Part 23 (1/2)
Ellen gasped. ”Megan! Please! Someone is dead.”
Sylvia gave Lakshmi a little wave. She looked like she'd die from happiness.
”And Mrs. Sharma just happened to hear them talking about a highly confidential police investigation?” Sylvia asked. ”No way. Lakshmi's bluffing. She's just trying to be the center of attention.”
The others nodded vigorously.
”I heard it was. .h.i.t-and-run, just like we thought,” Megan said. ”You can have suspects in a hit-and-run. It's a form of murder, just an accidental one.”
”Well, bad things happen to bad people,” Sylvia said mildly. She glanced down at Hazel's tray. ”Your ramen looks good. I'm going to get some too.”
Hazel watched her walk to the serving line. She looked down at the plastic foam cup br.i.m.m.i.n.g with noodles and pushed it away.
”She could have had mine,” she said to the others. ”I can't eat.” She noticed the untouched food around the table. ”I don't know how she can.”
”Well.” Carolyn picked up her fork and moved some pasta around her plate. ”She does really hate Breona.”
”Past tense,” Megan murmured. ”She hated Breona. Although I guess you can still hate someone if she's dead.”
”Ever since the a.s.sembly, people have been staring at us,” Ellen said softly. ”And not in the usual way. I'll bet you anything they're saying we did it.”
”G.o.d, that's sick,” Hazel said. ”I don't know how can anyone could think that.”
”I do,” Megan said, her voice very low. She glanced over at Carolyn.
”I know what you're thinking, and don't even say it,” Carolyn snapped.
Hazel and Ellen both tensed. ”What?” Hazel asked.
”Megan, don't,” Carolyn warned.
”PLDs don't keep secrets, Carolyn, remember?” Megan turned to Hazel. ”It's just that...we all split up. Sylvia said she'd meet us at her house later, and then she went off with Josh. I went home and changed.”
”So did I,” Carolyn said.
”Then we met up and drove to her house. But we had to wait forever for her to show,” Megan concluded.
”So? She was with Josh,” Hazel said.
”So...she wasn't with us.” Megan raised her brows. ”How do we know where she really was?”
”Oh my G.o.d, you are not even going there!” Hazel cried. ”You're saying that Sylvia-”
”I'm saying we all know how much Sylvia hated Breona.”
”Shh, here she comes,” Ellen whispered.
”There,” Sylvia said, putting down her ramen, sitting down, and picking up a plastic fork. She twirled some noodles around the fork and popped them into her mouth. ”Greasy, but tasty.”
The others exchanged glances. Ellen picked at her cuticle. And Hazel sat in a daze.
The rest of the school day was surreal. Kids were taken out of cla.s.s to be questioned by the police. Some returned. Others didn't. Rumors flew, including one that Breona had faked her own death so she could leave town and start over, afraid to show her face again after having so thoroughly humiliated herself at the homecoming dance.
As chance would have it, Megan, Carolyn, and Sylvia all had sitting jobs immediately after school. Everyone air-kissed in the parking lot, promising to be extra careful.
Hazel and Ellen walked together toward their cars. Ellen sifted through her bag, looking for her keys. She swore, then rummaged some more. She came up empty and stopped dead in her tracks ”What is it?” Hazel asked.
”I'm sorry. It's just-I am so entirely freaked,” Ellen confessed. ”You know what I realized?” Ellen looked at Hazel with wide eyes. ”If Breona is dead, that means she wasn't the one leaving all those messages all weekend.”
”You're right. So who's pranking us?”
”Hazel, Breona has been murdered and we've been getting tons of threatening messages. I don't think this is just a prank.”
”We don't know if Breona was murdered,” Hazel said more calmly than she would have thought. ”All we know is that she died.”
”But Lakshmi said-”
”Lakshmi wants to get status by telling us things.” Hazel cut Ellen off.
”You have a point.” Ellen picked at her cuticle again. It was b.l.o.o.d.y and raw. ”Um, you want to hang out together? I don't really want to be alone, you know?”
”Yeah.” Hazel put an arm around her friend. ”I know.”
Ellen hugged her. Then her body went rigid. ”Oh G.o.d, Hazel. Look.”
Hazel turned and followed Ellen's gaze.
A black-and-white San Diego Police Department squad car was parked just outside the entrance gates, its red lights swirling.
Mr. Clancy was standing off to the side with his arms crossed. An officer was beside him, talking to a student.
Hazel looked closer. Dark curly hair, the letterman's jacket-it was Matty!
A second officer got out of the driver's seat. He told Matty to get in the car.
Matty shook his head. He looked red-faced and very angry.
”It's not my problem!” she heard him yell. The officer grabbed Matty by the arm and stuffed him into the back of the police car.
”Why are they taking him?” Ellen asked. ”Hazel, why would the police want to talk to Matty?”
Ellen's father wasn't due home until after seven, so they went to her house. Hazel called her mother and said she would be studying late.
Ellen turned on the gas logs in the fireplace, and they sat for a long time-sipping cocoa, not talking much, not studying at all.
They turned on the news. Breona's death was at the top of the local broadcast.
”Police are investigating the grisly death of Brookhaven High School's beloved head cheerleader, Breona Angelina Wu,” the news anchor announced.
Hazel realized that Lakshmi's report had been one hundred percent accurate. Someone had killed Breona in brutal fas.h.i.+on.