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You know you're being stared at when you feel uncomfortable or uneasy. When you have a weird feeling inside you, you just want to turn around and find the culprit. When I look around the school, all the student's eyes were on me. Their mouths moving as they spoke about me. Everyone's glare just felt off. I felt like I had done something wrong, but I didn't, I had done nothing wrong.
You'd think after everything I've gone through with the murders and two Lakewood Slashers, I'd be used to the judgemental stares I'm receiving but I'm not. With one hand, I fix the bag on my back, and the other hand plays with the loop of my black belt, growing awkward under the stares.
My mouth moves itself as I feel myself smile when I see my friends on the opposite side of the hallway from me. Kieran, Emma and Brooke walk together, talking about something. I make my way towards the three feeling content being beside my friends.
"Hey." I cheer and run my hands through my blonde hair.
"Mia! I'm so sorry, I never should've left you! I knew I should've stayed last night, I wish I did." Brooke wraps her arms around my waist and I smile as I hug her back.
"It's okay. I'm fine!" I try to give her a genuine smile, but I'm not sure if it looked real to them. If it didn't, the other blondie doesn't say anything.
"You sure you're okay? Stavo came up to me and told me he thinks you might need help..." Emma informs me and my jaw drops.
Gus spoke to her about me? I do not need help! Far from it.
"When was this?" I gawk, my eyes widening at the news.
"Like 15 minutes ago. He disappeared to the library before I could say something." Emma continues and I shake my head.
"So, because I haven't cried over my dead brother doesn't mean I need help." I roll my eyes and scoff.
"It's not just your brother being dead, it's the fact that he was hanging above your head, and some explicit pictures were on the paper for the entire town to see. You're vulnerable." Brooke says and reaches her arm out to touch my forearm.
"Look, I'm fine. Ansel wasn't that much of a brother to me, my nudes are hot so I don't care if my dead grandparents wake from their fave and see them," I say with a small laugh. "Can we talk about something else?"
The three friends standing opposite me look at each other unsure what to respond to my comments. It isn't that deep, I don't give a shit.
"Sure... let's talk about how Audrey was the one to bring Piper to town." Brooke rolls her big brown eyes and once again, my jaw drops.
"Wait, excuse me! Repeat that."
"Audrey wrote hundreds of letters to Piper Shaw inviting her to help Audrey investigate Brandon James and Lakewood's history and then turn it into a documentary. Audrey asked Piper if she was the one killing people but Piper lied—" Emma informs me of the story and I cross my arms under my chest.
"Ugh, as if Piper would be like yes, Audrey. I'm the murderer. Tell your friends and lock me up!" I say expressing the idiocy of Audrey.
"Exactly!" Kieran says with a shake of his head and looks away into the distance.
"When Audrey realised it really was Piper murdering, it made Audrey feel like all the murders were her fault." Brooke continued for Emma and I really just want to slap Audrey.
"It was her fault. She brought Piper here and had the decency to hide it from all of us." I scoff and the three agree.
"Hey, you guys. Enjoyed your freak show at the carnival last night." Haley says to us as she walks passed us.
"Give it a rest, Haley." Kieran argues to the girl with long black hair. Haley rolls her eyes but she walks off.
Last night, when the carnival was close to finishing, the Slasher messaged Emma through Kieran's phone saying to meet her at the Ferris Wheel. Emma found Kieran in the Clown House but, he was tricked into wearing the Slasher's outfit. His mouth was taped and his hands were taped to a knife. The police thought they had finally caught the killer which was why they took so long to come to the hanging body above my head on stage.
"Hey, there he is!" Kieran's voice makes me turn around from my spot. I stand beside Brooke to see who Kieran is pointing at.
Noah looks around and before he could make any sudden movements, Emma and Kieran charge at his side. Brooke and I follow closely behind.
"How long have you known, Noah?" Emma questions the boy who stands in front of her.
"A few days. I'm so sorry I didn't say anything." Noah answers.
"No, you are not sorry. You promised Audrey that you wouldn't tell me." Emma shakes her head at Noah, clearly angry.
"I thought that she should be the one to tell you." Noah argues.
"I know everything now because I heard everything that you recorded, Noah!"
"You heard that? How did you...?" Noah asks with a shocked expression and tone.
"Someone sent me an email." Emma answers.
"Can I see that email, please?" Emma hands Noah the phone and Noah looks at the email. "Secret Friend?" He reads and looks back up at Emma.
"Yeah, it's obviously fake."
"But imminently traceable. Look, Audrey has just been destroyed—" Noah does some tapping before handing the phone back to Emma. I'm guessing he emailed the email to himself.
"Audrey's been destroyed? Noah, our friends were being killed, and she didn't say anything to anyone, including you!"
"Emma..." Audrey's voice comes up from behind Kieran, Brooke and I. The five of us all turn to look at the shorter girl. Emma scoffs before walking away from her. "No. No, look, I just want..."
