Missing Assignment

Chapter 7

October's hands swiftly dance across her keyboard with practiced ease as I grab a notebook from my bag to start taking notes. She opens a couple of blank tabs before she starts typing anything in case we find something interesting.
"Huh, that's odd. It says Jarvison was convicted, but they never found any of the bodies." October says.
"He must have hid them really well if the cops never found them." I reply, somewhat shocked they were never found.
"Maybe they just didn't feel like working overtime to look for bodies." Cody adds.
"That's not the weird part. They shouldn't have been able to convict anybody without a body or a victim of some kind. In a trial, you need hard evidence, proof that the person you're putting away did commit a crime. According to these reports, there wasn't much evidence at all." October explains to us.
"Then how did they convict him?" Faith asks.
"Apparently, he confessed. Plus, the blood found on him was a match to one of the missing people. It all seems very circumstantial, though." October responds. Seems like this project just got a bit more interesting.
"Do any of those articles say where the guy is serving his time?" I ask.
"Yeah, Dax Maroon Penitentiary, it's about a two hour drive from here." She replies before writing down the number to call for an appointment. I shove the note in my pocket to call later about scheduling a visit.
"I'm gonna interview that guy, see what info I can get out of him, maybe we can solve the mystery of the missing bodies." I say jokingly.
"Scooby-Doo mystery crew!" Mars adds happily as they cross the finish line in the game.
"You might want to check out the abandoned school too, says here that's where the missing kids were attending highschool when they went missing, another article here says the school shut down because of the case. Guess a bunch of missing kids gave the place some bad rep." October tells me.
"Holy shit! What if the kids went missing cause they really were experimented on!" Chris exclaimed. His sister threw a ball of paper at him in response.
"Guess we'll just have to find out!" I reply.
"I wanna come!" Mars excitedly adds.
"How about we head over there tomorrow? I'll see about getting a visit to the prison after that." I ask the group.
"Chris and I have Bible study tomorrow. You guys have fun, though." Faith says.
"Damn it." Chris curses, he's never been a fan of Bible study, or church in general, but he puts on a damn good show for his parents. So does Faith.
"They asked if I'd like to join too since I'm such good friends with Faith. I already said yes. Try not to destroy the place too much without us." October says.
"We won't." I reply.

After we all have some pizza Donny ordered and the day starts to turn into night, our party slowly loses members. Faith drags Chris away to get back to their house before their curfew. Not long after October leaves, she wants to get home before it gets too dark and dangerous. Before I know it, the sun is down, and it's time for me to go too. Mars is getting ready to head out with me.
"Hey, uh, you guys sure you don't wanna stay here tonight? You could sleep on my bed. It's past dark anyway." Cody asks in a more serious tone, concern hidden just behind that.
"I really do gotta go, man. My parents are gonna lose it if I'm gone another night. Hell, they're probably already pissed, I'd rather not make it worse." I respond just as seriously. I really do have to go.
"Don't worry about me, boom boy. I like my forest, and my forest likes me. I'll be just fine." Mars says casually, trying to get Cody to stop worrying. Then they walk away up the stairs to leave. I start to follow before Cody's voice makes me pause.
"Zack, you're always welcome, you know. If you ever need a place, I'm here for you, okay?" Cody says. It's a kind offer. It always has been.
"I know, thanks." I reply before walking up the stairs and meeting Mars at the door.
Mars takes me to my door before heading towards the woods, not far from my place. The fact that the forest is close is how we met in the first place as children, how we became friends, October did a good job tutoring them and adding some fake records to the school files to get them in around 5th grade. They're out of sight before I finish that thought. I take a deep breath, then open my front door.
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!? YOU'RE MOTHER HAS BEEN WORRIED SICK!" My dad screams at me the second I'm inside.
"I was at a friend's to study, plus she doesn't look worried to m-" I start before a slap to the face cuts me off.
"That's enough ya little shit, go apologize NOW! Then straight to your room, and if I hear you bitching about it you can expect a lot more where that came from." My dad commands, I tell my mom a half assed sorry and she mumbles something about me being a brat before shoving me and taking a swig from a large and near empty liquor bottle. I head to my room and fall on my bed, I don't even bother to change before falling asleep.