Homeroom 23

Chapter Four: The Crime

As you can imagine, Samantha was a nervous wreck. Normally I wouldn't care, but when your roommate is crying all night, it can make sleeping pretty inconvenient. I most definitely didn't have the deepest sleep; but the sleep I did have made up for it with my dreams.

I dreamed about the party; of course. I dreamed about the look on Xaviers and Samanthas faces and the fallen, broken shelves and the bottles strewn around their bodies. I dreamed about the crowd pushing each other to the front to see what had happened. It should've worried me—being involved in the biggest school scandal of the year—but I was too happy to feel even a semblance of fear.

When I was eventually kicked out of my dream for the final time, I woke to see the unusual sight of Victoria and Samantha sitting in a huddle on her bed. Of course, the unusual part wasn't that Victoria was in my room, as that was almost a daily occurrence; but it was that they were making an effort to be quiet. Usually they couldn't care less if they woke me up by giggling or throwing things around the room, but this was a new sight. Out of sheer curiosity of what they could be talking about, I leaned in to listen to their conversation.

"It could've been anyone," Victoria was whispering, but Samantha cut her off before I could figure out what she was referring to.

"I don't care how long it takes, I want to know who did it. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have to leave your own party early because you stink and are sticky!? And then, you can't even take a shower because they're closed until morning, so you just have to go to bed smelly and gooey?!" She whined, somberly. I had to admit, from her perspective it definitely wasn't the most fortunate scenario to find yourself in.

"Sam, can I be honest with you?" Victoria asked, while dropping her voice so low I had to inconspicuously lean backwards to hear her. "I think it was Melissa."

"That's impossible," Samantha quickly dismissed the idea, denying it completely. "Melissa can barely even brush her hair, she could never pull off something horrible like that." I had to admit I was a little bit offended, but I was mostly relieved to hear she didn't suspect me in the slightest. "You know who I think did it?"

"Who?"

"Ava Mitchels." She spat the name out like it was poison, and I could see Victoria nodding at her sentiment.

"Don't worry Sam," Victoria coddled her best friend, stroking her hair to reassure her. "I'll talk to Ava during breakfast today, I'll get this all figured out." Her eyes flicked towards me for a split second, so it was a good thing I had still been pretending to sleep. "I think it's time for me to go. Bye Sam."

That morning at breakfast, I actually got food. It was monumental for me, considering I hadn't eaten the school breakfast in 48 days. On any other day Anthony would've asked me about it, but today wasn't any other day; and he had other things on his mind.

"What happened?" It was a question, but he said it like a statement, he could definitely tell something happened because of the general air of unease going through the small lunchroom.

"Hold on a sec, where's Adam?" I asked, If I was going to explain my whole plan I would only want to do it once, so I wanted them both to be there.

"He should be here in a second. He's really tired."

"How the hell is he so tired? I was the one who stayed up all night inciting revenge. If anyone, it should be me strutting in all la-" My train of thought stopped when I saw him walking into the room with the darkest pair of circles under his eyes that I'd ever seen.

"What happened to him?" I asked, and before Anthony could answer, Noah sat down at the table and provided one himself,

"Didn't sleep. Stayed up to get the world record."