Five Minutes Before Class

Scarlet Weathers steps out of the Principal’s office to find Remy waiting in the hall.
“Ah,” he says, waving. “Scarlet.”
His incorrect emphasis was almost cute to her. “Come on, Remy, you’re with me today.”
“I am with you every day, Scarlet.” He tries to link arms with her, but she brushes him aside.
“Uh, no.”
“Why?” he asks putting on a huge frown. “Afraid someone will get the wrong idea?”
She blanches, then shakes her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Just come with me. I’ll show you to your homeroom and then I have to go to class.”
Remy frowns. “You are not very fun, are you?”
She glares at him. “I can be fun. I just choose not to be.”
“Mhm,” he says. “And I choose to enjoy getting naked with people.”
She rolls her eyes. As they walk down the hall, people part to let Scarlet pass. Part of it is her status as VP to Toby, but part of it is just the way she walks, like she’ll set you on fire if you don’t get out of her way. Remy watches her for a moment, enjoying her strange command of the room. Then he sees someone else.
“Oh, who is that?” he asks, pointing.
Scarlet turns to see Colin Daniels rummaging through his locker. “No one,” Scarlet says.
“No, that boy right there,” Remy says, clearly indicating Colin.
“What, Colin?” Scarlet laughs. “He’s Colin.”
“So, who is he?” Remy asks.
Scarlet shrugs. “Just Colin. Everyone knows Colin. He’s great.”
“Yes, he is great,” Remy says. “I want to say hi.”
He pulls away from Scarlet, who looks at the clock nervously. “Fine,” she says. “I had something to do anyway.” She pulls out her phone and starts texting furiously.
Remy saunters up to Colin, pushing his hands through his hair. “Allo, Colin.”
Colin starts a little, then turns with a huge grin on his face. “Whoa, man, didn’t see you there.”
Remy extends his hand. “I am new. I am also French. And you are very attractive.”
Colin’s green eyes pop open and he searches for someone else to help diffuse the situation. Scarlet is across the hall, texting much too seriously, but everyone else has gone to class. Which means he's late.
“Uh,” Colin says, laughing. “That’s nice of you, but I’m not really, uh, into that.”
Remy smiles. “Don’t worry, I’m not either. Call me sometime.” He puts a piece of paper in the front pocket of Colin’s jeans. When he steps away, Scarlet grabs his sleeve and drags him down the hall.
“See you, Colin,” she says as an afterthought.
Colin stares after them. Though he hasn’t spent much time thinking about it, he is pretty sure he's straight. But that isn’t what startles him. Remy noticed him. He didn’t just get noticed, he got approached. By a crazy Frenchman. That doesn’t happen every day, and it certainly doesn’t happen to Colin.
He shoves his used textbooks into his bag and hikes it over his shoulder, praying the teacher will give him some slack on the first day back. Entering the classroom, he finds the only seat available is next to Toby Lightly.
“Hey,” Colin says to him. “What did I miss?”
Toby stares at him for a moment. “Nothing. We’ve been here for 30 seconds.”
Colin give another huge grin. “Oops. Guess I’m just used to missing out on things. Don’t, like, arrest me or anything.”
“I can’t arrest you, Colin. I’m student body president, not a cop.”
Colin nods. “Sounds good to me.”
He immediately opens his notebook and starts doodling. Toby shakes his head, turning his attention to the teacher, and wondering how on earth Colin Daniels wound up in his AP Literature course. The guy isa dope. A cute dope, but a dope none the less. Toby refocuses again. He has better things to do than obsess over the cute dope sitting next to him.
Toby has a thing for dopes.
“Did you have a good…break?” Colin asks, easing into the idea of asking a question.
Toby keeps his eyes on the teacher and answer quietly. “Sure. I wrote about fifteen college applications, listened to my parents preach about gay rights 20 hours out of every day, and then Jack Woods died. It was great.” He shakes his head. “That was a lot more depressing than I meant it to be.”
Colin stares at him. “Wow, jeez. I thought I had a shitty summer.”
“Who said my name?” Summer Walsh turns to glare at them.
“Believe it or not, we were addressing the season, not you,” Toby says. Colin snickers.
Summer’s glare turns to a full on scowl. “You know it’s our duty as high level thinkers not to eat animals. I saw you snacking on beef jerky before school, Colin.”
Colin shrugs. “If animals weren’t meant to be eaten, why are they so delicious?”
“You’re disgusting,” she says and turns back around.
Colin and Toby quietly laugh to themselves

