Dear Inspector, It Was The Ghosts

Prologue

One of the teachers came and opened the doors, watching the students pile in. Robyn strode past, taking advantage of her height. Then she shoved open the door, praying she wasn't too late. She ran to her seat and shoved her bag under the chair. Evan grinned at her and subtly handed her a sheet of paper. Robyn heard the rustling of a bag and the clink of metal hitting metal. He produced a purse and placed £1.50 on the desk. 'Will that be enough?' 

Robyn nodded and took the money and the paper, reading it carefully. Then she handed Evan the 50 pence back. '£1 will be enough,' she said, slipping the paper into her bag. She zipped it up and hid the bag just in time as her form teacher entered. 

'Good morning!' my teacher yelled as she put all thirty of her bags under the table. 'As you all know, today is the after school fundraising event. As soon as school finishes, all volunteers can come to the main hall. The event ends at 8, no later, okay?' she paused and looked around the classroom like a preying lion. 'Good. Right, now we've got that out the way. Archibald, are you here?'

'It's Archie, miss!' he yelled from the back of the classroom. 

'Well it says Archibald on here, so I assume that's your name?' Miss James lowered her glasses and peered at him. 'You look like an Archibald.' her hair was piled on top of her head, a chalky white. She wore a flowing green dress and brown boots that went up to her knees. She never looked like she wore makeup unless you were near her, which you did not want to be. She always yelled at the younger students, treating the older ones better. She would be the type of person who could've been 20 or 50 if it wasn't for her hair. She hated it when anyone called her Mrs James as it "offended" her. 

She continued down the register, peering up every few seconds to glare at whichever person had caught her attention. Robyn was in year ten, meaning Miss James didn't mistreat her as much as she had when Robyn first joined the school in year 7. 

Robyn sighed and blinked, not noticing that she'd zoned out. The caretaker was standing in the door in his blue overalls. He'd only become the caretaker recently, rumors flying around about his age and which of the students had dated him. Nobody knew his name, but people said that he got the scar on his face while working at Dultones high. 

He was whispering in the teacher's ear, with the class watching as her eyes widened, then shooed him out of the room. 'Okay!' she clapped her hands to gain attention. 'First lesson is canceled. What do you have that lesson?' 

'Religious studies!' called KJ. 

'Okay, that is cancelled for today due to an important assembly,' a cheer rose throughout the classroom. 'Line up in register order. No talking. This is important.' Robyn and the students quietened and lined up without breathing. Archie opened the door and wandered out into the thousands of students, around 2,000 of them, walking in line in the direction of the main hall. The older students sat on the chairs at the back, with the youngest lined up at the front. The entire hall was buzzing with noise until the head teacher walked out. 

'SILENCE!' his voice echoed, bouncing off the walls. Everyone sat down and hushed. 'Okay, this is a very important assembly, I need you all paying attention. That includes you, KJ.' Kieran put his phone back into his pocket. 'Now we're all paying attention, this assembly is to address the very important and concerning matter. The year elevens in this room will remember. What do you think when I say Jamie Forest?'

Mr Hunter paused. All the year 11s looked from side to side, their eyes wide. There were a few quiet murmurs and a couple of girls on the back row even started crying. Robyn turned around and watched them. 'She would've turned sixteen today. Had she not been killed. And the police never found the killer, but we all know it was one of you. Around three hundred and ninety nine of you have nothing to fear. The others, however many were involved, need to know that I'm coming for you.'

The children quietened. The few people that had been talking to their friends had stopped. Out of respect or out of fear. The assembly continued to drag on for 2 hours. Some people were falling asleep, others trying not to. Mr Hunter went through a PowerPoint, showed hundreds of videos, then talked at them for ages. The assembly stretched on all the way through break time, finishing at the start of third lesson. 

The students flooded the corridors, rushing to their next lesson. Robyn took the shortcut to my maths classroom and found her seat, noticing a few other students watching her. She pulled her pencil case out of her schoolbag and waited for her friend to arrive. Kathy Waters sat next to her and pulled out her numerous boxes of equipment, taking three sheets of homework out of her folder. 'Hey.'

Robyn and Kathy had been good friends since childhood, but at the start of high school they became more and more competitive. Robyn and Kathy hated to admit it, but they were equal in skill and ingenuity. They both excelled at logical subjects such as maths, computing, all the sciences and history. Kathy was amazing at religious studies, geography and art. Robyn, however, excelled in English, drama, music and sport. 

1 year ago, they agreed to end their rivalry and began to get on more. 'Hey, Robyn, d'you do the homework?' 

'Yeah.' Robyn pulled out her sheet of revision on cubic and quartic sequences. This was Robyn's area of expertise. Both girls stopped talking when they heard yelling outside the classroom. Seconds later, Joey walked in, Grace following behind him like a dog. 

'Joey, don't do this to me,' Grace begged. 

He turned away from her and walked to his seat, pretending not to care. Only Robyn payed enough attention to the single tear rolling down his cheek. 'Hey, Robbie.' His nickname for Robyn. 

'Morning Gnome.' She laughed inside every time they used their childhood nicknames for each other. They used to be best friends, closer than ever. Then Grace came along and took him away, banning him from seeing her outside of school or calling her. And separation only made Robyn love him more. Every day, butterflies each time she caught his eye. 

Moments later, the teacher walked through the door and sat down. 'Alright, homework out on your desks!' she was yelling, but Robyn could hear her voice crack. Mrs Forest was Jamie's mother. Not knowing after four years must be eating at her insides, killing her. The class reluctantly placed their work on the desks, waiting for her to wander around the room and give the approval. 

Today, she just went round with her stamp and gave everyone top marks. She didn't care anymore. 'Kids, I have some news. In lessons today, instead of work, you'll be helping us solve the murder of my daughter Jamie.'

This time there was no applause. No cheering or yelling. Even Kieran knew to keep quiet this time. Silence stretched over the classroom. 'This is a top set maths class. Most of you are in top for history too, Kathy, Robyn and Joey, all of you are brilliant at reading sources. Especially you, Robyn. Together we can do this.' 

Nobody moved. The silence remained, until, very slowly, Joey's mouth curled into a smile, followed by KJ, Kathy and Robyn. 'Let's do this,' KJ's voice was quiet.