Ah-keen-ah! (A Tom and Huck Fanfic)

Hasslin' Part One

I was shook awake in the morning by Pa.

"Aquene get up."

"Pa, why are you here, you're not here when I wake up for school."

"I can be here in my own room, plus, I'm in such a good mood this morning, I decided to walk you to school."

I was shocked. He had to pull me out of bed I was so shocked.

In town on the way to school, Mr. Potter was getting yelled at by a mob of people.

"Pa, what's going on?"

He took my hand firmly.

"That drunk is finally reaping what he sows. Come on baby."

He chuckled. As we were walking, he took out something.

"You know what this is?"

It was Tom's marble, he must've dropped it in the graveyard.

"It's a marble."

"You know who it belongs to?"

"Not that I know of Pa, sorry."

He grunted and put the marble in his jacket pocket.

"I'm gonna spend the day asking around, it was at Potter's crime scene, paying my debt to society."

"Go get em Pa."

We were at the schoolhouse, the children were waiting outside, they looked so scared of Pa, even Tom too.

"See you this afternoon," Pa said as he kissed me on the head.

"I love you Pa."

He walked away without replying.

Mr. Potter was arrested for Doc Robinson's murder, Pa framed him I'm sure. I still swore not to tell him or anyone that I knew. He was gonna be put on trial in a few days. One day passed, Pa still couldn't find the owner of the marble, and another day passed.

The trail was tomorrow and still no sign of the marble's owner. Seriously, Tom didn't show up at school today or yesterday. He knew something was up. I don't blame him. Me and the rest of the children were doing our new set of arithmetic problems. The teacher noticed Pa standing in the doorway.

"Injun Joe, what're you doing in my school house?"

"Injun Joe!" Children whispered.

He slowly walked in and answered the question.

"I'm looking for a certain kid."

"Who?" The teacher asked.

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

He took out the marble he's still going on about.

"I found this marble in the graveyard where the doc was murdered, I just wanna know who it belongs to."

"You're not a deputy."

"No but I wanna help out Thatcher. The kid who owns this marble was there the night of the murder. The kid won't be in trouble but will testify as a witness."

Pa pointed to the door and stared the teacher down.

"Leave so I can do my job, it'll take a minute."

The teacher left, closing the door behind him, we were scared now. Pa set the marble on the teacher's desk for us to see.

"Now, I've been looking for this kid for the past three days, nothing, absolutely nothing, I've asked around this town, all nos. I thought to myself: where is a place where children get together? School! Here I am now, the kid is here, I know it, the marble belongs to one of you, I know it. None of you are leaving until I get an answer, I'll be here all damn day."

We were all quiet. A moment later, he walked to a random boy.

"You, is that marble yours?" He pointed at it.

"No sir, never seen before in my life."

Pa looked at the boy next to him, he shook his head.

"I don't feel like going around the room and asking questions, I ain't your teacher."

"We don't know," the girl next to me said.

"That's horse shit! It could belong to any kid here."

"You can't make us stay here!" A fat boy stood up.

"I sure can, there's no where to run, especially you fat boy."

We were all silent for another moment.

"I know the kid is here," Pa said to no one in particular.

Then, one of my bullies spoke.

"Ask Ah-queenie!"

He looked at her confused.