Realistic or Modern 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐢𝐭?

[amberskies]

content warning: this roleplay contains dark themes including murder, emotional trauma, gore, drugs, alcohol, violence, etc. ; proceed with caution !

Sunnydale was your typical chirpy American town with golden shores and acres of woods stretching endlessly beyond its borders. Though not small enough where everyone knew one another, its residents were rather close-knit and there was a strong sense of community among the citizens. Small businesses as opposed to multi-billionaire businesses dotted the streets, with its owners frequently offering discounts to its regulars. As the name suggested, there was always plenty of sunshine, as well as happiness, or so everyone thought. Sunnydale had a reputation for having a relatively low crime rate, with their last known serial killer having been captured 26 years ago. But everything changed on that god-forsaken day; October 8th, 1996.

News of a murdered Sunnydale High student spread through the town like wildfire. No one had seen a gruesome killing like that in a long time. The girl had been found with multiple stab wounds across her stomach, as well as her back. Her poor parents had found her bloodied body on the white front porch when they returned home that night, the wood planks now stained with the blood of their deceased child.

That was last night. Joshua's parents had the habit of leaving the television on practically every moment of the day, meaning he caught the breaking news just as he was leaving the house to drive to school. Though he didn't give a rats ass about being late to school and proceeded to linger by the doorway to hear more about the victim, his father eventually ushered him out of the house to get to class. Honestly, it was more of an excuse for him to be tardy, but that clearly wasn't working out. Besides, part of him felt the need to assure himself that the victim was no one he was close to. But, upon driving to school, he found that the victim was none other than Heather Davis, a girl he hardly knew but nonetheless felt a smidge of empathy for. She must've been real unlucky to be the first murder victim in a town that practically never had killers.

Ellie, on the other hand, was absolutely oblivious to the news of the murder. Her parents both worked full-time, and news on Sunnydale were always ridiculously boring so she never kept up with that on TV. She went about her day as she normally did, preparing herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to eat at school for lunch before grabbing a piece of buttered toast to munch on during her walk to the high school. The brunette pulled her headphones and cassette player out of her backpack, placing the former atop her head before pressing the play button on the latter. 'Your Woman' by White Town blared into her ears as she walked, and she resisted the urge to bop her head to the beat. She was definitely not about to do that in public.

The girl seemed to be the first among her group of friends to reach the school, which was rather typical. Joshua was always on the verge of being late anyway. One of her good friends, Lindsey, finally showed up and joined Elisabeth, who was sitting atop the table portion of a picnic table on the school grounds. She proceeded to pull her headphones off her head and carefully placing them back inside her backpack as Lindsey moved to sit down on the seating.

"Did you hear about Heather?" Lindsey asked, her eyes slightly wide as she looked up at Ellie. Lindsey was a bit of a gossiper, but the look on her face didn't resemble the one she typically held whenever she was prepared to spill something juicy. She was having a bit of trouble reading her expression, if she was being honest.

"Uhm.. no?" Ellie shrugged, her tone hinting that she was waiting for her to elaborate, moving so she was sitting with her legs crossed atop the table. Before Lindsey could say more, Joshua showed up and let his backpack drop next to Lindsey. He greeted Ellie with a quick, somewhat forced smile and giving the same to Lindsey. He was a little closer to Lindsey than he was with Ellie, but regardless, their faces were always familiar to him and he knew that the rest of their friends were bound to join the table before the first bell of the day rang.

"Sunnydale ain't so sunny no more." Joshua immediately started the morning with a (very dark) joke, earning a look of disbelief from Lindsey and one of mere confusion from Ellie, who still hadn't been filled in on the Heather drama.

"Isn't it too early to be making jokes about that?" Lindsey questioned him with furrowed eyebrows.

"About what?" Ellie interrupted.

"You didn't watch the news this morning?" Josh said, not looking at her as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes along with his Clipper, lighting the cancerous stick between his lips before taking a drag.

"You watch the news every morning?" Ellie shot back, to which Josh only responded with a glance as he puffed out a cloud of smoke. The two weren't particularly close, but she knew him just enough where she could make comments of this nature knowing he wouldn't get offended by them. They were both sort of sarcastic so it fit well anyway.

 

[esor]

Skylar obviously went about her morning as normal, she had a fairly strict routine in the morning- she feared that if she didn't stick to it she would end up lazing in bed all morning and being frightfully late for school. Whilst she was adamant on keeping up with the worlds happenings, it wasn't as though she would check the news all that regularly. With the news either being boring or depressing, she would skip it and catch up with the important events in her own time. But on that morning, her father broke the news to her once she'd jogged down the stairs. The girl stopped dead in her tracks, looking up at her dad with a melancholic and bewildered expression. Understandably so, her dad pulled her in for a tight hug and spoke. "That could've been you."

Of course, those were not the words Skylar wanted to hear before going to school. Now, no one was certain what the motivation for killing Heather Davis was but it was only typical for her parents to be worried. Due to that, her mother practically forced her father to drive her to school that day; they wanted to take no chances. By then, though, he mother had gone to work and left Sky in the trusted hands of her husband.

The conversation on her way to school wasn't the most thrilling.

"Stick with the people you trust at school, and come straight home. Walk home with...what's that boys name? 'J' something. I don't remember, but he's tall enough to protect you. Don't take no for an answer. In fact tell him that if he doesn't walk you home then he will have me to deal with. Oh and your mother said to make sure Elisabeth is okay." Her dad demanded, though his words seemed stern it was clear his intention was warm.

"Okay, dad. I'll try. I'm sure Ellie is okay." She responded as her dad pulled up outside of school. Immediately she saw her friends and waved a goodbye to her dad, maybe in this situation a hug would've been appropriate but her peers were all around and she was still a shy teenager, after all.

Slinging her backpack over her right shoulder, she walked up to her friends and sat down as she overheard the conversation.

"Josh watching the news every morning? I don't think this is an appropriate time to joke." She teased light heartedly, hoping she wasn't out of line. "Is everyone alright?" She asked seriously, her tone noticeably changing.

Being his usual self, Alex turned up silently not long after Sky had sat down. He stood quietly at the end of the table, more so just listening to the conversation and making note that the faces he saw regularly were still around. He of course had heard the news, it was spreading rapidly. It had been on the news on his way to school, it shocked him, he was relieved it was no one he knew too much. But since he couldn't do anything about it, he thought there was little point in making a fuss. Plus, he had other things to be concerned about. If he made eye contact with one of the people sat at the table, he gave a small nod with his face remaining rather appropriately expressionless.

 

[amberskies]

A familiar figure made its way toward the picnic table, and Ellie's attention momentarily shifted to the brunette approaching them.

"Yeah tell him that." Ellie rebutted as Skylar joined the table, her comment referencing Josh and his previous joke even though Skylar wasn't there to witness it.

"Josh made a joke about Sunnydale not being sunny anymore." Lindsey told Skylar, filling her in on what Ellie was referencing since neither of the other two showed signs of explaining it.

