Adventures of a Graveyard Girl (2 page)

At least I was finally getting that great experience I had heard so much about. I wished I could share it with my mom now, when it was actually true. A wave of sadness blew through me. I missed my mom. I wished she could have known that a mere year later, I'd be at the Homecoming Dance with the smiling boy I had gushed on and on about.

"Kait!" I heard a girl yell behind me and it shook me out of my thoughts.

Ethan and I had just reached the other dancers and were about to join them. I turned to look, wondering if the call was for someone else. I didn't really have any good friends in high school at the moment, but there was always a first. Ethan followed my gaze.

Surprised, I looked to see Suzie Whitsett dragging Kyle Jones towards us. I felt a sudden warmness fill my heart at seeing my friends from Chemistry class. This was the first time I had ever seen them outside of our Chemistry classroom and they were actually acknowledging me instead of pretending they didn't know me. It wasn't me being insecure, by the way, talking like that - it was the simple truth. Ever since my ex-bff Ariel and I had ceased being friends, I had become the freaky weird girl and I had stayed that way all through high school so far. So, this was a very nice first - being at the dance with a date and stopping to talk to what might just be blossoming from more than just lab partner friends into real friendships.

"You guys look so great," Suzie gushed. Normally she was the quiet girl, but since I had helped her and Kyle get together, it didn't seem like she was so quiet around me anymore.

I felt myself turn beet red at the compliment anyway, "Thanks. You guys too."

Suzie turned the full force of her smile on Kyle. He stared back at her like there was no other girl for him in the universe. They were such a ridiculously cute couple.

"Hey, man," Mike Finnigan said, suddenly appearing next to Ethan. He was at the dance with one of Ariel's bffs, Sarah, and had dragged her along to say hi to his best friend. I could tell Sarah wasn't so thrilled to see me, although she was probably taking mental notes so that she could relay them back to Ariel.

I looked around for Dave Rickerson who wasn't usually far behind Mike and Ethan, but he must have been dancing with his date. I wondered who he had brought to the dance. Wow, we were almost starting to form our own group, Ethan and I. It was an odd group too - a strange mismatch of popular kids and totally unpopular kids. Luckily, everyone was being nice to each other despite that, at least so far.

I was only just getting to know Ethan's friends, Mike and Dave, but I liked them a lot. They had come to visit me in the hospital even though they were just Ethan's friends. Their motto seemed to be that any friend of Ethan, was a friend of theirs and they thought it was really cool that I had helped him find out what had really happened to his half sister. Nobody had believed in Ethan's suspicions at first, that she had been murdered, except me, and Ethan had turned out to be right. The fact that I believed in Ethan and supported him in his search, thus, gave me mad points in Dave and Mike's book.

"You look hot, Kait," Mike said to me, to his date Sarah's annoyance.

Ethan smiled and squeezed my hand. He and I both knew that Mike was just trying to make me feel comfortable in their group. Still, I glanced at Sarah again and hoped she'd complain to Ariel about me. She didn't need to know that Mike was just being nice to me.

"Thanks, Mike," I said, smiling back at him.

There was a bit of a silence as our weird group took each other in. I tried to think of something to say to kick-start the conversation, but I was drawing a blank. Mike and Ethan were both sports nuts although Ethan also wrote songs and avidly read sci-fi novels. Kyle was mostly into all things science. Suzie liked to read about as much as I did, which was a lot. I had absolutely no idea what Sarah was into besides make-up and boys. We were all pretty different, actually.

"So, the gym looks pretty cool," I said lamely to our group, trying to break the awkward silence.

"The Pep Club decorated it," Sarah said proudly, like she was the Pep Club, instead of just a member. "Well, with the help of some other clubs too, but I was here until late last night decorating."

"It looks great!" Suzie said, chiming in.

Everyone took a second look around, as if just taking in the decorations. I mean, it was super romantic, but I just noticed it was themed too.

"I like the theme: A Night in Paris. Super romantic," I said, trying to keep the conversation going.

It was well done, actually. There was a big banner at the front of the gym, where the DJ was, announcing the theme for the night. A fake Eiffel Tower stood in the middle of the snack table, separating the snacks and the beverages. An Arc De Triumphe was the entranceway into the gym. The tables scattered around the dance floor were covered with white tablecloths and silver stars. The mood lighting was ultra romantic, with small fake candles sitting on the tables.

"Yeah, it was all Madison's idea. She's our club president. Ariel said it was her idea, of course, but I heard Madison suggest it first," Sarah said.

I stopped myself from asking more about what Ariel had said. Was Sarah really criticizing Ariel? Was there dissension among the new group of bffs? I was dying to know, but there was no way Sarah was going to give me any juicy gossip if I asked her. The group lapsed into silence again. What were we going to talk about?

"It looks very cool," Ethan said, trying to get the conversation started again.

The first notes of a romantic slow song were starting to play. I started swaying to the music. Couples formed all around us. We all watched them as we tried awkwardly to think of a conversation piece.

"So, how about we dance?" Mike asked Sarah.

"I'd love to," Sarah said.

"Bye guys," Mike said, as Sarah dragged him away, totally grateful at the chance to get away from us.

Kyle turned to Suzie, "You want to dance too?"

Suzie nodded and turned to us, "See you guys later."

Then they walked away too, hand in hand. Ethan and I were finally alone. We stared at each other, suddenly awkward with one another. I felt a little nervous. We had been about to dance before, but suddenly the air was charged with possibilities.

"Dance?" Ethan asked.

I nodded and took his hand. Ethan led me a little ways onto the dance floor and placed his hands on my hips, drawing me toward him. I hooked my arms around his neck. I caught the scent of his cologne. He smelled amazing. We started moving to the notes together, side to side. My stomach was doing nervous excited flips. Now this was the best moment of my life.

