Dead End High

‘It seems they have your number,’ Drake said at school the following morning, after hearing Adam’s adventures of the night before.

‘Do you think we should report all this?’ Daisy sat down on a bench beside one of the classrooms. ‘The police should know. They might be able to do something.’

Drake sniggered and dropped down beside her. ‘The cops? They haven’t done a thing so far. What have they found out? Nothing. It should be all over the news, there should be a massive search for all the missing people, but it’s all been kept rather quiet.’

Adam didn’t know what to think. Drake did have a valid point, but he found it hard to believe they could all be on Miss Crazy’s payroll. Constable Clements in particular distrusted Miss Crazy, so surely, he couldn’t be working for her.

Adam wanted to make it look like he was on the same wavelength as Drake. ‘You know, I wonder whether they’re deliberately trying to keep it all hush-hush.’

‘A conspiracy?’ Drake delivered him a wry smile. ‘That’s possible. Or it could be that they’re embarrassed about all the disappearances and don’t want anything publicised. Perhaps they don’t want to cause a panic?’

‘Well, whatever it is, you’d expect the police to be on to any strangers in town, trying to find out all about them.’ Even as he said that, he realised he needed to talk to the constable. Maybe the police had not seen these men yet.

‘Maybe they have?’ mused Daisy. ‘Maybe these guys of yours are squeaky clean?’

‘Have you guys ever heard of a fellow by the name of Hochstetler?’ Adam asked.

‘Never heard of him.’ Daisy shook her head.

‘Mmmmm.’ Drake rubbed his chin. ‘There was this guy called Rodney Hochstetler who murdered a whole heap of people, but that was about ten years ago. He was shot dead when the cops cornered him in some farm house down south.’

‘Not the same guy then.’ Daisy leaned into Drake and he put his arm around her.

‘They mentioned the guy as if he was trouble,’ Adam said.

‘Well you know what they say,’ Drake replied. ‘An enemy of your enemy is your friend.’

’Hope you’re rightI sure hope so. I just wish I knew who he was.’

The bell rang for assembly so they headed for the main hall, finding it only half full by the time they got there. Adam looked at the rows of uniformed students. Scott and Darren were there. Darren had Adam worried as his pal barely acknowledged him at all. Robyn showed up shortly after and she smiled as she sat down at the opposite end of the row.

‘What if you talk to Mr Vennie?’ Daisy continued. ‘Some adult should know about this. Did you tell your parents?’

‘No,’ Adam admitted. ‘They’d get all paranoid and forbid me to go out at all. Maybe I could speak to Mr Vennie. He seems like a good guy and my Dad likes him.’

Just as he finished speaking, the teachers gathered on stage, Miss Crazy not amongst them. The crowd became silent.

There were a lot less people on the pews today. Adam tried to figure out who was missing, with hopes that they were just running late. Mr Vennie took centre stage, adjusted the microphone and spoke in a deadpan tone. ‘I am unhappy to report that more students have gone missing.’

The students around Adam murmured. Adam glanced at Daisy and Drake with a resigned shake of his head.

‘This has become a very serious situation.’

Miss Crazy and her two henchmen must have been very busy last night, thought Adam. Though there could be more than just Morgan and Don doing her dirty work.

‘Rest assured,’ Mr Vennie continued, ’the police are dealing with this matter and are conducting investigations far and wide. No doubt, they will find out who or what is responsible for the disappearances. But I must insist that nobody leaves this school on their own. Notes will be sent home asking parents to arrange transportation if they can, to and from school. If you must walk, please make sure you are not alone. This is not a joke.’

The students watched on silently, his words sinking in.

‘I am going to put a list of missing students on the wall at the office block. If you have any idea where any of the people are, or if you have any information that will help us locate them, please see me. Even the smallest piece of information may be helpful.’

