Nao Summers hates drama, but life becomes full of it when he's paired with the school delinquent on a film project. He's also in dire need of a way to break up with his girlfriend who wants to have lots of sex, while Nao would prefer to die. To crow...
"What the hell is happening?" I grabbed Kurt by the shoulder. The poor lad was as red as a tomato now.
"Someone's stolen the model," he managed to say. "My group's project. It's gone. No one knows where."
"What?" My heart sunk in my chest.
The model in question was a miniature version of December High. It had been erected by Kurt's group through the last few months, rising higher and higher until even the 4th floor had been recreated. The model had been a perfect representation of the school and was meant to pride the stage on the day of the festival. Today was the 7th, and the model had disappeared.
"This is such a disaster," Kurt moaned, leaning his weight on a nearby table. "If we don't find it, we're fucked, man. White's gonna spontaneously combust, and everything will crash and burn."
"You sure it's not one of you guys? Couldn't someone have just..." Seth scratched his neck. "taken it back home and forgotten about it? I do that all the time."
Kurt's eyes narrowed as they found Seth. "This thing's expensive, Seth. It's been standing on the same spot since we built it. There's no way that happened."
A gnawing suspicion was building inside me as I watched the clamoring and panicking of my class. In any moment now, White would burst in demanding an explanation, enabling my classmate's rising panic. Something about this ordeal gave me the creeps. I couldn't shake the feeling that this was more than it looked like.
Axel was still standing near the entrance, back leaning against the open door, eyes scanning the chaos of the classroom. I found him there and tugged at his knitted sweater.
"Come," I said, and Axel did.
We stopped in the same place Axel had talked about his brother two days ago. The paper snow winked down at us now, as it had then. Ezra, I remembered. I hadn't heard that name before, and it had been spinning around in my brain for the last few days. Ezra. Axel's older brother. Dead.
"What's up?" Axel said, gaze following the movements back inside the hallway through the glass door.
"I don't know how to explain this," I said. "But I think this might be our guy."
Axel stared at me just then, drawing his eyebrows together. "You mean the stalker?"
I nodded.
"It could be, I guess," he said, craning his neck to see the hallway better. "But why now? What does he want?"
"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling." I was chewing my bottom lip. "Is he trying to sabotage the festival? But why now?" Things weren't making sense. My thoughts were racing at a mile a minute, scrambling for some kind of explanation.
"Maybe he didn't get the message after all," Axel mused.
The glass doors revealed Kurt now, and he was swinging out of the classroom, heading directly for us. His face was a violent shade of crimson, and something lurched in my belly at the sight.
"Oh no," I moaned, backing away from the door. That was not the eyes of a boy who was just distressed.
Axel turned, a quizzical look on his face. "What? Hey, what are you—"
The door slammed open and Kurt was upon me. He gave me no time to dodge or escape, heading straight for my chest in one violent shove. I fell backward and into the table. Voices echoed around me, I thought one of them was Seth's.
"What the hell—" Axel raised his own voice.
"You!" Kurt roared, chasing after me. I tried to get up only to receive another shove to the chest. My back screamed as it connected with the table once again.
"Leave him alone!" Seth was howling from the doorway.
"You did this!" Kurt screamed. He was on top of me now, both of us on the floor. My back was pressed against the cold stone and Kurt's legs restrained my arms. Breathing was painful, difficult, and confusing.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Axel growled. I couldn't see him because the world was kind of fuzzy. Staring up, all I could see was Kurt's angry, red silhouette, and the paper snowflakes in the ceiling. They spun and danced, evading my erratic eyes in their search for focus. Flashes of concrete and football players played before my eyes. Memory. Pain. Axel.
"You were here," Kurt ground my arms further down into the cold. "Explain that to me, Nao. The model was there when I left last night, and now it's gone."
I groaned, brain swirling with the accusation. "What?"
"Tell me where it is!" he roared, hands finding my hair, tugging at it, ripping. I yelled as the pain shot through my scalp. Was he going to tear my hair off? Kurt, my old classmate, why would he...
And then Kurt was gone, in the blink of an eye. His hands were no longer on my head, no longer pulling and tearing, and his body was no longer on top of mine.
When I managed to sit upright, I found Kurt on the floor, and Axel was the one holding him down. That dark, dangerous expression was back on my partner's face. He pinned my classmate to the floor, keeping him away from me.
That was the moment Mr. White chose to appear, tearing through the hallway in a fit of rage.
As he accosted Axel and myself, leading us forcefully down to his office, I fought the urge to hold Axel's hand.
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