Ethan looked down at me and I looked up at him, our eyes meeting. I leaned up to kiss him. I really couldn't have asked for a more romantic Homecoming Dance moment. It was so perfect, but just as our lips were about to touch, we both jumped as the music stopped with a screech, ending in dead silence. Then I heard the girl screaming, and screaming, and screaming.

Within about five minutes, they cleared everyone out of the school. I had never seen the staff and the students evacuate the building so fast. I think they did it even faster than during a fire drill, actually. It was pretty impressive.

The police arrived within fifteen minutes and I saw Detective Dixon among them. I recognized him right away from the Styrofoam cup he was carrying in his hand, which he promptly threw into the trash on his way into the building. I needed to send that guy an anonymous letter about recycling and the environment. Or, maybe I should just drop off a travel mug for him at the station. Anonymously.

Everyone was gossiping and rumors were rampant. The latest thread was that Casey Hunt had found a girl dead in the girl's bathroom. Casey was a junior and a popular girl wannabe, so some people were questioning if her story was even true or if it was an elaborate popularity stunt. In my head, I thought it could go either way. I wasn't a huge fan of Casey's, being that she, like Ariel, enjoyed making fun of me as long as it made her look cool. Still, the police being involved definitely made it look legitimate. I couldn't see Casey lying about finding a dead body and calling the police if it wasn't true.

Supposedly, Casey had been about to go in and pee, when she opened the bathroom stall, which was unlocked, and found a girl dead in the stall. According to the rumors, there was blood everywhere, like in
Kill Bill
style, but somehow I thought the gossip mill was starting to embellish the gore. We weren't in a slasher movie like
Friday the 13th
or something. Someone would have heard the murder happen if it wasn't quick. So, the exact cause of death was unknown and probably greatly exaggerated by all of the student gawkers.

The thing was, nobody seemed to know who the dead girl was and if she was a date from another school or if she was someone we all knew. People were checking on their friends, to make sure they were okay. It was really kind of scary. I glanced around for the people I'd be worried about, like Kyle and Suzie from Chemistry class. And, of course there was Ariel, but I had to remember not to care too much about her. Still, I saw that she was okay and happily clinging to her date, Troy.

That's when I noticed that Troy was looking at me. I managed a smile. I liked Troy and if I hadn't been totally gaga over Ethan and been wrapped up in a murder mystery where Troy was the prime suspect when I first met him, well, we might have had a shot. Troy smiled back at me and waved. That's when Ariel noticed that he wasn't paying attention to her and started in on him. His attention quickly focused back on her. Poor Troy. What had I gotten him into by introducing him to Ariel?

I was happy to have Ethan by my side, holding my hand in his. He was actually pretty quiet now that I thought about it. I looked at him in concern. I totally understood if this was bringing back bad memories for him. I mean, we had only just solved his half sister Liz's murder and here there was another murder, mere weeks after her death. I wouldn't blame him for freaking out a little. At least her murderer was behind bars, awaiting trial, and would hopefully be put away for a long, long time.

"You okay?" I asked, squeezing his hand.

Ethan looked at me, like he just realized I was there. "Uh, yeah. Sorry. I was just thinking about Liz."

I nodded. I knew it. Ethan frowned at me.

"What?" I asked.

Ethan seemed to think better of what he was thinking, "Nothing."

"You sure?" I asked. Ethan really looked like he wanted to say something, but was torn about saying it. It felt like it might be important. I waited, watching him look at me indecisively.

"Well," Ethan started and then hesitated again. "I was just going to ask you not to get involved in all of this."

"All of what?" I was confused.

"The murder investigation," Ethan said simply.

This time, I frowned. "What makes you think that I would do something like that?"

Ethan smirked at me, "Do I need to remind you how impulsive you were when you stole off with Troy by yourself to get information out of him? Or, when you taunted Liz's killer and almost got yourself killed?"

Ethan did have a point. When I got it into my head that I was right, I didn't pay any attention at all to any realistic opinions even if they were coming from my crush object. I never realized I was so impulsive, though. I guess I really could be when I thought I was right. The thing was, I had done the right thing in all of those instances - those impulsive moments had helped us move forward and solve the case.

The funny thing about this whole conversation, though, was that I hadn't even thought about investigating this murder. Ethan had asked me to investigate Liz's murder with him. It hadn't been my idea. Well, okay, maybe I had offered to help him out of the goodness of my heart and my huge crush, but Ethan was the one who had started investigating first! So far, I hadn't even considered looking into this murder. I didn't think I had, at least. I mean, I was as curious as the rest of the student body about what had happened. It did just shock and freak out everyone at the Homecoming Dance, which I had been attending. For all I knew, it could have been me. That was scary. The poor girl. Her poor parents. They all deserved to know who killed her.

Okay, maybe Ethan had a point because now I suddenly did want to investigate the case. The way he was looking at me, though, sent off warning bells in my head. Even though I had successfully helped him solve his half sister's murder, Ethan didn't want me near this one.

"I promise," I heard myself whisper as I stared into his eyes.

Ethan smiled back at me and I saw the tension around his eyes, dissipate, "Thank you."

That's when I heard it. The girl in front of me whispered it to her date, but I suddenly heard a collective whisper as the gossip passed from group to group, "The dead girl is Madison Brown. She's a senior."

I felt a chill crawl up my spine and goosebumps form on my arms. Did I know her? The name sounded really familiar. I couldn't wait to go home and look up her yearbook picture to find out who she was or her profile, if it was public. It really could have been any of us. I wanted to find out who did it. Uh-oh. Suddenly I realized that it was going to be really, really hard to keep my promise to Ethan, maybe even impossible.