Pretty Little Killers (10 page)

Skylar knew her family's financial situation meant she wouldn't have a car until she earned enough money to buy one. Mary and Dave might have wanted to provide their only daughter a vehicle, but it was beyond their means.

Possibly because of that desire for independence, and knowing Shelia had the transportation to provide it—or out of an impulse to heal a broken relationship, or maybe based on a need for emotional support—Skylar began reaching out to Rachel.

It's possible Skylar knew Rachel would get her to Shelia, and Shelia's wheels. Or it could show that Shelia was the intended target of all those angry tweets, whereas Skylar wasn't giving up her friendship with Rachel. Skylar did this in friendly tweets the end of August, when she tweeted to Rachel and another unnamed person on August 28,
@rachel_shoaf96 i heard ! im very excited for you both lmao :)
.

The same day Rachel tweeted to Skylar about a gift Skylar bought her; Skylar retweeted it,
@rachel_shoaf96 my gaga shirt that my wonderful friend skylar got me
. Skylar also tweeted to Rachel about how much she liked her,
@rachel_shoaf96 hehe number 1 fan. no doubt
. While Skylar was playfully interacting with Rachel that day, her tweets show she clearly blamed Shelia for the serious rift that had developed:
LAST TIME. @_sheliiaa hate you
.

This back-and-forth, love-hate relationship—apparently toward both girls—continued throughout that fall, as Skylar's tweets grew increasingly negative. More and more, the subtext of her tweets spoke of jealousy, a failing relationship, and the nostalgic sadness of being left out:

life would be so much easier if jealously didnt exist. #getsthebestofme summers spent in blacksville with @_sheliiaa
.
#momentsillnever forget
.

Even though she seemed angry and hurt, Skylar missed the friendship—and kept hoping the situation would improve:

those songs that remind you of how it used to be.. #happensforareason. everytime i see people talking about how sad it is to have your best friend slip away i get more greatful i never have to worry about it . . . #iloveyou because i couldnt imagine life without you
.

Interestingly, from November 29 to December 9, Skylar had no tweets to, from, or about either Shelia or Rachel. Either she deleted her tweets during that eleven-day period, or a deep freeze had set in between all three girls.

Moodiness may be a normal part of adolescent development, but there was much more going on beneath the surface for Skylar. After Shelia moved to Morgantown, Skylar wasn't as bubbly and carefree as she once was. It's difficult to say how much of that change could be attributed to Shelia's negative influence, factors from within Skylar's own family, or the addition of Rachel to their little clique.

Daniel recognized there were issues between Skylar and Shelia, even though Skylar didn't talk about them. She didn't complain about Rachel, either, for that matter. Still, he sensed the friction lurking beneath all the laughter. It would bubble to the surface regularly in the form of heated arguments, which seemed to pass as quickly as they came.

Daniel saw the contention one day when another tiff occurred after Skylar reprimanded Shelia. He was with the three girls when
Skylar told Shelia she shouldn't have inappropriately touched a male student in history class. It wasn't a huge blowup, but Daniel said Shelia seemed annoyed that Skylar chastised her.

Then there were the “really nasty fights” Daniel witnessed between Shelia and Skylar. It didn't seem like Rachel was directly involved, though.

One day when he and Rachel were waiting to go onstage to practice their roles in the school play,
A Midsummer Night's Dream
, they were hanging out in the school cafeteria. Except for them, the large room was deserted. Daniel said Shelia called Rachel and then added Skylar in a three-way call. Shelia deliberately didn't tell Skylar that Rachel was listening. Rachel muted her phone so Skylar wouldn't know she had an audience. Evidently, Shelia's plan was to provoke Skylar, so she and Rachel would be treated to some of Skylar's fireworks.

Rachel pushed the speaker button and encouraged Daniel to listen when Shelia and Skylar began screaming. “At first [Rachel] was crying [and saying], ‘I can't believe they're fighting like this,'” Daniel said.

Then Rachel's tears quickly turned to laughter as she listened to her two best friends go at it. “Ha, did you hear what she just said?”

“I couldn't believe it,” an incredulous Daniel said. “I thought, whoa, girls get nasty.”

