The Secrets of Cedar Creek

7 : The War Room

My Uncle Pete used to run the school newspaper – it became redundant over the last ten years as an online version replaced the paper copy. Now there is no collaboration and a bunch of teachers work on it separately and send it to my Uncle who combines them all together and uploads it to the school website. I think only parents read it now anyways.

"Uncle Pete," I say, sitting on his desk.

"What's up, kid?"

"You know the old newspaper room?"

"Yes?" He tilts his bearded face.

"Do you think my friends and I could use it?" I mentally cross all my fingers and toes. We need a room to collate all our findings – somewhere we can focus our 'investigation' on Paige's suspicious death. If Uncle Pete says no... I guess we could use my old house. I haven't been there since I was eight or so though. It would just be so convenient to have the newspaper room for our war room.

"For what?"

"A group project." I make it seem as innocent as I can.

He takes in a deep breath and purses his lips together, looking up to the ceiling in thought. "Can I trust you to behave yourself?"

"It's not an orgy. It's a... school project."

"Ah." He furrows his brow. "I guess that should be ok then."

The bell rings – ew, first period.

"I'll unlock it for you at break. I trust you, so don't let me down."

"I won't Uncle Pete." I jump off his desk as a few of his students start filling in the classroom. I quickly hug him before running out the room and heading to Mrs. Fiedler's Modern History.

Walking through the halls, I stop by my locker and lazily pull out my books. Familiar voices filter though the halls, echoing and brushing against my ears.

I look around, peaking behind my locker door and see Detective Tallon and Franks walking Avalon into Principal Yo's office. F*ck. This is real. They're really continuing the investigation. There's no conclusive evidence proving it was really an accident. This. Is. Really. Happening.

.

.

.

After what seems like years, the bell for lunch finally rings. Like I told everyone, we meet at the newspaper room – which I have christened 'The War Room'. Like Uncle Pete said, the door is unlocked and I slip in. The room is pretty basic: it's a big rectangular room lined with book cases and one wall features a massive cork board – almost as big as the wall itself. It's completely blank except for a small sticky note pinned on the middle. I walk over to it – feeling a little pretty little liars vibes – and read what's on the note...

Happy project-ing – Uncle Pete

A key is taped onto the note. I rip it off and shove it into my backpack. Within the next five minutes, May, Jackson and Cliff show up, Sylv a bit behind them.

"Where's Avalon?" Jackson says first.

"I saw the detectives that talked to me walking her into Principal Yo's office in the morning. Maybe they're still talking to her?"

"It's been two hours," May says.

"If they're still questioning us it must be serious," Cliff says, running a hand through his curly mouse brown hair. "Like... if they'd found something to prove it was an accident they wouldn't still be investigating."

"So nothing's changed. Her death is still suspicious." I say.

"Where do we even start? How are we supposed to figure this out if paid professionals can't?" May whines.

"May's right. How much are we able to do? We're just students." Cliff agrees.

"We know Paige better than they do," Sylv butts in, standing up firmly. "I don't trust the cops-"

"The police know what they're doing," Cliff says.

"F*ck off, Cliff. Cops know sh*t all and I think Paige deserves more than that," Sylv fires back.

The two of them stand up, firing at eachother. "Well maybe what Paige deserves is to let her rest in peace not digging all this back up-"

"None of you know Paige like I do! None of you. There were a lot of times when I didn't do the right thing for her – a lot of times where I didn't put her first. A lot of times that I regret," Sylv says and looks at me.

My breath catches.

"I'm not letting her down now. For once she deserves the truth and I'm not leaving that to the cops-"

"Just because they couldn't help your mum doesn't mean they can't help Paige," Cliff finishes.

"Enough!" I yell over them. "You know what definitely doesn't help Paige? Fighting. Cliff, maybe you're right. Maybe there's nothing we can do. But maybe I don't like sitting still and I want to figure this out for myself, for my own sanity."

"Me too," Avalon appears in the doorway, leaning onto the wooden frame. "I just spoke to the detectives. But it's true that we know Paige better than they do."

Cliff's expression softens. "Fine. We'll do as much as we can – but if it's dangerous... if somehow digging into this gets us into trouble... we need to drop it immediately. Can we make a deal?"

Everyone forms a circle and puts their fist in the middle – our little group tradition. We all step back.

"So where do we start?" May says condescendingly. "We've decided to play detective: now what?"

"Suspects," Jackson says sarcastically.

"You're right," I say, picking up a marker and walking to the nearby whiteboard on wheels. "Surely we make a list of suspects. We start at the obvious. When you watch murder movies, it's always the husband, the crazy ex-boyfriend or the competition."

"So you're saying I'm a suspect?" Sylv asks flatly.

"Potentially. What about her ex-boyfriend?" I say.

"Hayden?" Avalon looks between Sylv and me sceptically. "Has anyone even seen him since he transferred to Boulevard?"

Everyone changes thoughtful glances.

"I guess he's a good starting point anyways," May says and I write down his name on the board, "who would her competition be?"

"Jess...?" I say it slowly, not wanting the group to send mental daggers at me. "She's the only other student fighting for the top place this year."

After a few tense moments, Avalon says, "Yeah but she wouldn't... kill her."

"May as well put her on the board," Cliff says.

We spend another half hour thinking of possible suspects but hit a dead end.

"So... next point of action?" Jackson says.

"Well where would any investigation start? We need to go back." I say. "I have two places in mind."