Simon Death High (5 page)

“
What?”
Michael gasped.

“
You
were listening to us?” Lucy said.

“
Of
course I was listening,” Linda said. “You should know by now that
I’m the most nosiest person in the world.”

“
Well,
it's not what you think. Let's just end this conversation now. I
have to find something to wear to the dance tomorrow
night.”

“
I
thought they canceled the dance due to the deaths?” Linda
said.

“
No,
they changed it to a charity dance now. Most likely detectives will
be there too,” Michael said. “Linda?” he waved his hands in front
of Linda’s face as she stared into space.

“
What?”
she finally said.

“
The
dance...aren't you going tomorrow night?”

She bit her lip, “Of
course. I wouldn't miss it.”

“
I'm
going to the bathroom—I have to pee,” Lucy announced. “I'll bring
the dresses from the guest room that I want to show you
guys!”

Linda got up from bed and
walked into Lucy's messy walk-in closet. Like always, she dug
around searching for something to wear for the dance. Although
Hannah was more fashionable, Lucy always had new things—no matter
what. And she never wore them because she hated her
body.

“
Ouch!”
Linda shouted as she banged her toe on a plastic bag. Angry, she
snatched up the bag and bottles fell onto the floor.
“Cl-o-za-pin—”

“
Linda!”
Michael shouted, cutting her off from reading the prescription
bottle. “Come help us carry these dresses!”

Linda threw the stuff back
into the bag and ran out to them. She beamed as she noticed new
sparkly short dresses. “Oh, I’m in heaven. Please, let me borrow
this one!”

“
The
pink one?” Lucy smiled. “Of course you can borrow
it.”

“
YES!
Thank you!” she kissed Lucy's cheek.

“
Hey,
that's what friends are for.”

5 | Hannah's Web

Hannah slid on thick bracelets as Lucy
hurried to straighten her black hair. She only ever straightened it
on occasions, but by the end of the night, it would be a fur ball
again. It was worth spending hours straightening because the photos
would look gorgeous. Hannah never had that problem though—her hair
was always perfect.

Linda honked the horn of her car for Lucy to
hurry up. However, she didn't know that Hannah would be coming
along too.

She turned stiff as Hannah came out the
house door first. With a smile, Hannah opened the passenger door
just to realize Tyler was sitting there.

“What are you doing here?” they both said to
each other.

“These are my friends,” Hannah snapped.

“Um, just climb in the back,” Linda said to
Hannah.

Everyone knew Hannah always rode shotgun no
matter who was driving, and in their case it was always either Lucy
or Linda. With an attitude, Hannah slammed the passenger door shut
and hopped in the backseat next to Michael who was dressed in a
blazer and jeans.

“Jeans, Michael?” Hannah rolled her eyes.
“This is our last real dance until prom and you wear jeans?”

“These are my formal jeans,” he teased.
“This isn't a fashion show, Hannah. It will be dark inside, no one
will notice.”

Lucy came running to the car next, trying to
avoid the rain. “Hey, everyone.”

Hannah rolled her eyes again as she dusted
off her new sparkly dance uniform, “Lucy, it sucks you're not on
the dance team anymore. I miss you.”

Lucy nervously laughed, “Really? I wouldn't
have guessed it,” she mumbled.

Michael stared at Hannah's flashy uniform.
He liked the aqua blue and how it showed off her fit shape. “How
did you guys afford new uniforms this year? I thought our school
was poor?”

“Um, we...had...” Hannah thought of
something to say.

“They were charity,” Lucy said. “Yup,
charity.”

“Charity?” Tyler butted in. “Is that what
they mean by charity,” he laughed. “Man, this school is messed
up.”

As Linda drove, the tension was stronger
than ever. Their usual car rides were loud and full of gossip
stories, but nothing was like normal anymore. As they arrived at
the school street, they could already hear the music from the
gym.

Michael slicked his hair back as he winked,
“We are going to have so much fun!” he beamed. “I'm so excited.
This is our last dance until prom. Aw, sad moment...”

“This is the last thing this town needs...is
a school dance,” Tyler said. “All these kids should be at home
eating at the dinner table.”

