Table of Contents [Report This]
Disclaimer: The characters from The Pretender don't belong to me, I think they still belong to NBC, I'm not sure but I do know that they aren't mine. I'm only borrowing them. The characters from Malcolm in the Middle don't belong to me either, they belong to Fox. I would also like to give credit to Craig Van Sickle, Steven Long Mitchell and Linwood Boomer for creating all of the wonderful characters I am using in this story, and thank them for the countless hours of entertainment both shows have provided me with.
Authors Note: Since Malcolm in the Middle premiered, I have believed that Malcolm NEEDED to meet Jarod, and a recent episode proved it. Malcolm visited his guidance counsellor because he was confused about what to be when he grew up. He took a test, and the counsellor informed him that he could be absolutely anything, that he was perfect for every single job out there, and that the test told them exactly that. So, just so you know, that's one of the reasons why I wrote this. And as a side note, this is supposed to be set after the events of the Pretender 2001, and in the early seasons of Malcolm in the Middle.
JAROD IN THE MIDDLE
by SpaceCadet
Malcolm Wilkerson looked up from his comic book, startled, as Mr. Johnson the school principal walked into the room. "Class, as you already know, since Miss Caroline's unfortunate, er... accident, we have had some trouble finding a substitute teacher to teach this class."
Malcolm could have sworn the principal looked right at him, as though he knew that it was Malcolm who messed up the codes directing the
rocket launcher. Was it his fault Miss Caroline was talking to the janitor that day? Or his fault she was pregnant? He couldn't possibly have known what would happen. Besides, it was his friends who actually fired the rocket. As Malcolm was thinking, with terror, about what his
mother would say if she found out about that little incident, his thoughts were halted by one of his Kreylboyne friends, Stevie Kanarban poking him in the side. "Malcolm..." wheezed Stevie, who as usual sounded as though he were struggling to stay alive. Malcolm, his daydreaming interrupted, looked up to hear Mr. Johnson say "... so let me introduce your new teacher, Mr. Carey."
For all of his worrying, Malcolm had failed to notice the tall, dark haired man standing beside the principal. 'Wow,' thought Malcolm looking at
Mr. Carey, 'they finally found someone brave enough to teach the Kreylboyne class.' Since Miss Caroline had been gone, the class had been told to use the day for quiet study and reading. Occasionally the teacher in the next room had stopped in to check on them. None of the schools regular substitutes would teach the class, probably because of the rumors about some of the students in it. Mr. Carey stepped forward, and began to more properly introduce himself while the principal quietly slipped out of the room, almost afraid that if he stayed any longer something bad would happen. "As Mr. Johnson just told you, my name is Mr. Carey, but I'd prefer it if you called me Jarod."
Malcolm's friend Dabney put his hand up and waved it in the air like a maniac. "Yes," said Jarod quietly. "I'm sorry, but I feel that by telling us to refer to you on a first name basis, you are upsetting the precious social customs that we've all by now become familiar with. I must regretfully decline your request, Mr. Carey."
'Well,' thought Malcolm, 'trust Dabney to make a big deal out of a little thing.' Dabney had always been upset that Miss Caroline used her first name. He felt it would lead to anarchy. Then again, Dabney felt everything would lead to anarchy. "Well, I really don't mind if you call me Mr. Carey, but I would prefer it the other way..." he paused to look at the class seating plan, "...Dabney."
The man was obviously taken aback by the boy's bluntness. It took him a minute to compose himself. "Now," said Jarod, continuing, "
I would like for all of us to get to know each other a little better, so why don't you each tell me something about yourselves. You first, uh..." he paused to check the seating plan again, "... David."
"Well, my psychiatrist says that I have acute attention deficit disorder and that I show signs of paranoid delusions. She says there's a good chance that one day I'll snap."
This was most definitely not the answer Jarod was expecting, and so once again he had to compose himself. 'This class is definitely going to be an interesting one to teach' Jarod realized, as each student told him a little more than he wanted to know.
********************
Malcolm was leaned over the metal picnic table, huddled into a tight group with his friends, chattering excitedly about something. What it was, Jarod couldn't tell. Of all of the students in Jarod's class, Malcolm was the one who intrigued him the most. Unlike the rest of the kids he taught, Malcolm seemed fairly normal. He seemed to be extremely intelligent, but also grounded and down to earth in a way the other students weren't.
As Jarod stood on the pavement, kids yelling and screaming all around him, his focus on Malcolm was broken by one shout in particular. He quickly turned around to see what was going on.
"Hey, get off of me!!!!!" yelled a short and stocky second grader. He was screaming at an obviously older bigger dark-haired boy who was being pulled back from the boy by two other kids. It was obvious to Jarod that the other kids wouldn't be able to hold him back much longer, so he began to walk over to break up the fight. Before he could get there and to his amazement, Malcolm had left his friends and was pulling the older boy away.
"Reese!!! What in God's name are you doing?" questioned Malcolm.
"Beating on the dweeb." replied Reese.
"Reese!!! Another fight!! You're already grounded for a week for the last one!!!"
Malcolm was absolutely incensed over what Reese was doing. 'If Mom finds out Reese got into another fight, she'll find some way to blame it on me, for sure.' he thought. A moment later, he was even more furious at Reese because now Mr. Carey was coming over. 'Great,' he thought 'now the new teacher is going to think I'm a troublemaker!'
To Malcolm's surprise, the teacher didn't lecture him at all. "Malcolm," he began "Thank you for breaking up the fight back there. That was very noble of you."
Oh no, now the new teacher thought he was, like, a hero or something! Mr. Carey continued talking, but now to Reese. "As for you, hasn't anyone ever told you not to pick on people who are smaller than you."
"Yeah, but if I pick on kids who are bigger than me, I'll get my ass kicked!"
Jarod was dumbfounded by this statement, trying to wrap his mind around Reese's logic. Finally, he found the words to continue. "What's your name?"
"Bozo the clown," replied Reese calmly, always looking for a chance to defy authority.
"This is my brother, Reese, Mr. Carey." replied Malcolm, not wanting Reese to get himself into more trouble.
"Your brother?" asked Jarod.
"Unfortunately." replied Malcolm.
Jarod was perplexed at this. He had loved Kyle even though he had known he was his brother only for a little while. Yet, Malcolm acted embarrassed and ashamed that he had a brother. Suddenly, Jarod was curious as to what Malcolm's family was like.
"Well, this is actually an opportunity for me to kill two birds with one stone," Jarod said happily, since he had only recently learned that expression and had been looking for an excuse to use it. "You see, I wanted to meet with your parents to discuss you anyway, Malcolm and now I can discuss this incident involving Reese as well."
Jarod smiled, and Malcolm nearly fainted. Now his parents and the new teacher were going to meet! He was going to kill Reese when they got home.
********************
Lois walked calmly through the school hallways, not wanting to appear edgy or nervous. Beside her, her husband Hal was a nervous wreck, sweating and loosening his tie. Dragging their heels behind the two were Reese, Malcolm and their younger brother Dewey all three of whom would rather be anywhere else.
Dewey stopped humming for a moment. "Why do we have to come to school again?" he asked innocently.
Lois was in a bad mood that evening. She had been treated like dirt by staff at this school before and was prepared to not take any crap from Malcolm's new teacher. As far as she was concerned, she was going to go in there, hear whatever horrible thing he was going to tell her about Malcolm and then give him a piece of her mind. She was aware that her kids had a reputation with the teachers at the school, and also aware that she did as well, but she was determined to stand up for her boys. "Because Malcolm's teacher wants to talk to me and your father." replied Lois harshly.
"Oh. Okay." Dewey went back to humming and started to skip down the hallway a little ahead of his brothers.
Malcolm was nervous about what it was that Mr. Carey was planning on saying to his parents, wondering what it was that he had done wrong. Was it possible the teacher had found out what he and his friends had been planning? He extremely apprehensively followed his parents through the doors to the classroom, and began to sweat when he saw Mr. Carey sitting behind his desk waiting for them. Reese, however, looked perfectly calm and at ease.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Hi..." said Lois quickly, while sitting down. "Listen, whatever Malcolm did..."
"He didn't do anything wrong, Mrs. Wilkerson..."
Lois interrupted him. "Hey, don't interrupt me buddy! What do you mean he didn't do anything wrong? Why the hell are we here then?" The tone in her voice was extremely angry, and Jarod couldn't help but move his chair back a bit. He noticed that her husband was extremely nervous and sweating, and that there was a younger boy in the room who appeared to be talking to a spider in the corner. None of the other parents had brought their children with them.
