Player || gxb

Chapter three: Poisonous Berries

"Life is like a costume party, just cover the floors in Cavalli"
~Meltdown by Lorde

I walked into the math class beside Magnus. Ms. Starkly stood in her usual spot at the board, and Magnus and I greeted her like usual.
"Hello, Ms. Starkly," we said.
"Good morning, Ms. Valdes and Mr. Garnet," Ms. Starkly said back.
Magnus and I just sat down at our seats and pulled out our papers when Ms. Starkly said: "Mr. Garnet, how's your sister? I haven't seen her in a while."
"Holly?" Magnus asked.
"Yes," Ms. Starkly answered.
"Well, as your probably know, our parents are split up. And I live at my Mom's place and she lives at my Dad's. So I haven't really talked to her in a while," Magnus explained.
"Oh, right," Ms. Starkly sighed.
I sat and listened. This has been going on for a while. The whole Garnet family thing.
Rumours have been going on that the children in that family are strange. Magnus, and his two sisters. One of them my friend and his twin, Holly. And Logan, she's in ninth grade.
I don't see them as strange. But I do know that they went though a lot when their parents divorced in grade seven. It's all over, but it's still being mentioned and a lot of rumours. Because things have happened after they came.
There was a school shooting in grade nine, Holly, Bronwyn, and Angelina were in the hallways. And they were held as suspects and interrogated.
Holly was also found with a gun in her locker. She claimed it was for self-defence, and I believe her.
I stopped for a moment, what if people think of her a suspect for the murder of Alexia? I wouldn't be surprised.
But I mostly have my eyes on Autumn. She would do these types of things these days.
Did Alexia have an enemy? I asked myself.
And that's when I heard a yell in the hallway, "GET OFF ME, BITCH!!!" It's Holly.
I got up from my chair and peaked out into the hallway. I saw her being held against a locker by one of Autumn's girls.
I also saw Autumn standing beside her, talking into her ear.
I walked over to them and pushed her, "get away," I said and startled her.
"Oh, look who it is. Hello, Valdes," Autumn sneered.
"Go away, Easley. Leave her alone."
"Oh," Autumn said and let her hands hang at her side. "You would let a murderer of your friend just be let free?"
I felt a rush of anger, "she's not a murderer. Back off. Why would you think that?"
Autumn laughed, "after all that she's done. You really think she wouldn't a suspect?"
Holly grunted, and she pushed the girl off of her, she stumbled.
"And what did I do exactly, Autumn?" Holly growled.
Autumn turned to look at her. "You dealt drugs—"
"That's a lie."
"You got suspended three times—"
"Two."
"You brought a gun in your locker—"
"For self-defence."
"Against what exactly?" Autumn asked.
"People who wanted to hurt me? Maybe?" Holly said, in a mock-thoughtful voice.
"Are you talking about m—"
"Whoa, what's going on here?" I heard a voice say from behind me. I turned to look and saw Nina Yardley.
Nina looked at the situation and adjusted her fedora.
"Oh," is all she said.
"Back off, Yardley," Autumn snapped, "we're busy."
"Jeez, I'm just heading to math. No need to snap, Autumn," Nina said innocently. "Now, if you don't mind, Holly has school to do," Nina grabbed Holly by the shoulders and dragged her away to their math class.
I stood, stunned that Nina had the power to do that.
Autumn flicked her hair back over her shoulder. "Valdes," She said, and pushed past me into the classroom.

Halfway through class, I felt a tapping on my left shoulder. "Psst, Valdes," I turned to see Brooklynn of all people was trying to talk to me.
If you didn't know, Brooklynn changed a lot over the last two years. I think it's because she finally settled down with a boyfriend (for once, her lifetime dream).
"What?" I whispered back.
Brooklynn shoved a piece of paper into my hand, then she got back to work.
I read the paper, it was a note. It said:
Hello, Valdes.
First off, don't interfere with us again. Got that?
Secondly, meet me in the library after school. Tell the rest of your friends to do the same.
At the very bottom of the crumpled paper it had a signature: Autumn Easley
I sighed, and I stuffed the paper in my bag. I must've made a big sigh because Ms. Starkly said: "Ms. Valdes? Is something the matter?"
"No," I replied, "nothing's wrong."