"I told it funnier." Josh merely commented, not at all phased by the fact that his joke could've actually been harmful if the wrong person heard it. Did he care? Absolutely not. Whether someone would've gotten offended by it was not his problem. That was their own fault for being sensitive. Had someone else heard the way he talked to his friends, they'd think he absolutely hated them, but that was far from reality. He simply had trouble showing affection the way others did, and was too unbothered by the whole murder. If he was being honest, it was sort of inspiring him to rent a horror movie tonight. Scream 1996 felt like a good choice..

"Can someone tell me what happened?" Ellie steered the conversation once more, simply feeling excluded at this point. No one seemed to want to let her in on what the hell had happened to Heather Davis. Did her boyfriend cheat on her? Was she moving out of town? Everyone always wanted to know the dirt on her, seeing as she was one of the most popular girls in Sunnydale High. Not that Ellie was the type to keep up with drama like Lindsey would, but the fact that everyone but her knew made her want to know.

Josh let out a puff of smoke, not showing any indication of wanting to speak on the matter. Linsdey, too, gave Skyler a look for a moment, unsure of how exactly to word such a tragedy. It was silent for a solid 10 seconds, before Josh let out a huff and flicked away the ash from the tip of his cigarette.

"Heather Davis was stabbed to death last night." Josh casually let out, the tired look in his eyes showing just how unfazed he was by it all. He wasn't totally unempathetic, and to be honest he was a little surprised when he first heard about it because deaths were not commonplace here, but he was over that phase within a few minutes.

Ellie, on the other hand, simply blinked in response, her eyes the tiniest bit wider than before. "Oh." She simply let out, unsure of how else to react. Then, her eyebrows lowered as she thought about why that could happen.

"They don't know who did it. Her boyfriend's a suspect though." Lindsey added, her eyes also a little wide, accompanied with her lifted eyebrows. She seemed to almost always have that sort of expression when talking about sinister things. Not that it happened frequently.

"Yeah apparently they got into a pretty bad fight last week but.." Ellie shrugged a little as her sentence trailed off into nothing. "I mean could Kevin really kill someone?" She told them. Working in a rental movie store triggered an obsession for horror films, especially the slasher kind, so she did her best to apply that knowledge in real life, unsure of really how much was actually applicable to real life. Sure, she loved horror, but she didn't want to live through a movie like that.

 

[esor]

Surprisingly Alex grew comfortable enough to speak on the matter now. It followed after Ellie's sentence trailed off; if there was something he despised it was weird awkward silences.

"I reckon anyone could kill." He said. "If someone has the motivation, what's stopping them?" He continued. His face then faltered slightly as he noticed a weird look or two from the people at the table. "I didn't do it." He added sternly. At the same time, eyeing up the cigarette that Josh was fiddling with. Alex was not necessarily a heavy smoker but he definitely enjoyed the occasional cigarette- not at all for the social aspect. That's actually why he refrained from smoking much in public, he was not a fan of people coming up to him in order to ask him for a smoke or a light. Smoking isn't supposed to stress me out.

Sky slowly nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few people were questioned. Maybe even us. Everyone knew Heather, everyone knows how popular she is. Any one of us could be questioned." This did worry Sky a little, she was extremely bad at confrontation, either way. Being confronted she would get all shaky, warm, panicky and anyone could say she would not ever confront someone about anything, so this was her worst nightmare.

The worry in her mind would most likely not subside all day, not even just being questioned but she could be a victim, Ellie could be a victim, Josh could be... Anyone could be. She hoped it was a one time thing. She was considerably empathetic, she felt great sorrow for Heather's parents, her boyfriend and her close friends. It was terrifying. From that moment her mood deteriorated, understandably. The shock wore off, reality set in and her father's words replayed in her head, but she shook it off and tried to keep up with the conversation. It was baffling to her how the boys seemed so nonchalant about it. Alex was quick to chime in again.

"We will be questioned, but if you're innocent you have nothing to worry about." He said to the group, in a strangely uncomforting tone. Anyone close to him could recognise that that was just his nature, but to anyone else it could appear odd.

With a nod, Sky looked around at her friends. Remembering she had to ask Josh something, her eyes gazed over at him as she built up the courage- most likely she would be too shy to ask despite them being friends.

 

[amberskies]

Ellie's eyes shifted over to look at Alex, who spoke up for the first time that morning. She wasn't too surprised with the words leaving him, he was never one to approach if you needed uplifting words. She looked down at him as he spoke, seeing as she was the only one sitting on top of the actual table rather than the seats. It made her taller than him for once. And Josh. Her only reaction to him claiming he wasn't the killer was a quiet chuckle. She glanced across at her friends for a brief moment, contemplating whether any of them had the capacity to take someone's life. Skylar was easily the first one she was crossing off that list. It only took her two seconds to realise how stupid her little mental game was, and she paid attention to the conversation at the table once more.

"Yeah they're definitely gonna question us." Ellie agreed with Alex, before she took in Skylar's reaction and realised maybe that wasn't the best thing to say right now. "He's right though. False accusations are extremely rare anyway."

"You don't have motive!" Lindsey chirped in with a little more enthusiasm than necessary, earning a look from Josh who was slowly beginning to zone out from the conversation.

"Just be honest with the cops." Josh shrugged, before a hint of a sly smirk played across his lips as he looked over at Sky. "Unless you're the killer." He glanced across at everyone else on the table, as though trying to read their reactions. Lindsey had a look of annoyance on her face, whereas Ellie was too busy rolling her eyes at his humour. Had it been a week from now, maybe she'd find it a tiny bit funny, but seeing as they were about to live through that part, she didn't find it as funny. She wished she had the carefree mindset Josh held. Only to some extent, though.

And then, the morning bell rang. Lindsey let out an audible groan, proceeding to lift herself up and off of the bench with her backpack. Joshua took his time, still sitting there and finishing up his cigarette. He didn't care much for tardies, and either way, he wasn't going to be late anyway. Ellie pushed herself off the tabletop, grabbing her bag once she was at her feet and slinging it across her shoulders. Only then did Josh choose to join them. He tossed his cigarette to the floor and crushed it with the heel of his boot, before gathering his things and shoving his hands inside the pockets of his denim jacket, waiting for the rest of the group.

 

[esor]

At the end of that conversation, Alex gestured a relaxed shrug. Even though he was not one bit bothered about being late to class, he was in front of the group and stomped ahead into school. Anyone would've thought he was uninterested in spending time with the group behind him but in reality he was in his own world just walking and taking very little notice of the people surrounding him. He genuinely was contemplating suspects in his head, he wasn't convinced that it was someone their age, or even someone who went to their school. Either way, the thoughts drifted from his mind soon after as the dread of seemingly endless classes flooded in.

