Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what’s going on. Like I’m in my own little world. I could be anywhere. Maybe I could be on cloud or eating a lollipop. In my bedroom or a park. Wagner Park. Then just when I’m at the peak of my story, I hear someone talking to me. It’s Sara. Great. Ruin my fantasy why don’t you. So I open my eyes to see what’s going on and I look up to see my whole math class staring blankly at me. Next I’m thinking, great. Just perfect. Then after I’m clued in and I figure out what’s going on. My teacher gives me detention for “ignoring her magical lesson”.
Why would I even want to know? I mean, when is math going to help me in the real world anyway? Well I know that we’ll need basic stuff and all, but I mean like, when are we going to use permutations in our lives? NEVER! Then what’s even better is that after that I have lunch. Now I know most kids love lunch and most days I do too, but lunch is pick-on hour. Technically half an hour, but who cares? When I enter the cafeteria, I hear so many laughs. Humiliating, devastating, cruel! Could this be any worse? Well I spoke too soon. I look over at our office and I see my mom, my mom! Next, she’s walking this way. Oh no. Escape I’m thinking over and over in my head. So I retreat to the bathroom. Finally something good happens. My BFF, Alyssa, runs into the bathrooms too and I get so relieved.
“Having a nice lunch?” She questions sarcastically.
“Haha, very funny.” I send right back.
“Well no it’s just, your mom, math, laughing peers…”
“I know, I know.” I sigh
About twenty minutes later, I go back to the cafeteria to finish lunch, to find my mom gone, the kids stopped laughing, and my teacher went on her lunch break. Amazing right? I know. Then Alyssa and I find a table in the back of the area and start to dig into our lunches. I just realized how hungry I was. So I was thinking, I wonder where Sara and Brittany are. They’re some of our other friends and besides math, I haven’t seen them all day.
“Hey, I wonder where Sara and Brittany are.” I comment.
“Me, too. I’ve been looking for them all lunch.” Alyssa adds.
“Oh, hey I see them. They’re over there.” I nearly shout.
After I say that we both go over and sit by them. When we sit down, I find that this weirdo, Kevin, sat down right next to us. Kevin is like our school’s undiscovered clown.
“Oh my gosh! What happened?” Sara gasped.
“Let’s see, math, my mom coming, and I got detention.” I reminded her.
“Right.”
BBBRRRIIINNNGGG!!! The bell goes off and I’m not even half way done with my lunch. Not surprising. Well luckily it was just the warning bell, so I don’t have to leave yet. Also, a good thing that comes out of that, is now our other friends, Claudia, Alexa, and Dani, have lunch so we get to see them, too. When they sit down, Claudia is gazing out like she has no idea what’s going on. De ja vu. We follow her gaze to the back of the head of Cameron Cambo. You know, the four foot tall jock dude who can barely throw a football and thinks he’s all that. There’s one of them in every school, you just have to look around.
“Hey Claudia. Who you looking at?” I ask all dreamily.
“No one.” She whimpers.
“Sure. You just happen to be looking at the lunch specials for today, right above Cameron’s head.”
“Exactly. Did you know that you can get an extra breadstick for free today.” She jokes.
“Yes I did for a matter a fact.” I replied.
So we continue to eat when, what I just said to Claudia, backfires on me.
“Hey Cass. Who you looking at?” Claudia asks dreamily.
“I’ll be honest, unlike you. I’m looking at the ceiling fan.” I state as a matter of factly as I can.
“That, or Peter Knight.” She suggests.
“You got me, it’s really the big light up there.” I say to try and keep the joke going.
“Right”
As we continue to go back and forth suddenly the last bell rings and I have to leave. Then when we were walking down the hall, Alyssa and I stop.
“Do you see what I see?” Alyssa gasps.
“If you see Justin Bieber in our school, too then yes.” I answer.
“Oh my gosh!” We both scream.
We set off to run down the hall and as we are about to talk to him, he turns around.
“Hey. Um. Do you know who Cassandra Johnson is?”
“Yeah.” I answer as I’m thinking that this has to be a dream. “Why”
“She won the Teen magazine contest to spend a day with me.” Justin calmly replies.
“Well I’m Cassie Johnson, but I only entered as a joke, but this is amazing. I can’t believe I just won!”
