It's Raining Blood and Revenge

····The Prefect····

····The Prefect····

   "Another A, Winter? You're on a roll! Keep this up and you'll be looking at the face of Harvard or something!" Mr. Houndstooth said and flashed his sharp fangs. I jumped back with caution. He was like a talking Sasquatch that taught science. Wow.

   "Thanks." I simply said. He chuckled and put his hands to his mouth to think about something, then looked at me.

   "I've been noticing lately," he said. I raised my eyebrows. "You've been hanging out with those juniors and seniors lately. They look pretty shady." he said. I flared my eyes at him. Was he talking about my friends? Oh HELL NO.

   "I'll have you know, Mr. Houndstooth, my friends are not shady. They're nice, sociable... well, some of them are--and most importantly they're smart. Probably even smarter than me. So I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't call them shady." I snapped. Mr. Houndstooth glared at me for a split-second, which looked like an angry bear/ dog/ tiger/ lion that was in front of me. I felt my heart skip a whole river when he looked at me.

   "Are you sure about that?" he growled and left the room. I gulped and was frozen stiff. What kind of grudge did he have against them? It's not like they did anything wrong.

***

   "You got detention?!" Mallory screamed at Damian. I jumped. I didn't even know she got back until two seconds ago. She had a bandage around her head and as always, she was yelling at the top of her lungs.

   "Why?" Charlie asked. "What did you do?"

   "I..." Damian paused and looked around the lunchroom. "I got into a fight."

   "With who? The fucking president?" Mallory muttered. Damian scowled. I've never seen him look so... messed up, I suppose you could say. There wasn't a word in my dictionary that could describe his many expressions. He looked irritated, and angry, and disappointed for all unknown reasons.

   "Shouldn't you be glad he's not hurt?" Charlie asked. Mallory grimaced and started poking at her salad. Charlie turned to Jason and he looked at her. They stared at each other for a while, which made me blush at their intense eye contact. Charlie opened her mouth to speak, but she closed her mouth and shook her head. "Nevermind..." she muttered. Jason looked at me and gave me a strange look. Like, 'what the he'll was that?'. I shrugged.

   "Oh yeah," I said. "I heard you're parents are back in town, Charlie." I changed the subject. She grimaced and stuck out her tongue.

   "They changed like, three races when they were in South America. Its so weird." she scoffed.

   "South America? What the hell are they doing in South America?" Mallory asked.

    Charlie opened her mouth to answer, but Jason beat her to it. "They own a coffee business." he said. Mallory, Damian, and I all raised our eyebrows and gave each other sneaky looks.

   "Wow, you guys are making me blush." Damian said. The two gave him a weird look.

   "What?" they said in unison.

   "C'mon guys, you're making me so envious..." I cupped my cheeks. They gave me the same expression.

   "Forreals. I'm getting sick of your lovey-doveyness. Its contagious." Mallory gagged.

   "Lovey-doveyness?"

***

   It was Charlie, Jason, Jeffrey, and I that were together at Jeffrey's house. It was weird. I've only been in his house once and as usual, it was energetic and warm. I saw Jeffrey's younger sister, Joy sitting lazily on the couch while she watch the final episode of 'The Bachelor'. I waved to her, even though she didn't see me.

   "Joy, we'll be in my room." Jeffrey said. Joy looked over and her eyes widened. She sat up and brushed the crumbs of chips of of her chest.

   "Holy shit! I didn't think you were having people over!" she said flustered. Jeffrey laughed as we entered his room. It smelled like him. A natural outdoor smell. Like pine cones or whatnot. It smelled very nice. Jeffrey sat on his bed and I stood next to him. Charlie and Jason stood by the door.

   "I guess Mallory and Damian won't be joining us." Jason said. We all shrugged. Mallory had decided to get detention with Damian just in case something happened. I mean, what could happen during detention?

   "Anyways, moving on," Charlie said and pulled out a yellow folder. She pulled out the contents, which were pictures taken of Beatrice Sylvester. She was wearing a trench coat and was passing something to another bystander behind a dark alley. It was it was about evening in the picture and there weren't many people around, so I was curious to how Charlie took these pictures without getting caught.

   "What are they doing?" I asked.

   "Passing information, I guess." Jason said. Jeffrey chuckled and crossed his legs.

   "Or drugs," he muttered. I punched him in the arm. Charlie sighed and rubbed between her eyes in frustration.

   "Its so obvious that I can't even laugh," Charlie growled. She pointed to the man in the alley. His face was darkened out. "This photo was taken last night. I stumbled across them on accident while I was grabbing a snack and snagged a photo of them. I don't know who this man is, but he surely has something to do with the murder. Shit... he could be the murderer."

   Jeffrey grumbled in frustration and fell back on his bed. Jason took the photo and examined it carefully. He looked around the photo and looked back at Charlie.

   "I have two statements. First of all, your camera quality sucks," he said. I chuckled but Charlie glared at me. "Second of all," he pointed to the specific part of the picture. It was a red, neon sign that was blurred out because of the Charlie's poor camera quality. "This is outside of Remington, in a place called the 'Red Zone'. It's where those latent criminals hang out." he said. I gasped. There were two things wrong with that. It meant that there was illegal activity going on with Beatrice Sylvester, and the other...

   "What are you doing at a place like that, Charles?" Jeffrey blurted out. We all looked at him with surprise. Did he read my mind? Jason looked at Charlie with an exasperated expression.

   "Charlie, are you..."

   "How dare you?!" she snapped. I jumped back and so did Jeffrey, but Jason stared her down. "I don't know what you're implying, but I said I was there on coincidence. So don't you go jumping to conclusions, you hear me?" she was angry. Super angry. Like... she-hulk angry. Her face was red and her eyes were bulging out of her sockets. But I saw a little sadness in her eyes. She clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes. "I can't believe you..." she was choking back tears.

   "Charlie, I just want to figure this thing out. What were you doing at a place like this?!" Jason screamed. Jeffrey tugged my sleeve and I looked back. He had a concerned look on his face and cocked his head to the door. Jeffrey led me outside and entered the dining room.

   "Those two will have to figure out that problem on their own. Lets try not to get in their way, okay?" he said. I squeezed his hand and he looked up at me. "What are you thinking?"

   "They're way too stressed. Doesn't it seem like Charlie is digging in way too into this? What if she gets hurt? Why is she so desperate to figure this out?" I asked Jeffrey. He shrugged and placed his hand over mine.

   "I'm sure Charles has her reasons. And I know the reason why they're fighting right now is because Jason is worried about her, so just let them figure something out." he reassured me. I nodded and we sat in the living room for the longest time ever. Then, the door to Jeffrey's room opened and Charlie stormed out. She had tears running down her face and she was wiping them away furiously. She ran out of Jeffrey's house and soon, Jason walked out. He had a sad look on his face--almost guilty and regret.

   "What happened in there?" I asked. Jason gulped and ran his hand through his hair. He made a shaky breath and tears brimmed his eyes.

   "It looks like.... we 'broke up'... I guess."