The Seller

Okay, considering what happened that day, the story doesn’t actually start exciting. There was no prelude for what was to come. The classroom was warm and boring. Like, God, it was so boring. The teacher, Mr. Eric, had already remanded me for trying to read Doctor Alpha (my supervillian comic) in class; it was so unfair. I had already finished my work, not like I was interrupting his class or anything.

Hanging on my chair behind me was my bookbag, with multiple compartments and pockets, and Lucy in the seat behind me. I think she had a height complex or something. She looked nice, but I mean, I had never worked up the courage to talk to her.

Exchanging notes with Sid (who’s seat was to the right) was the only way I kept myself sane in this environment. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sid write something on a piece of paper and hand it to me when Mr. Eric was writing on the whiteboard. Unfolded, the paper had in his handwriting; I have to ask you a very important question.

Interested, I wrote back; What is it? After I handed it back to him, Sid wrote on it, refolded it, and gave it back.

I’m not sure you’ll be able to do what I’m going to ask…

Damn it, what is it, Sid? Passed it back.

Finally, he sent the note back and it said; Do you have an extra pencil?

No.

Cheapskate. Also, lend me your comic after class. The one you keep bothering me to read.

As the bell rang, finally announcing the end of class, we rose up. Lucy walked past me, and I swear she was avoiding my eyes as she dashed to the door and left.

Walking up next to me as we walked to the class door, Sid said: “Hey, can I have that new comic you’re reading?”

Smiling, I was looking forward to talking to him about how good it was, I said “Sure.” Sweeping my backpack off, I put it on a desk and rummaged through it. Before I could get Doctor Alpha though, I saw that my test papers were missing from in between my folders. I probably should have forgotten it and moved on, but I remembered what Amy had said about the Seller (more on that later). Shoot.

Sid readjusted his glasses and looked at me. “What’s taking so long? I want to leave.”

“Sorry Sid, can I give it to you another time? I have stuff to do.”

His eyes flicked to my backpack. “Did you lose the comic?”

“No, I lost my test papers. I think someone’s using them to cheat. Or, like, sell cheats.”

“Man, that’s not good. Maybe it was Lucy. Since she sits behind you, she would be able to take them. Right? Tell you what. You go on ahead and I’ll tell Mr. Eric about your tests, alright?”

After zipping up my backpack, I thanked him and left the classroom. As I speed-walked through the hallways, I knew that I couldn’t catch Lucy by now. She’d be long gone by the time I went to the school entrance. What else could I do? Making my decision, I headed over to the study hall room, which didn’t take long. It was a pretty small school, after all.

Opening the wooden door, I entered the library, which served double duty as the study hall. Luckily, Amy was there along with Bruce, who I pointedly ignored. He was studying at a different table than Amy, trying to read books and cram their knowledge in his thick skull.

Amy looked up and saw me. Waving, she pushed a chair out once she saw that I was heading towards her. Sitting down, I saw her looking over algebra notebooks. “Studying?”

“Yeah,” she said dismissively. “Did you come to help me?”

“Sorry, I didn’t. I need to ask you something. Remember how when you went into detention for tardies you mentioned that you found a business card in your desk?”

She nodded. “Yeah, it was for some kid calling himself the Seller. It was for selling test answers, I think.”

Well, that was easy. Guess I got a lucky break. “Do you still have the card?”

“No, I threw it away.” Of course, she did. “But, you can try asking Bruce over there.” She pointed at his bulky frame. “Maybe he still has the card.”

“I’ll go ask,” I said as I stood up, put my backpack on, and walked over to him. Bruce frowned when he saw me coming. Must've been in a bad mood, with all that work he had to do.

“What?” he asked, annoyed.

I kept standing up as I said, “Nice to meet you too. Look, my friend says that you were in detention a while back and that there were business cards in the desks.”

Bruce stopped working and looked at me. “Yeah, for some kid called the Seller. He always puts them in before detention and takes them out afterward. Guess they figure we’re all bad at school.”

“You wouldn’t happen to still have one, would you?” I knew he was lying when he wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Nah.”

“Look, give it to me and I won’t tell anyone where I got it.”

No doing. He still wasn’t budging. “Buzz off, I don’t have one. Even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you. You know how much trouble I would be in if my parents found out?”

When he saw that I still hadn’t moved, he stood up and got in my face. “Beat it, or I’ll beat you.”

In the face of this stalwart brickhead, I sighed (again). “Fine…”

Bruce closed his eyes and sighed too. Before I grabbed his collar and punched him in the face, that is. He fell backward over his chair. He groaned and held his hands over his face; he saw my determination (or I looked crazy) and rummaged through his backpack quickly and handed me the business card.

“Just take it, man.”

