The Mystery Of Eastbrooks High

Chapter Seven: Breaking In And Breaking Down

"LET'S BREAK INTO THE staff room and get the detailed list," Norah blurted out all of a sudden, pinning him with those ocean blue eyes. Austin's lips quirked up despite all the revelations and the realizations. God, she never failed to surprise him.

Norah raised an eyebrow at Austin, still waiting for an answer. "I thought you were a police officer's daughter?" Austin said teasingly to lighten up the mood. The girl facing him sighed, her fingers fluttering towards her braid to play with it.

"Fine," she said, fighting a smile to remain serious, but the smile broke out, a smile which was so devastatingly beautiful that it knocked the breath out of him. It was a good thing Austin was so skilled at masking his emotions, or else she'd easily know that he'd been crushing on her for months. She was so observant, Austin was surprised that Norah didn't catch him immediately.

"Wrong choice of words, Aus. We aren't exactly going to break in," she said, rolling her eyes at her own words as her slender fingers fretted with an escaped wisp of raven hair, "and we're not going to steal. But we are going to visit the staff room. And just linger near Ms Young's desk, take a picture of that list, and then call the police to warn them, asking them to protect that person. Or maybe we could warn the person to stay safe too, but we don't want them to freak out, don't we?" she said, her eyebrows drawing together as she thought about it.

Despite their light conversation to make it up for the dark cloud that hung over them, the dread was still there. The quick realizations in a small span of time made his head turn, and the morbidity and the cruelty of it all made it worse. Austin concentrated on everything except the matter on hand because his brain needed some time to cope with all this. Two murders. The messages. All of this was nothing but a cruel, sinister twist to an innocent game.

Austin stared at the trees overhead, at the colour of the sky: pink bleeding into sky blue, the chirp of the birds and the roar of the sea. Finally, he concentrated on the girl in front of him, which worked. Norah Daniels required his full attention because she was the most beautiful person Austin had ever set his eyes upon.

Long raven hair. Ocean blue eyes he could stare at forever. Almond-shaped eyes. His eyes always strayed to her eyes, to the small mole set diagonally above her right eye. Tanned skin that made him wonder if she had Italian descent like him. Or maybe she could be Spanish? She had a long nose, a defiant jawline, and her cheeks bore a natural pinkish tint to them. She had a slender, lean frame, and he could tell that she was someone who worked out regularly.

She always stood out to him, since the moment he'd first seen her two years ago. They had talked two to three times then, but Norah clearly didn't remember that. But she'd always remained in the back of his head for the past two years, he recalled the conversations he had with her often. It hadn't been a crush then. He simply wondered where she was and what she would be doing.

But the moment Austin set his eyes upon her two and a half months ago with her backpack slung over one shoulder, new to the school, those blue eyes of hers scanning every inch of the unfamiliar environment, he was a goner. Out. He told Sabrina about his newly formed crush, and he regretted telling her ever since. She was always actively trying to set him up with her. Sabrina had never been a fan of his past girlfriends, so this side of hers surprised him.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do," Norah said, lifting her hands up and moving them aimlessly in the air as she started to explain, her nose scrunching up unconsciously. Austin fought a smile. God, she was so adorable. Exquisite. He forced himself to pay attention to what she was saying, not to gawk like an idiot.

"The staff room will most likely be empty because I've heard that the principle called for an all staff meeting. Let's hope that we have some more time and the staff room is empty. Ms Young's table is beside the door, so we could go in, check the drawers, take a photo of the list, hopefully, it'll be somewhere on her table. Why would she take it home? If it's not there, we could explain our theory to Ms Young and ask for the paper. She'd understand pretty quickly. But I don't think we'll have to do that, I'm pretty sure the paper would be somewhere in her drawers. You be on the watch-out, warning me if a teacher's coming towards us, or maybe you could ask them a doubt to distract them!"