“Are you sure that you’re Cassie? I mean now that I’ve told you and all, don’t you think that it’s likely that you’re someone else.”
“Here, I have my student ID to prove that I’m Cass.” I say all optimistic.
“Whoa. You weren’t lying.” Justin nearly whines.
“Why? Is that a problem?” Alyssa asks all tough girl like.
“No it’s just, I feel bad.” Justin replies.
As we go on and on, I found I won- a day with Justin Bieber, five-hundred dollars cash, and me and five friends are going to New York. Wow right. Oh no! I just forgot. There’s me, Alyssa, Claudia, Sara, Dani, Alexa and Brittany. That’s six friends! What have I gotten into? Well I could decide not to go, but that would be stupid to pass up a trip to New York. Then again Claudia is always saying how many times she’s gone. Though Alexa just went a few weeks ago. Wait I have an idea. All of us can pool our money and pay for the extra ticket. BRILLIANT! Right after I figure all of this out, Alyssa asks me what I am going to do and I tell her my plan. This is going to be perfect! Unless, the plane is already filled up and there are no more seats, that would be bad. Real bad.
“So, we should better get to class.” Alyssa sighs.
“Yeah. Let us go.” I say cooperatively.
Next we start to walk to gym. Oh by the way, Alyssa and I have all of our classes together. When we get to gym, our teacher asks where we were and we tell a little white lie saying that I went to the nurse and Alyssa helped me walk there. After gym is over we go home, because well, that was our last class. As we head to our lockers and get on the bus, we both feel like everyone is so much louder than normal. Like they’re cheering for something, or someone. So we go over to the crowd of people and see that Justin Bieber is singing. What’s even better is that when we get over there.
“Hey guys, the whole reason I’m here is because of this young lady- Cassie Johnson.” Justin screams
Could I be more embarrassed?
“Come on up here Cassie.” He tells me.
The answer to my question is yes.
“See Cass here entered my contest to spend a day with Justin Bieber and she won. So here’s for you Cassie. Imma tell you one time, girl I love, girl I love you…”
Great now I have an international pop star singing to me. Fun. So Alyssa and I decide to just get on the bus. That night, I think I got more texts and e-mails than I have ever got in my life! I have finally become…dare I say, popular! Could my life be any better? BBBRRRIIINNNGGG!!! That time the bell was my phone. I got another call. Who’s it from? I ask myself before I even look. So I reach over and grab my phone to see another unknown number.
“Hello?” I say into the phone.
“Hey.” Someone answers.
“Who is this?” I question.
“Oh I’m sorry, it’s Justin.” Guess who.
“How did you get my number?” I wonder.
“Oh you gave it to me when we were talking today so I thought that I might as well call you.”
“OK, well thanks for calling and thanks for singing at my school, lots of people called me about it.”
“I bet they did.”
We continue talking to find that when we hang up, it’s already ten p.m.! That’s crazy! So I check how long I was on the phone and it said- 2:25.17! That’s like two and a half hours! Wow, I didn’t know that I had that much to say to someone. I don’t think that I have even talked to Alyssa that long in my whole life at one time. Or any of my friends for that matter. Maybe he did all the talking and I did all the listening or the other was around. I mean really what would I possibly have to say the Justin Bieber? I mean he’s only one of the most famous singers of our generation. And the fact that he has a car. And the fact that I don’t have a crush on him it’s just cool to finally meet someone famous that people have actually heard of. Like, two years ago, for career day, I told everybody that my uncle was famous, and then when he got here, no one knew who he was or even heard of him! But I mean really, everybody’s heard of Justin Bieber. Except maybe some poor hobos in Manhattan begging for money or something. Though the next day when I got to school, I started to wish that Justin never actually came because so many people just kept coming up to me and mobbing me with things like what’s his favorite color and stuff. I mean why can’t they just be cool with the whole rock star experience? Just think, if you were in Justin’s shoes wouldn’t you want people to just keep cool around you and all? Well technically, they’re bugging me, not him so I guess that that’s a little better, but not much. Man, I wish I could be famous. Well right now, I’m stuck in Middle school. Well technically, 7th grade is one grade past middle school so 7/12 school. So here I am. Day two of Justin Trauma sequence. 23.5 hours after the math incident yesterday. I’m heading into math and I found out we have a sub so I can sneak out tonight without detention. As I walk in, no one is laughing. They’re actually smiling at me- well normal smiles, not going out of their way just to look at me, smiles. This day is getting better and better. I can’t wait for lunch today. Well back to my little cloud in dream land eating a lollipop. But this time I can’t even fall asleep. This sub is making it so that math sounds fun. EEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! This can’t be happening! Well I mean, so what if I do good in math, that actually kind of sounds cool. I mean the only smart one in our friends group is Dani, so we all pretty much ask her for any tips in math and junk. Though she’s not a nerd. If anything but. She’s the star basketball player, five foot six, and 89% of all guys in our school have a crush on her. Like she’s a supermodel. Oh yeah. She’s a model for Abercrombie’s teen line. Now, here’s the thing that every guy in our school already knows, that she still thinks guys have cooties, wear materialistic clothes every day, and put way too much hair gel in their hair. Which in most cases I think the same thing as her.
