Murder at School

What do we do now?

Today marks five days since Brooklyn's murder, and twenty-four hours since Emerald's uncalled for death, yet neither we nor the police have been successful in tracking down the mastermind. I pondered a bit about this over breakfast, and it really shocked me. I can't shake this feeling that Mr. X actually is as smart as they originally thought. What if we never catch them? In all honesty, it's probably going to be someone obvious-in plain sight-yet we somehow overlooked them for some reason.
The weather seemed rather good this morning, and stayed that way all day. At break, we met up as planned; Hartness had brought her notebook and pencil case, and she'd updated the notes.
"Hiya," she called over as Summer and I walked towards her.
"Hiya," we returned the greeting. "Got any further to working out who Mr. X is?"
"Nope, unfortunately not," she sighed, resting her elbow on her knee. "And with no new clues turning up, what are we going to do?"
I sat down, cross-legged opposite her. "I know. I feel like it's so obvious, yet we've missed it."
"So let's go back over all the clues we have so far," suggested Ivy, opening her little box of grapes.
"Like what?" May questioned. "I didn't think we had any."
"Well, I'm suggesting things like how Emerald was killed in the ladies' canteen toilets. Or how she was killed early in the morning. Who was there at that time?"
"Wait wait wait!" Hartness interrupted. "Let me get a pen!" Then she dug around in her pencil case to reveal a blue ball-point pen and wrote a title on the next clean page in her book.

"Okay, so Mr. X is probably a Miss. X, and they have to have gotten here early yesterday. Anything else?" Hartness listed.
"They must've been menacing, or at least intimidating enough for Emerald to not fight back. They made her carry out the first murder, after all. There were no clear signs of a struggle, either, almost as if she gave in and accepted her death," I thought aloud, and everyone agreed. "As for the timing, my guess is that Emerald was murdered around 7:10."
"Yeah, if so, I doubt anyone in my form were at school at that time. I was still in bed then!" Alex said, very matter-of-factly.
"So, who do we know was here yesterday, really early?" April questioned, putting her hair up for PE in a high ponytail. "Vesper and Camilla always get here first, since Vesper's parents work early and offer both of them a lift." Hartness nodded in agreement.
"Madison was here for some reason when I arrived, but I'm usually first," Melody told us.
"I arrived late," Ivy commented.
"So did I," Summer added, turning to face me.
"Tazmin and Saffron were here early, as usual-they do so so that they can wind people up as they come in," I explained, thinking back to that morning with all my concentration. Then I remembered. "And they knew Emerald had gone to the canteen toilets."
"Well, I guess we know who it was then," Ivy said, plainly.
"Sounds like it," Hartness agreed. "How else would those two know?"
"To be fair, Emerald did hang out with them-why, god knows-but it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine her telling them everything," Summer reasoned. Is she defending Tazmin and Saffron? "We're going for all possibilities, and we'd still need cast-iron proof anyway, right?" We nodded: it was true. But how would we get that proof? I wondered.
"Besides, it still could still be almost anyone else. We don't definitely know a form, not even a year group," Hartness thought aloud, and we all let that sink in.
For a few minutes, we all sat in an awkward silence either thinking or glancing round at each other, which just added to the awkwardness. Cheers from one of the teams playing football arose as one of them scored a goal. In the trees, birds sang lively tunes, which contrasted from the mood of our group.
Eventually, I gathered we'd all had enough of the silence, and was about to change the topic, when Melody piped up. "In case you didn't hear, Tazmin's parents are considering moving to Canada-we won't have to put up with her!" she said, before we all cheered and laughed. Guess we're just going to have a bit of fun, I thought. We deserve it, after all.
"When did you hear this?" Alex asked, shuffling further out of the shade as a breeze picked up.
"All the girls are talking about it!" she reported, as I noticed more than ever just how much she liked to gossip. "Most of them are saying about how sad it'll be to see her go, but I honestly feel it can't be soon enough!"
"Shame it's not both of those pests," Summer sighed. "Now that would be a dream come true!"
"When are they going?" I enquired, brushing down my skirt and picking up the packet of mini biscuits in my lunchbox.
"Unfortunately, despite her parents wish to leave at the end of this term, Tazmin and her little sister (who is a polar opposite to her, I might add) 100 percent against it. Since they bow to that brat-of-a-child, they've chosen to stay. Or at least, for now. Apparently they've claimed that the only reason they're staying is Tazmin's education here, but everyone knows the truth."
"That's a shame," I sighed. "But at least there's a chance." Murmurs surrounded me, most of which were in agreement.
Then the five-minute bell rang out, echoing from the buildings across to where we were sat. I reluctantly packed away my stuff: the bell was our signal back to reality, where Tazmin was still here.
"Guess we'll meet up again later," I stated. "As for now, just keep your eyes and ears open, yeah?" Everyone nodded in reply as we slowly parted and headed separate ways across the field...