Sarah was sitting in class listening to her third teacher of the day talk about what happened to Casey and Steve. By now they all should have the speech memorized. The teacher is interrupted when a student steps in and hands her a piece of paper.
"Sarah, sweetie it looks to be your turn."
She stood and grabbed her bag, ignoring all the eyes on her. When she gets to the office the secretary points her to Principal Himbry's office. As she walks in she sees Sheriff Burke sitting in a chair against the wall, Dewey, Tatum's brother and deputy standing next to him, and Principal Himbry standing next to the chair she was to sit in.
She inwardly groaned when she saw Principal Himbry standing there, he had always given her the creeps.
"Sarah," Sheriff Burke greeted, "Please take a seat. This will only take a minute."
As she sat down Himbry tried to place his hand on her shoulder but she shrugged him off and scooted as far away from him as the chair would allow.
"How well did you know Casey Becker?" asked the sheriff.
She shrugged, "I knew her but we weren't close. We would talk in passing but I wouldn't say we were friends."
He wrote something down, "What about Steve Orth?"
"He was in a couple of my classes, but its like it was with Casey. I knew him but we weren't close enough to call ourselves friends, he was on the football team with my boyfriend Cole but other than that I don't know much about him" she answered.
"Where were you last night?" he asked.
"I got home from school and I stayed home working on homework all afternoon. Sidney was there and so was my father. They can vouch for me."
He writes a couple of things down before looking at her, "Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Casey and Steve? Heard any gossip that might have some truth to it?"
"Not that I can think of. Like I said we weren't close enough to consider ourselves friends. If I hear anything I'll be sure to let you know," she said.
He nods, "Well that will be all, if we have any more questions we'll get in touch."
She gets up, "Bye Sheriff. Dewey."
She walks out the door, ignoring Dewey's protest to call him 'Deputy Riley'.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sarah huffs as she flings her bag on the ground next to Randy's. All eyes turned to her.
"What's wrong?" Tatum asked.
"I'm so over this entire fucking day," she huffs out, "In every class someone is staring at me or my teachers are treating me like I'm going to break."
Randy just pats her on the back before going back to the conversation at hand.
"Hunt? Why would they ask you if you like to hunt?" Tatum asked Stu.
Stu shrugged, "I don't know, they just did."
"It's because their bodies were gutted," Randy stated.
Sidney and Sarah both flinch, "Thanks a lot Randy." Billy said.
Sarah jumps when a hand leans over her and slaps Randy on the back of the head. She looks up and sees Cole placing his bag on the ground next to hers. He leans over and kisses her, "You okay?"
"Yeah just ready for today to be over with," he just pulls her closer to him and they turn their attention back to the conversation around them.
Tatum scrunched her nose up, "They didn't ask me if I liked to hunt."
Stu scoffed, "Cause there's no way a chick could have killed them."
Tatum slaps him in the arm, "That is so sexist. The killer could easily be female 'Basic Instinct'."
Sarah groans, "Seriously guys, why are we even talking about this, it was probably some drifter passing through."
Randy ever the movie geek chimes in, "That was an ice pick. Not exactly the same thing," ignoring what Sarah said all together.
Stu nodded along, "Yeah, Casey and Steve were completely hollowed out. It takes a man to do something like that."
"Or a mans mentality," Countered Tatum.
There's a moment of silence before Sidney asks, "How do you even gut someone?"
Stu pipes up, "Well you take a knife and split from groan to sternum."
Sarah groans, "Really Stu? I'm trying to eat here."
Cole wads up his napkin and throws it at Stu's head, "Really man !?"
Billy reaches over and slaps Stu on the arm, "It's called tact you fuckrag."
Stu rubs his arm, "Sorry, but she asked."
Cole scoffs, "It was a rhetorical question dumbass. Just because you know the answer doesn't mean you have to answer."
Sidney is quiet for a minute before she stuns Stu by asking, "Hey Stu, didn't you use to date Casey?"
