Secrets & Lies

Chapter 3

The next day, Amy continued the same old routine of tightening her ponytail, changing, and getting ready. But today, she was not gonna have a morning breakdown. But the news that caused her to feel that way rushed back to her head and made her feel as horrible as ever. She hated dealing with loss. Especially if the person she had lost was the only person who gave her love- her elder sister.

Amy remembered back to the day, two nights ago, when her sister was excitedly running out at midnight to sneak away. Her sister was a little scared of being caught, but happy to give herself more freedom from the confinement of her home.

"I'll be back in an hour, and if you hear Mom or Dad get up, just don't make any noise and try to make sure that they don't get into my room however you can. You got that Amy?" Penny had said.

Amy had nodded, happy for her sister, and received Penny's chirpy "Thanks so much, I'm gonna go now. Bye, love you!" in reply.

"Love you too." Amy had whispered to Penny, but she was already gone.

Love you. Those were the last words that had been said. Amy had stayed awake the whole night, awaiting Penny's arrival to safely escort her without waking up her parents. But when it got late, Amy started to worry. And then at exactly 4 am, her house's landline started ringing loudly. It of course woke her parents, who picked up the phone and received the horrid news that their oldest daughter's body was found dead.

Tears had started to form in Amy's eyes as memories of every laugh shared with her beloved sister shot through her brain. But she stopped herself. Breaking down at school shouldn't happen. She couldn't let it happen.

As Amy entered her Journalism classroom, she noticed, for the first time, a dark haired boy sitting on the opposite corner from Amy's seat. Amy knew he existed, but was too preoccupied to acknowledge him. But today, something felt different. She wanted to go say hi, as his face had the signs of someone struggling to hide a plethora of pain. She would know, she had dealt with that face before, on herself. But she sat down without saying anything. She didn't have the strength to go make a civilized conversation with someone else.

The bell rang, and Ms. Klut walked in. Amy had completely forgot about the fact that they had a substitute. She vaguely recalled Ms. Klut saying something about staying here for a couple weeks- why? Amy was curious- what had happened to her real teacher, Mrs. Ethel? Mrs. Ethel was the nicest person on campus, and Amy really liked her. She was the one who helped Amy develop her love for writing, and influenced her to join journalism to help her write the school newspaper. Although she was solo, Amy didn't mind writing the newspaper all on her own. It was fun, and a good distraction from the chaotic mess that was her life.

Ms. Klut clearing her throat stopped Amy's train of thought. "I'm going to take attendance now, class, please listen for your name." As Ms. Klut's eyes scanned down the paper, she finally reached Amilah, saying her name out loud quickly and moving on.

"Today we are starting a project that is to be done in pairs." Ms. Klut said as the class groaned in unison. "Research current events and write a report, essay, and article on it. This is to provide practice for different types of writing in real-world applications. This event or news or significant occurrence could be local or international, there is no specification. I want to see your journalism skills- how much can you dig? This project is long term so choose wisely."

As she continued with the specifics of the project, people looked around and started signaling towards people they wanted to work with.

"Stop choosing your pairs through hand motions, there's no point since I am partnering you guys up." Ms. Klut said sternly, causing another groan from the whole class.

Ms. Klut called out names. Then suddenly Amy heard Ms. Klut call out "Amilah and... Jaqoub. You guys are partners."