, ๐๐ธ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต. ๐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ, ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ ๐ด๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ. ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ, ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐บ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ. ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ."ย Dwight reminisced, becoming furious that Oliver's words were affecting him personally.
"๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐, ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐!" Dwight told himself.
Dwight made his way past students. All of a sudden he saw Drex near the lockers. Showing his gratitude, Dwight planned to approach him and give his thanks personally when a crowd of students got in his way, blocking his path.
Attempting to maneuver past people, Dwight is unable to get through fast enough. As soon as he made his way there, Drex was no longer in the same spot. Dwight looks past the corner and through the windows of classrooms for his whereabouts to no avail.
Suddenly, caught off guard by a random tap on his shoulder, Dwight mentally prepared himself before facing whoever. So far his whole day has been nothing short of issues. The last thing needed was someone trying to pick a fight with him. Dwight turned around to see someone he didn't expect; it was a girl standing three feet away. She had dark colored messy hair and wore a light blue sweater with purple colored headphones resting on her shoulders.
Both of them looked at each other in silence. Dwight contemplates what he should say when the girl spoke in a soft tone rummaging inside her bag.
"Hello there, sorry for disturbing you but I had a question and kinda needed some help." The girl said, leaning an inch closer, handing Dwight a piece of paper. "I wanted to ask about where a specific room is located. Apparently it's on this floor. I've been looking everywhere and have not been able to find it."
Dwight lets out a huge sigh of relief seeing it was only her schedule written in big bold letters. She places a finger onto a specific spot asking a couple questions. Mentally Dwight had trouble comprehending the whole day. Everything so far has pushed him out of his comfort zone. He couldn't quite wrap his head around the fact he avoided getting jumped and is now a few hours later helping a random girl. The contrast left him feeling unsettled and confused.
Looking at the piece of paper Dwight saw her first name being 'Violet' written at the bottom. Seconds later he felt the paper being pulled away which catches him off guard. Dwight looks to his right and sees Violet putting it inside her pocket.
"I am very sorry for bothering you. My intention was not to make you uncomfortable. Sorry for my troubles." Violet said wandering off and going on with her day.
Dwight stood there alone in an empty hallway feeling more useless than before. All he could see was her turning the corner and disappearing out of sight. Out of nowhere a subtle voice startled Dwight. He turns to see Miss Hernandez standing by a doorway watching.
"Hey Don't mean to Intrude but I am very curious. Is there something I am missing? It seems like where I stood you guys had some trouble communicating but neither of you escalated the situation and made it worse than needed." Miss Hernandez said, confusing Dwight with her partially questionable statement. "What I mean is you look baffled, you didn't raise your tone but oddly enough it felt like tension was building when she continued speaking to you. What was her name? Let me think, "Oh, right Violet." Miss Hernandez responded.
Dwight's face lit up with a mix of surprise and embarrassment from speaking about this with not just anyone but a grown woman. He stammered over his words, seemingly preparing for a debate rather than a regular conversation.
"Listen here, I don't get your point, Miss Hernandez, but why do you care so much, and how come you know her name?" Dwight asked, limiting certain words from his original question.
"Violet is one of my assigned students. She is a recent transfer student who has been having a hard time settling in, which leads to my whole reasoning." Miss Hernandez responds. Dwight's attention span weakens, believing he has no business hearing someone else's problems.
"Excuse me, Miss, no hard feelings, but I have lunch right now and have to go. Thanks for the conversation." Dwight says, cutting her off mid-sentence. He takes a few steps forward, and Miss Hernandez calls out to him.
"Wait, hold up, listen. I mean no harm or make this feel like a guilt trip. However, I would really appreciate it if you'd continue speaking with Violet, just until she is able to adjust on her own. And who knows? Maybe from this you might make a new friend from that..." Dwight, still having his back turned, continues to listen in on Miss Hernandez's speech. "I haven't worked in this school long, and for that reason alone I've been having trouble with making her feel comfortable. She's also shown to not be interested in talking to adults either, which is why I ask if you could help her with branching out and being more social." Miss Hernandez hoped for the best and waited for an answer until Dwight responded without turning back.
"How about asking someone who can actually do your job better instead of wasting my time?" Dwight said, going silent afterwards.
