Missing Footsteps

Under our own noses

Warnings: Mentions of death and strong language
September 8

Harlow laid her platinum blonde hair on her brother's chest, a hand searching for some sort of life from a person that has been there for the whole of her own. Her ocean blue eyes were flooded with tears, as they began to wash over her brother's shirt. Time ceased to exist as Harlow began to wonder, why? Why her brother? What did he do wrong? Did she fail him? Did their broken family fail him? Is that the reason why he would barely say anything more than just a single hi, why he would only leave his room when he had to eat, why he would consistently leave the house without telling anyone where he was going.

"Did I- did we fail him" Harlow sobbed as her already pale skin, seemed to grow paler with every single second that grief and disbelief overtook her whole being. "I'm going to call security" Theia abruptly stated, getting up on her feet and immediately rushing out of the botanical garden. Ming made her way to Harlow, placing her hand on Harlow's back - slowly caressing it with the attempt of physically voicing her support. While Aluia and Cassandra just looked at each other with eyes full of shock and confusion. Simply being teenagers that had no experience with this sort of situation, and were left completely frozen in time.

After what felt like a million hours, the school's security arrived, slowly walking towards the scene. "Alright girls, move out and go back to class." the head security guard commanded. "To class! She just found her freaking brother's dead body at school and you want her to go to class!?" Ming shouted. "She can stay but the rest of you will have to go back to class." he insisted. Cassandra followed the orders and began to move out of the garden, Aluia following in suit. "Hey! you too" he barked at Ming. "No, no! she's my girlfriend and she needs me to be here for her!" Ming shouted. The guard then grabbed Ming by her forearm and forced Ming to get up. "Either you get suspended or go to class." he demanded. Ming huffed and looked back at Harlow with sorrowful eyes, mouthing an "I'm sorry." The head security guard faced the rest of the girls and said, "And do not speak of this situation. If we hear a single word of what happened here, all of you will be expulsed from this school." "Hey come on" Cassandra said as she gently grabbed Ming's hand, leading her out of the garden. "Alright little girl move away from the body" the girls vaguely heard one of the security guards say as they finally left.

Cassandra

The girls all split up as they headed to their different designated classes. Cassandra was in a complete state of disarray to say the least. What she initially thought was going to be a great day in which she would be celebrating one of her closest friend's birthday, turned into an absolute nightmare that she could not wake up from. When she looked down at her wrist watch, she came to the sudden realization that she was late to physics. Quickening her pace in the attempt of not being too late to class. When Cassandra arrived at the door of physics' class she froze, wondering if she was really going to continue her day as normal with the knowledge that Harlow's brother was found dead at school. Mr. Ken turned his attention away from the class to Cassandra's frozen figure. "Ms. dos Santos you may come in, you are luckily only five minutes late" Mr. Ken stated with the thought that Cassandra was standing there due to thinking that she was too late to enter the class. "Thank you sir" Cassandra replied. As she walked towards the two seated table in which only she occupied. Making her surprised to see that she was no longer the only one sitting there. Again, she froze, but this time it was due to the confusion and wonder that the boy she was designated to seat next to evoked. She starred at him; assessing his light skin that was further complimented by his soft sky blue eyes, and contrasted by his dark curly hair. To say that Cassandra was attracted to him would be an understatement. She quickly snapped back into reality and formed a smile that showcased the dimples that were formed on her light brown skin, and said a simple "Hi". "Hi" the boy replied. He got up from his seat, motioning his hand to the seat that Cassandra was about to occupy. "Thanks" Cassandra whispered, noticing how the new boy towered over her small figure. She sat and removed her iPad whilst attempting to not seem awkward next to the boy. She slowly raised her head and looked at him, saying "I'm Cassandra but you can call me Cas". "I'm Kai" he replied with a soft smile. To Cassandra's surprise he seemed pretty shy, she'd assume that a very attractive guy like this would be rather arrogant. "Before we start, I ask for the new student to introduce himself" Mr. Ken said. Kai stood up and stated, "Hi, I'm Kai Dupont, I'm from Belgium, I am seventeen and will be studying here for a year" Kai shyly stated and got back onto his seat. "Thank you Mr. Dupont, you are welcome here, and I hope that all of the students will be just as welcoming" Mr. Ken said.

