Chapter Text
Janae Matthews: Graduation day 12.30
Graduation. A day of forced smiles and frenzied crowds, former students eager to get away from the hellscape of a school that is Bayview, eager to get on with their futures away from this town, and honestly Janae couldn’t have been happier! okay that’s a lie she definitely could be happier, with the boat incident – as they were calling it now, only a month ago, her avoidance of anything to do with Maeve, and her transfer to a god damn prep school of all places- sure some things this year could have gone a hell of a lot better for everyone, but she got through her graduation with grim determination; her mom and dad smiling and waving as if they helped at all during her high school career along with the surprising visit from Mrs Kelleher who handed her a letter from Simon, and yes sure that sent her down a spiral right there and then, because how was she supposed to read the last words of her dead best friend in front of his mother?
So she didn’t she avoided it, the letter now hidden away in the furthest corner of her desk, mixed in with tons of old school papers, waiting for her to build up enough courage to tear that stupid envelope open.
Her mom went back to Canada pretty quickly that day, being a woman of business It happens, she told Janae, the thing is Janae loves her mom, kind of, when she’s not being a manipulative bitch, but each time she saw her she always seems to bring down the mood.
That day did get slightly better with the after-party Addy had planned for her with the rest of murder club (excluding Maeve of course), and yes Janae did make new friends at Prep school, luckily finding the only kids there who were rich in a non-pretentious assholery way but they weren’t the same. Whether they liked it or not all the stuff that happened last year tied them together into something more than they were.
And now it was Murder clubs turn, tickets at Bayview had more availability so Janae could attend and cheer on the rest of her friends whilst cleverly avoiding a certain brunette.
Addy had begged to be driven by her, explaining that she couldn’t stand the drive with her mother who was always looking for new photo opportunities, and never stopped critiquing her hair.
“Okay so the actual ceremony starts at one, so we should be good, it’s only like a ten minute drive to Bayview so we can meet everyone in the parking lot before the ceremony” Addy explained as she laid out her graduation cap and gown on the backseat of Janae’s car, carefully smoothing the plastic bag it was in to avoid creases.
Janae could hear it crinkling as Addy shut the door in the back before climbing in the front.
“Are you sure you don’t want to ride with your mom? she looks kind of like she might kill me and then simultaneously burst into tears” Janae winced as she tore her eyes away from the Blonde in the doorway of Addy’s house.
“Yeah, she’s been looking at me like that all morning, don’t worry” Addy smiled, turning the heating in my car up.
“It should be illegal for it to still be this cold in May Jesus” Addy muttered.
Janae, being the one who was always cold agreed but still doubted it was entirely the weather and not the flowy lilac dress Addy wore which had no sleeves whatsoever.
Janae laughed at her as she put her car in reverse.
They spent the majority of the ride listening to extremely loud pop music of Addy’s choosing since ‘it’s my graduation which means I get to choose’ but as soon as they turned into the parking lot and joined the massive queue of very excited parents all waiting in their cars with tickets Addy turned the dial down a little too low, Janae looked over slightly, eyebrows high.
“So, what are we going to do about Maeve?” Addy's hair, now reaching her shoulders in gentle waves with soft pink streaks intertwined bounced a little as she looked away, attempting a casual tone.
“Um, what do you mean?” Janae asked as she put the car in drive to follow the slow-moving traffic entering the parking area, tapping her black painted nails (somehow already chipped even though she only painted them last night) on the leather steering wheel.
“I mean you’ve kind of been avoiding her for a while since… you know, and as much as I don’t want to think of that night on this very happy day, it might be awkward if we run into her”
“Then we won’t run into her” Janae said rolling the window down to show a man their tickets, who pointed them in the direction of a free space.
“Janae” Addy looked to Janae, tilting her head.
“Addy” Janae sung innocently.
“Okay I’ll drop it, I’m just going to say that since you spoke some sense into me with Jake I owe you some honesty. You miss her. you should talk to her and you can’t avoid her forever.” She finished before hopping out of the car, quickly followed by Janae as she opened the back door to unzip her gown. Janae held it up as she slipped her arms into it, pulling out any hair that was stuck and taking a deep breath before turning to face Janae.
“It’s going to go amazingly, enjoy it” Janae nodded calming some of Addy's nerves she hoped.
“Let’s go find everyone” Addy smiled.
Addy led Janae through crowds to the bleachers by dragging her wrist, gripping onto the blazer arm of her black suit. Janae saw them through the crowd, having a slight height advantage. Bronwyn and Nate stood together holding hands and talking to each other with smiles on their faces, Cooper wasn’t here yet, probably with his family Janae thought.
Addy ran up to meet the two hugging them as Janae laughed at her antics from a few spaces behind.
Addy then gave Cooper and exited squeal as he came up behind them, hugging his cloaked figure as he laughed smiling.
“I can’t believe we actually made it” he stated looking around the circle they formed.
The whole thing felt very- ending of an inspirational coming of age movie about a group of teens who overcame many hardships just to get here, and this Is when the camera would pan away with some kind of hopeful indie song playing as a graduation montage plays with the credits. Honestly Janae was sure she’d seen this movie before.
The day went quickly after that, Janae wished them luck and bid them goodbye after asking some rando to take a picture of them all together. And the rest of them went to queue up in alphabetical order leaving Janae to find her seat, watching as they walked the stage, shook hands with principal Gupta after their names were called out:
Cooper Clay
Nate Macauley
Adelaide Prentiss
Bronwyn Rojas
Janae even felt happy for Vanessa of all people, someone she had actually grown to like after the events a few weeks ago, sometimes she hung out with the group, when she wasn’t streaming for her millions of (and still growing) followers.
