One for the Team

18| after

In the middle of a prairie, students of Northwoods High sit in a circle, smoking weed under the afternoon sun. It's the weekend, and they should probably be studying for their exams, but no one can focus on school when there's a murderer on the loose.

"Everyone had a reason to do it, if you really think about it," one of the boys says. He sits up on the grass and takes a drag of his joint.

"That's ridiculous," the girl laying her head on his lap says.

"I don't think it matters that they a reason for it," another girl offers. "It's not like whoever did it will go to court and say oh, but I had a reason for it, so I guess I'm good, right?"

"That's not what I'm saying. I just think if they find catch the killer, they have to think about the why, which is fucking hard, to say the least, because everyone –"

"Again, that's ridiculous," the girl on his lap says again. "It really just sounds like you're victim blaming."

"I'm not!" the boy says, passing her the joint.

"We don't even know if it was a murder," the other girl goes on, flickering the ashes of her own joint onto the empty box of greasy pizza laid on the grass next to her. "Don't you guys watch the news?"

"It was a head trauma, right?" someone else says. "That's how he died."

"Exactly. It could have been an accident."

"So you're saying the body was buried in the woods by accident?"

"No, what I'm saying is, it doesn't really matter why someone would want him dead. The question is, who would want to hide the body?"

"Okay, so you're stupid," a different boy joins in. "Everyone would bury the fucking body. What exactly do you think jail is like?"

"It was a head trauma!" she says. "It could have just been an accident, but they were so scared to go to jail that they just buried the body instead."

"Or maybe they just fucking killed him," someone else says.

"Yeah, maybe."