Fitting In

Chapter 16 - Girls Night

I pulled up to Hatties house with drinks in hand. I saw what I assumed to be Macey's car already there. I went to knock on the door, but it was already swinging open.

"I saw you pull up. Here I'll take the drinks. Macey is downstairs." Hattie pointed to the staircase and headed off the the kitchen.

Noticing that Hattie was just in her socks, I put my shoes by the door before heading down.

The basement was chaotic. Half of it was a collection of random things shoved into the corner, and the other half was a haven of pillows, beanbags, blankets, and stuffed animals. Macey was sprawled out on the floor with a stuffed elephant on her stomach.

"I'm supposed to be putting up the sheet right now, but I can't. I have an entire elephant on top of me."

"I can help with the sheet."

She just turned her head and squinted at me. "The elephant is still here."

"I can help with that too."

"The elephant has a deadly strand of the black plague; if you touch him you die."

"I'll gladly sacrifice myself for you. You've been a good friend," I mimicked wiping a tear.

"No, I can't let you do that."

"Wait a second, how are you not dead?"

"The elephant isn't touching me."

"It's on top of you."

"It's on top of my shirt."

I elbowed the elephant off of her. "The power of long sleeves. Now let's put up the sheet."

"Fine," she grumbled as I helped her up. "It already has the clasps on it. We just need to attach it to the hooks."

"Wait, we're hanging it on the wall?" I asked, confused.

"Duh, even if we don't watch a movie it's a tradition. When we go to to Hattie's house we pile up a bunch of comfy things and set up the big screen. My house is having a nerf gun fight with my brothers. Gabby's was sleeping outside on her trampoline or in a tent. There used to be a lot more of us."

I just nodded and silently helped Macey set everything up. Hattie came down a few seconds later.

"Hey, the death elephant is gone. How did you get it off?"

"I used my elbow, it apparently can't be transferred through clothing."

"We are not calling it the death elephant," Macey said.

"That's what it is," Hattie argued.

"It has a nice ring to it," I added.

"Her name is now Cobalt, and I announce her cured," Macey said, picking the elephant up.

"How do you know?" Hattie said plopping herself down on a beanbag.

"I'm touching her, aren't I?" Macey laid down next to her. I followed suit and grabbed the nearest pillow.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you guys," Hattie started, "I have called you here for a reason other than just having fun, although we will also partake in that endeavor."

"Hear, hear!" Macey joked, "Our mighty leader has spoken."

"Shut up, I'm trying to listen."

"Anyways," Hattie continued, giving Macey a look, "I know you guys have heard about all of the drama going around recently. I feel like we need to do something about it."

"Yeah, but what?" Macey injected.

"I'm getting there. We need to figure out the players in the game. Then we need to figure out motives. I have a feeling it isn't going to end here, and we have to be prepared."

"Question. Why isn't Bella here?"

It took me a few seconds to remember the artist that had sat at our table during the first day of school. 

"She's probably still working on the mural today. I called to see if she was open, but she had a date with Aaron and schoolwork."

"The mural?" I asked.

"Yeah, the school is paying her to paint the big empty wall by the art room. I haven't seen it yet, but everyone has been saying it's really cool," Macey explained, "That's why she hasn't been at lunch lately."

"Bella did say she was keeping an ear out as well.  She said the art teacher thinks the same person who snuck into the school last time did it this time as well," Hattie said, "So if we can figure out who did it last time, then maybe we'll know who did it this time."

"That excludes all new kids, and everyone who was at Tyler's party last time," Macey said, "Do we still have that list of potential suspects from a few years ago?"

"Yeah, but it's long."

"We can cross off everyone who moved, and anyone who has an alibi for Friday morning. Plus now we know they have something against Tyler."

"Tyler's party? A list? I'm not following," I said.

"Last time this happened it was the night of Tyler's birthday party. A little less than half the grade was invited. We piled up a list of everyone who wasn't invited, and we went around school interviewing people and trying to figure out who did it."

I gave myself a second to process the new information. Why did Connor break into the school the first time? Did it have anything to do with Tyler's party? He did say they used to be friends. Something must have happened because they obviously weren't anymore.

"Alright, what movie should we watch?" Macey asked grabbing the projector.

"Anything Disney!" Macey said.

"I'm cool with anything," I said. I really didn't care, and although they probably wouldn't, I was still a little nervous about them judging my choice.

"I say we watch It," Hattie said shooting a smile over to Macey, "It's a great movie."

"You don't even like It," Macey protested, "You just know I don't like that movie."

"But you always want to watch cartoons!"

"Yeah, because their classics and timeless. They also have magic and random song and dance breaks. Plus you can't hate all of them, there's so many!"

Hattie's response was a 'fine' and to throw a stuffed animal at Macey. It hit her right in the face.

"Oh it is so on."

They started chucking stuffed animals back and forth. Somehow I got caught in the crossfire, and joined in. Grabbing a pillow I hit Macey as hard as I could. In a few minutes we were all laughing too hard to continue. Hattie grabbed us some snacks and poured the drinks while Macey picked out the movie.

With Lilo and Stitch playing in the background, we shortened their list of 67 names to 32. It wasn't enough to be able to really look into each person, but we all agreed it was better than nothing.

When the movie was over I looked back over the original list of names. I figured I must have missed it the first time, but a second scan told me my suspicions were correct.

There were no Connor's on the list.