'YOU COULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING, you know that, don't you? You could have gone anywhere. You could have done anything, anything!'

Point taken. Sure I knew, kind of, only didn't really believe it. It was something Miss said often, but mostly only to Tommy.

'How could you do such a thing? Are you on drugs? Are you? Are you even listening to me, hello!?!'

I nodded, and shuffled from foot to foot, wishing I could do a little dance and Miss would laugh and everything would be like before. She was good like that, sometimes, but not right now.

'Look! Just look! How? How could you?'

It was an accident, I was going to say, only didn't. Everyone saw me stab Tommy with the pencil.

'And don't try to tell me it was an accident. I saw you. Everybody saw you. We've got 25 witnesses.'

I squirmed and looked down around the floor, wishing for a hole to open and suck me the hell out of there. If only life was more like PlayStation. The trail of blood led to where Tommy lay under the window, his head in Mr Baine's lap, my pencil still sticking in his eye. Mr B was stroking Tommy's hair but never once took his eyes off me. I could still make out my teeth marks on the pencil, from ten feet away, from where Miss had backed me into the corner.

But maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed and they'd fix Tommy's eye, and the others would come back in and we'd continue with maths. I mean, he was still awake, he was still speaking—fuuckeer, you fuuuckeeeeeeer—but softly, I could only barely hear him. Mr B was on back-up with his 'ssshhh Tommy ssshhh ... ssshhh Tommy ssshhh.' And way off out the window, sirens drilled the screams of the kids in the yard.

'Your parents are going to be so disappointed. How can they ever lead normal lives after this? You're not even sorry, are you?'

Oh, I was sorry all right, but for what she'd call 'all the wrong reasons.' I never liked him. Tommy-this, Tommy-that. I was attending the Everyone Loves Tommy School.

'And take your eye off of that window, young man. You're not going anywhere.'

Shit.

'What am I saying? Not going anywhere? Ha! Oh, you're going somewhere all right, you little bastard, and I hope they keep you there for a very, very long time.'

It was a shock to hear her talk like that, considering she was always reminding us to be a positive example to the younger kids in grades one and two. The fat around her neck was shaking, which normally meant it was time to pipe down or there'd be extra homework, but something told me that wasn't something I had to worry about.

'Why!?!'

Boy, was she angry. I'd never seen her like this before. It wasn't like the whole thing was pre-, pre- ... you know ... like planned or something. It was just one of those things that happens sometimes, only this was more serious, I could see that. Funny, huh? I could see. Okay, maybe not.

'Why?' she asked again.

The answer even sounded dumb inside my head, so no way was I putting it inside her head. Tommy-this, Tommy-that, Tommy's got the coolest hair, and the coolest shoes and the coolest everything and and and, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. I just lost it. I mean, he got the answer wrong!

There was a commotion, outside the door. Paula Jenkins made sure to close it. She was the last out when they all ran screaming. I kind of liked her, Paula, she always looked so clean and neat. Probably when we'd be grown-ups, me and her would look back at this and laugh.

The door started to open slowly, and from behind it appeared the barrel of a gun. I really hadn't expected this, I thought my mum might show up, or maybe Mr Nugent, the principal. But not a gun. My dad was at work, and I knew that if he showed up, I was in real big trouble. Miss had her back to the door, but it was like she knew.

'This is it, punk,' she said. 'They're coming for you.'

Another gun appeared, higher up, and the door swung silently open. There must have been eight of them, ninjas, in the door. They weren't regular cops, that's for sure. Dressed in black from head to toe, they wore motorcycle helmets with dark visors, and red lasers crisscrossed the room from their guns. They spread like magic to different places in front of me. Now this, this was some really cool stuff, but I couldn't stop the pee running down my leg and into a pool on the floor. I looked down and felt ashamed and embarrassed in front of everyone. I was shaking everywhere, my legs, my arms, my face, my eyes, everywhere. I gulped back tears. Miss seemed a little ruffled herself, but her kind face had returned.

'I hope you burn, you piece of shit,' she said, from between gritted teeth. So I was wrong. I looked over at Tommy. He was all quiet now, still, and his good eye was closed and his mouth gaping wide open. He didn't look so good anymore, like some dead guy on TV. Mr B was crying, but not looking at me anymore.

One of the ninjas whispered, 'Okay, ma'am, we'll take it from here, back away slowly.' They moved so slowly like they weren't moving at all. Wow, I said to myself, wow, I'd love to be able to move like that.

Miss backed away a little.

'Sorry, Miss,' I blubbered.

'Tell it to the judge, you scumbag,' she answered.

Somewhere behind me, I heard her scream, 'No!' but by then I was already falling, out the window down the many flights, to the school yard below.


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