The Originals

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Orchid Gray

Orchid stood outside the Exam Room on the library's second floor. She gnawed the insides of her cheeks, sweat dripping from her forehead. It was her first Silverleaf Gothic Literature Club meeting. Into the belly of the beast, she thought.

"Hey, it's Orchid, right?" a familiar male asked. Orchid turned around to see a ginger-haired boy grinning. "Don't tell me you forgot about me so easily, it's me—Tommy Asterion."

Orchid blinked, stunned. Tommy was the boy that Saira warned her of and she forgot about him since Robert's death had distracted her. "I totally forgot you existed." That seemed a bit harsh. "I-I mean, I've been busy, but I didn't really forget you. You're Tommy Asterion obviously."

He shook his head, laughing. "I'm glad you got accepted into the club, this will be fun." Not as fun as you imagine, Orchid gulped, nodding quickly. Tommy didn't know about the murders.

Suddenly, a light-brown-skinned man opened the doors of the Exam Room. His face was covered by his oversized hoodie. "Hello, Literati! Professor Xing is currently busy, so I'll be greeting you. I'm Jones, one of the senior students in the club."

"Oh, hi, Jones." Orchid vaguely remembered him. "Wait...Tommy and I are the only members that got accepted?"

"Everyone else got rejected or is on the wait list. You both are the club's top choices and, well, this place is exclusive." Jones motioned for them to follow inside. The rows of desks were gone and were filled with cozy decor. "Take a seat anywhere."

Orchid sat on a beanbag and Tommy sat next to her, making her heart pound faster. I can't believe I'm in the same room with a possible murderer, she looked at a smiling Jones who presented a book. She squinted, leaning forward.

"This is a novella called Still by Chris Grace, a very compelling book," Jones explained, grinning. Orchid felt sick to her stomach. "It's about a man who was sleeping with his girlfriend's classmate, so the assistant teacher, who had a crush on the girlfriend, killed him."

Tommy coughed loudly. "That's super screwed up."

"And a screwed-up love triangle, or whatever shape it'd become," Orchid added, shaking her head. Sounds a bit like the Robert-Bailey-Ivory situation, it was ugly. Jones kept a still face, though he chuckled.

He handed out copies of the book to Orchid and Tommy. "Now, this is your time to read and analyze Still, I have to run some errands, AKA my homework. I'll be back in half an hour."

Half an hour to snoop around and look for context clues. Jones slipped out of the room and Tommy cracked open the book. Meanwhile, Orchid got up and looked around the room. "Hey, Orchid, what are you doing?"

"Uhm, I lost some cash when I last came here and I'm afraid someone pocketed it." She paid Tommy no mind while she opened the teacher's desk, or Professor Madeleine Xing's desk. Inside, it was just a bunch of office supplies.

"Pretty sure you can't do that," Tommy snorted.

"Shut up!" She blinked, stunned at herself. "Sorry, I didn't mean that." Orchid tilted her head, running her fingers along the drawers, and saw a hidden groove. She pushed the groove and the desk pulled out an extra hidden drawer. Yes, yes! She saw a package of letters and stuffed them in her pockets.

"Found my money," she lied.

"Good, now you can actually read Still with me," Tommy laughed as Orchid came back. He leaned back into the beanbag, crossing his lanky legs, flipping through the pages. He's distracted. Orchid opened her copy of Still but secretly read the letters she found on Madeleine's desk.