Adventures of a Graveyard Girl (6 page)

"I am who I am," I said.

Ariel looked at me and seemed about to say something, but changed her mind as she exasperatedly said, "Fine. You want to know about Madison? I'll tell you all I know about her. Where should I start?"

Mrs. Walker chose that time to knock on the door. Ariel and I froze as if we were doing something wrong by being in her room together, talking like almost friends.

"Pizza's ready!" Mrs. Walker yelled through the door.

It had only taken Mrs. Walker about fifteen minutes to make the pizza. She must have known my time was limited. Mrs. Walker was using her time wisely to keep me there a little longer by forcing me to eat.

Ariel unlocked the door and Mrs. Walker brought in the pizza. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I smelled the freshly baked dough and cheese. Yum. Ariel didn't look as thrilled. She was probably on a diet. I remembered her wall banter with Madison about eating salad and not pizza. I took a big bite of my slice and looked at Ariel curiously, as she blotted away at hers with a napkin, getting off all the grease.

"So, you were friends with Madison?" I asked again, after Ariel had relocked her bedroom door and we were sure Mrs. Walker was out of earshot.

"Yeah," Ariel said, taking a tentative bite of her pizza, "We were both in Pep Club together. That's how I met her, actually. She was a senior and I mean, I saw her around school because she was always involved in stuff, but we had never talked until the beginning of this year when I joined Pep Club."

"What was she really like?" I asked and took a big bite out of my slice of pizza. It was good. I wondered what brand Mrs. Walker bought. We needed some more good pizza to eat in the freezer at home.

"She was amazing," Ariel gushed, thinking about her friend, "I mean, Sarah and Megan are my bffs, but Madison was really starting to be a good friend. I mean, we just went shopping for Homecoming dresses together and I don't just go to the mall with anyone."

I knew that was a dig at me, but I ignored it. In the weeks before our friendship had blown up, Ariel blew me off to go shopping at the mall with other friends - namely, her new, more popular, cooler friends, Sarah and Megan.

"Can you be more specific?" I asked. "Like what were some of her key character traits?"

"She was really positive and upbeat although she could be a little sarcastic like you sometimes. It was just in a funny way. She was a lot of fun to be around," Ariel said. "Like when we were dress shopping, she said the funniest thing and..."

Ariel froze. I could see that it had just occurred to her that Madison wasn't going to be making any more funny comments, ever. Ariel's eyes started tearing up. I didn't know what to do. I would have hugged my old best friend, but since we weren't friends, I wasn't sure how to react.

I moved toward her, but Ariel stepped back in reaction and wiped at her eyes quickly. I tried not to feel hurt as I saw the mask come down over Ariel's face, hiding her emotions from me. She was always trying to maintain the cool. It finally occurred to me how really hard that must be for Ariel to do, especially when she was hurting.

"What about her close friends? Who were they?" I asked, trying to ignore what had just happened. I knew Ariel would prefer it. Besides, I had an idea about this from the posts on Madison's Facebook page, but it would give me more evidence if Ariel actually told me who her friends were.

"Leslie Frank, Dana Julian, and Desiree Reed were her closest friends, I'd guess," Ariel said.

I nodded, " They were in Pep Club too, right?"

"Yeah," Ariel said, "Why didn't you stay in Pep Club anyway?"

Ariel remembered that I was there. Why did she care if I quit anyway? I mean, I couldn't exactly tell Ariel that seeing her there had made it a total turn-off for me to ever go to another one of the meetings again, especially since Ariel was being so nice to me at this very moment. I didn't want to piss Ariel off just as she was opening up to me.

I shrugged, "I just got caught up with school and work and stuff. No time."

"Funeral crashing?" Ariel said haughtily.

So much for Ariel being nice. Still, I ignored her, "So, did Madison ever fight with her friends or anything?"

"You think they might have killed her? That's laughable. You are so not good at this detective thing," Ariel said. "They're so upbeat and awesome. No way."