When I was walking home after another boring day of school today, I found a ten dollar bill in the middle of the street and thought that it would be pointless to try and find the owner. So I decided to keep it. Then I start to walk to the sno-cone shop on the corner by my house to spend the money, but when I got up there, the owner tells me that this is not a real ten dollar bill. It’s a fake. So then he has to call my mom for her to come and pick me up. Could this be any worse. Like most times. I spoke too soon. When my mom finally gets there, she starts asking me all these weird questions about how I found the bill and stuff. Then she starts to ask the owner too. Half an hour later we finally leave and I just come clean and explain the whole thing to her. The nice part about my mom is that she’s so cool and after a while she just acts like it never even happened. Same with my dad.
As the two of us are in the car I ask her if I can get a raise in my allowance and guess what she said no, again. I’ve been dying to get this one shirt from Abercrombie and it costs fifty two dollars! But it would be so worth it. I mean if you could only hold the baby blue, 100% cotton, v-neck T-shirt you would understand why I wanted it so bad. Though when I showed my mom the price tag on it she said that she wouldn’t pay that much for the shirt and that she would only pay fifteen of it so that means I have to get the money somehow. I’ve even tried to do more chores and clean my room everyday and get good grades, but noooooooooo I have to earn the money by getting a job in our neighborhood. I mean lemonade stands are so fourth grade. Also I don’t like the feeling of watching kids or staying in someone’s house without them being home. I mean technically, if something happens you can blame the kid, but what if it’s like eating a cookie and the kid can’t reach the jar or dump a bowl of soup on the carpet when the kid had pizza. By the way, did I mention that I was a vegetarian? Well technically I eat chicken nuggets at our school, but I’m not entirely sure that they’re made out of chicken or meat for that matter. Maybe they’re rubber or plastic with flavoring in them. Whatever they are, I’ll probably never know. Unless I become a cafeteria worker. Though I want to be a top selling mystery author by the time that I am fifteen. I might need some help thinking of what I am going to base it on and all, though I think that I can accomplish it. If not, then who cares, I mean, I wouldn’t even be in college. Though I could if I skip a few grades, technically more than a few, but whatever. I just wish that I could vote, I mean, I have free speech and I am an independent so I wouldn’t just go one way or another, I would consider the facts first. To me I think that parents have too much control over what we do and I think that it is not fair for us. Think, how many times have your parents told you that you can when you become a parent? Or that you’re too young? I feel like I hear that daily and that my mom thinks that it’s her super weapon. Oh here’s another one, when your mom just answers your question with, because I’m the mom! I hate that one! It gets really annoying. Oh my gosh! Look at the time. It’s already ten o’ clock! I need to go to bed.
The next morning is just as boring as normal so I just get ready and go to school.
“Hey Cass!” Alyssa yells as I head up the stairs to go to school.
“Hey. Hi! Oh my gosh. Have you ever wanted to vote and drive?” I question.
“Not really. Well actually I really want to drive.” Alyssa states.
“Oh well I was thinking about it yesterday and I just wanted to know.” I reply.
