When Astrid came bustling into Sam's room, she looked exhausted, almost as if she had ran all the way here. Sam, Tanner and I had already been hanging out in Sam's house for ten minutes without Astrid, and we had begun to speculate. Sam had even suggested going to look for her, but just as we were about to go look, Astrid flung open the door to Sam's room. When Astrid had fully entered the room, she gave us a face that basically said "What!". It wasn't until she gave us this face that we noticed that we looked shocked, almost as if we were so surprised to see her come rushing into the room.
"Oh, hey Astrid," Sam said, breaking the awkward silence that only lasted ten seconds.
"Hey?" Astrid responded, her face the same as it was before, probably wondering why we had looked so surprised.
"We were about to go look for you...," Tanner put in, looking uneasily at Astrid, and then sharing glances with Sam and I.
"...which was why we were so surprised to see you rush into the room," I finished, sharing awkward glances with the rest of the group too.
As you can see, the ten seconds of awkward silence had made everyone feel uncomfortable.
"So, Astrid, do you have any idea why Howard would've taken that picture of you guys on the beach," I ask, trying to break the tension.
Astrid sighs and rubs her eyes, then her temples. Astrid had an expression of excitement on her face, as if she was itching to start investigating, but it wasn't enough to mask the expression of stress on her face. Poor Astrid, I thought. I was really sorry for her, because of how stressed she was, but if Astrid knew I was pitying her, she would go on a mental rampage. I mean that literally.
"I mean, we know that Howard took that picture, and he most likely sent me that package this morning with the scrapbook in it, and if I'm not mistaken, there might even be a copy of that picture on the newspaper glued into the scrapbook. That could be our proof," Astrid says, this new realization perking her up.
"Okay, but where did you keep the package?" Sam asks, probably the most curious about this. He was probably worried that someone would find out Astrid and him were dating. Astrid was smart, though. She most definitely hid the scrapbook in a place where no one would find it, except her.
"I buried it under a tree," Astrid admitted, laughing at how childish it seemed.
"You buried it under a tree?" Sam asked accusingly.
That's how the argument started.
"Well, I was right next to my house, and if I went elsewhere to hide the scrapbook, my mom would've came looking for me," Astrid fought back.
"Well, you could've hid it under the porch or something," Sam yelled at Astrid.
Tanner and I shared anxious glances with each other. The look in his eyes suggested that we should intervene, but I hesitated. I didn't want to act like the relationship counselor. Sam and Astrid could handle it by themselves. That's what a relationship was all about. I gave Tanner a look and he understood. We both took a step back in unison.
We waited.
* * *
The fight lasted another few minutes, with Sam and Astrid accusing each other of wrongful things, such as hiding the scrapbook poorly, not being agreeable, not being cooperative, and so on. After a while, though, Tanner and I got tired of it and intervened finally.
"Will you stop?" Tanner and I screamed.
Sam and Astrid turned around to look at us, shame in their eyes, but it almost looked like they were surprised to see us intervene, as if we hadn't been here the whole time to listen to their argument. Sam and Astrid gave us apologetic glances and then shared apologetic glances with each other. The fight was over.
"We're sorry," Sam and Astrid apologized in harmony, their eyes looking down at the floor.
The gang then took a moment of silence, almost like first thing in the morning at school. No one spoke. No one moved a muscle. No one shared glances. No one did anything. When it looked like the gang was calmed down, I spoke for the first time in a few minutes, "Okay, so what now?" I asked, signaling for everybody to look up and start interacting again.
"Well, maybe we could go find the scrapbook to see if Howard sent it to me or not," Astrid says, still uneasy about talking because of the silence or, maybe, even the fight.
Everyone seemed okay with it and we started to walk out of Sam's room. Sam's bedroom was painted a rich, blue color and reddish-brown hardwood covered the floor. A king-sized bed sat on the floor up against the back wall, with wood column-like poles extending from it and connecting to a ceiling-like tarp at the top of it. As we exited Sam's room, I gasped. I must have gasped loud enough for my friends to hear, because my friends turned around and looked at me. "Sorry," I said, blushing, "I just didn't remember it being this magnificent."
An open hallway extended to another room, his sister Kate's bedroom, and then curved downward into a spiral staircase that lead to the ground level floor. Across from either side of the open hallway were other open hallways leading to other rooms and other spiral staircases also leading to the ground level floor. You can see why I gasped. I mean, I've been to Sam's house lots of times, but each time, I gasp at how fancy it looks.
