Complicated (Dylan O'Brien/Jack Johnson/Luke Hemmings fanfic)

Chapter 10

AUTHORS NOTE:

SORRY IF ANYONE WAS CONFUSED ABOUT THE CHAPTER STUFF!! I JUST THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD LOOK CLEANER IF I PUT THE BEGINNING CHAPTERS TOGETHER INSTEAD OF SEPARATED. OK ENJOY:)))

ARIAS POV

I was working on an assignment for my journalism class at the park one day when I felt a soft tap against my shoulder. After quickly turning to see who or what it was, I spotted a crumpled piece of paper lying at my feet. No one was near me at that time, so it seemed as if the paper flew out of nowhere.

Curious as to how and why it got there, I cautiously picked it up and unfolded the sheet. It was a letter. A letter addressed to me. Me?

It read:

Aria,

A surprise is waiting for you. Go to the bookstore on Garfield Street in 10 minutes for the next clue. Hurry!

-Anonymous

Well I couldn't waste a good surprise, could I? After quickly gathering all of my things and shoving them back into my backpack, I grabbed my car keys and headed towards the bookstore.

What exactly was this? And who was behind it? I couldn't think of any reason I should be given a surprise for. Was it a good surprise, or a bad one? The inner journalist inside me motivated me to find out the answers.

The bookstore that the note referred to was a dusty shop full of old books and the smell of coffee. I'd actually come there quite often recently. It was a good place to clear my head and focus on writing. I loved finding little nooks like that.

Not really sure what I was supposed to do, I plopped down on a couch and waited for something to happen. I remained like that for a good five minutes before feeling another light tap on my shoulder. I quickly turned around to find the culprit, but a group of people was standing right behind me. It could've been any of them.

Sighing, I picked up the parcel and spread out the edges.

This time it read:

Aria,

Now that you're here, find the place where there is cheer. If you are a sleuth indeed, where exactly would the cheer lead?"

-Anonymous

What? Cheer can't lead anything. Unless... It's not supposed to literally mean that. Putting the two words together says cheerlead. The only place I could think to go that had anything to do with cheerleading was somewhere at Mira Costa High. The football field perhaps?

The drive to the school was a little longer than I anticipated, so I turned up the radio while I tried to ease my urge to solve the mystery. I always listened to old 80s and below songs. I don't know, something about them just seems better than the loud techno rap stuff that they play nowadays. Everyone thought that was weird, but to me, it was the only normal thing to listen to. Excuse me if I don't have the same taste in music as everyone else, but it's a free country and I do what I want.

When I finally pulled into the school parking lot and walked onto the field, there was an eery silence. I wasn't used to this area being so quiet. Normally it was filled with rows and rows of cheering high school students and their parents. Now it was as if the bleachers were all that was left of a once thriving beast. A skeleton that was always present underneath the feet of the hundreds of bodies.

Outside had grown a lot darker since I'd left the park. It was almost completely black outside.

The lights were turned on, which was strange because of how late it was. Our principal was really strict about saving energy and whatnot.