"Hey lucid dreamer, make up your mind, caught on the other side." -I The Mighty, The Dreamer
"OKAY," JAS DECLARES, SLAMMING HER BOOKS on the table. Although it's a little dramatic, it's Jas, so I'm not very surprised. "I have the past yearbooks, three notebooks and pencils. We're going to write down what we know and possible suspects. I don't care how small or insignificant it may seem- write it down."
"Why are we doing this?" Ford asks. His feet are propped up on the table, pencil twirling in between his fingers. He's in jeans today that crinkle up at the bottom, rather than his usually sweatpants. His jacket is thrown on top of a t-shirt that is crinkled and desperately needs to be ironed, but what else would anyone expect from a dude who lives in motels?
Jas leans over the table, hitting Ford on the head with a yearbook. "Because you and Ava literally have no leads. And I plan on changing that. Now stop asking stupid questions."
Ford grumbles. I roll my eyes, "Suck it up."
"Grow some balls," Jas agrees.
"No, you two are not teaming up on me right now," Ford says. Jas smirks and swats at his feet. With a dramatic sigh, Ford puts his feet down, settling in his chair properly and leaning forward, taking a notebook from Jas.
"Alright," Jas begins, opening up the notebook. "Let's start with the basics. It's the same person who killed your mom, right?" When Ford nods, Jas puts the pencil to her lip. "Your mom died when we were freshmen. Right now we're seniors. That means if it's a student we go to school with, they would have had to be thirteen at the oldest when they killed your mom. Do you see a thirteen year old killing your mom?'
Ford blinks. "I didn't think of that."
I clear my throat slightly, shifting in my spot beside Ford. "Yeah, me neither."
"'Cause you're both idiots," Jas smiles. Her arm plunges up, fingers snapping. "Hey, can we get some coffee?"
As a waitress comes over and Jas begins to rant off what she wants, Ford and I sneak a glance at each other. Ever since last night and our confessions, he's been doing that a lot. I smile softly and he returns it, reaching for my hand and interlacing our fingers.
Jas takes a sip of the coffee brought to her, and hums. "Wow, this actually tastes like coffee. I should go out of Cailbridge for lunch more often." Putting down her cup beside the muffin she also asked for, Jas passes me a notebook and a pencil. "Alright, squad. So, like we said before, it can't really be someone in our grade. At least, I seriously doubt it."
We all scribbled that down. Ford exhales, staring at the paper, as if trying to unscramble the words to find a different meaning. "We did have a couple of leads," Ford points out in a mutter.
"Right," Jas nods and scribbles something down. "Mr. Cutler, Lucas and..."
"That's pretty much it," I admit.
"Well," Jas sighs, "Lucas is out of the equation. Can we all agree on that?" After Ford and I nod, Jas continues. "Alright, then. Mr. Cutler. He's a lead because..."
"He has access to the school," I supply, leaning forward, suddenly feeling a lot more engaged. "So he would have been able to erase the tapes. Also, he would have had access to the jewellery box! Plus, he had a dislike towards Ford and his mother, and Ford thinks Mrs. Wilson and him might have been seeing each other at one point."
"Good, good," Jas absentmindedly says and she quickly writes down what I say. She leans back and studied what she wrote, biting down on her lip and frowning. "The jewellery box... Ford, you said you were talking to Mr. Stevens because he was asking if you were okay about your mom's death anniversary, right?"
Ford nods. "Yeah. I don't know, it was kind of weird; the question really just came out of nowhere."
"I guess we never considered Mr. Stevens," I admit, looking to Ford, who nodded in agreement. I turn back to Jas. "Do you think...?"
"He would have had access to the school," Jas nods. "He would have been able to kill Ford's mother four years ago. Plus, he would have had access to the jewellery box." Jas frowns. "But I thought he liked you, Ford."
"So did I," Ford says, furrowing his eyebrows. "Unless he's an amazing liar, there was never any threat or malice in the way he talked to me."
"Whoever did this is obviously balls-crazy," Jas argues. She leans back in the blue booth, tapping the pencil atop the table. "I think if they had to be a good liar to get away with it, then that's what they'll be."