He paused for a few moments then spoke again. ‘But anyway. I don’t want any of you to go to classes worrying. I want you to enjoy yourselves today so I have asked all teachers to give you fun activities. No real work today.’

The hall started to buzz again as students smiled at each other and made comments. A grin appeared on Mr Vennie’s face again. ‘That being said, I want you all to stand up.’

Everyone began to stand. Robyn seemed to be in her own little world and didn’t rise until she caught Adam looking at her. ‘Look at your school uniforms.’ Mr Vennie allowed a few moments for the students to make the observation. ’What do you think of them? Old-fashioned? Ugly? Uncomfortable? Does it make you feel like you’re under some weird communist dictatorship? Perhaps you feel a little like someone in a George Orwell novel and that Big Brother is watching you, just waiting for you to slip up and forget to wear uniform socks to school one morning? Or worse, you’ll forget to put your trousers on one morning and then become the laughing stock of the entire school?’ His grin grew wider as half the students finally caught on, replacing the gloom of the hall’s atmosphere with something a lot more cheery. He had to wait for the chattering to die down, to continue his speech. ‘But all joking aside, don’t uniforms make you feel like a total prat?’

Shouts of agreement returned his way.

He whipped his tie off and hurled it out over the heads of the students. ’Don’t they make you feel like a total prat?’

The shouts of agreement grew louder this time and a few of the boys tried throwing their uniform ties towards the ceiling, where they might catch on the lights. The idea spread and a wave of flying ties began landing on stage at Mr Vennie’s feet. ’Well so do I, damn it, so do I!’ Vennie beamed, encouraging the chaos. ‘So, as of tomorrow, school uniforms will be abolished. From now on, you come to school dressed in whatever the hell you want. Heck, I don’t even care if you come dressed in your pyjamas… or even if you come with no trousers on at all! Maybe tomorrow, I’ll wear no trousers, just to set the standard…’ He continued on, but no one could hear him, so loud was the reaction.

’All right, Mr Vennie!’ someone shouted.

Mr Vennie thrust his fist in the air triumphantly. ‘School uniforms suck!’

The students cheered.

‘To hell with conformity! It’s for losers!’

’Preach it brother!’ Will shouted from somewhere in the audience.

‘This is not a school of losers. This is a school of winners!’

The cheers grew louder. Adam glanced at Daisy, not surprised to see her fingers plugged into her ears. Scott had a big smile on his face, while Darren showed no emotion at all. When Darren saw him looking his way he gave a smile, but then returned to his emotionless state.

‘And to hell with the rest of assembly!’ Mr Vennie shouted. ‘It’s a beautiful day. Go outside, enjoy it!’

The mob finally got the hint when Mr Vennie left the stage, followed by the teachers. Robyn stepped in beside Adam as they funnelled out. ‘Good stuff, huh?’ she asked.

‘I reckon.’ Adam glanced over at Daisy. ‘Mr Vennie sure knows how to lighten the atmosphere…’ his voice trailed off as he thought again of the disappearances. His mind kicked into action, wondering what to do next. He decided to try to block it all out right now. He had PE next and wondered what Sergeant Major Harris had in store for them. They liked to call him that behind his back, because he acted a little like an army drill Sergeant. He loved to torture them with hour long runs and gruelling workouts in the gym, but since Mr Vennie had taken over, he had been instructed to lighten the work load and had them doing fun activities.

‘Ummm,’ Robyn began, ‘I wanted to know what you were doing after school today.’

Adam was about to reply, when Daisy took him by the arm and pulled him aside. She looked back at Robyn, peering down her nose as if she was a slimy cockroach. ‘Adam, I have an idea. You might like it.’

‘Err… yeah?’ Adam was of two minds. He didn’t want to ignore Robyn, but he didn’t want Daisy to think he was more interested in Robyn than her. The new girl was very pretty, maybe not up to Daisy’s standards, but certainly enough to make him want to stay in her good books.

Robyn moved off to the side, looking hurt.

