The Night Painters

One: An introduction

"You are so close to being caught, Laurie." Casper said, as I sat drawing a star on his wrist in a sharpie.

"Not going to happen." I replied, sticking my tongue out as I concentrated. "Stop moving, you're making the points wonky."

Casper was my best friend. I had basically grown up with him and his family. He was your perfect boy next door, and for me, quite literally, he's my neighbour. He dark chestnut hair and tan skin, the personification of sunshine. His stormy grey eyes were filled with concern as he said, "Riley, you didn't even wash your hands this time, they're covered in paint! Anyone with half a mind could tell it was you, dumbass."

"Sit still, Cas. You're making this very difficult."

"You're not even worried for yourself? You could go to jail!"

"You do enough worrying for the both of us." I said, kissing his cheek.

"I just don't want you to get arrested and leave me all by my lonesome." He said, sighing dramatically. I pulled him up by the arm so we could make our way to chemistry class. "Who am I going to copy English notes off of?"

"I'm not about to get my self arrested, Cas. I wouldn't have anyone to make fun of." I said smirking.

He rolled his eyes and stifled a yawn. "Can't we just skip biology?"

"It's chemistry, Sunshine. And no, we skipped yesterday."

"So you can break the law on a regular basis, but you can't skip an hour of physics?"

"It's still chemistry, and could you not say that so loudly? I don't need the entire city to know my personal business."

"Ugh. Fine." He muttered, falling into step with me. I reached up to ruffle his hair and he yawned again.

Chemistry went by in a blur. Nothing out of the ordinary, Alex Finnegan tried to add Potassium to Sulfuric Acid to see what would happen. Casper was asleep for most of the lesson, and I doodled more stars in the margin of my page. I was thinking about what Casper had said. I guess I wasn't being too careful. I wondered if part of me did it on purpose, hoping I would be caught just for something to do. I shook my head, pushing the thought out of my mind. It would be too easy to get caught, not enough of a challenge.
I looked over at Casper, watching his back move up and down in steady movement. The light caught on the tips of his hair, making it look like his head was glowing. I leaned over and drew a smiley face on his cheek. He didn't even flinch. Casper was a heavy sleeper, I on the other hand, was not.
I kept zoning in and out of the drone that was Mr Harton's voice, willing to trade my soul for the time to move faster when suddenly I caught a flash of light dart around the room. I squinted as the light hit my eye, and saw Alex Finnegan using his watch to flash the sun onto my face. I glared at him, and he just smirked at me.

"...if you would all close your books, we have a small announcement for the class from your headmaster." I perked up at this and started to get nervous. I was pretty sure I knew what this was about.

"Casper." I whispered, nudging him. "Wake up!"

"Wha... huh?" He blinked and rubbed his eyes. "What's happening?" I swear this boy ran on solar power.

"Announcement." I said.

"Due to the recent events occurring around school, and around town," the crackly speaker said, "we are giving the spray paint culprit or culprits two weeks to own up to this act of vandalism before we get the police involved with our school. They are already acting on the multiple cases of vandalism throughout our city but as this has now crossed into school property, these crimes will be taken more seriously than ever. If you have any news about the culprit, or culprits, speak to Mrs Delawere in the school office. Thank you."