Trapped

Chapter 6

"Do you know the guy?" I asked Gerald later that day during French.
"Not at all, but I can know him by tomorrow." He replied.
"Who are we talking about?" Alice inquired.
"Some kid named Ivan Appleby." I told her.
"Ooh, I can spy on him for you if you want."
"That's a nice thought but, Gerald's got it covered."
"Oh come on, why can't you let me be part of you weird investigation thing?"
"How about the fact that you called it a weird investigation thing for starters?" Gerald suggested.
"Ok, that probably wasn't the best choice of words, but you have to let me do this; I can follow him around, listen in on his conversations, it'll be great."
"I don't know Alice..."
"You better let me do this Gerald or I'll tell everyone that we've been secretly dating for 3 months!" She threatened as loudly as she dared. 
"I knew it!" I cried. If tomatoes are red, then Gerald in that moment was a super tomato. Kai Momoa, the guy sitting across from Gerald in our group of 4, had the most hilariously surprised expression on his face.
"Your secret is safe with me." He promised and Gerald nodded his appreciation.
"Alice... Spy away." She smiled a victorious smile, and I smiled too, I'd have to talk to Grace about this later.

"Of course they've been dating, they'd made it as obvious as possible without actually saying it." Grace gushed while we sat in the cafeteria.
"I know, but it's just great to hear it confirmed." My voice jumped an octave due to my excitement. Grace and I both loved Gerald and Alice as a couple, because no ship is better than Galice.
"Can you guys stop freaking out over us and just let me tell you what I've discovered about Applebee's." Alice interrupted.
"It's Appleby not Applebee's, Applebee's is a restaurant." Gerald corrected.
"It Galice the couple not the hopeful ship, they're a confirmed couple." I joked and Alice slapped me on the arm.
"You shut up, with your Galice stupidness and because I have things to tell you." She was really stubborn- and abusive- when she wanted her voice heard, I feared for Gerald.
"All right, blab." I commanded.
"So apparently Applebee's..." Gerald slapped his hand on his forehead, but didn't make any comment. "Is this guy in 802 who's pretty athletic, in the grade 7 year book he was 'most likely to be a Sensei' when he grows up; his friends are mostly guys, Brandon Ramsey, Dmitri Cooper, Connor McLoughlin and so on. I have absolutely no idea what he has to do with Janet, though." Gerald actually looked stunned. "Impressed?"
"Very." She seemed proud of herself and we'd gotten enough information to lay down some ground work on our interrogation, everything was turning out well.

Of course, Alice couldn't help but come along with us for our interrogation of Ivan, which was on Thursday. "Listen, I'll answer whatever questions you got but I don't know what you're expecting me to say, I don't even know how you guys are." He admitted.
"It doesn't really matter, but I'm Violet, this is Gerald and this is Alice." I introduced.
"Ok, what's this all about again?"
"Janet, Janet Jackson in 805."
"Oh god, not her."
"You know her?" Gerald inquired.
"Know her? We were in the same class for 2 years."
"What happened during those years?" I questioned.
"We became friends before I found out she was a complete basket case, always saying she was perfect even though she treated me like dirt."
"Did you do anything about it?" Alice asked, she had really jumped on that split second of silence so she could finally speak.
"Yeah I did, I made new friends, Brandon first and it just got better from there."
"She didn't try to force you back to her side? Or make you feel terrible for abandoning her?" I questioned.
"You know from experience, obviously. Yeah, that's exactly what she did. Always playing the innocent, making me the bad guy; one time she even devised this whole plot to make my friends hate me, and it would've worked if it hadn't been for the fact that they knew she was capable of something like that."
"You must've felt lucky when you got to escape her this year." Gerald assumed.
"For sure, it was like a breath of fresh air."
"So with her out of your life and you enjoying the freedom... You'd have no reason to spread any rumours about her." I concluded.
"Wait, that's what this is about? You think I'm the one spread those rumours I've been hearing around school? Yeah, you should definitely rethink that assumption."
"Believe me, we are." I told him, knowing that we all felt the same.
"Hope I could help some."
"Just one more question, did she have any other friends that she treated the same way as you?" Gerald inquired.
"Not really, she was kind of focused on targeting me, which made it even worse."
"All right, you're free to go." With Gerald's permission, Ivan ran back to wherever his friends were probably for him.

"Ok, I'm definitely going to leave this detective thing to you guys, I don't have the same powers of deduction as you do." Alice said once Ivan was out of earshot.
"You did fine, Alice. It was only your first interrogation." I told her. Gerald shot me a dirty look and shook his head rapidly.
"No, I think I'll you to deduction and Gerald to killing you, I'll stick with Grace for now." She walked away while facing towards us so she could watch Gerald chew me out.
"Hey, at least she knew when to walk away." I said, hoping he would accept that.
"You got lucky, this time."

At the end of the day Gerald and I were walking out to the pickup zone when Janet stopped us halfway, tears were streaming down her face and her phone was in hand. "Janet, what happened?" I questioned urgently.
"I-It's the anonymous account, the one that posted the picture of me cheating on a test; this time there's a picture of a note that says 'I'm the Fire Starter, hope you burn' and its spelled out in letters taken from magazines, like a serial killers note."
"You know you aren't actually going to burn right?" Gerald asked.
" As long as we have anything to say about it." I added.
"I know, but I'm afraid it's foreshadowing for something to come, something worse than anything I've previously seen."
"We'll look into it." I promised.
"Please hurry." She said just before she ran off into the school.
"I'll call Trevor." Gerald said.
"I'll come over."

Going to Gerald's house had almost become a routine for me now, I knew where to sit, I knew where he kept his computer, it was all so familiar.

"Hello?" Trevor's voice caught me off guard for a second, I hadn't even realized Gerald had picked up the phone.
"Hey Trey, we're starting to get a little lost her but things just got sweeter and now we need your help again." Gerald explained.
"Didn't you get the name I posted on Violet's locker?"
"Yeah, he lead us less than nowhere."
"Oh, sorry, thought he might have known something with all his connections to Janet."
"It's no problem, we appreciate the source, but things are starting to get hot around here."
"Literally or figuratively?"
"Trevor, this is no joking matter, whoever is running the anonymous Instagram account just sent out a threat to Janet." I told him, I don't think he realized how major the situation was.
"Oh wow, that's scary. How can I help?" He asked with new found seriousness.
"Tell us who might be doing this and what kind of message they're trying to send." Gerald instructed.
"Well, for suspects I'm fresh out of guesses; but as for the message, give me a second I'm looking up this post you're talking about." There was a moment of silence. "Oh, this person is preparing something big. What it is I'm not sure, I don't really know how much worse it can get than someone posting a picture of you cheating on a test. Oh wait, Fire Starter? Oh no..."
"What 'oh no'?" Gerald questioned before I got the chance to.
"You may want to keep an eye on the fire alarms for the next couple of days."
"Oh no." I repeat. "They're going to set the fire alarms off and blame Janet."
"Thanks for the help, Trey." Gerald said.
"Anytime."

Gerald had his cell out and was looking at the anonymous accounts page again. "What the?" He's peering down at the screen with a confused expression. "Vi, look at this." He held the phone up and I realized that the page he was looking at wasn't the anonymous one, it was Johnny Walters': there was one new post with the same magazine clipping letters that read: 'Hi Janet, it's me'.