Cedarwood - A week in the life of Becky, Jules and Dee

MONDAY (Chapters 1-3)

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Monday Morning, Dee’s House

Dee Morgan was probably the only teenager in Cedarwood actually looking forward to going back to school. She was glad the summer holidays were over and couldn’t wait to get back to class so she could concentrate on her exams and try to forget about the worst summer of her entire life.

It was hard to imagine that just six short weeks ago her life had been rosy. Dee had been accepted on a summer exchange programme in Paris, her parents had agreed to let her have a going away party, and better than all of that put together she had it on good authority that the guy she had been secretly lusting after for the last three years was soon to be single. What more could a girl ask for?

Her last exam had been scheduled to finish at 5pm so she’d arranged to meet her best friends Jules and Becky in the Diner at six to have a celebratory carb fest, giving her plenty of time to pop home and swap her pukey green and gold uniform for an outfit that screamed ‘I know you’re my best friend’s brother and you’ve only just split up with your girlfriend but d’ya fancy swapping saliva anytime soon?’.

She’d spent an entire hour discarding combats (too casual), backless tops (too dressy) and anything Lycra (too clinging) before deciding on the perfect slogan t and hipster jeans. Yep, July 25th was shaping up to be a pretty perfect day. Perfect that was until Heather Bell took a walk down Cedarwood Lane and never came back.

At 5.35pm on that blisteringly hot afternoon a series of events was set in motion that had a ripple effect of every single resident in Cedarwood. Dee didn’t get to have her party, she didn’t get to go to Paris and although the man of her dreams did turn out to be single it was only because his girlfriend was dumped in a ditch before he had time to dump her himself.

Obviously all fingers immediately pointed to Jake, Heather’s ex-boyfriend and Dee’s dream man, but Dee knew her best friend’s brother didn’t have anything to do with the murder. She knew for a fact that Jake was the sweetest nicest guy in the village and that he wouldn’t hurt a fly. But even if she didn’t know what a big softie he was, she still knew Jake wasn’t the killer.

Dee knew Jake wasn’t the killer because she knew who was.

Yep, a lot can certainly change in six short weeks.

Monday Morning, Becky’s House

Becky Longford was dreading going back to school. The last six weeks had been hell on earth and it was about to get worse. There was only going to be one topic of conversation - yet again. Heather Bloody Bell. Becky just could not believe what a fuss everyone had made about her dead classmate. So she was bumped off in the woods, so bloody what! It wasn’t exactly a great loss to society now was it?

Heather was always in her gym kit, she never shaved her legs and there wasn’t a deodorant strong enough to stop the girl from having sweaty pits. As far as Becky was concerned Heather was far from the model Cedarwood Girl. It was bad enough seeing her splattered across the front page of the Gazette for three weeks solid and having to pretend to cry at the funeral, but holding a Memorial Assembly on the first day of term, now that was the final straw. I mean how much attention does one girl want?

Although deep down Becky thought it was very sad what had happened to Heather, she couldn’t let it interfere with her own life plans. After all, she still had a life to plan! Nobody deserved what happened to Heather but Becky, unlike the journalists at the Gazette, wanted to try and forget about it and more on. Yet another paper full of Heather tributes meant one thing. No space for Becky’s own profile piece to run. I mean, I’ve been billed as the world’s next supermodel for God sake and I’m way more pretty than Heather Bell.