My Teacher is History

Chapter 7 - Home Sweet Home

I tossed my backpack into the corner of the front entryway in my house and trudged into the kitchen. There was no sign of Mom, but a lasagna was cooling on the counter. There was a note in front of it:

I had to go out to a business dinner. I hope you had a great first day! Enjoy the lasagna!

Love, Mom

“All right,” I said out loud, “this is getting ridiculous.” The huge burger I had for lunch, combined with the crazy events of the afternoon, made sure I didn’t have much of an appetite. I was sure I would have some later, though. Mom’s lasagna is amazing.

I decided to start my homework. I rooted through the desk and file cabinet in the den until I found graph paper and a small ruler. Then I got my Kindle and started downloading the books on my reading list for English.

Kelli texted me:

What happened to you? I was waiting after school.

I had to get out of there. Something happened.

What? OMG you didn’t go see that teacher did you?

I just let it sit. I couldn’t reply because she was right. If I had listened to her, I wouldn’t have been in this mess. I opened my laptop and started to open Facebook. Kelli was online. I closed the lid of the computer and pushed it away.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Are you ignoring me?

Yes, I thought. Yes, I am.

I didn’t want to be like that, but I couldn’t admit to her that I had gone to see Mr. Harris. She would never believe me if I told her what I overheard them saying, either. Or else she would say, “There has to be a logical explanation.” I just wasn’t in the mood just yet.

I decided I needed a bath. I needed something to calm my nerves. I turned the hot water on in the big jacuzzi tub in my mom’s bathroom. I lit the vanilla-scented candles she had around the edge. I even poured those bath salts in. I went downstairs while the tub was filling and made some chamomile tea. Then I retreated to the sanctuary. I turned the lights off and slid into the warm embrace of the tub.

*          *          *

There was darkness all around me. I couldn’t see or hear anything. I was cold. I felt an invisible hand pushing me down. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I realized that I was drowning, or rather, that someone was drowning me! I felt icy hands around my neck. I looked through the surface of the water and saw a large, hulking figure over me. I couldn’t see the face - it was all blurry and shadowy. And then I awoke. I was coughing and sputtering in the tub which was now ice cold. I must have fallen asleep. The candles had burned out and there was darkness outside the windows of the bathroom.

Freezing, I put my robe on and went downstairs to see if my mom had returned from her dinner yet. She hadn’t, so I warmed up some lasagna and checked my phone. Six missed calls, all from Kelli. I texted her back:

Sorry. I just freaked out. Come over I have lasagna.

Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It was Kelli, and she had brought a bottle of Pepsi. I heated a plate for her and we started to talk about the first day of school.

“I’m telling you, there’s something strange going on,” I said. “Look, I know you told me not to, but...”

“I know,” she interrupted. “I figured you would go over there anyway. So what happened?”

“It was so weird! He and this junior were talking in his room. I think the lights were out or off or broken or something, because it seemed really dark. I listened in on them, but I think he caught me.”

“What were they saying?”

“He said something like ‘Nobody can find out,’ and ‘I don’t want any more bloodshed’. It was totally freaky. I think he’s a killer, I’m telling you.”

“That could be anything,” she said.

Here we go, I thought, and I must have rolled my eyes because Kelli could tell what I was thinking.

“You need to look for reasonable explanations, Amber,” she said. “You can’t go around jumping to conclusions about serial killers in the school. That’s silly.”

Again, I knew she was right, but the conversation was so strange, I couldn’t help but think badly about him. And what was the girl’s involvement?

“Okay,” I said. “You’re probably right.”

“Amber, I know I’m right. But if it makes you feel any better, we’ll check it out, okay?”

Wow. I was stunned. I knew if I wanted her help, I would have to take it easy from now on. Maybe she would see enough to convince her to dig deeper. Then we could find out what was really going on.

“Yeah, so what was up with the police being there today?” I asked.

“I still don’t know,” Kelli said. “We need to check out the Web.”

We opened up my laptop and Kelli signed in to Twitter. She typed #carverhigh and clicked the search button. I saw hundreds of results come up, from students “tweeting” about their first day, to teachers assigning homework to coaches posting motivational quotes. I had never really gotten into Twitter, but I could see the appeal. It was a great way to find out information. This was going to be a useful tool.

“Here,” she said. “A tweet from LunaGrl17. ‘Sorry for the scare today guys i had a razor in my bookbag for my scrapbook and the teacher saw it and freaked out.’” Kelli’s jaw just sort of dropped. “Really? That’s it? Wow, remind me not to bring any art supplies to school. I’ll probably get shot down by the police! All right, I’m following this weird girl.”

From the little profile picture, the girl looked familiar. It looked a lot like the girl I had seen with Mr. Harris today, but I didn’t dare say anything to Kelli. We were investigating together and I didn’t want to ruin that right off the bat.

“So, I should sign up for one of these,” I said.

“Great!” Kelli guided me through the setup process. We chose “Amberlicious305” for my user name. We picked a profile picture that didn’t really show my face because she thought I would get stalkers. I laughed at the thought of someone stalking me. I followed “Kelliisgr8” and even followed the weird girl. Kelli followed me, too, and I made my first “tweet:”

Solving the meaning of life, one mystery at a time.

I was pretty happy about that. Kelli immediately “retweeted” me, which I had no idea what that meant. She said it was like quoting someone. It meant you liked what they had to say. I followed @Pepsi, @onedirection, and @ConanOBrien just for fun. I got so caught up in tweeting and retweeting, I forgot about life’s mysteries for a while. I even forgot Kelli was there. We just sat in my room playing with the Twitter app on our phones for what turned out to be hours. It was getting late, and we had our second day of school tomorrow, so we would have to turn in. Kelli left on her bike, and I locked up. Mom still hadn’t come home yet. Must have been a good meeting. I set the alarm, got into my nightie, and crawled into the cool sheets.

I was drifting off gently into sleep. It was just past midnight when I was jarred awake.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The phone on my nightstand vibrated loudly. I looked over at it and saw I had a Twitter notification. I slid the unlock to see what it said.

@Vamp_tchr is now following you.