So as we get to our first class, I feel like the school is so much louder than normal. Technically, our school is always loud, but today it’s like a zoo. Well here we are. First period, social studies. I really like social studies because we do so many projects, but when we have sub teacher, all we do is read from our books, BORING! I mean what kind of teacher should just have us read books? The worst, the meanest, the most horrific sub you could ever ask for, Ms. Brightly. Hence the Ms. and don’t be fooled by the name. She’s anything but bright. Another mean sub is Mrs. Knight. Peter’s mom! I mean with a son like Peter, I don’t know how she could be so mean! Though today in social studies, we have Mr. Mar. Mr. Mar is nice and he didn’t just have us read from the book, we got to have a class debate and I love having those because I am normally the odd one out in whatever we’re doing. So I think that he respects that because he always agrees with me and no one else. (Most of the time)
Now math is next, great. Well Alyssa and I walked into the classroom and everything was in order, though then I saw the sub, the mean, horrible, horrific, Ms. Brightly. Just as I was about to think that this day was going so well. The second we walk in, she hits her ruler on a desk and everyone jumps.
“OK class, today we are going to be starting with a review problem. What does n equal in- (2n¬¬2+n+7) + (3n¬2+5n-6) = 266.” Ms. Brightly asks. We all moan.
“Oh I know, n=7.” Nick Fizz the math whizz pipes up. “Right?”
“Uhh yes, umm, Nick how did you do that so quickly?” Ms. Brightly wonders.
“I just worked backwards and did guess & check.” Nick replies.
“Oh well OK then. Let’s just open our books to page 473.” Ms. Brightly sighs.
“Why can’t you just write the problems on the board and then we can just practice them?” A boy asks. “That’s what our teacher normally does.”
“Well this way you guys can work to be independent with your work and you get to see how much you know.” Ms. Brightly hisses.
“Whatever.” The same boy replies.
As we work I realize that the problems in our book are really easy. Though just as I start to think that Nick cheers about the fact that he’s done and has the rest of class to draw. So I get started and finished in about ten minutes, I was the third one done.
“If you finish trade your papers with someone around you and have them grade it.” Ms. Brightly states.
So Alyssa and I trade papers and as I grade hers, I’m starting to think that she doesn’t get it because so far she’s gotten all of them wrong. What should I do? Give her a low grade and hurt my best friend or give her a ninety for her good work? I’ll just give her the low grade and try to help her.
“Here’s your paper Cass. Congrats, you got a 99%. It’s just that you missed a label.” Alyssa says cheerfully.
“Here’s yours. Good try, but you got a 69%. You got seventeen of the questions wrong.” I grumble.
“Oh great, well whatever. Could help me to see what I am doing wrong?” Alyssa wonders.
In my head I am thinking that this went better than I could’ve even hoped.
“Sure. I mean we still have over a half a hour before we need to go.” I answer gratefully.
As I show her what to do, I look up and see someone walk in. I’ve never seen her before so and she looks like she’s about our age. So I eavesdrop on what Ms. Brightly is saying to her.
“Hello, who are you?” Ms. Brightly chirps.
“My name is Emma Larson. I just moved here and my schedule says that I have math with Mrs. Loft in room 149. Which is here and I take it you’re Mrs. Loft.” Emma declares.
“Oh well actually Mrs. Loft wasn’t well today so I am your sub, Ms. Brightly, but you can call Ms. B if you don’t remember.” Ms. Brightly states.
“Thanks. So what are we doing?” Emma wonders looking around.
“For the rest of class you can just try and talk around and get to know a few names, then tomorrow Ms. Loft can get you caught up on homework and what they have already gone over.”
“Cool.” Emma replies.
Then Emma starts to look around at all the posters and all of the items on the walls. Next she makes her way over to Alyssa and I.
“Hi. My name’s Emma and I just moved here from New York. I was wondering if I could cut in and meet you two.” Emma suggests.
“Sure. My name’s Alyssa and this is my friend Cass. We’ve been coming here since kindergarten.” Alyssa acknowledged.
“Yeah. I’m Cassie. Nice to meet you. Where in New York did you live?” I question.
“I lived in Manhattan.” Emma announced.
“Man-what?” Alyssa responded.
“Manhattan. Otherwise known as New York City. Many people don’t know either so don’t feel left out.” Emma assured.
“OK. Well at least I’m not the only one. Man I’ve been really dumb today. First math and now this.” Alyssa mumbled.