Still the First Day of School -- in the Guidance Office

Summer Walsh hands a shorthaired brunette boy a pamphlet in the guidance counselor’s office. He’s wearing ripped dark wash jeans, a plain black t-shirt and a navy blue zip-up sweatshirt.

“Animals have feelings,” she says as his hands close over the bright pink paper.

“Ah, I’m sure zey do,” he replies, and she realizes he’s got an accent. What is that? French?

“So you should stop eating them,” Summer urges, leaning closer, perhaps too close. He doesn’t move away. In fact, he moves even closer, making their faces just millimeters apart.

“I ‘ave feelings, too,” he tells her. “But I want you to eat me.”

Summer recoils against the hard plastic back of her chair. “I’m serious.”

“I’m Remy. Remy Martin.”

“No, my name is Summer,” she says, rolling her eyes and grabbing for the pamphlet. He holds it tightly in his calloused hands. He has a tattoo on his forearm of some kind of Celtic symbol. But wasn’t he supposed to be French?

“Zen why did you say it was Serious?” he counters, tugging the pink paper back onto his lap and pressing it firmly onto his crotch. Summer releases it and wipes her hands on her corduroy jeggings.

“I said I was serious. Animal rights are a big deal, okay? Not everything in life is some sex joke you can crack to get chicks, okay? Women aren’t playthings anymore, Remy,” she spat each word with emphasis.

Remy lowers his gaze to her chest and grins.

“Zen why do you wear such low-cut dresses? Oh, are your breasts animals zat need to be free, too? Is zat how zis works? Being a hippie bitch means zat you can say whatever you want about other people and zeir habits, but zey can’t even comment on yours? You and your clearly expensive dress, which probably came from child slaves, you ‘ave ze right to tell me what to do? Well, Summer, maybe you should decide your priorities.”

She slides down in her chair and crosses her arms over her chest. “Go back to France.”

He grins. “But zen I would miss out on all ze fun.”

“Wait, are you a transfer student?” she asks. He nods. “Then why are you here during the questionings?”

“I just want to be in ze know,” he replies, winking at her. Suddenly, it feels like something is lodged between her ribs and her lungs, and she can’t breathe. Remy’s mouth lifts into a crooked smile, and he glances off in the other direction, as if he didn’t notice the way her air supply very evidently cut off post-wink. “You don’t seem like a Summer,” he adds, looking at her briefly from the corner of his eye before looking back at the other students tapping their legs up and down on their plastic chairs.

She picks up the ends of her long blonde hair in her lap and stares hard at him. “Wh-what are you talking about? Of course I look like a Summer. I’m more Summer than…”

“Than what?”

“Than lemonade and barbeques,” she says weakly.

He chuckles. “Americans.”

“Why don’t I seem like a Summer?”

“You’re too uptight. Summer is supposed to be lazy and calm. Lots of naked runnings around Paris.”

“I. Am. Calm,” she hisses. “You can’t be more calm than I am. I’m like a fucking boat floating gently down the stream.”

“Like zat song?” he interjects.

“What song?”

“You know, ze one about ze boat on ze stream,” he says, miming a rowboat in his chair.

“Row, Row, Row Your Boat?” she asks. “The children’s song?”

“Exactly!” he exclaims.

“Uhm, sure. Like that boat.”