“Then, why did you come?” Hannah snapped.
“You just want to be nosy.”

Tyler rolled his eyes and jumped out the
parked car first. He waited for Linda to fix her eyelashes and then
walked over to her side. Hannah got out next and didn't wait for
anyone. She sped walked toward the entrance and met up with the
other dance team members.

“Why didn't you tell me Hannah was coming
too?” Linda said to Lucy.

“Yeah?” Michael agreed.

“What's the big deal?” Lucy said. “She is
our best friend.”

“Where has she been?” Tyler said. “I heard
her family put out a missing persons report.”

“How do you know this stuff?” Michael
said.

“I know everything,” Tyler winked and
grabbed Linda’s hand. They left without Lucy and Michael and walked
passed everyone waiting to get in.

Simon school dances tended to be full of
only seniors and freshmen, who wanted to experience a dance.
However, today almost the entire school was there. If anything,
those kids should have been home—
a murderer was loose
.

Tyler felt awkward as he slicked his hair
back and tugged on his formal attire. Nervously, he sipped on his
soda, trying to get the ice out. “There are way too many students
here!” he shouted over the loud music.

“People like charity,” Linda shouted back.
“Plus, it's cool.”

“Eh, I guess so.”

“Thanks for paying for me to get in. I
wasn't expecting that,” she smiled.

“Eh, yeah.”

Linda leaned in to kiss Tyler, but for the
first time in her life, a boy pushed her away. Tyler turned Linda’s
face in the opposite direction. She frowned in confusion and tried
to kiss him again.

“I can't kiss you,” Tyler said.

“Why not?” Linda said. “You're not gay are
you?”

“I’m not gay,” Tyler said as he continued to
search the room.

Linda pouted, “But, I got all pretty just
for you. Don't you think I look pretty?”

With a frown, Tyler stared at Linda’s
sparkly pink dress. “You look nice, but I just cannot kiss
you.”

“Why?”

“I'll tell you later,” was all he said and
he smiled at her.

She rolled her eyes and searched the busy
room for Michael, but instead she spotted Hannah. She elbowed Tyler
in the gut pointing at Hannah. “Look!”

Tyler was tall enough to see over the crowd
as he saw Hannah speaking to Dr. Smith, who was monitoring the
dance. “She is just talking to Dr. Smith.”

“You can't
just
talk to Dr. Smith at
a school dance.” Linda looked over at Hannah and Dr. Smith. She
looked relaxed next to him—a little too relaxed.

“Why can't they just talk?”

“About what? How to take their relationship
to the next level,” Linda laughed at her own joke.

“What do you mean?” Tyler snapped.

“Yeah, I guess she is dating Dr. Smith. It
doesn't matter right since she will be eighteen in a few
months—”

“Is this official now? How do you know
this?” Tyler asked as he stared at Linda. “Did she tell you
this?”

Linda turned fearful as Tyler looked mean,
“Nope, she didn't tell me this,” she muttered. “But...”

“But, what?”

“I thought I had a dream about her, but,
from what I’m realizing...I wasn't dreaming. She was at some bar
with him...or well it looked like him,” Linda said as she tried to
see where Hannah was. “Did she leave?”

Tyler scanned the room, “Where did she
go?”

“I don't know, that's what I just asked
you,” she snapped.

Linda noticed Dr. Smith running back into
the school. Tyler pulled Linda to go see where Hannah could have
gone, but they got trapped in a dance circle. With a huge smile,
Linda pulled Tyler to dance with her, but he didn't want to. He
yanked his hands from hers and ran off, getting lost in the
crowd.

Aw, Linda ran out the dance circle to find
her friends. She noticed Michael dancing with Mason and friends.
She pulled him by his shoulder and he followed behind her, noticing
she was upset.

“What is wrong, sugar?” Michael asked.

“Tyler just rejected me. He didn't want to
kiss me and now he left me!” Linda cried. “I think he's using me to
get to Hannah. Like every other guy, they want Hannah! I can't
stand Hannah! Ugh! I just wish the Simon murderer would come and
get her!”

