chapter one: i thought you weren't into high school guys?
episode one: pilot
"I THOUGHT WE AGREED TO trash that video?"
Chloe turns her head to face Emma as she brings up the topic that has been on everyone's mind all morning. The previous night, a video of Audrey, a girl who attends their school, and another girl went viral. A video of them making out.
Before anyone has a chance to speak, Chloe voices her thoughts. "Okay, I get it totally sucked the way it happened, but she was bound to come out one day. Look at her." She shrugs.
"What's the big deal if she is a lesbian?" Jake asks, now joining in on the conversation.
Emma scoffs at her friend before trying to explain the situation to him. "The big deal is it wasn't her decision to tell the world."
"I agree." Brooke vocalizes. "This is something that someone should voice themselves when they feel like it's the right time."
Jake looks down at the table in front of him, thinking about Brooke's words as Emma quickly catches the guilty look on his face. "Jake?"
"I wasn't the only one on that group thread, and I did delete that video..." He tries to defend himself but slips up. "After I sent it to P.J, girl-on-girl is his demographic."
Chloe slaps his shoulder. "You are literally disgusting."
Emma gives him a disapproving look, then moves on to Riley, noticing she's been silent the whole time. "Riley?"
"Sorry, Zoe saw it on my phone." She says.
Emma sighs, clearly starting to get frustrated. "Do guys even understand the term viral?"
"I don't see Nina anywhere." Riley says while gesturing around to everyone near us.
"You know she did the wide release." Will adds.
Chloe scoffs. "Of course it was Nina. She's a spoiled brat and budding sociopath with no impulse control."
"Duh." Brooke adds. "I mean, she's probably ditching right now to avoid Emma's good-girl wrath." She pauses when she sees the look on Emma's face and changes her tone. "Em, I promise that your little friend will be fine."
Emma looks down sadly. "We're not really friends anymore."
Seeing how upset she looks, Chloe quickly replies. "Hey, just give it 24 hours, okay?"
"Yeah someone will text and drive their hybrid into a tree and we'll have a new headline." Will says while rubbing Emma's shoulder slightly.
"Maybe Audrey will 'Taylor Swift' her anger into creative energy, for one of her little films." Brooke adds.
Emma still doesn't look convinced. "Emma, she'll be fine. Okay?" Riley says, trying to reassure her.
∘∘∘
"Cavemen made fires. Those fires cast shadows, and those shadows created fear. Men have been obsessed with scaring each other ever since." Mr. Branson says, introducing the new Language Arts topic for the day.
Chloe's eyes drift over to a boy she doesn't recognize sitting in the back corner of the classroom. Brooke catches her and smirks. "His name's Kieran Wilcox. He just moved here from Atlanta."
Chloe turns her head back slightly again to look at him, then back at Brooke. "He's cute." She smirks back.
"I thought you weren't into high school guys?" Jake asks leaning forward, clearly listening to Brooke and Chloe's previous conversation.
Chloe roll her eyes and doesn't even bother to look back at him when she answers. "Ew. No, that was just you."
Jake scoffs and leans back while Brooke giggles at Chloe rejecting Jake for what must have been the millionth time.
"Brooke, Chloe and Jake. It would be greatly appreciated if you three could gossip on your own time and not during my class." Mr. Branson starts looking quite irritated with them.
Chloe sits up in her chair. "Sorry Mr. B. I'll make sure to be more considerate in the future." She says in slow voice, batting her eyelashes at the man.
"Brooke." Mr. Branson starts, ignoring Chloe. "Would you please tell us which genre originated with The Castle of Otranto."
Brooke clears her throat. "I don't know. The Castle Genre?" Brooke looks fairly unsure with her reply.
"The Gothic Genre." A voice answers.
Chloe turns around, along with several other students in the classroom and see that it was the new kid, Kieran, that answered the question.
Mr. Branson gestures to Kieran. "Thank you." He sits down on the edge of his desk before continuing. "Guys, look, I get it. Nobody wants to sit around reading 500 dusty pages about monks and curses. But nobody's forcing you to watch The Walking Dead."
"Ooh." Jake says, suddenly interested in the lesson. "Is The Walking Dead on the midterm?"
Chloe narrows her eyes as she looks behind at him. "Zombies aren't literature, Jake."
"Why not?" Kieran says, getting everyone's attention. "George Romero, Horace Walpole, it's all the same bones."
"Or the same rotting flesh." Mr. Branson adds, agreeing with Kieran. "Kieran's right. Gothic genre is all over TV right now. You have American Horror Story, Bates Motel, Hannibal."
"What about Texas Chainsaw or Halloween?" Jake asks with a huge smile on his face.
