Everyone was rushing around, pushing and barging, ignoring the teachers' screamed orders.
"Everyone! Remain calm! Please!" Mrs Honeywebb shouted and people started to become silent.
"What is going on?" I asked her, "why are the lights suddenly off?" I kept asking and everyone settled.
"It's just a power cut children." Children? Is she serious? We are teenagers...well, nearly. "Nothing to be afraid of, the lights will come back on…I'm sure"
"I am really confused now Morven," Lian said clutching on my arms. "This is seriously ridiculous," she continued "How come there are power cuts here when it's meant to be a rich posh school?!"
"I don't know! I don't know why my dad thinks this school is suitable!" I said realising she was no longer clutching my arm.
"Lian! Where did you go!" I whisper shouted.
"I'm here dumbo!" She said right next to me.
"Why aren't you clutching my arm then?" I asked realising that my question was dumber than me.
"Because…wait why do I need to clutch your arm?! I haven't been clutching your arm!" She said and I looked to my left.
"He he he he," said Willow, who was the person clutching my arm, "I thought you were my friend, I'm sorry," and she instantly let go.
I felt a hint of embarrassment rushing through me, and then, in the blink of an eye, someone screamed.
People ran and fidgeted around and they tried to find a way out but every time they tried to open the door, it was locked.
"We're gonna die!" A boy exaggerated and to be honest, me and Lian finally started to panic, when we panic, we are either very fidgety or jumpy. But certainly not in a good way.
When the lights came back on, heads turned, students gaping, all at Billy Andrews, dead Billy Andrews. Our teacher fainted, people started screaming and me and Lian turned our faces straight away. I could tell she was thinking the same thing. I mean what's more thrilling than a dead body? Well, obviously I was sad he died and all that.
"Morven," Lian whispered trying to get my attention, I was too lost in my thoughts. "Morven! This was NOT an accident," She whisper shouted as I looked at her.
"No Lian, it could have been something else! You go to conclusions too fast." I explained to her like a professional detective.
Lian looked like she wanted to reply to my answer but just as she was about to do that, Prissy screamed.
'Oh no! Another dead person!?' I thought as I was turning my head, but no, it was something…rather ridiculous.
"Miss, MISS my fountain pen! It's-it's in…HIS NECK!!!" She shouted when Mrs Honeywebb only just got up from her little sleep there.
"I- uhhhh," Mrs Honeywebb tried to say as she fainted again seeing that. Then, we all screamed. A fountain pen was in his neck. His blood on the table and his head down, and obviously, there was ink all over the table, dripping onto the floor. It was disgusting! Absolutely the worst thing I've ever seen.
'How did she recognise her pen?' A thought ran through, but straight away, I could see why. There was ink all over her table, plus her pen is missing.. explainable.
It can be a mistake, I mean, nobody here was brave enough to kill him…plus it might have been a simple accident, I hope.
We heard a loud banging on the door.
"Don't worry guys, it's the police and the ambulance, we are trying to break the door open," a woman shouted "step back!" She finished banging more as everyone went all the way to the end of the classroom. Wow, a woman as a firefighter? Okay, THAT was interesting. People were whispering too, Who was she? Why is it a woman? Shouldn't it be a man? And more of that nonsense, seriously, haven't you seen a firefighter who was a woman before…well, that was it really.
When they broke the door eventually, they took us out one by one, checking our pockets, and there were 3 paramedic's - full dressed, in masks - taking Billy and rushing with him to the ambulance.
"You alright?" Asked the police officer.
"Yes," me and Lian said.
"Good, now everyone, listen here," he stepped back at all the people who were standing in the corridor which had such a perfectly laid red carpet, it was like that everywhere in the school, seems like someone must like red so much. "We've called your parents, nothing has happened, they just want to come and check if you're okay." he declared.
"Yes everybody, they are on their way, you will only talk to them for a short twenty minutes and then you will go to your dorm rooms. Understood?" Mrs Miller came and said out of nowhere, she signalled Prissy to go with her and she walked smiling like she was proud of herself in a sassy way, it disgusts me. I can only see Eleri Maxton in her face. There was another girl next to them. Alice Miller from what I just heard, must be her sister. I feel bad for her, honestly. But, what if she is like Prissy?
We were dismissed and we walked freely with our dorm groups, I thought we would be lined up, but no, oh well. I didn't see Lilah anywhere though.
"Where's Lilah?" I asked worried.
"She's…oh she's over there, come on," Lian said pulling me to where Lilah was standing.
Lian took her phone out immediately and started typing. "Aren't you coming to see your parents?" Her translator blurted out. Lilah shook her head,
She took her phone out and typed. "Go ahead, I'm meeting my dad somewhere else, it's okay"
We nodded and started heading somewhere else, I pulled Lian with me.
When we got outside, my dad was there waiting for me. "Oh Morven! Honey! Are you okay is everything alright are you sure-"
"Dad, I'm okay," I giggled.
"I'm taking you both out of here at once!" He said but I somehow…didn't want to leave, this was our only chance of being detectives. We can't let it go just like that!
"No dad, it's fine, it's only an accident after all!"
"Huh, so you like it here?" He asked smiling at me with his hands on his hips and I just laughed.
"Yes dad, it's better than those High schools that have a lot of 'Swearing and big bullies' plus, we made a friend!" I finished and he nodded.
"Look at you all grown up," he hugged me. "Where's Lian by the way?"
"She's right over…oh," I turned. I thought Lian was next to me the whole time but when I looked at my left, over the green field, there was Lian just trying to look for someone, I quickly looked at my dad. "Is Lian's dad coming?" I asked him but straight away I realised what the answer was by the look of his face.