"Well..." Jarod began, "You're here because I would like to talk to you about Malcolm's progress in the class. I also wanted to meet you because I feel it's important that I speak with the families of all my students." This was true, he actually had talked to a lot of the other parents. "I have noticed, though, that you don't seem to be as active in your son's education as some of the other children's parents. Also, I have encountered a few problems with Reese on the playground..."
Lois immediately became defensive and turned to her son. "REESE!" Jarod had to move his chair back even further, and he noticed her husband did the same. "What were you thinking?? More fights!!!! What do I have to do to get it through that thick skull of yours that fighting will only get you into trouble?? And YOU..." she now turned on Jarod. "I am well aware that my son can be a handful sometimes, thank you very much! And also, I don't need stuck up teachers telling me that I need to be more involved in my son's education!!! Maybe if you were doing your jobs...."
"Ma'am will you calm down please!" Jarod almost begged the woman to stop. He had never seen anyone so worked up over nothing in his life. She stopped her rant for a moment. "I only wanted to mention it. Malcolm is doing really well in class. In fact, one of the problems I have with the other students is that their parents are a little TOO involved in their kid's educations. So just back off, OK?" He didn't know where his sudden defensiveness was coming from. He tried to calm himself down.
Malcolm just stared at his teacher. He had actually put his mom in her place, just a little bit. Wow! Even Reese looked impressed. This teacher was so much cooler than Miss Caroline! Why hadn't he noticed it earlier? 'Oh no,' thought Malcolm, suddenly extremely upset, 'I have to stop the Kreylboyne's plan!'
********************
Miss Parker strode confidently into the cramped office, and was pleased to see that her sudden appearance had caused Broots to spill hot coffee into his lap. She almost smiled at the sight of the technician panicking. "Something wrong, Broots?" she asked sarcastically.
"N...no Miss Parker," replied Broots timidly, his pants still soaked with coffee. "I... umm... I think I may actually have a lead... on Jarod."
"Really?" said Miss Parker, not wanting to sound overly excited. Jarod hadn't contacted her in three weeks, or Sydney as far as she knew. Then again, that was only as far as she knew. You never could tell what was going on with Sydney.
"Y...yeah," said Broots. He was captured on a security camera in a local convenience store in..." he paused to check his screen, "...California. Two weeks ago."
Just then, Sydney strolled into the room. "What's going on?" he asked curiously.
"We have a lead on Jarod." replied Parker. "Pack your bags Syd, because we're following your little lab rat out to California."
********************
"Well, Broots...?" Parker asked later that day while on the corporate jet to catch up with Jarod.
"Wha... What?" he replied, unsure as to what she wanted.
"Tell me what else you know about Jarod's latest pretend!" she snapped at him, impatiently.
"I don't..." he mentally cringed, preparing to be yelled at, "I don't know anything else..." He struggled to find a way to defend himself before she verbally attacked him. "I mean... I only know that he was seen on that security camera. The only reason I know that is because there was a robbery there later that night, so all of the footage was sent to police, see, and..."
"Broots!" she interrupted him. "I don't want to know how you found him, just where!"
"W... well, I don't know exactly where. Just the city and state." he replied.
"Wonderful." said Miss Parker bitterly. "So how are we supposed to find him, let alone catch him?"
Sydney took this conversation in with interest. Parker was obviously very frustrated at having had no contact with Jarod these past couple weeks. He thought that maybe a part of her frustration was also because of recent events, such as her father being in the hospital. He could only hope that she wouldn't take her frustrations out on Jarod, as she often did.
********************
The next day before class started, Malcolm sat nervously at his desk. He had tried and tried to talk Stevie and the others out of their plan, but they had already set everything up. When Jarod walked into the room, he would trip a wire which would trigger a bucket of homemade slime to fall on his head, at which point he would stumble around stunned, which would trigger another bucket full of ketchup to fall. When he had first devised this prank with the other kreylboynes, it had been a fantastic plan to drive away the new teacher, but now he wasn't so sure it was right. Jarod actually seemed like a cool guy. But, apparently it was too late to stop the other guys. So all he could do now was sit, wait and hope that he didn't get into trouble.
Once the whole class was seated, Jarod strolled into the room... and casually stepped over the wire. How did he know? thought Malcolm. He watched, astonished, as the teacher looked down at the wire, then up at the bucket. "Nice try." said Jarod, in a tone that almost sounded like he was impressed. He then proceeded to sit down at his desk and begin the lesson as though nothing had happened.
Jarod calmly continued with the lesson he had planned, trying not to laugh at the absolutely stunned faces of his students. He had been thoroughly warned by Miss Caroline about the dangers of teaching this class, and had been expecting the worst after hearing the stories told by the other teachers. In fact, he had been expecting a lot more than just a bucket of slime. 'Now,' he thought, 'I've shown them that they can't get rid of me that easily!'
Halfway through the class, everyone was feeling a little calmer, when the door opened and in walked the principal, Mr. Johnson. He tripped the wire and the class watched as the first bucket, and then the second, fell right on his head. Malcolm sat, almost laughing, but knowing that now they had really gotten Mr. Carey in trouble. The principal was obviously seething, and after a moment, he pointed a slimy red finger at Jarod and beckoned for him to follow him out of the room. Malcolm was now really worried. Jarod had gone white as a sheet. He watched as the shocked teacher followed the principal out of the room and into the hallway, and listened as the rest of the class howled with laughter.
Out in the hallway, Jarod was absolutely stunned. He had definitely not been expecting anything like this to happen, and now he was in trouble. He stood quietly and waited for the principal to say something.
"You're fired." said Mr. Johnson quietly.
"Ex... excuse me?" said Jarod, not entirely processing what had happened.
"You heard me. You're fired. You will teach today's class and then pack up your stuff." The principal turned and walked away, leaving Jarod alone in the hallway. Jarod felt like throwing up. He had never been fired from anything before. He had never given anybody a reason to fire him. Now what would he do?
********************
Jarod trudged down the empty street in the pouring rain. There was no reason for him to be walking. He was just bored and walking seemed like the thing to do. The cloudy gray skies seemed to match his gloomy mood. He was depressed. He had been fired. And it was on a job that was supposed to be a break from Pretending. He didn't know what he was going to do now, or where he was going to go. He could probably talk to Sydney but for some reason he didn't feel like calling him. In fact, he didn't really feel like doing anything at all.
Parker shook her umbrella off as she sat down at the booth in the small diner. She and the others had spent the whole morning looking all over the city for Jarod. They had talked to the clerk at the convenience store and done a thorough search of all the buildings in the surrounding area and they had come up with nothing. Annoyed, Parker gave a glaring look to Sydney. "Well, Syd... we've now spent the entire morning searching for your little labrat and come up with nothing. Any thoughts?"
"Well..." said Sydney thoughtfully "Perhaps Jarod led us here on purpose to find something. Maybe there is something here he wants us to uncover..."
"I don't..." Broots cut in nervously "I don't think that's it, Sydney."
"Oh." said Parker mockingly "and why is that?"
"Because" replied Broots "Because Jarod just walked by..."
Before he could even finish his sentence Parker had also seen Jarod pass and had taken off out the door and into the rain.
"Parker..." yelled Sydney from the doorway, but it was too late. She couldn't hear him. "Broots, come on." Sydney ordered, and they both took off after her.
Jarod was walking along with his shoulders hunched and his head down, thinking about his current problem when he heard a shout from behind him. He instantly recognized the voice of Sydney. Almost without thinking he took off down the sidewalk. Thinking that maybe he was running for no reason and maybe it was his imagination he briefly looked behind him and caught a glimpse of Parker running down the sidewalk behind him trying not to trip in her expensive black heels. He turned back around and took off across the road as quickly as his legs would move him, all the while constantly turning around to see if she was still chasing him. He had almost lost her when...
Malcolm sat solemnly in his mothers car on the way home from school. She had come and picked him and his brothers up because of the rain. He was still thinking about his teacher. Well... former teacher now. He felt really bad that he had gotten him fired. However, he still hoped that the principal didn't find out he and his friends were behind the prank. His mother would ground him for life! He was lost in his thoughts when...
WHAM!
"Oh my God!" said Lois, putting on the brakes so hard that they let out a piercing shriek. "Oh my God!" She got out of the car and walked around to the front to look at the figure lying unconscious on the ground there. "Oh my God. Boys! Boys! Get out of the car!"
"Cool. Did we kill him?" said Reese.