Nodding, I thanked him and waved bye to Amy as I left the library.

Making sure to put a hallway behind me, I leaned against the wall and looked at the card I’d worked to get. It was blank on the back, and on the front, it had a picture of a Rubik’s cube and a broom, with familiar handwriting; the name “The Seller” in the middle, along with her business hours being from five to thirty minutes after school ended. It instructed clients to go to the abandoned janitor’s closet in the west hallway. Of course, it also advertised that Seller sold test answers for middle and high school, but I wasn’t focused on that.

Rushing, I headed to the closet. I’d visited it before, it was a popular place for kids to stash things. It was about the size of a walk-in closet with metal shelves on all sides, cluttered with school supplies and projects.

Arriving at the featureless door, which had its doorknob on the left, I felt apprehension.

Not for long though, as I opened the door, which swung inwards, and I saw Sid standing inside, organizing papers and sheets under the single lightbulb in the closet. He swung around when he heard the door, but his face showed relief as he saw it was me. Stepping inside, I closed the door behind me.

“Jeez Kevin, don’t scare me like that.” Sid glanced behind him at the sheets and papers, which I was close enough to see looked like tests. Resigning to the fact that he couldn’t hide them all, he turned to me and said, “Look, I can explain…”

“Don’t. Just…” I clenched my fists; my mind was still catching up. I didn’t want to believe what was in front of me. “I already know about your business cards, the ones you put in detention.” Sid didn’t respond. He may as well have confirmed it. “You’re… The Seller? Seriously? You deal out test cheats to kids to lazy to do their homework?”

Quick to respond, Sid said, “Look, I’m sorry for not telling you earlier, but I was worried that you’d take it badly. I’m sorry for hiding it from you. Look, to be fair, these kids struggle and would cheat without me. I’m just making a profit off of it.” I stepped closer to look at the papers. I saw handwriting I didn’t recognize on top of one pile, and my name on the pile of another. Sid moved to the side, letting me look. “Tell you what, let’s run this together. We’ll split profits, how about it?”

Couldn’t believe it. My best friend had done all this. And, what, running the business with him. Although I didn’t like dealing with cheats, I could see how his point of view made sense. I didn’t know. Turning to face Sid, who’s back was to the door, he saw the conflict in my eyes and his face grew heavier. “Look, if you don’t join me, can you at least not tell anyone what I’m doing here?”

Steeling my resolve against… Well, he used to be my friend. “I’m sorry Sid, I can’t do that.” At first, he looked shocked, but then he grew determined. “Look, stop and I’m sure the teachers will go easy on you.”

Sid could barely hear me anymore. He grabbed a broom from his left and pointed it at me. “Man, we’re friends,” I said desperately, trying to avoid a fight. “What are you even going to do, knock me out?”

“Shut up!” he screamed, “We’re not friends anymore. And I’ll…” He prepared to jab the broom at me, and I raised my arms to defend myself.

Before we could duke it out in a closet, however, the door slammed open and slammed Sid, mushing him against the shelves. In the doorway, I saw Lucy standing in the doorway, panting like she’d been running all over school. In her left hand, she held some thin book and her right held the doorknob. “There you are!” she said. She noticed Sid against the sandwiched between two hard places and jumped back, letting go of the door. Sid slumped onto the floor, clutching his bleeding nose and groaning. Lucy exclaimed and put the book on a shelf, leaning over Sid to observe the damage., “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. It was an accident.”

Putting my arms down, I said to her, “Don’t worry, he was about to attack. Thanks for saving me.”

Lucy’s face. It went through shock, to confusion, to worry, to acceptance. “Okay, I guess?”

“We’ll take him to the nurse’s office in a minute, what did you want me for?”

She shrugged and grabbed the book from the shelf. “No need to sound indifferent. Look, I, uh.” She took a deep breath before handing me the book. It was Doctor Alpha, the comic I had gotten from IndieGoGo. Come to think of it, I had completely forgotten about it after I found my test missing. “I saw you reading it in class earlier and took it from your bookbag to see if it was any good. It, I enjot=yed it. Sorry for not giving it back earlier, but I was embarrassed to give it back in front of the whole class. So, I waited at the entrance, but you didn’t come. Man, I ran all over the school to find you. Bruce finally told me where you were.” Appropriately, she gave me a hard look. “Thanks for punching my friend in the face, by the way.”

Coughing nervously, I said “Sorry about that.”

“Fine, he can be a bit stubborn sometimes.” Grabbing Doc Alpha, I put it back in my bookbag. Moving over to Sid, me and Lucy carried him out of the closet and to the nurse's room. “By the way, do you have more comics that I can try? I figure you might know some.”

Smiling, I said yes.

It was quite a mystery, and while I did lose a friend, I gained a new and better one.