Trapped

Chapter 7

"I can't believe you lied to us!" I yelled. Gerald and I had made sure that we met with Johnny Walters the very next day after the post was put up.
"I didn't lie, that post wasn't even made by me."
"Yet is was on your page, under you name." Gerald challenged.
"Someone hacked my account ok? Didn't you see that I even removed the post?"
"I'll check that." While Gerald was on his phone, I took charge of the interrogation.
"Who would've hacked into your account?"
"Um, anyone who wanted to throw me under the bus for spreading the rumours? The culprit perhaps?"
"Fair enough, but it's getting harder to believe you by the second."
"Wait, wait, wait, Violet, look at this." Gerald holds the phone up so I can see it and he's on Levi Taylor's page, where the exact same note to Johnny's was posted.
"See, I told you someone is hacking accounts." Johnny said, peering over my shoulder.
"Yeah this is majorly weird, it's like the culprit is trying to..." My voice trailed off. "That's exactly what they're trying to do." I declared.
"What? What are they doing?" Gerald inquired.
"They're throwing ever single suspect we have under the bus so we don't know who's really guilty here."
"That's insane, and insanely clever, but mostly insane." Johnny remarked.
"I think we should get all the suspects together, so if anyone is on their phone we know who to suspect and if another message is posted while we're together we know they're all innocent." I suggested.
"That sounds like a good plan." Gerald agreed.
"And I'll be happy to be there, to prove my innocence." Johnny volunteered. Now we had the upper hand, and the web was just about to be set, time to catch a bug.

"Tuesday after school, as soon as possible." I told Janet when we called her on the phone that day.
"That's kind of short notice, I don't know if everyone will be available." She said.
"They'll have to be, we need to catch whoever's guilty before they set off the fire alarms."
"Before they what?" Had I actually forgotten to tell her about that?
"That note that said 'I'm the Fire Starter, hope you burn', we think it means that whoever the Fire Starter may be is going to set the fire alarms off and blame you for it."
"What?! Ok, I'll tell my friends about tomorrow."
"Thanks, we'll keep you posted." I assured and then hung up the phone.
"I really thought we had told her." Gerald said afterwards.
"Yeah, well she knows now and that's all that matters. It's time to prepare for the holding."

We made a trip to the store and grabbed snacks, drinks and a few other things to make our 'guests' feel welcomed, we wanted to keep them calm in such an intense situation. "Someone's probably going punch another person in the face." Gerald said while we were walking home from the store.
"I'm getting on Johnny punching Vironika."
"Even he wouldn't punch a girl."
"But Vironika..."
"We'll make sure he doesn't, we'll make sure no one does." He promised.

At school on Tuesday, I was incredibly nervous, so much so that I was shaking. Gerald grabbed my shoulder and turned me to face him. "Hey, are you going to be ok?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm just a little on edge."
"Don't be, we can handle a few shady people."
"And we have what, 7? That's more than a few."
"You know it's more like 3, which is a few; I wouldn't even really count Ivan as one because he's actually pretty nice."
"I guess, who do you think it is?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. I don't even think it's anyone we're inviting over." He admitted.
"I agree."
"Oh, speaking of inviting people over, Trevor's offered to help us with the holding."
"Tell him we'd love the help."
"Glad you said that, because I already told him he could come over." I shook my head at his silliness. "By the way, did you see the new post Levi made?"
"The same note?"
"You bet, but there's also something new."
"Something new?"
"Yeah, a time, 11:15. You thinking the same thing I'm thinking about that?"
"I hope that's not 11:15 today."
"Probably not, they still have more suspects to hack."
"I really want to believe you're right."
"You should do that more often."

It was strange not being around the interrogation tree at recess, but it was nice to be hanging out with Grace and Alice again. "I'm betting it's Johnny Walters." Grace said as we roamed the field.
"I still think it's Vironika Filipov." Alice put in.
"I guess we'll find out tonight." Grace's words make both Gerald and I stop in our tracks.
"What do you mean we'll find out tonight?" He questioned.
"We're invited to this holding thing, right?" Grace clarified.
"Um..." He was trying not to be rude, but Grace and Alice aren't exactly the best people to have around during a serious situation. Luckily Alice bailed him out of saying it,
"We should leave this to them."
"Huh, ok. Just don't forget to tell us how things unfold."
"For sure." I promised.