NOT EDITED *

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I stared at the neon green post-it note over and over again.

It was difficult to process the information scrawled across it in black ink. The whole first block, I stared at it in fear and confusion. There were so many times when I wanted to close my psychology book, but my hands were shaking too much to shut it and hide the note like I’ve never came across it.

 All students in Psychology Education were assigned a textbook, but had to leave it in the bookshelf near the window. We hardly ever opened it, but we were assigned a textbook assignment for today’s lesson on post traumatic stress disorder. I grabbed my textbook without knowing that on the inside cover of my book, was a post-it that was intentionally put there for me to see.

 “Nick Callaway loved a girl in this class. She knew something. I hope you will find your answers soon.”

No matter how many times I reread the note, all the hairs on my body stood on end. Somebody knew that we were on the search for clues on Nick’s death. The only person I informed about our mission was Paige, but she was clearly surprised when I asked her if she planted it in my book.

Paige was completely clueless about Nick Callaway. She never even knew he existed or that Noah even had a brother until the news of Nick’s death. There was no way she knew that he had a romance with Chelsea Everheart when I haven’t had the time to discuss that piece of information with her.

Callum couldn’t be a suspect. As far as I knew it, Noah hasn’t told him he was on the hunt for who killed his brother. Callum wouldn’t even have given me a hint. He would’ve gone straight to his best friend himself. Why would he dish out secrets when I shouldn’t have anything to do with it?

I didn’t show Noah the note partly because I was keeping my distance from him and partly because I wanted to help him without having him push me away every time I tried. At first, I suspected that Noah was the one who left the note, but I came to revelation that he clearly didn’t want my help with this situation.

This also concluded that Nick Callaway did love Chelsea Everheart and although I was extremely grossed out and confused by it, it was the plain truth.

I didn’t complete my psychology assignment today as I blankly stared at the note. I contemplated what I should do next and whether or not diving into this was the smart thing to do.

“Esto es una locura,” Paige muttered as she looked over my shoulder at the post-it. Everyone piled out of the room for break, including Callum. “What are you going to do?”

I shrugged, slightly freaking out now. “I-I don’t know!”

“Well, I’ll tell you what you can’t do. Back out. There’s no way you could back out. You need to go all FBI and find the hijo de puta that killed Nick!”

My eyebrows rose as I finally found the strength to shut the book. “I thought you were convinced that Noah was a murderer?”

Paige shook her head. “I was wrong about him. He bought Callum and I chocolate chip cookies. Convicts don’t buy cookies. They steal them.”

Ignoring how idiotic that sounded, I replied, “Noah doesn’t want my help.”

“Well, don’t tell him. I think you should just work on this without his consent. You’ll be his Princess Charming and save the day.”

“It’s not that easy. He’ll be angry when he knew I was meddling into his business.”

Paige squeezed my arm. “I think what’s important is that you did something when you knew you could’ve than hate yourself later because fear consumed you. I feel like fear is the leading cause of crushed dreams and unfinished responsibilities.”

Was it worth it? Was it worth risking my safety to help the boy I had a pathetic crush on? I wanted to know who killed Nick too since I already had my foot in the door, but I was also shying away because I was afraid of the outcome. However, what Paige said about fear was true. I couldn’t let fear get in the way of what I felt I had to do.

I sighed. “Do you really think I could pull through with this?”

“Pull through with what?” Lauren-slash-Ms. Brayer asked when she reentered the room from her bathroom break.

“Uh,” Paige hesitated, giving me a sideways glance. “The project.”

Lauren waved a hand and straightened a crooked pencil on her desk. “You two will be fine. See, Callum and Paige are dating which means that the project was a success. They learned to overcome each other’s differences. Noah isn’t a bad kid, E.”

“Tell that to Evan,” I groaned and leaned back in my chair. “He has to remind me that Noah is troubled at least three times every single day.”

“Your brother thinks he’s always right that’s why.”

Paige laughed. “Well, he is right on one thing: he knows he’s incredibly hot. Why doesn’t he have a girlfriend yet? Oh, I know! Because he’s waiting for someone.”

Lauren looked genuinely confused. “He is?”

“Paige is being sarcastic,” I replied.