The diner we're in is a good hour and a half away from Cailbridge. Right after school, Jas had picked me up and headed out, picking up Ford on the way. We headed far away, since as Jas had put it, "The farther away we are from that hell, the better." The waitress comes around to offer Jas more coffee, and to get us some too. Ford orders a cookie too.
Jas takes a bite of her muffin. "Whoever this is," she continues, "Is a sick bastard. I'm talking mentally deranged, unstable, insane, crazy guy. I just can't see it being Mr. Stevens, honestly. Or Mr. Cutler." Sighing, she says, "But we have nothing else to go with. Ava, we can sneak into their offices tomorrow and see what we can find. If anything, it'll at least cross them off the list."
I nod. "Sounds like a plan."
"What am I supposed to do until then?" Ford asks, picking at his cookie. "I don't like all this sitting around. Especially when you're risking your lives for me."
"You can't exactly do much," I admit. "I mean, unless you want to sneak into Cailbridge."
"Sure," Ford says without hesitation.
Jas raises an eyebrow. "That was sarcasm, Ford. Literal sarcasm."
"Why not, though? I mean, if I have a hood on, and just keep out of the public eye, it'll be fine, right?"
"No," Jas shoots him down. "Way too dangerous. First of all, this is Cailbridge we're talking about. If they see someone walking around in a hood they don't recognize, they'll look farther into it. Everyone knows when and if new people come or go. Second of all, if and when word will travel, it'll travel straight to the person after you and then they'll go after your family because guess who broke the deal? You."
Ford sighs heavily, leaning back. "Okay, I hear you. I do. I just hate sitting back and doing nothing."
"You want to do something?" Jas asks. Ford nods, leaning forward in anticipation. She slaps the notebook in her hand. "I want you to check into a different motel tonight, just to be safe, and look over this stuff. I need you to write down anything you know, Wilson. Don't worry your pretty-boy head over any of this. Ava and I will take care of it. All we need is any information you got. I'm talking about the notes and threats you got, when and how you got them. I need specifics. Got it?"
Ford takes the notebook in his hands. "Yeah, I got it, Jas. Thanks for helping, both of you." Ford squeezes my hand under the table.
x
Later the next night, Jas and I sneak into the school.
I'm still not really up to calling it 'sneaking in', considering no one bothers locking the doors, but it is eleven at night and it makes me feel rebellious (which is something I'm not used to feeling) so I don't bother correcting it. Jas pulls her long, black hair into a ponytail, saying, "Mr. Cutler's room is upstairs, right?"
"Yeah," I say, taking the lead and turning my way to enter the main staircase.
Jas follows me with no hesitation. "Do you think the room will be open?"
"Let's hope so," I mutter. "I mean, it should be. The security room was open."
Jas scrunches up her nose. "Yeah, that was weird."
I shrug. We get to Mr. Cutler's office to find it, in fact, closed. Jas sighs, hitting her head against the door, saying, "We'll sneak in at lunch tomorrow." We then go to see Mr. Stevens office, just to find his door is closed too, along with the wood shop room.
At this point, Jas and I are just wandering the halls. Jas says, "I just don't get it. All of this is messing with my head. Why would a teacher want Wilson gone? Literally every teacher loves him."
"Ford told me himself that his mom was always the type to sleep around," I respond, looking down at my feet and trying to avoid the cracks of the tiles. "Maybe she had an affair?"
"Maybe we should look up more on his mom," Jas says.
I chew on the inside of my cheek. "That could be a really touchy subject for Ford."
"We don't have to tell him," Jas says sheepishly, ignoring the look I give her. "We'll tell him if we find something! But you're right, it's obviously a touchy subject. But it's a huge part of this."
I'm just about to reply when I hear someone talking. And it's not Jas. Sharing a look, Jas and I round a corner to see someone leaning against the wall, not looking our direction, and mumbling something into the phone. Scrunching up my eyebrows, I feel the hairs on my skin stand up. Who else would be here at eleven thirty at night? Unless...
Jas cuts off my thoughts. Stepping forward, she practically roars, "Luke Johnson?"
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! This author's note is gonna be really short because I have to get this up before my friend comes over (in five minutes) but I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please COMMENT and vote! Love you all so much (: xoxo