Miss Hawkridge

one

She skipped around, laughing at the antics of the boy beside her, before she walked ahead.

"Catch me if you can, Wesley," she teased him. He laughed.

"I always will, Tess," he smiled to himself, jogging after her.

The winter sun was shining low and bright, as they reached the tree on the edge of the field, which seemed bent under the weight of something, forming a dark silhouette against the snow laden on its branches. The girl furrowed her eyebrows and squatted to examine the ground. She let out a blood curdling scream when she realised the drops of blood spattered on the snow were from the body of an animal weighing down the branch of the tree.

§

"Mrs. Keatings, I can't let go of the club. It is my everything," the girl frowned. Mrs. Keatings studied the girl.

She had long, untamed auburn locks, with disarrayed uniform and pleading eyes through her glasses.

"Liv, sit down," Mrs. Keatings told her, " Listen to me, Liv, without enough members, I can't allow you to continue on with the club, the school's rules don't allow it."

Liv stared at the woman with a tight bun, a conservative dress and a frown dressing her face.

"But I do have a member, Alaric Wilder," Liv reminded her.

"That just makes only two of you, Liv. I can't help you unless you can get more member on board until the end of the month. If you can't have at least five members, the school will not allow you to continue with your club, and that's the end of that, I don't want to hear about this anymore. Go back to your class," Mrs. Keatings gestured towards the door. Liv grumbled, as she let herself out.

"What'd she say?" The boy sitting on the chairs outside Mrs. Keatings room stood up and asked, his hands gripped on the strap of his bag.

"She said we have get at least five people in our club before the end of this month otherwise it'll be discontinued," Liv sighed, "What do we do, Ric?" The duo began walking down the hallway.

"That means we have to get three more members to join us," Alaric said, before adding, "which would have been easier if your club was at least about something important."

"Hey, solving mysteries and indulging in mystery books is important," Liv protested.

"Yes, so important. The only problem is, most people want to join clubs which are actually productive," Alaric replied. "Plus, this is Hawkridge High School. The only thing remotely mysterious about this place is who would ever marry Dean Graves."

"I know what you're trying to say, Ric, but, this is everything I've always wanted to do. Solving mysteries, becoming the next Sherlock Holmes-"

"Except you turn out to be worse than Nancy Drew. Sorry," Alaric smiled.

Liv gave him a dirty look, before continuing, "The point is, I'm someone this place needs, and I'm going to be prove it."

"How exactly are we going to do that? We don't even have any other friends whom we can bribe to join," Alaric joked.

"Point noted, but, there was a report of a dead dog on one of the trees at the end of the field, with blood all over the place," Liv smiled.

"And, how exactly do you know this?" Alaric raised an eyebrow.

"Tess told me. She's the one who found it," a small smile played at her lips.

"Wait, what has dead dog got to do with any of this?" Alaric asked.