WARNING!!!!! THIS STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC SNUFF. IT IS VIOLENT AND BLOODY. IT ALSO CONTAINS SOME CANNIBALISM. SOME OF THE VICTIMS ARE MOST DEFINITELY NOT WILLING PARTICIPANTS. IF THIS IS NOT YOUR KIND OF STORY, TURN BACK NOW. IF IT IS SOMETHING YOU MIGHT LIKE, READ ON.
REMEMBER THOUGH, THIS IS FANTASY. IF YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY SEPARATING THE REAL WORLD AND FANTASY, AND BELIEVE THAT DOING THIS TO SOMEONE MIGHT BE OKAY, PLEASE GET YOUR HEAD EXAMINED. I RECOMMEND HAVING SOMEONE DO IT WITH A HACKSAW.
THANKS AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS.
School Day II - Susan's Revenge
by Azalel
Friday - 4½ weeks before the End-of-Quarter barbecue Susan Callowell smiled. She found it, she thought. The tests would prove it if she could find corroborating evidence.
The first few weeks after the end of the first quarter had been rough. Her mother had been almost hysterical. Of course, that was to be expected. Her mother had not read the school contract as carefully as she should have.
Susan had come extremely close to being cooked for the class barbecue. The school had a policy that, should a student score below 80 for a quarter, that student would risk being selected as a live subject for a class (experiment) or end up as meat for the post-quarter barbecue. If there were not enough students to fulfill the meat requirements, the student's parents could be selected as well.
For the first quarter, Susan had received an 80, barely avoiding the risk. Her friend, Miranda, was not so lucky. Miranda had received a 78. As the only student in the class with a grade below 80, Miranda's parents were also selected and used as biology class specimens.
Miranda had to cut them open, remove their organs and allow the class to poke and prod her parents' hearts and lungs. She then had to stuff them and sew them back up. Her parents were to be spitted and cooked over a pit. Once her parents were prepared, the teacher, Miss Therriault, prepared Miranda as well.
Something had been troubling Susan about the whole ordeal and she decided to investigate. Her investigation, however, had to be put on hold when her mother received the DVD video of Miranda's family's demise. The note accompanying the video showed Susan's grade. Susan's mother, Sheila, had been near panic.
"Susan," Sheila asked, "what the hell is this? Did you know they could do that to us if you fail to get at least an 80 in that class?"
"Actually, mom, I found out after that last big test. Don't worry, though. I have everything under control. I am working with a tutor to bring up my grades. You, dad, and Milly will not need to worry about that."
"Well," Sheila responded, "I am sure that they want parents to be more involved in their child's education. I can understand that. I will be checking with your teacher on a weekly basis to monitor your progress."
The conversation had continued on like that for over an hour. It did not matter what assurances Susan gave. Sheila was terrified. Susan could understand. Miss Therriault had petitioned the school board to broaden the range of eligible family members.
The school board looked at the last barbecue and realized that the school had purchased a lot of meat from the processing plants. The plan proposed by Miss Therriault would have siblings and parents available for selection should a student fail to get an 80 for the quarter.
During the school board meeting, the vote passed and siblings were now at risk. Sheila had voted in favor of the plan, but that was three days before they received Miss Therriault's package. Now, Sheila was seriously regretting her vote. Should Susan fail to get an 80 or better, her mother, father, and 10-year-old sister could be selected.
Susan knew better. Regardless of how her grades turned out, her family would be fine. An easily overlooked paragraph of the contract specified that if the student volunteered himself or herself at least two weeks prior to the end of the quarter, no family members would be at risk. That meant that, should Susan volunteer herself in time, she would be the only one in her family to be cooked.
Susan had actually wanted to be cooked last quarter, but her discovery that her mother and father would be on the line caused her to change her plans. She couldn't leave Milly in that situation. The problem was that if both parents of a student are selected with their child, any other children in the family are handed over to the school system and become slaves until they reach 16 years of age. At that time, they are cooked for the end-of-year picnic.
Discovering that Milly could end up like that caused Susan to turn around. She had always been a good student and, now motivated, put all her efforts into bringing herself out of the danger zone. She succeeded.