Getting up from the table, Sky walked over to Ellie. "Glad it wasn't you." She smiled, hoping she could keep the situation as light as possible at the same time as showing how grateful she was that Ellie was unharmed. After she spoke, the girl looked over at Josh who was still sitting, gazing at him until he got up. The idea of borderline presenting him with a threat was very daunting, it felt as though he was a celebrity. Why is this happening!? She asked herself. Usually Sky would be cool and relaxed around him, just like she would be around Ellie or Lindsey but something was different. She felt like she wanted to walk beside him, chat to him and ask how he was. Whilst she was a very caring person, it never seemed like Josh was one for chit chat.

When the group began to walk she made an effort to stay quite close to him, still gathering the courage to ask if he'd walk her home. A week ago, hell even yesterday, this wouldn't have been something that troubled her. She put her newfound awkwardness around the taller boy down to the uncertainty and worry of the whole murder situation. However, there was no way she wasn't going to talk to him.

"Scary, isn't it?" She asked him, looking up towards him as they continued their stride towards their classes. What a stupid question! She thought afterwards.

 

[amberskies]

Seeing as Ellie was among the first to get up, she had to wait a little for all of them to get up, particularly Josh. As they proceeded to walk toward the entrance of the dull, brown school building, Ellie turned her attention toward Skylar who was walking beside her. A smile melted onto her face, giving the girl a nudge as they stepped up the stairs.

"Yeah, me too." She responded. Though her response was short, Ellie hoped Skylar understood that she truly meant it. If it wasn't Heather but someone else she was far closer to, Ellie wouldn't know what to do or how to react. It would feel like the world was against her. In a town where murder victims were incredibly rare, it would've felt like a horrible punishment. Just thinking about Heather's loved ones made her heart feel heavy, and she noticeably grew quiet. Lucky for her, Skylar wasn't planning on continuing the conversation with her and moved onto someone else, meaning Ellie's change in attitude went unnoticed.

While Alex was at the front of the group, Josh was practically trailing behind them. He couldn't be bothered to pull out his half-crumpled up schedule from his bag, so he knitted his eyebrows in thought as he tried to remember what class he had first. Definitely not math, he had that first yesterday. It had to be history then. No, it could be chemistry too...

He was shaken back to reality by Sky's words, and he tore his eyes away from the floor and looked over at her. It took a second for his brain to process what she said, before he instinctively responded with a shrug.

"Not really." He told her. After a second, he realised that he totally sounded like a sociopath. Someone had just been murdered and he just.. wasn't scared. So, he justified himself. "Just cause it happened once doesn't mean it'll happen again." He added, not only defending himself but also assuring Sky a tiny bit. "I mean sure, Heather was popular, but.." Joshua trailed off, momentarily leaning in her direction as he spoke his next words.

"She was also a bitch. Pretty good target if i'm being honest." Josh went on. The boy really didn't have a filter, but he felt comfortable enough with Skylar to admit that to her. He probably wouldn't be that brutally honest about Heather so quickly after her death to just anyone. That would make him look suspicious.

 

[esor]

As soon as they delved into the conversation and Josh was quick with a response, Sky felt more comfortable again. His reaction wasn't necessarily unexpected to Sky, it was just that she cringed at the uncooperativeness of it. Anyone else would've just nodded, maybe let a 'mhm' escape their lips but Josh said what he thought, and she liked that- even if it wasn't the most socially acceptable thing for someone to say. She wouldn't justify his response with an agreement, but she playfully rolled her eyes and jokingly responded;

"Do you have a heart?" She teased, nudging his side gently with her elbow. "Oh, and I think I'd get too much second hand embarrassment if I watched you aimlessly walk around the school trying to figure out what class you have. It's English, lucky you." She offered a smile. However, this was one of the times she wasn't overly excited at the prospect of an English lesson. How could she be? It was pretty much guaranteed that each class would get a lecture of sorrow and caution from the teachers. In all honesty she was surprised school was running so normally, but then again the news only broke an hour ago. As they walked inside, she decided to just come out with what had been playing on her mind since the conversation with her father. Taking a breath, she began;

"My dad said he would really appreciate it if you'd make sure I got home okay...He may have spat out a threat but I wouldn't worry, he's just concerned. Ha, he must think you're like super strong or something..." She continued rather awkwardly, mentally scolding herself for being so odd.

Alex stopped in his tracks as he got lost in thought- whilst he wasn't opposed to being late to classes he'd rather not be stood there like a lemon as if he didn't know where he belonged. So, he spun on his heel and turned to the shorter girl who was now in front of him.

"Ellie, do you have...What class do you have now?" He asked calmly. He recalled her being in quite a few of his classes, so figured it was likely they would be in the same one now, it would at least give him an idea. Alex had a plain black backpack slung loosely on his shoulder, but if you forced him to tip out the contents you'd find gum, a few loose cigarettes, a random packet of crisps and a practically brand new pen that his mother must have shoved in there a while back. He toyed gently with one of his drawstrings attached to his black hoodie as he looked down at her, awaiting the reply.

 

[amberskies]

Joshua placed a hand over the left side of his chest and waited for a moment before turning to look down at Skylar.

"No, I don't." He told her, his voice sounding rather serious though any one of his friends could tell that was just his way of being sarcastic. The corners of his lips curled up slightly and his eyebrows lowered in slight confusion as she mentioned English class. He had no clue how his friends could read him like that sometimes, particularly her. At least he didn't have to admit how much he didn't give a crap about English and how he wouldn't have minded wandering about the hallways aimlessly all morning. But, nonetheless, he adjusted his route so he was actually headed toward the English class now. Sky was clearly walking to class with him, and the last thing he wanted to do was make her get a late slip just because of him.

"Oh shit, thanks." He told her as they headed toward the English classroom. He walked into the door first, just to hold it open for her and wait for her to slip into the classroom before following her in. Joshua instinctively leaned his head down in her direction as she began speaking once again, not only because of the height difference but because he generally did that when he listened to people while walking. It was a bit of a subconscious habit.

Joshua was most definitely the type of guy that almost never felt awkwardness. He was far too carefree to perceive that type of emotion. So, as Skylar spoke innocently about wanting to be walked home, he started by nodding in response.

"You sure your dads not the killer?" He joked at first, referring to the threat part, but then grimaced a little as he processed what he had just said. As much as he loved not caring about the way he acted, he was a bit different when it came to people he cared about, and he realised that maybe making a joke like that about his friends dad wasn't too nice. "Bad joke. Sorry." He apologised briefly, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

"Yeah i'll walk you. I can beat a killer up." Joshua went on, pairing his second sentence with a smirk. He frequently had this little mischievous smirk sitting atop his lips. He slipped into a seat, letting his bag fall onto the desk with a thud.

Ellie had definitely zoned out. She had been following Xander this entire time, and didn't realise that at some point it was just the two of them and everyone else had already changed direction to head to class. It wasn't until Alexander turned around to talk to her that she snapped back to reality, almost bumping into him but stopping in her tracks before that could happen. She looked up at the tall man, blinking for a second and then furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to remember.

"Uh.." Ellie thought for a moment, looking away as she did so, recalling that today was Wednesday. That meant she had English first. "English." She remembered, looking at him right as she spoke. He was in front of her, so she waited for him to move in the direction of the classroom so she could walk alongside him. The hallways were beginning to empty, meaning they definitely had to start heading there now.

