To Tell An Altswood Lie (The Altswood Saga #3)

Chapter 7 - Court

Chapter 7 - Court

"Are you alive?"

I peeped open an eye, identifying Gabriel as the human shaped silhouette looming over me. The top half of my body was sprawled over a table in the cafeteria, trying to catch up on my sleep. After last night's creepy message on my window, I was understandably a little spooked, and couldn't sleep until the asscrack of dawn.

Whoever was sending the messages was making something very clear: I better hope that this didn't turn into a spree, because if it did, I would be the next victim.

"No," I grumbled, rubbing my eyes to clear the fuzz. "I'm dead inside."

"That's rough," Gabriel said without a hint of sarcasm. He put his lunch tray down and slid into the seat next to me. "How do I revive you?"

I pointed at a grape on his plate and opened my mouth. Without any further questions, he obliged, aiming the grape as if he was shooting for a basketball hoop. It landed in my mouth perfectly, and with a whoop of victory, Gabriel leaned in to press a kiss to my lips.

We startled apart when Annabelle appeared out of nowhere and slammed her tray down, so loudly that it echoed twice in the cafeteria.

"Christ," I muttered, nearly choking on the grape. I pressed a hand to my heart, assuring my screaming pulse that it hadn't been a gunshot, it had just been a lunch tray meeting a metal table. "Where's the fire?"

"I'd say." Jules approached from behind and joined the table on Annabelle's side, though he set his tray down gently. "These poor inanimate objects don't deserve such violence."

"I finished my essay last night," Annabelle explained, "and when I logged on this morning to print it, the file was corrupted. Corrupted! On a Google document!"

She took an angry and vicious bite out of her sandwich.

My paranoia started tingling. "Was anything else out of the ordinary?"

Annabelle shook her head. "Not that I could see," she sighed. "Enough about me, what's the plan?"

At her prompt, I dug through my bag and drew out a notebook. I flipped it open, showing them my little scribbles and the pages where I had glued in the weird notes.

"Can I stick yours in too, by the way?" I asked Gabriel.

He raised an eyebrow, then retrieved said note from the inside of his pencil case, where he had placed it for safe-keeping.

"Sure, Nancy Drew."

I opted to ignore that comment. I was more focused on finding a glue stick, so that FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED THAT SUMMER joined LET'S PLAY A GAME. SOLVE THE MYSTERY on the same page.

"Did you make any progress identifying the two frauds on the footage?" Jules asked, biting into an apple. He winced, then spat out the chunk when he realised it was brown. "Where does the school get this food?"

"I don't even know how we'd start." Gabriel eyed his own apple, and pushed it away from his plate. "We could try grill Delilah's mom further."

I shook my head. "Delilah said the person who picked up the wig had covered everything up, and didn't speak a word. It would be a waste of time to try get more information, because there is none."

"Yet it's the only lead we have," Annabelle argued, finishing her sandwich.

I flicked her crumbs back onto her side of the table.

"It's the only lead we have from our own investigation," I said. "But I've been thinking. Everything we've worked out so far about this case hasn't been of our own doing. It's been given to us."