Miranda had been a friend of Susan's for many years. They had been in elementary school together. Susan knew what had caused Miranda's grades to fall, but was under orders from Miranda to reveal nothing. Miranda had been sure that she would be fine.
Susan had been sure as well. That was why she had been shocked to find that Miranda had finished with a 78. And, to add insult to injury, Miranda was the only student to finish below an 80. Miranda and her parents were doomed.
Monday - 4 weeks before the barbecue The day after the barbecue, Susan had broken into Miranda's house and took everything she could that would remind her of her friend. Upon sorting through her acquisitions, she had discovered that Miranda had kept all of her papers from school. It was all there; tests, homework, etc.
The tests were what got Susan really concerned. They had studied together all the time. Miranda should have had no problem passing those tests. Susan could not figure it out. Miranda had always been smarter than Susan. How could Susan make it while Miranda did not. That was when Susan remembered Allison Holt.
Allison had been another of their friends. Allison and Miranda had started as fierce enemies. They were the two smartest kids in school. They were always fighting over the top spot in the class. After being together - and swapping the top spot between them - for more than 6 years, they had built a friendship.
Allison, like Miranda, always kept everything. She said it was for future study sessions. At the time, Susan had scoffed. Now, she was happy. She persuaded Allison to allow her to look at the tests from the previous quarter.
After examining the tests, Susan found several alarming discrepancies. Answers that had been marked correct on Allison's exams were marked incorrect on Miranda's. Susan showed both tests to Allison and was satisfied with the look of confusion on Allison's face.
"What the hell," Allison asked. "It looks like Ms Therriault was failing Miranda on purpose."
"It does," Susan agreed, "doesn't it?"
"Why would she do that? It doesn't make any sense."
"I think I know why," Susan said sadly, quickly raising her hand as she saw Allison perk up, "but unfortunately, I cannot say anything right now. If I find out I am right, I will let you know."
Allison was not happy with that, but she knew Susan. If Susan said she would do something, she would do it. Allison would just have to wait.
"Ok," Allison said. "But if it turns out that she did fail Miranda on purpose, what do you think would happen?"
"I do not know," Susan scowled. "But if I discover she did do that, I am going to find out what will happen."
Allison, seeing the dark look on Susan's face, decided to drop the subject for the time being.
"Do you ever wonder," Allison asked, "what Miranda felt as she was being spitted and put on to cook?"
"I don't have to wonder." Susan replied. "She was terrified. She didn't want it and she was horrified that her parents were also being killed."
"Didn't want it," Allison asked. "Who would?"
Susan did not answer. She just appeared lost in thought. Suddenly, she stood and grabbed her jacket.
"I have to go. Thanks for looking over these with me."
"No problem," Allison said as she smiled. "If you find out anything, you will really let me know, right?"
"Of course. If what I think is true, then it will really be interesting."
As Susan walked home, she thought about the problem. She had told Allison that she had an idea of why Miss Therriault would do such a horrid thing, but all she really had were vague ideas. It would take some time to flesh them out.
Miss Therriault, now that Susan thought about it, never really seemed to like Miranda. Susan did not know why, but it was enough, apparently, to cause the teacher to lie about grades so Miranda would die. What she needed, Susan decided, was an adult's point of view.
Friday - 3½ weeks before the barbecue Mr. Wilcox had been their homeroom teacher in the eighth grade. He was tall, slender (without being scrawny), and handsome. He was about 27 years old. He lived alone on a lovely tree-lined street about a mile from the middle school.
Susan was not sure what she was going to say to the man, but she was sure that he had liked Miranda. She had seen them together after school on multiple occasions. She had thought, at one time, that Miranda had a serious crush on him.
As she approached the house, she had a moment of doubt. Shaking off the feeling, she gathered her courage and knocked on the door. She heard a response and, a few moments later, the door opened.
Andrew Wilcox was as handsome as she remembered. He was also not very self-concious. He was walking around the house in a towel. Apparently, he had just gotten out of the shower.
