Crazy Enough...

Chapter 5

When I came to Wickerby, I imagined a fresh start. It was a smallish town, so I thought of a quiet simple life. What I never thought of, was just days after my arrival a girl, whom I've never met, going missing then turning up dead four days later.

The vice principal, Mr. Shaun, interrupted Mr. Vlazen lesson once more that Friday morning. The new kid rush never came, for people's minds were on Lauryn, but sometimes, they weren't even on that. But she was brought back to our attention all of the sudden on that not so cheerful day.

"I am afraid I have some terrible news. Early this morning, Lauryn Hommes, was found dead by suicide in the woods on the edges of town. Our thoughts are with the Hommes family, my condolences to those who knew her," Mr. Shaun's head went down after this announcement.

The class was still as silent tears streaked down some faces. No one spoke a word, and I'm sure that some were holding their breath. Even though I didn't know her, I felt my own tears well up. Nothing wanted to be said, but everything needed to be said, and this seemed like the one time that what we wanted overpowered what we needed. I choked down my tears, and looked around the room. Everyone's eyes were looking to the floor, Mr. Shaun had left, but he hadn't taken the horridness of his words with him.

Mr. Vlazen didn't continue his lecture, but rather sat at his desk staring at his hands. Most of the class left, to go where, I didn't know. I got up eventually and sat in the caf. There was where a substantial portion of the school was, some of them crying. Everyone sat with their friends, not raising their voices beyond a quiet murmur. I sat alone, and simply looked around.

There was a group of people crying at a table near me, I figured that they were her friends. What bothered me however, was the fact that while they were all sobbing, they were also on their phones. It was like being hit with a brick of realization on how my generation was so attached to phones and social media.

"Hey, you shouldn't be sitting alone," it was Jaxon.

"Why?" I asked, I floated around a lot, generally sitting with Toby, Ria, Jaxon and them, but I sat alone sometimes too.

"Someone killed himself, everyone's on top of mental health. If you want to stay out of a psychiatric ward, you'll come with me," he smiled a sweetly painful smile.

He lead me to the usual group, only now it wasn't cheerful. I looked across the caf and saw Cecei sitting by herself, her mass of hair like a privacy curtain locking out the entire world.

"Hey, maybe we should invite Cecei to sit with us, she's all alone over there," I pointed across the caf and everyone at the table looked at me in disbelief.

"No way," Kaitlynn spoke so firmly, it startled me.

"Why not? You invited me over here, why not her?" I was so confused.

"She was mean to Kait when she first came here," Liam said looking longingly at Kaitlynn.

"But she seems so nice," I was even more confused now.

"People aren't always who you think they are, ever been stabbed in the back?" Kaitlynn asked me abruptly. I thought back to and ex best friend.

"Yeah, once or twice," I was only getting more confused.

"Feels bad right? Well the only thing worse, is being stabbed in the front, especially when you don't see it coming. Man, oh man, she had me wrapped around her finger, leading me, then one day, BAM, right in the heart. I was so busy watching my back, that I forgot to look right in front of myself. Now I have people to watch my back, so I can look forward," she smiled weakly, at least her story had a mostly happy ending.