‘Don’t waste your time with her,’ Daisy snorted. ‘You can do way better.’

Adam didn’t answer. He glanced again over at Robyn, who seemed to have given up waiting for him.

‘I reckon we should check out that address you have of Miss Crazy’s,’ Daisy said.

’But it’s way over in Opaslackee. How will we get there?’

‘By car, of course!’

‘Whose car?’

‘I don’t know. Drake’s family has three. Maybe we could borrow one.’

‘But who’s gonna drive? None of us have a license.’

‘Who cares? Didn’t you say once, you were having driving lessons?’

‘Yeah...’ He was surprised she remembered anything about him, seeing as she had never taken the slightest bit of interest in him before he’d struck it rich. In fact, he wasn’t even sure how she knew.

She touched his arm, sending a warm shiver up it. ‘Well there you go.’ She smiled. ‘It’s a country road. No heavy traffic. I’m sure you can handle it.’

The act of borrowing a car without permission, then driving it illegally was something Adam didn’t think he was prepared to do. ‘I don’t know…’

‘Now, I know you’re not afraid.’ Daisy exaggerated a pout on her lips and rubbed his arm a little more. ‘Are you?’

‘Of course not!’

‘So then why don’t we?’

Adam didn’t reply right away. If Drake could get them a car, he could probably drive it without any trouble. The thought of driving to Opanake to investigate Miss Crazy was very exciting. And if he could find out something, or learn where all the missing students were, it would be worth the risk. They’d consider him a hero.

‘I guess so. We’ll have to talk to Drake after school and I need to get to class.’

He joined up with Scott and Darren at the gymnasium where they usually met with Mr Harris. The gymnasium had a basketball court, a weight-training area to the right and spectators’ area to the left. The three had spent many gruelling periods dong suicide and murder runs for their teacher, so it would be a relief to do something fun for a change.

‘Perhaps he’ll let us play basketball?’ Scott said hopefully as they entered the changing rooms to get into their PE gear. ‘That would be hoopy. Or maybe badminton?’

‘Hate those games,’ Darren grumbled.

‘What, even basketball?’ Adam snorted.

‘Loathe it.’

‘What’s with you, Darren?’ Adam pulled his gear from his school bag. ‘You love basketball. You’ve been sport mad all your life!’

‘Life. Don’t talk to me about life.’

Adam stared at him for a few seconds, wondering if he was having him on.

Scott interrupted his train of thought. ‘It won’t be any of those sports anyway. Can’t imagine him letting us do anything that doesn’t involve hellacious torture, monkey man.’

’Why are you calling me monkey man all of a sudden?’

‘Relax, baby, relax.’

’And “baby”? When did you start calling people that?’

‘I always do. Lighten up, dude.’

Jack called over to them from the opposite bench. ‘You guys are a bunch of wimps. Can’t handle a bit of exercise, that’s your problem.’

‘You can talk!’ Scott scowled. ‘You’ll use any excuse you can to get out of PE. What was it last time? Your cat was sick and you had to go home early?’

’It was me that was sick!’

‘Yeah, you were sick at the thought of having to do all that exercise.’

’Whatever!’

Adam and his friends finished dressing and left the changing rooms. They came to a grinding halt once they entered the gym and stared at the teacher who stood before them. Waiting there was not Mr Harris, but one of the men Adam had watched the night before.

Morgan, dressed in shorts, T-shirts and gym shoes, noticed Adam as quickly as he had noticed him. But his manner did not appear threatening, in fact, he broke into a friendly smile. ‘Good morning!’ He shifted his attention to the class. Adam didn’t know how to react. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t. ‘I’m Mr Grimes. I’m your new PE teacher.’

Adam couldn’t believe it. This had to be some kind of sick joke.

Jack stepped in behind Adam and his two pals. ‘What happened to Mr Harris?’

‘I suppose you’re wondering what happened to your other teacher?’ Mr Grimes answered pleasantly.

