𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

5│HOMETOWN HERO

"Oh no, this is bad."

"This is really bad," Cory agreed.

"No, no, no. I ended my paper 'in conclusion, chemicals don't explode.'" He looked up to see the curly-haired boy climbing the ladder. "Hey, where are you going?"

"To save the school."

"Hey, while you're in there can you change the ending on my paper?"

🌎🌎🌎

"I'm still scared," Cory was saying as Juliet approached her two best friends.

"About what?" she asked, causing Cory to shriek and jump.

"Don't do that!"

"Sorry. Why are you scared?"

"No reason," Shawn said hurriedly, "hey, did you hear what Cory did?"

The redhead frowned at the boy's obvious lie. "Um, no?"

"I started—"

"He saved the school from a fire," Shawn interrupted him, "he's a hero."

Juliet turned her gaze on the curly-haired boy, wanting to believe Shawn's story but she knew him better than anyone and could tell he wasn't telling her the whole truth. "Is that true, Cor?"

The boy hesitated before he leaned over to hiss: "you know I can't lie, Shawn."

The dark-haired boy gave her a winning smile as he hissed back: "just do it, Cory."

But this was Juliet, their best friend. He already had one secret from her and he couldn't cope with two. "No," he admitted with a sigh, "Shawn and I forgot about the chemistry paper so we snuck into school last night to turn it in. It was dark and I'm bad with matches but I pulled the alarm to make sure no one was hurt."

Juliet's eyes widened. "Cory!"

"Hey," Shawn said sharply, "don't give him a hard time, Miss I-can-turn-in-my-paper-whenever-I-want."

"What if someone caught you?" she asked in a similar tone. "Don't you know—"

"No one caught us. We got away with it," Shawn cut her off, "we pulled the alarm, the school didn't burn down, we got our papers in. And the beauty? Nobody knows."

"Hey, you two," Janitor Bud's voice made them turn. "I know."

"What do you know?" Cory asked.

"I know what you did last night. You, Curly, come with me."

The boy gave his friends a nervous look. "Guys?"

"Quick, rub off your DNA," Shawn told him. Juliet sighed but chose to not to correct him. 

"Come on," she said instead, and they followed after the pair.

"This is the guy," Janitor Bud announced when they entered the classroom. "After the fire alarm rang, I saw him running down the hall."

"Mr. Matthews, is it true?" Mr. Feeny asked.

"Well, if he says he saw me then I guess he saw me."

"Alright, Matthews. Attaboy!" Mr. Turner congratulated him.

"Attaboy?"

"You betcha. I was asleep in my office. Well, closet. The alarm woke me up and saved my life. If it wasn't for your courageous action, today some other janitor would be sweeping me up."

The class applauded as Mr. Williams said, "sounds to me like the little fella's a hero."

"Yeah, it does sound that way, doesn't it, Cory?" Shawn asked as he walked over to him. He gave the red-haired girl a look that clearly said 'stay out of this.'