Even through her happiness for them all she still felt a cold sweat in anticipation of seeing Maeve, she knew by now that fate wasn’t often on her side so there was bound to be an awkward encounter or two, a shared glance, something. She knew at least that Maeve was here somewhere, and whilst Janae wasn’t totally up to date on the terms of the Rojas sisters, probably because she’d been too scared to ask, she knew that Maeve would never miss her sister’s graduation and vice versa.
After the ceremony Janae began her descent of the bleachers, trying to weave through crowds to find her friends, avoiding rowdy jocks and people which she usually avoided during high school, being best friends with the school gossip source did not do her any favours for sure. Soon she could see Bronwyn, Vanessa and Addy break off from two guys she assumed to be Nate and Cooper and was about to go and join them when an arm grabbed hers. Janae’s heart dropped to the floor.
Please not Maeve, please not-
“Mrs Kelleher?” Janae said in a small voice, she was still kind of scared of the woman after years of being hated by her and everything, plus she didn’t even know why she was here, surely this must be hard for her.
“Miss Matthews” Simon’s Mom replied politely, even though she held sadness in her eyes. “May we talk?”
The teen nodded even when her internal monologue was cursing her for it.
Shit.
They found a space a few feet away from any big crowds and Mrs Kelleher held Janae’s stare for what felt like far too many seconds.
“So, did you read it ?” she asked in a whisper, arms crossed, it was easy to see her knuckles straining under the tight grip of her own arm, she looked almost taught now and even though she put on a good act for the public, being Mayor and all, Janae could tell there was deep turmoil inside of her, understandably of course.
Damn it.
“Um, no, no I haven’t read it yet” Janae couldn’t look at her. she decided the grass was very Interesting instead.
“Listen Janae I know I’m not your favourite person and I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t an A* mother but he’s, my son! and I think I deserve to know what he said” her voice raised at this in desperation.
Janae’s eyes began to water. The feeling of a need to escape sunk deeper into her bones.
“Well I wish I could help you, but I really haven’t read it”
“Janae-“before she could finish Mr Kelleher came seemingly from nowhere and placed an arm around her shoulders whispering something hopefully comforting in her ear which stopped her from speaking all together.
“Janae” she started in a much kinder voice now, “give me a call if you find anything” she clasped my arm tightly “and if you ever need anything we’d be happy to help, I want to change, even though it’s too late”
Janae nodded unable to speak as her husband dragged her away through the crowds, allowing Janae to release a breath that she didn’t even know she was holding.
Ok.
Okay.
Janae turned back to the direction of a now lone Nate who stood looking at her. As she joined him they walked and he explained how the girls had gone to the bathrooms and Cooper had gone to take photos with his family and Kris, with the plan for them all to meet out front in five minutes.
“What was that about?” he asked the dreaded question.
“Nothing”
“Why is she even here?” he questioned again.
“No idea” Janae shut down any more questioning by increasing her pace of walking. She was not letting Simon’s mother of all people ruin this day, she would be happy for her friends, for herself. I mean they did graduate with honours even after spending half the term stuck in a murder investigation, they should be proud of themselves and not let anything taint their day.
Including psycho mothers of dead best friends. God that must be an original thought.
“So, what now?” Janae asked from next to Nate as they stood outside of the main entrance of Bayview at the top of the stairs, crowds were decreasing now, many off to celebrate with their families.
“After party?” Nate said plucking a flask from his inner blazer pocket and taking a drink before handing it to Janae who smiled at Him.
“Sure” Janae drank before handing it back to him, watching crowds disperse and parents get mad at the people parked in front of them and thought that even this felt weirdly cinematic, before of course Nate had to ruin the moment,
“And damn did you see how good Rojas looked up there?” he smirked at Janae who gave a chuckle.
Everything was finally over; she could move on and finally be-
A hand gripped her shoulder from behind forcing her to turn in reflex, Only to find a dishevelled Addy, tears running down her face, the whole world running to a stop as she covered her sobs with the bloody hand that was previously on Janae’s own shoulder, her hand flew out to comfort Addy before she even had chance to notice the body half slumped against Addy’s shoulder.
Bronwyn.
Blood running down her clavicle, staining her dress in slow streams, her head bobbing up and down like she was fighting consciousness and on her other side Vanessa, gripping her arm and attempting to keep her upright.
Nate flew out immediately to take her weight from Vanessa.
People gasped behind us, in front of us, all around us. Someone called an ambulance.
Janae hugged Addy as she cried not knowing what else to do as the blonde Only repeated cries of “no” intermittently with “not again”.
Eventually Bronwyn’s parents came through the crowds, her mom crying in shock, her dad taking his blazer off and cupping it behind her head- now propped up on the floor- in attempts to slow the bleeding.
And there she was. Maeve. Standing there at the edge of the crowd, eyes trained on Bronwyn’s body crumpled on the floor, tears filling her eyes as she shook her head slowly, her now longer hair moving in slow motion in the light breeze as she stepped forwards, clearly unsure what to do, before her mother turned and embraced her in tears. She hugged back, only now she wasn’t looking at Bronwyn, she was looking at me.
And I couldn’t look away.
Eventually the ambulance came, along with the police, along with Detective Wheeler. And it took Janae everything to convince Nate that she could drive him to the hospital before he started throwing punches at paramedics.
Maeve drove with her father, her mother making her way into the ambulance before it drove off and Addy’s overbearing mother dragged her back to their car, Coopers dad too.
As Janae drove it hit her, the game, it’s starting again. This was a targeted attack. And they weren’t playing for secrets anymore.
They were playing for their lives.