"Well, I have to ask and not assume," I said flatly, refusing to take Ariel's bait to start a fight.

"Well, if you asked me who might have had a good reason to murder Madison, I'd tell you to check out Noah Robertson," Ariel said pointedly. "Noah definitely had a reason to off Madison."

I didn't know Noah Robertson, although I vaguely thought he was a football player. I'd have to look him up in my yearbook and online to get a clearer picture of him.

"And what was that reason?" I asked.

Ariel paused for effect, "Well, Madison was all excited after the first football game and she was jumping around, doing cartwheels and stuff. We were all goofing around. Noah wasn't paying attention and she accidentally tripped him. It was a total accident, but Noah broke his leg and he's a senior, so that means he won't get to play his last season when it might be important for college scouts to see him. He was super upset about it and harasses her all the time now. Well, harassed. I'd say Noah Robertson should be your number one suspect."

My head was spinning by the time I got home. For one thing, I had just spent over an hour talking and hanging out with Ariel and we hadn't killed each other. Sure, there had been moments where we almost went for each other's throats, but all in all, it was almost kind of, sort of, dare I even think it...fun? I mean, besides the very somber topic of death and murder. Still, things had gone so well, it had to be an anomaly. Ariel and I didn't hang out...anymore.

More importantly, I hadn't thought about Ethan in at least three hours. Oh, and I had my first murder suspect. Of course, I wouldn't have a chance to try and purposely run into Noah Robertson until tomorrow morning at school.

I also needed to track down Casey Hunt and hear her account of finding the body. That was where Detective Dixon had a leg up on me. He had a legitimate reason to ask people about a murder case. I didn't. Still, I was hoping Casey might talk to me. I was hoping she'd talk to everyone, actually, just to keep the gossip train focused on her. She did like the attention, normally. That would make it easier for me to approach her anyway, if she was being super open about it. Casey might have seen something that could help me pinpoint the killer. I could only hope.

Going back to school after having been out of school for a week was always a shock. Everything changed and yet it was like you had never left. Even though I didn't really have any friends, I still missed out on any of the little dramas that made school interesting. Okay, maybe I did listen to some of the gossip. It was definitely more captivating than some of the lectures. It was like a real life soap opera going on around me, you know? And, speaking of getting behind, need I mention, all the homework? The teachers were all sad and sympathetic that I had been in the hospital, but not enough to let me out of doing the assignments entirely. In fact, I had to make-up everything. It was so unfair. Did they know how much work that was going to be?

Everyone was a little distracted, though, at school. The high school had used the murder as an incentive for better security since it was obvious that the "it will never happen at our school" attitude wasn't true. Metal detectors were being installed at all of the entrances and a couple of off duty policemen were stationed at points around the school. It was definitely about time for us to catch up with the times. It's sad it took a tragedy to make the school revamp their school safety protocols.

Besides that, the murder of Madison Brown was by far the hot topic of the school and to my dismay, Casey Hunt was nowhere to be found. The rumor was that she was hiding out at home. It was totally out of character for her, but Casey had found a dead body, so maybe she was still in shock or having a nervous breakdown. I could understand that. The gossip vultures were definitely going to pounce once Casey came back to school and she should be ready for it. It was disappointing, though, Casey's account of what happened was pretty important to my case. I'd have to hope, for now, that she came back to school in the next couple of days. Otherwise, I might have to hunt her down since I didn't see Detective Dixon giving me a copy of Casey's police statement so that I could read it.

I kept a lookout for Noah Robertson, who would have no reason to skip school, unless he was on his way to Mexico, but I didn't see him in the first two hours. I wasn't even sure what I was going to say or do when I saw him. I mean, I couldn't exactly go up to him and say, "Hey, did you murder Madison Brown? Oh, and can you tell me your motive?"