Right after Alyssa said that, the bell went off and we set off for lunch. Emma had the same lunch time as us so we invited her to come and sit with us.
“Hey I’m Emma. I just met Cass and Alyssa in math. Who are you guys?” Emma chimed in.
“I’m Sara.”
“I’m Brittany. Nice to meet you. Where did you move here from?” Brittany continued.
“New York.”
As we all started to talk the first bell went off so Alexa, Dani, and Claudia came and Emma asked them their names and asked the same types of questions. When they were done the second bell rang so we all had to leave from the cafeteria. After the school day ended and everyone went home, I realized that I never got Emma’s cell number. So I decided to wait until tomorrow.
The next day, as soon as we got to school, there were police cars and ambulances in front of the building. Along with bright yellow caution tape! I couldn’t help but wonder what happened.
“Stay away from the area! Keep ten feet behind the tape at all times!” Shouted the policeman.
“What happened?” I asked the first teacher I could find.
“Well, one of the students, Cameron Cambo, got murdered yesterday. So the police came around two in the morning to find that he was shot at seven times. We think that one of the students did it because all the teachers were at a meeting yesterday at the time we heard the shots.” The teacher told everyone.
“Well what was he doing here in the first place?” I question frantically, I mean who’s going to have the guts to tell Claudia?
“We think that he was here getting his math text book when he came and since he’s so close to the school, he just had to walk. Also, there wouldn’t be anyone around to hear the fires.”
Luckily I was the first of my friends to reach school. So I got to tell everyone the news first! Ha. First Alyssa got there, then Sara, then Brittany, then Dani, then Alexa, then finally Claudia. Oh and Emma got there after Dani. As I told them there were some gasps, whoas, and a few tears from Claudia. Though Emma seemed fine with the death, almost like she didn’t care.
“Hey, I wonder if they’ll let kids look around for clues” Emma wonders.
“Or when we’ll have to start school again.” Alyssa groans.
“Wait, Emma, why do you want to look around for clues? Isn’t that the police’s job?” I question.
“Well I thought they could use all the help they can get.”Emma responds.
So we go up and ask our questions to another teacher and they say that school will start when the police leave and that we’d have to ask the other question to the policemen. When we start to ask our question, the policeman say that we could but that we’d have to stay out of their way. Wow right? I thought they’d tell us to get the heck out of there and that they would call our parents saying that we’re involved in criminal activity! Though, I’m not the best guesser in the world.
“I found something!” Emma screams!
“What, what?” Everyone’s asking.
“I found a clue.” Emma answers.
“What does it say?” The policemen question firmly.
“It says-
Whoever finds me,
will then go and sea,
the letter on the big oak tree.
Next, they’ll wonder what it means,
though who figures it out’s the one who you need most.”
Emma says in an eerie tone.
“What does that mean?” I ask.
Just then, the police ask to see the note.
“Hey on the clue, it says go and sea- like sea, water, ocean yatta yatta.” One of them said.
“Well then they probably mean Carpenter Lake since it’s so close.” One kid shouts out.
“Yeah and there’s a park right next to it, where kids go and play on that big tree. Though I’m not sure that it’s an oak tree.” Another girl yells.
Everyone goes over to the park by the lake to find the tree. When we get there, like the clue said, there’s another letter on the tree.
“I think that Emma should get to read it because she found the first one.” Sara declares.
“Yeah!” We all agree.
“OK.” One of the policemen state.
“Here goes nothing,
Ahh you found it,
You’re half way there
The first clue
Is a farmer’s heir.
Look around for
Some raked grass
This clue has
Oh such great mass.
Emma once again reads in an eerie tone.
“I know the answer!” Alyssa shouts out.
“What is it?” We all wonder.
“The island in the middle of the lake. Because if we’re, half way there, and look, someone just raked and cut all the grass. Also it has great mass.” Alyssa proudly said.
“What about the farmer’s heir?” People ask.
“Oh yeah, well, if there are fields on the island, maybe the person is a farmer.” Alyssa whimpers.
“It doesn’t say that the person is a farmer, it says that he is a farmer’s heir.” One of the policemen remark.
As everyone continues to talk, we start to take police boats to the island. Though when we go to the raked grass, something unexpected happens. We look around and
“Oh my gosh! A body!” Dani screams.
