Free Spring-Heeled Jack by Wyll Andersen

it was lost on the ground
and when the two bumped into each other, Varnum landed on it,
shattering it into ruble. But that wasn’t possible. Despite the
professor’s boney butt, it couldn’t have destroyed a
ring.
     
    Atticus snuck his way up to the second
floor to Principal Shepard’s office. The door was a standard wood
fame with a glass window pane marked with the principal’s name:
Principal Dorothy Shepard.
    Having the principal to one of the
nation’s most well-known schools be a woman was a pretty hot topic.
Most school headmasters, especially for private prep schools like
Fortuna Prep, were men; but Dorothy Shepard showed the whole world
what she was capable of. Since she’d taken over, the school hadn’t
burned to the ground like some had said, but instead flourished.
She was an exceptional leader and speaker. Because of her, students
were more inclined to work harder. She listened to the students as
well as the staff. She also had connections to very fit and abled
professors like Professor Banner whom she’d met when she was a
university professor. Of course, that didn’t make her perfect. She
did still hire Professor Varnum after all.
    She was also an advocate for smaller
class sizes and more professors overall. Shepard could easily
negotiate with the Zebulon higher ups in charge of the school’s
budget in order to get that done.
    “ If these students are to be
working for Zebulon,” she would say, “then should they not be
taught to their fullest abilities? These students will be Zebulon’s
future, and as such we should spare no expense.”
     
    Atticus peaked into the principal’s
office and saw her speaking with Varnum and the Nelsons. Quickly,
he crouched down and pressed his ear to the door, trying to listen
in.
    It all sounded okay except for when
Varnum would butt in. Principal Shepard and the Nelsons would be
calmly discussing plans for this “Memorial Dinner” as they were
calling it, but Varnum would then jump in and push his own agenda:
guests to invite, newspaper headlines, proper location, etcetera.
Worst of all, whenever he would say something, no matter how stupid
or selfish, Mrs. Nelson would agree wholeheartedly. Then, after his
wife agreed, so would Dr. Nelson.
    It made Atticus’ blood boil to hear
how they treated Mike’s death like it was just the theme of the
evening, almost like they’d been planning the dinner long before
his death. Maybe they had? If is theory was correct and the Nelsons
were working with Varnum, they could have been planning this since
before the year started. Maybe the Nelsons were the ones who got
Varnum a job at Fortuna Prep: So he could keep an eye on their
son.
    Atticus pressed his ear to the door
even harder.
    He heard Principal Shepard say, “Let’s
not forget the reason behind this event. We are to mourn the loss
of a student, your son, and try to prevent things like this from
happening again.
    “ Yes, of course,” said Mrs.
Nelson.
    “ Did you think we were
trying to suggest something else,” Varnum asked.
    “ Not at all. It’s just that
we can’t get to distracted from our goal.”
    Varnum sighed and said, “Yes, yes. Our
goal to prevent future tragedies. I just feel thatwe can use this
to help so many other foundations.”
    How could he say that, Atticus
thought?
    Varnum wanted to make this about him
as much as he could. He didn’t even care that a student was dead.
Here was this grumpy old man who claimed to be a professor, but was
terrible at his job, and instantly jumped onto the biggest campus
tragedy in recent history simply to get some notoriety as a
philanthropist. Atticus saw through his guise. He was nothing more
than a selfish, greedy fraud.
    Atticus couldn’t sit by any longer. He
didn’t care how much trouble he got into, he needed to find a way
to reveal the professor’s true colors.
    He threw open the door and barged his
way in, marching straight up to Professor Varnum.
    “ S-Sorry to disrupt,” he
said, “but I