"Let her be." Brooke says as we follow Emma through another set of hallway.
"Emma, I didn't know it was Piper!" Audrey rushes beside her. Emma stops in her tracks and looks at Audrey.
"Oh, my God! Yes, you did! You just didn't want people to blame you!" Emma says to Audrey as students begin to crowd around Emma and Audrey.
"That is not true!" Audrey shakes her head.
"It is! It is true! And guess what? Everyone should blame you. I blame you!" Emma pushes Audrey to a locker behind her. The back slams once she makes contact with it.
Kieran looks down at Brooke and I, and I nod my head over to Emma. Kieran pushes past the people that stood in front of him and wraps an arm around Emma who stands in the middle of the crowd with Audrey in pain. Kieran carefully drags Emma away from the commotion.
"Let's...uh, get to class." I whisper to Brooke as the students slowly walk away.
"I have to go bathroom, can you get my stuff from my locker once you're done getting your things?" Brooke asks and I nod.
"Sure, do you want me to meet you at class or at the bathroom?"
"At class. I might take a while. I need to powder myself after sweating like a pig just watching the two girls argue." Brooke jokes and I laugh. Brooke and I walk our seperate ways.
I walk over to Brooke's locker and put in her code that I've known about ever since year 7. I open her locker and grab her books. I shut the locker and walk over to my locker. We're lucky, our lockers were just opposite from each other. Although, we wished it was next to each other, we didn't mind. At least we were close and not having to run to different hallways just for our lockers.
I open mine up after I spun the code around. The second I open it though, papers and papers and papers fall out. Not just any blank papers, it was a copy of the one that Ansel had stapled to him.
I bend down and pick up one paper to look at. In big red writing is whore and naked pictures of me glued down. I look at some of the pictures and notice that most of them aren't even of my body. These were photoshopped! I look at my face and remember an exact photo of my face that I posted on my Instagram.
Jesus, the Lakewood Slasher is really bothered to do this.
I hear student laughter coming from all around me. Shit, I forgot I'm not alone. I scrunch up the paper that was in my hand. I start to pick up the papers that fell from my locker but then I see a hand grab a paper from the ground.
"Yo!" I hear some dudes voice. I immediately get up off the floor and find three jocks surrounding me and the papers. I knew these boys from back when I did cheerleading. I dropped out because of the killings a couple months back.
"Do you mind?" I question and try to reach the paper from out of Mitch's hand. He pulls him away further up from me. "Mitch, don't be like that."
"Like what?" He questions acting as if he's doing nothing wrong.
"Like a bitch. Hand me the paper, Mitch." I argue and still try to grab the paper away from him.
"At least I'm not a little whore like you. Sending nudes? Where's my photo?"
"I only send them to people with dicks. How about you come back when you've grown a pair?"
Mitch's hand lowers by accident, possibly shocked at what I said? I'm not sure, but I go on my tippy toes and take the paper away from him.
"Fūck off, Mitch." I go back to where I was before and quickly grab the papers.
"Slut." I hear him say as he and the other jocks walk away from me.
I internally groan when I see another hand reaching out for the papers. I slap my hand around the other hand. I look up to find who's hand I was holding.
Eli Hudson looks at our hands and then back at me.
"I..uh, sorry. I just wanted to help you pack these up." He apologises and I shake my head before moving my hand.
"Sorry, I didn't know who it was and I thought they were going to take the paper." I inform him as we grab the fallen sheets.
"All good," he smiles. "I saw you arguing with those dickheads."
"And you didn't come help?"
"N..no, I just... I thought you handled yourself well and that you didn't need help."
I laugh because he thinks I'm mad, "I'm just kidding. It's okay."
Eli and I stand up. He hands me the papers he picked up, "thank you." I say and he nods.
I rip up the papers into tiny pieces and throw them in the closest bin. I grab Brooke and I's books.
"Want to walk to class together?" Eli asks and I close my locker with a nod.
"Sure."
On the way to class, Eli and I talk about his life at his old town. I look over to Eli and smile at him, Eli takes notice of this and gives me a weird look.
"What?" He laughs.
"Just noticed you're the only one who hasn't asked if I was okay, or anything like that." I shrug.
"You wouldn't be at school if you weren't okay. And if you aren't okay, then—"
"Attention students, Mia Roberts to the principal's office. Mia Roberts to the principal's office."
"Uh, I guess I'll see you later?" He says after the PA system dings off.
"Yeah," I smile. "Do you mind giving Brooke her book?" I hand him her Brooke before he was able to even say anything.
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Authors Note:
Hi, hi!
I want to quickly thank everyone who is voting, commenting and basically just reading this book. It actually means the world to me when I see you guys enjoying what you're reading! I have this plan for Mia and it kinda isn't pretty. I think it either happens in two chapters from now, or it could be more. I'm not too sure.
Do you have any theories or hopes for Mia, or Stavia?
I'd love to hear them! :)