“But someone is rowing zat boat,” he protests. “It isn’t just floating. Is someone rowing your boat?”

“No. I am in complete control of my boat, thank you very much.” She grabs the pink pamphlet from Remy’s crotch and stands. “Just stop fucking eating meat, all right?” She waves the paper in front of his face. “And do you really run naked around Paris?”

“Not really. My apartment was about forty minutes outside Paris,” he replies, pulling a loose string from his ripped jeans. “And usually I would skateboard naked.”

The image popped into Summer’s brain, and suddenly there were no words.

“You should try it.”

“You should try not eating meat,” she counters.

“I don’t remember ever saying zat I ate meat.” He stands up suddenly, putting a big, warm hand on her shoulder. “In fact, I don’t. So perhaps, Summer, you should take a deep breath, get naked, and chill ze fuck out.”

And with that, he was gone, leaving Summer with a sudden cold spot on her shoulder.

Ten Minutes Later--In the Vice Principal's Office

Vice Principal Mann leans against his desk in an attempt to look casual and nonthreatening. Echo Williams sees right through it. He is tapping his foot on the ground and chewing his lip, like he wants a cigarette. That and the police officer tip her off. She sits on a couch in the corner of the room with two other seniors. All of the seniors, it seems, are getting interviewed by either the vice or the principal. Echo doesn’t care for most of the people in the room, but when she sees Oliver Kwan enter the room, she keeps her gaze off him.
“Now I know all of you knew Jack Woods. He was a good kid, always in high spirits—”
Some of the kids start laughing at that. Echo glances at Oliver, who is watching her. It frustrates her.
“Come on, now,” the vice says. “That’s not in good taste. Pay respect to your classmate and be conscious of who you might be offending. Jack had a lot of friends.”
Echo finds it strange that the kid who got in trouble more than anyone else for possession and being high in school is suddenly being remembered for all the friends he had. Friend is an odd word to her. It seems to take on new meanings every day.
Oliver is staring at her again.
“Over the summer, an investigation took place,” the vice goes on and that gets everyone’s attention. “We’d really appreciate if anyone who was especially close to Jack could step forward so we could ask you a few more detailed questions.”
Everyone shifts around in their seats. A jock, Dan Rigby raises his hand, but speaks without waiting to be addressed.
“Are you saying someone killed Jack Woods? Are we suspects?”
The vice takes a breath and turns to the police officer. “Maybe you can explain.”
The officer steps forward, clearing his throat. “Hello. I’m Officer Greene. Now we’ve been looking into this matter for a while. As it appears now, Jack Woods overdosed on a kind of drug that’s found in prescription sleep medication. Normally, the drug alone wouldn’t cause a reaction like this, but it was mixed with copious amounts of alcohol. The combination of the two substances sent Jack into a coma, that he never came out of. It is possible that Jack Woods may have done this to himself by accident, but we know there were a lot of people at his house that night, so we need to speak with anyone present that night, and any of his close friends to see if they can help us put the story together.”
That definitely puts a damper on the room. Echo looks at everyone’s faces. She recognizes most of them from the party. Almost every senior was there that night, but none of them want to own up to it. That she understands.
“Well if none of you want to come forward at the moment, we’re giving our cards to all of you, in case you decide to step forward. We’ll also be asking your teachers if they know any of you to have been close with Jack, so don’t be worried if you get called out of class one day to speak with one of us. We haven’t ruled out the possibility of suicide.”
“Jack wasn’t depressed,” Toby Lightly, the student president, says. Echo had barely noticed him in the back of the room.
“Does that mean we can count you as one of Jack’s close friends?” Officer Greene asks.
Toby hesitates a moment before answering. “Yeah, I knew Jack pretty well.”
“Thank you Toby,” the vice says. “Everyone should take Toby as an example here. Don’t be afraid to come forward and say something.”
Toby nods back at the vice.
“This is a very serious matter, and we need all of you to act like the adults we know you are,” the vice finishes with. “Now you may all go to your first class.”
Echo stands and breezes out of the room, and Cameron Elliot jumps up to go after her. As she opens her locker, he sidles up next to her.
“Hey, Echo,” he says.
She doesn’t look at him. “Yes?”
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Now she brings her icy gaze onto him. “What?”
“Um…” He loses his way for a moment. “You just looked a little upset in there. Wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Yo, Cam,” Dan Rigby calls from across the hall. “We got class, man.”
Cameron takes a step back, but keeps his eyes on Echo. “So…Are you okay?”
Her face is blank, but she watches him closely. “I’m fine.” She turns away. “Thank you.”
Cameron smiles. “Cool. Okay, catch you later.”
Then he hurries after Dan.

