Evan Farrington's Confession | ✔️

eighteen

Evan carefully took her pencil case out of her bag. The scissors shifted slightly, catching the morning light sheeting through the classroom window. She unzipped it and carefully printed some bullet points from her phone with a black rollerball. The students behind her was chattering sparsely, the teacher working silently at his computer. The second period of a double, right before lunch. Nothing sleepier.

Evan flicked her screen over to a page of essay questions and scrolled down until she found a relevant one. She began to scrawl an answer, rubbing her eyes every so often to fend away the creeping tiredness. The teacher's head popped up a couple of centimetres as the telephone on his desk trilled. Evan looked up, her pen hovering over her notebook. The teacher nodded a couple of times, murmuring into the receiver.

"William?" he said. Evan twisted round in her seat to see William look up from the origami bird he had been fashioning. "The police need to speak to you in the Math base. You know your way?"

William frowned and nodded slightly, picking up his bag and the bird. He dropped it on Evan's desk as he passed and gave her a quick smile. Evan pinched her lip, watching the door shut behind him and hearing his footsteps descend the hallway. The police. Her breathing quickened. Pictures of lie detectors in her head quickly morphed to images of gruesome, medieval methods of torture.

Were they speaking to everyone? It didn't matter. She had been at the school at the time of the (murder murder murder) crime. But did they know? How could they? The only person who had seen her had been Mr Watt and he wasn't exactly going to be telling anybody. Evan clicked her pen closed and brought her other hand to join the one twisting her bottom lip. Of course they knew she had been there. There were cameras, cleaners, students leaving classes after being held back or staying to ask a question. She was sunk. Absolutely done for.

(are you?)

Evan brought her hands to the origami bird on her desk and gently ran her nails over the neat creases. She couldn't lie. And she knew something about the murder. More than something. So she was sunk. This was it. And the stupid note was in her stupid bag so nobody important would ever find out what really happened. Important? There was nobody important to find out. It was meant for Suzanne. But Evan clearly didn't matter to her. The note would mean nothing. It was a stupid idea to write it. Nobody would care and even if they did, it would provide none of the comfort that she had hoped it would. If anything, it would prove her insanity and get her moved from juvie to a secure facility.

The door to the classroom complained as William re-entered. Evan swallowed. William was clasping and unclasping his hands, chewing on his lip so hard it was a wonder that he hadn't bitten it off.

He cleared his throat but his voice was still raspy. "They want to see Evan next."

(shit)

William didn't look at her as he passed her desk. Evan forced a breath out of her nose and stood. She scooped up the paper bird and cupped it in her hands as she left the classroom.

The corridors were quiet. Locker doors closed. Still, Evan's ears anticipated the metallic slam that would send her mind spinning back to the crime she was about to deny. The- (murder murder murder)

The Maths corridor was two corners away. Evan felt her breath begin to hitch. She tried to convince herself that the metal clinging to the lining of her nostrils was just the lockers although she'd never noticed them having any kind of smell before. One corner away. Had they seen the footprints?

(of fucking course they have)

Then what about the shoes? If they had the shoes they wouldn't have bothered interviewing anyone else, right? They'd know who did it. It wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to work it out, not with that evidence. Evan carefully ran her nails over the neat folds of the bird in her hands as she turned the final corner and approached the classroom. Her heart throbbed in her stomach. The police officers were sitting around a few desks at the back of the room.