Class Of 96': 1994 (BxB Mystery)

Chapter III - The Empress

It's been yet another week now and the entire school has been jabbering about Jane Doe's disappearance.

G.H. Academy is ruthless when it comes to gossip. We all eat it up like sharks.

I sat at our school's diner and watched as girls and boys, juniors and seniors, Prefects and punks whispers to one another's ear, covering their mouth with their hand.

"Janes gone! Gone and gone." I heard a girl murmur into her friend's ear.

I looked at Luka's table. He was sitting with his best friend, Neon Rua.

She had ear-short fiery frizzy orange hair, baby blue eyeshadow, blue dangling spiral earrings, blue nails, sunset lipstick, and strong orange blush. She was a ray of sunshine for Luka. Always bringing the party wherever she goes. She was the splash of color this school starved to have.

Neon and Luka were together with the school's power couple, Astra Harris and Lavender Schaff.

Astra was the head Prefect of the school, standing a whopping 6.3 feet. She had spotless black skin, a huge afro, and a perfect pout with wine lip gloss. Every girl wished they were her. She was on top of her grades, powerful, gorgeous, and so much more. Whenever she talks to me, I suddenly forget how to speak! Well . . . the only time she talks to me is when I do something wrong . . .

Lavender, known as Lav, was the high school heartthrob. Every girl loved him. He was handsome, lean, and tall. With his brown hair, sleepy hypnotizing eyes, sharp cheekbones, and smooth lips. Everybody could agree he was made from the hands of a God, raised by the Devil. His eyelids were so dark it looked like he was wearing eye-shadow. His only flaw was his cheekbone scar, but nobody thinks it was a flaw.

They were the "It" friend group. The most popular of the popular. Though I doubt Luka likes the spotlight.

Lav steals a kiss from Astra as I pull out my camera and save the shot in time.

He must've noticed the flash because he stabs a grim glance at me. Head down and eyes piercing. One of the few things I don't like about Lavender Schaff is that once he shoots you his eyes, he peaks through your soul.

    I'm part of The Cassius Post, the school's official newspaper, so I have to snapshots for the yearbook and the daily newspapers. I never leave without my camera. The tricky part of being the school's photographer is that once you picture someone who's salty, they get salty.

    I look at Ollie, trying to ignore Lav piercing me with his sleepy eyes.

    "What do you think about Jane?" He asks, not even looking at me.

    "Who?" I tease.

    He softly laughs. "I dunno. I think she's a girl though."

    "Jane Doe it is." I smile at the view. "I personally think she's gonna be back in a week or so."

    "Doubt it." Molly adds, taking a bite out of her lunch. "She's gone for good."

    "Why?" Innes asks.

    "Just a hunch."

    I catch a glimpse of Touma standing up from his seat, looking angry. He's about to yell at someone, probably Seth, before his arm gets tugged on by Mystery Boy.

    TBB anxiously looks around, trying not to cause a scene.

    Touma grumbles one last time before sitting back down, annoyed and furious. It was probably another slur joke at him again. Or worse, at TBB.

    I look at them, observing silently. That's always what I've been. An observer, a watcher, an audience. But it has it's perks. I know stuff that only the shadows would catch. Secrets only I could hear.

    How Luka tried killing his dad when he was nine, how Seth cheated on his history exam by blackmailing a teacher with a dirty picture, how a student slashed Lav's cheek in a heated argument, how my chemistry teacher slept with a student, how Seth and Pandora are planning a prank on TBB tonight, how Janes cheating on her boyfriend, how a professor got an unexpected abortion, and how Astra isn't even interested in Lav anymore.

    Honestly, I'm not surprised. This is G.H. Academy after all. What can I expect rather than all these dirty little secrets?

    "Stephan." Ollie lowers his voice. "Gossip Wave."

    Finally.

    A Gossip Wave in my school is a tradition where one student whispers something shocking into another's ear, and that student would do the same to the person beside them. And it would continue into a big wave. Then the Gossip Wave would reach the entire school in under ten minutes.

    True enough, I saw Naomi Vegas whisper into Lav's ear, then to Astra, then Neon, then Luka, and in less than a minute, me.

    I leaned closer to Innes as she whispered to me.

    "Jane was found in her dorm half-dead with her legs stabbed and broken . . ."