Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In annoyance, the girl shut her locker with force then rolled her eyes and scurried off. She walked down the halls where the lockers were and fixed her hair as her heels clattered onto the glossy concrete floor. She couldn't quite see anything, but she knew where she was headed and followed her memory of where the school entrance was navigated.

She struggily pushed the two exit doors open and grunted as she walked out of the school. She scuffed from the coldness and pushed her hair back with sass as she crossed her two arms and tapped her foot on the ground.

She pulled her purse up from her arm as she put her sunglasses on and scanned the place, and looked out for the sound, or similar sounds, to a car. "God. No-one knows how to be on time." the girl groaned.

"Finally! Wait - the hell is this piece of junk? You said you were picking me up in a BMW?", she said as she made fake vomiting sounds while pulling the rusty car door before stepping into the half-decent Mitsubishi car. She turned to look into the rear mirror as her eyes widened. "Uh... G - Gabriel?", she stammered out as a masked man turned in front of her and looked her in the eyes creepily as he reached to the side to lock the car's door.

"WHAT THE HELL?", she yelled as she tried to pull on the door to open it but instead, the masked man in the front seat pulled a hanky and placed it on her mouth as she attempted to scream for help and gasp for air, but soon before she knew it, she was unconscious.

•

"Carmina Hall, one of our school's most valued students, has been brutally killed and stabbed in front of the school entrance last night. All cameras the night were broken, possibly by the killer. For further notice, Gredwold High will be surrounded by security guards and police teams until the killer has been caught. Please enter and exit from the door near the library until investigation has been finished. Thank you.", Abigail heard over the school's PA speaker. Her eyes suddenly widened and she quickly shut her locker before she ran and walked in through the big crowd of people, siting the library.

She accidentally bumps into a girl who she fastly recognizes, one of Gredwold High's queens, Carly Green. Well, she didn't exactly look like a queen today, which was understandable, considering that her friend had just been killed.

"Watch the fuck where you're going, would you?!", Carly yelled with a broken voice as Abigail apologized fastly and in hopes that she lets her slide this time. That thought quickly vanished as she was pulled by the other girl beside her, another one of Gredwold High's queens, Harlow Jones.

"Get back here, bitch!" Harlow pulled her as she wiped her tears and mascara from her under-eyes as she changed it into a beaming smile. She removed the grip from her sleeve's wrist then moved it onto the collar of Abigail's polo t-shirt.

Everyone's eyes slowly stared at the three girls in the middle of the hallway. Some were laughing, and some were concerned. The school had mixed opinions towards the three queens of Gredwold High, but for one thing that they can agree on - is that they don't want to mess with them.

"Now, I want you to come to the school field later after class. It'll be very fun, now, scurry off." She whispered loudly towards Abigail's ears, making sure that she, and the crowd staring would hear. She put her down and her glasses fell, which made her pick it up, but she kicked it so that she would look like a dog.

Harlow knew that if they did hear her whisper to Abigail, they would come too - which means she gave her a sign to prepare for embarrassment.

The crowd ran off as the two girls did. Abigail stood up with a slight frown as she saw a couple of her friends run off with the girls. She felt as if she had been betrayed - but she didn't think of it much. All she wanted was to meet with her best friends in the library - their usual meeting spot.

Abigail grabbed her glasses from the floor and put her body up and walked towards the library. She had a long morning already, and it barely even started. The best she could do to feel better is to meet with her best friends.

She pushed the library door open and navigated her friends. Abigail looked around and saw her group of friends sitting on a table while reading books.

She walked up to them and gave them a quick wave. A light unusual smile appeared on her face as she picked her feet up to go closer to her friends.

"Oh my God," Abigail pulled a whispered groan as she unzipped her backpack and pulled out a book that she had been reading for quite a while.

The both of them looked at her as she opened her book with her hand on her forehead. They both took a glance at each other and then looked at her concerned.

"What's up, red?", Dan asked her as he closed his book and took a minute for her to respond back. She didn't respond and both of them were starting to get concerned. They both shut their own books as they looked at her. Abby noticed the eyes on her and then she put her book down and finally spoke.

"Well - where do I start? So first, my parents are thinking about divorce, right in my face too! How can you believe that shit? Plus, this morning, those two bitch assholes Harlow and Carly decided to pull shit on me! Now I have to get myself embarrassed this afternoon right as my two parents divorce." She sighed and took a long breath after. Her other friend, Willow, put a hand over Abby's hand then let out a small breath.

"Well, say, since we all have nothing to do today, why don't we pull some kind of prank on them?", Willow smirked as she looked at Dan's face. Abby quickly declined and shook her head.

