The Eye Witness

CHAPTER 1(Prologue?)

“So, miss..” the officer paused, then looked at the paper in his
hands and continued. “Miss Audielane? Could you tell me how the
assembly was different to you? Remember, every little detail is very
important for this investigation.” The girl quietly answered him,
unsure if EACH detail was as important as he was leading on.
“W…Well.. It was a pretty normal day except for—”
“...the murder and assembly.” The officer rudely finished her sentence.
“Correct, the day started as usual. I woke up, took my morning
shower, and a few more things- like changing and such.” The girl,
Laurie, paused for a moment as if carefully picking what words to say
next.
~ ᐧ ~
Laurie rushed out the door of her mother’s apartment,
backpack slouched across her shoulder. She was too busy trying not
to die of frustration from her two younger brothers, who tortured
her into being late for school. Her brothers hid her laptop, an essay that was due, and her homework that she stayed up till 2’am doing.
She didn’t have time to think before slamming herself to a stop as a
faded red Jeep just barely brushed the side of her cheek– leaving a
small scratch where it had passed. “OW! You jerk!” She yelled,
annoyed that they ignored the stop sign. She continued to run down
the sidewalk, taking a left or right every so often. Laurie had never
had an absence or a tardy the whole year, and that wasn't going to
be her first. She fell onto the floor of the school just as the bell rang,
and slid at least 3 feet before slowing to a halt.
“Well, that's embarrassing..” Laurie thought, but when she
looked up no one was there. “Oh! The assembly– shoot, I'm gonna
miss it!” She quickly got up and hurried to the gymnasium. Laurie
slowly opened the doors to the gymnasium and snuck to her
home-room class, which was sitting on the third row in the middle of
the bleachers surrounding the gym.
“Laurie Audielane, you’re tardy.” The teacher murmured to her,
then pointed to an empty spot in the class. “The exact middle.
Great..” She thought, with the slightest bit of sarcasm. Laurie crept
towards the empty seat as the speaker continued to– Well, speak.
“*ahem* Back to what I was saying,” He cleared his throat
again, “We all know how hard high school is for you all. So, I've
decided we’ll take closer measures against bullying and the
STRONG profanity going around as well. But that's not all this
assembly is about!” The Principal paused, then pulled out a black
shirt from a gym bag that was sitting on top of the nearby utility
cart. “We’ll also be talking about the D.R.U.G.S foundation!
Exciting, right?” The students groaned, and most of them
slouched back on the bleachers or plugged headphones into their
laptops and phones. Except for one girl, Emily Watson– ‘The Geek’. Emily had emerald green eyes and light blonde hair that
looked like it had been bleached twelve times. She wore glasses
and a purple and blue striped tunic, which Laurie didn't think much
of the outfit change midway through the assembly from that
tunic to a green t-shirt. Emily Watson sat up and quietly clapped,
but stopped when she saw people glaring at her.
“Well, I must say that you all aren’t the biggest fans of this
assembly... I guess you all need to sit patiently and wait for it to
end.”
Throughout the long, long assembly there were a few power
outages which was strange because the school was high-tech and
never actually had outages. The Principal, Mr. Goodwill,
interrupted his own speech for a moment. “Excuse me, Could we
get someone to see what's happening with the lights? Perhaps
going down to the generator and doing whatever is needed.”
About halfway through the assembly, the lights went out, and it
was silent for a while. Then out of the blue– there was a tumble
down the bleachers near Laurie, the room exploded with curdling
screams and students trying to get to the doors of the
gymnasium– which had been locked minutes before. Laurie stayed
completely still, her eyes shuttered at the blood that had
splattered on her clothes, which she couldn’t completely see.
~ ᐧ ~
The school was panicking outside, police were questioning
the adults, then students. Laurie glanced around, catching every
little chatter. “Did you hear….”, “Did you see who…”, and things like
that. She tapped her foot on the ground, Laurie noticed one of her
friends crying near whoever had died. She walked over and froze.
The body had been barely recognized as Olive. Olive was a nickname for Olivia Parker Smith. The police officer looked at the
distorted, bruised face and covered it as Laurie fell to the ground.
“Oh. My. God.” She muttered through the start of tears. Laurie
turned her head towards the school and was shocked to see a
figure going into it, not an officer; and definitely not a
superintendent.