Dove Sport

Chapter Thirteen: Blood in the Water

When Blair got to school on Monday morning, she headed straight for the news and media room to work on her article about Seth's murder. It wasn't coming along very well. In fact, Blair had hit an ethical roadblock ever since she and Dara had broken into Nick's dorm last Friday. Dara had called her up on Saturday afternoon when Blair had just been getting off a shift at work. She'd talked to Nick and had told Blair that he had a permit for the gun- which Blair didn't totally buy, for the record- and that the gun was for personal safety.

Blair found that Dara's explanation raised more questions than it answered. For instance, what was out there that was so threatening that Nick needed a gun in the first place to protect himself? And how did he even get it anyways? Nick was a minor like the rest of them. Blair still wasn't totally convinced that Nick wasn't involved in Seth's murder somehow. Despite her lingering suspicions Blair was facing a new problem.

Kenny and Arsen were waiting for her when she arrived in the news and media room. The two boys stood before one of the desks which was covered in papers and photographs of different people.

Blair came to a stop in the doorway and asked, "What's going on?"

Kenny looked up and smiled at her, but he looked tired. "My mom's office got broken into last night when we were at the movies. The person totally wrecked her big board of suspects so she's going to reconstruct it down at the station and let me have what's left over. I remembered that you're both working on a story about Seth and figured you could use it." He ran a hand through his dark hair absentmindedly as he went on, "Arsen and I were working on it." Kenny nodded to the bulletin board they'd been pinning photos to.

Arsen asked, "Any leads on who did that yet? Or what they were looking for?"

Kenny turned back to helping Arsen as he replied, "Nope. No fingerprints that anyone could find. Whoever it was stole a whole bunch of her files about Seth's case- the background checks, and all the audio and video files of police interviews.

Blair stepped closer and considered the bulletin board. The boys had been connecting suspects with bits of red string and it looked like something out of a mystery movie. Someone knocked on the doorframe behind her and she turned.

Brent, the older brother of one of the cheerleaders, was standing in the doorway. Blair had kept in friendly contact with him ever since he'd helped them figure out where Liam's scorebook was. He stood in the doorway now, curly hair flopping a bit in his eyes and smiling. "Hey, Blair," He greeted, leaning against the doorframe a little.

Blair smiled at him warmly and said, "Hey Brent!"

"Sorry to interrupt." Brent apologized, ripping the back of his neck sheepishly as he noticed Arsen and Nick had fallen quiet and were looking at him.

"Oh no, it's totally fine." Blair reassured him, "We're just working on our...." She trailed off, unsure of how to explain this.

Arsen finished for her, "Our murder board." Blair winced. The last thing she needed was Brent thinking she was psycho. She looked at Arsen to try and communicate that silently but found him solely focused on Brent, frowning a little.

Brent seemed unsure how to respond for a minute before laughing awkwardly and saying, "Well, I just came over here to make sure that we're still on for later today...?" He sounded unsure so Blair nodded eagerly.

"Absolutely." She assured Brent, "It's a date." As soon as the words came out of her mouth Blair felt Kenny and Arsens' attention on her but forced herself to focus and wave goodbye as Brent left the room.

"Peace out, see ya." Brent left. Blair turned to see Kenny had folded his arms.

"Going on a date with Brent?" Kenny asked dubiously. "Does Mrs. Wallis know about that?"