//------------------------------//
// School Days 
// Story: The Final Crusade 
// by Enfield 
//------------------------------//

 	The morning for James was relatively normal for James, he sat up and rubbed his eyes and tried to focus on the clock.
“Six in the morning,” he said, “I’m glad I don’t have to deal with this in a few days.”
Some grunting from the bed on the floor caught James' attention.
“You having trouble getting back to sleep?” James asked.
“No,” said Scootaloo, “I barely slept at all.” 
“Why don’t you come down and eat something?” James said, “Sometimes it helps me sleep.”
Scootaloo went downstairs and patiently waited for James to get dressed and come downstairs as well. After James had come downstairs and made something for Scootaloo he set about eating what he usually ate for breakfast, which was a bagel.
“I never have used that ‘bagel’ function on the toaster since last time,” said James.
“Why? What happened?” Scootaloo asked with interest.
“Burnt the bagel and almost set fire to the kitchen,” said James, “It was quite funny afterwards.” 

After breakfast Scootaloo and James headed back upstairs, James checked on Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell, they were both sleeping. James went to clean his teeth when he saw Scootaloo passed out on the bed she was using, James had to stifle his laughs because he didn’t expect his idea to have taken effect so quickly. 
The day at school went smoothly for James, he anxiously awaited for the start of lunch. He hadn’t forgotten about Bob and his bombs, James planned to administer his own justice before the police arrived. At lunch James sat at his usual place and greeted Carl as he sat down.
“Hi James,” Carl said.
“Hello,” replied James, “Seen Bob around here?”
“No, why?” Carl asked, James pointed to the scar on his face.
“Did you hear the new story?” James said, “Bob will pay for this.”
“So they were legit bombs?” Carl said examining James' scar.
“I was lucky that the one that did blow up had no shrapnel that could’ve killed me,” said James.
“I knew he would crack and do something like this,” said Carl. 
Molly and Maria then came over and sat down.
“How are you doing?” Molly asked.
“The wound had healed and I’m probably more famous than I was before,” James said.  
“Nice face scar,” said Maria. 
“Thanks,” said James, “Now where is that prat?” 

As they sat and ate lunch Carl decided to break the silence.
“Hey, did anyone else’s teacher go nuts?” he asked.
“My Spanish teacher did,” said James, “I’ve never known him to loose his cool like that before.”
“What happened?” Maria asked. 
“I’ve known Mr. Bolo to be one of the more friendly, fun loving teachers,” James said, “But something happened to him. It’s like he just lost his marbles or something, kept telling me to speak in an American accent and he also shouted at everyone.”
“Did you try and appease him?” Molly asked.
“Nah, I just insulted him in Russian and answered questions in German,” replied James.
“Awesome,” said Maria. 
Later two students came over to the table.
“You James Rogers?” one asked.
“Yes, what do you want?” James asked.
“You know Bob right?” the student asked.
“Where is he?” James said standing up, “I’m guessing he planted bombs at your homes as well.”
“He did but we came to tell you that he’s not here today,” the second student said.
“Damn,” said James, “I’ve been looking forward to intervene, where is he?”
“Dead,” said the first student.
“No point in trying to cheer me up,” James said, “Where is he?”
The first student handed James a newspaper, James saw that he was on the front page with the Crusaders and below that was another article: Neighborhood bomber found dead in home.
“The cops chased him to his house and found him on the floor dead,” the second student said, “You can keep that, we’ve read enough.”
James read the paper articles, stuffed the newspaper into his bag then burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Carl asked.
“He killed himself with energy drinks,” James said, “Pure irony.”
“Let me read it,” Maria said grabbing the newspaper from James' bag, Maria read the article and also laughed.
“How did the energy drinks kill him?” Molly asked.
“It says here that he drunk about thirty within five minutes,” Maria said.
“Shame he didn’t do this earlier in the year,” said Carl. 

After lunch James went to his least favorite class; Math.
“God I hate math,” James hissed as he walked through the door. The assistant teacher Ms. Sacco was sitting at the teachers desk reading a book.
“What do you say when you walk in here?” Ms. Sacco said.
“Yes hello,” James said in a pathetic voice, he slumped down on his desk.
“Hear about the bombs in the lakes development?” asked Ms. Sacco.
“Oh yes,” James said seeing that Ms. Sacco hadn’t heard much about it.  Just then the two class clowns Pete and Alfred bounded in.
“Monring Sucko,” said Alfred.
“I heard about your story on the news James,” Pete said.
“Yeah, what happened?” Alfred asked. 
“This happened,” James said pointing to the scar.
“Wow, that looks badass,” Pete said.
“You got a scar?” Ms. Sacco asked, “How did you do that?”
“You know the story about the bombs? I was the main event for the news crew,” James said. 
“What? You had the bombs at your house as well?” said Ms. Sacco. 
“Bob planted them around my house, one went off while I was tossing it away from the grill,” James said, “Hence the scar.”
“So you’re okay then?” Ms. Sacco asked. 
“Perfectly fine,” said James.

As the math teacher Mrs. Arte walked in followed by the rest of the class the period consisted of James telling everyone what had happened at his house yesterday. Everyone found the story interesting, but as James was telling everyone how Bob had died the editor of the school newspaper and a photographer entered the room.
“James Rogers?” the editor asked.
“Right here,” James said.
“We’re here to give you the student of the year award for your actions of both yesterday and last Friday,” the editor said as the photographer took pictures of them both. 
“Eh?” was all that James managed to say before the editor thrust a small trophy into James' hand. The trophy was a metal cup with “Student of the Year” engraved on the front, on the nameplate it read; James Rogers.
“This is fantastic,” said James. 

