After You

The next day, I was getting ready to head off to the dining hall with Adam. After talking to his brother, I was sort of anxious to find out more about Nick's past. Dean didn't seem like a very common last name. I just hoped David could find something interesting that he could share with me.

When I finally got to the dining hall, David ran over to the table I was sitting at. He looked excited.

"David, I told you to stay away from me at school," Adam whined.

"I said that you liar. No wonder you're at this school!" David rolls his eyes and laughs at his own corny joke. "And besides, I'm not here to see you. I need to talk to your friend."

I looked at David. He motioned for me to follow him. I told Adam I would be right back. I followed David out of the dining hall to the library. The librarians were out of the building for lunch off campus. David easily picked the lock and we entered the library silently.

"Stay at the door for a minute and be the lookout while I go find the file book," David whispered. He slunk away into the shadows of the dark library as I stayed at the front door. After a few minutes David called me over to him.

"Daniel, get over here!" He whispered loudly.

"But I thought I was supposed to be the lookout!" I whispered back.

"I can't carry the file book over there. It's too big and bulky for a reason, you know!"

I hurried over to David so that we could get the investigation over with and head back to lunch. I found him in the very back of the library; the section was called HATT's history. He was in the back at a small table with an enormous brown leather bound book. It looked old and worn out. The only thing that wasn't handwritten was the cover. It read, The Complete Student History at HATT. David opened the book to the 21st century students. I noticed that since it was still the 21st century, there were many blank pages.

"Why are there so many blank pages in the back of the book?" I asked David.

"Each year, the school history keepers add in the ninth grade class to the back of the book. It keeps going. When they run out of paper, the librarians add on some new paper and rebind the book. You'll learn all about it next year, my good man." David turns the pages until he gets to the ninth grade class. Instead of alphabetical order by first name, as Principal Wilkins read our names for dorm placement, each class was in alphabetical order by last name. David flipped to the "d" section to see what he could find.

"Here we are! Nicholas Frasier Dean." David and I looked at the information about him:

Full Name: Nicholas Frasier Dean
DOB: April 22, 1994
Year Entered School: 2009
Year Graduating from School: 2012
Family Members Enrolled Before Student: 0

David and I read at about the same pace, and we both saw that Nick had been lying about being the second member of his family to come to HATT.

"Well there you have it," David said quietly, after a long silence. "Nick Dean is a bad seed. I wonder if he even has a brother."

"But what could such a nerdy kid have done to wind up here?" I wonder aloud.

"I don't know, but I have one of those feelings we'll eventually find out." David closed the book and we hurried back to lunch.

So Nick was the first of his family to come to HATT, not his brother. I wasn't even sure if he had a brother at that point. He must have done something really bad for a kid who looked so innocent. I thought about it the rest of the day. I couldn't sleep, I was so busy thinking about what he could have done. I had no idea, and like David said, I had the strangest feeling I was going to find out.