Life Within The Halls

Chapter 11: "Matthew Clark"

LIFE WITHIN THE HALLS

Gideon

Thursday, 12th February, 9:28 a.m.

I was dying to know why Victoria had been in the records room the night before, but priorities, right? Economists call it the 'scale of preference,' and confronting the fake Daniel took precedence.

"Is someone going to tell me where we're going?" Victoria asked, glancing around at Jayden, Sandra, and myself as we trudged up the stairs to the third floor.

"Feel free to leave if you want; no one's forcing you to join us," I said, rolling my eyes skyward and quickening my pace.

"Please tell me." She hurried to keep up with me, her backpack bouncing behind her.

"I'm not telling you anything, since you said yesterday you didn't want anything to do with us," I countered, turning to face her as we reached the top of the stairs, my hands on my hips.

She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. "I'm still not leaving," she said. "It's better you tell me."

"I'm not telling you anything—maybe they will," I said, jerking my head toward Jayden and Sandra.

Victoria turned to Sandra, her expression pleading. Sandra fell for it and told her everything. From our break-in to Mr. Bennett's office to the video of Hannah on his computer, and our plan to manipulate the fake Daniel into revealing the truth to us. That was our plan.

"Seriously? I never thought Hannah would stoop that low," Victoria said, her eyes wide with shock.

That's where things got murky for me too. Hannah wasn't known for that behavior, and she was Daniel's girlfriend, so why would she send her naked video to Mr. Bennett? Was there more to their relationship than we knew?

Victoria pushed off from the wall, and we continued our walk. "So you three stole Mr. Bennett's office key, right?" she asked.

"No, Sandra used a hairpin to open the door," Jayden replied her.

"Then how come Mr. Bennett's key was missing?" she further asked. "It went missing yesterday, and I found it on the floor today."

"Mr. Bennett must have dropped it," I said, stopping outside our classroom.

Victoria's eyes locked onto mine, her expression accusatory. "No he didn't, I know you—" I held up a hand, silencing her.

I nodded toward the glass window of our classroom. Mr. Bennett was in the room, teaching biology, and the fake guy was in Daniel's seat, acting it all up.

"Keep your voice down."

Victoria removed my finger from her lip, murmuring, "You knew class was in session, but you still led us up here. For nothing?"

I checked my watch, noting the few seconds left until the first break. "What about now?" I said, just as the bell rang, punctuating my words.

"You win!" Victoria acquiesced. She always treated everything like a competition.

Amidst the noise of the bell and the students milling around us, a phone beeped. My eyes landed on Jayden, who retrieved his phone from his shorts pocket. His hands shook as he scrolled the screen.

He looked up and noticed me staring at him. "How do we make the fake Daniel talk?" he asked, his creased brow indicating that something was wrong with him and he was just trying to bring something up.

It was clear he was avoiding whatever had rattled him on his phone.

Before I could say anything, Sandra called out to us and pointed to the fake Daniel, who was coming out of class with his backpack. His features were identical to the real Daniel's—same hairstyle, eye color, and everything. If it weren't for the scar on the real Daniel's palm, I would have been deceived into thinking he was the real one, just like the others.