The heartstopper

Chapter 13

"Quiet down, we'll be needing everyone to stop talking as we take attendance," Mr. Farouq said.

People still continued to talk, now questioning whether it's true and one of their own had been murdered because of the sudden need for attendance, even though their teachers would have taken attendance regardless of the situation.

"Quiet!" Yelled Mr. Ajayi, making not just the students but the entire lobby full of people go silent.

"Thank you Nath-" Mr. Farouq faked clearing his throat, "Er, Mr. Ajayi,"

Attendance went over smoothly, everyone was there, this time there were no missing students who had lost track of time, nor did the teachers arrive late.

"We'll be heading outside for our talk, we're blocking traffic here," Mr. Ajayi explained, referring to the people who were struggling to wheel their suitcases past the herd of teenagers.

It was a warm and sunny summer day and the students were walking past the hotel's front parking lot, heading to the grassy hill next to the hotel.

Students plopped down onto the cool grass to wait for their teachers to speak.

"We know that you've all heard rumors around as well as have started some," Mr. Farouq began as the sun shined in his eyes. "Mr. Ajayi and myself have decided it's best we pack our things and head back to London early tomorrow," This got a reaction out of people, not because they were upset but because they were fearing the events that led to this decision.

"Quiet please, Mr. Farouq, if you could carry on," Mr. Ajayi nodded his head in his coworkers direction.

"You're all aware of the terrible event that happened to your one classmate," He paused. "Last night, someone broke into the room of three other of our students," At this, people turned ghostly pale, looking around at their classmates, trying to pick out who was missing from their herd, trying to figure out whose names were skipped over in the attendance.

Mr. Ajayi took over the talking from here, "The room belonged to a group of Truman boys, two of them were seriously injured and the other was murdered," He paused to let the information sink in. "We've decided to head back home to assure safety amongst ourselves,"

"Who was it?" Someone asked in a panicked voice.

"Where's my brother? Where's Connor?" Another yelled. A guy, supposedly 'Connor' stepped up beside her, indicating he was okay.

Tars gripped Darcy's hand and in the back of the crowd, Nick and Charlie squeezed each other's hands.

"Once we're back home, our schools will be having a ceremony for the loss of our two students and for the two who were injured, they'll be airlifted to a local hospital," Mr. Ajayi looked at his gloomy students. He'd been spending the morning phoning people back home, the principal was supposed to be phoning the parents, taking one job off their shoulders. Mr. Farouq, - because he's the only one of the two who speaks French - had spent hours speaking with the French police officer and on the phone with the parents of those whose kids were In the hospital.

"The students in room 418 were Croix Smith, Elijah Blight and Devon Loy, their fourth roommate was Ben, it's been suspected that those four had been targeted but it's unsure," Their teacher looked down as he spoke, having a hard time looking at his students when there were some he couldn't protect.

"Wait, but if they were being targeted, then wouldn't that mean the perpetrator is one of us?" Darcy realized. This realization got people to start distancing themselves.

"That's unsure, but because of protocol, expect an interrogation to be scheduled once we get home. They wanted to start interrogations here in Paris but we've decided it'd be easier for some to communicate with our local investors as it may take days," He explained.

There were people with tears streaming down their faces, the people who've been harmed were students, siblings, friends, someone's kids and many more things.

"Who died?" A boy asked quietly.

Mr. Farouq, noticing that the question had still not been answered, spoke up, "Devon Loy,"

Charlie recognized that name from one of the rugby team members. Charlie looked at his boyfriend who had a distraught look on his face.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly.

"We were friends - but he turned out to be an asshole like the rest of my friends," Nick muttered.

"It's okay to be sad, just because he turned out to not be the person you wanted in your life doesn't mean you can't grieve," Charlie attempted to comfort his boyfriend, even if he had trouble dealing with emotions.

"How- How did they-" The girl struggled to speak. At this, Charlie looked up front.

"Devon was found with his throat slit, the other two were hit over the head, they're both still unconscious so it's unsure if they'll remember anything by the time they wake up,"

"This has got to be a joke!" Harry exclaimed, he hung out with these lads daily, he hung out with Ben daily as well.

"I assure you, Mr. Green, it is not,"

"I bet the killer is one of them," Harry said, nodding his head towards Darcy, Tara, Tao, Elle, Nick and Charlie.

"That's an offly large actuation to make Mr. Green," Mr. Ajayi frowned.

"Oh yeah? The fake blonde one looks smug-"

"I do not, but even so, he called me a slur just yesterday!" Darcy cried out in shock at the sudden verbal attack.

"Nick dropped our friend group at the first chance," He continued.

"Because you're bullies," He spat out.

"The beanie boy's always trying to start a fight," he scoffed and moved on.

"You start them, I finish them," Tao scoffed.

"-And Ben told me that the twink keeps harassing him!" He blamed, looking Charlie deep in the soul.

"That's ridiculous," He countered. Ben had harassed him, he didn't do anything, he hadn't even told anyone about their past relationship, if you could call it that.

"Charlie didn't do a thing to Ben," Nick defended.

"That was your last straw Harry, you're lucky we're heading home tomorrow. Those are empty accusations, don't bring petty rivalry into this," Mr. Ajayi spoke with a stern but steady tone.

"Oh come on, they're truly the perfect Murderers, no one even suspects them," Harry scoffed.

"You may head back to your room now Mr. Green," Mr. Farouq interrupted.

"Fine but the beanie kid was the last to speak with them, we all heard him yelling at them last night," he said as he started to walk away.

"-And them Mr. Ajayi and Mr. Farouq shut it down and they all went to bed," Sai finished Harry's sentence for him, the proper way. He shared a wall with Tao's group so he heard most of what had happened.

"Sai, man you've got your head in the clouds," Harry yelled back as he walked further away.

"I'll go accompany him," Mr. Farouq sighed as he walked after Harry.