Murder at School

The code

As Summer and I walked towards English, I began to feel really sick. My stomach ached and hurt with every step, so Summer escorted me to the support room.
The support room is this colourful, friendly alternate universe within the school; the amazing teachers do the best job at making everyone feel welcome. I don't spend much time there, but I get on well with the support teachers. Inside, Mr Rogers was playing Uno with Tazmin. What's she doing here? I thought as Mr Rogers came over.
"Christmas!" he exclaimed. "What's wrong?" I explained and he showed me to a seat round the table by the window and handed me a glass of water. Summer said goodbye and left to get to English on time.
"Want to join in?" Mr Rogers asked, although I could tell it was more of a request, since Uno's better with more people.
"Sure," I beamed back, clutching my stomach slightly. He shuffled the cards, then proceeded to deal them.
"What's wrong with you?" Tazmin asked, clearly pretending she hadn't heard what I'd said literally five minutes ago.
"It's kinda like I have a really bad stitch..." I began, hoping to drag the story on for as long as possible as to bore her into surrendering, "...mixed with a tummy ache. Whenever I move it hurts...sometimes more than others, and sometimes in different places, for example..."
"I get the point," she interrupted; my plan had clearly worked. I picked up the cards that had been laid out in front of me: red three and five; green switch and zero; blue seven and one; blue seven and switch colour.
"You can start, Christmas," Mr Rogers stated, turning over the middle card: blue three. I placed my blue seven on top of it, where upon Tazmin put a blue switch card. "Hey," Sir exclaimed. "Let me have a go!"
A few minutes passed before I could shout "uno!" The only card left in my hand was the switch colour card, but I wasn't allowed to play it because Mr Rogers played the yellow 'skip a go' card, and I had to forfeit my turn; I won on my next go.
We played a few rounds until Tazmin decided she'd had enough. I looked at the clock above the door; it read 12:25, fourth period was starting. Art. Tazmin had moved away from the desk and pulled a reading book out, and the title took me aback: The Murder Mysteries. I've heard about that book-a serial killer going around a school. But the way they're killed was what choked me up. Their throats are slit. Just like Emerald.
I shook my head and returned my train of thought to what I was doing. Being careful not to rip it, I removed the coded letter from my bag and unfolded it on the table.
Nearly half an hour passed before I could really concentrate on it, and then I noticed that all the words end 'ay'. I started with istmasChray, deleted the 'ay' and stared at istmasChr until I realised: it was Christmas! It made sense because it was written like a letter addressed to me, with a comma after my name. So I took the word Iyay and took off the 'ay' and got Iy. That can't be right, I sighed.
"What've you got there?" Mr Rogers questioned as I sat, hunched over the page.
"My friend just wrote me a letter, as a sort of quiz, in code," I lied. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Tazmin quickly glance at me from behind her book. "Unfortunately, I don't have a clue what the code is."
"Can I be of assistance?" he bowed, mimicking a butler and causing me to stifle a laugh as he sat down, and gently rotated the paper so that he could see. "istmasChray, Iyay osay orrysay..." He mumbled to himself, before looking up at me. "Have you tried pig latin?"
"What's that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's not really a code, but it's a way of disguising what you're saying. I read about it as a child: I was obsessed with spy novels! What you do is you take your word, let's say 'hello' and you move all the consonants before the first vowel to the end of the word, so e-l-l-o-h. Then, you add ay to the end, because it began with a consonant originally. If it was a word, say 'orange', then you add 'yay' to the end because the word begins with a vowel.  You follow?" I nodded.
"So Iyay would be I?" I scribbled this down.
"Yep, you got it!"
I smiled. "Okay, thanks. I can do the rest." He began to walk away, and I continued to work my way through the text. Amyay...take the yay...am. osay...take the ay...so. orrysay...sorry. I looked at my sheet: Christmas, I am so sorry.
Sorry about what? I thought. Sorry for the murder? But she already apologised.
I continued with the decoding. Iyay...I. idday otnay...did not. antway otay oday ityay...want to do it. I did not want to do it. I already knew all this-is this a waste of time?
The next line was: utbay Iyay adhay onay oicechay. But I had no choice. Now she's going to develop that? I hoped. I sensed some movement behind me and twisted my neck to see what it was about. Tazmin stood towering over me, her eyes wide.
"Where'd you get that?" she asked, half whispering.
"A friend gave me it," I lied again, and she went away.
Iay asway orcedfay otay: I saw-no-was forced to. I know! I screamed in my head. By who?! The bell rang, signalling the start of lunch. Tazmin rushed off, saying something about feeling much better.
byay otway iendsfray...by two friends-finally. But she has so many. ofyay omwhay Iyay atedhay-of whom I hated. Wait, is that-
easePlay earclay myay amenay. Emeraldyay xx please clear my name. Emerald xx.
I dropped my pen and rushed out of the door after Tazmin without my bag.
It'd been them...