Miss Hernandez stood there quietly, looking way too stunned to speak up. She watched him with his back turn until he walked away, and headed downstairs in silence.
Reaching the first floor, he walks through rows of tables, passing by a group of teens and overhearing them talking about reports of bodies found near a lake.
Dwight, ignoring his surroundings, didn't bother thinking too much about it and instead tried to make his way through the cafeteria. Hearing multiple yells from different students made Dwight struggle to compose himself as it became too much for him. Clenching his fists, Dwight's body started shaking violently, facing the ground and barely looking up. Believing all eyes were staring directly at him, laughing and judging. Out of nowhere, Dwight heard another voice calling out to him, a familiar one coming from the crowd.
"Dwighty boy, come over here. We have a seat for you." He turned, feeling a wave of comfort pass him.
A far distance away near some bathrooms sat three of his closest friends. The first was obviously Oliver.
Next was Kyle, a young man who spent growing up in a wealthy household and being the son of one of the richest men in town. For someone so fortunate, he never tried showing off and usually is seen wearing baggy clothes and a beanie, which he called a personal style of commitment. What kind of commitment? No one knew, not even Dwight. He was Black, had a more energetic vibe, but always came through.
The last was Jaliene; she was average height, wore contacts, and was occasionally seen wearing boyish clothes, naturally being a sweatpants and hoodie type of person. She was part Hispanic and often stood out from the group. Not only because Jaliene stood out due to being the only girl in the group but also for being known for having no filter, mostly speaking whatever came to her mind, which meant Oliver had to usually maintain most times. Besides that, she got along and fit right in with everyone, particularly Dwight.
Dwight starts approaching and sits down at the table; some peeping eyes from other students were now truly pointing and laughing. Two seconds later, Oliver started his routine questions, shifting the mood completely.
"Are you alright, pal? Seemed pretty overwhelmed when standing back there." Kyle and Jaliene were now staring at Dwight, causing him multiple feelings of discomfort. "Does it have anything to do with this morning's incident?" Oliver asked.
Dwight played it nonchalantly, wanting attention off him as soon as possible. "Nah, man, it's nothing about our talk or anything important. I am just fine." He responds.
Jaliene listens to their conversation, intrigued, asking her own questions next.
"Are you sure, Dwight? Please do not feel uncomfortable about us being here. If you need to talk, we are here to listen. Remember that." Jaliene says, speaking with a calm demeanor, gently holding onto Dwight's hand. Taking a short pause, Dwight recollected his thoughts before responding truthfully.
"Ever since what has already occurred, I have no idea why, but this feeling has been riling up inside. Days since what happened seem the same and good, but for some reason something doesn't feel real." Dwight noticed halfway through speaking to his friends that they already had blank expressions on their faces, reminding him how awful he is at opening up.
Right before Oliver could react, Fred came by holding an empty tray. "Hey everyone, sorry for being late. I hope there was nothing I missed."
Everyone's attention shifts, focusing now on Fred. Jaliene got up and welcomed him with open arms while Kyle gave a fist bump, leaving Dwight quietly observing. Fred sat down happily, enjoying everyone's company and sounding in such a bright mood.
"I am glad we all are here. Hold on for a moment. I am going to grab some lunch real quick. I'll be right back." Fred says cheerfully, getting up. Oliver also stood up, reaching into his own backpack, pulling out a bottle of water and a sandwich.
"Here you go, Fred. Take this instead." Oliver said, offering them both to Fred.
"Oh, thank you so much, Oliver. But why are you giving me this?" Fred asked, confusingly.
"For starters the water is meant to calm your nerves down from all the sugar you devoured. Secondly, that sandwich is why you are gonna instead, my advice is do not eat today's lunch. They are serving meatloaf today." Oliver explained. Fred, hit with the realization, pushed his tray aside and slowly realized something.
"Wait, how did you know I had sugar, Oliver?" Fred asked, looking guilty, wanting an answer. Oliver then smiled in return.
"I could smell the brownies and energy drinks when you were in my car earlier. Also there was some red powder on your bag that you might not have noticed." Oliver jokingly pointed out.
