Cypress Alley

Chapter 34

"Have their parents ever heard of middle names?" I tried to joke. "Why do they both have two first names?"

Eliza didn't lift her head. "The first is the name Mr and Ms Davis gave them, and the second is the name their real parents gave them."

"Oh"

"Yeah, that's why I keep telling you to call her Jane-Rose. Because Rose is from her real parents. She even used to make us just call her Rose while you were still in the grade below us. Until she changed her mind."

"But do you really think she deserves that, now?" I grumbled. "That I should waste my breath on that?"

"Definitely not," she conceded. "She deserves to burn in hell."

"Agreed."

"We've got history first," Eliza said after a moment.

"Yeah- oh..."

"Do you think we'll be able to face her after all that?"

"I don't know..."

"I'm scared that she's overheard something. Or she will soon."

I'd left my phone on the same counter in the living room since we'd planned a full day of investigating Jane. Having her find out what we were doing was the last thing we needed. Either way, I figured that if no one had touched my phone until now, it'd probably be safe there. 

"She wouldn't have. And we'll be extra careful to make sure she doesn't in the future," I assured her.

As for the texts we were receiving, we decided that the reason they seemed like two different people had written them was that Jane was trying to seem professional, but couldn't hold it up the whole time. It would make sense - the number of times she'd rewritten her first texts seemed as though she was trying a bit too hard to seem more dignified than she truly is.

"And we've got English after that," I told her, trying to change the subject. "Have you finished your assignment."

"No. I only started last night and I barely did anything," she whined.

"You did a lot from what I saw."

"That was just a random document. It wasn't even mine. I showed it to you because I didn't want you to know what I was doing in case I was wrong."

"Oh."

"And now my teacher is going to kill me."

"She won't kill you."

"I'll be in huge trouble. I'm so stupid."

"Well, I mean, you figured out all that stuff last night on your own. Surely that counts for something."

"I guess," she said, perking up. "I wonder what she's doing right now."

"Jane? Probably at school."

"Since it starts in like, a minute," she said. We'd only just begun our walk and were definitely going to be late. The effects of sleep deprivation...

"What are we going to do? I mean, what if she notices us watching her and realises we know what she's done?" Eliza asked.

"I don't know... Maybe one of us can sit near her while the other sits behind to watch... you'd probably be better off sitting next to her since you're kind of friends."

"We're not getting a choice on where to sit. We're late."

"Oh, right."

"But maybe we can pretend we're still in a fight so she won't suspect us teaming up on her."