"Uh, those are slasher movies." Noah says, slightly raising his hand.
The smile on Jake's face falls as he gives Noah an annoyed look.
"So, you can't do a slasher movie as a TV series." Noah continues. He looks to Mr. Branson who gives him a look, urging him to go on. "Well, think about it. You know, girl and her friends arrive at the dance, the camp, the deserted town, whatever. Killer takes them out one by one. 90 minutes later, the sun comes up as survivor girl's sitting in the back of the ambulance watching her friends' bodies being wheeled past. Slasher movies burn bright and fast. TV needs to stretch things out. You know, by the time the first body's found, it's only a matter of time before the bloodbath commences."
∘∘∘
"Nina Patterson's death is a great shock." A facility member says over the intercom. "Once you've seen the grief counselor, you're free to return home. Classes will resume tomorrow."
"This Wi-Fi sucks" Jake says. "The cops aren't saying much. Her mom found her body. The victim of foul play." He looks to Chloe and slightly taps her shoulder. "I need gory details."
Before Chloe can scold him, Noah tries talking to a teacher passing behind him. "Um, hello? Miss? Why am I here?"
Chloe looks confused for a second before replying. "Yeah, well that's the mandatory part of mandatory grief counselling."
"No, but seriously, I feel shock, mild interest, but not grief." He says, uninterested.
"Okay then." Emma leans back as she crosses her arms over her chest.
Riley interrupts Chloe's thoughts, sounding both upset and annoyed at all their behaviour. "Guys, Nina was murdered in cold blood. Do you not even care?"
Emma shakes her head slightly, looking down at the ground. "It just doesn't seem real."
"Here we go. One of Nina's neighbours tweeted that her throat was sliced ear to ear. The press is all over this. They're playing the whole 'Maybe Brandon James is Back' angle." Jake informs everyone.
As soon as those words left Jake's mouth. Riley and Chloe share a look before looking over at Emma. "Brandon James is dead." Emma says, getting up and leaving without looking at of them.
Kieran leans in slightly. "Who's Brandon James?" He asks, joining the conversation.
"Uh, he killed a bunch of students 20 years ago." Noah starts, getting up and pulling out his phone. Kieran, Riley and Chloe lean in closer to see. "He, um— He cut some others up. This is him. Emma's dad got stabbed. He almost died. Brandon had proteus syndrome, like the elephant man. People say he was born a monster, but I think he was bullied and beaten into one."
"And you know all this, why?" Chloe asks, getting slightly creeped out.
"I don't know. Some guys like sports. I like serial killers. And Brandon James is my Dallas Cowboys." He explains.
Chloe nods her head and leans back, listening to the rest of Noah's explanation. "He was a classic case of the deformed kid who lived in the shed. Mom homeschooled him. Dad was ashamed of him. His older brother, Troy, was the only one who cared about him. Whenever he went out, he wore this post-op surgical mask. They tried to fix his face a few times. Never really worked."
"What made him start killing people?" Riley wonders.
"Rumour is he fell in love. His brother said Brandon was obsessed. Wrote her anonymous love letters. Made her little carvings. Brandon found her at the Halloween dance. He got up the nerve to talk to her. It went okay at first. But then a bunch of drunk jocks jumped him. They thought they were saving her from a monster. After a lifetime of taking it, something in Brandon snapped. He killed five students by the time he was done. The manhunt ended at Wren Lake. The girl agreed to meet him. Nobody ever knew who she was." Noah finishes his story.
∘∘∘
"At this point, we're questioning persons of interest." Sheriff Hudson says through the laptop screen as they watch him give an explanation to the situation. "We're looking for Miss Patterson's ex-boyfriend, Tyler O'Neill. If anyone has any information on his whereabouts, please, call the hotline number on the screen. Thank you."
Riley closes the laptop and looks around at all of her friends. "So, Tyler did it? For reals?"
Will nudges Emma slightly. "Em's mom worked the scene. Tell them what you heard."
Everyone looks at Emma, patiently awaiting her explanation. She shuffles around for a moment before starting. "A neighbour saw Tyler's car parked out front around the time that Nina was killed. There was no sign of forced entry, and his fingerprints were found on a glass in the kitchen. Now his foster parents can't find him. Nobody can."
"When he dated Nina, they were always at each other's throats, but... how could he do that?" Riley voices her thoughts aloud.
Before anyone could respond, Brooke's tablet chimes. "Do you think one keg is gonna be enough?"
"Absolutely not, get at least two." Chloe replies leaning back.
"Do you really think a party's a good idea tonight, Brooke?" Emma asks.
Brooke scoffs at her question. "It's a prayer vigil."
