They drew names like it were some party game. Ally remembered the feeling well long after it had happened. She remembered exactly how terrible the blackness felt as it dropped to the pit of her stomach. Aoi was the one who had gathered up all the scraps from Carlos's notebook. Their plan had been simple; he'd draw two names at a time and they would split off to different parts of the school to try to find anything that could help figure out what had happened. There were ten of them all in total not counting Rosie or Josie, so it split into five even teams. Rosie wasn't included in the list of names because she could barely move on her own. Josie had been her eyes for a very long time, and it would take much too long for her to relearn if she ever was able to rebalance the weight of two bodies in one. It was suggested she remain in the classroom and preserve whatever energy she had left until they could get her emergency medical attention.
She agreed that it made the most sense, even though she really wanted to be a part of the search force. The shock of everything had been too much all at once, so she exhausted herself unconscious. Lilly made sure that she was still breathing and let her get some rest.
The rest of them, however, had some jobs to do.
1.) Locate the scene of the crime. It was an obvious first step that had to be established. Signs of a struggle or anything that looked out of the ordinary must be mentioned in any capacity.
2.) Locate the murder weapon. This was also related to the scene of the crime, but it was probably unlikely that the killer would have left the weapon lying around. Issachar mentioned that all that we needed to solve the case was currently still in the school.
3.) Figure out the motivation. This was probably going to be the hardest of the three. The class will all have to gather and hold their own trial to talk over every aspect of the case to draw out any possible motivations.
Ally took a deep breath as she saw Aoi pull out the first name. Having it all organized in her head certainly made it easier for her to grasp the situation. This was crazy...it all was too crazy to believe. She couldn't back down, though. She couldn't let it lead her to do nothing. Every second they wasted was another second that the killer roams free...as terrible as that sounded.
"Huh, go figure, my name is the first one I pulled," Aoi said, placing the sheet down next to him. He was currently sitting on top of Mrs. Fowler's desk with the pile of folded up scraps at his side. The rest of the class surrounded him as if he were the teacher.
"Who's next?" Ally asked.
Aoi read the next name on the list, "Carlos."
He perked up from the back of the group, looked around confused, and then pointed at himself. "Pretty boy wants to be with me? That's strange."
Aoi shrugged. "I just pulled it out of the pile."
"All right, could be much worse," Carlos shrugged too.
"Okay, we'll go check out the Library. Next up," he drew another slip of paper...Ashley," Aoi read the third card, "and next is Derek." Aoi looked over to Derek and raised his eyebrows a little, moving back to the slips beside him. "I'm not going to tell you all where to go—that will be for you all to decide. Just make sure it's not all in the same place so we don't waste time."
Derek looked over to Ashley and nodded. She smiled. It was weird—it had been one of the first genuine smiles Ally had seen on her face. It made her brown eyes look almost...nice. She returned her focus back on Aoi as he pulled up another slip of paper.
"Lilly," and then another, "...Ally."
"Oh, come on." Sidney said. "That's obviously rigged."
Aoi looked up, "I'm the fairest judge in all of the land, and I take offense to your remarks," he said in a lighter tone. "Besides, what do I gain from pairing them together?"
Sidney looked to argue back, but then she saw that she was the only one, and stopped.
"What if we were the killers, you mean?" Lilly asked. "That's what you wanted to say, right?"
She flinched as it came out. "Well, I mean it's possible."
Lilly shook her head. It had taken everything in her not to scream her head off at Sidney. "I couldn't ever..."
That seemed to settle it, as Aoi continued on with the papers. "Tyson and Adam are the next two, leaving Sidney and Harrison for the final two."
And that was it for the papers. All had been unfolded and laid out before them. "So, I think now we should organize where we're going to investigate so we don't cross paths." Aoi said. "Like I mentioned before, Carlos and I are going to check out the Library."
"Ally and I can check out the gym," Lilly said, raising her hand.
"Okay, great," Aoi replied.
"We can scope out other classrooms," Ashley said. "Right Derek?" She looked toward him. It made Adam uncomfortable.
"Uh, what if we want to look at the classrooms with you?" He asked.
Aoi shook his head, "The whole point of splitting up was to cover more ground, not less. Sorry Adam."
He sighed, "Okay, fine I guess. Uh..."
"Let's check out the cafeteria," Tyson said.
"Hey, I was going to say the cafeteria!" Adam said, not in agreement...but more in offense that Tyson had said it first.
"Yeah, good idea," Tyson said, backhanded.
"Okay, cafeteria, library, classrooms, gym." Aoi repeated, turning to Sidney and Harrison, "What about you two?"
"I'm not going anywhere with the weirdo," Sidney crossed her arms.
Harrison didn't much look offended. He took the words as they brushed aside him like a small wind. "Eh."
"Well, we're a little past that," Aoi said. "Administrative offices are some of the only spots left I can think of, maybe even some of the music and art rooms as well."
"I thought you said you weren't going to be telling us where to go," Sidney did not look eager to explore in the slightest.
"When a, b, c, and d are all eliminated," Lilly began, "don't act surprised when someone says you have to choose e."
"I didn't ask for your stupid comments," she fired back.
"Looks like we're all getting things we didn't ask for today."
"Ooookay, so we're all set in where we want to go," Aoi said, and Ally knew it was to stop the ensuing argument. We needed to get going and fast before people started clawing each other's eyes out.
"I think we should get going immediately. The faster we find out the truth the faster we get to go home," Ally said.
Aoi looked at her and smiled. "That's right. So, why don't we all take about...oh I dunno…an hour and a half each to look around? That way we can be thorough with our searches. You all have phones to keep the time?"
Everyone nodded but Ally. "I...uh...don't have one." Everyone but Lilly looked at her like she had just admitted she had four legs and three toes per foot."
"Don't worry about it," Lilly said, almost scolding the rest of them. "I've got mine," she held it up.
"Now, we have to keep in mind that our phones are pretty much fancy clocks for the moment. Wherever we are has all of our service blocked. Thankfully," he pointed up at the ceiling," the lights here still work. I don't know why that is, but we must still be connected to power somehow. We can't assume it will stay like that, so let's be sparing just in case."
"Makes sense," Derek said. "I can't say I can get used to being frugal, though."
"Oh you'll live."
Derek grinned at him.
"Okay, so if that's all I'm good to go," Tyson said. "I want this over with. An hour and a half should be good to check everything out."
Aoi nodded, "If anyone needs more time then still come back and let everyone know that more time is needed. We don't want anyone to go missing or worse here."
"Sounds fair enough. We can meet and talk about the things we find, too," Ally said.
"Hopefully it will all be over soon," Derek said.
"Okay, enough talking in circles." Aoi said. "I don't want to stay here much longer."
That was when each of them split up into their small groups. Willing, unwilling, it didn't matter. Everyone funneled out of the room leaving Rosie lying on the table.