Greenwood (DISCONTINUED: BEING REMADE)

Chapter 5: Christmas Lights

Melody's life had completely changed since she came to Greenwood. She was expecting a normal school but instead got a psychic best friend, a world renowned celebrity, a rude rockstar in the making, a quiet mysterious girl in the back of the class and the most popular first year as friends. Once she thought about it, Sami and Charlie were her only normal friends. Add that into the mix along with a murder case, a suspicious teacher and some drama and you've got an amazing replica of her new school life fresh out the oven. But now it was December. Not only did Melody have a good excuse for wearing Christmas jumpers and elf socks all of the time, the entire school was festive too and they had a new school uniform for winter. Instead of a green cardigan or suit jacket with the school logo, you wore either a nice jumper with the logo, a green sweater vest or a nice warm hoodie with the logo. Melody decided to wear the jumper to stay cosy. She walked out of her dorm room to see what everything looked like.

The entire school hall was covered in christmas lights and had 'snow' on the windows. The notice board was filled with posters for in and out of school winter events like a skiing competition and an arts and crafts event in the art club room. There was also going to be an acting company coming in to do a Macbeth performance, which Melody found a bit weird because they were in December. There was going to be a Christmas fair next week too. Maybe Mr Bianchi wouldn't kill somebody this month, it is Christmas after all. Even if Mr Bianchi wasn't the killer, Melody hoped they'd spare their next victim for the sake of holiday cheer. Today was a weekend at Greenwood, so they only had two classes before lunch and they were free to do as they pleased. Melody was sitting down with Charlie on a bench in the school hallway and they were eating a turkey sandwich for their lunch.

"It truly is the most wonderful time of they year, huh?" Charlie said all of a sudden as Melody was taking huge mouthfuls out of her sandwich.
"Mhm."
"Yesterday, Rastel even kissed me under the mistletoe while you were in detention!" Charlie squealed, excited. Melody was still eating though.
"Mhm."
"And then- Are you even listening?" Charlie asked, obviously annoyed that Melody cared about her sandwich more than what he was talking about.
"Sorry. It's just SO good." Melody took her last bites and got up to shake the leftover crumbs off her jumper. "Get up then, we have to help Sami make gingerbread men with the rest of the cooking club!"
"Oh, sorry. I'm helping tech and engineering club make a Christmas themed game that guests can try out." Charlie replied.
"Okie dokie, alone it is then." Melody walked down the hall towards the cooking club room.

The cooking was just as christmassy as the hallway. Designs for the gingerbread men and houses along with a very complicated recipe were hung up on kitchen hood. Melody knew she wasn't going to be able to follow such a hard and long recipe, but she was going to give it a go anyways. Sami introduced her to the rest of the cooking club and told her to go to a cooking station. While everybody else was whizzing through it and were already shaping they dough, Melody was still mixing because she didn't know which was the ginger because the shakers didn't have labels. Melody had finally finished her gingerbread men after 4 attempts and gave them to Sami to save for the fair. She got cleaned up and left.

Melody was listening to music in her earphones and turned the corner to get to get to her dorm when he saw him. Rastel, dead, being hung by glowing christmas lights. Another murder... Melody wanted to run away, but she had to tell somebody before she fainted. She slowly began to run to the headmaster's office.

"So, you did as I asked, huh?"
"Hello Damien." Amari said while getting out of her hiding spot when the coast was clear. "Yes, I killed him while everybody else was busy doing something for the fair, okay? I was lucky nobody even came out of their club rooms..."
"Well that friend of yours is gonna snitch, so get a move on." Damien said, ushering Amari forward.
"You do realise I'm only doing this because you threatened to kill my father because he wouldn't pay his debt? I'm the one keeping the secrets you have in this school secret, I could go tell the authorities any moment I want."
"If you snitch, you'll regret it. Now be a good child and kill off the last student while everybody is at that 'Christmas Fair' thing."
"Yes..."

Damien walked out of the school, hopped into his car and drove off. He wasn't going back to New York anytime soon. She just had to kill the last student who knew the code to the secret room and she was home free.

Everybody went to the Christmas Fair the next week. The gingerbread men were perfect, the game Charlie helped with was great. Everybody was happy. Apart from Charlie - he hasn't even smiled since Rastel's death. While Melody was sad and wasn't the happiest, the school was going to have everybody leave for winter break. This meant she would have up until February 10th to have winter fun and forget about Greenwood and the murders, just for a little while. Charlie even left the school early and Melody was disappointed that he never ate any of the sweet treats, so she bought some for him and her to share together. She decided to text Charlie before going to the memorial of both of the dead students.

Melody:
Hey Charlie?
Hello?
Charlie?

He isn't answering. I'll surprise him then.

Melody went to the student memorial and placed down a bouquet of flowers. One was full of daisies and the other had black roses, which was the type of rose Rastel liked the most. Melody didn't say goodbye to any of her friends once she got outside with her stuff as well. She just waited for her parents and sat in the car anxiously. What if something happened to Charlie?

The second she got home she called Charlie's parents to ask if he was okay. They didn't reply either. Melody then asked her parents about Charlie's family.

"Oh Mel, they just went to a skiing resort. That's why Charlie left early. Nancy did mention that he didn't seem to ecstatic though..." Melody's Mum told her while making dinner. So they were just on holiday. Well at least Melody had less to worry about. Well she did. Until next term...