"Susan," he asked in surprise. It was not often that former students came knocking on his door.
"Hi, Mr. Wilcox," Susan said as her eyes drifted uncontrollably down to the towel. "How are you doing?"
Andrew looked down and, seeing that he had answered the door while wearing just a towel, began to blush.
"I am d-d-doing just fine," he answered. "Why don't you come in. The living room is over there. Go make yourself comfortable. I am going to get dressed."
"What a pity," Susan muttered to herself. She walked into the living room and watched Andrew's back and butt as he disappeared into another room.
A few moments later, he was back. He was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. He had a beer in his right hand and a soda in his left hand. Handing her the soda, he took a drink from his beer.
"Well, Susan, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"Well, Mr. Wilcox..."
"Please," Andrew interrupted, "call me Andrew. I am not your teacher anymore."
"O-okay, Andrew. I have a bit of a problem and I do not know what to do. I think one of the teachers in my current school may have done something terribly wrong."
"What did he do?"
"She intentionally caused Miranda to get a grade lower than 80."
"Miranda....you mean Miranda Atkinson?"
"Yes. She ended up with a 78."
"Miranda got a 78," Andrew asked incredulously. "That is unbelievable. She was always an 'A' student. And you think a teacher made it happen? Why would a teacher do that?"
"So she could kill Miranda."
"What? I think you had better explain. I am a bit confused here."
Susan sighed. She had forgotten that the rule only applied to her school. Not all teachers would understand the implications.
"In our school, it was agreed by the school and the parents that, should a student fail (get a grade lower than 80), the student would risk being butchered, cooked, and eaten at the end-of-quarter barbecue. For a class of 25 or more students, they would select two boys and two girls. These would be chosen from the students who failed. It was designed to encourage the other students to do well."
"If an insufficient numbet of students failed, the parents of a failing student would fill in the gaps. If two boys and one girl failed, all three students were picked and a mother of one of the three would be selected to fill in for the second girl. This was designed to encourage parents to take a more involved role in their child's education."
"In the rare case where, parents included, they still failed to meet the requirements, the school would buy a meatboy or meatgirl from the meat processing plant. This does not happen often, but it does happen. In fact, it happened this last quarter."
"Miranda was the only student who failed. Because of this, both of her parents were selected as well. So on the last day of the quarter, the teacher made Miranda butcher her own parents and prepare them for cooking. Then the teacher did the same thing to Miranda."
Andrew was shocked. He had heard that this kind of policy was being considered by some schools, but he could not imagine any parents allowing this to go through. What kind of parents would allow their children to be put in this kind of risky situation?
Shaking his head, he looked at Susan. Without his realizing, she had, sometime during her explanation, started to cry. Tears were flowing down her cheeks and dripping on his carpet.
"Hey," he said as he moved to sit beside her, "I am sorry. I know Miranda was your best friend. I know she was one of the smartest kids in the class. Now tell me what happened to her."
"I really do not know much," Susan said as she wiped tears from her eyes. "When we started the school year, she was a bit distant. She was kind of distracted. When she saw our teacher, she was terrified. Her grades started to dip. I didn't realize it though because we studied together all the time and I was doing ok."
"She was scared when she saw the teacher," Andrew asked. "Who is the teacher?"
"A real bitch named Susan Therriault. Let me tell you, she seemed almost happy to cut into Miranda. She....."
Susan stopped talking when she heard a thud. Andrew had dropped his beer. The can lay on its side, the contents spilling onto the carpet.
"Andrew.....your beer," she said.
"What did you say the teacher's name is," Andrew asked, ignoring the beer on the floor.
Susan grabbed the can and set it on the table. Luckily, it was almost empty before he dropped it. There was not much beer on the carpet and, due to the color of the carpet, Susan did not think a stain would show.
"Her name is Susan Therriault," she replied. "Why? Do you know her?"
"You could say that," Andrew said sadly, shaking his head. "She used to be my fiancee."
"You were engaged to that bitch," Susan asked, shocked. "I think I just lost a little respect for you."
"I was," he admitted. "She really wasn't a bitch, then. The engagement ended at the end of last June. She found out I had another lover."
