Shawn didn't recognise this new kid, but he just kind of assumed he was a student at the school, too. Maybe he was one of those gawky little fifth-graders that Jimmy Nickels and his cronies liked to pick on. That'd certainly go to explain his jumpiness. He was kinda weird, Shawn decided, the way he stared at you like he was trying to see right through your skull, the hunted look he had about him. Still, weird was a step up from enraged bully, and more interesting to boot.
Shawn followed the boy's gaze, but the unfamiliar scene didn't fill him with the same anxiety that seemed to grip Jonathan. The hallway that stretched out in front of them was nothing like the school's other corridors, all linoleum floors, scuffed lockers and panelled ceilings. This hallway was polished wood and cracking plaster and oil lamps that cast weird and enticing shadows. It looked old - not the way Shawn's locker was old and you always had to jiggle it a bit to unstick the door - this was real old, like old abandoned mansion old. Gus had heard a rumour once that there were secret passages inside the school's walls and that was how Mr. Finn the janitor managed to sneak around without anybody noticing... Maybe he'd just found it.
"'Course there is," said Shawn confidently. "We both got in here, right? If there's a way in, there's gotta be a way back out. C'mon," he slipped past the other boy eagerly and into the hallway, pressing his eye up to the old-fashioned keyhole of the nearest door. "Wonder if any of these doors go into the teachers' lounge."