Daniel wasn't the only person who knew about Shelia and Skylar's fights. Crissy did, too. She said she heard that the two girls repeatedly got into fistfights after Rachel joined their group. Crissy said she and her mom believed that Shelia and Skylar were fighting over Rachel.

While there is no evidence Rachel physically fought with Skylar or Shelia, her indirect actions may have helped to accelerate the slow burn between the other two.

It was about this time when Daniel recognized Shelia and Rachel were sending mixed messages. He saw this firsthand and wondered about it, and realized Shelia and Rachel always had to be next to each other when Skylar wasn't around.

“They were awkwardly too close to each other,” Daniel remembered, saying Shelia and Rachel seemed more emotionally intimate than when Skylar was present. They made references their friends didn't understand, peppering their conversation with inside jokes. They were also physically closer, with lots of hugging and playful pushing.

“They were always touchy-feely,” he added. “If we were smoking or something, Rachel would get all up on Shelia.”

Daniel sometimes wondered if they were a couple. He began to notice they seemed more drawn to each other when Skylar was absent, than when all three of them were together.

Although Skylar never witnessed any of this—and she and Daniel never talked about it—she was aware of the dynamic. Skylar told people she was disappointed Shelia and Rachel had grown closer than she and Shelia originally were. More and more, she said, she felt like a third wheel.

five

The Game of Death

By the time the
trio had been together a little more than a year, their roles were clearly defined. Shelia was the leader, even though she sometimes deferred to Rachel, whose popularity with the artsy and apparently more wealthy students opened doors for them both. This didn't appeal to Skylar; she didn't seek wealth or status and only wanted to have fun with her friends. This carefree attitude weakened her link within the trio.

Shelia loved being the leader of the pack. She excelled at it. As Shelia's goals and dreams became more entwined with Rachel's, she became mouthy with Skylar, who chafed at Shelia's attitude. Skylar couldn't stand being ignored or mistreated. She was used to speaking her mind and getting her way, and when she didn't, she could throw a tantrum. At times, though, when Skylar let her guard down, when she yearned to be accepted and included, she was perfectly content to be a follower. It was as if Shelia, the one who could see, was leading Rachel and Skylar, who were blind.

The trio's dynamics are easily seen on the video Skylar shot and uploaded to the internet just six months before she was killed. In the video, Shelia is leading—and Rachel and Skylar are clearly her followers.

The disturbing video begins in the middle of a conversation after Rachel or Skylar teased Shelia about peeing on the couch. Shelia denied it, her tone playful and joking.

“That's not my pee,” Shelia said. “I had a grape popsicle, and that's not my pee.” She gestured as she spoke, arms wide, one hand holding what looked like a mixing spoon. Her gestures and head tilts were self-conscious—a teenager aware she was being videoed.

Shelia is clearly the star, performing for a mostly offscreen Rachel and Skylar in the basement of Tara and Jim's townhouse.

“It's a grape popsicle, dude,” Shelia continued. She pointed the spoon at Rachel. “You remember when you said ‘grape stain on the couch'?”

“Yeah,” Rachel said, “but that was way over here because my butt got wet.”

“You said it two times.” Shelia spoke as an authority, as if she was right and everyone knew it.

“'Cause my butt was freezing,” Rachel whined.

Shelia abruptly changed the subject: “Would you guys rather suffocate or get shot?”

It appears they had played the game so often Shelia didn't have to explain the rules.

“Shot,” Rachel said immediately, with Skylar's “Shot” following closely.

“Wait,” Rachel said. “Depends on where.”

“In the head,” Shelia said, crossing her arms.

“Shot,” Rachel and Skylar said in unison.

“There would be no suffering at all,” Rachel added.

“Eaten by ants or suffocated?” Shelia asked, arms still folded across her chest.

“Suffocated,” Rachel and Skylar's voices chimed.

“Drowning or suffocating?”

“Suffocate,” the two friends said, again in unison.

Skylar added another thought: “It's almost the same thing.”

“I know, but it's not,” Shelia said.

Shelia would know—because she was in charge—and it had been her idea to play “Which Way Would You Rather Die?”