"You dog," Susan said, her impression of him returning to where it previously was.
"But I know why Miranda was scared now," Andrew continued. "You may not have known it, but after the school year ended, Miranda started coming on to me. Pretty heavily, too. I don't know how
it got out of control, but I was soon sleeping with her. Susan found out and got mad. I decided the best way to handle it was to break off the engagement."
"And she blamed Miranda," Susan said, the picture now coming into focus.
"So it would appear. But it wasn't Miranda. Well, not only Miranda. Susan had been getting unreasonably jealous. She hated it when I spent time with my male friends. She even accused me of seeing someone else when I had to cancel our date one night."
"Were you seeing someone else?"
"No," he replied. "It was right after midterms and I had to grade all of your papers. I was swamped with work."
“But how did she think she could get away with failing Miranda like this?”
Andrew thought for a moment. He could imagine a way. It was sneaky and, if caught, Susan Therriault would be in serious trouble.
“Tell me about the tests,” he said. “Not about the contents of the test, but the paper it is printed on.”
Susan was confused. She didn’t see where this was going, but trusted Andrew.
“They are printed on those contract-type forms. You know, three sheets where the person writes on the top one and the print is transferred to the sheets below.”
“I do know,” Andrew replied. “Do you know why they use those? We didn’t use those in middle school tests.”
“You’re right,” Susan said, now more puzzled than ever. “Why do we have to use those?”
“In a word,” he said, “accreditation. High schools are like colleges. For any diploma to have any real value, the schools have to be accredited by the United States Department of Education (USDoE). To keep that accreditation, the schools have to meet certain requirements.”
“One requirement,” he continued, “is that the schools must keep all test results on file for five years. In addition to that, they must send copies to the local USDoE office where they will be kept for future possible audits. Any school that fails to keep those records, or submit them to the USDoE will lose their accreditation. That usually causes the school investors to shut down the school.”
“I see,” Susan said. “But what does that have to do with Miranda’s tests?”
“Most teachers use different versions of a test when giving them. This cuts down on the possibility of cheating. An unscrupulous teacher could take the top sheet of one test version and attach it to the bottom two sheets of a different version of that test.”
“I think I get it,” Susan said, the light bulb flashing to life in her mind. “Susan answered a question correctly on the top sheet, but because the answer was wrong for the problem on the bottom two sheets, the school and USDoE would think she got it wrong?”
“Exactly. Now remember: this is just a theory. To prove it, you would need a copy of Miranda’s tests to compare with the ones on file with the school and USDoE.”
“But I have those,” Susan said. “Miranda kept all of her papers. She liked to use them for future study sessions. After the barbecue, I went to her house and took all her old schoolwork. I wanted to know how she could fail while I passed. I mean, I would have failed if she hadn’t helped me. She should have had a better grade.”
“Well, if you have the papers, then it should be a simple matter of comparing them to the ones the school keeps on file. Talk to your guidance counselor. Ask them to keep it a secret until you have proof.”
“Thanks, Andrew. You give me hope.”
“I only wish there had been something I could have done to save Miranda from being cooked. It must have been horrible.”
“Yeah. It was. At least her parents got the pain blocker. Miranda didn’t so she was in some serious pain.”
Andrew turned white. He had stood up in order to get another beer, but his legs suddenly trembled and he sat down, hard.
“Wh..what did you say?”
“She was in terrible pain.”
“She didn’t get the neural inhibitor?”
“The what?”
“The injection that shuts down the pain receptors in the brain. The pain blocker, I think you called it.”
“No,” Susan said. “Miss Therriault told her that she could not have it because it would diminish the effect on the other students. She wanted the other students to see how painful failing is.”
“Tell me,” Andrew said. “Did they record this?”
“The processing? Yes. They recorded it and sent it out to all the students’ parents.”
“They caught her telling Miranda she could not have the injection?”
“Um, no, actually. It is funny, but the sound cut out just before that. My mother thought it was due to camera malfunction. Why?”