“Don't speak like that,” Michael said as he
smacked her. “You're just angry. There are plenty of hot men
here.”

“Men?” Linda laughed. “More like
prepubescent boys.”

Linda noticed the crowd of people began to
get smaller and smaller, but it didn't faze her. “I swear if Hannah
takes Tyler from me, I will kick her ass.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed as the room began to
grow emptier. “I hate to annoy you at your sad moment, but where is
everyone?”

“Who cares?” she sobbed. “If this—”

Linda was cut off by the sound of ambulances
and firetrucks. They both ran out the room, along with the
remaining clueless students who were still dancing. Everyone was
crowded at the back of the school toward where the woods were.

As they made their way through the crowd,
the more people began to cry. They stopped toward the front of the
crowd, where they spotted Lucy who was covered in rain. She ran
into their arms and she began screaming.

“Someone has been killed!” she screamed. “Oh
my gosh! I went to throw away the remaining soda bottles and then I
saw that—”

Their eyes grew massive as they witnessed a
student's body lying nude across the dirt. The only thing on the
girl's body was her heels and her ripped dance uniform. Linda
looked closer at her wrists—the same bruises she remembered seeing
on Hannah. Their thoughts began to go haywire as police tried to
instruct everyone to go inside.

Linda couldn't cry because she was in so
much shock. Michael however, was screaming in fear. He hugged Lucy
and tried to catch his breath. Linda joined in the hug, holding in
all her emotions.

All the students were instructed to go back
into the gym until parents/guardians came for them. The three of
them didn't know what to do, as everyone stared at them. Tyler
spotted them, and came running over to them.

“Linda, I need to talk to you,” Tyler
said.

She rubbed her eyes as she began to cry.
“You're the last person I want to talk to right now. Someone was
just murdered!”

Michael blew his nose for the third time, “I
think I’m going to throw up. That means someone here saw the
person—”

“Or someone who we know,” Linda muttered as
Lucy walked over to the dance team.

Tyler searched the room, and the only thing
he saw were students crying. “Where is Hannah?”

Linda perked her head up to find her. Hannah
was easy to spot, but she couldn't find her. “And where is Dr.
Smith?”

“Who cares about him?” Michael said.

“I do! Hannah and him are working together.
I overheard them speaking in his office about things they did to
some girls and how they can't be seen together anymore. Don't you
think it is fishy that the both of them are not here right now, the
same time someone was murdered?” Linda said as she felt someone
squeezing in trying to sit next to her. She turned around to see
who it was that was nearly sitting on her butt. “Um...”

“Oh, sorry...hi,” Adam said.

Linda beamed and ignored Michael. “Hi, Adam!
Long time, no talk! I miss you.”

“Yeah,” he said as he tried to dry his
jacket off from the rain.

“Why are you so wet?”

“I was outside,” he laughed and Linda
laughed along with him.

She stared into his big blue eyes and felt
her heart skip a beat. That never happened to her before—it was
like love at first sight—except this wasn't the first time she'd
seen him. She checked him out from head to toe—
clean shoes, nice
fitting jeans, plaid shirt, nice clean hair—he's perfect
, she
thought.

Michael tapped on Linda’s back, “Linda, we
are going to find Hannah.”

She ignored him and gazed at her new love
interest. “So, um, anything new going on in your life?”

“Besides basketball...no,” he said. “And
college preparations. You?”

She nodded, “Same,” she lied. The only thing
she cared about was that he didn't shove her away. At a typical sad
moment, Linda was pretty darn happy.

“I see you're still friends with Lucy.”

“Um, yeah? Why wouldn't I be; she's like my
best friend,” Linda laughed. “I know you guys broke up, but I mean,
you can still hang out with us.”

“Nah, I'd rather avoid her as much as
possible.”

“Eh, it was a bad breakup, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Lucy, Michael, and Tyler tried to stay out
of the polices' way as they walked the dimmed halls. Every time
they saw a blonde, they would all perk up thinking it was
Hannah.

“Where is Linda?” Tyler said.

“She is talking to some boy,” Michael said,
trying not to say it was Adam. “I guess he is more important to her
than Hannah’s life.”