x
It had been five days ever since the murder and I here was standing in front of the school gate waiting for it to open. To be honest, it would be stupid to come back here but I had no choice. Aunt got herself a new boyfriend and from the way he was staring at me last night, I knew he was going to be a problem. I was hungry but the food I got at the convenience store was my lunch.
Finally, students began to arrive and the gates were opened. Hours passed by and it was time for lunch but as I walk up the stairs to join my friends, I bumped into someone.
"Watch where you are going!" she screeched.
I took a step back. "I am sorry."
She huffed and swung an object to my face. "You'd better or this will be on your head!"
As she walked away, I notice the object the girl had red hair, and brown eyes wielding a baseball bat.
'Is she a delinquent?' I thought.
"Hey, you are late," Brianna called out.
"I am sorry I bumped into someone threatening to hit me with a baseball bat," I say sitting next to Caroline.
"Who was that?" asked Ralph.
"I do not know her name," I replied munching on the bread. "But she has red hair..."
Then Caroline interrupted me. "With brown eyes?"
I nod.
"Her name is Alice. She is an upperclassman." She sipped on her juice.
"Oh," then there was silence. With the topic of video games out of the question, Aubrey began to fill us in on the events on the Cooking Club being bored out of our wits I decide to ask an honest question.
"Does anyone know who the Principal is? I have never seen him before and only met with his secretary."
There was another round of silence before Andrew said, "Oh him?"
"Nope, we haven't seen him," Ralph added.
"Me neither," Brianna replied.
I raise an eyebrow. 'Something is off here.' Suspicion was eating me raw as I took their words with a grain of salt.
Aubrey rolled her eyes at me. "What's the matter? You think the Principal is behind the murder?"
She and the rest followed but I was too stunned to join them because the joke was too good to be true. What if he was behind the current murder and tried to use me as a coverup?
I felt a nudge on my arm then Caroline whispered in my ear, "The offer is still open you know."
The whole day passed by and as I listened to my Aunt and her boyfriend have the 'pillow talk' in the next room I thought about what happened today.
"It is tempting," to the darkness. "Tempting.
Then my phone brightened up with a message from him.
'How was school today?'
'Did you have an amazing time?'
'I am sorry I haven't been communicating with you.'
'I can tell you are scared of what happened in that school.'
'Do not worry I am here.'
'Maybe I will come and visit you to cheer you up.'
'Do you want me to visit?'
'We could go on a date!'
'Yeah. Under the moonlight with red flowers.'
'Red is my favorite color.'
'What is your favorite color?'
'Is it brown? Purple? Blue? Yellow? Green?'
'Sorry, I am not good at guessing.'
'Seriously? Who is this?' I deleted the texts and blocked his number but the next day, I woke up to a barrage of text messages from this unknown person.
'Why did you block me?'
'Did I do something wrong?'
'Am I annoying you?'
'I am sorry.'
'I want to speak with you.'
'You promised if we met again it would be for life!'
'Why are you ignoring me?'
This continued until school was over. Moving away from my friend circle, I go to an IT store to change my phone number. It took a while with a little cash but it was done and I never heard from him for a whole week. Things slowly went back to normal during the next few weeks except some boys were trying to step up as the 'School's Bad Boy'; since the one holding the title was deceased but they weren't after Valarie.
They were after me.
"No," I say for the fifteenth time while standing next to the entrance of the Cooking Club.
"C'mon baby girl," the grey-eyed and heavily gelled black-haired boy cooed. "What's the matter, don't you want to hang out with me?"
"Hey, she said no so back off," someone said and turned to see it was Alex in all his masculine glory.
Carl huffed. "And what are you going to do mama's boy? Beat me up?"
His gang laughed at the poor joke he made while Alex shrugged and rolled up his sleeves revealing his fresh tanned muscular arms.
"Yeah, I am," he replied putting on a fighting stance. "That is if you are willing to take me on."
Carl huffed, signaled his gang to leave, and walked away from the scene.
"Are you alright?" Alex asked looking at me.
I blush madly before nodding my head. Suddenly Aubrey walked in on us.
"I am sorry to interrupt but you have to prepare to today's club activities." She said folding her hands.
Alex apologized and walked back to the club room. I followed him but was stopped by Aubrey.
"Why were you standing there like a zombie?" she asked looking at me in the eye. "Were you trying to catch Alex's eye?"
I shake my head.
"Then you should have said something."
"I did but..."
"Put a sock in it!" she said doing her signature pose of folding her arms and looking away. "Try that again and you will be in trouble! Only you can stand up for yourself understand?"
I gave a sheepish nod and watched her walk into the Cooking Club Room. There we learned how to make pasta and when it was my turn I failed woefully.