"We can't do that. They just lost a friend," Abby muttered.

"No shit! If they actually cared about Carmen then they wouldn't act this shitty right after she died," Dan explained as he rolled his eyes and opened his book again.

"I mean, I guess you are right, and I don't mind giving them both a piece of medicine," Abby chuckled a little as she pushed her glasses back up.

They started planning on how they're going to mess with the two girls. They laughed and chuckled at eachother as two of their other friends, Evan and Jean sit with them on the library table.

Evan gave Jean a kiss before sitting seats apart with her. "Get a room!", Willow said scornfully. The two laugh and she rolled her eyes with a laugh.

"Okay, dork." Jean laughed as she sat down beside her and giving her a soft push while Willow rolled her eyes. Jean put her hands on the table and pulled her jacket's hood down.

"So, what's up?" Evan whispered while looking at the four of them and then pulled out his notebook from his bag.

"We're gonna drop a gallon of milk on Harlow and Carly's head," Dan let out a small chuckle with a beaming smile.

"What?"

"Basically, later afternoon the two queens plan on doing something to Abby at the field - and everyone's gonna be there, and we plan on embarrassing them instead." Willow explained as she stood up from her chair and looked for a book on one of the shelves behind their table.

"Cool shit." Evan said while doing a weird namaste pose towards Dan and Willow. They did it back, though. It's something that Evan, Dan and Willow always did. They always seemed to get along when it comes to corny gestures.

"So, are we just gonna ignore the fact that they still made us go to school after someone's been literally murdered?", Jean scoffed as she blowed on her mouth upwards, her curtain bangs moving.

"Right. But when you think about it, wouldn't the person who killed Carmen be someone from this school?", Abby inquired as both her eyebrows crinkle.

"So you're saying we go to school with a killer?! First, we have these chicks who practically terrorize everyone who gets in their way, now murderers?", Jean exclaimed, making everyone shush her from the loudness.

"I mean - it is possible. But who cares? Carmen was shit anyway," Willow said while she sat down and scanned the book she had picked up.

"Yeah, but it could be either of us next if there is a killer on the loose. It wasn't just Carmen who died recently, remember Neil? The art kid? He was murdered too, and apparently it was in this school. They just didn't care about him enough to report it to the school or some bull. That was eight days ago. He died the same bad way Carmen did, stabbed." Dan said while his tone changed every word.

"Wait - Neil died?!" Jean yelped as she banged her hand on the table.

"Jean!" They shushed her. "Sorry," She muttered, her voice softened and tone lowered.

"So, if we catch the killer, we get money and we don't get killed, so I say we investigate," Willow shrugged scornfully as she looked at everyone.

"Are you actually serious right now?", Dan muttered in a low tone, raising both eyebrows on her.

"Well, doy! If we get the identity of who killed them, we get the credit and we save ourselves too!"

"Wait, so how do we do that exactly?", Abby squished in.

"We ask Carmen's friends, enemies, even teachers, and whoever had something, kinda like an argument, or-- or a fight, then we put them in the suspicious zone. Then we like, we spy on them until we see suspicious activity, or whatever. But, the point is this killer has got to be a student. Cause how are they so stealthy if they arent? And they must've already known that there's security cameras around the entrance if they are." Willow explained while drawing on a page from her notebook that was on the table a while ago.

"That's so easy, Willow! Great idea!", Evan said sarcastically. Willow rolled her eyes and continued on with what she's about to say.

"Shut up. Anyway, my point is, just so we don't die." She said, hopefully waiting for someone to agree.

"I don't want to seem delusional, or anything-- but I agree. I'm not doing it for Carmen but for ourselves," Abby mumbled.

"Me too," Jean whispered as Willow jumped in success.

"Ugh-- fine, I'll do it." Dan finally agreed and he rolled his eyes after. Willow's eyes widened and she smiled.

"I'll do it, but if anything happens then I'm blaming it on your ass, Willow," He dictated.

"Alright! So project 'find-the-killer' is on! But we mess with those two first, of course." Willow smirked. Everyone smiled, some forced and some genuine, but to her, it didn't matter. As long as her plan was going well, and they all agreed, that's all that mattered to her.

It took not long for the school bell to ring. They all stood up and packed their things. They all walked out together, but not in the same direction, because they all didn't have the same classes together. Before everyone could wall away from each other, they heard Willow scream, "See you lunch!"

Jean had walked along with Evan because they had the same class together, Math. Jean was smart, but she didn't all get Math. No matter how long she had studied, or how hard she had studied, she never seemed to get anything higher than a B in Math. She thought it was either from her teacher, or it was because she just genuinely sucked at the subject. Either way, she wasn't exactly failing it, but she was just in the middle of a high and average grade.

