Whispers of the Dead

V

So Amethyst had brought the girl with her. And she had also told her Hope was the one behind the very true gossip. It wasn't difficult at all to see these two things when Amy entered their rooms, the girl from earlier in tow. Amethyst's face was full of guilt, and she was forgetting to shield her thoughts.

I hope she takes it well.

The thoughts of Katie went a little bit like this while she looked at Hope.

How could she possibly do such things? Was Amethyst lying when she said it was her?

Hope closed the book she was reading, placed it before her crossed legs on the duvet and looked at her, head tilted to one side.

"So Amethyst told you?"

Amethyst nodded in her place.

"You were right. This one time, it could be good to expose someone's secrets. She can help us."

Hope was debating whether to be angry at her or to just accept it, but finally, she chose to be happy about it. Katie could give her a lot of details – things people weren't thinking in class. She also thought about answering the girl's unasked question, but she didn't. She got up and strolled over to the chest of drawers pushed between the two beds in the white-painted room. It was pretty wide, separating the beds enough to not be bothered by each other. She opened the top one, picked up her notebook from the neat piles of books stocked there, and closed it again. She felt the two other girls watching her curiously when she walked over to the desk on the right side of the room, facing the bed. She got a pen and returned to her cross-legged position on top of the bed.

'Okay, go on. As much detail as you can master," she said finally.

"Don't be fucking rude," Amethyst hissed, sitting down on her own bed and patting the covers, inviting Katie to come sit next to her.

"Just tell us what you want. We're not going to put any pressure on you."

Hope managed not to huff sarcastically. But Katie smiled sadly at Amethyst and then looked at Hope.

"How do you know you're not going to mention me?"

Hope leaned against the wall.

"You don't. You're going to have to trust me." She wasn't planning on mentioning Katie, though. She didn't know why. Normally, she wouldn't have cared. A good story is a good story.

Amethyst glared at her.

"I will double-check. I promise."

Hope rolled her eyes. Amethyst didn't make it a secret she broke into the blog, but Hope didn't mind. It was more fun that way, and besides, if she changed her password Amethyst would hack it again.

So Katie nodded, and began to talk.

"So... my parents sent me to this school because my grades were so bad. They were really disappointed in me, and I didn't want to anger them further, so I cheated. But then I got caught, and they were even more mad."

Hope didn't think that was important at all, but she did ask, "What's the big deal?"

Katie cringed a bit.

"My sister's super smart, and they are always comparing us. I think they wanted to get rid of me far sooner. I did break a lot of rules of the perfect daughter-rulebook."

People were here for many different reasons. Some had just very busy parents, like Amethyst. Some were problem children. Some had learning disabilities. Some parents just wanted to get rid of their child. Thanks, mom and dad, Hope thought.