"Don't worry you will get the hang of it," Alex said patting me on the back. I got a glare from Aubrey who did not speak to me for the rest of the day. During the next class, the Principal's Secretary Mrs. Benjamin walked into our class.
"I am afraid to inform you the Physics Teacher Mr. Mildew will no longer be teaching you. Instead, you will have a new teacher called Mr. Indigo and he will be teaching you both Chemistry and Physics."
As soon as she said that, a tall young man with long black hair and brown eyes wearing a grey suit with thick glasses walked in.
"Good morning class," he said coldly. "I assume she told you my name but let me pass a warning to you. I take my lessons seriously and I want you all to do the same do you understand?"
If he wanted to get authority over the class then the mission was accomplished thanks to his thick accent and sense of authority that made everyone even the Principal's Secretary keep quiet during the whole speech.
"Well then," she said. "I will leave you all to get acquainted."
We watched her leave us with the new dictator who was watching us like a hawk and not a word was said.
"Now then," he said to the quiet classroom. "I would like to lay down some rules all of you should follow." then he went to the board and began to write.
Rule No. One: No chewing or eating of anything in my class.
Rule No. Two: No talking in my class unless I say.
Rule No. Three: Do not put your feet on the desk when I am in class.
Rule No. Four: Do not pass notes in my class.
Rule No. Five: No asking for permission to use the restroom during class.
"What if we need to go, sir," someone said which earned a snigger amongst the other students. I turned to my right and saw the person was Brianna. A look of horror was on my face. What on earth was she doing?
Mr. Indigo looked at Brianna and with a sharp tone, he replied, "I suggest you hold it in madam. Decent girls like you are supposed to do that when they are in class or facing a gentleman. Pity you were not raised to do that."
Brianna did not find the joke funny. None of us did and we watched her slump to her seat.
"Sit up straight. I don't entertain slouches," he said as he continued to write on the board. To make the story short, he wrote a lot of rules but what stood out was the 'No getting anything less than a 50% in class'"
'Something tells me we are in for a tough year.' I thought.
"Emma Cross-wood."
I jolt and look around.
"Daydreaming in my class I see?" he asked.
I stand up and swallow saliva. "No sir."
"Well Ms. Cross-wood, would you mind switching seats with this young gentleman here?" he said pointing to a brown-haired boy. "What might your name be young man?"
The boy stood up and said his name was Fred. After the brief introduction, he was told to sit next to Brianna who had a confused look on her face. Packing our things from our former desks, we moved to the one he appointed for us with me sitting in the front row while Fred sat at the back.
"Your previous teacher told me you and Fred are the brightest students in his class so the reason why you are sitting here is to avoid being distracted from your little friend over there," he explained. "Maybe his intelligence will rub off on her."
Some girls giggled because they found our predicament amusing but it was gone the minute he rearranged our seating positions and announced it would be our permanent seats every time we had a lesson with him. To my dismay, I was sitting next to Valarie who was not too pleased about it. The class was two grueling hours and during the lesson, he sent five students out of the class including Brianna and Fred for arguing. Once the lesson was over, Brianna was hurling curses at him.
"That prick! Who does he think he is?" she yelled at no one while we walked down the corridor.
Andrew quickly covered Caroline's ears. "Language."
"For Pete's sakes, she is fifteen years old," Ralph said rolling his eyes. "She can handle a little swear word."
I giggled at this permanent gag. Caroline was the smallest of our group so she was treated like the youngest among us despite the fact she and Brutes were age mates while the rest of us were sixteen.
Then I remember something. "Sorry, I left my English book in the Cooking Club room so I have to get it."
Aubrey rolled her eyes. "Do hurry up! We don't have all day!"
I rush to the main building to my right. It was closing time so the classrooms were empty but something was fishy; the Cooking Club room was open.
'That is odd, Alex was the last person to leave the place and he locked it.' I walk closer. 'Why is it open and...' I cover my nose. 'What is that smell?'
I peep and see Dalila cooking something in a pot that was the source of the foul smell. She hummed happily to herself as she stirred.
"I need more meat," she muttered to herself as she picked up a huge machete and walked over to the prepping area on the other side of the room. I used this as an opportunity to sneak in and ask her what she was doing but I noticed the pieces of clothes on the floor.
'What are these doing here?' Then a grunt was heard and the sink cabinet burst open revealing what looked like a male upperclassman tied up with a gag in his mouth.
I remove the gag. "What happened to you?"
"Help me!" he screamed. Instinctively, I began to untie his bonds until he yelled, "Look out!"
Something hard hit me causing pain to erupt in my head. I turn just in time to see Dalia one of the Cooking Club Students stare at me with a blank expression on her face.
"That was supposed to knock you out." She said holding what looked like a rolling pin in her hand and it was a big one. My vision was a bit blurry but I could see her raise it one more time aiming for my head before I moved away. A scream was heard and staggering towards where the pots and pans were, I see it was the upperclassman who screamed because he was hit.
