"Looks like she's leaving," Amy noted, looking out the windows of the lobby doors to the outside. "Damn it! I could've stopped her..." Amy looked back at Tiffany and saw the horrified state she was in. Uncontrollable tears were flowing down her pale face as she tucked her legs into her chest and held them there.
Amy hurried over to her best friend, crouched down, and tightly embraced her. She didn't want to spend much time comforting her because they needed to call the police as soon as possible, but she felt as if she really needed to calm Tiffany down.
"We can't just sit in here, Tiffany," Amy pointed out. "You know we can't."
"P-please just a little longer," Tiffany stuttered. "I...I don't think...I can get up."
Amy pulled back from the hug and looked at Tiffany with sympathy. "I have to call the police, but you don't have to move yet. We need to go to Mrs. Blocher or Mr. Murphy after that, but we can't wait too long. Hopefully, the police can catch Camilla before she gets home and at least find some evidence against her."
"Sh-shouldn't we..." A tremor went through Tiffany's body before she continued, "Shouldn't we tell Mrs. Blocher first? I mean, we don't have our phones..."
"No," Amy insisted. "They won't believe us since she cleaned up the evidence. We need to call the police now. We'll go back to the drama room and ask someone who's still there to use their phone. It's 6:11, but there should at least be someone there that will let us use their phone. If we have to, we'll need to convince Mrs. Blocher or Mr. Murphy to call the police, but we shouldn't go to them first."
Tiffany closed her eyes, swallowed, and just barely nodded. Amy managed to smile and reached around Tiffany's leg to hold her hand.
"Come on, we have to hurry."
"I...I c-can't get up..."
"You have to try." Amy stood up, but Tiffany held her legs tighter as more tears formed. "Please...I don't want to go alone after that, and I definitely don't want to leave you alone." Tiffany stiffened up as dark scenarios flooded her mind. "You can do this."
Amy held out a hand for Tiffany. She looked up at it and reluctantly reached out her own trembling hand. Amy pulled her up until Tiffany's legs gave out. She clung to Amy's arm for support, shaking from the trauma.
Amy sighed and leaned forward. "Here, I'll carry you." Tiffany hardly hesitated to transition to Amy's back, but Amy had to grab her friend's legs and lift her weight because Tiffany was too terrified to lift herself.
She clung to Amy's neck in fear, and Amy began trekking towards the drama room as fast as she could with the added weight.
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Though she had rehearsed it many times in her head, Camilla wasn't prepared for the stress of the tasks ahead. Had she never been caught, Camilla wouldn't have to rush through the final steps of her plan for the day. They were mostly the same as before, just drastically rushed because she knew the police would be hot on her tail, although she had taken both of the witness's phones.
She ran up to the back doors of the agricultural building, the greenhouse just behind her. She prayed it would shield her from the view of anyone in the parking lot, though she had seen no one there before. She swiped out a teacher identification card (that she had stolen in her freshman year) and unlocked the doors.
There was only one camera in the agricultural building, but it was in the back of the only hallway and faced toward the front, so she wouldn't be caught in the view of the camera because she was so far back. The cameras also didn't record audio (which she knew because they had no microphone), so Camilla was free to make as much noise as possible.
She bent down in front of one of the locker closest to the back doors that had a lock on it. Luckily, the password she made sure to memorize came to her immediately. She quickly entered the four digits: 2-2-4-3. The lock opened and she forced it out of the way so she could open the locker.
As soon as it was open, she flung Amanda's backpack off her back and into the locker. Camilla slammed the door shut and clasped the lock back on. Once she heard it click shut, she knew it was time to leave.
Camilla rushed out of the agricultural building and scanned the student parking lot for people. She saw no one, so she hurried away from the agricultural building and toward her car. She hoped Amy and Tiffany didn't see her from in the performing arts building, but it wouldn't matter anyway; they wouldn't be able to do anything with their phones confiscated.
Camilla unlocked the car once she was only a few mere feet away, and she flung the driver's side door open. She tossed her backpack in the passenger's seat immediately after sitting in the driver's seat and cranking up the car. She knew she should've left right away, but the risk of someone passing and recognizing her as she made her escape was present. She reached in the back seat and pulled out a sherpa jacket with a hood and a scarf that she kept in her car just in case she needed them for times like these. She threw them on, intentionally burying her hair in the jacket, darkening her face with the hood, and concealing her mouth and nose with the scarf.
Since it had probably been about a minute, and the car was most likely warmed up by then, Camilla put the car in drive and hit the gas pedal. She was obviously speeding over the speed bumps, but the campus police left the school at about 4 p.m. every day, so she knew she had no reason to worry about being pulled over just yet.
