Death Trap: Season 5 of Greenhouse Academy

New Girl

"This is Talia Lockwood. She's been sent here by the courts." The man stepped back. "Thank you, Coach Davies, for going to collect her. Please, allow me to speak with this young lady." Coach Davies left the room. "Talia, please, have a seat." I sat down, looking at a man with white hair, bright, blue eyes and a smile full of hope and understanding. "My name is Louis. I'm the headmaster of the Greenhouse." Louis went back to smiling. "Now, I'd like to know why you're coming from the courts." I faltered. Louis looked at me sympathetically. "I-was involved in a murder investigation," I managed before looking down at the floor. "How so?" Louis questioned.

"My best friend and I... we discovered that one of the teachers at our school was involved with the man who found the virus in the magnetite. We tried to stop her... but she was armed." My voice began to break. "Oh, my goodness." Louis' smile disappeared, replaced by a look of pure sympathies and understanding. "I understand what losing someone you love feels like. My son, Jason... he's a criminal on the loose." Louis let out a sigh. It was clear that Louis, while upset with his son, blamed himself for what Jason had done, thinking he was a bad father for him.

"You're not a bad person jut because Jason is. It's not your fault that he is the way he is. Even though you blame yourself," I whispered. Louis looked surprised. He was beginning to believe I was a lot smarter than I looked. "How do you know that?" Louis asked, his brow furrowing. "I figured it out," I began. "You looked slightly down when you spoke of Jason, showing that you felt ashamed of him, before letting out a sigh, signifying that you regret some of the decisions you made around him."

Louis seemed...impressed, to say the least. "You have a sharp mind. But you also seem quite competitive. I can see from your records that you've had problems with losing in the past. I looked up at Louis. "I don't let myself lose. I'm the best, and I'm not going to stop proving it." I glared defiantly at Louis. I didn't care what he had to say about my competitive streak. This was the truth about me. I didn't agree to this so that I could fake it. I wanted these people to pick me for me, not for some brainwashed, fake version of me.

But, much to my surprise, Louis chuckled. "You belong here, Talia. And I think I know just where to put you."

Within an hour, I'd taken my backpack to the Eagles clubhouse. I'd passed the test (I mean....) and shown off some of my moves from the cheer squad back at my old school, and that had been it. Now, this place was my new home. It was short notice, and I hated not saying goodbye to my aunt, but it was happening. "Everyone, this is Talia, our newest Eagle!" I stood in front of a clubhouse of people dressed in yellow and purple clothing. I liked the colour combination-yellow and purple were the colours of a winner.

"Let's get you a bed," Sophie, the captain of the Eagles, ushered me inside. She looked...familiar. "Um, Sophie, were you by any chance the girl who fell from the cliff last year?" I asked her. "I mean, I don't want to intrude, but there's a scat on you left hand that looks like it came from a thorny bush, and I idolized you as well for your bravery, so...." Sophie chuckled. "It was me. I'm glad you looked up to me in the past.... But after seeing you work out all that from one tiny scar, I think I might have to start looking up to you," she said. "But, I mean, it's not like I'm not doing that already," she said. This was true. I was extremely tall-178 centimeters, or 5 feet 10 and a half inches, while Sophie seemed to about 164cm. I'd assumed that she was 5'4 upon walking into the room.

I laughed. It was a seemingly polite reaction, but would also allow me to connect with Sophie. "We were just about to go have dinner," Sophie said. "You wanna come with us?" I smiled. "Sure. I would love to." Half an hour later, I was in an oversized Eagles tee and shorts, laughing with a group of Eagles and Ravens. "Two Woods and a Lockwood, " mused Leo, captain of the Ravens. "You can call me by my first name, you know," Hayley Woods said to him. Leo put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. This was so cute. I seriously could not handle it! Clearly a couple. But they'd broken up-Hayley was with that Daniel boy before-but then she must have decided she loved Leo.

I decided to keep this observation to myself. I didn't want to stir up any drama with them-they'd clearly been through a lot. "So, Talia, what made you come here?" Daniel Hayward, the star of the Eagles, asked, his dark-eyed gaze reading me like a book. "Well... I was..." There was no point hiding the truth. "My best friend, Harper, and I found out that a teacher at our school was planning on releasing that virus at the President's party. She was allied with-" Max stepped in. "The client," he said.

"Well... we set up a plan to expose her. It was so intricate, so perfect.... But then she noticed Harper in the corner of the room when she was working overtime and asked why she was there. Harper freaked and... well, she decided to blackmail her, straying from our original plan. And then, when I looked up from where I was hiding, I saw the shock on her face.... Just as she..." Sophie looked me in the eye. "I'm so sorry. We didn't know that..."

"Well, I'd dialled 911 the moment Harper strayed from the plan. So the police burst in and arrested her just as she noticed me. But it was too late for Harper." I sighed, looking at the floor. The High Court asked for me to testify. When I revealed the details of our investigation into the matter and the plan we'd constructed, the judge began to whisper to a man next to her... and the next thing I know, I'm here." Daniel Hayward's haze hadn't moved from my face. He'd lost someone too: his mother. She'd been sent to jail. It was really obvious, by the way his mouth twitched at the mention of the crime the client had committed, and a woman named Judy Hayward has been arrested upon the magnetite generated earthquakes...

"But I'm excited. To make a fresh start, here with you guys." I smiled. "You'll fit right in," Brooke Osmond smiled. "Besides, with that fashion sense... We'll be good friends, Talia." We all laughed at this. For so many weeks, I'd felt so alone in the world. I had nowhere to go, nobody to turn to. But here, in a place so far away from home, I felt like things were going to get better. Things would be easier. No more problems and mysteries, just school. The only problem with that? I didn't know how wrong I really was.