Endbury Academy✔️

Chapter 15

"So let me get this straight. You heard Vice Principal Pekham talking with Professor Clemons about something that sounded suspicious? And it involved the students here?" I had immediately told my friends what I had seen when we had some quiet time, making sure there wasn't any teachers around. Who knows who was all attached to whatever it was those two were doing.

"I'm just telling you what I heard," I defended myself when it sounded like Sloan was unimpressed with my story. Gathered around me in a circle were Sloan, Mila, Eliza, Leia, Annette and Sally who all looked horrified about what I had told them. Though Sloan was less than amused about the situation. Who could blame her? I would have never suspected them to behind anything heinous, especially not Professor Clemons who had made sure that I was alright the first day of school. "I'm not exactly sure it pertains anything to do with what is happening, but it was suspicious all together."

Sloan frowned at that, probably not sure what to think. "We can't just go around accusing people of kidnapping girls. We need to get more evidence and not just a he-said, she-said situation." She was right, I knew that. This was not an ideal situation to be in. "Surely if the VP is up to something the Principal would know about it, right?"

I just shrugged at that. "I don't know, it looked pretty hush, hush. They were talking like they didn't want anyone to hear. I just happened to walk by when I was coming back from turning in the papers Professor Franks wanted me to." It had been a strange site to behold, and even stranger conversation. Immediately I was suspicious of the two - though VP Pekham had always given me weird vibes.

Though I wouldn't have pegged her to be a kidnapper. Or worse, a murderer.

Sally slouched forward, her eyebrows furrowing. "That doesn't make any sense though. These disappearances have been happening for a few years, and Clemons just came to this school this year." That was a contradiction. I did remember Leia telling me that these have been going on for a while.

"Maybe he's a new contender?" I suggested, biting my lip. The gears in my head were turning. Maybe if I followed them I would find out what was happening? I'd probably get more information out of VP Pekham if Professor Clemons was new. He was probably a follower. That would make a lot of sense, considering he's new. She'd have taken him under his wing - that's what a lot of villains did with their underlings. Great, now I was trying to make this seem like a superhero film.

"The teachers have been acting strange. For them, anyway," Annette spoke up quietly. "I've never seen them this scatterbrained before." The others seemed to agree with her, though I couldn't really put any word in on that one. This was my first year, so I didn't know how the teachers acted normally.

"Could just be a hard year for them?" Leia suggested quietly, though I could tell she didn't really think that. I could understand, she didn't want to think negatively on the people that she had looked up to for a long time. "You guys think the teachers could be behind the disappearances?" Leia's lip quivered at the thought and I had to stop myself from walking over to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Do we even know they are disappearances?" Sloan interjected, tapping her left thigh with her pointer finger as she thought about what was happening. "What if they actually went home because of emergencies? It's been known to happen, granted not often, but it has happened..." She trailed off in a whisper, not wanting to face the facts.

"You're right, we don't know if this is what is happening." I agreed with a nod, adjusting the way I was sitting. We were in Leia and I's dorm room, sitting on the floor in a circle. We needed a place where we could chat privately without fear that someone would overhear us, and we suggested the dorm room. We've often used our dorms as meeting places for stuff like this - ever since we began suspecting something wasn't right. "Still though, I think it's a little weird that they all had so called "family issues" and never once spoke to their closest friends about it. While I can understand wanting to keep family problems under lock and key, I just don't think no one would know about it. "I think we can agree that something isn't right here though," I added as an afterthought with a frown.

The room got quiet after that, an eerie feeling settling into our minds. It was like a nightmare that would never end, only we weren't asleep. We were wide awake and in the thick of it. The only thing that we could possibly do was band together and try to survive. Try not to be the one whisked away to where-ever the others went. I was almost positive, after hearing that conversation with Pekham and Clemons, that the girls were not going home to see their families because of emergencies.

As the days went by I stayed attentive towards the acts of the teachers. Watched when students were getting called into the office, or when students were being told to take something to the office. It happened more times then naught, which wasn't abnormal as teachers cannot always just up and leave their classroom.

Though one stood out. Professor Franks was acting flighty and seemed to dismiss any question that was about the missing girls. It was like she didn't want to answer, but I could tell she knew the answer with the way she acted.

For the most part I tried not to let what was happening consume me, but it was hard. Having lost a dear friend that I had only just met it was becoming a bit of a paranoia that I might loose another friend of mine, and I don't want that to happen.

The group was sitting in the middle of the Endbury Academy garden, studying for the test that was coming up in our math class. If there was a subject I hated with a passion, it was math. Sure it was easy once you got it, and pretty straight forward - but learning it is what always stumped me.

It had been a quiet day. Nothing much had happened, and all that they really did was study. Everything had been going smoothly, and I knew that there was just going to be a storm coming. I hoped that it didn't end with another girl going missing.