Roughly 5 Minutes After the Announcement

Dead?

The word doesn’t even seem real.

Dead. Dead? Dead!

Oliver Kwan looks around for someone who shares his bewildered and somewhat nauseated expression. The auditorium is slowly emptying, save for the rat pack of Bailey, Scarlet, Cameron, and Asher, whom Oliver knows because he never forgets a face. Ever. Even the face of that greasy guy who smelled like pork rinds from the subway who thought he could steal Oliver’s headphones. No way. Police ID-ed the guy within minutes.

That kid Colin Daniels is still here, but no one seems to notice him. Everyone knows he’s there, but no one really acknowledges it. That’s how Colin usually is. Now, he’s sitting a few feet away from Oliver. Although sitting might not be an appropriate word for his posture.

He looks like he might be sick. He’s kind of sunken into the space between the two bleacher benches and his chest is heaving up and down with a sheen on sweat on his forehead. His blonde hair is matted down on his head, and his green eyes are latticed with red lines.

“…You…okay?” Oliver asks finally, after seeing Colin’s cheeks puff up as if he were holding in vomit.

“I think I ate something bad,” Colin replies, shifting into a more presentable position. He glances over at Oliver and forces a smirk. “I mean, I saw that the milk was like a week expired, but it didn’t smell that bad. I mean, my house smells pretty bad anyhow, so the milk actually kinda smelled pretty good in comparison.”

Oliver stares at him, wondering whether or not “You’re an idiot” is an acceptable comment. Instead, he says, “Need the nurse or something?”

Colin stands, his face going white. “Nah. I have a feeling I’m going to need to see those boys in blue over there.” He nods to the policemen.

“Yeah?”

Colin smiles weakly. “Yeah.”

“I think more than half the school is going to be with you,” Oliver tells him.

“Jack Woods always knew how to draw a crowd, didn’t he?” He looks back over at Oliver, as if suddenly realizing who he is. “Shouldn’t you get to class?” he asks.

“Why?”

“Isn’t that what nerds do? Go to class? You’re Asian right? So you like school, right? ”

“Well this Asian nerd has a date with the same policemen you do.”

Colin smirks, “I don’t like people hogging my dates. I might get jealous.”

Oliver shakes his head, his shiny black hair just long enough to get annoying when it gets near his eyes. “They aren’t really my type.”

“Mine either, but I’m hoping they’ll put out,” Colin replies. “So I guess you were at the party, huh?”

Oliver bites the inside of his cheek, drawing blood. He simply nods.

The policemen, surrounded by tens of hundreds of high school students, glance up at the two boys, as if sensing that they’re missing from the crowd.

Colin looks back at Oliver. “This reminds me of one of those bad Lifetime movies.”

“No One Really Knows What You Did Last Summer, But It Would Help a Murder Investigation If You Told Us. Sounds like an instant classic,” Oliver says, beginning his descent of the bleachers to where the rest of the suspects are huddled.

The policemen organize the huddled mass into two lines. One of the lines would be following the roundish, pink-faced man into the guidance counselor’s office for questioning and the other line would be following the tall, hulking, mustachioed man into the vice principal’s office. The vice principal does not seem all-too-pleased to be evacuated from his office for an extended period of time, and he glares daggers at the principal for the rest of the time spent in the auditorium until everyone clears out.

