Orburn is a small town with a dark secret.
One group of friends want to find out what it is.
[ status: applications closed! ]
STARTED: MARCH 24, 2019
COMPLETED: ?
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MAY 11TH, 1984
IT WASN'T UNCOMMON FOR the group of friends to be seen hanging out in the evenings. They often spent time together to bounce homework ideas off one another or to just hang around and talk about what was on their minds. They bounced from house to house and, every once in a while, they stopped by the small diner on Cedar Lane to grab dinner and talk with the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.
Today's meeting was at Marcus' house since his mother was taking his younger sister to ballet practice and his father was on a business trip. His house was rather large and had an empty feel to it, rooms were decorated with very little furniture, but it accommodated nicely for the group of friends.
They were gathered in the living room with pillows and blankets scattered throughout the group. Marcus had popped in one of Bailey's mixtapes ("It's my most recent and honestly one of my best!") and Luka had picked up a pizza after school (cheese of course, at Bailey's request). They made quick work of diving slices and passing plates around.
"Lia, I'm like, begging you, please help me with my calculus homework."
Ophelia rolled her eyes with a grin. "Did you even pay attention in class, Marcus?"
"I did! I just...you know with...uh..."
"Exactly." Ophelia took a bite out of her slice. Marcus sighed and flopped onto his back.
"If I fail I'm blaming you," he grumbled.
"And we would all know the truth," Luka grinned. "Bailey, do you want another slice?"
"Consider it yours, Luka," Bailey said, reaching for a napkin. Luka's grin widened as he took the last slice.
Ophelia looked over to Jude, who was marking up a book for her English class. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration and her pen tapped lightly against her thigh. English had always been Jude's thing, that and science. Ophelia much preferred math, where everything had a set function and the rules never changed. It was a constant for her and it made school much easier.
"When is that due?" she whispered. Jude looked up from her book.
"What? The annotations?" Jude asked. Ophelia nodded. "I don't think they're due till next week, I'm just trying to get it done early."
"Teacher's pet much?" Ophelia said with a grin. Jude rolled her eyes, but placed her pen in her book and stuffed back into her bag.
Bailey tossed his napkin into the empty box and cleared his throat. "Okay, so I know we kinda already talked about this yesterday, but like, we also kinda didn't get all the facts--"
"Are you really trying to bring up the Porter case again?" Savannah said, her face void of emotion.
"Hey, we don't need to like, have an entire conversation about it again, I just want to hear everything from Jude's perspective. You know, police view and all." Bailey said.
Jude shook her head. "I really told you guys everything I know. That file was practically empty."
"Well, yeah, but was anything weird? Out of the ordinary? Anything that made you curious?" Bailey asked eagerly. Jude huffed in annoyance before thinking it over. Had there been anything weird in that file?
"Well, I guess the only thing I thought was weird was that they found Hannah's body with a note stuck in her hands, but there was no transcript of that note in her file." Jude finally said.
The group all turned to face her.
"A note? As in, like, a suicide note?" Marcus asked.
"Isn't that how they ruled it a suicide?" Sav piped up.
"Why wouldn't they put that in the file? Isn't it evidence?" Ophelia said.
Jude waved their questions off. "Yes, presumed a suicide note, and yes, that's why they deemed it the way they did...I think. And I'm thinking that the note was too personal to include. Maybe it mentioned someone else by name and they kept it out of the file."
"Would they still have it?" Elise-Rae questioned.
Jude nodded. "It legally has to be registered as evidence, so it's probably filed away at the station somewhere."
Sav shifted. "Well, that's a bit strange."
"I thought you weren't worried about any of this? 'They know what they're doing,' right?" Luka teased.
"And they do, it's just weird they didn't put it in her file." Sav clarified. She propped her feet up on the coffee table.
Jude shrugged and played with her fingers. She wasn't concerned with the file or the ruling on the case...just a little curious. How could they rule such a big case a suicide but then not include the note that determined that ruling? It was weird, but not necessarily unusual.
"It's nothing you guys," Jude said, wiping her hands on her thighs, "it was the decision of the OPD to file the note elsewhere, and like Sav said, they know what they're doing."
The group collectively hummed and things returned to a comfortable silence. The sunlight was fading and dipped the room into a golden hue.
"Do you guys wanna walk down to Barry's and see if we can rent Fast Times at Ridgemont High?" Marcus asked.
Luka snorted. "Why the hell not?"
Laughs rang out as the group stood and headed for the front door.
"You know there should be a commercial video store, like, they only rent out tapes and shit," Ophelia said to Jude as the group made their way down the street. Jude chuckled and looked over to Ophelia.
"Ah, I don't know, give it a year," Jude joked. Ophelia bumped her shoulder and they fell back into random conversation with their friends.
They walked off together, chatting and excited.
Happy.
---
(i made a little joke,, first to find it gets a prize!!)
this is a bit of a shit chapter and i'm so sorry -- i have chapter 3 already written, i just needed this filler chapter. but also, i started college!!!! it's so surreal and i can't believe it,, but that means i'm gonna have way less free time to write, so please bear with me :)
