TALES OF THE DARK

Part 21: THE CLASSMATE

Our classmate...who came back after her trip...isn't the same...

It was after the Winter Break. Nathan and his friend Matt had spent the holidays together, since they were neighbors. Nathan and Matt have known each other since they were young and now they were in the same school together. That was a plus one for Nathan, since he could spend Christmas with one extra mate.

"Hey you two, how was the long vacation?" Said a girl with white hair. it was their classmate Melanie. Unlike Nathan and Matt, she lived the other street. Although occasionally she would come by to hang out with the two boys.

Nathan nodded "Great, I heard you went to L.A. for the holidays." He said friendly.

"How was it?" Matt asked Melanie, curious on how her holiday went.

"Oh I got to meet my cousins of course, it was fine. Well sadly we had to come back to school." Melanie said, sometimes she wished the break would have lasted longer.

Nathan and Matt agreed, there was so much more for them to do but it wasn't really enough. Maybe they could've invited Kate with them.

"Huh hang on a second, Where's Kate..?" Matt suddenly asked, Nathan and Melanie realized that Kate was not there yet.

Kate was like the brainiac of the class, she was the smartest person there and she was always early. But for some reason...she wasn't there.

"What the hell?" Melanie was confused about it. "She's always here first before us. This is the first time she isn't early."

Nathan only nodded, he didn't have any answers to it. But before he could think of anything else, Kate would walk in.

Something was wrong...she wasn't saying a word...she just sat down on her desk.

Nathan, Matt and Melanie looked at Kate with suspicion. That didn't seem like their classmate yet there she was.

"Uh Kate..?" Nathan would approach her. "Is everything alright? Did you have a good holiday?" Nathan tried his best to talk to her, he hardly did talk to Kate at all.

Although he asked, she didn't answer. She was blank and staring at the floor. Nathan didn't understand and just left her, not knowing what else to tell her. Melanie looked at Nathan, she was curious. "What did she tell you?"

"Nothing. Just nothing." Nathan said, he couldn't understand at all. But soon the bell rang and class would start. They probably would have to talk about it later.

At Lunch time.
At the point, everyone, not only the class but people from the school noticed Kate's behavior. It was a very strange change to a once very open hearted girl. They speculated to be something like some incidents in her home or worse...

Although forgetting to mention, Nathan, Matt, and Melanie were part of the Literature Club. They all sat in the Library but they couldn't get their minds off Kate and her strange behavior. 

"She hasn't uttered a word since!" Matt whispered "what the hell has gotten into her?"

"Puberty?" Nathan joked.

"Dude, not the time, this is serious." Matt bit back.

"Maybe it was something bad that happened to her family?" Melanie said, trying to draw an answer.

"Maybe she and her family had a fight...?" Nathan said, trying to be rational "or maybe someone in her family passed."

"If that was the case, then the whole town would have known." Matt had a point, Blackington would definitely hold a Vigil for anyone who died. But there was no news of any deaths.