I STARE BACK at Vito's head paralyzed. Does no one care? Someone is dead, on the ground, and your concern is with the arrows? The arrows?!
I shoot a look at the instructor. Turns out he was looking right back at me.
"You! Over there with the head! Go change, your uniform's a mess!"
"My uniform?!" I scream back, then look down.
My uniform. Once so pretty, so neat.
Now there was a giant, splotchy blood stain from Vito's head covering my right side.
I'm too afraid and paralyzed by the incident, so I don't do anything.
The instructor repeats himself, "Go change your uniform right now!"
Stepping out of my daze, feeling finally returns to my legs as I begin to walk back into the building.
I get a few stares on the walk, but other than that, no attention. Someone is practically drenched in blood, and no one cares. All I get is a few stares at least.
The memory of Vito's body is still fresh in my head, and I hate it. I remember what the last elemental arrow was. Explosive. I wish I'd paid better attention to my surroundings. Now I have no idea who did this.
Or why'd they do this.
Why would a ninth grader kill someone on the first day of school? And that gruesomely? Do they understand how bad that is?
My anger starts mounting. I can call the police, right? I can press charges against this person! Except, I don't know who it is.
My confidence starts to waver as I enter the girls' change room. Stowed away in my mini-locker is my cell phone.
Swinging the door open, I snatch my phone and immediately start scrolling through the Terms and Conditions and the student handbook. There must be something, anything that I can sue the school for.
And there it is. In the Ts and Cs, there is a line.
'Aether Archery Academy will not be responsible for any injuries.'
I throw my phone across the room, the screen shattering against the wall at the impact.
I feel absolutely livid. Someone has been killed, and no one's going to do anything about it?
Suddenly my dream school doesn't seem so dreamy.
Then I start to sob. My back hits the wall as I slowly sink to the ground. My shoulders are heaving and I can't seem to breathe properly.
I'm not exactly crying about Vito. I barely knew the guy. But I still feel so tremendously sad. The image of his head will haunt me for years to come. But, I think I have another vague idea on why I'm reacting like this.
Fatima and Dad. The crash. The person driving was drunk, didn't notice the red light, and sped right into them. And the worst part of it all? They didn't get any sort of punishment. Not a year in prison. They paid the punishment off. And the government just accepted it?
I hate the fact that people can die and the victims don't receive any sort of justice. It seems so stupid. It makes me mad.
I can feel my face going red, and so does my vision. I hate this for Vito. Imagine his parents. Oh, his poor parents, who now have to accept that their son died on the first day of highschool.
Standing up, I rip my clothing off my body, shoving it into my backpack. I only have an oversized T-Shirt and some shorts, but I don't care about looking stupid anymore.
I barge out of the changeroom, storming out of the building quickly and efficiently.
I swivel my head around, trying to look for my class. Spotting them, I storm up to the group, trying my best to not be noticed that much.
Everyone is still spread out, talking and chatting amongst themselves. Vito's body has been cleared, but dark red still stains the grass.
I narrow my eyes as I scan everyone for the duo with explosives.
And there they are.
Fran and red haired girly. Though, the red haired girl looks less than pleased with Fran. I bet it's her who hit Vito.
Just as I'm about to storm up to the duo, though, the red girl picks up a bow and arrow.
And she couldn't shoot it.
She can't use a bow and arrow to save her life! How'd she even get accepted into this program?
Probably money, of course. Money fixes everything.
Wait, then, did Fran kill him?
Fran killed Vito?
The clown who used to have orange hair?
No, he couldn't! He barely managed to form a coherent sentence on the bus ride to school. But now that I think about it, he was giving us some weird looks.
With a bit less rage than I had before, I sauntered over to the duo. Maybe there was a rotation? Maybe they weren't using the Explosive arrows when Vito was murdered.
That is what I'd have to hope for.
"Hey," I said calmly, despite my inner turmoil. Fran and the red head turned their heads to me.
Fran's face immediately lit up, while red head's formed a scowl. "Jeong-min!" Fran said, a bit too eagerly. "Is there anything you need?"
I nod. "When um, Vito, you know," I stutter, feeling my resolve wavering. "Were you guys using the Explosive arrows?"
Fran opens his mouth to speak, but gets cut off by the red head. "Yes, yes we were."
And all the rage bubbles up again. So it was one of them. But who?
I decided to just be direct about it. "So who shot him?"
"I did." Fran says. He doesn't look remorseful or anything. Not even the slightest bit guilty or ashamed.
I did.
"Can I borrow your partner for a bit,?" I say through clenched teeth.
"Yumeko, and take him." She grumbles. I nod and then drag Fran away from the group, closer to the school building, and our professor doesn't seem to care at all.
Dragging him around the building and out the entrance, I let go of him once we reached the stairs that led up to the school.
Fran's pupils dilate when he talks to me. "So, Jeong-min, what did you want to talk about?"
I take a deep breath. He admitted it so nonchalantly a few minutes ago, and now he's playing dumb?
"You know what you did," I finally say. "You killed Vito."
His face hardens. It seems he doesn't like him, huh? "Oh, that guy? Psh, he deserved it."
He deserved it? Unless they have some unknown history that I'm not aware of, Vito didn't deserve shit.
I say as calmly as I possibly can, which is not very calm.
"He was being so touchy with you and," he pauses, seemingly thinking about how to phrase his next point.
I shove him against the wall, now realizing that I'm actually a bit taller than him.
"He was helping me, you dimwit!" I yell. Fran doesn't even seem to be listening, Which just makes me even angrier.
"Do you feel any sort of remorse for what you've just done!?" I feel like punching this guy, and I'm really close to actually doing it.
Fran looks up as if thinking, then shakes his head, his cheeks ablaze. I can't tell if he's ashamed or not.
Picking him up by his collar, I throw him farther down the stairs. The landing must've hurt like hell, but I don't care.
I despise him.
I turn on my heel and walk back underneath the archway.