Knives & Waterlilies

4. Who Did It?

*Adriana's Point of View: Letter to Kevin*

I felt relaxed the past week, knowing that Lily was safely by my side, but I felt suddenly uneasy as our English teacher, Mr Johnson, handed back our Controlled Assessments. It was going to be 8% of our GCSE and I really wanted to do well. 

"Calm down, I'm sure you did fine," Toby said to me. I loved sitting next to him in English, because he was pretty good at it himself. 

When Mr Johnson placed the paper on my desk, I picked it up and beamed. A beautiful score of 29/30 with an A+ written in bright red beside it stood out against my untidy black handwriting on the white paper. 

"You got 29? You are so good at this," Toby smiled. I loved how he was happy for me. They say jealousy is a natural thing in human beings, but it was something Toby severely lacks. "Why don't you join the school newspaper?"

I turned to Toby at his suggestion. "I'm sorry, I don't have time. I know you need loads of help... but..."

"It's fine," he responded. 

That was when our school secretary came into the room. "Please may I have Adriana and Lily?" Mr Johnson just nodded. 

I glanced at Lily to ask her what this was about, but she had no idea. We just stood up and made our way towards the door. 

There was silence at first as we walked down the hallway, only hearing the secretary's heels on the floor. 

"So... Where are we going?" Lily asked. 

"Sorry to bring it back to you two, but a group of boys were found on the roof 5 minutes after you were stabbed. We have a serious suspicion it was one of them who committed this act," she explained, her nose high so her glasses wouldn't fall off. 

I could have swore that Lily could have frozen in her tracks. But she didn't, she just gazed blankly at nothing.

"They're not going to hurt you," I assured her. "Just say who it is if you know then they will make sure they won't get a chance to go near you."

It was quite hard to tell Lily everything was going to be alright, since I had never had to do that before. Lily was always the one telling me there is no need to be afraid.

We were lead to a classroom which looked quite strange. There were some men around the room, a couple of them were policemen. Standing at the front were about 6 boys who were all familiar to us. The 4th boy along had a narrow chin and wavy brown hair. It was Ryan. All the boys were good friends of Curtis.

The boys stood frozen. As much as they tried to hide it, you could tell that they were terrified. Some breathed deeply, telling themselves under their breath that they won't be in trouble if they didn't do it.

"Adriana, Lily, if any of these boys did it, which one stabbed Lily on the night of 4th November," said one of the men. 

"I didn't see who it was," I answer honestly. "They were just a silhouette."

"Are you sure?" the man asked. 

"Yes."

The man looked at the boys in a row, then turned his attention back to us. "So... Lily. Did any of these people stab you that night?"

At first, Lily just stood in silence. She stared at all of the boys. Without saying anything, she pointed at Ryan. 

"Did Ryan stab you?" he asked. Lily only nodded. Ryan was wide eyed in shock.

"I...I.." Ryan protested, but people soon tell him to quieten down. 

"We have to hear you say it was Ryan. Did Ryan stab you?" the man repeated.