Until We Meet Again

Chapter 9

      I was stupid, the note disappeared a few seconds after I was done reading it. I should have taken a screen shot of it, but I was too stupid to not think fast.

    I bit my inner cheek. "Why me?" I thought.

   I looked over at my suitcase. Is this really a prank? Maybe Lauren was the culprit and she wanted to scare me. Maybe she was laughing right now at my stupidity.

I opened my suitcase, not knowing what was going to surprise me.

Tess,

I can't have you running your mouth, so I insist you keep it shut. If you contact the authorities or tell anyone, even your pathetic friend, Alex, I won't hesitate to get rid of him. Like I said, I'm watching you. No really, look outside.

No, no, I shook my head. I looked over at the window and sure enough, a hooded figure stood behind the large oak tree in the backyard. When the person noticed me they quickly hid behind the tree so their body wasn't out in the open.

I went back to the letter to finish reading it.

One wrong move, and Alex dies.

Don't mess with me, Tess— XoXX XXXe

~~~~~

I picked up my phone getting ready to text Alex in detail what had just happen, but a vivid thought played itself in my mind. The thought of Alex, a shy, harmless kid pleading for mercy. All because I refused to follow a simple order.

I opened up my laptop. My camera was on. I was was quick to turn it off. A little surprise was there for me.

There was a video of me in Derrick's house. I was just getting ready to go shower. I was taking my shirt off. That's as long as the video was.

"Why, why me?" I said to myself again. I couldn't use that computer in fear of being watched. What I wanted to do was to look up how to deal with blackmail, but was it blackmail though?

My first period teacher greeted me. I looked at him with dazed eyes. I felt like a zombie, my gait was weird, and my eyes struggled to obey my commands.

"You're first stand cello, you're beside Reece."

"Reece?" I rubbed my eyes. I swear I had heard that name before, but where?

I looked at the cello section and instantly regretted it. Oh dear Neptune.

"Welcome to Chamber Orchestra. You're in this class because you have what it takes. You have talent, determination, and discipline. I don't tolerate those who done practice! I'm going to assume that if you made it into such a high orchestra practicing isn't a new concept...right?"

Reece smirked as he looked at me, a little chuckle escaping his lips.

"I'm not like the regular orchestra teacher. To have made it into this orchestra you needed to have made five mistakes, some of you made less, some of you didn't even make any! Don't think that just because you made it here, you're free to not practice anymore. It's obvious when you don't practice, I simply just don't tolerate that so I will kick you out." The orchestra teacher's scowl turned into a smile. "Okay? Now let's get started with warm-ups."