"NO, we didn't... well I don't think we killed him." replied Lois, noticing the blood that was starting to pool underneath the body.
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Malcolm worriedly. "It's my teacher!"
"Hey, it is. Well... let's get him in the car, and we'll take him to the hospital, I guess..." replied Lois at a loss for words.
Parker ran as fast as she could at the sound of the screeching brakes. 'Damnit Sydney!' she thought. 'I would have had him if he hadn't opened his big mouth.' After Sydney had yelled to her, Jarod had taken off like a shot and gotten a couple of blocks ahead of her. She ran around the corner expecting to have caught up with Jarod again and instead found noone. She looked around. There was noone around. Soon, Sydney came jogging up, with Broots not far behind him.
"Shit!" yelled Parker. "He disappeared again."
"Wh... where did he go?" asked Broots, confused.
"I don't know, idiot. If I knew I wouldn't be standing here, would I?" Parker replied angrily. "Let's get back to the hotel, Syd. He might turn up again."
"I doubt it, Miss Parker. If Jarod knows we're here he'll leave town for sure."
"Yeah well I don't feel like going back to the Centre just yet. We'll get the jet back tommorow."
And with that she turned around and walked away, leaving the other two to follow behind.
********************
"Wh...where am I?" Jarod asked groggily.
"Mom... he woke up." yelled Reese from the back seat, where he was crammed in next to Jarod.
"What happened?" Jarod asked.
"I hit you with the car. Sorry."
"Mrs. Wilkerson? You hit me with the... the car?"
"Yes. And listen, I may have been the one to hit you, but it's not my fault. You were the one who darted in front of the car like that. I mean, geez it's a wonder you're not dead. In fact you're bleeding enough that you might not last much longer."
She was right. Jarod knew it. He could feel the blood oozing and drying onto his left side and his forehead. He was dizzy and his head hurt like hell. After taking a few moments to pull himself together and concentrate on not losing consciousness again, he remembered the reason that he had run out in front of the car.
"Where are we going?" Jarod croaked, panicking.
"We're going to the hospital." Malcolm said calmly, turning around from his seat in the front of the car.
"Malcolm..." said Jarod, beginning to put the situation together in his mind. "Malcolm we have to turn around."
"What?" screeched Lois. "We are not turning this car around. You need serious medical help."
"Please..." begged Jarod. "You don't understand. I went to medical school... I can tell you how to help me, but we can't go to a hospital. Please..."
"Mom..." stated Malcolm seriously, "He sounds really serious."
Without a word, Lois pulled the car around in a sharp U-Turn and headed in the opposite direction back towards the house.
"Fine... but if you are involved in anything illegal I'm turning you in, just so you know."
"Thank you..." said Jarod, nearly losing consciousness again.
As Parker walked away, Broots and Sydney stayed behind for a few moments before Broots shrugged and walked after her. Sydney, however, had noticed something worrisome. On the road, nearly faded away in the pounding rain, he could vaguely make out a blood stain. Thinking back, he remembered the screeching brakes that he had barely heard while chasing after Parker and Jarod. He began to worry that maybe Jarod had not disappeared at all, but had been in a car accident. The way he had been sprinting through the streets it would be entirely possible. After thinking about it for a moment though, Sydney decided that he wouldn't tell Parker or Broots about his thoughts just yet. Perhaps he would phone a local hospital and find out what had happened himself first. He nervously walked away from the street to where he knew Parker and Broots would be waiting for him.
********************
Once the car had screeched to a halt in the driveway, Lois quickly got out and helped Jarod into the house, practically carrying him. "Well... are you three just going to stand there?" she complained. Quickly the three boys rushed out of the car to help their mother get the bleeding man into the house. 'I hope he doesn't die or something' thought Malcolm as he helped lay his teacher down on the couch.
Jarod moaned and groaned as the family helped him get comfortable on their couch. He could barely keep awake, he was in so much pain, but he knew if he fell asleep he might not wake up. "OK..." he croaked. "Mrs. Wilkerson do you have any bandages... or even better, a needle. You might have to stitch my wounds up. Are you OK with that?"
"Jarod, I am the mother of four troublemaking boys. There is no kind of wound I haven't seen before. I'm fine with it."
"Good." replied Jarod as Lois went to the kitchen and retrieved the things they would need from the first aid kit. "I guess we'll start then."
Sydney hung up the phone in his hotel room , relieved. None of the hospitals in the area had a patient come in matching Jarod's description. He had even called the police station to be sure, but there had been no reports of hit and runs in the area either. Sydney had nothing to worry about. He knew that Jarod was probably fine and planning some new pretender somewhere, but for some reason, he still couldn't shake the feeling that the blood he had seen in the alleyway had meant something...
After two and a half hours of painfully being bandaged and stitched up with no anesthesia, Jarod finally felt that it was safe to sleep, and he quickly fell into a deep slumber. Lois had just given Dewey a bath and put him to bed and was tidying up the medical equipment when her husband walked in the door,whistling to himself. "Hey Hal." she called out.
"Hello." he said, walking into the living room and kissing her sweetly on the lips before noticing Jarod lying on the couch.
"Honey?" he asked confused. "Why is there a bleeding man lying on our couch?"
"Oh." replied Lois calmly. "He's Malcolm's teacher, remember? We accidently ran into him with the car this afternoon."
"OK then," replied Hal, still confused but not wanting to continue the conversation, "I hope you left some dinner out for me..."
********************
The next day, a very groggy Jarod awoke to the smell of burnt toast, and the sound of Malcolm and his brothers arguing. He tried to get up but found that his body ached too much for him to get very far. He tried to remember exactly what had happened the day before, but everything had happened so fast that it was all a blur. All he knew was that he had been fired from his job because of a prank played by Malcolm, and then his mother had run him down with her car. 'Boy,' he thought with a smile, 'I should really get out of here. If I stay here much longer this family will probably kill me. In fact, they very nearly did.' He was about to attempt once more to get up when he noticed a small boy, whom he assumed was the youngest brother, staring at him from the chair next to the couch. "Hello" he said with a moan as a new wave of pain came over him. "What's your name?"
"Dewey." replied Dewey. "Are you evil?"
"No." Jarod answered, taken aback by the question.
"You're not?" asked Dewey innocently.
"No, I'm not." replied Jarod. "What would make you think that?"
"My brother says that you're evil and that you've come to kidnap me and take me away from my family forever, which I said would be OK because then he couldn't always pick on me, but then
he said that when you took me away you would eat me, and use my bones to summon evil spirits."
"He did?" said Jarod amused, but also shocked. "Well, you have nothing to worry about. I'm not evil."
"Oh." said Dewey. "OK." And with that he left the room, leaving Jarod to painfully pull himself into an upright position. He slowly stood up and stumbled into the tiny kitchen, flinching from the pain after each step. He entered the cramped room to see Lois screaming at the eldest brothers and Hal calmly reading a newspaper amidst the various toys and spilled food that littered the kitchen table. Hal looked up and noticed Jarod standing there, and gestured for him to sit down. He did so carefully and painfully and took a moment to steady himself before looking back up at Hal. "Good morning." said Jarod.
"Good morning," said Hal. "Mr..."
"Just Jarod will do." Jarod finished for him.
"Aah... well good morning Jarod. Feeling any better this morning?" Hal replied cheerfully, oblivious to the chaos surrounding him. Jarod, however, was not. His temples throbbed and a wave of nausea and dizziness passed over him before he had a chance to reply.
"I can see you're not. My wife told me about what happened, and I'm uh... I'm really sorry. It's just that with four boys it gets a little distracting sometimes... I'm sure she didn't mean it." Hal continued
"Hal!" Lois shrieked, "Of course I didn't mean it. Geez, will you stick up for me please. And I was not distracted, in fact it wasn't my fault." With this sentence she turned to Jarod. "If YOU had not been sprinting across the road like a madman than maybe I wouldn't have hit you. And by the way, why in God's name were you running like that anyway, I mean you weren't even looking where you were going! What kind of a moron takes off like that into the middle of traffic?"
"Ma'am," Jarod shouted as loud as he could without throwing up, "Maybe if your child hadn't gotten me fired from my job then I wouldn't have been wandering around outside in the rain. Then you wouldn't have hit me, either! We can put all the blame we want on people but it doesn't change anything..." As soon as the words came out of his mouth he regretted them. He had no concrete proof that Malcolm had any part in the prank. It was just an assumption he had made based on the boy's past history. He watched in half horror as the angry woman turned on Malcolm like a hungry wolf.