Lauren rolled her eyes and looked at the clock. “What are you guys still doing here? I know you two love me, but shouldn’t you be preparing for your second class?”

I was seriously contemplating whether or not I should ask her about the note that was planted in my book. Ms. Brayer was probably the only one left who could be the anonymous person. I didn’t tell her about the search for Nick’s killer, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

“Lauren, do you put notes in student’s textbooks?” I asked with careful wording, ignoring the way Paige’s head snapped towards me.

Lauren looked between me and Paige in suspicion. “Only if their book is in bad condition, but other than that … not really. Why? Is there anything wrong?”

“No,” I lied and shook my head. “I knew Chelsea was lying when she said she received an appreciation note from you.”

“That’s strange,” Lauren commented with her perfect eyebrows drawn together.

The bell rang, signaling second period. I snatched the post-it from the textbook before returning it into the shelf. However, I made sure to put Paige’s post-it into it which read, “Who is this?”

“Goodbye, Lauren! I’ll see you at dinner tonight,” I commented and swiftly got out of the room without hearing her response.

Paige latched her arm onto mine. She tugged me in the other direction of my class. I was momentarily horrified by the evil glint in her eye and the sinister smirk that replaced her smile.

“Paige, I have to get to class.”

“We are not going to class.” Paige removed a stack of papers with the same picture from her bag. When I saw the image, my eyes bulged out of their sockets. I knew what Paige was going to say next was something I didn’t want to hear. “It’s time to get our revenge on the brunette Regina George.”

I shook my head vigorously and pulled on her arm. “Paige, no! Revenge is not good!”

 “Yes! Deja de ser un gatito! If you’re wondering what I just said, I called you a pussy. We’re doing it. It’s good therapy.”

The hallways were empty besides a few people killing time by walking slowly to the bathroom. Paige and I sneaked around hallways, hands clammy and heart thudding wildly in my chest as we passed a few school authorities.  Paige scolded me to keep quiet when I constantly protested against this idea. However, when Paige started slipping the photos into the tiny slits on Chelsea’s locker door, I couldn’t help but laugh.

On each piece of paper was a picture of Chelsea sleeping, a huge wad of snot leaked out of her nose, her pillow case was drenched in her drool, and she was hugging a Justin Bieber pillow. It was obvious the picture was taken recently due to the nose piercing she got about three months ago. Paige handed me a stack and we continually pushed it into the slit on the locker door. I laughed again when I realized that when Chelsea opened her locker door, all these photos will fly out all over her and onto the ground for everyone to see.

“How did you get this photo?” I asked as I tried to contain my laughter at her sleeping face.

Paige grinned. “The senior cheerleaders had a reunion sleepover because they missed having me in the team. I was the first to wake up and had to take this picture when I saw Chelsea. She has this strange addiction to Justin Bieber. Even her pajamas had his face on it.”

“Are you serious?” I asked and shook my head in amusement when I looked down at the paper again. “This is genius, Paige. Pure genius.”

“Now it’s time for the whole school to see what’s underneath her voluminous brunette hair and fake spray tan! That bitch messed with the wrong niñas.”

I continued pushing the pictures into the locker. “I can’t believe I’m actually doing this. This is actually fun and – “

“Hey!” a loud male voice boomed through the empty locker. Paige and I flinched from the sudden sound and turned around in fear. We hid the papers behind our back as one of the school authorities stormed towards us. “Why aren’t you girls at class?”

I tried to stay calm, ignoring the frantic beat of my heart. “We have a free period.”

“What’s behind you?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Our test score for Trigonometry,” Paige lied, blinking rapidly. Oh good God, the girl was the worst liar in the history of worst liars. It was easy to tell when Paige Valentine was lying. “We don’t want to show you because our grades are a-amazing.”

He cocked his head in confusion. “Why wouldn’t you want to show off a good grade?”

“I mean, our grades are horrible!” She squeaked. “So horrible. So, so, so incredibly horrible.”

“I’m not buying it. Show me what you have in your hands right now and why you were shoving it into that locker,” he demanded, pointing at Chelsea’s locker. When Paige and I refused to let him see what was in our hands due to fear, he started walking. “Alright, girls, looks like you two are going to visit Principal Leroy today.”

Oh crap.