Now, the reason Sam's house is so fancy and professional-looking is because his dad is the mayor of the Dark Falls Town. Sam had an older sister, about eighteen years old, and she had blonde hair and blue eyes, with a similar face to Sam, but didn't look much like him because Sam had brown hair and green eyes. This wasn't shocking, though, because Sam's dad also had fluffy, brown hair. Sam had no mom, though. Sam never talked about it, though.
By the time I stopped this thought, I was already half-way down the spiral staircase. When I reached the ground level floor, I again admired it. The floor was made out of white marble and an elegant ceiling rose about fifteen feet above the floor, with web-like chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. We then walked through a half-open hallway that lead into the kitchen. The kitchen had a lower ceiling. Once in the kitchen, we all grabbed a bite to eat. Astrid and I each grabbed a bowl of fruit which were already set in the fridge, Sam grabbed a Yoplait-brand yogurt from the fridge, and Tanner ate cereal and milk.
Just as I was to take a bite from my fruit bowl, I got a text. I took my phone from my pocket, and looked at it. It was actually an email. I opened the email and gasped in shock when I read it.
From: Anonymous
To: Gwen
Just because Astrid got blackmailed in two ways this morning by me doesn't mean I'm done with you guys. You're next on the list.
When I looked up from my phone, I noticed that my friends were staring at me, concerned looks on their faces. "What's wrong, Gwen?" Astrid asked.
I gulped, plainly out of anxiety, and then turned my phone towards my friends. They gasped too, all at once.
"You're next on the list? What does that even mean?" Tanner asked, looking at me, complete innocence in his eyes.
"It means that Gwen's going to get blackmailed next, just like I was this morning. But, the thing is, if Howard blackmailed me this morning, this email was sent by him. But what does he have against Gwen?" Astrid contemplated, obviously puzzled.
"I don't know, but before we throw accusations at anyone, we have to make sure if Howard mailed that scrapbook to Astrid this morning or not," Sam says, confidence in his voice.
We decided that the situation was even graver now, so we stopped eating and went to Astrid's house to look at the scrapbook.
* * *
The walk to Astrid's house was hurried and intense, but it was worth it when we reached the tree where Astrid hid the scrapbook. Astrid literally bolted towards the tree and started fiercely digging up the ground next to the tree like an animal. She kept digging to the point where her hands were colored brown with dirt and her fingernails were stuffed with it too. Astrid found the scrapbook and lifted it out from the ground.
Astrid ran over to us, and I was almost scared as she flipped through the pages in front of me. When she got to a certain page, she turned the book around and showed us. A picture of Astrid and Sam on the beach this morning was glued to the page. It was the same one from the newspaper, but there were also other pictures, ones I rather not mention.
"Astrid, this means Howard is responsible for all this," I asseverated, happy that we figured it out. Another mystery down.
"It also means that Howard didn't just see us on the beach this morning. He was spying on us," Astrid said, pointing to a picture of her and Sam kissing each other on the beach, their backs to the camera. Sam now looked petrified, his face pale as a ghost. I felt bad for them. They didn't deserve this. Howard could ruin their relationship by doing this. But what did Howard have against me? I didn't really know. I mean, Howard had a crush on Astrid, and hated Sam for dating her, so it would make sense that he would do this, but he didn't have anything against me. Maybe he was mad at me for being friends with Sam? No, that couldn't be because Tanner was friends with Sam too, and he wasn't getting any texts or e-mails.
I could feel a headache coming on, probably because I was trying so hard to figure this out.
"Let's just calm down, guys. We'll figure this out. We always do. Let's just go back to Sam's house and relax. I think we've had enough mystery for one day. Let's pick it up tomorrow," Tanner said in a calm voice, trying to make the mood more peaceful.
We all nodded and followed Tanner to Sam's house, but just as I was about to follow Tanner, I got another email. I opened it up.
From: Anonymous
To: Gwen
You might want to watch out for your friend Tanner...or should I say crush. Let's just say, sabotage comes in mysterious ways.
I was about to show my friends the email, but I hesitated. If they saw the email, they would most likely think I liked Tanner. For that exact reason, I pocketed my phone and didn't say a word. Let's just hope that whoever sent me that email was joking about the "sabotage" part. I hoped that I was right.
ns 18.68.41.174da2