"You got him fired!" Lois exploded at Malcolm. "You never told me that! I can't believe this. Well, you are grounded for one month, Mister. That's right, you are grounded! That means no TV, no video games. Oh no, you are going to sit in this house and twiddle your thumbs for the next month!"
She turned back to Jarod, but this time her expression was softer and she was much less angry. "I am so sorry, I had no idea he had gotten you fired. And now thanks to us you have hospital bills. God I am so sorry. Are you OK?"
"Malcolm, I can't believe this!" she yelled to her son. "You know what, why don't you stay here for a few days?" she said to Jarod. "I mean, with no job and in your condition you're not going to be able to do much."
Jarod thought about it for a moment and realized that she had unintentionally been extremely right. With Parker and the Centre in town and him hurt the chances of him getting caught had significantly risen, and they'd probably found his lair which meant he couldn't go back to his place anyways. It was a good thing he had stowed the DSA's in a locker at the bus station. "I guess that would work. It would only be for a few days though... but where would I sleep, and I have no clothes..."
"Well, the couch pulls out so I could set that up for you. And I'm sure Hal could run back to your place and grab some of your things for you, or you could borrow his... that all right with you Hal?" she said, taking charge.
"Oh, I have no problem with that." her husband replied.
And so once again Jarod was overwhelmed by everything that was happening. He barely had a chance to blink before Lois was in the living room arranging furniture and bedding and making room for him. 'Well,' he thought, 'At least it will be an interesting few days.'
Malcolm couldn't believe it. He had thought that Jarod was so cool and had been so worried about getting him fired, and now his former teacher had totally ratted him out to his mom! 'Well,' he thought, 'if Jarod's staying with us, that gives me every opportunity to take my revenge...'
********************
Sydney was lying in his hotel room bed, sleeping peacefully when his sleep was interrupted by an unusually exuberant Miss Parker. "Wake up, Syd because today is the day we bring back your lab rat!"
"What are you talking about, Parker?" Sydney said groggily. "Jarod left town remember, since he knew we'd found him."
"Oh no, Syd. Your genius slipped up. Broots tracked down his lair, finally, this morning so I sent a couple of sweepers down to check it out, not expecting him to be there. But he's still there, Syd!"
Sydney began to get out of bed. "They found him..." he said rather solemnly.
"Well..." said Miss Parker, "They didn't find him exactly, but all of his stuff is still there! All of it. He still lives there, Syd. Come on..."
So, Sydney got dressed and followed Miss Parker to Jarod's most recent apartment, not knowing what he would find but getting more worried by the second.
Once at Jarod's apartment, Sydney had to agree with Miss Parker. It did appear as though Jarod was still living there. It wasn't likely it was a set-up, as the sweepers found information about where Jarod was working in plain view. There were clothes still in the closet, and he had given no notice to the landlord that he was planning on leaving. All evidence was pointing to the fact that he was still living here, except for the fact that he apparently wasn't.
Miss Parker was rather disappointed when the landlord told them that Jarod had not returned to his apartment in two days, exactly how long it had been since she had lost Jarod in the alley. The fact that he hadn't even come back for his computer or his clothes only made Sydney more worried, since he knew it could only mean two things. One, that Jarod had been so spooked seeing Miss Parker that he had decided it wasn't even worth finishing his Pretend or cleaning out his apartment, which wasn't likely. Or two, that Sydney's suspicions were right and Jarod really was hurt somewhere.
Sydney was trying to listen to what Jarod's landlord had to say, while lost in his own thoughts when he spotted a man who had just come into the lobby. He stood there for a moment, but then took off. Sydney had a suspicion that this man might know what happened to Jarod, but thankfully noone else had seen him, so he left it alone. Perhaps he would try and track the man down later.
After getting all they could out of the landlord and leaving the sweepers to clean out Jarod's apartment, Miss Parker decided to call it a a day, determined that tommorow the three of them would check out Jarod's job, as a teacher at a local elementary school.
********************
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. At Lois' insistence, after a breakfast of mushy cereal and sugary orange punch, Jarod had lain back down on the couch and relaxed for the rest of the day, in between throwing up from the nausea he still felt. 'Too much, too soon' thought Jarod. 'I'll have to give it a few days before I'll start to feel better again.' Still, it did feel good to relax, something he didn't get much time to do in between running from the Centre and his Pretends. That was what he had become a substitute teacher to do, right? He had meant it as a bit of a break. And he had to admit that it felt really good to be sick and have someone looking out for him.
It only took a few hours for Jarod to realize that he wasn't going to be able to relax. It was hard for him to even begin to relax around the Wilkerson's. When Jarod finally fell asleep after two hours of tossing and turning, Malcolm had come into the living room, yelling and screaming at his brother, and jumped on him. He'd then picked up the TV remote control and cranked the television up to full volume and played video games with his brothers until his mother came in, caught him and dragged him by his ear to his bedroom. And that made it even harder for Jarod to sleep, as she yelled at Malcolm and berated him for close to an hour for not respecting their guest and for breaking his punishment. Even though she was in another room with the door closed, he could still hear every word of her tirade. She even tacked an extra two weeks on to his grounding. Jarod was annoyed at Malcolm, but he almost felt sorry for him at the same time. He was, after all, in the middle of their living room, and he knew that Malcolm was probably bored. Jarod felt a pang of guilt as he realized that Malcolm's punishment was his fault to begin with.
Lois left for work finally and everything was quiet for maybe an hour when Dewey came crashing into the room with what appeared to be all of Lois' pots and pans and kitchen utensils and began to bang and crash them together, and play them like drums. All this, while singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" at the top of his lungs. Jarod's peace and quiet was once again disrupted. The thing that really annoyed Jarod, though, even in the middle of all this, was that the boy was just singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Not the verses, not the chorus, just "Twinkle Twinkle..." repeatedly over and over again. Jarod took his pillow and put it over his head to drown out the sound but it didn't help. This went on for half and hour until Hal came in. Jarod noticed that Hal didn't punish Dewey. In fact Hal seemed scared of what his wife would do if she found out and he just told Dewey to stop. When Dewey didn't, he told him to go to his room with the pots and pans, which he did, singing "Twinkle Twinkle..." all the way there. Finally things settled back down.
Jarod slept peacefully for several more hours until he was startled awake by a scream. He opened his eyes to see Malcolm and his brother Reese wrestling less than four feet away from him, ramming into things and knocking things off of tables and shelves. The two appeared to notice he was up because they stopped for a moment. "Oh, are we bothering you, Mr. Carey?" Malcolm said, slowly and deliberately. "A little bit." whispered Jarod, cringing from his pounding headache. "Sorry." said Malcolm, and then he and his brother promptly went back to wrestling. They finally left an hour later, but not before knocking an entire bowl of what appeared to be day old cheesies all over the couch. This time Jarod could not get back to sleep at all, since every time he moved he heard a soft crunching noise coming from underneath him.
Finally, Lois returned from work and made dinner, which she brought out to him on a tray. Even though she made pork chops and mashed potatoes for her family, she went to the trouble of making Jarod soup and crackers. She came over and sat with him for a few minutes while her boys wolfed down their food, and helped Jarod get up into a sitting position. It was then that he noticed his right leg was starting to swell. "Thank you for all of your help. You really don't have to do this for me." he told Lois, as he examined his leg with his hands.
"Oh, it's no problem. It's the least I could do, I mean, my son did get you fired. And I did run you down with the car, I guess... even if it wasn't my fault." She paused for a moment, looking a bit nervous about what she was going to say. "Jarod, are you..."
"Yes." said Jarod, becoming worried that he had broken his leg without realizing it.
"Are you running from the law?" she asked.
Jarod looked up from his leg for a second. "What makes you ask that?"
"Well," replied Lois, "you wouldn't let us take you to the hospital. And when Hal went to your place to pick up your stuff there were some people in your apartment looking around..."
"Did they see him... I mean, did he tell anyone I was here at all?" asked Jarod nervously.
"No, are you kidding?" replied Lois. "He turned around and left. Hal never did like confrontations..." She waited for a moment, while Jarod said nothing. "Jarod, you didn't answer my question?"
"No, I'm not running from the law." Jarod replied slowly. "That's the absolute truth. The people at my apartment were..." he struggled to find a way to explain it, and then came upon a decent answer. "They were my ex-girlfriend and some of her friends. I broke up with her, but she still won't leave me alone." He almost smiled as he thought about the irony of this lie.
