Surface

Chapter 25 - To Keep A Head Underwater

"That's the plan?!" Helen shrieked practically jumping up and down from her seat across the room. "You're joking! You have to be out of your mind!"

The makeshift board was hung up in front of my window, littered with several papers and pictures each loosely related to each other. The thumbtacks all different colors; yellow, blue, red, green, and orange, were scattered like someone had tried to play darts with them. Some post-its had lost their sticky texture and fluttered to the ground and others slipped to places they weren't meant to. The map of the town had numerous roads and locations highlighted in yellows and pinks that it no longer resembled a map. The sea of writing utensils lying on the floor in front of the board made it so that no one dared to adjust anything.

Norah pushed her glasses up onto her head while trying to reason with the hysterical girl. "Just think about it for a second. It is what makes the most sense."

"Sense? It makes sense to get ourselves killed?!"

"We won't get killed. The plan ensures that," I added stretching out on my bed. Hours of thinking and planning had made Norah and I appear very nonchalant about the idea but I knew that when it came down to it we would be as frightened as Helen.

"Plus, it's all we got." This was ironic considering the mess of an evidence board we had. All of that planning and brainstorming for only one possible solution.

Norah got up from the pile of papers on the floor and placed the typewriter on the desk. "We are on a time limit. Theo is aware we know about his detective status so he's reported that to the investigation team. Instead of reacting we kept that information to ourselves and tried to use it to our advantage. Now they have reason to believe we have something to do with Victoria's murder."

"You don't know all that! You're just guessing!"

"It's an educated guess."

"Wow, I feel so much better!" Helen plopped back down in her seat with a sigh. She remained silent for a minute, smoothing out her shirt, pants, and hair in a chaotic manner.

After a moment she said, "Well . . . I guess you two are right."

Her sort - of - agreement was all we needed. Norah and I high fived in victory.

"So that's it?"

"That's it."

"We are confronting Hannah at homecoming." I mustered a triumphant smile though our chances at success were very low.

"There will be people there. Tons of people! It'll be hard for her to kill us in public."

Helen was still giving us the side eye. "And we'll have the mics on us, right? To catch a confession?"

"Yes and we'll all be there and look out for each other." I walked over to her and pulled her into a side hug. "You're braver than you think, Helen."

I thought back to the night she was helping me get ready for my date with Zac. She gushed about how brave I was about leaving the group and how she felt that she was a coward for staying. Yet, here she was. She had not only left Hannah but had agreed to try and take her down, assuming she was a murderer. She was braver than she thought. Maybe if we all believed that we would act sooner.

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"I can't believe Homecoming is this weekend," Shelby said while wrestling with her lunch container. Instead of eating the cafeteria food she had switched to bringing her own meals that were extremely balanced and healthy. When I asked what caused the change she simply pointed to her bare midriff and stated, "I want abs."