Tiffany was steeped in thought over the matter with Jon as she took her seat in Chemistry. As both goth and former bimbo, she normally couldn't be bothered to pay more than superficial attention to the teacher's droning anytime, much less when she had just learned such a revelation about the cause of the week's troubles. At first, her only response to the teachers a practically automatic "here" during roll call, and then back to her ruminations.
As it would turn out, though, roll call of all things would catch her attention that day. Tiffany woke up from her thoughts when the metronomic rhythm of name calling was unexpectedly interrupted. She looked up in time to hear Mr. Walker repeating himself.
"Zachary Jones? Zachary Jones? Mr. Jones is not here today?" It was unusual for Mr. Walker to ask confirmation from the students; normally he just scratched out an absence when the student in question didn't speak. After some murmured "no"s, scratch out an absence he did, but rather than resume roll call as he should have, he again asked the class about Zach.
"By the way, have any of you seen Mr. Jones recently?" Again there was general shaking of heads and murmuring of no, but this time accompanied by more curious looks at the teacher.
"The school has received a call from his parents, informing us that he was not at home last night and apparently missing," Mr. Walker explained as a way of explanation.
Curious looks were exchanged among the students, and ever-sympathetic Sabrina worriedly asked "Is he okay?"
"In all probability, yes. These things do get sorted out by themselves most of the time, so there's no cause for panic quite yet. That said, do keep an eye out for him until then; his parents must be worried sick. Now, if we may resume. Sabrina Johnson?"
Roll call and chemistry class continued as normal, and eventually Tiffany let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd begun holding. She, of course, knew exactly where Zach Jones was today, and had been the night before: He was still in his cage, with a few table scraps to munch on, waiting happily for his Mistress to return and experiment him into more of a beast. She could have been busted for it just then! In fact, she may still end up busted anyway; looking around, she could easily see students discretely pull out their phones and begin texting their friends, doubtlessly passing on Mr. Walker's info and asking if their friends had seen Zach. And those friends would ask their friends had seen Zach, and so on down the rumor chain until half the school had suddenly become a search party.
"It's all in your head, girl. Relax. You might draw stares," Tiffany thought to herself, but her heart was beating out of her chest anyway. It was dawning on her that she might be caught kidnapping and mutating and practicing witchcraft, after all, and suddenly her careless experimentation yesterday seemed extraordinarily foolish. Tiffany wore her best poker face and tried not to psyche herself too much over it, but at the moment, her inability to do anything else was driving her crazy. "After class," she thought, "After class I get the hell out of here and try to deal with the Zach problem before it gets too out of hand."
Any thoughts of Jon and his shenanigans were forgotten for now; for now, the bell couldn't ring soon enough.