"Oh." said Lois, satisfied. "Well, I guess you don't want her to know you're here then."
"No, not really." replied Jarod, watching as Lois reached under his pillow for something.
"Jarod..." she said. "I just have one more question."
"Ask away." said Jarod.
"Why are there cheesies all over my couch?"
TBC...
Authors Note: Since Malcolm in the Middle premiered, I have believed that Malcolm NEEDED to meet Jarod, and a recent episode proved it. Malcolm visited his guidance counsellor because he was confused about what to be when he grew up. He took a test, and the counsellor informed him that he could be absolutely anything, that he was perfect for every single job out there, and that the test told them exactly that. So, just so you know, that's one of the reasons why I wrote this. And as a side note, this is supposed to be set after the events of the Pretender 2001, and in the early seasons of Malcolm in the Middle.
JAROD IN THE MIDDLE
by SpaceCadet
Malcolm Wilkerson looked up from his comic book, startled, as Mr. Johnson the school principal walked into the room. "Class, as you already know, since Miss Caroline's unfortunate, er... accident, we have had some trouble finding a substitute teacher to teach this class."
Malcolm could have sworn the principal looked right at him, as though he knew that it was Malcolm who messed up the codes directing the
rocket launcher. Was it his fault Miss Caroline was talking to the janitor that day? Or his fault she was pregnant? He couldn't possibly have known what would happen. Besides, it was his friends who actually fired the rocket. As Malcolm was thinking, with terror, about what his
mother would say if she found out about that little incident, his thoughts were halted by one of his Kreylboyne friends, Stevie Kanarban poking him in the side. "Malcolm..." wheezed Stevie, who as usual sounded as though he were struggling to stay alive. Malcolm, his daydreaming interrupted, looked up to hear Mr. Johnson say "... so let me introduce your new teacher, Mr. Carey."
For all of his worrying, Malcolm had failed to notice the tall, dark haired man standing beside the principal. 'Wow,' thought Malcolm looking at
Mr. Carey, 'they finally found someone brave enough to teach the Kreylboyne class.' Since Miss Caroline had been gone, the class had been told to use the day for quiet study and reading. Occasionally the teacher in the next room had stopped in to check on them. None of the schools regular substitutes would teach the class, probably because of the rumors about some of the students in it. Mr. Carey stepped forward, and began to more properly introduce himself while the principal quietly slipped out of the room, almost afraid that if he stayed any longer something bad would happen. "As Mr. Johnson just told you, my name is Mr. Carey, but I'd prefer it if you called me Jarod."
Malcolm's friend Dabney put his hand up and waved it in the air like a maniac. "Yes," said Jarod quietly. "I'm sorry, but I feel that by telling us to refer to you on a first name basis, you are upsetting the precious social customs that we've all by now become familiar with. I must regretfully decline your request, Mr. Carey."
'Well,' thought Malcolm, 'trust Dabney to make a big deal out of a little thing.' Dabney had always been upset that Miss Caroline used her first name. He felt it would lead to anarchy. Then again, Dabney felt everything would lead to anarchy. "Well, I really don't mind if you call me Mr. Carey, but I would prefer it the other way..." he paused to look at the class seating plan, "...Dabney."
The man was obviously taken aback by the boy's bluntness. It took him a minute to compose himself. "Now," said Jarod, continuing, "
I would like for all of us to get to know each other a little better, so why don't you each tell me something about yourselves. You first, uh..." he paused to check the seating plan again, "... David."
"Well, my psychiatrist says that I have acute attention deficit disorder and that I show signs of paranoid delusions. She says there's a good chance that one day I'll snap."
This was most definitely not the answer Jarod was expecting, and so once again he had to compose himself. 'This class is definitely going to be an interesting one to teach' Jarod realized, as each student told him a little more than he wanted to know.
Malcolm was leaned over the metal picnic table, huddled into a tight group with his friends, chattering excitedly about something. What it was, Jarod couldn't tell. Of all of the students in Jarod's class, Malcolm was the one who intrigued him the most. Unlike the rest of the kids he taught, Malcolm seemed fairly normal. He seemed to be extremely intelligent, but also grounded and down to earth in a way the other students weren't.
As Jarod stood on the pavement, kids yelling and screaming all around him, his focus on Malcolm was broken by one shout in particular. He quickly turned around to see what was going on.
"Hey, get off of me!!!!!" yelled a short and stocky second grader. He was screaming at an obviously older bigger dark-haired boy who was being pulled back from the boy by two other kids. It was obvious to Jarod that the other kids wouldn't be able to hold him back much longer, so he began to walk over to break up the fight. Before he could get there and to his amazement, Malcolm had left his friends and was pulling the older boy away.
"Reese!!! What in God's name are you doing?" questioned Malcolm.
"Beating on the dweeb." replied Reese.
"Reese!!! Another fight!! You're already grounded for a week for the last one!!!"
Malcolm was absolutely incensed over what Reese was doing. 'If Mom finds out Reese got into another fight, she'll find some way to blame it on me, for sure.' he thought. A moment later, he was even more furious at Reese because now Mr. Carey was coming over. 'Great,' he thought 'now the new teacher is going to think I'm a troublemaker!'
To Malcolm's surprise, the teacher didn't lecture him at all. "Malcolm," he began "Thank you for breaking up the fight back there. That was very noble of you."
Oh no, now the new teacher thought he was, like, a hero or something! Mr. Carey continued talking, but now to Reese. "As for you, hasn't anyone ever told you not to pick on people who are smaller than you."
"Yeah, but if I pick on kids who are bigger than me, I'll get my ass kicked!"
Jarod was dumbfounded by this statement, trying to wrap his mind around Reese's logic. Finally, he found the words to continue. "What's your name?"
"Bozo the clown," replied Reese calmly, always looking for a chance to defy authority.
"This is my brother, Reese, Mr. Carey." replied Malcolm, not wanting Reese to get himself into more trouble.
"Your brother?" asked Jarod.
"Unfortunately." replied Malcolm.
Jarod was perplexed at this. He had loved Kyle even though he had known he was his brother only for a little while. Yet, Malcolm acted embarrassed and ashamed that he had a brother. Suddenly, Jarod was curious as to what Malcolm's family was like.
"Well, this is actually an opportunity for me to kill two birds with one stone," Jarod said happily, since he had only recently learned that expression and had been looking for an excuse to use it. "You see, I wanted to meet with your parents to discuss you anyway, Malcolm and now I can discuss this incident involving Reese as well."
Jarod smiled, and Malcolm nearly fainted. Now his parents and the new teacher were going to meet! He was going to kill Reese when they got home.
Lois walked calmly through the school hallways, not wanting to appear edgy or nervous. Beside her, her husband Hal was a nervous wreck, sweating and loosening his tie. Dragging their heels behind the two were Reese, Malcolm and their younger brother Dewey all three of whom would rather be anywhere else.
Dewey stopped humming for a moment. "Why do we have to come to school again?" he asked innocently.
Lois was in a bad mood that evening. She had been treated like dirt by staff at this school before and was prepared to not take any crap from Malcolm's new teacher. As far as she was concerned, she was going to go in there, hear whatever horrible thing he was going to tell her about Malcolm and then give him a piece of her mind. She was aware that her kids had a reputation with the teachers at the school, and also aware that she did as well, but she was determined to stand up for her boys. "Because Malcolm's teacher wants to talk to me and your father." replied Lois harshly.
"Oh. Okay." Dewey went back to humming and started to skip down the hallway a little ahead of his brothers.
Malcolm was nervous about what it was that Mr. Carey was planning on saying to his parents, wondering what it was that he had done wrong. Was it possible the teacher had found out what he and his friends had been planning? He extremely apprehensively followed his parents through the doors to the classroom, and began to sweat when he saw Mr. Carey sitting behind his desk waiting for them. Reese, however, looked perfectly calm and at ease.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Hi..." said Lois quickly, while sitting down. "Listen, whatever Malcolm did..."
"He didn't do anything wrong, Mrs. Wilkerson..."
Lois interrupted him. "Hey, don't interrupt me buddy! What do you mean he didn't do anything wrong? Why the hell are we here then?" The tone in her voice was extremely angry, and Jarod couldn't help but move his chair back a bit. He noticed that her husband was extremely nervous and sweating, and that there was a younger boy in the room who appeared to be talking to a spider in the corner. None of the other parents had brought their children with them.