Once she was out of the student parking lot and passing the senior student parking lot, she looked to her left where the front doors to the performing arts building were. If Amy and Tiffany had rushed there as soon as she left, she may be in trouble of her car being recognized if anyone looked out of the doors' windows.
Her eyes went back and forth from the road to the doors. She saw no one there. A car passed her just before the school was blocking her sight to the doors, and she tilted her head down so a shadow was casted over most of her face. She didn't see the driver, but she doubted they could recognize her.
Once she was out of the view of the doors, Camilla relaxed a bit. She drove over one of the last speed bumps before she would be able to leave campus, anxious for the feeling of freedom she was about to experience. She saw nobody pulling into the school, so she put on her blinker to turn right and quickly merged onto the highway heading toward her house.
Camilla let out a huge sigh of relief because she made it away from Amy and Tiffany without leaving any evidence behind or being witnessed by anyone else. She took down the scarf but left the hood on just in case she was still recognized. She had to be sure there wasn't a single trace toward her after there were already two witnesses.
She tried not to speed too fast to her house, but she did go around 10 mph over the speed limit on most roads. Her house was about 8 minutes from the school if she was obeying the speed limit, but this time it took her about 6 minutes because she arrived at 6:20.
Camilla parked the car as best as she could in a hurry, and she did a good job considering her stress. She yanked the car keys out of the car, turning the engine off, and snatched her backpack out of the passenger seat. As she stepped out of the car in a hurry, she noticed the the hose attached to the side of her house and thought of an addition to her plan.
She briskly popped the hood of her car open and booked it to the nozzle of the hose. There was a sprayer attached that had different settings, for example, shower, jet, and mist. All she needed was to set the nozzle to "mist" and spray her engine with it to cool it down. This way, if the police ask her when she got home and she tells them she got home hours ago, they can confirm it. She turned on the hose and dragged it toward her car. Luckily, it didn't take her long considering her strength, so she adjusted the nozzle setting to "mist," aimed the sprayer at the engine, and pushed the lever down to spray the water. She continued this for about 15 seconds before releasing the lever, bringing the hose back to where it was before, and turning the water off. She rushed back to her car and closed the hood.
Camilla ran to the front door of her house, realizing and wishing she had gone inside first so her mom would have had more time to forget exactly when she got home. There was nothing she could do about it anymore but hope her mom forgets by the time the police arrive. When she opened the door, she didn't see her dad in the living room, which meant he was most likely in his room, asleep. That was exactly what Camilla hoped for.
Not wanting to greet her mom and risk her remembering that Camilla came home late, she turned to her left, creeping silently up the stairs toward her bedroom. She slid through the doorway to her room, dropped off her backpack and her keys, and headed back downstairs.
As Camilla suspected, her mom was in the kitchen. She was making dinner, as she tended to this time of the day.
Her mom smiled at her and inquired, "When did you get here?"
"A couple of hours ago," Camilla answered, casually.
Her mom pressed her fingers into her temples. "I'm sorry, honey, I must have forgotten."
Camilla smiled, comfortingly, replying, "It's fine, mom. I understand."
Her mom smiled back before returning to making dinner. Camilla scanned the kitchen counters for her mom's phone, and she found it right next to the stove her mom was cooking at. As her mom transitioned to the fridge to look for something, Camilla snatched her mom's phone and strolled out of the kitchen with it.
Once she was out of her mom's sight, she unlocked her phone and opened her settings. She adjusted the time zone to Pacific Time so her clock was three hours earlier. Next, she opened her own phone and did the same. Then, using her mom's phone, she texted herself the identical messages on Camilla's phone from her "Mom." Once they are sent, she changed the time zone back to normal on both phones. After that, she deleted the old messages sent from her "Mom" and deleted the contact so the police won't find two contacts with the name "Mom." Finally, she opened her mom's calendar and, as she expected she would, found that her mom had put Camilla's rehearsal on her calendar. She immediately deleted it so her story would seem genuine to the police.
She snuck back into the kitchen, dropped off her mom's phone exactly where it was before while she wasn't looking, and retreated to her room. She flopped onto her bed, finally able to relax for a little while.
Then, she remembered the police would be there soon, so she had to rehearse her claim of innocence and practice how she would act when she was accused of murdering Amanda.
Camilla paced back and forth in her room, out of sight of anyone driving by through the window (in case the police came soon). She whispered her claims to herself as she paced, quiet enough that nobody outside her room could hear, even if their ear was pressed against the door.
She had more time than she thought because about 15 minutes later, she heard a brisk knock at the door. She heard her mom rushing to answer it from the kitchen.
'I have no idea who's at the door,' Camilla mentally lied to herself. 'The police? Why do they need to see me? Did something happen?'
"Um...Camilla?" she heard her mom call from downstairs. "Come downstairs, honey!"