EVERGREEN WOOD《COMPLETED✔》

APOLOGY ACCEPTED

Chapter 4

The next few days went by with whispers, gossips and unreal theories about what might've happened to Genevie. The most popular theory was that some occult had a hand in this. As there is no church in Evergreen Wood, they had taken it as their responsibility to warn us through Genevie. Hence the mark on her arm to convey their message. Though it was just a fun theory, some took it very seriously and started buying cross and holy water from out of town. Some parents even had a conference about having a church in Evergreen.

The Stone family have been unusually quiet. Since Mr. Stone died, Genevie's mom had been fighting the world for Genevie and her sister, Lola. But this time, she was quiet. Not only did she not file a case for this, she even took Principal Hay's word for it being a prank.

The next news came on Friday, 3 days from the occurrence. All the students were gathered at the gym first thing in the morning. Principal Hay stood in front of us with a stern look conveying that he had no good news. As soon as we all settled down, He turned the mike on and started.

"Good Morning, students. As you know, there had been a mishap in our school just a few days ago. As we said earlier, my best guess is that it had been a rough prank and I intend to stick with it. But the police has other theories. They are putting it in the attempt to murder section or deliberate torture." He drew in a big breath, "However we have received further information about the condition of Ms. Stone. I am very sorry to say that, she is in a coma. The police are not letting in any details. My request to you all is that you stay safe and careful. I will strongly suggest that you do not roam around alone. I will expect you all to continue your academic activities."

With that he put down the mike and dismissed us.

"Can you believe it? She is in a coma," I nudged Noah in the arm.

"A simple burn no matter how deep cannot do that. There is something more. He said the police are not giving details. Which means there are details." I consider Noah's words for a second. he is right. But there is nothing we can do.

"What are we gonna do? Dig deeper?" I raise my eyebrows at Noah. It's always been our thing to never leave any topic without having full grasp at it.

"You betcha." He forces a smile. But I can see through it that he is blaming himself for not helping her properly. He is thinking if he did a better job, she might've not been in a coma.

"Is this the part where I am supposed to say 'It's not your fault'?" I keep poking Noah until he gives a genuine grin. "We will get to the end eventually like we always do. Remember the time someone broke our mailbox? We tried to find who but the guy came and apologized? We solved it. No matter how we got the result. This time might be same. The police works. We analyze data and come to our conclusion. Deal?"

"Deal."

Noah and I had a thing for knowing what was going on around us. We even went too far sometimes. One time we thought old Mrs. Lollito was hiding a most wanted criminal we saw the other day in news, in her basement. Noah convinced me that we break into her house at night. And we did. Guess what happened next. We got caught and got grounded for a month. It was fully Noah's fault. He was the one to slip on the stairs down the basement and create this loud noise that got us caught.

"It was your fault too you know," Noah told me taking me back to the moment I called his name way too loud after he fell. I'm not so sure whether he mention that night or Genevie. But either way, we're both in together.

He winked at me and we headed for our classes.

***********************

As I sit at my bench at Physics which is full of totally nerd students I notice Skyler approaching and taking the sit beside me. I have to admit, for one of those preppy, full of make-up girls Skyler is pretty smart. I like that she doesn't let popularity get in the way of academics or career.

"Hey," I try to start up a conversation since I know pretty much no one in this class.

"Hey," she says with somewhat a haughty voice. I start to recoil my thoughts of liking her when she starts talking again.

"Look, I never got to apologize for what happened on Monday. We just meant to irritate you. We never thought you would get sent to the principal's office."

I was taken aback by this sudden apology. Sure they always try to irritate me, but i know well enough that those are only for fun. None of them has anything against me.

"Well, it's no big deal. I go there all the time." In spite of my good grades, I end up in the wrong place in the wrong time. So principal's office is pretty much common to me. One time I placed a springing boxing glove in Noah's locker. Apparently it wasn't Noah's. So someone else got hit who complained. That was my first time in 7th grade.

"You know we might use Star Girl as a tease, but it's pretty awesome how you're good at everything," Skyler tells me with an appreciative smile.

"Jack of all trades, master of none."

"But it's good to have some xp in everything. You never know what comes handy. You were so brave that day."

I can't remember me doing anything mentionable. All I remembered carrying out everything Noah said. But I manage a thank you anyway.

"Noah's the real hero."

"He is. I never saw him so desperate and confident at the same time. Like he knew he had a duty but didn't know how to do it properly." She says it with a different kind of admiration. Like not the kind they usually do over a boy. And I really appreciated it.

She might not have seen Noah like that, but I have. When my mom was in the hospital, Noah took care of everything with Jeremy. That day I realized, if I didn't have Jeremy I would've wanted him to be my brother.

"So are we good?" She asks eagerly.

"Damn, we gotta face this physics class once in a while. Why not do it as friends?" I half expected her to give me a scowl.

"Yeah. You are the only one who can match up to me in this class," I thought the preppy girl was back but she started laughing. So did I.