“Where!” The policemen question.
“Right there!” Dani yelps as she points to a place next to the grass.
As the police investigate they start to look for fingerprints but they can’t find any on the body.
“This guy must’ve been amazing at this, because we can’t find prints on either of the crime scenes.” A policewoman examines.
“Well I know where to start. Identify both the bodies and find all characteristics and similarities between the two people and figure out where to start.” I suggest.
“That’s a good idea, uh…”
“Cassie. My name’s Cassie.” I tell the policeman.
The police identify the bodies as one male and one female- Cameron Cambo and Lys Clark. As they can tell there are no relations between the two.
“I know!” One of the boys on the chess team states. “If you move the letters around you can make- My Name Is Clark.”
“Or both their last names start with “c”.” Another girl adds.
“Or they both have a c, a, and an r in their names.” A boy figures.
“Oh! It could be car!” Someone yells.
“Wait before we get too ahead of ourselves, we still don’t have a clue like it said on the last one- wait what’s that?” I say as I grab into a bush and pull out a note. “I found it! It says-
Now you’ve got me,
You’re truly a star.
Now you must find my
Get away
That’s it. There’s no more.” I sadly whisper.
“No, there is more, the last word is car- remember, c, a, r. Car! That means that he or she had a car when they did the murder. And that they’d be over sixteen.” Emma adds.
“No they don’t! That’s just to through us off track. They’re probably under sixteen and they probably drive a Sord Star- you know, the one commercial that is played way too much.” Sara adds in.
“Then that narrow’s it down to kids under sixteen, have recently stolen a Sord Star, and probably has an act of arson to burn their fingerprints off.” One of the policemen commented.
“So do you have a database that will narrow people down to those few things?” One of the kids asks.
“Yeah but that might take a few days, I think we should stay on the trail of these clues, we might find something.” The same policeman added.
“But the clues lead us to these characteristics; there are no other notes or letters!” Some of the “sporty type” girls squeal.
“Yeah there are! Look over here. There is another note, but it is in the bush and I don’t want to have to crawl in there right now!” Another girl squeaks.
“I’ll get it!” I yell. “Oh guess what. Another clue. This time it says-
Reach in a bush,
Prick your finger
Walk around
Calmly linger.
The body’s liquid
Red as well
Follow the trail
Of a dead man’s smell”
“I know what he or she means.” A boy concludes, “If you prick your finger you bleed. And it’s red. Finally, it comes from the body and it’s a liquid. So he must’ve left a blood trail somewhere around here.”
“That’s good thinking young boy. For the first time today you figured it all out.” A policeman explains.
We look around for blood and hopefully a blood trail. Then some guys, who were looking together, found drips of blood leading into some trees.
“Hey, let’s see where this blood trail leads.” One of the boys yells.
Into the forest we go, until someone sees another clue.
“Here’s the clue!” A girl indicates. “This time it’s really long so yeah. It says,
The final clue,
To find my name
Is to know that this
Is not a game
Though chess may just
Come in handy
Knights way
Just land it
Move back.
That’s part one according to the clue. Here’s part two-
To win is to win
To lose is to lose
Though I’ll win
Just think who’s
To blame
It is an
Amazing game
Year 1999
What’s my name?”
“So he’s talking about chess, right?” A student asks.
“Yeah.” A girl answers.
“I know!” A boy yells. “Whoever is the 1999 chess world champion, because if he’s talking about chess and he said that he’ll win and year 1999.”
“Cool.” Some boys howl.
As some people pull out their phones to go on the internet and find who it was, someone figures it out.
“Hey wasn’t it Alexander Khalifman?” Another boy on the chess team questions.
“Yeah it was. I just looked it up.” Another sporty girl declares.
“So we know his name, can we arrest him?” Some kids wonder.
“No, because it could just be someone else trying to plant this on him, and I think that he is older than sixteen. Though I’ll check if he has any acts of arson.” A policeman says.
As we try and put this all together, I think about Cameron and realize that he was our school’s chess champion and I pull out my phone and Google Lys Clark. I see that she loved chess and that her dad taught her. So the common denominator between all these people is chess and it was mentioned in the clue. Maybe he found these people as a threat to him as they got older. Though I think that a world champion shouldn’t be threatened by a 12 year old boy and a 17 year old girl. I wonder what other information I don’t know.