"He's busy." We both said at the same time, we watched Lian as she watched the last car pull up for a boy in our class, we watched her lose hope but she just turned and smiled at us. She started walking towards us.
"He's not here? Hasn't he heard of what happened?" I asked.
"He has but, he only asked for me to ask her if she was okay and tell him what she said," he sighed.
"Why doesn't he come do it himself?"
"I know, but out of all days, today was the busiest for him," he looked at the grass below. "You know, I feel bad for her, it's as if she knows he won't arrive"
I slowly nodded and watched Lian kick the grass as she was walking slowly watching the others see their parents. She knew - ever since she was 7- that for every event, he wouldn't arrive, but she always planted a seed of hope in her heart, that one day he would show up.
"He should be ashamed of himself," I shook my head.
"Now let's not bad talk him alright, he's a hardworking man who-" he started.
"Who hasn't showed up, what if she was in trouble?!"
"Oh Morvy, just leave it be, look, she's not in trouble," he pointed at her and waved.
"Hello Mr Armstrong!" Lian said cheerfully but at the same time awkwardly.
"Hello! Your dad asked me-"
"If I was okay? Yes, I am, he shouldn't have the need to worry, I'm fine, I just went for fresh air was all," she finished for him as if she knew this would happen. Why of course she did.
"See! She's fine Morven," he said pointing at her and hugging her. Then he straightened up and scratched his chin. "I hope you two won't be smoochy smooching a boy this year ay?" He made funny faces making me and Lian shake our heads in disapproval but laugh at the same time.
"Not this year dad no," I said still laughing.
"Boys and Girls, parents and guardians, thank you for coming, the children must go back now, say your last goodbyes." Announced Mrs Miller with her weird looking duck face - that's Prissy by the way.
"Well, goodbye then!" My dad said looking at us both. "Oh and Morvy. Don't forget to call," he shouted and everyone looked at me. I blushed straight away. Morvy! In front of everyone?! Oh god, I'm going to be bullied for life. I turned to walk away but then I remembered, I wanted to tell him about our friend's name - Lilah.
"Dad- oh, he's gone..again." I realised.
"Come on Morvy! Let's go!" Lian said and I hit her playfully as a STOP IT sign, why is she the first to start bullying me!?
We were sent back to our dorms, and since Lilah can't speak English, it was the perfect time to talk about Billy's death.
"Morvy," Lian said making me turn at her as fast as lightning.
"No," I replied "If you don't call me Morven, I am not answering"
"FINE….Morvy," she muttered under her breath.
"I heard THAT."
"Sorry," she said sarcastically.
"What were you going to say then?"
"I wanted to say…maybe we should make up a detective club and start detecting about Billy's death! You know, we haven't started detecting yet so we should have a name for our little detective society," she said like it was definitely something to be happy about…well, I wanted to detect too so...
"Good idea," I answered because I actually wanted to have a detecting club anyway. "What should we call it?" I asked her, "How about Kayhill-"
"Girls, boys," she said.
"No"
"Masters, uh powers, no that was stupid," she continued as I chewed at the top of my pen.
"Squad, elite!"
"Oooh elite is a good one but it's still a bit lame," I went back to thinking.
"I've run out of ideas," she said slumping herself on my bed.
"I know!" I
"What?" She looked at me sitting up.
"P. A." I said while she looked at me blankly until she realised.
"Ohhhhh I get it now, P for Pizza and A for Anchovies! That's clever, Pizza is our favourite and Anchovies are disgusting!" She grinned and this time I looked at her blankly.
"Anchovies are still disgusting," I pointed out. "And NO, that's not why I said P. A. It means P for Park and A for Armstrong, our last names weirdo!" I continued and her grin turned into a shrug.
"Well, that's boring. I liked Pizza and Anchovies more, but oh well," she slumped back on my bed and I just sighed slumping on my chair and writing the name on a piece of paper.
When we both got up again ready to start a conversation, we had totally forgot Lilah was there, by now, she probably thinks we're absolute nutters. We smiled at her and she laughed turning back to her sketchbook, me and Lian just snickered as silently as we can.
"I thought we were on our own," she whispered between giggles.
"Well," I finished giggling. "P. A. it is," and she nodded. We both sat up like we were serious. We looked as if we were gleeful about Billy's death but that wasn't the point.
"Now," Lian said "I think it's a mystery," she pointed out, well of course it is!
"Quiet right," I chimed in. "The first thing we need to do is-"
"Find a notebook?"
"No, let's make a suspect list," I replied. "Once..we..find a notebook, obviously," I added pretending I hadn't been so stupid.
Lian palmed her face. We started looking through our draws to see if they had left us any paper but they didn't, well, they are stupid. Don't they know we need paper? What kind of Posh school is this, aren't they supposed to be rich? Oh fiddlesticks! Now I sound like my dad.
Lian popped over to her side to see if she had any paper but there were only…tweezers! Ha ha ha! She's lucky ain't she. She held it up to her face and pretended to be my mum, plucking her eyebrows, I couldn't help but laugh. When I opened my draw, there were tweezers too, but why? We don't need to pluck our eyebrows. We also found a nail clipper, we need that, our nails grow faster than big foots hair!
As we were looking for paper, I really hoped that Billy wasn't dead, even though there was a pen stuck in his neck clearly...though what if it's a prank? I'm not sure that it was a murder, well, I can't tell straight away, but it was probably an accident…right?!