Mad About You

Twelve-Anya Little Becomes Nancy Drew

Twelve

Anya Little Becomes Nancy Drew

During my free period, I decided to check out the periodical section in the school library in hopes that maybe I could find something about what happened to Annie and Tyler.

"Hi, I was wondering if I could maybe find any old school newspapers dating back to 1989." I asked the librarian at the circulation desk. The school librarian was dressed in the typical librarian fashion: hair tied up in a bun, glasses, and a dark blouse and skirt.

"Actually, yes if you go to the Federalist archives on our website, you will find newspapers going all the way back to its inauguration in 1934," she answered with a pleasant smile.

I wondered why all of the librarians were always so perky and welcoming when they were subjected to working behind a circulation desk or shelving books all day long. But then again being in a sea full of books would make any avid reader swoon so maybe that was why.

"Thanks."

"If you need any help finding anything else just let me know."

"Thanks, I certainly will."

Finding the newspaper articles was actually rather easy and there really was over 84 years' worth of newspaper articles in the Federalist archives. I was quite impressed with how professional it looked for a school newspaper. In 1989, there were five in the collection, but I knew I had to find the one in the spring of '89 because the news article Izzi showed me on her phone said it had been April 29th,1989 when they died. I found one for Friday, May 12th, 1989.

Scrolling all the way down, I found a picture of a girl that looked a lot like me. Then I saw Annie and I knew this must be it.

Annie Foreman, a tragic loss that hopefully young girls can learn from

Annie Foreman, a beautiful bright young senior at Alexander Hamilton High School, who had plans to go to Stanford University and to become a journalist, was killed in a domestic violence dispute in her home on Saturday, April 29th, 1989, the night of the Junior-Senior Prom by her 20-year-old boyfriend, Tyler Beckett. Fellow students and friends of Annie say that her boyfriend, Tyler, who also used to be a student at Alexander Hamilton, showed signs of being very aggressive and violent. He was allegedly a drug dealer upon his suicide, and this had been the main cause of his expulsion from the high school a few years back.

These are some words left from a few of Annie's peers and teachers about the heartbreaking loss:

"Domestic violence is a growing problem in America, and it's gone unchecked for far too long especially among young teenage girls like my dear friend, Annie. She had such a promising future and we had so many talks about our plans to go off to college and change the world. The loss of my friend was devastating news especially when it could have easily been prevented had we acted on what we saw a few months back. A lot of us see the signs of abuse and we often like to shrug it off as just a little quarrel or a heated argument, but we have to stop sweeping incidents like this under the rug. If you suspect your friend is being abused, please learn from our mistakes and report it even if they ask you not to." ----Marissa González

"Nothing makes my heart ache more than knowing that a tragic loss could have been prevented if someone had noticed the signs. She was such a brilliant student with so much potential. It is such a waste." ----Mrs. Stapleton, English Comp Teacher

"I didn't know her long because she had just moved here at the beginning of our senior year, but the time I did get to spend with her was such a delight. Towards the end, she started missing days in school and when she did come in, she looked like someone had put her through the wringer. She would also wear a lot of baggy clothing, I guess to hide the marks or to appease him. He seemed like the jealous type. If I had known what was going on with her, I would have gone to the police immediately." -----Thomas Martin

"Annie was such a sweet girl who was really going places. I wish we could have picked up on the signs of abuse a lot sooner, but like many of us often do, we shrug it off and wait until it's too late. I just wish one of us had been able to see what was happening and report him immediately. This is definitely something that many of us who suspected what might have been going on will haunt us for the rest of our lives. If you have a friend who may be going through this, please get them help asap!----Lacy Benedict

I didn't know who Thomas Martin could be, but the others sounded very familiar particularly Marissa González and Lacy Benedict and Mrs. Stapleton from the vision. I would have to start with those names if I wanted more answers since Tyler didn't remember at the moment and I didn't know if I wanted to tell him any of this in case it was indeed true.

First up would have to be Marissa González who after doing a Google search turned out to be Alex's mother who was now Marissa Carlson. If she was a dear friend of Annie's, she would know more than anyone what really happened that night or her husband Donovan Carlson certainly would who also happened to be in the vision and warned Annie about Tyler.

I guess Anya Little was about to become Nancy Drew.