‘Yeah,’ Jack responded with a sneer.‘That’s why I asked.’

Grimes eyes returned to Adam. ‘He handed in his resignation last night. Just walked out. I’m what you’d call an emergency replacement.’

Another one, thought Adam. Miss Crazy obviously had something to do with this. He could feel his blood pressure rising as their new teacher spoke.

‘Why did he quit?’ Darren asked.

Mr Grimes chuckled, his eyes not breaking from Adam. ‘Don’t look so worried. I’m legit. Been teaching PE for years.’ He gave a crooked smile that creeped Adam out. He had a vacant kind of stare, like he was trying to look straight through Adam. ‘Miss Casey recommended me.’

Just as he thought. Miss Casey had brought in back-up, no doubt to get better control of things at the school. She couldn’t have someone like Grimes wandering around, unless there was a legitimate reason for him to be there.

Seeing that Mr Grimes had not answered Darren’s question, Adam echoed it. ’Why did Mr Harris quit?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ Mr Grimes replied. ‘You’ll have to ask the principal about that.’

Adam would. In fact he was going to take advantage of Mr Vennie’s open-door policy and go and see him right now. It was time he knew what was going on at his school – about Mr Grimes, Miss Casey and the other man named Don.

‘Look.’ Mr Grimes stood straight. ‘I have some things I have to do, but I’ll leave you all here in the gym. Play some basketball, do some weight training - whatever you like. I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes, all right?’ He gave them a wink and then left the gym.

Now was the time for Adam to go and see Mr Vennie. But Scott and Darren stepped up to him.

‘Wow, that’s strange, kid,’ Scott said. ‘Sergeant Major Harris quitting? I had him pegged as a man who really knew where his towel was at, not a quitter.’

Darren spoke in a monotonic voice. ‘Probably because of Mr Vennie’s crazy rules.’ He sighed deeply.

‘Yeah! He probably hates the sudden lack of discipline,’ Scott said. ’Vennie’s even done away with school uniforms now. Mr Harris would have been totally against that one, dudes.

Adam was itching to get going to the office, but wanted to talk about this as much as his friends. ‘Yeah, but he surely must have liked the idea of the extra sports periods?’

‘Not if it means more work for him, frood.’

‘True.’ Adam figured it wasn’t all that surprising he quit. Maybe they’d brought in Mr Grimes as a legitimate replacement. But still, if Miss Crazy had a hand in it, then she had ulterior motives. ‘Look, I have to go to the school office. I’ll catch up with you guys later.’

Adam wasted no time in leaving the gym and jogged towards the office block. He kept his eyes peeled for Mr Grimes or Miss Crazy, but saw no sign of them. He reached the office block, found Mr Vennie’s office and knocked.

‘Come in.’

Adam entered to see Mr Vennie at his desk with a TV screen in front of him. Beside that was a gaming machine and in his hands a game control. He was playing Resident Evil.

‘Adam, Adam, come on in! Can I get you a drink? Rum and Coke? No… better make that just a Coke... Nah, what the heck, if you want a shot of rum in that, I won’t tell.’ He chuckled, motioning to a small refrigerator. ‘Help yourself.’

Adam hesitated wondering when the hell it had ever been considered legal to offer minors alcohol? He finally opened the fridge lined with bottles of beer and soft drinks. ‘Have a beer if you like.’

Adam chose the bottle of Coke instead.

‘Sit down, sit down. What can I do you for?’

Adam unscrewed the cap and took a swig. He gazed at Mr Vennie, not quite sure what to tell him first. He scanned the room for a rubbish bin to dispose of the cap, but couldn’t see one.

‘Relax, relax!’ Vennie smiled. ‘Just chuck the darn thing on the floor. No need to feel uncomfortable just because you’re in the office of the big cheese. Think of me as a friend. After all, what are the last three letters in the title, “principal”?’