"Well..." Jarod began, "You're here because I would like to talk to you about Malcolm's progress in the class. I also wanted to meet you because I feel it's important that I speak with the families of all my students." This was true, he actually had talked to a lot of the other parents. "I have noticed, though, that you don't seem to be as active in your son's education as some of the other children's parents. Also, I have encountered a few problems with Reese on the playground..."
Lois immediately became defensive and turned to her son. "REESE!" Jarod had to move his chair back even further, and he noticed her husband did the same. "What were you thinking?? More fights!!!! What do I have to do to get it through that thick skull of yours that fighting will only get you into trouble?? And YOU..." she now turned on Jarod. "I am well aware that my son can be a handful sometimes, thank you very much! And also, I don't need stuck up teachers telling me that I need to be more involved in my son's education!!! Maybe if you were doing your jobs...."
"Ma'am will you calm down please!" Jarod almost begged the woman to stop. He had never seen anyone so worked up over nothing in his life. She stopped her rant for a moment. "I only wanted to mention it. Malcolm is doing really well in class. In fact, one of the problems I have with the other students is that their parents are a little TOO involved in their kid's educations. So just back off, OK?" He didn't know where his sudden defensiveness was coming from. He tried to calm himself down.
Malcolm just stared at his teacher. He had actually put his mom in her place, just a little bit. Wow! Even Reese looked impressed. This teacher was so much cooler than Miss Caroline! Why hadn't he noticed it earlier? 'Oh no,' thought Malcolm, suddenly extremely upset, 'I have to stop the Kreylboyne's plan!'
Miss Parker strode confidently into the cramped office, and was pleased to see that her sudden appearance had caused Broots to spill hot coffee into his lap. She almost smiled at the sight of the technician panicking. "Something wrong, Broots?" she asked sarcastically.
"N...no Miss Parker," replied Broots timidly, his pants still soaked with coffee. "I... umm... I think I may actually have a lead... on Jarod."
"Really?" said Miss Parker, not wanting to sound overly excited. Jarod hadn't contacted her in three weeks, or Sydney as far as she knew. Then again, that was only as far as she knew. You never could tell what was going on with Sydney.
"Y...yeah," said Broots. He was captured on a security camera in a local convenience store in..." he paused to check his screen, "...California. Two weeks ago."
Just then, Sydney strolled into the room. "What's going on?" he asked curiously.
"We have a lead on Jarod." replied Parker. "Pack your bags Syd, because we're following your little lab rat out to California."
"Well, Broots...?" Parker asked later that day while on the corporate jet to catch up with Jarod.
"Wha... What?" he replied, unsure as to what she wanted.
"Tell me what else you know about Jarod's latest pretend!" she snapped at him, impatiently.
"I don't..." he mentally cringed, preparing to be yelled at, "I don't know anything else..." He struggled to find a way to defend himself before she verbally attacked him. "I mean... I only know that he was seen on that security camera. The only reason I know that is because there was a robbery there later that night, so all of the footage was sent to police, see, and..."
"Broots!" she interrupted him. "I don't want to know how you found him, just where!"
"W... well, I don't know exactly where. Just the city and state." he replied.
"Wonderful." said Miss Parker bitterly. "So how are we supposed to find him, let alone catch him?"
Sydney took this conversation in with interest. Parker was obviously very frustrated at having had no contact with Jarod these past couple weeks. He thought that maybe a part of her frustration was also because of recent events, such as her father being in the hospital. He could only hope that she wouldn't take her frustrations out on Jarod, as she often did.
The next day before class started, Malcolm sat nervously at his desk. He had tried and tried to talk Stevie and the others out of their plan, but they had already set everything up. When Jarod walked into the room, he would trip a wire which would trigger a bucket of homemade slime to fall on his head, at which point he would stumble around stunned, which would trigger another bucket full of ketchup to fall. When he had first devised this prank with the other kreylboynes, it had been a fantastic plan to drive away the new teacher, but now he wasn't so sure it was right. Jarod actually seemed like a cool guy. But, apparently it was too late to stop the other guys. So all he could do now was sit, wait and hope that he didn't get into trouble.
Once the whole class was seated, Jarod strolled into the room... and casually stepped over the wire. How did he know? thought Malcolm. He watched, astonished, as the teacher looked down at the wire, then up at the bucket. "Nice try." said Jarod, in a tone that almost sounded like he was impressed. He then proceeded to sit down at his desk and begin the lesson as though nothing had happened.
Jarod calmly continued with the lesson he had planned, trying not to laugh at the absolutely stunned faces of his students. He had been thoroughly warned by Miss Caroline about the dangers of teaching this class, and had been expecting the worst after hearing the stories told by the other teachers. In fact, he had been expecting a lot more than just a bucket of slime. 'Now,' he thought, 'I've shown them that they can't get rid of me that easily!'
Halfway through the class, everyone was feeling a little calmer, when the door opened and in walked the principal, Mr. Johnson. He tripped the wire and the class watched as the first bucket, and then the second, fell right on his head. Malcolm sat, almost laughing, but knowing that now they had really gotten Mr. Carey in trouble. The principal was obviously seething, and after a moment, he pointed a slimy red finger at Jarod and beckoned for him to follow him out of the room. Malcolm was now really worried. Jarod had gone white as a sheet. He watched as the shocked teacher followed the principal out of the room and into the hallway, and listened as the rest of the class howled with laughter.
Out in the hallway, Jarod was absolutely stunned. He had definitely not been expecting anything like this to happen, and now he was in trouble. He stood quietly and waited for the principal to say something.
"You're fired." said Mr. Johnson quietly.
"Ex... excuse me?" said Jarod, not entirely processing what had happened.
"You heard me. You're fired. You will teach today's class and then pack up your stuff." The principal turned and walked away, leaving Jarod alone in the hallway. Jarod felt like throwing up. He had never been fired from anything before. He had never given anybody a reason to fire him. Now what would he do?
Jarod trudged down the empty street in the pouring rain. There was no reason for him to be walking. He was just bored and walking seemed like the thing to do. The cloudy gray skies seemed to match his gloomy mood. He was depressed. He had been fired. And it was on a job that was supposed to be a break from Pretending. He didn't know what he was going to do now, or where he was going to go. He could probably talk to Sydney but for some reason he didn't feel like calling him. In fact, he didn't really feel like doing anything at all.
Parker shook her umbrella off as she sat down at the booth in the small diner. She and the others had spent the whole morning looking all over the city for Jarod. They had talked to the clerk at the convenience store and done a thorough search of all the buildings in the surrounding area and they had come up with nothing. Annoyed, Parker gave a glaring look to Sydney. "Well, Syd... we've now spent the entire morning searching for your little labrat and come up with nothing. Any thoughts?"
"Well..." said Sydney thoughtfully "Perhaps Jarod led us here on purpose to find something. Maybe there is something here he wants us to uncover..."
"I don't..." Broots cut in nervously "I don't think that's it, Sydney."
"Oh." said Parker mockingly "and why is that?"
"Because" replied Broots "Because Jarod just walked by..."
Before he could even finish his sentence Parker had also seen Jarod pass and had taken off out the door and into the rain.
"Parker..." yelled Sydney from the doorway, but it was too late. She couldn't hear him. "Broots, come on." Sydney ordered, and they both took off after her.
Jarod was walking along with his shoulders hunched and his head down, thinking about his current problem when he heard a shout from behind him. He instantly recognized the voice of Sydney. Almost without thinking he took off down the sidewalk. Thinking that maybe he was running for no reason and maybe it was his imagination he briefly looked behind him and caught a glimpse of Parker running down the sidewalk behind him trying not to trip in her expensive black heels. He turned back around and took off across the road as quickly as his legs would move him, all the while constantly turning around to see if she was still chasing him. He had almost lost her when...
Malcolm sat solemnly in his mothers car on the way home from school. She had come and picked him and his brothers up because of the rain. He was still thinking about his teacher. Well... former teacher now. He felt really bad that he had gotten him fired. However, he still hoped that the principal didn't find out he and his friends were behind the prank. His mother would ground him for life! He was lost in his thoughts when...
WHAM!
"Oh my God!" said Lois, putting on the brakes so hard that they let out a piercing shriek. "Oh my God!" She got out of the car and walked around to the front to look at the figure lying unconscious on the ground there. "Oh my God. Boys! Boys! Get out of the car!"
"Cool. Did we kill him?" said Reese.
"NO, we didn't... well I don't think we killed him." replied Lois, noticing the blood that was starting to pool underneath the body.
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Malcolm worriedly. "It's my teacher!"