 

[esor]

"I'm certain." She chuckled softly, "It's fine. And thank you, I really do appreciate it. I'll repay you somehow, J." She continued as she slipped off her back onto the desk and pulled out her book and a couple of pens. Moving her bag to the floor, she sat down in the seat beside Joshua. She loved sitting next to a friend...usually. But now she felt nervous, her pens slipping out of her clammy hands and she just felt a heat radiating off of herself. Maybe she was embarrassed, she just couldn't put her finger on this feeling- it was stressful and annoying but she shoved it to the back of her mind and prepared herself for the class. Suddenly, Sky found herself conscious of the way she looked and presented herself around Josh.

Alex gave a quick, almost unnoticeable, smile and began to head to English.

"Thanks, El." He replied coolly as he headed towards the class. Being a more of a loner, Xander wasn't one for light conversation and thus didn't find it awkward just walking to class. There was no pressure to talk just walking to class. His strides were quite big, long legs made it near impossible to walk at a slow pace- but he made an effort so he could stay beside Ellie. It would've just been rude to zoom away from her when they shared a destination. But soon enough something sprung to mind.

"Had no homework, did we?" He asked, still facing forward and looking where he was going. He wasn't even certain that the girl would have the answer to the question, but he figured everyone was more involved and prepared for the class than he was. Even if he thought really hard, Alex could not recall the last time he did homework. He was just wondering if he should expect a scolding today or not. Though considering the circumstances, he figured he wouldn't.

"Is... No, was Heather in this class?" He followed up. Alex was most likely the only person who took very very little notice of high school social hierarchy, of course he was aware but he was so painfully uninterested in it.

 

[amberskies]

Joshua looked up at her and shot her a look as she sat down, one of confusion. Repay him? Why would she need to repay him? The look remained on his face for a few moments before he spoke.

"Nah come on. This ain't the type of shit you repay." He waved it off with his hand, shaking his head softly at the same time. Even if there wasn't a killer on the loose, he'd still drive her home with no hesitation if she were to ever ask. It was just a bare minimum thing he was doing for her. He was a bit of an idiot sometimes, but not to the extent where he didn't understand the principle of getting women home safe.

He tore his eyes away from her for a moment as a couple of loud people emerged into the classroom, before looking to Sky once more.

"I'll drive you." he told her simply. He would usually drive when he was going to school, but if he was hanging out with friends and alcohol was involved, he avoided bringing his car. Again; he was a bit of a careless fool sometimes, but not to that extent.

"Yep." Ellie told him rather plainly. There was nothing else to say, really. If she were walking with anyone else, she might try and talk to fill the silence, but with Alexander she didn't particularly feel the need to do that. That was mainly because he generally didn't seem so talkative. How did they become friends in the first place? Who knew.

As they walked toward the classroom, her eyes caught sight of Heathers former locker. She stared at it as they walked past, reality finally beginning to set in. At first it was a little bit difficult to process there being a serial killer around, but seeing her locker covered in flowers and pictures felt like a pinch that brought her to reality. Someone had been murdered.

"Huh?" She asked, snapping back to reality once more. To be fair, she worked a late shift at the video rental store last night, which contributed to the random zoning out. She tended to do that a lot when she was tired. "We just had to annotate a poem. She won't check." Ellie told him. Their English teacher generally never checked for annotations, but given last nights events, even if it were something she checked for, there was no way she would today. That would be plain cruel.

"Yeah, she was." Ellie nodded. Saying 'was' felt weird. It felt wrong for some reason, even though it was right.

"You think it'll happen again?" She asked Alex, looking up at him. Logically, just because one person was killed didn't necessarily mean it would happen again. But, Ellie was a bit of a paranoid pessimist, so her mind was coming up with all sorts of worst-case-scenarios. Xander's honesty would probably help in this situation.

 

[esor]

“Thank you.” Skylar replied sincerely, it was strange that she felt like she owed him for that. Every now and again she’d slip gas money into his wallet for driving them all around but she never felt a social obligation to repay him for getting her home safe. It was odd, she felt like she owed him something just for him being her friend. Her mind was very full of random stuff by now, so she decided that she was just overthinking it and was feeling odd. As a result of that she kept quiet from then, not wanting to continue appearing odd or being annoying, even confusing, to Joshua. It wasn’t like she was asking him to trek miles with her home, it was a simple request which she figured he might’ve offered anyway. Regardless, she decided to push that from her mind and turn her attention to the teacher who didn’t seem all that ready to start the day.

However, a lack of willpower meant Sky would be gazing over at Josh a good few times. She couldn’t help it, she just felt like studying his face.

Slowly nodding, Alexander replied.

“Not sure. Probably. Depends. If they killed her because she’s…well, her then no. If they killed her just for the fun of it, because she’s a girl, because she’s a teenager or whatever then yeah. Id place a bet on it happening again. But who knows.” He finished rhetorically.

“Don’t stress about it. No point.” He said simply as they neared the classroom. Alex was the typical bad guy who would sit at the back of the classroom throwing paper airplanes or random pieces of paper at random peers, but he had already made a mental not to refrain from that today. He could read the room, he wasn’t a complete prick. His lack of consideration for others usually came when he would lose something out of being somewhat weary of those around him, but sitting still would make no difference to him whatsoever.

“Cant let something you’re not able to control rule your life. But I bet that’s what’s going to happen. Everyone’s lives will change because of one incident.” Alex wasn’t shy to say.

 

[amberskies]

Joshua was pretty much the opposite of an overthinker. Something would happen, and he'd be over it within a moment. As he was now. Cool, so he just had to drive Sky home after school. Her house was practically on the way so it was pretty convenient. Not that it would’ve been inconvenient if she lived far anyway. When it came to his friends, he didn’t mind at all.

Elisabeth looked over at Alexander as he proceeded to talk about what he thought of the killer. Don’t stress about it. As much as she wished she could just forget about it and move on with her day, she couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in her stomach. Things like this never happened around here.

“Do you know what time she was killed?” She then proceeded to ask, remembering she had a shift later that night. Not that she could cancel it, but her paranoid mind felt the need to know every detail about the murder. Everyone had heard about it over the news, but all Ellie knew was that Heather was dead.

Their conversation couldn’t continue on much further, for the second bell rang, signifying the beginning of class. The teacher at the front of the classroom captured their attention by tapping loudly atop her desk with a wooden ruler. The chatter in the room eventually grew quiet, and Joshua slouched back into his seat, letting out a quiet sigh. English was probably among his least favourite subjects. Actually, every subject in school was his least favourite. The only class he could tolerate was music, though only to some extent because he didn’t like the way everything was taught there.

“Good morning class. I’m sure you all heard the very unfortunate news regarding Heather Davis, may her soul rest in peace.” The lady with greying hair proceeded to speak. “There will be a candlelight vigil held tonight in her memory in Lincoln Park at 9 pm.”

