The Polaroid's on the Wall

Chapter 27: Clementine Marrios

'Right, still weird but I get it,' Chris continued, 'What are you gonna do for your birthday?'

'I dunno,'

'You have to have a party! It's your sixteenth for fuck sake!' Chris shook my shoulder.

'I thought you didn't like parties?'

'I do when you're there,'

'You gonna plan it?'

'Obviously,'

'I won't object,' I said casually but was secretly excited, 'You've peaked my interest. This can be my official birthday not the one I somehow missed,'

We stopped at another gas station for diesel before travelling another couple hours to a different city. It looked very arty with museums everywhere and schools. Then I realised.

'Are we in Logan?'

'Yep,'

'Are we going to your school?'

'Correct!'

Chris swung the car round the corner and a massive glass building with a sign reading 'Photofinish Academy for the arts' on it came into view. We parked in the sparse car park and got out.

'Come on!'

He took my hand and we ran to the front door where there was a posh reception.

'Chris!' The receptionist smiled, 'what are you doing here?'

'I wanted to show my friend TJ the grounds,' he squeezed my hand, 'He's from shadyside,'

'Hi,' I greeted her.

Felicity, as it says on her badge, reached under the table and pulled out a key, 'Give this back when your done, you're not allowed to keep your room keys over the holidays,'

'I know I will,' Chris thanked her, popping the lanyard we'd been given over my head, 'Let's go! You're going to love it!'

Every inch of this school spelled prestigious from the freshly polished floors to the glass finishing, recent paint jobs and furnishings. There was a whole student photography museum, a room dedicated to camera studies, one room's walls were just photographs. It was seriously awesome.

'This is where the myth says the last headmaster threw up over a kids photo it was so bad. And over there is where it's said someone died and that spot is where it's alleged the head boy and girl did it on their graduation night,' Chris recited.

'There sure are a lot of myths at your school,' I chuckled.

He nodded, 'There's a lot of gossip...but we don't have time for all the stories, I wanna show you my room,'

After riding an elevator that had generic music playing in it, we went to the top floor, the dorm floor. It was one long corridor lined with doors that had corresponding numbers on them. Chris, still clutching my hand, took us all the way to the end where he finally slotted the key into the final door on the right side and opened it to reveal a pretty generic looking room.

Like the rest of the building, it was clean with crisp white walls. The other students clearly respect the space as the entire communal area (which was just their living room) had no trace of dirt or even any sign that anyone had been there as the only objects were the tv, tv remote, a sofa, a couple chairs and a rug.

Chris closed the door behind us and knocked on the wall randomly.

There was silence.

'We're alone,' he stated, 'That's how we tell,'