The physics' class continued as normal, however she could not help it but realize that in every single exercise that they did - Kai would get every single question right. He's ridiculously good at this, I guess I've got some competition or some help if I somewhat struggle or flop. But Cassandra did not dare voice this and simply continued with class as normal until its end.

Next stop was IT, this time she was met with Calvin's and Theia's familiar faces. "Hey", she chimed and sat at the table behind Calvin's and Theia's. Theia just nodded, faked a smile and turned her focus back to her iPad. Cassandra sighed and slightly slumped onto her seat, taking out all of her school equipment. At least Calvin will not question Theia's attitude, she practically arrived like this. But noticeably the sit next to her was empty, leaving Cassandra to wonder where Ming was. Moments later, Ming arrived with her once dark brown eyes covered by a bloodshot red, and her dark silky hair that was once in a neat pony tail - harshly placed onto a messy bun. Calvin looked at Ming in total shock and confusion, left wondering about what had happened to the girl that had a smile on her face in the morning. He turned to look at Cassandra, "Yo Cas, what happened?" he asked. "I don't know" Cassandra lied. Calvin raised his dark brown eye brow and looked straight at Cassandra, "Really? You know you're a terrible liar" Calvin questioningly said. "I'm sorry but I can't tell you" Cassandra replied, bowing her face and looking down at the table. Calvin sighed and turned around, attempting to mind his business. Ming sat down, crossed her arms and did not say a single thing, nor took a single thing out of her bag. How in the world will we be able to keep this thing a secret at this rate.

Theia

An iMessage lit up Theia's phone, she lazily grabbed it - opened the app and read the message *Mom: Hi darling Trey is doing better now but I need you to come to the hospital. I sent the chauffeur to come pick you up*. What now? Theia packed everything that she had on her side of the table and placed it into her bag. "Bye guys, I'm going to go see my dumb brother, again" she said with a voice filled with frustration. She did not even give Calvin and Cassandra the chance to say bye and left accounting class. Luckily she did not have to stand and wait at Windsor's drop off zone as her personal chauffeur was already waiting for her. "Hi Bernard" Theia spoke. "Hello Ms. Pierce" Bernard said as he opened the backseat door for Theia. The ride to Braveheart Hospital was one of Theia consistently fighting the thought of a single moment of vulnerability, by consistently refusing to shed a tear. It seemed like disaster after disaster kept occurring in the last two months. First her parents get divorced, second her brother almost dies after getting spiked and now she just came across her friend's brother's dead body. Even though it was a lot to take she refused to let go of her 'strong woman' façade.

There seemed to be at least some good news when she came across her brother eating lunch on the hospital bed and sharing a laugh with their mother. "Theia!" her mother beamed as she gave her a strong hug. "Hey mom" Theia smiled as she hugged her back. Theia gave a quick glance at her brother, and responded to his finger piece sign with a single nod. "Why was I called here?" Theia asked. "Ouch, you don't wanna see the most amazing brother in the world" Trey sarcastically said. "Shut up Trey, you're dragging our family name as you always do!" Theia snapped. Trey responded by sending her an air kiss. "Okay enough. I called you here because the doctor said that there's a pressing matter that all of us as a family need to be aware of" Theia's mother said. Theia sighed and sat on the chair next to Trey's bed and next to her mother's own chair.

Several minutes passed and the family doctor came into the hospital room. "Happy to see the whole family here" he said with a slight smile in his face. "Sadly there is an important issue that came to my attention as I assessed Trey's file. As you already know, Trey had a poisonous substance placed in his alcoholic drink. The issue with this, is that the toxicologist's report came back confirming that the substance in the drink was arsenic. Luckily the dose was very small, thus why Trey was able to recover as he has. However, from what I am aware of no one else in the party was poisoned?" the doctor asked. "Yes" Trey confirmed. "Meaning that there is a possibility that you were specifically targeted". Trey shrugged. "Arsenic is often only placed in a drink with the intention of killing someone. Son, is there anyone that could possibly want that from you?" the doctor asked. "Yeah practically everyone at school besides the dumb popular kids hate Trey" Theia answered. "Practically everyone at school" Theia muttered, the realization dawning upon her.