Freckles, Part 3

It's been a while since we've checked in with our hero (and Cory his equally un-gay - despite what you may have heard - right hand man). Check out previous entries here and here if you need to refresh your memory.

Obviously my parents were called.

I remember sitting in the Principal’s office. It was me, the principal, Mr Tonkin and my parents. Cory was waiting outside with his parents for his turn.

“Now, I’m up for a laugh same as any other bloke,” Mr Tonkin explained to my parents. “But you just can’t go ‘round askin’ to use a permanent marker to join the dots on people’s faces. It’s not cricket.”

I nodded sagely, my hands folded in my lap while everyone in the room stared at me. Whatever had I been thinking?

And that was about it. Mum and Dad dragged me out of there. I shot Cory an apologetic glance as he was similarly dragged by his parents into the Principal’s Office.

So it was onto Plan B then.

2 days later.

“Mr Tonkin! Mr Tonkin!” I ran right up to him, a panicked look on my face. “Casey Perkins has fallen over on the courts. There’s blood all over the place!”

“Show me where.” He was already moving. I told you: nice guy. I felt the smallest twinge of guilt for what I was about to do to him.

I pointed him in Casey’s direction and let him run off ahead of me. I needed to be far from the scene to avoid suspicion. From the top of the playground I watched him dash over to Casey to check on her. She lay balled up on her side, clutching her belly and groaning. A throng of concerned students had gathered around her. In the future she would receive recognition for her acting chops, starring in a short-lived comedy-drama series about a dental hygienist and her complicated personal and professional relationships. But I digress. So Mr Tonkin rolled Casey over and, before he could take in the fact that in fact blood was not all over the place and Casey Perkins was fine, the disposable camera she was holding went off in his face.

“Hey! What the-” Mr Tonkin cried, as she scrambled past him and took off at a run around the corner of the school block. He caught up to her eventually and demanded to know where the camera was. It was not on her person. She would not say where it was. Due to our strange encounter with Mr Tonkin earlier in the week, both Cory and I were asked if I knew anything about the strange incident of Casey Perkins and the camera. Cory was genuinely perplexed by this line of questioning. And I was not likely to mention that she had tossed it to me and I had stowed it under my bike (nestled innocently among 26 other bikes on the rack next to the pool gate).

I got some funny looks from the guy at the pharmacy when I took the camera in to be processed.

“You know there’s only one photo on here?” He peered at his screen. “A... close up of a guy’s face.”

“Yes.”

“That’ll be seventeen dollars."

“I’m fine with it.”

We were back in business.

END OF PART 3