"Hey, it is. Well... let's get him in the car, and we'll take him to the hospital, I guess..." replied Lois at a loss for words.
Parker ran as fast as she could at the sound of the screeching brakes. 'Damnit Sydney!' she thought. 'I would have had him if he hadn't opened his big mouth.' After Sydney had yelled to her, Jarod had taken off like a shot and gotten a couple of blocks ahead of her. She ran around the corner expecting to have caught up with Jarod again and instead found noone. She looked around. There was noone around. Soon, Sydney came jogging up, with Broots not far behind him.
"Shit!" yelled Parker. "He disappeared again."
"Wh... where did he go?" asked Broots, confused.
"I don't know, idiot. If I knew I wouldn't be standing here, would I?" Parker replied angrily. "Let's get back to the hotel, Syd. He might turn up again."
"I doubt it, Miss Parker. If Jarod knows we're here he'll leave town for sure."
"Yeah well I don't feel like going back to the Centre just yet. We'll get the jet back tommorow."
And with that she turned around and walked away, leaving the other two to follow behind.
"Wh...where am I?" Jarod asked groggily.
"Mom... he woke up." yelled Reese from the back seat, where he was crammed in next to Jarod.
"What happened?" Jarod asked.
"I hit you with the car. Sorry."
"Mrs. Wilkerson? You hit me with the... the car?"
"Yes. And listen, I may have been the one to hit you, but it's not my fault. You were the one who darted in front of the car like that. I mean, geez it's a wonder you're not dead. In fact you're bleeding enough that you might not last much longer."
She was right. Jarod knew it. He could feel the blood oozing and drying onto his left side and his forehead. He was dizzy and his head hurt like hell. After taking a few moments to pull himself together and concentrate on not losing consciousness again, he remembered the reason that he had run out in front of the car.
"Where are we going?" Jarod croaked, panicking.
"We're going to the hospital." Malcolm said calmly, turning around from his seat in the front of the car.
"Malcolm..." said Jarod, beginning to put the situation together in his mind. "Malcolm we have to turn around."
"What?" screeched Lois. "We are not turning this car around. You need serious medical help."
"Please..." begged Jarod. "You don't understand. I went to medical school... I can tell you how to help me, but we can't go to a hospital. Please..."
"Mom..." stated Malcolm seriously, "He sounds really serious."
Without a word, Lois pulled the car around in a sharp U-Turn and headed in the opposite direction back towards the house.
"Fine... but if you are involved in anything illegal I'm turning you in, just so you know."
"Thank you..." said Jarod, nearly losing consciousness again.
As Parker walked away, Broots and Sydney stayed behind for a few moments before Broots shrugged and walked after her. Sydney, however, had noticed something worrisome. On the road, nearly faded away in the pounding rain, he could vaguely make out a blood stain. Thinking back, he remembered the screeching brakes that he had barely heard while chasing after Parker and Jarod. He began to worry that maybe Jarod had not disappeared at all, but had been in a car accident. The way he had been sprinting through the streets it would be entirely possible. After thinking about it for a moment though, Sydney decided that he wouldn't tell Parker or Broots about his thoughts just yet. Perhaps he would phone a local hospital and find out what had happened himself first. He nervously walked away from the street to where he knew Parker and Broots would be waiting for him.
Once the car had screeched to a halt in the driveway, Lois quickly got out and helped Jarod into the house, practically carrying him. "Well... are you three just going to stand there?" she complained. Quickly the three boys rushed out of the car to help their mother get the bleeding man into the house. 'I hope he doesn't die or something' thought Malcolm as he helped lay his teacher down on the couch.
Jarod moaned and groaned as the family helped him get comfortable on their couch. He could barely keep awake, he was in so much pain, but he knew if he fell asleep he might not wake up. "OK..." he croaked. "Mrs. Wilkerson do you have any bandages... or even better, a needle. You might have to stitch my wounds up. Are you OK with that?"
"Jarod, I am the mother of four troublemaking boys. There is no kind of wound I haven't seen before. I'm fine with it."
"Good." replied Jarod as Lois went to the kitchen and retrieved the things they would need from the first aid kit. "I guess we'll start then."
Sydney hung up the phone in his hotel room , relieved. None of the hospitals in the area had a patient come in matching Jarod's description. He had even called the police station to be sure, but there had been no reports of hit and runs in the area either. Sydney had nothing to worry about. He knew that Jarod was probably fine and planning some new pretender somewhere, but for some reason, he still couldn't shake the feeling that the blood he had seen in the alleyway had meant something...
After two and a half hours of painfully being bandaged and stitched up with no anesthesia, Jarod finally felt that it was safe to sleep, and he quickly fell into a deep slumber. Lois had just given Dewey a bath and put him to bed and was tidying up the medical equipment when her husband walked in the door,whistling to himself. "Hey Hal." she called out.
"Hello." he said, walking into the living room and kissing her sweetly on the lips before noticing Jarod lying on the couch.
"Honey?" he asked confused. "Why is there a bleeding man lying on our couch?"
"Oh." replied Lois calmly. "He's Malcolm's teacher, remember? We accidently ran into him with the car this afternoon."
"OK then," replied Hal, still confused but not wanting to continue the conversation, "I hope you left some dinner out for me..."
The next day, a very groggy Jarod awoke to the smell of burnt toast, and the sound of Malcolm and his brothers arguing. He tried to get up but found that his body ached too much for him to get very far. He tried to remember exactly what had happened the day before, but everything had happened so fast that it was all a blur. All he knew was that he had been fired from his job because of a prank played by Malcolm, and then his mother had run him down with her car. 'Boy,' he thought with a smile, 'I should really get out of here. If I stay here much longer this family will probably kill me. In fact, they very nearly did.' He was about to attempt once more to get up when he noticed a small boy, whom he assumed was the youngest brother, staring at him from the chair next to the couch. "Hello" he said with a moan as a new wave of pain came over him. "What's your name?"
"Dewey." replied Dewey. "Are you evil?"
"No." Jarod answered, taken aback by the question.
"You're not?" asked Dewey innocently.
"No, I'm not." replied Jarod. "What would make you think that?"
"My brother says that you're evil and that you've come to kidnap me and take me away from my family forever, which I said would be OK because then he couldn't always pick on me, but then
he said that when you took me away you would eat me, and use my bones to summon evil spirits."
"He did?" said Jarod amused, but also shocked. "Well, you have nothing to worry about. I'm not evil."
"Oh." said Dewey. "OK." And with that he left the room, leaving Jarod to painfully pull himself into an upright position. He slowly stood up and stumbled into the tiny kitchen, flinching from the pain after each step. He entered the cramped room to see Lois screaming at the eldest brothers and Hal calmly reading a newspaper amidst the various toys and spilled food that littered the kitchen table. Hal looked up and noticed Jarod standing there, and gestured for him to sit down. He did so carefully and painfully and took a moment to steady himself before looking back up at Hal. "Good morning." said Jarod.
"Good morning," said Hal. "Mr..."
"Just Jarod will do." Jarod finished for him.
"Aah... well good morning Jarod. Feeling any better this morning?" Hal replied cheerfully, oblivious to the chaos surrounding him. Jarod, however, was not. His temples throbbed and a wave of nausea and dizziness passed over him before he had a chance to reply.
"I can see you're not. My wife told me about what happened, and I'm uh... I'm really sorry. It's just that with four boys it gets a little distracting sometimes... I'm sure she didn't mean it." Hal continued
"Hal!" Lois shrieked, "Of course I didn't mean it. Geez, will you stick up for me please. And I was not distracted, in fact it wasn't my fault." With this sentence she turned to Jarod. "If YOU had not been sprinting across the road like a madman than maybe I wouldn't have hit you. And by the way, why in God's name were you running like that anyway, I mean you weren't even looking where you were going! What kind of a moron takes off like that into the middle of traffic?"
"Ma'am," Jarod shouted as loud as he could without throwing up, "Maybe if your child hadn't gotten me fired from my job then I wouldn't have been wandering around outside in the rain. Then you wouldn't have hit me, either! We can put all the blame we want on people but it doesn't change anything..." As soon as the words came out of his mouth he regretted them. He had no concrete proof that Malcolm had any part in the prank. It was just an assumption he had made based on the boy's past history. He watched in half horror as the angry woman turned on Malcolm like a hungry wolf.
"You got him fired!" Lois exploded at Malcolm. "You never told me that! I can't believe this. Well, you are grounded for one month, Mister. That's right, you are grounded! That means no TV, no video games. Oh no, you are going to sit in this house and twiddle your thumbs for the next month!"
