The Murders Of Manor Bay Estate

The Invitation

Friday, 30th October
9.15pm

Trudging out of the door, all five of them let out a collective sigh and a groan of annoyance as their dance class ended for the evening. None of them were able to move after their vigorous training session they had just been forced to go through.

"If she makes us do that all again tomorrow, I might order a protest!" Mia exclaimed, leaning against the wall of the dance studio whilst pulling out her dark hair from its high ponytail and flipping it back and forth in attempt to straighten it out.

"Count me in!" Gabi exclaimed, giving her a high five as she placed the grey hoodie over her red-faced head and took out the hair tie that was barely holding together her bun after all the jumps and leaps they had just endured.

"I can't feel my legs." Freya and Missy whined at the same time, almost collapsing as they held onto each other, over dramatically stumbling to their cars.

"I just want to take a nap." Emma joined in, rubbing her hands down her face as she conveniently yawned at the time she said it.

"I'll see you all tomorrow for ballet then?" Gabi asked, adjusting her hair behind her ears. "And don't forget your Halloween costumes! It is Halloween night after all!" She finished in a sing song voice, completing it with an enthusiastic eye roll.

"You're no good reminding me now, I'll still have forgotten by the morning." Mia sighed contently and let out a laugh, smiling at Gabi as she spotted her mother's car rolling down the road towards her to pick her up.

"See you later everyone!" Emma yelled over her shoulder as she jogged down the road to get into her car.

"Not if I don't die of exhaustion before that!" Freya cried out, separating from Missy to walk towards her car and waving before ducking under the roof to sit in the passenger's seat.

The group all laughed and waved each other off, saying their goodbyes and entering their cars to drive home after a draining two hours of high intensity dancing.

Their dance school, Studio 5, was known as the best in their area, and these five girls were the centre of the school. Appearing in every dance number when doing performances, helping in younger classes, competing in competitions and bringing home gold each time, as well as promoting their dance classes on social media. They were known as the faces of Studio 5.

Other dance schools were always competing to become the top in the area, but it was always civil. There were yearly competitions every summer and whoever won held the title of the best dance school in the area for a whole year. Studio 5 had won ever since the five girls joined their massive competition team and were eventually given their own rehearsal slot to compete just the five of them. The competitiveness was always there, which is why they had such late rehearsals on a Friday night after school.

It was just before half nine when all of them returned home, all texting back and forth from their beds about how tired they were and ranting about a timing problem at the start of the dance they just couldn't seem to get right. However, as soon as the time hit 9.30 exactly, all five girls received a message from an unknown number.

Hi! So, I'm brand new in town, joining your dance school next week and I wanted to have a party to celebrate, just getting to know everyone before I start just so then I see what everyone is like and how your dance school runs! I'd really appreciate if you could let me know if you were coming though so I can buy snacks and set up seats for the right accommodation of people. - Amy

Ps: I got all your numbers from the owners. Don't worry, I have their permission and it was actually their idea about the party in the first place so you don't need to worry about asking them about it or requesting time off dance tomorrow.