Joshua knew right off the bat there was no way he was going to that, not unless someone convinced him. Heather wasn’t particularly the nicest to him; not that he was sensitive about it, but he felt weird going to her vigil when she used to sort of bully him in middle school.

“Oh and please do not be alarmed by the police presence on campus. Police officers will be pulling each of you individually from class for interviews. None of you are suspects, they are simply trying to understand what happened.” The teacher added. This time Josh let out a huff.

“Bullshit. They wouldn’t waste time interviewing us the day after the murder if they didn’t think one of us was involved.” Joshua muttered under his breath, his comment mainly directed to Sky but also just a way for him to get those thoughts off his chest. He firmly believed that the police thought one of them did it. Joshua thought it had to be one of the students; he doubted a grown adult would be interested in murdering a popular highschool girl.

 

[esor]

Alex could only reply with a shrug to Ellie's question, and while his curiosity about the specifics of the event was fairly non-existent, he did wonder why the girl was asking such a particular question. The thought was knocked out of his head as soon as the second bell chimed.

Hearing his huff, Sky looked over at Josh as he uttered a few words, only responding with a slow nod. She wasn't sure how she felt, but she was certain that being questioned wasn't something she was particularly looking forward to, though of course she had nothing to worry about. Her gaze moved around the room, eyes focusing on each of her peers as she mentally evaluated if they would be capable of murdering someone. No, no, definitely not, maybe, probably already has. Of course she wasn't serious, but it was compelling to wonder if anyone she was around could have been the murderer. Her odd trance of thought was interrupted by the door opening. They must be starting the interviews now. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat in anticipation of who would be called up first.

Of course, the one person who didn't care got called first. She wasn't sure how, she was actually quite surprised it was him considering she expected them to go in some sort of register order- so Sky was wondering why Alex was the first to be called.

"Alexander Thompson." Called strong, serious voice from the man who had just stepped into the room. "Bring your belongings." He added, only building up the suspicion around it all. It did seem very daunting, but looking at Alex he seemed more exasperated about the fact he had to stand up again than the frightening situation at hand.

Alex was slow to get up, sloppily pushing his bag up his arm and standing. Ignoring his now misplaced chair, he walked over to the door and past the officer, who then followed him out of the door. He, too, was wondering why he was the first one to be called for questioning but knowing Alex he would just ask. He wouldn't shy away from that, he didn't find police all that scary considering he hadn't done anything to be penalised for.

"Where are we going? Is this school actually cool and has some sort of police questioning room?" He was probably the most inquisitive now than he had been for months about anything. The policeman wasn't keen to answer, figuring he'd have to deal with many smart-mouthed teenagers that day. Alex was brought to a room, it wasn't dimly lit with a bright white spotlight beaming onto the person being questioned, instead it was a fairly lit empty room with a table and a couple of chairs, as well as a voice recorder which Alex figured was only so that the police could be lazy and not need to write down anything. A quick inspection of the contents of his backpack was followed by some surprisingly relaxed questioning. They wanted to know his relationship with Heather, the last time they spoke, where he was the night it happened and the like. There was one question that Alex answered with more than a few words.

"Do you have any information surrounding the murder of Heather Davis?" The policeman asked, his tone more serious now.

"Yes. It was her boyfriend, probably. Heard they had an argument- that's all I know. But I can guarantee more than half of the people you question will say the same. That all?" He asked, and with a nod he stood and left the room, scooping up his bag on the way out. Walking back into the room, he slumped into his chair with his demeanour as unbothered as usual. The people around him turned to ask what it was like, but his powerful side-eye ushered them away and they left him alone.

 

[amberskies]

Ellie's attention shifted over to the teacher at the front of the room, Mrs. Thompson, as she went on and on about the tragedy that had struck Sunnydale. How ironic that the perfect little town with a low crime rate had its resident killer now. Perhaps she was overthinking it and it was a one-time thing. Yeah, that had to be it. If it wasn't Kevin, Heather probably did something to piss some other high schooler off and brought about her own death. She convinced herself that thats what happened.

Then, police officers opened the door and stood by it, calling the first interviewee of the day. It felt rather suspenseful, but once they called out the name, Ellie glanced over to the man beside her, who was incredibly calm considering the situation. Had she been the first one to be called, she'd probably dig a 6 foot hole and bury herself in it. Her eyes followed him as he stood up without a care in the world, exiting the classroom followed by another police officer. She glanced over at Sky and Josh, reading their reactions before forcing herself to pay attention to the front of the class again. Ellie let out a sigh, shifting around in her seat as though it would brush away all the nerves she was feeling.

Joshua was one of the few people in the classroom that hadn't really reacted to Alex being called first. Good for him, he could just get it over with. Though, part of him had expected Kevin to be interviewed first. Why was it Alexander? He figured the list was randomised to avoid creating suspicion, or it was done alphabetically considering Xander's name started with an 'A'. Either way, he didn't care enough to dwell on it for too long, and within the next minute, he was zoning out again, reflecting on whether to go to the music store and purchase a book with guitar songs and tabs.

Before long, Alex was back and another random student had been called to interview. It was some jock from the football team that Ellie hardly knew, simply because she wasn't one to circle with the popular kids. The boy seemed to give Josh a nod as they passed each other, one that Josh returned solely for the purpose of not looking like a dick.

Ellie looked over at Alex, contemplating asking him what the police had asked him, but then deciding not to bug him. The two didn't talk so frequently, and the last thing she wanted to do was get on his nerves, so she faced the front of the class instead.

For the next hour of class, students were pulled in and out of class for interviews, until 'Joshua Jenkins' was ultimately called out. He hadn't been paying attention to a single word leaving Mrs Thompsons lips, so he was caught a little off guard, but as he lifted up his head in response to hearing his name, he knew what was happening right off the bat. He hadn't taken a single thing out of his backpack so he simply grabbed it and slung it across one shoulder before glancing down at Sky.

"Wish me luck." He quietly teased, though he knew he didn't need any of that. He was just fucking around. Hell, a tiny sliver of him was excited at the prospect of being interviewed like that, simply because he felt like he was partaking in a mystery movie now. Without another word, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his denim jacket and was escorted out of the class by the police officers.

The officers had already made a routine of the whole interview process, leading Joshua to that boring little room and gesturing for him to sit at a chair in the centre of the room before hitting record. They stated his name, the date and time before proceeding with the questions. As much as Joshua wanted to shittalk Heather throughout the whole interview, he knew it would only make him look like a suspect, so he avoided mentioning how he truly felt about her, simply telling the officers that the two practically never talked.

"Where were you the night of October 8th between 11pm and midnight?" The officer then asked.

"Sleeping?" He answered, as though it were incredibly obvious. It was true. Joshua would stay up sometimes, but he also loved his beauty sleep, and last night happened to be one of those days.

"Can anyone confirm your alibi?" The officer continued.

"My.. bed?" Josh answered with his eyebrows raised up. The officer gave the boy a look as he crossed his arms, to which Josh let out a sigh. "Yeah okay my mom I guess. She stays up late in the living room so she would notice if I left."