Principal Leroy was a small man with a thin frame, balding scalp, and a slight Chinese accent. It was hard to take him seriously when he had to crane his neck to look up at you and yelled slowly so you understood him. However, I was too scared of possibly getting suspended and Evan finding out which made it difficult to find this situation remotely funny.

He studied the picture with a grimace and stared at with disgust. “Wow, is her pillow wet because of her sweat?”

“Oh, no, she was drooling, sir,” Paige replied and fidgeted in her seat.

“How does one produce so much drool? This is so unsanitary.”

“Right?” Paige agreed. “Did you see the snot from her nose?”

Principal Leroy narrowed his eyes as he looked at the picture closely. When he saw what Paige was referring to, he leaned back with revulsion. “I didn’t notice it. It’s yellow like her tan.”

“Excuse me, sir! I’m right here!” Chelsea seethed and shot a look at Paige. “I demand that these two idiots be expelled immediately.”

I rolled my eyes at the outrageous request. We played a prank that would only hurt her social life, not her physical being. We even apologized to her – okay, we were forced to apologize to her. She was being her typical bratty self.

Principal Leroy finally set the picture down and ignored Chelsea. “Okay, girls, I’m letting you off with a warning – “

“What?” Chelsea shrieked, standing up from her chair. “They broke school rules! I want them expelled.”

“Ms. Everheart, this is not cheerleading practice! Do not yell in my office! I am the principal. You are not. Why are you still here, anyways? Get back to class.”

Chelsea scoffed and shook her head. As she headed out of the room, she discreetly flicked us off. “You two were lucky this time!”

“Out, Chelsea!” Principal Leroy yelled. When she finally exited the room, he sighed and turned back to us. “Since this is your first offense and you two are good students - barely a spot on your record, I won’t be suspending you. However, you are to attend detention today with Ms. Ravenswood. Understood?”

Glad that he wasn’t calling our guardians or suspending us for an idiotic, but brilliant prank, we simply nodded our heads without protesting.

▼▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ▼

Paige and I exited detention in laughter.

Strange, because I’ve always thought I would leave detention feeling guilty and depressed that I was low enough to actually spend an hour in a room filled with teenage delinquents. However, Paige and I walked out in a fit of giggles, clutching our bellies and slapping our knees.

“What happened in there?” Callum asked in bewilderment, trying to sling his arm over Paige’s shoulder.

“Ms. Ravenswood,” I said between fits of laughter. “Oh my gosh, Ms. Ravenswood made us help her make an online dating profile. Apparently, she’s a feisty Gemini who loves to get down and dirty … wrestling!”

Callum made a face. “Isn’t she like … seventy-six?”

“Fifty-eight, Cale,” Paige corrected. “Ms. Ravenswood is actually cool.”

“So you two are bad asses now, huh?” Callum smirked and brought Paige closer to his side. “You guys are no longer detention virgins.”

“Yup,” I joked around sarcastically. “I couldn’t have done it without your chick – she’s the mastermind.”

Callum winked at Paige. “Ooh, I love it when you’re naughty.”

I covered my ears. I felt like I heard the worst thing in the world and that my awkward level was at a high. “Oh my gosh! Do not flirt in front of me! That’s gross. So gross! Ugh! Control your boyfriend, Paige!”

Callum and Paige laughed. I punched Callum’s arm and shot Paige a look. However, the two weren’t able to reply because two familiar voices echoed down the hallway. If I thought I heard the worst thing, I was wrong.

What I was hearing now topped the list.

“What?” he asked in shock.

“Kiss me,” Chelsea purred.

Callum’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. Paige squeezed the life out of my arm. My eyebrows shot up. Callum motioned for us to stay quiet as he pulled us both to the side. We poked our head around the corner where Chelsea looked up at a towering and handsome male with her hands on his abdomen.

My stomach dropped as I watched a nightmare unfold before me.

Noah bent his head down until his lips were connected with Chelsea’s own. I simply stood there, unable to tear my eyes away as I felt my heart shatter achingly slow every millisecond they made out. Even when Paige and Callum wrapped their arms around me to rush me out of the school, the horrifying scene replayed over and over again in my head.

“I’m going to fucking kick his ass,” Callum muttered beside me.