Getting away with murder 101

Chapter 18: Ella's POV

The end of the day fell upon us from out of the blue and we were sentenced to our after-school detentions. Our plan was working miraculously so far (touch wood). After the school bell rang, announcing the end of the school day, I said goodbye and farewell to Alexander and Rosalind and headed off to my detention, a somewhat flawless plan formulating in my mind.

I reached Miss Lang's classroom without a problem and knocked on the door with purpose. Upon hearing the muffled "Come in", I entered the humanities classroom and shut the door carefully behind me.

"Ah, Miss Gresham," Miss Lang was perched on her seat facing her desk with a large stack of papers in front of her.

I am appalled to say that my knees seemed to knock together as I entered the room.

I was not scared, I swear.

Eleanor Gresham does not get scared by a humanities teacher.

I closed the door behind me and smiled sweetly at the hawk-eyed teacher, "Yes? Miss Lang?"

"Ah! So, you do remember my name, you little pest!"

I tried not to laugh as she seemed to explode with anger.

"Yes, Miss Lang, it would be ever so dreadful if I ever forgot your name!" I managed to nail my expression of shock horror.

Miss Lang, however, did not find my theatrics as amusing as Alex or Rosa might have done. Instead, she pointed a long finger at the desk in the loneliest, dustiest spot in the classroom, "Sit, you lippy child, and do not speak until you have written me a hundred lines of 'I must not forget Miss Lang's name'!"

She shoved a pen and a wad of lined paper into my arms before watching me with narrow eyes as I took my allocated seat at the back of the classroom.

With a frown of determination, I sat down to conquer my lines and it had not even been a few minutes when Monsieur Duffy burst into the room, talking rapidly in French to Miss Lang.

It surprised me that Miss Lang understood Monsieur Duffy but naturally, I attempted to listen in on their conversation. It was harder than it originally seemed. I do not even speak fluent French, let alone quick-as-a-bullet French.

Nevertheless, this is what I picked up from their rather interesting conversation:

"Nous avons eu un développement dans l'affaire! Le détective vient de me dire qu'ils ont trouvé un couteau plutôt incriminant scellé dans un sac en plastique dans la poubelle de Mme Cregana." Monsieur Duffy spoke rapidly.

"Ils quoi!?" Miss Lang exclaimed.

"Pour être honnête, je n'aurais jamais pensé que Mme Cregana l'avait en elle." Monsieur Duffy told her, matter-of-factly.

"Mais ça ne peut pas être elle, Monsieur," Miss Lang informed him, her eyebrows knitted together in thought.

I was scribbling furiously, getting down every juicy drop of this information.

"Pourquoi?" Monsieur Duffy asked.

"Elle était avec nous tout le temps, vous twit, même sur le chemin du retour." Miss Lang scolded him.

"Ah! Oui oui! Je me souviens maintenant!" Monsieur Duffy nodded.

They continued to discuss other... irrelevant things and I resumed my lines. Like an exceptionally good girl.

My detention was over quicker than I had anticipated, and I found myself quickly sprinting up the flights of stairs to the dorm to document the conversation. I got to the dorm, where everyone was lazing about on the sofas chatting with friends and finishing homework at the tables around the room. I was only interested in getting to the girls' dorm.

"Hey Shortie! That detention was lame don't you think?"

I turned to the taunting Nancy as I pushed open the girl's dorm, sticking a very unladylike middle finger up at her before disappearing into the dorm.

I took out the sheet of paper, where I had scribbled down the conversation I had just eavesdropped on, and examined it, rubbing my head, the French making no sense in my head.

Alexander would make sense of it, so I put it to one side, making a mental note to show him later. Obviously, I knew Rosa would be able to translate it given that she is French however Alexander is...Alexander. He is the most amazing person ever. He is smart, he is kind, he is funny I could go on and on.

With nothing else to do but to wait until my fellow detectives returned from there punishment, I wandered over to the window in an event of pure coincidence.

I gazed out across the darkening playing fields before I spotted a torch being waved in the distance.

I narrowed my eyes at the figure, who emerged from the shadows. It was just Mrs Atkinson. But what was she doing out at this time of evening?

She made for the entrance to the school, the oil lamps lining the path catching light on something in the darkness.

A bulging sack slung over her shoulder.

The plot thickens.

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Author's note from @BananaBrain13 

(Hey! I noticed the French written here is unhelpfully not translated (go me) so here is a translated version of Monsieur Duffy's and Miss Lang's conversation to English:

Monsieur Duffy: We had a development in the case! The detective just told me that they found a rather incriminating knife sealed in a plastic bag in Ms. Cregana's garbage can.

Miss Lang: They what!?

Monsieur Duffy: To be honest, I never thought Mrs. Cregana had it in her.

Miss Lang: But it can't be her, Monsieur.

Monsieur Duffy: Why?

Miss Lang: She was with us all the time, you twit, even on the way home.

Monsieur Duffy: Ah! Yes, yes! I remember now!

:) you're welcome.

Also, thanks for being patient with the updates. It's hard juggling a fanfic, another fanfic, this book and studying all at once lol.

The book is slowly drawing to a close with approximately about 10ish (don't take my word for it) chapters left.

Enjoy the chaos.

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Author's note from the Nerdy other author (AKA me CatLover_3695 ):

Hope you are enjoying this book and I can say that there will be more updates in the very near future - I don't think you will have to wait so long between each update however as my Best friend and fellow author BananaBrain13 it is hard to juggle schoolwork, writing books and having your nose stuck in a book at the same time. It is definitely a full time occupation XD.