Homeroom 23

Chapter Ten: Give it Up Detective

When I heard the banging on my door, my first thought was that I must be the killer's next victim. It was a stupid thought, I'm well aware, but I mean; look at it from my perspective. There's a murderer living in my dorm room, and one morning I wake up from the loudest, most intense and threatening knocking at my door I've ever heard. Can you really blame me if for a split second I contemplated the idea that just maybe someone was out to get me? I jumped up from my bed and ran to the door while still in my pajamas.

"Who's there?" I asked, leaning my head against the door. I got a familiar voice in return.

"It's me. Daniel." I breathed a sigh of relief, and looked behind me to make sure Samantha wasn't listening in on my conversation. It was at this point that I realized for the first time that I was alone in my room.

"What time is it?"

"A little past breakfast." I slept much longer than usual. Maybe stress really does affect your sleep schedule.

"Have you come to finally tell me about what happened between Xavier and Samantha?"

"Actually, this is much more important than that." Daniel quavered, and for the first time I noticed the slight fear in his voice.

"What's wrong?" I asked as my mind raced through the worst possibilities of what could've happened.

"Just...just get dressed and come out here, okay?"

"Okay," I replied, rushing to ready myself as fast as possible. When I was finally ready and brought myself outside, I was greeted by the sight of an empty hallway, and sounds coming from deeper within the girls corridor. I ran down the hall to see what was going on, and saw a crowd standing around Ava and Mellany's room. There were a couple of girls crying and covering their eyes, and a few boys who were just staring at the scene in horror. I pushed through the crowd and stopped myself short when I saw Ava laying on the ground and Mellany desperately trying to help her.

"Ava!" She sobbed, "Ava wake up!" Ms. Liams was standing above the both of them and shaking her head. No one else dared to enter the room. Mellany looked up at her teacher, and in a plea for help asked,

"Please, please help me. I don't know how to save her." As tears rushed down Mellanys face we all looked down, not daring to make eye contact.

"I'm sorry Mellany," Ms. Liams said. "I don't think she can be saved."

"No!" Mellany screamed, "you're wrong! You don't know Ava the way I know her! She wants to come back! She can come back! She just...she just needs some help..." I watched with tears in my eyes as Ms. Liams crouched down and slightly nudged Mellany off of Ava. She checked the girl for her heartbeat, and then her pulse, and even though she didn't say anything you could tell on her face there was nothing. She stood up silently with a grim look on her face.

"I will need to call the headmaster to tell him what I found." She walked solemnly to her room as chaos unfolded around what had now become Avas grave.

"Whoever did this needs to be punished!" One girl yelled in tears.

"She deserved justice! We need to find the culprit!"

"We can't keep letting them get away with this! Who knows who will be next!"

"What can we do? There's no possible way for us to figure out who did it! I guess we're just going to have to deal with it until we are all eventually killed." That last one sounded so pessimistic I was surprised it didn't come from my own lips. I shook my head at all of the fear and worry surrounding her. I wasn't usually one for giving dramatic speeches, but it was what these kids needed.

"Everyone!" I yelled, stopping all of the murmurs and shouts in their tracks. "You are all right! We need to do something about this! But yelling and crying won't help. That is what the killer wants us to do. They want us to be so terrified we don't even try to help ourselves, but we can't do that. We need to all work together as one and end this injustice once and for all!" The people around me went silent for a moment, and just when I thought they were going to cheer and maybe even carry me above the crowd there was a shout.