“Well, every person processed for meat gets that injection unless they specifically request to not have it. It is considered cruel and unusual punishment to process someone without it. Susan would be in serious trouble if it were discovered that she denied the injection to someone, even if she was legally able to process her. Were there any other teachers there during the processing?”
“Miss Henderson, the Home Economics teacher, was there. Also, there were some men who worked with the caterers. They were helping the teachers who had students to process.”
“Then Miss Henderson may also be in trouble over this,” Andrew said. “Those cameras rarely fail like that. It is possible that Susan modified the video to protect herself. If she did, then she probably kept the original intact. She is a bit vindictive and would appreciate seeing her nemesis suffer.”
“If that is the case,” Susan asked, “how do I get the original?”
“It is probably at her house,” he answered. “She would not keep something that dangerous at school. You could break in, but if you did, it would not be admissible as evidence as it was obtained illegally. The best thing would be to go to your guidance counselor with your evidence and tell them everything. They can hold her long enough to get a warrant and search the house for the video.”
“But then, wouldn’t the courts decide what happens to her?”
“Yes,” he replied. He saw Susan’s look of disappointment and made an intuitive leap.
“You want to punish her. You want to do it yourself.”
Susan nodded, unable to say it.
“Well, if you have anything that can turn it into a personal matter, then you may get your wish.”
“What do you mean,” she asked.
“Has Susan threatened you or your family?”
“Well, not directly, but as soon as she found out about Milly, my 10-year-old sister, she petitioned to have siblings put into the selection pool as well as parents.”
“And you think she did it to get your sister in the pool?”
“Yes. I have been barely maintaining an 80 all quarter. If anything causes me to lose it, then we would all be eligible to be selected. I don’t think I could handle it if Milly was cooked because of me.”
“What other alternatives do you have?”
“Well,” she said, “I recently discovered that if I volunteer to become meat for the barbecue at least two weeks prior to the end of the quarter, my family will become exempt. Miss Therriault will not be able to touch them.”
“You would be willing to do that?”
“Sure. I have always been fascinated with the idea of being cooked. I almost let myself fail last quarter, but when I found out my parents would be put at risk as well, I went to Miranda to get some tutoring. She helped me pass with an 80. That is why I find it hard to believe that she failed. She did not want to die.”
“But you do.”
“I really don’t know. It fascinates me, and I would be okay with it, but I definitely do not want it to be at Miss Therriault’s hands.”
“But you want to kill her.”
“Yes. After what she did to Miranda and her parents, I want Miss Therriault to die an extremely painful death.”
“And what about Elise?”
“Elise?”
“Susan’s daughter. Elise is 12. She would have been my step-daughter if we had gotten married.”
“What kind of girl is she?”
“She is sweet. She and I got along great. I honestly think she was looking forward to having me as her dad.”
“If Miss Therriault died,” Susan asked, “would you be willing to adopt Elise?”
“Of course, as long as Elise was okay with it.”
“Then maybe we can satisfy everyone. If I can kill Miss Therriault, I will try to make it so Elise is not involved.”
“Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves. You first need to talk to your guidance counselor.”
“Right. One more thing, though. When we bring this up, motive is going to be an issue. They will want to know why Miss Therriault hated Miranda. Won’t you get in trouble over having sex with a 16-year-old?”
“No,” Andrew said, chuckling softly to himself. “When they changed the rules, making high school voluntary, they lowered the age of consent to 16. I could only be charged with statutory rape if I have sex with someone 15 years old or younger.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Few people do. Teachers do because of their interaction with the students. Legal authorities do because of the law. No one else was told. I guess they didn’t want to encourage 16-year-olds to have sex just because they could.”
“That takes a load off of my mind,” Susan said. She liked Andrew and did not want him to get into trouble.
“Well, thanks for all the info. I will go talk to my guidance counselor and see where we can go from there.”
“Take care, Susan. Keep me posted. And if it works out like you hope, let me know. I think I would like to be there for the barbecue.”
Susan just smiled as she got up and left.
Monday - 3 weeks before the barbecue Richard Killigan was not amused. He had expected to see Susan earlier than this. Her grades were almost enough to get her in some serious trouble. He had not expected her to come with an issue dealing with another student; especially not one that was dead.