Chloe shrug her shoulders. "People in mourning get thirsty." She says, agreeing with Brooke.
"Em, your mom is tight with the Sheriff, right? Do you know if they went through Nina's laptop?" Jake smirks while asking his question.
Chloe sees the look on Will's face who looks like he wants to strangle Jake for even asking that question. She watches him, wondering what he was so worried about. All this flies right over Emma's head who just answers Jake's question. "My mom just handles the autopsy."
Riley shakes her head and looks down. "I can't believe Nina's just a body now." She says, still upset.
"She kind of always was just a body, but top-shelf all the way." Jake laughs.
"God, why can you not go five minutes without being a complete dick." Chloe narrows her eyes at him, not even surprised at what he said.
"Yeah man, have some respect." Will agrees with her.
"I have extreme respect. And so did most of the basketball team. And some of the football team. And a couple of lacrosse dudes." Jake replies, still laughing.
Brooke starts to seriously get annoyed with her friend's behaviour. "Yeah, I'm sure the sheriff is going to question every single one of them."
"Ou, did you hear that? So I guess the million dollar question is, where were you Monday night, Jake?" Chloe leans over to him, looking Jake dead in the eye.
He scans her face for a few seconds, smirking, then replies. "I was with Will, up to no good."
"But you told me your phone died and you were stranded." Emma looks at Will. The rest of them exchange glances before turning back, waiting to see where this conversation goes.
"I was. Jake picked me up." Will says, clearly lying.
Emma looks at Will, not believing the answer he was giving her. He starts kissing her neck while she uncomfortably laughs before noticing Audrey. She excuses herself from everyone before going over to her.
As she leaves Will kicks Jake's shoe and Brooke and Riley start to talk amongst themselves. "I actually have to get going too, I'll see you guys later tonight." Chloe grabs her stuff and starts to leave, hearing the rest of them mumble goodbyes.
"I'll head out with you." Jake says, standing up and walking with her.
"Great." She rolls her eyes and start to walk slightly ahead of him.
He catches up to Chloe quickly. "So hey look, about Brooke's party tonight—"
"No." She cuts him off, already knowing what he was going to ask.
"What? You don't even know what I was going to say." He argues.
Chloe stops walking to face him. "You were going to ask me to be your date to the party, were you not?"
He looks around for a second before finding his words. "I was actually gonna ask... if you wanted to carpool together."
She looks Jake up and down before replying to his question. "Why would we do that?"
"Well, you know... to save gas." He answers, looking like a deer caught in headlights.
"Save gas, really?" Chloe cringes at another one of his foolish attempts to ask her out.
He sees the look on her face and tries to lighten the mood. "Okay, maybe not my best approach."
"I mean this is about the 11th time you've tried. I'm not expecting originally or anything new at this point." Chloe shrugs.
She drops her playful tone and looks at him seriously before saying anything. "Look Jake, I've known you literally since I was in diapers, which means I known the two of us would never work as a couple. We are just too different."
"I get it. Don't worry, I get it." He replies, looking down.
Chloe's phone digs and she reaches into her pocket to grab it, seeing a text message from her latest secret fling. Jake watches as her mood changes from annoyed to giddy after receiving whatever text message she got. He starts to wonder what's going on but her voice cuts off his thoughts.
"I'm sorry. I have to go." Chloe says, turning around and walk away.
∘∘∘
"Knock, knock. You summoned me." Chloe stands in the doorway to her Language Arts classroom, looking at Mr. Branson.
"Chloe." Mr. Branson sighs as he sees her. "Hi. Uh... I know this has been a rough week for you. How you holding up?"
Chloe shrugs her shoulders and looks around the classroom. "Sad, upset, devastated. Blah blah blah. Now, why did you really call me in here. I thought we agreed not to speak during school hours unless it was necessary."
"Right." Mr. Branson nervously coughs. "Well, with the investigation and all, I feel that we should discontinue our study sessions." He looks back at Chloe.
Chloe narrows her eyes slightly at him. "Okay." She chuckles lightly before continuing. "So, what am I supposed to do on Saturday nights, when there are no parties going on, and I'm laying in my bed. Completely bored and all alone."
Mr. Branson shifts a little, clearing his throat. Chloe continues, enjoying the effect she has on him. "What exactly do you want me to do, when you call me after a long hard day of grading tests, thinking of work to assign, and ask me if I'm wearing any underwear?"
Mr. Branson looks around his classroom before looking back at the girl in front of him. "Chloe, this cannot end well."
Chloe smirks at him. "Well guess what? Today, the answer is, I'm not..." She gets up close to him and whispers. "Wearing any." She grabs Mr. Branson's sweater and kisses him as he wraps his arms around her, kissing back.