He answered the last question similarly to Alex, before he was released and he returned to the classroom, slumping down in his seat. At least he got to miss part of English class.

 

[esor]

Content with the aloneness Alex got to bathe in for an hour, he decided it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to spike up conversation with the girl beside him. The tall boy wasn't sure he had any true friends, but he considered Ellie a close acquaintance. He was about to turn to her when he heard Josh's name be called, and out of curiosity he looked there first before turning back.

Skylar's eyes followed Josh as he stood, "Good luck." She quietly replied, she knew that he wouldn't need it but for the sake of people around them she didn't want to cause any kind of unnecessary suspicion around Josh. Not like he was capable of murdering or anything but she supposed keeping a low profile wouldn't hurt either of them. After he left the room, she turned to look at Ellie and give her a smile, one revealing a few emotions. More than likely to other people it would just come across as a friendly smile and be difficult for them to decipher but to Ellie, Sky's smile radiated reassurance and a sort of 'holy crap this is terrifying', feelings which she hoped were mutual between the two of them.

Alex peered over to Ellie.

"What did you ask me earlier? I didn't really answer. I might know how to now." He spoke whilst avoiding eye contact, though he didn't care much about actually answering her question, he was just curious as to why she wanted to know. He didn't think she did it, obviously, he was just wondering if he had some sort of connection. She also seemed to not know too much about the whole thing which he could think would be rather frustrating when it was the only thing anyone could talk about. Even Alex knew this wasn't the most warm-hearted of things to think but he just couldn't wait for people to calm down about it all. Sure the town hadn't seen anything like this for a long time, most likely the majority of people in the school hadn't ever gone through something so frightening but he thought everyone was blowing it out of proportion. Whilst he felt slightly guilty about wishing it was over- it was a girl who lost her life, after all, not something to be brushed under the carpet- he wondered if he was the only one who thought that. By the look on his face, Xander could've guessed that Joshua felt similarly as he was the only other person who didn't look like they were about to shit themselves before going for their police interview.

As the classroom door swung open again, Sky looked up and welcomed Josh back to the room.

"How did it go?" She asked before he even had chance to sit back down. She looked at him as he slumped down and awaited the answer, part of her was curious about his experience and part of her was curious about what to expect.

 

[amberskies]

As time passed, Ellie knew she was bound to get called up for her interview. At first she was incredibly nervous, but as the hour went on, she realised that she had absolutely nothing to worry about. Like she told Sky earlier, false imprisonment was incredibly rare. Besides, they had no dirt on Ellie. She would practically never talk to Heather, so she had no motive either. Though she knew very little about the entire crime, a big part of her wanted to point the finger at Kevin. The timing of their fight and her death didn't feel at all like a coincidence. Kevin was a hyper-masculine jock, who knew what Heather had said during the fight. Hyper-masculine men always had ridiculously fragile masculinities.

Thinking about it like that in her mind helped a little, and she barely noticed when Josh had been called. She returned the smile to Sky, one full of reassurance. They'd be just fine, Ells knew it. Then, she turned her attention to Xander as he seemed to want to speak to her.

"Just wondering what time she was killed." She told him, not particularly letting him in on why she wanted to know. Part of her was curious because she wanted to know what she was doing while Heather was getting butchered. The other was still unsure about whether this was a one time thing, so she was simply trying to figure out what time the killer would be active if he were to strike again. From what she watched in horror movies, organised killers like this one tended to stick to a routine.

Josh let out a bit of a yawn as he adjusted himself in his seat, before turning his head to look over at Sky, immediately shrugging at her question. She seemed to be the most nervous about the interview out of their whole group, so he figured he'd give her a crash course on what to expect.

"It's chill, they just ask about your relationship with Heather, your alibi, whether you have any important information." He filled her in on the interview process, stretching his long legs out under the desk and resting one ankle atop the other as he spoke, his hands stuck into his pockets once more. Another name was called, some random girl from their class that was sort of an outcast and simultaneously a nerd. There was no way she did it. She looked incredibly nervous as she stood up, clutching her books to her chest as she spoke. Joshua's eyes then returned to Sky, in case she wanted to know more about the interviewing. Anything to not pay attention to Mrs. Thompson.

 

[esor]

When Ellie replied to him, he gave her a slow nod, then Alexander answered.

"Not sure of the specifics, but sometime around 11 to midnight. Make sure to stay inside at that time tonight." He teased, a very small smile emerging on his face. "Only joking. I don't know if it'll happen again. Probably not." He spoke, letting a small silence fill the air before he continued to talk, figuring he may as well whilst she seemed up to chatting.

"Don't you think this is all a bit excessive?" The boy questioned looking at her. "Like sure, murder isn't common here so people are freaked out but again, murder isn't common here. So why is everyone so pent up about it? If I had to guess it was Kevin, he was angry at her and she said something he considered out of line and it pushed him over the edge. Don't blame him, really. I know she'd get on a lot of people's nerves." At this point it was just like he was spilling thoughts from his mind, most likely just doing it out of boredom. It wasn't exactly like he could leave, like he usually would when he got bored, he didn't want to raise suspicion. However if he had to sit there mindlessly for any longer there would probably be another murder victim. A little extreme, maybe. He just really did not want to be there.

Sky listened to Josh's words intently, not wanting to miss a detail. Despite her innocence she wanted to be prepared to avoid choking up and appearing suspicious. The girl figured that if she cleared her name now then she could forget about the whole thing and start to move on. In that process, figuring out what the hell these new weird feelings were. When his sentence came to a finish she offered a small smile.

"Thanks, J. I appreciate it." After sincerely thanking him she ran through the answers she would give in her head, and then it was just a waiting game. This was the one English class where she wasn't paying full attention, unsurprisingly, like most people in the room, she wasn't all that interested and heavier things weighed on her mind than feeling guilty for ignoring a teacher. Opening her notebook and pulling out a pen, she began to doodle random small things in the bottom right corner. A collection of little flowers, cartoonish blobs, random people. It was probably a way to expel nervous energy whilst she waited for her name to be called, any minute now.

Before she knew it, the girl who seemed more nervous than her returned with her face slightly red and her books still clutched to her chest. But she seemed somewhat relieved- the opposite of Sky as she heard her name.

"Skylar Hart." made her jump slightly, she nodded and ripped out the paper that she'd been aimlessly doodling on and put the book and pen into her bag. Standing, looked at Josh before she left out of the room.

 

[amberskies]

Ellie was listening to him pretty seriously at first, but then playfully rolled her eyes as he teased about having to stay in tonight.

"Not like I could anyway, i'm working late again." She told him. But if he was right and this was a one time thing then she should be fine, right? The only thing that concerned her was the walk home, which was always a little scary for Ellie regardless of whether there was a murderer on the loose. She told herself that that was a problem for future Ellie to deal with, not present Ellie. That was her logic for many things, which meant Ellie was a pretty resourceful person. Most of the time.

