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.