School Saga Part III: The Mystery of the Missing Bag
The Missing Backpack
This is the third in a series of stories about back in the days, when school was fun and interesting. When the cute boy who could do math got the girl and the bully learnt a valuable lesson, or did she?
The school bell rang as Stephanie and Sharon walked to their first class of the day. Stephanie spotted her English teacher down the hall and decided to chase after her to find out about the Essay Writing Competition that was announced last week. She was hoping to enter and win the prize which was a trip to Disney World. She liked going to Disney since the first time she went with her parents, her aunt and cousins who live in Miami.
"Mrs Frazer, Mrs Frazer", Stephanie called as she ran toward her. She conversed with Mrs Frazer and wrote something down on a sheet of paper. She joined Sharon and together they went into the classroom. Shernette was waiting for them.
"Did you hear what happened?" Shernette asked excitedly.
"Nooo" said Stephanie a bit distracted as she put the paper safely away in the side of her backpack.
""Annette was suspended last week for spilling drinks on Mark Brown." she announced.
"What do I care?" asked Stephanie. "She should be expelled, if you want my opinion." she offered.
"Well," said Shernette, "You haven't heard everything yet."
"What?" asked Stephanie, getting a little annoyed of all this talk about her least favourite person.
"She's moving to Timbuktu." said Sharon sarcastically.
"No." said Shernette."She is in our class as of today."
"You're lying!" said Stephanie, rolling her eyes and shaking her head in disbelief of Shernette was saying.
Just then Annette walked into the classroom. She took one look at the Stephanie, Sharon and Shernette and walked away from them. Stephanie went up to her and asked "What are you doing in this class?"
"Dah! What does it look like?" Annette retorted and walked away.
Stephanie went up to her she pointed at her and gestured to her while mouthing that she was watching her. Annette glared at her and walked away.
Miss Walker introduced Annette as a new student to the class and suggested that the rest of the class should welcome her and offer some help with some of the classes that she had missed as this was the second week of high school.
At break time the girls went out for their usual chat and snacks. Stephanie reached for her bag to get some money for a snack, and then she remembered that she must have left it in the classroom. She borrowed some money from Sharon and plan to pay her back when they went back to class.
Shernette was becoming very popular around school as more students hear about the games room that she has at home. Everyone wanted to play in the state of the art games room that Shernette shared with her family. It had all the latest video games, pool table, Soccer Foosball table and even a bowling alley. You could watch movies from big screen similar to a movie theatre. They even had a popcorn maker and all the snacks like a regular movie theatre. Shernette's home was the happening place to be. Anyone who got an invitation to her home considered it a privilege.
As Stephanie, Shernette, Sharon walked back to their class, they saw Sandra going back to her class. "See you at lunch." said Stephanie to her.
"You bet!" said Sandra as she hurried to her class.
As the girls entered their class, Mr Brady was writing something on the blackboard. He was their Math teacher and he was a very good one at that. Stephanie sat at her desk and looked around for her backpack. It was nowhere in sight. She remembered that she left it beside her desk during Religion. She tried to remember if she had put it somewhere else. She tapped Martha who was sitting in front of her, "Do you see my backpack?"
"No." she said.
'That's strange' thought Stephanie. 'I didn't take it with me when I went for break and I didn't stop anywhere before the snack counter, where can it be?'
"Shernette," she whispered "Do you see my backpack?"
"No" said Shernette, looking around to see if she saw it.
"Please take your seat, Stephanie." said Mr Brady.
"I'm trying to find my backpack, sir" said Stephanie.
"Well, we are ready to start the class. You can search for it afterwards" said the teacher.
"But I need my textbook, sir." Stephanie said.
"You can share with someone." the teacher replied.
Stephanie shared with Jonathon who sat to the right of her. He was a reserved, brilliant and good looking guy. He was considered a geek because he wore glasses that were as thick as a Pepsi bottle. She knew him since grade six; he never got in any trouble. He kept to himself.
Mr Brady explained about Algebra and worked a few examples then it was time for individual work. Jonathan had an easy explanation for figuring out the answer to an equation. It made the calculation so much easier. Stephanie had always had some challenges with Algebra, now she found it so easy. She was breezing through the exercise and enjoying it. "Who would have thought that Math could be fun?" she asked Jonathan.
"I knew it is fun" he said smiling from ear to ear.
After class, it was lunch time and Stephanie enlisted the help of Shernette, Sharon, Mr Brady and Jonathan to search for her backpack. They looked everywhere in the class, even the trash can. It was nowhere. "Are you sure that you brought it to the class this morning?" asked Mr Brady.
"Yes!" the girls answered in chorus.
"And you are sure you didn't take it with you during break and maybe left it someplace?" inquired Mr Brady.
"I didn't see her leave the classroom with her backpack." said Shernette
"Neither do I" said Sharon.
"Then it is a mystery!" said Mr Brady. "That bag grew feet and walked out of here." he said laughing.
"This is no laughing matter, sir." Stephanie replied with frustration in her voice.
"Go report it lost at the office." advised Mr Brady.
Stephanie was upset that she could not find her backpack. 'where could it be?' she thought.
She went to the principal's office and the secretary announced that a black backpack was lost and if found, to return to the office.
The girls met in the cafeteria for lunch. They all speculated about what may have happened to Stephanie's back.
Ronnie joked, "Maybe Annette took it when you were not looking and dumped it in the garbage."
"Even though she is known to do mean things, I don't think she was involved with this." said Stephanie.
They chatted about last Friday evening when they were at Shernette's home playing games. They were joking how poorly Sandra bowled. How she had rolled the ball to the corner without hitting a ball several times. They joked about Ronnie's clumsiness with the foosball table and how Jake nearly killed him at the game. Then Stephanie spotted Jonathan across the room. She whispered to Shernette, "What do you think about Jonathon?"
"He's a prude and a geek." she whispered back.
"You're right, but he is smart and he loves Math." Stephanie whispered.
"Sounds like you have a crush on the geek." said Shernette, a little too loud. Everyone at the table heard her.
"Stephanie likes the geek!" repeated Sharon with surprise.
"That's enough!" said Stephanie.
"No, we have to get to the bottom of this." said Ronnie. "Right Sandra." he said it more as a statement than a question.
"Yah! Who is this person?" prompted Sandra "Is he cute? Is he smart? Is he a jock? Pray tell!" she mocked at Stephanie.
"He is none of you business!" retorted Stephanie.
Stephanie felt a tap on her shoulder, it was Jonathan holding her backpack.
"Where did you get that?" Stephanie asked in surprise. She grabbed her bag and started rummaging inside to find out if anything was missing.
"That girl over there..." Jonathan was pointing across the room " she was just there." he said lamely.
"You were played!" said Ronnie to Stephanie. "I think Jonathan was trying to get your attention. Right Jonathan? he asked with a wink.
"No, no" said Jonathan timidly. "A girl with very low cut hair and big earrings gave this to me. She told me to give it to Stephanie Bernard." he said convincingly.
"Can you show us the girl?" asked Stephanie.
They all went looking for the mysterious girl.
The characters in this story are not real. The plot and setting of this fiction maybe at a high school near you.
See also School Saga: Elementary School