Slightly embarrassed Fred tried wiping it off and accidentally got some stuck onto his fingers. Jaliene reassured him by patting his hand and lending him a napkin he could use to get rid of anything stuck on his hand. Kyle grabbed a small carton of milk and purposely dumped it onto his bag making sure Fred didn't feel self conscious.
A couple of minutes later, they all spoke about different topics while Dwight silently read a book on his own, minding their own business.
Out of nowhere, Kyle slams his hand against the table to catch their attention. Everyone went silent and looked at him.
"So guys now that we're here there is something that needs to be updated. Our plan for this weekend." Kyle said rubbing both hands together. Everybody locked eyes confused but intrigued nonetheless.
"We always visit the same diner, arcade and movie theater after school, but what if we tried somewhere most people wouldn't ever consider going to...ย The woods." Kyle says, adding dramatic sound effects and over-exaggerated hand movements.
Afterwards, Oliver's facial expression showed confusion. Jaliene is lost for words, and Fred clearly looks worried. He then voices his thoughts about Kyle's sudden plan.
"I, uh, do not think it would be such a great idea. Woods are scary." Fred responded, taking a subtle bite from his sandwich.
"Oh, come on, guys. This is something new for us. Have we not always talked about wanting to explore further out?" Kyle says, hoping someone else would agree. Since no one else planned on stepping up, Oliver decided to speak for everyone else.
"Kyle I do not mean to sound like a buzzkill, but how do you suggest we go about exploring the woods? Police have been scoping nearby areas for months from morning to night."
Understanding the risks involved, Jaliene and Fred expressed their own concerns, agreeing how risky this would be. Dwight listens in, rarely voicing his opinion.
Kyle denied having no answer and persisted, continuously reminding them of their agreement they made years ago. "Look, I know it might sound insane, but come on, did we not all agree on that being part of our plan before graduating? We, a group of explorers, are what we call ourselves."
Jaliene shook her head. "Yeah, way before. Things are way different now, Kyle. Like, do you not see what has been going on in the news lately? People have gone missing. Posters are all over."
Oliver nodded slowly. "She isn't wrong. There was an amber alert on TV just last week. A student from our school. Her name was Sara Mayfield. From how it is, nobody has known anything about her whereabouts."
That quieted the group. Even Fred appeared more anxious than before. Now, the plan, seeming to have been driven by nostalgia and past promises, now felt reckless. Maybe even stupid.
Kyle, sensing the shift in everyone's mood, quickly leaned forward and pleaded, "Okayโokay, I get it. But please, just hear me out. We made a promise. We were supposed to stick together through anything. Trust me, whatever happens out there, we will have each other's backs." He hesitated, his eyes scanning their skeptical faces. Look, if this would make you guys feel safer, I... I promise to bring tasers and other items from my place for our protection."
Unexpectedly, a group of kids sitting nearby, stares in Kyle's direction and laughs at his presence. As it goes on, he looks at the floor in shame as Oliver glances over and quickly realizes what was happening.
"Hey Kyle, do not worry about them." Oliver blocks his view, reassuring him not to worry. "They're just looking for a reaction. Do not give it to them."
Kyle nodded slowly in response, but the discomfort didn't leave his face. His eyes drifted downward, lips pressed in a tight line. He didn't like having to let it goโbut he did, if only to avoid making things worse.
About a few minutes later, just before lunch came to an end, Kyle did his best to convince the others. After some back and forth, everyone finally came to an agreement and decided to meet up tonight. Jaliene agrees mostly because she has no plans. Oliver said yes; knowing he's got work the next day, Fred still looked worried, and Dwight rolled his eyes hearing all their diverse opinions.
That is when an old, slender-looking woman, possibly around her late fifties, approached the table and glared. Everyone goes silent as she scans around, stopping in Dwight's direction.
"Excuse me, young kids. I don't mean to interrupt whatever you are talking about, but I need you to come along, boy. The counselor, 'Mister Caulfield,' wants a word with you." The slender woman asks, gesturing for Dwight to follow behind.
Glancing towards his friends' directions, they appeared concerned and curious. Not wanting any trouble, he follows closely behind, following the women's demands and giving a final wave before leaving. Dwight could only think of many possible outcomes, knowing anything can happen, but neither seemed good.ย