The Missing Student

      JOHN PAUL, welcome, and it's nice to see you again Jame-wamie” Mr. Cartwrong said.

      James and John Paul walked into their history class. Mr. Cartwrong addressed the class.

      He was a very bald man with blue eyes, around his early thirties. He wore a brown striped buttoned-up shirt and a pair of khaki dress pants. His black, short stubble jostled up and down with him as he shook, bursting with caffeine-induced energy.

      “Yo, what’s up Cartwrong”? John Paul and Cartwrong high-fived as James walked into the room.

      James looked around the history room. There were posters with geographical data and country flags all over and bookshelves filling every gap, filled with history books and psychology manuscripts. A desk was in the corner, with weight lifting stuff on it, with a dragon ball figurine. A giant black and white portrait of Calvin Roolage towered over the desk

      James plopped in his seat and got his textbook he had obtained the day before out.

      He looked at the people sitting around him. Emma was seated right in front of him, with John Paul and Noah seated on either side of him. They all looked ahead as Cartwrong called the roll, something James had quickly learned was purely a formality, considering the fact that Cartwrong just used it as an excuse to use his so called “clever” nicknames that he gave his students.

      “Yonah, Yonah, Yonah, Yonah” Cartwrong called out, using the nickname he had created for Jonah, one of James’s classmates and Noah’s brother.

      Silence filled the room for the first time that day, as everyone realized that he was not in the classroom.

      “Hey, Noah, did you see Johnah this morning?” Mr. Cartwrong asked him.

      “Yeah, He was talking in the lunchroom to Runner when I woke up.”

      “Runner, who is that?” James muttered to Noah.

      “One of Jonah’s friends. He’s an 11th grader”.

       “Class, give me a second as I go look for him. Im sure it will only take a minute or so.” Mr. Cartwrong said as he walked out of the room. Calls of “Yonah” rang through the hallway.

      Noah stood up, looking confused and a bit worried. “Hey Ivanka and Alexandria, did you guys see Jonah yesterday”?

      James looked in Jonah’s direction towards the two girls. Ivanka wore a red Rump for president shirt with a pair of jeans and a proud boys armband. She had black hair with brown eyes and a Rump MAGA hat on her head. She glanced around with what James assumed to be her usual angry gaze as she looked at Alexandria.

      “I think I saw him walking out of the lunchroom,” said Alexandria. She had curly blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore a BLM shirt with rainbow pants with LGBTQIA plus flags on them. The letters ACAB were spray painted on the back of her shirt. Above her pale white face was a blue Riden hat.

      John Paul started quietly laughing when he saw them.

      “What’s so funny?” asked James, confused at his reaction.

      “I’m sorry.... John Paul kept trying as hard as he could to not let a laugh out. I just laugh whenever I see those two. They’re the most politically charged people I have ever met, at opposite ends too, but they’re like best friends. Seriously, it's like neither of them can comprehend that there is more to life than politics. I do not know how Geor- i mean Alexandira and Ivanka stand each other”.

      “OK….” James said was, not knowing much about politics, perplexed “by the way who is this Geor person?

      “Just someone I know. She just happens to look a lot like Alexandria”

      James shrugged at John Paul’s vague answer.

      Then, John Paul’s expression suddenly stiffened out of nowhere as he said “Crap, it's starting.” in a somewhat monotone, but nervous voice, almost like an actor saying a line.

      James was taken aback at his change in demeanor out of nowhere.

      John Paul then got up, panicking as he ran out of the room in the direction that Mr. Cartwrong went.

      “What the heck was the filthy Catholic on? Did he decide to join ISIS finally, I know they would take his kind.” Ivanka said, following John Paul’s path with her eyes as he ran out of the room.

      Alexandria slapped her hand. “Don’t say that just because you can’t handle other religions you chrostophobic bigot”.

      Ivanka rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah you idiotic libtard.” At this point, everyone started talking about John Paul’s weird behavior. James heard people talk about how weird this was and John Paul’s disappearance.

      “Hey everyone, let’s calm down” Fergy, one of his classmates, stood up. He was sound Hunter’s height with a more muscular build. He had blond hair with bright blue eyes, looking almost Finnish, if not for his American flag shirt.

      Everyone quieted down and looked at him. James had noticed an aura of trust around him, and it’s clear that it worked.

      “It is clear that something has happened. John Paul may have sounded the alarm, and he is usually not wrong about these things, but it can’t be too bad. We’ll just have to get through it. Besides, we’re in the North Pole. What could have happened?”.

      The class as a whole calmed down at his words, their rational parts turning on.

      John Paul came in at that moment. He looked frantic and dishevelled, way more than he should have been after only running in a hallway. “Come quickly, right now!” he said with a solemn tone.

      No one moved at first. After a few seconds, everyone slowly started to get up and follow John Paul outside the classroom.

      The class loudly walked around in the hallway, their footsteps echoing in the grey hallway. Eventually, after going through the dorms, they reached the lunchroom. The class barged in the room loudly, and suddenly and unexpectedly became silent when they entered the lunchroom

      James could tell that they were all standing around something, but being in the back of the line, he couldn't tell what it was that they were all gathered around.

       James fought his way through his class who were just standing there in shock, getting to the front of the group where John Paul and Mr. Cartwrong were standing.

      James then broke down and felt sick as he saw Jonah’s dead body.