As school ended James boarded the bus and went home, eager to both tell his mother about being student of the year and to get away from all the students wanting a picture with him. The second James stepped off the bus he ran straight for his house and dove through the door, his mother came downstairs to see him laying on his back.
“Good day at school?” Katherine asked.
James held up the trophy.
“Who Dares Wins,” he wheezed. 
“What’s that you have there?” his mother asked.
“Student of the year award,” said James getting up from the floor.
“Why did you get that?” his mother asked looking at the trophy. 
“It’s a mix of yesterday and what I did for the girls,” said James, “Speaking of which, where are they?”
“Still asleep, they all couldn’t sleep last night for some reason,” said his mother. 
“I’m going to put this in my room,” James said as he took off his shoes.
“How about we go to the local café for lunch later?” Katherine suggested. 
“Sounds like victory,” said James as he walked upstairs. 

James slowly crept to his room and stealthily opened the door, he saw Scootaloo sleeping on her bed, she looked as if she had moved a few times while she was sleeping. James looked up on his bed and saw Dart laying on it. James pointed to the dog in a way of saying for him to keep quiet, he then placed the trophy on his TV cabinet and left his bedroom without making a sound. He went downstairs to see his mother watching CSI while she used her iPad.
“Can you ever do one thing at a time?” James asked. 
“Nothing wrong with what I’m doing,” his mother replied. 
James sighed and shut the door to the den, he slumped own on the couch and turned on the TV. As he searched for something decent to watch he realized that school ended tomorrow and there were no more tests, James smiled a little from the thought. He eventually found something on the military channel about weapons of the future. An hour later he heard footsteps coming down the stairs, James stood up and hid himself behind the door. 
“Where’s James at Mrs. Rogers?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“In the den I think,” Katherine replied. James peeked through the crack in the door and watched them come toward the den, he backed against the wall and waited for the Crusaders.
“He must be in there,” he heard Sweetie Bell say.
“Either that or the TV was left on,” Scootaloo said. 
Apple Bloom opened the door and looked around the room, she couldn’t see James.
“He’s not here,” Apple Bloom said.
“But Mrs. Rogers said he was,” said Sweetie Bell. 
“Well where is he?” said Scootaloo. 

As they entered the room looking in front of them James had crept up behind Apple Bloom. Without warning he grabbed Apple Bloom round the middle, pinned her arms to her side and lifted her up a few feet from the floor, Apple Bloom let out a yelp of surprise which made Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo spin around to see what had happened.
“Do you know what time it is?” James said still holding Apple Bloom. 
“Put me down,” Apple Bloom said struggling to get out of James' strong grip. 
“Alrighty then,” James said setting Apple Bloom down, “Like I said before, do you know what time it is?”
“Twelve forty-five?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“We haven’t slept all night James,” said Scootaloo. 
“Well there’s your excuse,” said James going back to the couch. 
“At least you didn’t disturb us,” Scootaloo said. 
“You kids go and get dressed,” James said, “We’re going out for lunch.”
“Where are we going?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“Local café that we really like,” James replied. 

An hour later Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were dressed in some of their new clothes and ready to go, the only problem was that Katherine wasn’t ready.
“Every time we want to go out, she always has to get ready last minute,” James said with irritation. Several minutes later, James' mother was driving everyone to the café.      
“Is this place any good?” asked Sweetie Bell.
“I’ve always liked it,” said James, “Fantastic food, great service, and it’s close to home.”
“Do they have tables for all of us to fit in?” James' mother asked.
“They’ll improvise,” said James. 
“What kind of food do they have there?” Apple Bloom asked.
“It changes every so often,” James said, “I’ll show you what’s the best.”

The trip to the café was short and James pointed it out to the girls. Once they had gone inside the noise of conversation seemed quieter than when they were outside, it then gained volume again as one waiter walked over.
“How many seats?” the waiter asked.
“Five,” said Katherine. 
The group was seated and soon after served. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo seemed confused about what was on the menu but James managed to help them each choose something. The meal was awash with conversation, mostly about what had been going on recently at James' school.
“I don’t know what had provoked Mr. Bolo like that,” James said, “But it must have been something major.” 
“Why did he scold you anyway?” his mother asked him.
“It was something about my accent that annoyed him,” replied James, “He told me to speak American.” 
“What was wrong with him?” Sweetie Bell asked. 
“Dunno, but he’s never been like that before,” James replied. 

After lunch the rest of the day zipped by without any second thought, later that night James introduced the Crusaders to one of his favorite movies; Sherlock Holmes. The movie entertained the Crusaders quite a lot, once it was over James and the girls then went upstairs so they could sleep. James then found that Sweetie Bell had snuck into his bedroom while he was in the bathroom. As James settled down for the night he felt Sweetie Bell creep up onto his bed.
“You know that you can sleep on that bed on the floor,” James said.
“I don’t want to,” Sweetie Bell said, “I feel safer and happier with you.”
“Makes sense but it’s going to be warmer tonight and I don’t like it when it’s hot,” James said. 
“Fine,” Sweetie Bell irritably said clambering over him and settling down on the bed on the floor.
“Nothing personal, but I have school tomorrow,” James said, “It’s the last day and I want to be awake for it.”
“Alright James,” Sweetie Bell said not looking at him.
“Don’t be like that Sweetie Bell,” said James.
Sweetie Bell sighed and looked over at him, she then rolled over to look at him.
“I liked sleeping with you,” she said.
“You still are now,” said James, “Same room and everything.”
“Guess your right,” Sweetie Bell said rolling over again, James switched the lights off and pulled the sheets over him. He then remembered he had to do one last thing.
“Goodnight Sweetie Bell,” James said.
“Goodnight James,” Sweetie Bell said. James was literally clenching his teeth in order to keep himself stable, it was the cutest thing he had ever heard.