Hey, readers! I wrote this short story as a creative writing assignment from my English class. Three of my great friends from the same class significantly helped out with the project.

As Anna walked briskly down the school’s main hall to the kitchen, she noticed that there was a small note on the counter. She looked down to where the note was, and then noticed that there was no snack. She panicked. Galloping into the room containing the hungry students, Anna abruptly questioned,

“So who took the snacks?”. Except for the beating rain that was clanging against the tin roof next door there was dead silence. Gradually, everyone turned their heads to stare at Bill Carter. After all, he had been missing for ten minutes from class and had only given a vague explanation that he had just been in the bathroom. It would have been a perfect opportunity to hide the snack and then eat it all later.

“You were gone just earlier,” Kirby accused. “I’m sure you stole it.” Bill jokingly answered,

 “What? Mwah?” Everyone glared at him. He sighed and admitted, “All right you got me. I did it.”

Kirby shouted triumphantly, “I knew it!”

“JK” Bill laughed, “I didn’t do it.” Everyone glared once again. Corrie chose that moment to ring the bell, calling everyone back to class.

“It was probably just misplaced,” said Miss Beiler as everyone filed out of the room and, grumbling, moved on to their next session. The entire rest of the day the classes were buzzing, no-one could concentrate. Bill became more and more determined to clear his name. However, when he asked all the students and teachers if they had seen anyone, besides him, leave the room during class, they all answered with a no.

Bill was deeply frustrated. The whole school was blaming him for the missing snack, but he was completely innocent. He wished he had an alibi for why he had been out of class for so long, but no one else had seen him and he had already told everyone the truth. He had simply been in the bathroom. All night thoughts had been whirling in his head and he doubted if he even got three hours of sleep. Bill went to look for Anna.

“Anna, let me see that note you said you found,” he demanded.

“You mean the note you wrote?” Anna asked angrily.

“I didn’t write it!” Bill almost shouted. “And I want to see it! I want to figure out who actually took our snacks!”

“Yeah, sure” Anna said sarcastically, pulling the note out of her pocket. “All it says is ‘Bet you wish you knew where your snacks were.'” Bill took the note from Anna and scanned it.

“Hmm” he thought out loud. “It’s signed ‘Joe Bob the Skeleton’”. Because it was typed, it did little good to analyze the writing. He agreed that Anna had read the note correctly, although the last word was a little difficult because of the black smudge of ink that partially covered it.

Bill mulled over his discovery as he purposely walked to his chemistry class. It had been several hours since the incident, and still no one knew anything regarding the missing snack. Sighing, he nodded greetings to Sam before being greeted by glares and mumbles in the classroom.

“All right, now that we’re all together we can get started.” Mr. McKay began. “During lunch make sure that you print these papers to be ready for use in the second session.” Bill’s usually extraverted and dramatic character barely showed as Mr. McKay’s voice droned on.

Finally class was dismissed and Bill headed  toward the printers.

“Hello” he half sighed when he noticed Mr. DeMoss, fingers coated with ink, taking apart a printer. Bill saw his grinning mouth move but was too engrossed in his own thoughts to hear what was sure to be a joke. Bill plugged his computer into the printer, clicked print, and waited for the laptop to load. As he waited he watched Mr. DeMoss thoughtfully stroke his chin while critically regarding his work.

“Ahh…mmm…yes…” Mr. DeMoss mumbled to himself before adding another tweak to the cord. Bill gasped. No. He thought. For when Mr. DeMoss’s hand left his chin, streaks of black ink from his fingers were left. As Bill thought back to the ink on the ransom note he realized who was the real thief. Barely able to refrain from an outburst, Bill said,

“Sir, I was just wondering if you knew anything about the missing snack.” Mr. DeMoss glanced up and replied,

“If I knew something about it wouldn’t I have told?” Bill frowned and answered,

 “Probably not if the ink smudge on the note was from your fingers.”

To Bill’s astonishment, Mr. DeMoss broke out in a fit of laughter. Bill yapped angrily,

“Don’t be ridiculous. I know it was you.” Mr. DeMoss only laughed harder. Finally, when he had composed himself he admitted to the crime and promised to explain to the whole school over lunch break. Still Furious that Mr. DeMoss had not owned it earlier, when he saw how much blame was put on himself, Bill could only mutter,

 “Well, thief, this explanation better be good” before he grabbed his printed papers and ran to the lunchroom.

When Bill reached the lunchroom, the students were arguing loudly. A few teachers were still trying to keep the peace, but most had given up and gone back to their classrooms. Everyone was feeling grumpy and forlorn due to missing snack for a whole two days.

“Okay everyone!” said Bill. “Mr Demoss has something to say to y’all. “

Mr Demoss smiled  “I stole everyone’s snack. Bill here found me out. Really it was just a massive prank and I am more than willing to treat you all to Joma cinnamon rolls tomorrow.”

Finally, the mumbles and glares in the room were not directed to Bill. Mr. Demoss turned to the boy beside him, who was beginning to understand why Mr. Demoss laughed earlier.

“I suppose I owe you an apology. I never realized that you would get so much hatred and distrust from them.” Bill sighed. He was just glad to finally have his name cleared. Besides, with the promise of Joma cinnamon rolls it was impossible to remain angry. The wrath had died down in the lunchroom so Mr. Demoss turned back to the kids.

“ And now, since I know you can’t keep waiting… I hid the snacks downstairs in the drawer for cleaning rags. If-“

He was instantly swarmed with angry students tripping over one another to get to the door or rushing to get down the metal stairs to the kitchen.

Mr Demoss shook his head.

“Wow. Better be careful when it comes to those kids and stealing their snacks. You will face their wrath.”