The Mystery of Jean-Jacques
By Ivan Reyes
Staff Writer
I have always been curious about the teddy bear in the Bandersnatch clubroom. How did he end up there? Who was the other bear on the front page of older issues? And who is Jean-Jacques really? All I knew was that his shirt was from a guy called Jean-Jacques. Unable to contain my curiosity, I searched for some old files in the clubroom…and this is what I found.
Jean-Jacques was a writer for Bandersnatch in the late 90s. He was an arts student in his 3rd semester. Most of his articles were for the entertainment section of the newspaper and, from the old records, he was pretty good at it too. However, something weird occurred on Halloween 1998. Jean-Jacques disappeared and was never found again.
Intrigued, I dug further. I checked the police report filed around that time. Jean-Jacques was last seen on October 21st. He did his normal routine: going to class, studying in the library and hanging out in the club room writing articles. Nothing strange occurred until around 6pm that day. According to former club members, Jean-Jacques stayed behind and said that he was busy writing an article on the origins of teddy bears. Security checked on him around 7:30pm. He was gone. They assumed he had left for home, so they closed the club room and locked the door.
That was the last time Jean-Jacques was seen. A few days later, a teddy bear appeared in the school’s newspaper club room. It had a shirt with a name on the back: “Jean-Jacques”. From the stories I’ve heard, faint crying can be heard in the Herzberg basement late at night coming from the Bandersnatch club room, and a teddy bear can be spotted roaming the school grounds during Halloween. The case remains unsolved.
Behold JJ, our beloved bandersnatch member. Be kind to him or else he’ll hunt you down.