Wednesday September 7th—First Day of School

Kids file into the gymnasium for the first day of school assembly. All the seniors gather into the back, on the bleachers. Four friends sit together on the top level, surveying the room.
“These assemblies are so boring,” Bailey says, resting her head on her fist.
“Yeah, but…they’re important…,” Asher fidgets as Bailey and Scarlet stare at him.
Scarlet scoffs. “Yeah, right. I could be finishing my last application right now. Instead they want to shove us all into a room and lie to us about how great this year is going to be.”
Cameron glances at Scarlet. “Which one did you save for last?”
She straightens up a little. “Harvard. Saving the best for last.”
Asher laughs. She glares. “Oh come on, Lettie. Any of those schools would be lucky to have you.”
Scarlet turns her gaze to the stage, where the principal has just walked on. “No point in leaving anything to chance. But if I have to, I’d like chance to be on my side.”
Asher keeps laughing, covering his mouth with his hand. A smile tugs at the corner of Scarlet’s mouth. She smacks him, and he gives her a stern look.
He brushes off his sleeve with a big smile. “Can’t hurt me. Not when I’m wearing my leather jacket.”
“You look like the Fonz,” Scarlet says.
“I think it’s a lovely jacket,” Bailey says, leaning forward. Then she sticks her tongue out at Scarlet.
“And your jacket is last fall,” a rough voice coos from down the bleachers. Bailey turns to see a tall pale girl in a black corset dress dress. Echo Williams looks like a goth model with her gloved hands poised on her knees. She doesn’t face Bailey, who continues to stare openly. Finally, she turns to give a completely blank stare, ice blue contacts giving Bailey chills.
“Really?” Bailey asks. “How would you know what’s in season? All you wear is black.”
Echo turns her head away and Bailey watches the curtain of her pitch black hair cover her face. Then Bailey shoves her hand in her mouth, biting her nails.
Scarlet, with her eyes forward, reaches over and pulls Bailey’s hand away from her mouth. “Shush, it’s about to start.”
“Hello there,” Principal Evans says, gripping the podium. “It’s great to have you all back for another school year.”
“Something’s wrong with him,” Cameron says, leaning over to whisper to the others. “He looks nervous.”
“You think he’s got bad news?” Asher asks.
“Yeah,” Echo Williams says. “School’s starting.”
Cameron, Bailey Scarlet and Asher all snicker together. Echo frowns.
“I’m hoping this year will be a good one for all us,” Principal Evans goes on. “Seniors, you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. Student body president Toby Lightly and vice president Scarlet Weathers will be your leaders.”
Scarlet forces a smile.
Asher rubs her back. “Vice is better than nothing.”
Principal Evans takes a deep breath and lets it out into the microphone. “Unfortunately, I have some bad news to share with you all. Now, I’m sure everyone is aware of Jack Woods and what transpired this past summer. Well, I’m sorry to inform you all that he passed away last night at the hospital.”
His words send a shock wave through the room. Everyone sits up a little straighter. Four friends in the back of the room go stiff. Asher glances at Scarlet, who touches her mouth. Bailey grips her knees tightly, and Cameron, seeing this, puts an arm around her.
“There will be a memorial service held for Jack this evening. Everyone is invited. And now, we’ll have a moment of silence for our friend, Jack Woods.”
The room goes dead quiet. Everyone bows their head. And the same thought crosses ten different minds.
Jack Woods is dead.
The silence is broken by three police officers entering the gymnasium. Principal Evans clears his throat.
“Now, these officers are here just to speak with a few of you. Your homeroom teachers will let you know who that is. Please don’t worry,” he says, to counteract the buzz of whispers raging through the room. “It’s only some routine follow-up questions. Now, everyone can return to their homeroom. Have a great year.”