One of Us is Lying - The Bayview Five

Chapter 1

"Oh for God's sake," I complain as Simon Kelleher sits his smug ass down, as if an hour long detention after school (on a Monday as well) wasn't bad enough - I now have to spend it with Simon Kelleher.

"Calm down Lydia, keep your panties on, if you're wearing any," He replies, his just as smug face looking very punchable right now.

He came in with Bronwyn Rojas, who I was shocked to see here, and Copper Clay, as well as Addy Prentiss followed after them. Whilst not detention regulars, their records aren't as spotless as Bronwyn's. When I used to hangout with Addy she got detention maybe once or twice a semester, mostly for dress code or talking too much in class, but ever since she got with that boyfriend of hers, I've not seen her here. That was part of the reason we stopped hangout out, the only person she seems to have time for nowadays is Jake and it's always Jake this or Jake that and I just got sick of it. Nate Macaulay's already sat at the back, we both had science with Mr. Avery before this which means my thighs are going to be glued to this chair for enough hour, his chair's tipped back to a point where he could topple over at any second, which would probably be quite funny.

"Enough conversation," Mr. Avery says, although I've been zoned out for the last few minutes. I wouldn't say I'm a detention regular but to put it lightly this definitely isn't my first rodeo. Zoning out is the best way to get through an hour of hell. 

"Mr. Avery, that wasn't my phone you found. I don't know how it got into my bag. This is mine," Bronwyn informs Mr. Avery, brandishing an iPhone, in a melon-striped case, it's cute but definitely gives me fifth grade vibes. 

However my interest is peaked, as unlike my usual reasons for detention like Breaking dress code or Using inappropriate language in class this time Mr. Avery caught me with a phone, a phone that wasn't mine...

"You too?" Addy turns to Bronwyn. "That wasn't my phone either,"

The cogs in my brain start turning, trying to piece what's going on, but the three hours of sleep (don't ask, you don't want to know) I've been running on today really don't help in decoding the answer. 

"Me three," Cooper chimes in, or as it sounds with his accent thray. Cooper's cute but there's something about him that puts me off...I just can't figure what it is. Which is weird because I'll go near any guy with a pulse plus Cooper is super sweet and seems like he's actually a decent guy, not that this is the thing I should be thinking about right now. 

"Wait...me four," I say, the cogs still turning.

"Somebody punked us!" Simon leans forward with his elbows on the desk, his gaze darting over all 5 of us, clustered in the middle of the otherwise empty classroom, I watch as he settles his view on Nate.  "Why would anybody want to trap a bunch of students with mostly spotless records in detention? Seems like the sort of thing that, oh, I don't know a guy who's here all the time might do for fun,"

I'm on Nate's side for this one, firstly, I think he's more interested in trying to sell drugs without being sent to juvie at the minute, so planting phones into some random people's backpacks doesn't strike me as a thing he'd do or be bothered to do, secondly, I'll always be on the opposite side to Simon Kelleher.

I can't really judge anyone's facial expressions as I'm sat second to the back, Nate of course sits behind, still tipping back on his chair. But I see as Copper straightens up his broad shoulders.

"Hang on. I thought this was just a mix-up, but if the same thing happened to all of us, it's somebody's stupid idea of a prank. And I'm missing baseball practice because of it," He says it so dramatically like Mr. Avery is dragging him away from the birth of his first child, but I guess that's athletic boys for you, married to their sport.

Mr. Avery responds with a roll of his eyes. "Save the conspiracy theories for another teacher. I'm not buying it. You all know the rules against bringing phones to class, and you broke them," He gives Simon an especially sour glance. I assume it has something to do with About That. About That is the gossip app that Simon runs, from sex tapes, pregnancy scares, cheating scandals, About That exposes every little secret - Lord knows how Simon finds it all out. Teachers know About That exists, but unfortunately there's not much they can do to stop it. Simon only uses initials to to identify people and never talks openly about school. It would really help if they could stop it though because everytime a new entry features LC, my life is ruined once again. And if you hadn't of guessed, that's where my hatred for Simon stems from. 

"Now listen up," Mr. Avery continues. "You're here until four. I want each of you to write a five-hundred-word essay on how technology is ruining American high schools. Anyone who can't follow the rules gets another detention tomorrow,"

Part of me wonders if I should just nap right now and come back tomorrow with a couple more hours of sleep and the ability to form an actual sentence, but I ultimately decide that even if I write utter nonsense, 500 words will get me out of here.

"What do we write with?" Addy asks. "There aren't any computers here." Which is true, most classrooms have Chromebooks, but Mr. Avery's room looks like it could be the set of a shitty sequel to the Breakfast Club, so the lack of technology is prevalent. 

Mr. Avery crosses to Addy's desk and taps the corner of a lined yellow notepad. We all have one. "Explore the magic of longhand writing. It's a lost art."

"But how do we know when we've reached five hundred words?" Addy responds. Now I'm not calling Addy stupid or anything but she really isn't disproving the dumb blonde trope. I rest my head on my hand and sigh, my fingers slipping into my own blonde hair. It's a similar colour to Addy's, golden blonde with lighter strands, people used to confuse us a lot when we were friends.

"Count," Mr. Avery states the quite obvious answer. His eyes drop to the phone Bronwyn's still holding. "And hand that over, Miss Rojas,"

"Doesn't the fact that you're conxfistacting my phone twice give you pause? Who has two phones?" She asks, in a smart-assy 'I'm Bronwyn Rojas and I'm going to go to Yale!' kind of way. I don't know why I'm so pissy today, probably the lack of sleep. I flick my eyes over to Nate who grins, so quick that I'm not sure anyone else saw, that man has at least five phones in his room at any given time. "Seriously, Mr. Avery somebody was playing a joke on us,"

Mr. Avery still doesn't seem convinced, his snowy mustache twitches in annoyance as he reaches out a beckoning hand. "Phone, Miss Rojas. Unless you want a return visit," She finally gives it to him and he throws a disapproving look over the others and me. "The phones I took from the rest of you earlier are in my desk. You'll get them back after detention," He informs us, although I couldn't care less, my iPhone is still sat safely in the front pocket of my backpack.

Mr. Avery tosses Bronwyn's melon phone into a drawer and opens a book, in preparation to ignore us until four.

I pick up my pen and tap it against my notepad, looking around the room. Cooper has already started writing, however it looks like this is the first time he's held a pen in his life, Nate's writing computers suck over and over again in block letters which seems like not the best approach but whatever works I guess. Addy hasn't started writing yet. Bronwyn also seems to be people watching like I am, which is strange because I thought she'd love a task like this, and I don't bother looking at Simon, spending an hour in a room together makes me pissed off enough.