The rain poured heavily outside the class windows, the sky was cloudy, and the sun was nowhere to be seen. Alynne’s eyes were glued to the view, which caused warmth to flow through her, even in school, which was probably the worst place any teenager could be in. Though Sarah, her best friend, made school tolerable, whenever they were together, everything just felt right. While she was lost in thought, someone sat in Sarah’s chair, where she always sat, which caused Alynne’s peace to end upon seeing who it was. The typical popular guy, Peter Callander, the basketball team captain, dating the cheerleader, Susan Sue. All the school adored him for his looks, ignoring how dimwitted he was, but most of all, he was her neighbor. Believe it or not, they used to be friends, but they grew apart after he got all popular and wanted. Yet that didn’t stop him from bothering her from time to time. “Hey carrots,” he greeted, settling in beside her, which caused her to take in a deep breath. She didn’t hate or love his nicknames for her; it felt like he only used them to remind her that they were once friends, and he still had the privilege to get all friendly. “Hello, bunny,” she replied, boredly drawing in her sketchbook before noticing him leaning over to see her drawing none other than Jason Smith, god, if he can describe him, the first word that comes to mind would be unspeakable. Still, the second one is definitely ‘douchebag’ “that’s some talent wasted on the likes of jason,” he stated with a disgusted frown before quickly adding. “do you have a thing for him now?” “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t steal your boyfriend,” she responded with a pinched smile. Her words caused his face to twist in disgust before he nudged her shoulder with his and looked away in irritation. Alynne couldn’t help but find the appeal in teasing him; it felt like she had the upper hand for once. “By the way, I saw Sarah sneak into Mr. Anderson’s office,” he said, breaking the silence. Alynne knew that Mr. Anderson unfairly failed Sarah, not because of her academic performance, but because of his personal grudge against her mother. Mr. Anderson and Sarah’s mother were in a relationship that recently ended badly, and now, instead of letting the past go, he took it out on Sarah. As a result of the failing grade, Sarah lost her college internship opportunity, something she valued more than anything in the world. “Well, no wonder she’s late,” Alynne said mockingly, thinking he was making up a lie to change the subject. Why would Sarah be sneaking into his office? she thought, unless Sarah went to steal the exam papers for her upcoming one? Her tone caused him to get annoyed and push his tongue against the inside of his cheek before he reached for her sketchbook and closed it so she could finally look at him. “i also saw Mr. Anderson following her a few seonds later,” he paused before adding. “do you not care if she gets in trouble or not?” he said, making it seem like he doubted their whole friendship which annoyed Alynne. Finally, she turned to look at him. “If you are lying, I’m going to kill you,” she said, pushing her seat back to go search for Sarah. Yet, Peter suddenly wrapped his fingers around her forearm and pulled her down with a light frown. “Too late for that, don’t you think?” he said, loosening his grip on her. She would ignore him and leave, but the look he gave her reminded her of a time they were close; the thought of Sarah quickly disappeared to the back of her head.

Time passed so fast that Alynne didn’t realize the two had hung out together all day. Yet while they were leaving school, a bunch of paramedics ran past them. It was an unusual and worrying sight, but what made her heart drop was that they ran straight into Mr. Anderson’s office. “Sarah..” Alynne whispered subconsciously; she could feel her knees buckling, and her thoughts went straight to bad places before she gathered her strength to run to the office. A gasp immediately left her when she saw the sight, the blood, she felt horrified and couldn’t handle the sight, and ran to the nearest restroom.

Peter was worried and curious at the same time. He almost ignored the office and ran after her, but his curiosity won, and his eyes fell on Mr. Anderson’s lifeless body on the ground.