Schoolboy story Pt. 3

The others raised their eyebrows in anticipation and bent their heads to where Noel was looking to get a better look for themselves. Noel picked something up and held it between his fingers, inspecting it by squinting his eyes and furrowing his brow.

"What is it?" Joe asked, confused and wondering what exactly Noel was looking at because he couldn't see anything.

"It's hair," Noel stated, as confused as Joe.

"Aha!" Russell exclaimed, pointing his magnifying glass at it accusingly and raising one eyebrow.

"What?" Rhys asked.

"...Detectives go 'aha!' when they've found something, everyone knows that," Russell said with a smile and a slight roll of his eyes.

"What does that mean then?" Josh asked, slightly shaking, still worried about the safety of his hyena.

"It doesn't match your hair, Josh," Noel said after inspecting it a bit more and looking up at Josh's hair.

Russell jumped up on Josh's bed in a superior pose, holding his magnifying glass in front of his right eye and bending his upper half slightly in the direction of the others with his hand on his hip. "Me and Noel looked and found only two types of hair in this room, we had to guess whose the other one belonged to," Russell said, "and it belongs to someone else in this room."

Josh's mouth dropped open, not quite sure what Russell was getting at but the way in which he said it was slightly terrifying.

"So what? Rhys has stayed over here a few times, maybe it's his," Tom said, not seeing why hair was a massive clue anyway, he just wanted more tea, and possibly a Hobnob or two.

"Bob Skellyton!" Russell shouted, making everyone jump a bit at the magnificence of his voice, "check if the hair matches Rhys' over there," Russell said, pointing the magnifying glass swiftly at Rhys and squinting his eyes.

"It's like Tom said though, so what if it is mine? I stay here all the time," Rhys said, trying not to let his nerves get to him as all the attention was now focused on him.

"Rhys...do you have anything to say before we continue with our investigation?" Noel asked, trying to sound as official as possible.

"What? No!" Rhys said, slightly offended as he folded his arms.

Russell nodded his head at Noel and Noel nodded back, walking up to Rhys with the hair gripped unnecessarily tight between his thumb and forefinger, intent on not dropping it. He made it to Rhys and held the hair against his head.

"You know it's probably quite easy to tell if it's Rhys' hair or not without doing that," Faris said, looking at Rhys' silky smooth hair.

"This is a necessary procedure," Russell said, trying to silence Faris. "Detective stuff...you wouldn't know."

Faris clenched his fists til his fingernails dug into his palms and vowed to punch the smile out of him at some point when he got the chance.

"It matches!" Noel declared with his mouth wide open in shock.

"What does that mean??" Josh asked, on the brink of tears.

"It doesn't mean anything!" Rhys said, snatching the hair from Noel and disposing of it on the floor. "Of course it's my hair, are you stupid? I sleep here all the time! It's gonna be either mine or Josh's most likely!"

"We've got an arguer..." Noel said, looking towards the floor and turning the tips of his toes to face each other.

Russell lept off of the bed and landed next to Noel in front of Rhys with the magnifying glass right in front of Rhys' eye. Noel giggled slightly at the way that Rhys' eye looked through the glass and hid his face with the back of his hand; maybe he shouldn't have had all of those sweets before he came to Josh's house because he could feel them starting to affect him again.

"Rhys...Spider..." Russell started.

"Spider Webb," Rhys and Josh said in unison.

"Spider Webb," Russell said, "where were you on the night...or morning...of the...um, when was this taken?" Russell asked, looking at Josh.

"I couldn't find it last night," Josh said.

"Oh this is ridiculous, I'm going home," Faris said, turning around and slowly heading towards the stairs, almost at the point of breaking, although he was seemingly calm on the outside.

"Where were you last night?"  Russell asked, deciding to ask all of the questions himself as Noel was still trying to hide his face, continuing to snigger as he imagined Rhys' seemingly huge eye again.

"Here with Josh," Rhys said, looking at Josh for confirmation.

Josh nodded, eyes widening as the mood had gotten incredibly serious and he didn't like it. A tear escaped his eye.

"Do you have a twin brother?" Russell contuned to ask.

"Faris was right, this is insane," Joe interrupted. "Stop trying to make it look like Rhys did it, Rhys is nice."

"We're not trying to make it look like he did it," Russell said, using the term 'we' when evidentally it was only him who was interrogating at the time. "We're trying to make him confess."

"Confess to what??" Rhys shrieked, "I didn't do anything!"

"That's what someone who didn't do it would say," Tom said.

"Tom!!" Joe and Rhys exclaimed.

"Not helping!" Rhys hissed.

"You must have lost it before, Josh, because it's clear that someone took it and that someone is called Rhys," Russell said, pleased at himself for using such an elongated sentence that actually made sense in his head.

"I don't remember...I just remember last night," Josh said. "Did you really take it, Rhys?" Josh asked, lip trembling as he bit the tip of his thumb.

"No!!" Rhys said with his eyebtows raised, "how can you believe them even for one second? I'm your best friend!"

"It's hard when the thief is your own friend," Russell said, rolling his eyes.

"I didn't do it!"

*

The young Detectives walked through a forest, sheltered by the many leaves from branches that spread above them like hands outstretched, grasping for something unknown. They were on their way to their first day of school but neither boy was very enthusiastic about it and Noel had tried to say he was ill but it fell upon uncaring ears; he was still made to go. It wasn't very far so his parents allowed him to walk there with Russell because he was the only other person that he actually knew in the town.

"Come on then, I think I saw it on the window sill by the front door, it might still be there."

*

Rhys began to cry slightly, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket.

"Rhys wouldn't do that, they're best friends!" Tom said, hating seeing anyone cry; it made him feel uncomfortable.

"Rhys didn't do it," Josh said, shaking his head and grabbing Rhys' arm, "he wouldn't!" he added, pressing his head against Rhys' arm and taking in his familiar scent.

"Yeah, let's be serious," Joe said, "just look for it, we'll come to who took it later, but it definately wasn't Rhys, I bet."

Noel stopped giggling and looked at Rhys who was still crying slightly and felt a slight pang of guilt in his stomach, he didn't like seeing people cry either, it was just plain sad.

"Rhys..."

[to be continued - AND, who said the last quote?]