Her eyes had left him for a few seconds in thought, but then returned to him as he went on to ramble about Sunnydale exaggerating with the whole murder thing. Honestly, she didn't really agree with him on that. Sure, Kevin could've done it, but for some reason blaming Kevin felt way too easy. He was the obvious suspect, but in many cases, the obvious suspect was never the actual killer. She definitely watched way too many slasher movies.

"I guess it's just the anxiety of like.. whether this is a one-time thing or whether it'll progress to something more, you know?" She spoke, keeping her voice a little quiet so the English teacher wouldn't take notice of their conversation. They were sitting at the very back of the class anyway so their chances of getting caught chatting were fairly low. "I don't know. I guess you're right, Heather was kind of a bitch anyway." She shrugged. She didn't have the greatest experience with the popular girl, either. It seemed like everyone who wasn't popular was wronged by the girl in some way.

Josh flashed her his typical lazy smile with relaxed eyes, giving her a nod before pulling his hands out of his pockets and clasping them atop his stomach, his slender fingers tapping the top of his palms as he patiently awaited the end of class.

Then, he heard a familiar name being called out. He glanced over at Skylar, reading the expression on her face and trying to figure out just how nervous she was.

"You'll be fine." He gave her a nod, as though indicating toward the door. As long as she really wasn't the killer, nothing bad would happen. The police probably expected half the students to get all sweaty and nervous anyway, it wasn't necessarily a sign of guilt.

 

[esor]

"I'm sure it will be fine, I hope so anyway. I can't be bothered dealing with this all the time." Alexander replied to Ellie. After a minute of being in thought, he looked at her. He could tell that Ellie didn't completely agree with him but he wasn't seeking validation from a likeminded person, now he was just trying to get it off his chest and express his annoyance so he didn't explode.

"How late is working late?" He questioned, feeling kinda bad for her if she had to be walking on her own at night. But he lacked enough compassion to jump at offering her a ride home. Plus, if it was late he figured he would be doing something else, and she'd be fine. Maybe he was a dick for not offering her a lift, he did have a car to himself ever since his dad was out of work. His mother wouldn't usually drive, she learnt when she was young and had never been fond of it, so she let Alex take the car with the promise he would drive her if she needed to go somewhere, which Alex thought was more than fair. Alex adored the car, he remembered being by his dads side whilst they chose the car, and he remembered being so jealous he couldn't drive it yet. So, as soon as he could, Xander learnt to drive and before he knew it, the car was his. It was an old car now, but he loved it still. His pride and joy, more than anything.

Sky replayed Josh's 'You'll be fine' in her head as she was escorted to the room. Once she was sat down she felt more comfortable, the police offers weren't as intimidating as she made them out to be in her head and so she was fine. She answered the questions as she planned to in her head.

"Now this will be simple, just a few questions, answer honestly and there will be no issues." One of the men said as he pressed record, then stated her name and took regular procedure.

"Now, who was Heather Davis to you? What was your relationship like?" He asked.

"Heather and I never really spoke. I was aware of her, not too sure if she was all that aware of my existence but I wouldn't say I was close to her in the slightest. The last time I had a conversation with her was probably in middle school, I don't even remember." She started. She was then asked the other questions, to which her answers felt like too much but at least they were honest.

"I was at home at that time, like usual. I think I was writing, I was in my bedroom. No one was in there with me but my parents and brother were all in the house. My mom must have come to say goodnight to me at around 10pm...I think my dad was awake longer in the living room." She went on. "I don't know anything about what happened. I heard that her and her boyfriend, Kevin, had an argument but I'm not sure how severe it was, or if Kevin would ever do something like that." She finished.

Before long she returned back to the room, immediately catching Ellie's eye to whom she smiled, then sat down and looked at Josh.

"They think I'm guilty!" She joked, nudging him a little.

 

[amberskies]

Ellie was holding a pen in her hand, twirling it between her fingers absentmindedly as she awaited her turn. Alex had already gone, so had Josh, and now Skylar had been called to go. At this point she just wanted to get it over with so she wouldn't have to keep focusing on whether the police officers were calling her name.

"Like, ten. Then I have to close up." She told him. Closing up usually takes her a half hour or forty minutes or so, sometimes longer depending on how lazy she is. It involves giving the place a quick sweep, too. It was sort of peaceful, since the store would go from being loud and busy to quiet and serene. She enjoyed working there, whenever it got a little boring she'd put on a movie on the television by the cash register and passively watch it.

Even if she felt a little uneasy working until late and walking home at night, she sort of didn't have a choice. There was absolutely no way her parents could afford getting her a car, and she couldn't stop working because her parents were barely getting by with their dead-end 9-5 jobs. Her money would go toward her personal expenses like clothes, general pocket money, and school textbooks. On occasion, she'd lend some money to her parents for groceries if they happened to be short on it, so she always had spare cash somewhere in her room. Her friends didn't know all of this about her family's economic situation. Ellie didn't think it was something appropriate to share anyway. It wasn't that bad anyway, she liked her job. She wasn't going to turn her life into a sob story.

Josh's eyes momentarily followed her leave the room, before they lazily returned to the front of the classroom. His breath felt a little smoky, so he reached into his bag for a stick of gum and popped it in his mouth. He crumped up the wrapper and dropped it in his bag, as he always did. His bag had a fairly extensive collection of gum wrappers. He then returned to drumming his fingers atop his stomach as he chewed on his gum, careful to be discreet with the chewing since Mrs. Thompson was really annoying about chewing gum. His fingers were tapping almost inaudibly to a song he had recently learned on the guitar.

Not long after she left, Sky was back. He wasn't paying attention to any of his surroundings, so he only realised once the chair nearby scraped against the cold floor and she spoke to him. He looked over at her, letting out a stifled laugh.

"Yeah cause you could definitely be a killer." He sarcastically remarked.

 

[esor]

Alex nodded along to her answer, he admired people who worked formally, personally he didn't think it was for him. Helping his uncle he could always turn down the job if he didn't feel like it with no repercussions, and he liked that. Xander definitely wasn't the type of person to stick to a work schedule and be spoken down to, so at least with him respecting his uncle they got along very well. Being his dad's brother, Alex and his uncle got along well. Plus he wasn't too desperate for money, his family got by fine but were by no means swimming in wealth.

"Hm, good on ya'." He said. With that conversation coming to a halt, on his behalf anyway, Alex slouched in his seat and stared aimlessly around the room, letting out a subtle, quiet sigh as he contemplated whether or not to actually stay in the room. He checked the watch on his wrist and rolled his eyes at the time left, he genuinely wanted to up and leave. Sure he could pay attention but that would be even more boring than sitting and twiddling his thumbs. Again, he could cause a little mayhem but the room was tense enough as it is and would've preferred to refrain from stressing people out even more. Then again, maybe it'd lighten the mood. He looked at Ellie with a sly smirk,

"Got any paper?" He questioned.

Sky's face changed to a shocked expression as though she was offended, but as she spoke she rested her head on her hand, her arm propped up on the table as she looked at him.