It was before third period and I was rushing to my locker to grab a book, so I almost missed him. It was obviously Noah, though. He was tall, broad shouldered, and had brown hair clipped super short, like he had let a buzz cut grow out. I don't know what was wrong with me because I didn't even stop to think about it as I walked as hard as I could into him. It's not like little old me was going to make a dent in this massive guy, but then again Madison Brown had managed to break his foot by accident. Still, at least I took the time to notice that Noah was wearing a walking cast on his right foot and smashed into him on the other side.

As I felt myself fall backwards, my books scattering out of my arms, I pondered the intelligence of my choice. Sure, it had worked with getting to meet Troy. And, really, I couldn't just walk up to a random guy in high school and start talking to him out of the blue, could I? That would be crazy. So, yeah, the old fallback, run into someone and run into them hard, had to work.

"I'm so sorry," I said automatically as my butt hit the hard tile floor. I did mean it. I shouldn't have run into him so hard. That hurt.

Noah was still standing, looking down at me with a frown, like I was a total idiot, and didn't saying anything to me. Then he just turned and walked away, leaving me looking stupid, sitting on the ground with my books scattered down the hall. I could hear a couple passersby snickering because they had seen the impact, my fall, and the odd results. I ignored them and gathered up my books. Okay, obviously the old run into him as hard as you can fallback didn't work. Now, I had a lead in to talk to Noah, though. I definitely wouldn't mind yelling at him for ignoring me when I apologized to him. That was totally rude. Did the guy have no manners? I glanced around, suddenly anxious. Okay, good, Ariel hadn't been witness to this. That, at least was promising. I ran to my locker, grabbed my book, and made it to my third period class just as the bell rang.

I kept a watchful eye out for Noah as I walked to my fourth period Chemistry class, but we didn't cross paths again. I was still mad even though an hour had passed. My butt still really hurt. I was almost positive that I had a black and blue mark from my fall. I didn't see why Noah couldn't even acknowledge me when he was the person that had made me hit the ground. Sure, I had made it happen, but Noah didn't know that. He was so totally rude. Maybe it was just this easy and I had stumbled across the killer right off the bat. Either that or Noah sure had a lot to learn about manners. I really couldn't wait to find him again so that I could tell him off and, of course, continue with my murder investigation.

I made it to class a couple of minutes before the bell and saw Kyle and Suzie talking at my lab table. I felt a pang. Even though Madison Brown had been murdered, it looked like Kyle and Suzie's big Homecoming date had been a huge success. Suzie's hand was on Kyle's arm and she was laughing. Kyle was smiling up at her from his chair like she was the only person in the entire world. I, on the other hand, didn't know where I stood with Ethan and I had repeatedly broken my promise to him in the last twenty-four hours. That probably didn't bode well for any romantic thoughts I was having.

I hesitated in the doorway, not wanting to interrupt Kyle and Suzie's moment, but I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I moved forward and toward them. Besides, my books were heavy. I had to put them down before my arms fell off. My butt already hurt. I didn't want to add my arms to the list.

"Hey guys," I said cheerily as I walked behind Kyle to sit in my lab chair, setting my books down on the table in front of me.

Kyle and Suzie both looked over at me, surprised. They had been so absorbed in their world that they hadn't even paid attention to me walking around them. Wow, was I like that with Ethan? I hoped so.

"So, how'd your date with Ethan go?" Suzie asked, entwining her hand in Kyle's.

Yeah, they were totally an official couple if they were holding hands in public. I wondered if they had defined themselves. Were they officially boyfriend and girlfriend now? I felt a little more envious. I really wished I knew what was going on with Ethan and I.

I shrugged, "Good, well, except for the whole cancelling of the dance because of a murder thing."

Kyle nodded, "I know! I was so glad Suzie was with me at the time. She had just gone to the bathroom like fifteen minutes before they found the body. She was so lucky nothing happened to her."

Suzie smiled at Kyle, "You would have protected me, though, right?"