Surface

Chapter 6 - The Truth or a Pretty Lie?

"Can anyone tell me why the murder of Rue was so important to Katniss' later rebellion against the Capitol?" Mrs.Scott questioned while stalking around the classroom. I was sitting in my English class alongside the girls. It was the only class we had all together. We had been assigned to read the whole Hunger Games trilogy over the summer and I had. I was about to raise my hand to answer the question when Pete beat me to it.

"It's because her murder made Katniss more aware of how injust the Capital's games were. In a sense, Rue had to die in order to bring about change." His eyes were focused when he said it, almost solemn. Even though I was across the class, I could tell he wasn't thinking about Rue.

"Interesting take on the Suzanne Collins' decision. I happen to agree with you." Mrs.Scott returned to her desk and clasped her hands together. "If you will all take this time to answer some review questions, I would greatly appreciate that." Hannah did not spare me a single moment of scribbling on my paper. The second the teacher took her seat in front of the class, Hannah lowered her head and started to whisper rapidly.

"I know how we can get these students to respect us again," she said, devilishly.

"Alright. Let's hear this master plan of your's." The sarcastic tone in my voice equally shocked the girls and I. Hannah gave me a pointed look but continued.

"Devon Leonard is having a big Halloween party at his place. The whole school will be there. If we go and socialize, they'll realize nothing has changed." I didn't see how the plan would work. They could easily kick us out of the party or all gang up on us. They attacked us in school so what would stop them from attacking us in a house with no adult supervision?

The girls agreed to it fairly quickly, lowered in by the idea of a night filled with drinking and dancing. My ears tuned it all out when they started to chat about what they were going to wear. If Victoria wasn't dead, I would probably be talking about the perfect costume as well. All I was thinking about now was what to do next to gain information on what happened to Tori.

I had gone through the diary a million times but all I could find was a bunch of entries on innocent stuff like what she planned on wearing the next day or an encounter she had with Pete or some other cliche teen girl stuff. There was nothing like the entry I had read the day before. She didn't ever mention feeling threatened again. Maybe the police were right and there wasn't anything useful in her room. Or maybe Tori was so afraid of this person that she decided to stop writing about it. There was no way to be sure.

I knew she was pushed off the cliff and the person who did it was probably a student or at least someone around our age. I had to find someone who had enough hate for Victoria that they would kill her.

I wasn't looking for someone who appeared murderous. I knew very well that sometimes people did things on impulse, they didn't realize the consequences of their actions until it was too late. The person who did it probably wasn't intending on being a murderer.

My gaze settled on a blonde in a shirt that was two sizes too tight and gym shorts that displayed her perfectly toned legs. Her hair was braided and her eyes were trained on her paper.

I nudged Helen with my elbow. "Who's that?"

She followed my gaze to the girl. "Oh, that's Alexis but everyone calls her Lexi. You haven't seen her around? She was on the swimming team with Tori."

Helen was our groups social strength. She knew everyone and talked to everyone. Her friendly personality made everyone want to be around her and tell her about their day. She generally looked like she cared and was good at listening.

"I never noticed her."

"Well, Tori complained about her all the time. She was really competitive and was set on beating Tori's lap times. That was until she quit this year." Helen's face turned grim. "I'm not sure why she quit. She would definitely get to be team captain now."