”Does anybody anything that puts a relation between Lys and Cameron?” Teachers question.
“I do,” I answer. “They both are into, and good at, chess.”
“That’s a start. Anything else that could help?” A policeman asks.
“Well Cameron was my friend and I know that he was always talking about going to the world championship for chess, so maybe he found Lys and Cameron as competition so he, well, killed them.” A boy figures.
“Yeah that was what I was thinking, too.” I add in.
“So does anyone know anything about Lys?” A policeman wondered. “OK. Call up members of Lys’s family to get more.”
“OMG! I found another clue!” A sporty girl squeals.
“Where!” Everyone gasps.
“Right here. Here, I’ll read it.-
Ahh you think that
Chess is the game
Well your wrong
Am I insane?
Well here it goes
Here comes the clue
Step up CJ
And look in your shoe
That’s it.” The girl finishes.
“Well we were wrong about the chess and who the heck is CJ?” Some people hiss.
“Cassie Johnson!” Alyssa yells.
“It can’t be me. My shoes are empty.” I say as I flip over my shoe to find a piece of paper falling out. “Well what do you know, there’s a note. And it says-
Well CJ they know you
To find the true killer
Go up then down
And around the pillars
The white one, not blue
The green, not red
Go in quiet
Or you’ll be dead…
Wow that was cheerful.” I state.
“It actually was. Look if you go up then down, you’ll see the sky then the ground and it looks like pillars. Then if you take the clouds out of the sky and the grass from the blood stain you get light green. Finally, if you go in quiet to the light green pillars you’d be in the library by the school. You know -libraries are quiet. And that mean librarian is always saying if you keep talking you’ll be dead. Oh and I was in there last week with Cam and that’s exactly what she said to him.” One of Cam’s friends exclaims.
“Wow, that’s smart.” A teacher remarks.
“Or the murderer is jealous of them and the next clue is at the library.” A girl confronts.
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking. It could just be something easy. Whoever said this guy was smart.” A boy agreed.
“Wait! What if that’s right, then let’s go!” Some teen dude proclaimed.
We walk to the library and we go to the front desk and ask if there has been anything going on here. For an answer they said yes and handed us a piece of paper someone dropped off that said-
If anyone comes in looking for something out of the ordinary, give them this note.
“Wow. It’s as if the killer knows where we are going.”
“Well what are we waiting for, open it!” Claudia yells.
“I will” Dani yelps. “It says-
Almost there
Here I go
You wouldn’t think
I was a foe
Love me you do
As there is one less of you
This is my favorite clue
Baby I’m going to win
AGAIN
I’m telling you one time
Last time
That’s it. After last time, it stops.”
“Wait! I know where to go. The Justin Bieber gift shop. Because it has love me, one less, favorite clue, baby, and I’m telling you one time.” I figure.
“Come on, let’s go!” Cops yell.
Once we’re at the shop we found that there was nothing inside and that it was empty. The only noise was a slight ticking and it smelt real bad. Sort of like fire, but more ashy.
“Get SWAT in here now! Everyone get out! Come on” A policeman screamed. “Someone put a bomb in here we need to get you kids out! Come on. Let’s go!”
“What?!” Everyone was yelling.
I find my friends and leave, but just when I thought we were all safe,
“Well, well, well. You guys fell right into my trap! Now all that will be left of you is your shoes. Just like Cameron and Lys. See both of them were on my side. They died to help me give the clues. They said you all we so smart that you could do it and that you all liked Cam as a friend and hey, it worked. You will all die in ten, nine, eight..”
“Wait. No. Of all people why, why are you doing this Justin? To get attention?” I wonder. I mean, Justin Bieber is the killer!
“Because you all are the only school that most of the kids in it don’t like my music and that won’t. Or you just don’t care. So this is to get money. Also, I liked to be called Xavier Straub” Justin or Xavier answers.
“You don’t have to do this. We’ll start to buy your CD’s. Anything to stop us from dying.”
“That’s just it. You still won’t like my music. So seven, six, five four, three, two, …”
“Wait! What about when you came to our school?” I ask.
“I thought it would make you guys like me more, but it didn’t and one!” Justin said just as he pressed a big, red button. Though nothing happened.