She scanned her usual spot in class, beside Evan's, but someone had already took her spot before she could sit so she sat behind him instead. Evan's and her seat was in front of all the other ones, which was why she liked the seat, mostly because she had trouble reading and it would probably make it easier if she was up front, but she wasn't that far away from the board so she just brushed the thought away from the pile of other thoughts swarming up her head. One class apart from her boyfriend isn't that bad.

After a while of sitting in class, waiting for the teacher to enter, Jean was startled from the crumpled piece of paper that Evan had thrown towards her. She slowly un-crumpled the paper and words were revealed.

"Sorry about that. Let's sit together in Biology? :)" she read the messy handwriting from the paper. She let out a small chuckle then unzipped her pencil case on her desk to reach for a pen. She removed the cap from the pen she took, and wrote her response to what her boyfriend had written.

She then crumpled the paper again, then passed it back to Evan when the math teacher, Mrs. Walwinn, was writing something on the board. She had completely lost focus on whatever Mrs. Walwinn was saying, but she didn't care. How bad could her grades get if she missed just a couple words her teacher said?

Evan catched the paper and un-crumpled it.

"Of course. ♡"

He chuckled at her response, and placed his hand behind his back then made a little heart gesture. She blushed at his hand, and she covered her mouth to try and stop any sounds from coming out since Mrs. Walwinn was about to look back at the students.

Once Mrs. Walwinn turned, she suddenly stopped talking. She thought it was because her and Evan were flirting in class, but suddenly, you turned your head when you heard a familiar voice talk.

"Um, Mrs. Walwinn, I know this is like, unrelated and all that stuff but-- I just saw Janice and Evan over there passing notes and being all giggly while you were on your back. Just saying, cause like, I'm pretty sure it's not allowed," Carly Green said along with a beaming smile. She put a hand over her forehead and quietly groaned as everyone's eyeballs turned towards her and Evan.

Mrs. Walwinn turned towards her and furied, "Passing notes is not allowed in my class! Murray and Mitchell, meet me after school in the detention room."

She groaned and turned her head to Carly, once the teacher turned back to the board, she saw her sticking her tongue out on her. She turned back and rolled her eyes as she glanced at Evan sticking up a middle finger towards the girl. She laughed even if she was angry, but she just decided to forget about it and listen to the rest of the class.

The rest of the class were just boring time-to-time moments of her looking at the clock, seeing it move slower and slower the more she looked at it. She was so ready to get out of the class, and she certainly didn't like hearing Mrs. Walwinn's voice over and over again, getting mad at the simple things students around her did.

As soon as the bell to lunch rang, she was the first one to get out of the classroom. After she got out, she stood in front of the classroom door, watching the crowd, looking for Evan.

After seconds of looking around, she saw him with eyes wandering around, possibly looking for her. His eyes dazzled and widened once they met looks. She put an arm out, reaching for Evan as he took it and pulled her in for a hug.

He pulled his hand from hers as he placed his arm around her shoulder.

"Carly's a bitch," she scoffed while looking up to Evan. Evan let out a small chuckle and nodded. They were both navigating the cafeteria, because they had promised to meet with the library gang once it was lunch time.

They both bumped into Dan who was also navigating the cafeteria. They exchanged looks and walked together. "Weren't you in a class with Abby? Where's she?", Jean questioned as she walked with Evan's hand over her shoulder.

"I don't know. The crowd was so crazy that I didn't even see her get out the classroom." Dan shrugged while walking. Jean and Evan nodded.

They could barely get through the amount of students trying to get through the cafeteria, but they did. Once they were in the room, their jaws dropped from the line of students waiting to get food from the stall.

"Since when the hell did Gredwold even have this much students?", Dan mentioned. He didn't like how the people were so lousy and they were pushing each other. The three saw Willow on the line of students with a tray on her hand. They ran up to her because the part of the line that she stood upon was already near the stall.

"Hey, Willow, can we squish in line with you? Please? We're literally dying over here," Evan begged and complained while waiting for Willow to respond.

Willow rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Fine, grab a tray."

They three cheered in happiness and squished in line with her as they heard a series of complaints from the line behind them towards them because it was 'unfair'. They didn't seem to care, because it was easier for them.

"Wait, where's Abby?", Willow asked, towarding Dan because Abby was in English class with him.

"I don't know. She got lost in the crowd and I didn't see her get out the classroom. Dude, I don't even know how this school suddenly got so much people," Dan acknowledged while shrugging. His eyebrows were raised.

•

After succesfully getting through the crowd and getting some food, they luckily found an empty table good enough for the four of them, and could also fit Abby once she arrived.