‘Ummmm… P-A-L. Pal.’ Adam slowly released the cap from his fingers and let it fall to the floor,

‘Exxxxxactly! Now what type of principal ignores that part of his title, huh? A lousy one, that’s who. Like that other no-hoper before me. Man, what a stick in the mud, eh? How did that guy ever survive in the school system? Well, let me answer that question for you. He didn’t. That’s why I’m here now and that’s why he’s sitting at home sulking and drowning his sorrows in a bottle of Bourbon.’

‘I… I guess so.’ Adam felt like reminding Mr Vennie, that Mr Bryce had not yet been convicted of any crime, but decided against it. If Mr Vennie really had set him up, it was better to avoid the subject.

‘I know so!’ Vennie grinned. ‘You know, too often in the past, the Principal’s office has been the place where nobody wants to go. It’s been the place to go when you’re in deep doo-doo or have some boring job to do. I wanna change that. Tell me, young Adam. If there was one change you wanted to make to the way this school is run now, what would it be?’

‘Uh...’ Adam couldn’t help but smile. Doing away with homework would be pretty cool, he thought to himself.

‘No need to answer that question. I already know. You think we should do away with homework, am I right?’

Adam’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. ‘Yeah! How did you guess?’

‘What’s there to guess? Every kid hates homework. So did I! I mean come on, you slave away at school all day, learning a whole heap of boring stuff that will never do you any good in the real world. The last thing you want to do when you get home is more of the same. You want to have some fun! Am I right or am I right? Hell, if the teachers can’t teach you what you need to know during school hours, then they’re not doing their bloody job properly!’

Adam couldn’t help but agree with that.

‘So that’s my next job as principal of this school. I’m going to be announcing to the staff that they are no longer to issue homework to their students. You lot may be teenagers, but you still need to have some leisure time right?’

‘Right!’ Adam felt so chuffed about it, he almost forgot why he was there in the first place. ‘Um, Mr Vennie, the reason I came to see you was about the disappearances.’

Mr Vennie scrunched up his nose and sighed. ‘I just wish I could forget about all that. But I guess I’m not going to be so lucky.’ He drummed his fingers on the desk and put on a forced smile. ’So what do you want to tell me?

‘Well… I think I know who might be involved.’

‘Really?’ Mr Vennie’s eyebrows pricked up. ‘Who?’

‘I think that two of the new teachers are involved. Miss Casey and Mr Grimes, the new PE teacher.’

‘Old Grimey? Miss Casey? Why do you say that?’

‘Well...’ He sighed and did a quick rundown on what he had seen of them over the last week. Mr Vennie listened intently, his eyebrows rising from time to time. When Adam finished his story, Mr Vennie leaned back in his chair with a deep sigh. ‘Adam, as much as I’d like to say you’re on to something there, I can only assume that you’re suffering from a bout of paranoia. You do realise that what you are telling me means absolutely nothing? Ok, so you may have thought you saw the friend of Mr Grimes looking through your window last night, but you can’t know for sure it was the same man. You talk about Miss Casey’s strange behaviour and the fact that she has been staying at the Collins house, but none of that is proof that they are involved in the disappearances.’

Adam stared at Mr Vennie in disbelief. ‘But I heard the two men talking! They were after me!’

‘Now, now, now, I think you may be getting the wrong end of the stick there, or something. You may have misunderstood. And even if for some reason they were after you, that doesn’t really mean they are responsible for all the other disappearances.’

Adam considered the point, but it wasn’t enough to convince him he was wrong. ‘Can’t you question them or something? Talk to the police and have them investigated? They’ve been acting really strange. Don’t you also think it’s a little strange that the disappearances started around the time they came to town?’

‘Well Adam, the same could be said for me. I started working at this school only a couple of weeks ago. One could say I might be involved too.’ He smiled wryly.

