Endbury Academy✔️

Chapter 17

The next morning we had gone straight to Delilah Gill to inquire about Elena. When she told us our suspicions were true, we decided to do an investigation of our own.

"How are we supposed to keep an eye on them though?" Sloan asked, drumming her fingers along the table. The cafeteria was bustling with students, and it was the perfect time to start coming up with a plan. "We can't just skip classes to follow Vice Principal Pekham all day. That would look suspicious and get us into trouble."

"Plus, she can be quite ruthless with punishment," Annette added with a wince, as if talking from memory.

I pursed my lips, trying to get my thoughts together. I knew something had to give. Something had to give before something bigger came from this. Knowing that we were basically isolated from the outside world, the parents would think nothing bad is happening. Whether the girls kept in contact with them via online or not. I wasn't sure that was even allowed, considering the parents basically dropped us off here. Some of the girls have been here since the beginning of their school term - only going back during the holidays, and sometimes not even then.

"What can we do? We're just students." Sally pointed out, biting her lip. "It's not like we can just march into Principal Blakely's office and demand to know where our friends are. Not that she would even give us any answers." She added bitterly.

"Probably not," I agreed with a nod of my head. I didn't think Blakely was even a part of the scheme. Though knowing what I know now I could be entirely wrong on that and she could easily be a part of it. I never would have guessed Professor Clemons doing anything shady, but then again it seemed like he was coerced into the entire thing by Pekham.

"Well we know for a fact Vice Principal Pekham is in on it," Annette added, pursing her lips in thought. "She has a group. The teacher that was with her last night was Professor Williams. She teaches for the grade below us," she explained, making me nod my head in understanding. That was why I didn't know who she was.

"I just cannot believe Professor Williams would be in on anything. She's such a sweet lady..." Mila trailed off with a frown, a glossy look in her eye as Sloan wrapped her arm around her shoulders.

Leia sighed, picking at the hem of her sweater. "Sometimes it's the ones that are the most surprising involved in things like this. I have a theory on what's happening, or what is going on anyway." I raised an eyebrow at her as the group went silent. Leia cleared her throat, squirming uncomfortably. "This has the makings of a cult written all over it." She stated quietly, her eyes darting every which way they could.

Sloan snorted at that, slow clapping at the revelation. "Next you're going to tell me Santa Clause is real," she sneered, making me narrow my eyes at the venom. "You can't possibly entertain the idea that there's a cult under our very noses?!" She snapped at me, Mila sighing beside her.

"You could say that a little nicer!" I growled, placing the palm of my hand against the table. "Don't you think she would know better than any of us if there was a cult or not?" I asked snidely, remembering that she was once apart of one. Or rather, her parents were once apart of one. Sloan winced at that, automatically looking apologetic as she gave Leia a wobbly smile. "We need to work together and not lash out at each other."

"She's right," Eliza quietly piped up, biting her lip. "I think I may have an idea on what we can do though. I know where the cellar is..." She trailed off, licking her lips anxiously.

"We have a cellar?" Leia asked, surprised.

Eliza nodded her head. "Yeah. It's in a conspicuous place, you'd never know it was there," she explained, "it's more like a secret entrance. Think Harry Potter secret entrance," she added with a shiver. "I, uh, stumbled upon it when I was hiding from Barbara and Anya one day..." She gave us a shy smile, probably thinking we were going to make fun of her for getting picked on.

"That could be a great place to hide something...." Mila stated with a nod of her head. "Now we just need to find a way to get in without drawing attention."

"I think the best way is to do it during class," Leia jumped in, looking determined. "They can't reprimand us or tell us to go somewhere else, since they will be teaching. It's perfect."

"Sneaky," Sloan smirked, nodding her head in appreciation. "I think Jenna should go down and see if she can scope anything. Bring Eliza with you so she can show you where it is." The plan was all coming together. When we weren't arguing over it, we could come up with pretty hefty plans. "We're mostly in the same classes, so I can always distract the teacher if you take too long. Which you will. Especially if you find something." She added in the end, tapping her chin with her fore-finger.

"The only thing is we need to choose the easiest teacher that will let me leave," I murmured, deep in thought. "Which I think our best bet is Professor Franks, or Professor Lemons." They were both easy to manipulate anyway, and I knew I could easily ask to use the restroom then. It was most likely they were in on all of this. Professor Franks especially, since she had been acting weird ever since Tenley disappeared, and whenever someone asked where a student was.

"Agreed," Sloan nodded her head, furrowing her eyebrows in thought. "If what you said about Clemons is true, we cannot trust him either. Don't let him lure you anywhere..." She stated sternly, making the other girls nod their heads as well. "He's probably the one luring most of the girls since he's so sincere. There's only been four gone missing, but last year eight went missing. So we need to watch out for anyone else who might disappear." There started our mission to try and figure out what was going on with the school.

Though I wasn't exactly sure if we would be successful or not.