“Let me see if I understand this,” Richard said. “You are about to fail and want to know about Miranda Atkinson?”
“Right,” Susan said. “I want you to look at her work and see if you see the same discrepancies.”
She handed the tests over to Richard and sat back in her chair as he looked over the tests. They were math tests; the subject that got Miranda on the menu. Richard was not overly keen on math so he did not notice the problem.
“Okay,” he said. “It looks like she failed her tests. So what?”
Susan had prepared for this. Fishing through her backpack, she took out her calculator.
“Do the problems she got wrong and tell me what you get.”
Richard sighed. Everyone knew that Miss Therriault was tough, but she knew what she was doing. The look on Susan’s face, however, made him do as he was told.
“Okay, okay,” he conceded, “the answer to the first one she got wrong is……743.”
“And she put?”
“Uh….that’s weird. She put 743.”
“Maybe that was a mistake,” Susan suggested. “Try another one.”
Her easy way of talking told Richard that he really did not want to try another, but, once again, her look demanded action.
“Okay. The next one is……uh……it looks like she got that one right as well.”
“Keep going,” Susan insisted.
Ten minutes later, Richard was disturbed. Some of Miranda’s answers were, indeed, wrong but she should have received a 90 on the test; not a 70. The other tests Susan had given him were the same. It looked like the teacher was intentionally causing her to fail.
“I do not get it,” Richard objected. “Why didn’t we catch it?”
“A friend of mine – my homeroom teacher from 8th grade – suggested looking at the copies you have on file. The marks made by the teacher and student should match up, but the problems would be different.”
“That could be,” Richard agreed, “but if that were the case, then it would obviously mean that the teacher meant the student to fail. Why would she do that?”
“First,” said Susan, “get the tests from her file. If I am correct about this, I will explain my theory. I do not want to say anything before that.”
Richard was back 15 minutes later, a folder in his hand. He was severely disturbed. If Susan was right about this - if Susan Therriault had killed one of her students - then the teacher was doomed.
"Okay," he said. "Let me see those tests again."
Susan handed them over and watched intently as he compared the student copy to the school copy. As she had suspected, the ones Miss Therriault marked incorrect had different problems on the school copy.
After the fourth test, Richard gave up. Susan had been right. The marks made by Miss Therriault and Miranda matched up perfectly on the tests.
"Okay," he said, "you have made your point. It appears that Miss Therriault intentionally killed Miranda and her parents. Why?"
"Because of Miranda's lover."
"What," Richard asked, not sure he had heard Susan correctly.
"After the end of the school year last year, Miranda started having an affair with our homeroom teacher. His name is Andrew Wilcox."
"Andrew Wilcox," Richard repeated. "Why do I know that name?"
"Probably because he used to be Miss Therriault's fiancee."
"What?"
"Miranda loved Mr. Wilcox but he wouldn't touch her until she was at least 16 years old. Once she reached that age, she would not be put off. She pressured him until he gave in."
"He didn't know what to do," Susan continued. "He was engaged to Miss Therriault but also had this teenager who was deeply in love with him. He tried keeping it platonic, but it soon grew beyond his control. One night he gave in and had sex with her. During their intercourse, Miss Therriault - who had a key to Mr. Wilcox's house - walked in on them."
"That must have been a shock," Richard sighed.
"It was," Susan agreed. "But there was a bigger shock to come. Mr. Wilcox had been growing increasingly disturbed when thinking about Miss Therriault. She had been exhibiting some possessive behavior that bordered on being psychotic. She was jealous of any time he spent with his friends. She had even accused him of seeing someone else when he canceled their date due to the need to correct student papers."
"Anyway," Susan continued. "When Miss Therriault saw the two of them together, she flipped. Mr. Wilcox decided he had had enough and called off the engagement."
"So the jilted bride goes after her former fiancee's lover?"
"That is what I think happened," Susan replied. "Tell me something, though. Is it true that all students that get cooked are given the pain blocker injection?"