It was lunchtime, I grabbed some macaroni from the cafeteria lady and headed over to the table.
"Hey, how's the day so far?" I greeted.
Bronwyn and Rayna shrugged.
Angelina didn't say anything.
Maya ignored me.
Holly and Nina frowned.
Leah and Ruth said it was good.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Well, Autumn's group is spreading rumours about us and saying we are the most likely suspects? Oh, and they found a bottle of squashed holly berries in Alexia's house," Bronwyn said.
"What? Really? And did they find anything else?" I asked.
"They took the berries in. Apparently holly berries are poisonous. But they also found a gunshot. They're checking if the berries were another cause of Alexia's death," Angelina explained.
"Ugh," Ruth said. "Even I didn't know any of this."
"Wow," Holly said and rolled her eyes, then she went back to her macaroni.
I looked over at Autumn's table. I saw her with her group. They seemed in deep discussion, and I noticed a few people looking over here once in a while.
"They're talking about us," I said.
Bronwyn glanced over, "wow. It's not like they're always talking about us."
I then glanced over at the Copper Wolves table.
The Copper Wolves is a gang that is in Easthaven. They're always dealing drugs, graffiti, and other shit that gangs do.

I looked over at them, two years ago I expected Autumn to join them. But now I know she is trying to form her own; even though she works with the Copper Wolves every once in a while.
Autumn leads the cheerleading team: the Diamond Tigers.
The colours are blue, silver, and black.
I don't bother to try and join, one: I don't want to, two: if I did she wouldn't let me.
I looked over at Magnus' table, he was staring at Autumn's table. I don't know why, maybe for the same reason?
But then I noticed, Julia Naran was there.

I told everyone to come to the library after school. Everyone was interested in what Autumn had to say.
I walked out of the geography class, the one that Ms. Gucci taught in. And started heading towards the library.
Halfway there, I heard a call behind me, "Ruby!" I turned around and saw Magnus jogging up to me. "Where're you going? I thought we were going to walk home."
"Oh yeah," I didn't forget. I wanted him to forget. "I forgot and thought I'd study for a while in the library."
"I'll come with y—"
"No, I'm with Bronwyn."
"Oh, can't I sti—"
"We need privacy. We need to talk about something."
"Oh," Magnus said disappointedly. "Well, talk tomorrow then? Or tonight?"
"Sure," I said. "Now, I must go. Bye."
"Bye," Magnus said and I walked away. I knew he was still staring at me as I turned the corner.

When I got to the library, I saw that Autumn, Julia, and some of her group was already here. So was Angelina, Holly, and Nina.
"Finally, how many more people?" Autumn asked exasperated.
"Why? Do you need everyone?" Holly snapped.
"Does it matter to you, Garnet?" Autumn snapped back.
"Actually, yes it does—"
"Oh, shut up," Julia said.
Every went quiet. And eventually, after about five minutes Autumn gave up.
"Whatever, I'll say it now. I have a deal."
We stayed quiet.
"I need you to answer honestly, okay?"
"It depends," I said.
"On what?" Autumn asked.
"What the question is."
"Fine. Here's the thing. Your group has been annoying my group for over two years—"
"Only one," Holly muttered.
"And we are sick of it. If you stay away from my group and leave us alone to our business, we will stop," Autumn continued.
"Fine. Deal," Angelina said. "What're the questions?"
Autumn pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket, and read, "one, who killed Rodriguez?"
I grunted like a hungry gorilla in the summertime, "we told you, we have no idea."
"Liars. We know it was either Valdes or one of the Garnets. All the evidence goes to you," Autumn sneered.
"What's the next question?" Angelina asked.
"Why did I see Rayna McCabe wandering down the street suspiciously at five in the morning?"