“Why isn’t this working? Of all things, this! Well, funny thing” Justin pulled out a hand gun.
“How about I just use this!” BANG!
“OWWWWW!” Emma cried. “I got shot!”
“Someone call 911!” A policeman shouts.
“Emma! Are you OK?” I cry.
“What do you thi- OWWWWWW!” Emma whales.
“It’s gonna be OK. Just stay calm. Anyone have a towel to stop the bleeding?” I yell.
“Move out of the way, out of the way! Ambulances are here. Clear the area.” Policemen shout.
As Emma gets taken to the hospital the teachers are trying to comfort us, which isn’t a good seeing that it just keeps reminding us with what just happened. Even the crazy jock dudes are sad and I was thinking it was because Cameron died. Not because of Emma. Well what can we expect? So as we get back to the school we all wait for the news.
“I hope that she’s Ok. She seemed so nice.” Alyssa sighs.
“Yeah and I was just starting to like her.” Claudia comments.
“You guys are all avoiding one crucial fact. She just died. Now she’s gone. Not coming back. See ya later..”
“Stop it Cass. You are making this like it’s all your fault.” Sara assures.
“I know that it’s not my fault. Though, it’s just, weird thinking that Justin Bieber was a serial killer.” I state.
“Though he just shot her, she might stay alive.” Alexa mentions.
Then, it all comes to me. I just saw someone possibly die! How am I going to sleep tonight knowing that one fact? I get back to the school not wanting to speak and neither does anyone else. We’re all just silent. The one thing that keeps coming back to me is that, the pop star- it boy, turned out to be killer over some stupid jealousy. Man, what has our world come to?
“Hey, Cass!” Dani yells. “I think you should give those New York tickets to Emma’s family so they can fly back to Manhattan to have her funeral.”
“What if she’s not dead?” Alyssa asks.
“Positive thinking- that’s so gonna bring her back to life.” I smirk.
“Seriously, Cass. Stop it! This isn’t your fault!” Brittany yells.
Then I’m silent. Though through all this silence from everyone, someone walks up.
“Whoa, what just happened?” A girl from the street yells.
“Murder. Duh what does it look like blind one?” Cam’s friends say.
“Well, wait what?!” The girl says.
“You heard me!” The boys shout back.
“My name’s Abbi. I don’t take shouting well. Though you’re first timers, I’ll cut you some slack.” Abbi whispers to the boys.
“Weirdo.” The boys yell after her.
“OMG! What did I just tell you! You guys don’t listen. GRRRR! Where’s my therapist when you need him!” Abbi screams at the top of her lungs.
“You sure do need a therapist lady.” One of the boys side comment.
“Can we get back to the MURDERS!” I yell.
“What did I just say about yelling!” Abbi shouts. “Problem child!”
“What did you just call her?” Alyssa questions- again tough girl like.
“PROBLEM-CHILD!” Abbi screams.
“Wow, your mom must pay a lot for that therapist to work with you.” Dani jokes.
“LOL. So funny. Look, there’s a blond in the house.” Abbi says.
“You did not just go there.” Dani says as she deeply breathing. “Wait, look who’s talking- you’re blond, too! Ha.”
“That’s because I dyed my hair- yours looks natural!” Abbi says without thinking.
“So you’re a fake, a loser, just stop me when you’d like.” Dani laughs.
“Don’t you guys need to solve a murder or something.”
“Whatever loser” Dani snarks.
Wow, I never knew that Dani could get so mad over someone calling her blonde.
“Why did you get so worked up over that girl calling you blonde?” Brittany wonders.
“Because, I don’t know, I just am mad.” Dani sighs.
“About what?” Alyssa questions.
“Well, you know Lys?” Dani asks.
“The girl that got murdered by Justin Bieber? How could we forget?” Sara states.
“Well, she was my sister. I’m adopted.” Dani says as she starts to cry.
“OMG! That’s so sad! Why didn’t you tell us?” Alexa screams.
“I didn’t know up until like, uhm, two months ago. I just assumed that since I looked like my parents I was, well, normal.” Dani whispers.
“Oh, sorry.” Alexa apologizes. “Though that doesn’t mean you’re not normal.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“Want to bet?”
“Why not.” Dani
TO BE CONTINUED...