I rubbed my eyes to get a better view of Dalia who was ready to take another swing at me. Grabbing an iron skillet pan, I use it to block her attack and hit her on the head.
"Please let this be a nightmare!" I begged as she staggered back from the impact. She shook her head rapidly and gave a wicked grin. Suddenly someone the air in me vanished as something was wrapped around my neck. Coughing and gagging, I tried to get rid of it but it was stuck on tight. Tears came to my eyes blurring my vision but my sight was clear enough to see Dalia run towards me with the machete in her hand. I do some fast thinking and use all the strength I have left in me to jolt to the side. My action made her hit the person strangling me from behind and I was released.
I gasped and coughed while Dalia growled in fury. "Why can't you just die?"
"EMMA!!" someone yelled it was Brianna.
"What is taking you so long?" it was Aubrey.
"No don't come in here!" I scream grabbing the iron skillet pan real.
Dalila lunged at me and I used the pan to block the oncoming blow but that caused me to tumble backward and burst through the door. My friends screamed when they saw me and yelled as Dalila tried to hit me. I moved just in time to grab the iron skillet but this time used it to hit Dalila on the head but that did little impact as she swiped the machete on my legs in an attempt to cut them. I jump at the last second and tumble to the floor but just as Dalila was to cut me down for good, something penetrated through her causing a spray of blood to splash on my uniform. I stood mortified as she dropped her weapon and fell to the floor and whoever it was climbed on her and continued to stab her.
"DEMON!" Caroline yelled stabbing her over and over again. "YOU WON'T KILL ANYONE! YOU HEAR ME! I WON'T LET ANYONE DIE BECAUSE OF YOU! I WON'T, I WON'T."
I watch unsure of what to do. This was all too real! Tears flowed from my eyes as I watched the scene until Andrew yanked her away.
"Caroline that is enough! She is dead! STOP!" he yelled holding her tight.
Caroline struggled to get out of his grip to continue her tirade. It took a while but she calmed down and started to cry. I was already in tears.
"Andrew!" Brianna yelled and suddenly, he was knocked unconscious by a green-haired girl with blood on her hair. Caroline lunged at her but thanks to the girl's enormous size, she was able to toss Caroline away like a rag doll. Then someone her on the head causing blood to spatter on the floor. Our hero was an upperclassman and upon closer inspection, I realized it was the same person I bumped into a few days ago.
He dropped the bat and hugged me. "It is okay. It is all right. Just breathe. It's okay."
Well, I found it hard to do that because of the way he hugged me but while he was inspecting my face, the police ran up to us yelling and holding guns ready to shoot and their leader was none other than Detective Walsh.
"What the heck hap... No!"
We hear a sound and notice the green-haired girl has stabbed herself in the throat. Her blood poured out like water rushing out of a tap before she fell to the floor.
Detective Walsh groaned and looked at us. "Get the paramedics here."
Soon the paramedics arrived and one of the policemen ran into the Cooking club room. "Detective, we have a survivor and one dead."
I looked around me and tried to sit up but I was pushed down by the paramedics who told me to stay down.
"No need for an interview Detective." another policeman said walking towards us. "We a witness but he is in a state of shock."
"And what good would that do?" he barked back. "He is in a state of shock!"
As I had my face dabbed with antiseptic, Caroline looked at him. "I...I did. I... killed the demon."
Ralph was shocked. "What?"
"Caroline..." Brianna began but she was shushed by the Detective who brought out a pair of handcuffs and taking a few steps handcuffed her.
"Little girl, you are under arrest for murder. Anything you say or do will be used against you in the court of law..."
"No!" I screamed pushing the paramedic away but I was stopped by the strange boy and more paramedics.
"She did not do it!" Brianna yelled.
"It was self-defense!" Aubrey screamed. "We were there and..."
"If you have anything to tell me, feel free to report to the police station okay?" he snapped.
I watched him lead Caroline away and looked at the bodies around me while Andrew was put on the stretcher.
"Are you okay?" the upperclassman asked as he helped me up.
I nod.
"We have to follow them to the station," Brianna said.
The upperclassman shook his head. "That's not a good idea."
"What?" Aubrey yelled.
"We can't just leave her like that!" Ralph added getting a nod from Brutes.
The upperclassman tsked and was about to say something when Aubrey huffed impatiently.
"Are we going to stand here like idiots or are we going to leave?" then without waiting for our response, she turned around and left. The rest followed her and I was about to go with them when the upperclassman grabbed my arm.
"I think you should sit this one out." He said.
I shake my head and wrench my arm out of his grip. "I am sorry but I can't let them go alone." and ran to catch up with them.
ns 15.158.61.7da2