"You don't think I could be a killer?" She asked with an entertained smile. The girl knew that she couldn't be. In fact, anyone knew she couldn't be, and it wasn't as though she wanted to be but she'd have liked to think she wasn't a complete goody-two-shoes.

 

[amberskies]

Ellie nodded slowly, before turning her head slowly to pay attention to the lesson once more. She was an okay student in school. She wouldn't pay attention the entire class, but she listened enough to get pretty average grades. She wasn't striving for academic superiority, anyway. She wasn't particularly interested in working her ass off to get high grades and get into an expensive university. Hell, she'd be fine with working in the same video rental store her whole life. Maybe. Who knew.

She was fine with the conversation ending. She wasn't one to force a conversation by bringing up small talk; she absolutely hated that. Besides, the police officers returning to the room with a student and glancing at their board to call the next person captured her attention. She hummed in question as Alexander asked her a question, and she responded for a nod. The girl had her notebook opened in front of her, though it was void of any notes. She flipped a few pages and then tore one out with ease. Just as the sound of the tear stopped, the officer spoke on cue.

"Elisabeth Briggs." They announced. She let out a slightly annoyed huff of air upon hearing her full name being used, particularly 'Elisabeth'. For some reason she really disliked her name, hence why every single person always called her some variation of Ellie and never 'Elisabeth'. Regardless, she stood up and placed the sheet atop Xander's desk before grabbing her backpack and taking her notebook in her hands, not bothering to put it away since she'd be back here anyway. She gave Alex a quick glance, and then looked over at Sky with a slight smile as she made her way out of the room.

She followed the officers down the hallway toward the same room the other students had been taken to. Her backpack was immediately searched as she sat down, and she looked at the officer doing the search.

"Are you legally allowed to do that?" She asked. She didn't particularly care about them searching her bag, for all it contained was pens, her lunch and keys, a horror novel she was reading and her headphones with the cassette player. A part of her just wanted to mess around with the officers.

"Yeah, actually." The officer stated as he looked up at her from his crouched position, to which Ellie responded by looking away. Well, oops.

She answered the questions just like the rest of the students, except for the last one.

"Do you have any information on Heather Davis that may assist in solving her murder?" The officer that had searched her asked. He was sort of cute. Ellie shrugged in response.

"Bad blood with anyone?" He went on, earning a slight scoff from Ellie. The man raised his eyebrows up at her, expecting an explanation behind her reaction.

"Half the school had bad blood with Heather Davis. She wasn't exactly nice." Ellie started, before shutting herself up before she said something that would end up making her look suspicious. The policeman responded with a small nod, before declaring that she was free to go. After grabbing her bag, she returned to the classroom and into her seat, pushing the interview to the back of her mind and wondering what Xander had done with the piece of paper.

"What, are you offended, Sky?" Josh couldn't help his eyebrows raising up a little. "You want me to think you could be a killer?" He cocked his head to the side a little in almost a challenging manner, a loose curly lock of hair falling across his forehead as he did so. He unclasped his hands and reached a finger up to brush it out of the way, sort of tucking it into the rest of his messy hair. He obviously wasn't being serious with his words, he was just trying to get some sort of reaction out of Skylar. He heard a familiar name being called, and spared the other brunette a mere glance before returning his attention to Sky.

 

[esor]

Alex's eyes followed the girl as she left, before turning his attention to the paper now on his desk. He ripped up small pieces and rolled them between his thumb and finger to make little paper balls. With a collection in front of him, he picked them up one by one and threw them at people, particularly at their heads so it would get stuck in their hair and he could chuckle in amusement at them. Not the nicest thing to do, he knew that, but he was bored and he found it funny. By now, Mrs Thompson had learnt not to even bother telling Alex off, it would either do absolutely nothing or just make him leave the classroom, so she no longer saw a point in raising her voice or becoming annoyed with him. Her fruitless attempts at making Alex behave just humoured him. He found it funny that his peers actually obeyed the rules, which were ridiculous in his eyes.

He looked around the room to see who he could throw the paper pieces at, his gaze eventually landing on Sky and Josh, but he figured he was in a weird place with them. Not that it was odd, he just didn't feel like annoying them in particular, especially in such a silly way. So he just huffed and continued to throw them in the hair of random peers, chuckling under his breath as he did so, watching some stick and some fall to the floor.

"Mm, maybe I am." Sky giggled. "I just think it would be cool if I had a bit of...I don't know. Edge! Maybe?" She shrugged playfully. Her words almost escaped her lips automatically, it was as though she wasn't thinking. That was because she was too busy marvelling at his features to string along a coherent line of thought. She studied the way his face sat, the way his lips moved, how his eyelids closed, his lock of hair escaping from the rest. As she did so she felt her heart beat a little faster. Anyone, anyone at all could see that Josh was attractive, she was certain that was one of the reasons why so many people were fond of him, so of course she recognised his beauty but she'd never thought deeper about it. Until now, that is.

"Sick of everyone assuming I'd never do anything wrong." She added with a sigh once she snapped back into reality and realised she was in a conversation with the boy whose face was now cemented in her thoughts. In all honesty it wasn't something that bothered her too much, you could never go wrong with people assuming you were a nice person, so she had no reason to complain, but god forbid she sacrifice this conversation with him. It was probably the most normal she'd been around him all day.

 

[amberskies]

Ellie let her notebook drop atop her desk before she took her seat, letting her backpack sling slide down her arm until it passed her hand and her bag fell to the floor. Apart from the cop being cute, she didn't think it went too well. Hopefully they'd understand that she didn't have a grudge against Heather particularly, but she just wanted to let them know that Heather wasn't exactly someone you'd go to for favours or good vibes.

She shook it off, figuring they wouldn't suspect her for being a murderer solely based off of what she said. She looked over at Alexander, only to find that the paper had been torn into little bits and pieces. Some of them had been crumpled into little balls, which he was picking up and tossing into his classmates' hair. Some of the little balls would land in the hoods of the students or fall onto the ground instead. She was a little amused, but nonetheless turned to face the front of the class, where Mrs. Thompson was still lecturing on the analysis of some Shakespeare poem.

"And being a murderer isn't a little too much edge?" Josh mused, his eyebrows lifted up and his eyelids low enough where he appeared a tad tired, as he typically did. "Not having this 'edge' isn't bad." He then shrugged. He had no idea what his own edge was. He just acted however the hell he wanted without thinking too much about what others thought of him.

Before he could say anything else to add onto the conversation, the bell rang, signifying the end of English class. Finally. Within a second, Joshua was on his feet and shrugging the backpack sling onto his left shoulder, about to walk toward the door when he realised he didn't know what he had next.

"Am I in your next class?" He inquired with lowered eyebrows.

Ellie stood up, too, dropping her notebook into her bag. She had chemistry next. She took in a deep breath and released it upon realising they had to do some sort of lab experiment for chemistry, something she most definitely wasn't looking forward to since it meant she couldn't just sit there and listen to the teacher for an hour and a half instead.