The Cover-Up

Chapter Three

*note- Windham and Brevard are two cities that exist in real life, but they have no affiliation with the setting of my story. The towns of Windham and Brevard in my story are made up and not based off of the actual cities, they are just the names I chose for the fictional towns of my story. Central Windham High School is a fictional school as well.

    Rae felt inspired. She had an idea of how to illustrate her feelings on the first day of school- butterflies. More specifically, butterflies in her stomach. She imagined they were orange, and that there were lots of them. No, she didn't imagine that there were lots of them, she could feel lots of them. As she pulled into the parking lot of Central Windham High School, she felt the butterflies frantically beating their fragile wings as she got more and more nervous. She had told herself that she didn't care about school, that she didn't mind if she didn't make friends because she was only there for one year, but it wasn't true. She knew that no matter how much she pretended not to care, pretended to be tough, she would be scared. No matter how much she acted otherwise, the butterflies would always be there.

    Rain was falling softly outside, pattering against the top of her car. She pulled up the hood of her rain jacket as she stepped out of the car and inhaled a deep breath, the smell of summer rain filling her nose. She began to make her way towards the sidewalk when a figure stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

    "Hi," the person in front of her said, a girl with pale skin and dark wavy hair. "You must be the new girl. What's your name?" The girl looked friendly, with a big smile on her face.

    "Um, Rae," she said uncomfortably. She attempted to make another move towards the sidewalk, but the girl still remained in front of her.

    "It's nice to meet you, Rae," the girl said. "I'm Mckenna."

    "Nice to meet you too. Listen, I gotta get to class..."

Another girl appeared beside Mckenna, this one with brown skin and curly black hair. She had a smirk on her face; Rae suddenly felt self-conscious next to this girl. She was beautiful and a bit intimidating.

    "Hi," the other girl said. "I'm Jada. I guess Mckenna already introduced herself. You're the new girl, I assume?"

    "Yeah," Rae said quietly.

    "Her name is Rae," said Mckenna, turning towards Jada with a smile that Rae could only hope was genuine. "Isn't that such a pretty name?"

    "Walk with us," Jada said to Rae, ignoring Mckenna. "We can show you to class, get to know you." Jada turned around and headed towards the sidewalk, not checking to see if Rae and Mckenna were following her.

    "Sorry," Mckenna whispered to Rae as they hurried to catch up with Jada. "She's kinda mean sometimes." Rae had to hold in a laugh. These two girls seemed like the complete opposites of each other, yet they seemed to be good friends. She was reminded with a pang of Andrew- he had been popular, a starter on the lacrosse team. Girls swooned over him. He played guitar and Rae helped him write songs, though they never turned out to be any good. He was the opposite of Rae, who was quiet and reserved, who liked to draw pictures and solve mysteries for fun. She was kind of a loser, but Andrew was always there for her. She missed him more than she ever had.

    "So," Jada said, snapping Rae out of her thoughts. "Where are you from?"

    "A little coastal town called Brevard. Right by the beach."

    "Oh, I went there once!" Mckenna said excitedly. "On vacation with my family. I have two younger twin sisters named Sophie and Jennie. They loved it there-"

    "Kenna," Jada said, cutting her off, "I'm not sure that Rae really cares."

    "Sorry," Mckenna said to Rae, her face bright red. "I always talk too much." Rae shot her a sympathetic smile.

    "Well, Brevard's not far from here. It must be nice to be able to go home and visit your friends whenever you want," Jada said, and Rae thought she might've heard a hint of jealousy or annoyance in her tone.

    "Yeah," Rae mumbled. "It's nice".

——

    The two girls had shown Rae to her first class- which, she discovered, was a class that she had with Mckenna, along with every other class of the school day. She had thought to herself-rudely, she admitted grudgingly- that the semester would be a long one if she had to deal with someone as energetic as Mckenna every day.

    Rae had also discovered interesting things about the two girls. They were both seniors and had been friends for their entire lives. Their dads had gone to Central Windham High School together and traveled the world after college, moved back to Windham to start families, and had kids that had grown up to be best friends. They were practically inseparable- both the girls and their families.

    Mckenna had two younger sisters, Sophie and Jennie, who were freshman at Central Windham. Jade had two older siblings, a sister named Maia who was a sophomore in college and a brother named Michael who had graduated college and now lived in some big city as a businessman. Both of their families had had weekly dinners together, watched sports games together, took trips together. Grown up together.

    Rae was relieved when she had finally gotten to class and didn't have to hear them talk about the inseparable bonds of their families and their friendship. It did nothing to make her miss Andrew any less.

    Rae resolved to make new friends by the end of the school week. She liked Mckenna and Jada, but they had been best friends their whole lives and she didn't think she'd be able to make her way into their friendship, especially in their senior year. She didn't want to third wheel, and she knew it was unlikely that she would be as close to them as they were to each other after only one year.

    Her resolve lasted approximately one day, and was shattered when Mckenna invited her to go to a back-to-school party that weekend- an offer that she couldn't resist. She was always excited to attend a fun party.