That was another good point. But it didn’t make Adam feel any less suspicious when it came to Miss Casey and the two men. In fact, all it accomplished was adding the slight possibility that Mr Vennie was involved as well. As soon as he thought that, tension filled his body. His mouth became dry and he realised it wasn’t such a silly thought, after all, Mr Vennie was one very strange principal.

‘Look, Adam.’ Mr Vennie leaned back in his chair. ‘I’ve known Miss Casey for a few years now. In fact, she was a student teacher at a school where I taught and she’s a respected professional. As for Grimey, he came highly recommended from another school. They both have a comprehensive history of teaching. They are both honest, law-abiding citizens who have never been in any trouble at all. For you to try to tell me that they are responsible for child abductions is quite ludicrous. Come now, Adam, I sacked about a quarter of my staff here. It’s no coincidence that they’re here. I needed them and I trust them. Let’s not get all paranoid just because their behaviour may appear a little odd to you.’

Adam fell silent. He studied Mr Vennie’s face, which was a picture of innocence. There was no malice in his expression, only a gentle reproaching look. Adam nodded his agreement, hoping Mr Vennie would take it as the truth. He didn’t want to stay in there any longer. He had to get out.

‘There’s a good lad.’ Mr Vennie laughed. ‘Now drink up that Coke and get back to class.’

Adam said no more. There was only one thing for it. He had to go and visit Constable Clements – whether he was on Miss Crazy’s payroll or not.

Adam didn’t return to PE class. He hid in the toilets until the end of the period and met up with Scott and Darren afterwards.

‘What happened to you?’ Darren asked.

He decided to tell them about the previous night’s adventures and the two men. At first they didn’t believe him, but after a little convincing they came around.

‘Ok,’ said Darren, ‘so you’re saying Grimes is one of the guys responsible for the disappearances?’

‘I don’t know. I can’t prove it. But it’s looking that way. But Mr Vennie seems to think he’s ok.’

‘But from what you’re saying, Mr Vennie could be involved too.’

‘Well maybe. But my Dad seems to trust him. And I can’t imagine him being a bad guy, he seems too nice.’

‘He offered you alcohol, dude,’ Scott said. ‘That’s not cool. How nice can the guy really be?’

Adam had to admit, Scott did have a point.

They headed around A-Block and came to the site of the pavilion. Adam stopped in his tracks and stared at where it had only just recently stood.

It was back down to its foundations.

Adam continued to stare, bamboozled at how it could have been a fully erect building only a short time ago.

‘You ok, kid?’ Scott asked, not even looking at the building.

‘Guys…’ Adam swallowed. ‘What the hell happened to the new pavilion? It’s… it’s back down to its foundations again.’

Scott and Darren looked at him with puzzled expressions.

‘What are you talking about?’ Scott asked. ‘It’s been like this for ages. They must have stopped work on it or something.’

Darren stared at him with puzzled expression on his face.

‘But…’ Adam stared at his two friends, unable to believe what they were saying. ’They finished this yesterday, remember? It took them one morning to do it!’

Scott snorted. ‘How could they build it that quickly? In one morning?’

‘Impossible,’ Darren said in a gloomy tone.

‘Get real, monkey man.’

Adam stared at their expressionless faces, dumbfounded. ‘Guys, don’t you remember? I was asking how it could be finished so quickly and you guys said it had been finished over a week ago.’

Scott and Darren exchanged funny looks.

‘What are you talking about, frood?’ Scott turned back to him. ‘You can see for yourself it hasn’t been finished.’

‘But…’ Adam stared back at the foundations, totally bewildered. He knew what he had seen and he knew what his friends had told them. Unless he had been seeing and hearing things. He had to consider that might be the case after the other strange things he had been experiencing lately.

‘I think you’ve been dreaming things,’ Darren said.

‘Either that or you’ve been watching too many Sci-Fis on TV.’ Scott smirked. ‘You’re mixing up fantasy with reality, kid.’