The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 21

Meet Jonah the troublemaker.

Kyle's night got ten times worse when he realized he had to report the theft. There was no way he could possibly hide the damage to the locker and all the kids on the team knew about it anyway, so yeah he'd have to explain it to the night admin.

Which he wasn't looking forward to at all, Mr. Williams was an older dude in his fifty's. Who Kyle guessed was not doing this job for the love of kids that was for damn sure.

When Kyle knocked on his door the dude barked out a sharp, "what is it?" which made Kyle want to turn around and run like a friggin' coward.

But instead he called through the closed door in a bit of a trembling voice, "Sir you got a sec? I need to talk to you; it's about one of the kids?"

"Come in, but make it quick it's almost closing."

Charming Kyle thought oh yeah this guy was a real saint.

He opened the door on the sparse administrator's office to find Mr. Williams sitting behind an old desk. It was old as in ratty, not antique. The swivel chair he sat in groaned under his immense weight as he turned to give Kyle an annoyed look.

Seriously Kyle thought the guy needs to lay off the sweets. His desk top was littered not only with files, but Dunkin Donuts boxes and candy wrapped, and by the size of his enormous belly it looked to Kyle, like the sugar was slowly killing him. He was nearly entirely bald. So bald that his comb over would give Donald Trump's a run for his money.

When he fixed Kyle in his beady eyed stare, he realized he was staring and standing there mute which made him even more nervous.

"Sir we had an incident tonight with one of the kids." Kyle paused not knowing how to tell him.

"Well go on," Mr Williams harrumphed as he consulted his watch, "I don't have all night."

Kyle sighed and dove in, "Someone broke into my locker and stole my backpack."

"Broke in how?"

"Busted the lock Sir"

The night admin leaned forward and leered at him, "Do we have any idea who this someone might be?"

Kyle wanted to say no, but he knew that the kids would blab so instead he went for a middle ground, "We're not sure Sir."

Mr. Williams reached for the phone. Suddenly realizing he meant to call the police, Kyle dove for his hand and before he knew what he was doing, he was covering his hand with his own to beg," Please don't call the police. It's a last strike for the kid involved."

"So you know who the kid is after all." His admin gave him an incredulous look.

"Please just put the phone down and I'll explain."

Kyle told him everything that had happened. He also lied and told him he didn't have anything important in the bag and that Jonah was just trying to get back at him for sitting him out. He insisted there wasn't that much damage to the locker and that it could be easily fixed. In fact, he could hammer it out himself. Kyle insisted that Jonah would probably show up all apologetic tomorrow with the backpack in hand, even though he didn't believe it himself.

When he was done the admin was sitting back in his chair with his fingers steepled looking at him with a blank stare.

He sighed deeply before checking his watch and said, "Look kid," he hadn't even bothered to learn Kyle's name, "I'm going to give you a quick piece of advice. Don't get attached to the runts. They come and they go. You will too. You'll move on in a couple of years to go to college and there'll be a whole new set of kids and problems. It's not worth it."

Kyle looked at the admin in slack jaw disbelief, how the hell did he even get this job?

"You're wrong it is worth it," Kyle bit out, "They're worth it." He pointed angrily to the door that led to the centre and announced, "I'm making a difference here."

The admin looked at his watch again and stood to pick up the waste paper basket and resting it against the edge of the desk he swiped tonight's empty wrappers and boxes into it, before saying, "You win I'm not calling the cops, but not because I have faith that if we give the kid just one more shot he'll turn his life around like we're in a freakin' movie or something, no, because it's five to nine and I want to go home."

Kyle didn't know what to say. He was shocked that any adult in this kind of work could be so callus. He swore in that moment that he'd never turn out like this dude, all jaded and shit. No matter how long he worked with troubled kids he'd always hold out hope that someday they could be saved.

But when Kyle exited the building and had to rub his bare arms vigorously to try and warm them his conviction slipped, and when he saw his note books torn and scattered all over the parking lot he had to wonder if Mr Williams wasn't wrong after all.

His books and scribblers couldn't be salvaged. When he realized he'd have to redo his history paper on the Battle of Gettysburg, he nearly cried. If only his kind could work with technology he'd only need to reprint it but, no, the only copy of it was handwritten in his history scribbler, which was now in a million pieces and blowing in the night breeze across the empty lot.

He did a quick search of the dumpsters before he left. Hoping that Jonah had just tossed his backpack in one of them, but when he came up empty, he really started to worry. Where was his pack, and did Jonah know what was in it?

He couldn't possibly, the gorgon sweat had made them impossible to detect, not even the guards had found them. Lauren had spelled them so well that only the wielder could feel them.

If he was disarmed and the slingshot flew from his hand he'd be the only one who could recover it.

It was an ingenious spell. Too ingenious. At least if Jonah could see the sling he'd know the value of it and keep it for a little bit instead of dumping it in some random bin on his route home.

Kyle sighed audibly as he checked the last dumpster. His eyes quickly scanned the lot to see if the pack had just been tossed aside, but no luck.

His stomach twisted in a knot when he thought, if Lauren or Brenna couldn't put a tracking spell on it, he'd be totally screwed.

When the wind started to pick up and Kyle started to shiver in the cold night breeze he gave up his search and with a heavy heart he strode purposely to his stop. He wouldn't tell anyone tonight. Just maybe after a good night sleep he'd come up with a solution and he'd never have to admit to the gang that he'd been this careless.

On the way to the bus terminal a shadow loomed. In Kyle's distraction he hadn't noticed the stalker from earlier had returned and was following him. If he had he would have missed his weapon for more reasons than not wanting to look careless. 

I hope you all liked this chapter.

Something is following Kyle now. And he doesn't even have his spelled pen to contact the crew.

Is he going to make it home safe?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

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