She turned back to Jarod, but this time her expression was softer and she was much less angry. "I am so sorry, I had no idea he had gotten you fired. And now thanks to us you have hospital bills. God I am so sorry. Are you OK?"
"Malcolm, I can't believe this!" she yelled to her son. "You know what, why don't you stay here for a few days?" she said to Jarod. "I mean, with no job and in your condition you're not going to be able to do much."
Jarod thought about it for a moment and realized that she had unintentionally been extremely right. With Parker and the Centre in town and him hurt the chances of him getting caught had significantly risen, and they'd probably found his lair which meant he couldn't go back to his place anyways. It was a good thing he had stowed the DSA's in a locker at the bus station. "I guess that would work. It would only be for a few days though... but where would I sleep, and I have no clothes..."
"Well, the couch pulls out so I could set that up for you. And I'm sure Hal could run back to your place and grab some of your things for you, or you could borrow his... that all right with you Hal?" she said, taking charge.
"Oh, I have no problem with that." her husband replied.
And so once again Jarod was overwhelmed by everything that was happening. He barely had a chance to blink before Lois was in the living room arranging furniture and bedding and making room for him. 'Well,' he thought, 'At least it will be an interesting few days.'
Malcolm couldn't believe it. He had thought that Jarod was so cool and had been so worried about getting him fired, and now his former teacher had totally ratted him out to his mom! 'Well,' he thought, 'if Jarod's staying with us, that gives me every opportunity to take my revenge...'
Sydney was lying in his hotel room bed, sleeping peacefully when his sleep was interrupted by an unusually exuberant Miss Parker. "Wake up, Syd because today is the day we bring back your lab rat!"
"What are you talking about, Parker?" Sydney said groggily. "Jarod left town remember, since he knew we'd found him."
"Oh no, Syd. Your genius slipped up. Broots tracked down his lair, finally, this morning so I sent a couple of sweepers down to check it out, not expecting him to be there. But he's still there, Syd!"
Sydney began to get out of bed. "They found him..." he said rather solemnly.
"Well..." said Miss Parker, "They didn't find him exactly, but all of his stuff is still there! All of it. He still lives there, Syd. Come on..."
So, Sydney got dressed and followed Miss Parker to Jarod's most recent apartment, not knowing what he would find but getting more worried by the second.
Once at Jarod's apartment, Sydney had to agree with Miss Parker. It did appear as though Jarod was still living there. It wasn't likely it was a set-up, as the sweepers found information about where Jarod was working in plain view. There were clothes still in the closet, and he had given no notice to the landlord that he was planning on leaving. All evidence was pointing to the fact that he was still living here, except for the fact that he apparently wasn't.
Miss Parker was rather disappointed when the landlord told them that Jarod had not returned to his apartment in two days, exactly how long it had been since she had lost Jarod in the alley. The fact that he hadn't even come back for his computer or his clothes only made Sydney more worried, since he knew it could only mean two things. One, that Jarod had been so spooked seeing Miss Parker that he had decided it wasn't even worth finishing his Pretend or cleaning out his apartment, which wasn't likely. Or two, that Sydney's suspicions were right and Jarod really was hurt somewhere.
Sydney was trying to listen to what Jarod's landlord had to say, while lost in his own thoughts when he spotted a man who had just come into the lobby. He stood there for a moment, but then took off. Sydney had a suspicion that this man might know what happened to Jarod, but thankfully noone else had seen him, so he left it alone. Perhaps he would try and track the man down later.
After getting all they could out of the landlord and leaving the sweepers to clean out Jarod's apartment, Miss Parker decided to call it a a day, determined that tommorow the three of them would check out Jarod's job, as a teacher at a local elementary school.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. At Lois' insistence, after a breakfast of mushy cereal and sugary orange punch, Jarod had lain back down on the couch and relaxed for the rest of the day, in between throwing up from the nausea he still felt. 'Too much, too soon' thought Jarod. 'I'll have to give it a few days before I'll start to feel better again.' Still, it did feel good to relax, something he didn't get much time to do in between running from the Centre and his Pretends. That was what he had become a substitute teacher to do, right? He had meant it as a bit of a break. And he had to admit that it felt really good to be sick and have someone looking out for him.
It only took a few hours for Jarod to realize that he wasn't going to be able to relax. It was hard for him to even begin to relax around the Wilkerson's. When Jarod finally fell asleep after two hours of tossing and turning, Malcolm had come into the living room, yelling and screaming at his brother, and jumped on him. He'd then picked up the TV remote control and cranked the television up to full volume and played video games with his brothers until his mother came in, caught him and dragged him by his ear to his bedroom. And that made it even harder for Jarod to sleep, as she yelled at Malcolm and berated him for close to an hour for not respecting their guest and for breaking his punishment. Even though she was in another room with the door closed, he could still hear every word of her tirade. She even tacked an extra two weeks on to his grounding. Jarod was annoyed at Malcolm, but he almost felt sorry for him at the same time. He was, after all, in the middle of their living room, and he knew that Malcolm was probably bored. Jarod felt a pang of guilt as he realized that Malcolm's punishment was his fault to begin with.
Lois left for work finally and everything was quiet for maybe an hour when Dewey came crashing into the room with what appeared to be all of Lois' pots and pans and kitchen utensils and began to bang and crash them together, and play them like drums. All this, while singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" at the top of his lungs. Jarod's peace and quiet was once again disrupted. The thing that really annoyed Jarod, though, even in the middle of all this, was that the boy was just singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Not the verses, not the chorus, just "Twinkle Twinkle..." repeatedly over and over again. Jarod took his pillow and put it over his head to drown out the sound but it didn't help. This went on for half and hour until Hal came in. Jarod noticed that Hal didn't punish Dewey. In fact Hal seemed scared of what his wife would do if she found out and he just told Dewey to stop. When Dewey didn't, he told him to go to his room with the pots and pans, which he did, singing "Twinkle Twinkle..." all the way there. Finally things settled back down.
Jarod slept peacefully for several more hours until he was startled awake by a scream. He opened his eyes to see Malcolm and his brother Reese wrestling less than four feet away from him, ramming into things and knocking things off of tables and shelves. The two appeared to notice he was up because they stopped for a moment. "Oh, are we bothering you, Mr. Carey?" Malcolm said, slowly and deliberately. "A little bit." whispered Jarod, cringing from his pounding headache. "Sorry." said Malcolm, and then he and his brother promptly went back to wrestling. They finally left an hour later, but not before knocking an entire bowl of what appeared to be day old cheesies all over the couch. This time Jarod could not get back to sleep at all, since every time he moved he heard a soft crunching noise coming from underneath him.
Finally, Lois returned from work and made dinner, which she brought out to him on a tray. Even though she made pork chops and mashed potatoes for her family, she went to the trouble of making Jarod soup and crackers. She came over and sat with him for a few minutes while her boys wolfed down their food, and helped Jarod get up into a sitting position. It was then that he noticed his right leg was starting to swell. "Thank you for all of your help. You really don't have to do this for me." he told Lois, as he examined his leg with his hands.
"Oh, it's no problem. It's the least I could do, I mean, my son did get you fired. And I did run you down with the car, I guess... even if it wasn't my fault." She paused for a moment, looking a bit nervous about what she was going to say. "Jarod, are you..."
"Yes." said Jarod, becoming worried that he had broken his leg without realizing it.
"Are you running from the law?" she asked.
Jarod looked up from his leg for a second. "What makes you ask that?"
"Well," replied Lois, "you wouldn't let us take you to the hospital. And when Hal went to your place to pick up your stuff there were some people in your apartment looking around..."
"Did they see him... I mean, did he tell anyone I was here at all?" asked Jarod nervously.
"No, are you kidding?" replied Lois. "He turned around and left. Hal never did like confrontations..." She waited for a moment, while Jarod said nothing. "Jarod, you didn't answer my question?"
"No, I'm not running from the law." Jarod replied slowly. "That's the absolute truth. The people at my apartment were..." he struggled to find a way to explain it, and then came upon a decent answer. "They were my ex-girlfriend and some of her friends. I broke up with her, but she still won't leave me alone." He almost smiled as he thought about the irony of this lie.
"Oh." said Lois, satisfied. "Well, I guess you don't want her to know you're here then."
"No, not really." replied Jarod, watching as Lois reached under his pillow for something.
"Jarod..." she said. "I just have one more question."
"Ask away." said Jarod.
"Why are there cheesies all over my couch?"
TBC...
