New Ways

SIXTEEN

Sigrid

The door creaked open and Amery stepped into the meeting room. It was Thursday and we were about fifteen minutes away from our weekly meeting. Mr O'Neille and the other committee commissioners had not arrived yet. Jean-Pierre came about a few minutes after I did, which was about twenty minutes ago. He left the room again to get a soda from the vending machine but hasn't returned since. It was now just Amery and I in the room.

"Still hurts?" I gave Amery a quick glance as she slowly lowered herself into the leather chair beside me and winced when her butt finally landed on the seat.

"Mind your own business," she replied in an annoyed tone, probably thinking that I was silently gloating over her mishap.

I shrugged. "Sure."

"What are you drawing?" Amery craned her neck so that she could get a better view of my sketchbook. The irony, I thought.

"Chicken nuggets," I said casually while lightly shading the shadows of the mountains that I was drawing. Her laughter echoed the whole room and I snapped my head in her direction in shock. Was this girl really... laughing? Was I hearing things?

Amery shook her head as her laughter subsided. Realising that I was gawking at her, she cleared her throat and said, "What I meant was, ha ha! Very funny, Sigrid."

Okay, perhaps I was really hearing things. Either that or this girl was just mental. I was in trouble either way.

The commissioners started entering the room one by one. Jean-Pierre finally returned, with a soda for me too. I noticed Amery eyeing the can of soda in front of me, her expression furious. She must be mad that she hadn't gotten one from Jean-Pierre. It took all the willpower I had not to break into a smile.

Amery kickstarted the meeting with the agenda for the day. We started with the exchange of reports regarding the preparation for this Saturday's freshman ball. After the respective commissioners had listed down the tasks that they have completed and a few getting told off by Amery for not completing theirs, we transitioned into the possible activities that we could include in the school's 20th anniversary event. Derek got his LGBT campaign rejected again and I heard Jean-Pierre letting out a disappointed sigh beside me.

"Alright, team, time for open discussions!" I chirped, finally taking my turn to start another part of the meeting. "Any other matters in Parmont that any of you think we should attend to? Anything concerning?"

Yuko, commissioner of the International and Transfer Students committee, raised her hand nervously.

"Yes, Yuko?" I smiled and gestured for her to begin.

"I feel that we should tackle the Cellphone Stalker threat," she said timidly. "I have received some complaint letters and emails from a few international and transfer students saying that their phones went missing suddenly. And all incidents happened here-"

"If it is a thief they want to nab, they should go to the police," Amery interrupted. "We don't have time for this. Besides, if they were rich enough to come and study here in Parmont, they should be able to afford a new phone. No big deal. Next."

I glared at her impatiently, actually interested in hearing more of what Yuko has to say. "Amery, when other people talk we should wait until they finish before we express our opinions on the matter. It goes a long way. Now go on, Yuko. We are listening."

Yuko continued on how it wasn't just a theft situation but how it was actually an act of motive, observing the fact that the victims had a similar profile - that they were all female students who was a certain kind of leader eg. Mikayla, captain of the cheerleader squad; Rayna, leader of the debate club etc. The girls get their phones stolen for up to three days and then mysteriously gets them back in their mailbox. Yuko added that the girls were worried about their privacy being leaked, but so far the Cellphone Stalker has not done anything of that sort yet.

"I'll look into it," I said as I felt Amery's piercing glare land on me.