Part 7

A week had already slipped away since Norton had disappeared and the news stories seemed to grow less and less interesting. There were still some rumblings from a few of us who really needed to know what the hell happen to our classmate. In a few months from now all of the senior class would be preparing to graduate. If we couldn't solve this before Spring break we might not ever know why or even where Norton had gone.       

James and I had decided to opt out on the next meeting regarding Norton that afternoon. Instead we had come up with our own idea of how to proceed investigating this mystery. I patiently waited on James at the end of the gym building as I eyed balled every student that passed by. You never know what kind of people might be sitting right next to you in class these days.     

Finally after waiting for what felt like hours, James walked through the double doors; book bag slung over his right shoulder and a hand full of papers in his left. He was wearing a smile for a change which could mean good news or maybe he had just punched Dusty and in that case that would make me happy. Either way, hopefully James was on to something and now we would have a place to start.       

"Hi Si, Everything good today?" he asked looking around as though he expected a problem to show up at any second.
"I'm good, so what's up? What ya got there?" I asked looking at the papers in his hand; my curiosity was getting the better of me. Okay, what can I say, I'm nosy too.   

"Let's walk." He took hold of my arm pulling me along with him. We had gotten about ten feet from the gym building when James stopped in the middle of the parking lot, dropping his book bag on the ground he finally showed me the papers. "I got hold of Norton's transcript. It's his entire school record." he sounded excited about his obvious theft.      

I just stood there for a few seconds staring at him. “Have you lost your freaking mind James? How on earth did you yank this from the school office?" I just stood there in awe not knowing what to expect him to say.
         "Are you kidding me? Hanna Mills plays office clerk during lunch." he answered.
         "Ok, and?" was all I could come up with.      

"So I made a trip to the office and just found my way to the records room, with Hanna. Who by the way has the impression that she and I have a date this Friday." he winked at me as if he knew a secret that maybe Hanna didn't.        

"So, now you may or may not have a date with Hanna and you managed to steal Norton's records. James exactly how does this help our investigation?" I said as I stood there with some sort of stupid look on my face. I was no doubt missing something here.        

"Come on Si let's head home. We've got some talking to do, but for our purposes let's get to a place where we can just take a good look at what I believe maybe the reason why Norton went missing." he picked up his book bag slinging it over his shoulder. He took a step forward turning his head slightly back towards me grinning again, "I'm feeling real good right about now. Let's go sleuthing."    

Picking up my book bag I walked fast to catch up with James. I couldn't imagine why the heck he thought having Norton's school records would prove to be of help, but I was going to give James the benefit as I just had to trust that he knew what he was on to.       

There are times that we all think that we know everything about the people in our lives. Then again, exactly how can we really know about anyone that may not be aware that there are deep secrets in their own lives?