The Mask of Mr. Connel

CHAPTER 1

At the back of the twelfth grade chemistry classroom was a seemingly inscrutable young man who was seated and waiting reluctantly for the lesson to commence. He was dressed in a pair of black slim fitting jeans, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a grey tie. His hair was left long on top and cut short on the sides and shaped into a comb over. At first glance he looked as if he were your typical rowdy teenager. In fact, Justin Connel was completely the opposite of that. He got straight ‘A’ symbols in his school reports, he was quiet, brooding. He was invited to award ceremonies to accept academic congratulations for his performance but he never showed up for them. Justin had no friends. He was a riddle that not even he could solve. He was invisible. Not long into the lesson, the schools Vice Principal walked into the classroom and sternly greeted the students.

“Good day students. I am sad to announce that our chemistry teacher, Mrs. Dross, has fallen ill and will be on leave for an estimated two weeks. In this event, it is the duty of the schools acting principal to appoint a substitute, which he has already done. So I hope that you will be on your best behaviour and hold up the name of our school.”

During the V.P.s address to the class, Connel had been paying no attention and just went ahead with interfering with the pencil on his desk. The Vice Principal invited in the almost intimidated looking sub-teacher before he walked out.

“Hello class. My name is Miss Jane and for the duration of the next two weeks, I will be your replacement chemistry teacher. I think that your V.P. has said enough about me, so without further or due...”

At the sound of the woman’s voice from the front of the class, Justin picked up his head. He was baffled by her, he was intrigued, so he observed her, and he watched her, like a leopard would do to a gazelle before pouncing. She had her hair tied up, which seemed to compliment the soft curves around her cheeks. She wore a black pair of pin striped pants, a white top and a pair of purple spectacles. She was young, probably in her twenties. Justin believed that there was something different about her, something special and he was more than willing to uncover it.

The bell had rung for recess. Everybody ran out of the classroom like race horses would do on track day, everybody except for Justin. He took his time to pack up. When he was done, he slung his bag over his shoulder, put on a pair of earphones and walked toward the exit, paying no attention to where he was going. Miss Jane slowly stepped backwards with a few files in her hand having the intention of going to the cupboard at the back of the class when she unwittingly walked into Connel. She dropped her files on the floor with the spreadsheets, which were in the files, splattered everywhere.

“I’m so sorry.” said Jane in response to the mishap.

Justin, out of common courtesy, helped her to retrieve her fallen documents and when he was done he got up and walked away without even having made any eye contact.

“Thank you.” yelled Jane as Justin walked to the door.

When Jane thanked him, Connel stopped for a second, turned around and walked toward her, wearing a pensive look on his face (as per usual).

He stuck out his right hand to gesture a handshake, “The name is Justin, Justin Connel.”

“Thank you for the help back there, Mister Connel.” said Jane while shaking his hand.

“Don’t call me that, Mister Connel. Mister Connel was my father.”

“Okay then,” said Jane with a little smile on her face, “nice to meet you Justin. I am Miss Jane.”

The expression on Connel’s face shifted to more of a disappointed one.

“Let’s try that again. And this time we will use our entire name. My name is Justin Connel.” he said, emphasizing the ‘Justin’ in his name.

“I’m sorry, but what gives you the right to know those details because I am clearly not your friend, I am your educator.” argued Jane.

“And your point is?” retaliated Connel.

Jane began to find Justin a bit intrusive.

“Okay Mister Connel, I know your species of male.”

“Species of male? And what species of male might I be?” interrogated Justin.

“I know your kind all too well. You are the sports star of the school better known as the jock or my preference the meathead of the school. You are the popular kid who will probably end up in some deadbeat job someday. You are the type of person where boys want to be you and girls want to be with you. And I am willing to wager that you have slept with most of these high school bimbos.” argued Jane.

Connel looked at her with a satirical grin and shook his head.

“Let me be the first to say that your deductive skills are atrocious. In other words, you are wrong beyond compare.”

“Then prove me wrong.” said Jane, challenging Connel.

“It would be my pleasure but when I do prove you wrong, you will tell me your first name. Deal?”

“A deal it is.” said a very cocky sounding Jane.

Justin took in a fresh breath of air and analysed his environment, paying special attention to Jane.

“From what I can tell, your age is around 23 to 26. You just completed your studies in chemical engineering but the job opportunities for your scientific field of choice are very narrow at this point, you were also a literature major. You are driven and determined person; if you want something you will go out and get it. You were not the most popular student for most of your high school career. And you are in an illusive relationship where the illusion is that you think you have fallen deeply in love but as I said, it is just an illusion.”

Jane was taken back by Connel’s deduction.

“Uhm, wrong.” said Jane

“Oh, and did I forget to mention that you are a pretty terrible liar.”

“But how did you do that?” mumbled Jane.

“Your body language, the way your voice becomes shaky at times and the fact that you were trying really hard to make a strong reputation shows that you are inexperienced and not properly trained for this field of work. Your face has very little make up, lacks wrinkles and smile marks, that is how I deduced your age also from my previous realisation of you recently graduating. I have also noticed that you avoid eye contact as much as possible and are very bad at face to face communication, all of which are derived from bad social skills, one of the fundamental values learned during high school. But as for knowing about your relationship status, call it a sixth sense.”

Jane was stunned by Justin’s retaliation, mostly she was embarrassed by the fact that she was completely outsmarted and entirely figured out by a teenager.

“Well, I guess I was wrong about you.” admitted Jane, “But as for your opinion on my relationship, not that it’s any of your business, you are completely wrong.”

“So you say. Now let us have one more try at this, my name is Justin Connel.” said Justin while once again gesturing a handshake.

“My name is Miss Jane, Alexis Jane.” responded Jane, accepting Justin’s firm handshake.

During the lunch break, Connel and Alexis spent the entire time chatting to each other (mostly Alexis), but since then she hadn’t seen him for the rest of the day. After the long day at school had ended she headed for her boyfriend, John Ericson’s house for dinner. Alexis used the key, which was given to her by John, to enter the house. She felt extremely jaded by the end of the day so all that she had on her mind was to just take a load off. When she entered the house, she kicked off her shoes, let out her hair, and sunk into the couch. After a little while of down time, she went to the kitchen to see John who was occupied with preparing dinner. She walked up to John to say hello but he beat her to it. He turned around, leaving his sizzling steaks unattended for a moment, grabbed at the waist, kissed her and then said hello.

“Hello John.” said Alexis responding to the kiss.

At the dinner table, more talking than eating was accomplished, mostly by John. Alexis found the table conversation to be insipid, as compared to the conversation she had at school. She sat there and fidgeted with the food on her plate while John rambled on about his clumsy new assistant.

“So how was the first day on the on the job?” curiously asked John.

Usually Jane would start spilling detail, even the most insignificant things that had occurred, but all she had on her mind was what Justin had said about her love being an illusion.

“It was fine.” responded Jane.

“Just fine? One would think that on the first day of their job you might see some unusual happenings.”

“Yeah but there was nothing unusual today, maybe tomorrow.”

Further into the evening, while lying in her own bed at her apartment, Jane stayed awake. She had the memory of her conversation with Connel playing in her head over and over again and she had no idea why.