"The feeling of warmth and shakiness and emptiness fluttering all at the same time. It was so... odd."
Grace Knightwood never liked to follow rules.
Especially when one of her best friends has just gone missing and the sheriff has forbidden her and...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A/N:
Fyi, this is quite a long chapter.
The school day started out pretty normal, of course apart from the glaringly obvious fact that Will wasn't there but maybe that would change when they went into their 2nd period class - Biology.
Their biology teacher was Mr Clarke. He was a kind, pleasant man with a thick moustache and a love for science. Grace always enjoyed his class because not only did he teach Biology but also he was the AV Club supervisor. They'd been waiting on his brand new ham radio to arrive for ages.
Will was yet again a no show for Biology. Grace had a sinking feeling, and not like the one that she got when she looked at Mike. It was a bad feeling.
A feeling as if something was wrong.
As if there was a reason for Will being gone. More than just him being late.
For the first time, she found her self losing concentration and phasing out. It was as if Mr Clarke's voice became a blur. Was Will alright? Was he really late? Was he ditching school? Did Troy or James hurt him? Did his dad come to visit him?
Nah no way. Grace didn't know Lonnie very well, but she remembered him calling Will horrible things just because she was his best friend. He called him gay, queer - she didn't want to even think about the other thing he called him. She remembered comforting him in Castle Byers when he broke down, telling her about the unspeakable things his own dad called him. Grace said that Lonnie 'could go fuck himself' - she wasn't sure what it meant exactly but she knew that it was definitely something very rude. She remembered Will laughing at her swearing and she felt so happy that she could cheer him up, even if it was just a little bit.
The curious girl looked around the class room, her classmates looked as zoned out as her but of course for entirely different reasons. She sat at the front of the class, right at the door - usually beside Will. Grace turned to her left and saw Mike deep in concentration. He looked as if he concentrating on the subject Mr Clarke was talking about. She didn't expect him to turn and look at her (which unbeknownst to Grace he had been doing every 5 minutes or so).
Both of them quickly averted their gaze to something else as soon as their eyes locked but that didn't stop them from meeting again.
This time, Grace offered a slight smile which he graciously returned. Their small interaction was interrupted by the ringing of the bell, signalling that recess had begun. Mr Clarke continued to assign homework which would help them revise for an upcoming test however Grace wasn't worried about it at all. She was naturally amazing at Biology and was at the top of the class.
As students continued to flood out the classroom, the group approached Mr Clarke's desk. "So, did it come?" Mike excitedly said, prompting for Mr Clarke to tell them the news they had been waiting for. "Sorry kids. I hate to be the barer of bad new but-"