"For about two seconds," he laughs off.
"Before she dumped him for Steve," chimed Randy.
Tatum stops eating and looks at her boyfriend, "I thought you dumped her for me?"
Stu glares at Randy, "I did. He's full of shit."
"Are the police aware that you dated the victim?" Randy continues.
"C'mon Randy," Sarah groans, "you can't really think that one of us is responsible."
"What are you saying that I killed her or something?" Stu asked.
"It would definitely improve your high school Q," retorted Randy.
"Stu was with me last night," Tatum pipes up.
Randy asked, "Was that before or after he sliced and diced."
Tatum threw a piece of food at him, "Fuck you, nutcase. Where were you last night?"
Randy throws a peanut in his mouth, "Working. Thank you."
Sarah looks at him, "I thought the video store fired you?"
He holds up two fingers, "Twice."
Stu looks around, "I didn't kill anybody."
"No body said you did," retorted Billy.
Randy jumps up on top of the fountain and mimics Stu, "Besides it takes a man to do something like that."
Stu glares up at Randy, "I'm gonna gut your ass in a second."
Sarah gets up, "I'm done. I'll see you guys later."
Cole picks up his bag, "You assholes really have no sense of what to say and what not to say around Sar and Sid do you? It's coming up on the anniversary of their mothers murder this is the last thing they need to be hearing," and follows Sarah leaving the group in silence.
She hears Cole, "Sar wait up."
She stopped and waited for him, "I'm sorry if I ruined your lunch I just couldn't sit there and listen to anymore of their crap. This is not something that should be joked about."
He wraps his arm around her, "I know, they were being assholes and I told them that. Let's just finish out the day and then we'll head to yours to relax and do whatever you want."
She just nods agreeing with what he was saying. She was beyond ready for the day to be over with.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That afternoon climbing off the bus Sarah sighed, "Freedom!"
Sidney and Cole laughed at her, "C'mon lets go inside. I talked to Tatum and she said we could stay with her tonight so that way we wouldn't be here alone with everything going on."
Sarah nodded, "Okay, sounds good."
Cole places his hand over his heart, "What you don't want to stay with me tonight?"
She playfully shoves him, "While I would love to stay the night with you, your mom would never let me stay. Not after last time."
Sidney fakes gags, "You guys make me sick."
Sarah and Cole both turn to her and stick their tongues out. She just laughs and unlocks the door. Sarah and Cole head up to her room where they start on homework.
"What do you want to start with?" She asks sitting her stuff on the desk.
He walks up behind her and starts kissing her neck, "How about anatomy?"
She turns her head giving him more access, "But you don't take anatomy. We really should work on math" she protests weakly.
He just hums and continues kissing her. Finally she gives in and he moves her to the bed. They were just starting to make out when Sidney bursts through the door, "Oh my eyes! You could have locked the door."
Sarah just groans, "You could have knocked. What do you want?"
"I just talked to Tatum and she said she would be over after cheer practice, should be no later than seven," she winks at them, "Carry on, but make sure to use protection."
Cole grabbed a pillow and threw it at the door. He sighed, "There's not way we can continue is there?"
"Nope. Moods dead but we can take a nap," she suggests.
"Nap it is."
They both try and get comfortable before taking their nap.
They wake up when they hears Sidney scream and then footsteps running up the stairs. She jumps up and grabs the bat from her closet and runs into the hallway where she sees someone in a black costume, holding a knife trying to get into Sidney's room. Cole rips the guy away from Sidney's door. Sarah watches frozen as her boyfriend fights this masked figure; she gasps as she watches the guy stab Cole in the stomach. As the figure stands up she screams, "Hey!" and swings the bat as hard as she can but the intruder ducks and grabs the bat from her hands. She's so focused on the fact that he has her bat that she doesn't see the knife coming towards her. The last thing she remembers is a sharp pain in her shoulder and the bat coming down on her head before it all went dark.