"If you mean the neural inhibitor," Richard said, "then yes. State and federal regulations mandate that all humans processed for meat get the injection. Anyone failing to give those injections can be convicted of inhuman processing of meat and, as a result, end up meat themselves. Because they did not give their victim the injection, they do not get it either."
"Miranda never got the injection," Susan said. "Her parents did. She did not. Miss Therriault wanted to use Miranda as a warning to the other students how painful failing was."
"Are you sure about that?"
"I should be. Because I had the next lowest grade, Miss Therriault used me as her assistant. She wanted me to know what would happen to me if my grades did not improve. Miranda was screaming and crying the whole time. Miss Therriault had Miss Henderson hand out earplugs."
"It's Mrs. Henderson. She is married. She was there?"
"Yes. Mrs. Henderson and four of the men from the catering company were also there. I do not remember the caterers' names."
"The fact that Mrs. Henderson was there may actually help you," Richard said. "She could never handle confrontation and if questioned, she will likely crack under pressure and confess. That would, however, mean that, as an accomplice, she would also be converted to meat status and be cooked during the next barbecue."
"I do not care about her. She was a bitch who helped Miss Therriault torture my best friend. I do have one question, though. What would happen to Elise if Miss Therriault were found guilty?"
"Elise? Who is Elise?"
"Elise is Miss Therriault's 12-year-old daughter."
"I didn't know she had a daughter," Richard replied. "Well, if Susan is found guilty, she would be cooked - without the inhibitor - and her daughter could become property of the school."
"Could? It's not definite?"
"No. If there is a relative able to take the child in, the child goes to that relative. If not, then the child becomes property of the school."
"What if it was not a relative," Susan asked. "What if it was someone who wanted to adopt the child?"
"Stop beating around the bush, Susan. You have someone in mind. Who?"
"Andrew Wilcox. He was Miss Therriault's fiancee for two years and had a very good relationship with Elise. Elise was sort of looking forward to having him as a father before the whole thing blew up?"
"Do you think Elise would go for it?"
"Given the options, what do you think? I think she would love to be adopted by Andrew."
Richard chuckled.
"I see your point," he said. "I will look into this more. I will question Mrs. Henderson to get her side of the story."
"Thanks," Susan said as she got up to leave.
"Oh," Richard interrupted before Susan could leave. "One more thing. Regardless of how this turns out, your grades would likely put you on the menu as well."
"Thank you for reminding me," Susan said with a smile. She pulled the volunteer form from her backpack and handed it to her guidance counselor.
"What is this," Richard asked, dumbfounded.
"I am volunteering to be meat," Susan replied. "I would have become meat last quarter, but then I realized that my family would be put at risk too. Then this quarter, Miss Therriault succeeded in getting the PTA to accept siblings as well as parents should a student fail."
"I think she is hoping to cook my little sister, Milly. I could never accept that, so I dug through the contract and found out that if I volunteer at least two weeks before the end of the quarter, my family is not considered eligible. The deadline is in three days,but why wait?"
Richard was shocked. She wanted to be cooked.
"You want to become meat?"
"Yes," she replied. "A few years ago, my parents took me to a human-meat restaurant. I saw this beautiful woman being spit-roasted over hot coals and I knew that that was how I wanted to go. When I heard about the grade policy here, I was ecstatic. I tried to not be too obvious, which helped when I needed to pull my grades up to save my family."
"You do realize I will need to have your parents come in to sign their approval, right?"
"Yes, but again, given their options, I think they will sign. Right now, I have about a 65. There is no way to pull it up to an 80 now."
"Then," Richard sighed, "you will be cooked as well."
"Excellent. Now, I have a request."
"What is it," Richard asked.
"If I am right about all this, let me butcher Miss Therriault. I do not care who butchers me, but I want to have the pleasure of gutting that bitch."
"I think I can pull some strings. If, that is, you are proven correct."
"Oh, and one more thing. Can Andrew Wilcox attend her processing? He feels terrible that Miranda's death may have been a result of their relationship."
"We do not normally let non-school personnel witness the processing, but I think we can make an exception here."
"Thanks," Susan said as she turned and left.