What We Once Were

Chapter 8.

Surprisingly, Bridget beat Greyson to the school that next morning. She sat outside Woodland High on a bench near the staircase waiting for her partner who arrived five minutes after she had.

"You're early." Greyson observed with amusement.

"It's a lot easier to leave the house when Jules is watching cartoons." Bridget replied.

The pained expression on his face made Bridget bite her tongue, she wished she could take back what she'd said, she'd never felt the need to hide her daughter from her life. But around him, she felt so awkward bringing up their daughter. "Come on, let's go inside. Today's a big day." Greyson moved on, pushing past her as he entered the school.

It was exactly as she'd remembered it to look. Banners painted and drawn by students were hanging from the ceiling, posters and fliers about clubs and upcoming events from the previous school year still littered the walls. The walls were still the chipped, fading red bricks with graffiti etched into them by students. The floors were dirty white tile with scuff marks from shoes and dust and gravel from the outside still stuck to the ground, no matter how many times the floor had been cleaned.

Bridget trailed behind him, stuffing her hands into her pockets and only stood by his side when they reached Patricia Fellows' office. Greyson knocked twice on the birchwood door and it opened, revealing a middle aged woman with curly black hair and dark skin.

"Good morning, you must be Bridget Carter and Greyson James." She stated, Bridget nodded and noticed that Patricia's eyes seemed to dart from left to right frantically, like she was waiting for something or someone to jump out of nowhere.

"Yes, hello Ms. Fellows, how has your morning been?" Bridget asked as they stepped inside her office that looked no bigger than a large closet. There was one window behind Patricia's that had a view of the parking lot. Her walls were mostly bare, decorated poorly with pom-poms, old blue chairs and posters of past cheerleading squads throughout the last few years.

Patricia sat at her desk, facing the pair, looking very uncomfortable. "It's been good, how about you guys?"

"Good." Greyson replied.

"Fine, thank you for asking." Bridget pulled out her notepad and a pen and jumped right into business. "We just have some questions about Alison, Becky and Colleen."

"Of course, ask away." Patricia nodded, placing her hands on the table.

Greyson and Bridget sat in the two chairs in front of her wooden desk. "What can you tell us about Alison?" Bridget asked, as she started the recorder seconds after they'd sat down.

"Alison was my flyer girl. She was one of my most talented girls on the squad. She was on the dance team too. She planned on going to the New York School of Dance. I was going to help her with her audition video. Before...all this happened." Patricia's voice trailed off, she dropped her stare from Bridget to her now fidgeting hands on the desk.

"Was she popular with the other girls on the squad?" Greyson chimed in.

"Alison? Oh yes, she was the favorite. Everyone loved her, she was talented, a hard worker, and kind to everyone she met."

"Sounds like the perfect girl." Bridget said, "How was she academically?"

"Good, A's and B's, she was a talented young woman. She could've done anything she wanted. It's so unfortunate what happened to her. And to Becky and Colleen too." Patricia blinked quickly and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

"Okay, how about Becky?" Bridget moved on, in no mood to deal with Patricia's emotional problems right now.

"Becky was the co-captain. She wasn't...the most liked on the team. She was who the girls called Colleen's bitch. Becky had an attitude and was smarter than anyone I've ever coached. She was part of the science club, a mathlete, and on the engineering team. How she was able to do it all is beyond my knowledge. I never understood why she was so easily bossed around by Colleen, in my opinion, she was a much better and more promising person than Colleen ever was." Patricia explained her tone lowering as she mentioned Colleen. Bridget wrote this down on her yellow notepad. Why would she speak in a low tone if Colleen was dead and her parents weren't even around to listen?