Unnamed

Daniel

"What do you get when you mix fun and blood?"

"I don't know."

"A flood of great activities."

"More like a terrible smell and a bunch of work. You guys are going to clean it up, right?" Maddie, one of the most popular girls in the school, asks. She flicks her hair behind her shoulder in an attempted hair-flip.

"I'll take a stab at it," I reply with a soft smile.

"Ugh, you'd better! The whole place reeks now. I'm running out of smelly hand sanitizer." She throws down an empty bottle of 'I donut care' hand sanitizer.

"I donut care! that's great! because it smells like donuts!" I fall over laughing. "It's even funnier because I donut care about your midlife 'crisis'!"

She gives me an appalled look before storming off.

"That was kinda rude," This guy named Asher says.

"Eh, she was kinda begging for it," I reply. "but, I will apologize when she gets back." I hate to admit that I feel kinda bad.

"I see your point." Asher just shrugs.

"You're all missing my point! We have to stop James! This is more than some stupid football prank!" Millie says, storming into the room. I can feel the entire group rolling their eyes. "I'm serious! It has to be James! He's the only one it could be!"

"Explain your reasoning, fair maiden!" Shakespeare geek, Mercutio, says.

"Okay, I will! Did you see how mad he got when I accused him earlier?" She says angrily.

"I'd get pretty mad if someone accused me," I say.

"Yeah, but I'm not accusing you, Daniel! You're too nice!"

"Awwww! Thanks! I try," I smile at her, but she doesn't smile back.

"Look, James doesn't stay with the group. He gets worked up easily. Did any of you notice his lack of terror when he saw the dead body? Any of you!" She points dramatically at each of us. "No? really?!"

We all stay silent. I barely even know James. I wasn't paying attention to him earlier.

"Sorry, Millie... That's not substantial evidence..." This girl, Saskia, says.

"It's substantial to me! You don't realize how horrible he is! James is a terrible, lying, awful human-being!" She looks around at us all. her eyes meet mine. "Come on Daniel! You of all people should believe me!"

"Millie, I'm sorry, but James isn't responsible for the budget cuts. You shouldn't take your anger out on him for what he can't control," I get up and smile a little more. "You know it's probably not his fault. What would he have to gain from killing us, random lowlifes?"

"I... He has to be behind it! Who else...?"

"I don't know, but we can't dwell on that. We're stronger together than apart."

She softens her expression for a moment. "Okay. Fine. I agree with your commands. I guess we stick together now."

"Yup!" She smiles a little, so I smile more.

"Thanks. I'm going to go do English homework." She pulls out a sparkly folder with 'English' written on the front in nice cursive. She goes into the corner and starts writing something.

"Hey." James and Cecelia enter the room. James looks at Millie with a slight disgust.

"I'm out!" Millie shouts.