Blaire's POV

I stood in front of the notice board biting my lower lip and thinking hard whether or not to take part in the upcoming photography competition.

“Hey, Blaire, what's up?” Duncan asked, draping an arm around my shoulder.

“Many things...,” I trailed off.

He arched me an eyebrow. Suddenly, it clicked that it might be the perfect time to discuss Sophia.

“Duncan,” I narrowed my eyes at him, “I have some important things to discuss, come on this way,” I grabbed his hand as I led him to an empty classroom. I closed the door behind me and sat facing him.

“What do you think about Sophia?" I charged directly coming to the point.

“What? I don't know what you're talking about,” He muttered, in confusion.

I continued giving him a hard stare, “um...I mean well, she's cute,” He finally broke.

“And?”

“What do you want to hear, Blaire?” he sighed.

“Truth that your heart holds,” I said adding a royal tone.

“Okay,” he finally surrendered.

“Honestly, I think, I like her,”

There was a moment of silence as he locked eyes with me. There was an unknown calmness and gentleness as he spoke those words.

I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah, I LIKE like her,” he muttered again.

“Dang it, I knew,” I jumped in excitement.

“Duncan, why don't you just go and ask her out? Look, she'll understand one day, she has to,” I continued.

“Blaire, you don't understand. She won't. Never ever she would. She will reject me,” he sighed.

“I understand but at least it's worth a try,” I tried to make sense.

“I have always noticed, she has got a thing for James. I have observed her just like you did me. I saw the way she looks at him...always,” sadness prevailed in his eyes.

“Duncan,” I paused, “I know,” I sighed.

“I know, but she needs to get off of it, right? She can't stay like that forever; depressed, upset and alone. Come on!”

“Just get your ass out of here and head straight to her,” I ordered.

“Come on now, go! Find her,” I literally forced.

He finally nodded and stood up. Before leaving, he turned around, his lips turned upwards into a small smile and, “thanks,” he muttered.

“Save it for later, instead.”

I headed off to the library. A day without Christian seemed so long. I started off with my assignment. About after an hour, my phone buzzed with a text from Duncan.

Duncan - Where are you?

                                       Me - At the library.

There wasn't any reply after that from his side. Barely after ten minutes, he reached the library, panting.

“She isn't here today,” he declared, keeping his voice low.

I face-palmed myself.

“I searched the bloody damn whole school and then I realized that she isn't here today,” he spoke as loud as one could speak in the library.

“Shit!” I muttered under my breath.

“All right, calm down. We don't need to rush right? Maybe we have just got some time to prepare everything better,” I wiggled my eyebrows.

“We can plan everything out and execute it on the bonfire night,” I suggested.

“That'd be great!”

“So October 31st, Halloween night, Done?”

I grinned, “Hell, yeah.”

He smiled and left. There was a sort of spark in his eyes, and I was happy for them, maybe more excited. After I had completed my assignment, I left the library and was waiting for Christian in the cafeteria. He showed up finally, tired and stinky.

His smile broadened as I walked up to him.

“Blaire?” Someone called out from across the hall.

I turned to see a boy coming towards us, his features were bold. I won't say he's muscular or something but wasn't skinny as well. His black hair in contrast to the fair skin looked bold. He walked up to us.

“Do I know you?”

“Not really, but I do know you.”

“I'm Zach, Zach Dawn,” he extended a hand.

I smiled at him as I shook it. Christian's features were stoned and blank as he looked at him. He laced his fingers with mine as he stood there with me.

“So, Blaire, I hope you know about the photography competition to be held, uh, I just wanted to ask whether or not you'd like to be my model for the event.”

I glanced at Chris but he was the same.

“And what do I get?”

“Uh, not much! The one who'll win their photographs will be exhibited on the winter formal dance night and all the events of the yearbook and other photography stuff would be mine for the coming session,” He explained.

“Oh! Sure I'd actually love to!” I agreed.

“All right then, I'll send you the schedule,”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You have any problems, Christian?” Zach asked.

His eyes narrowed this time, he wrapped his arm around my waist and grabbed me closer to his body.

“No, of course not,” he smirked, “All the best for this.”

“Thanks, brother,” Zach said and patted his shoulder as he made his leave.

Although the day went fast, I knew the night infront of us was going to last long. I left the room after an hour of curfew and reunited with my newspaper budds at the entrance of the school. It was extraordinarily dark. We walked through the hallways and could hear our footsteps echoing. 

“I don't think we are going to find anything in his locker,” I commented on the way.

“He must have changed the place of the things he was hiding in his locker,” I added.

“Shit, how do we copy this fingerprint?” Aaron freaked out.

“Shh...we don't need to. Brought the toolbox?” I asked Michelle to which he nodded.

“But what do we do if we get some solid proofs? Turn him in?” Michelle asked.

“No, we can't do that? What do we say? We broke his locker? We can't do that,” I replied.

“Then?” Aaron asked.

“But, we can always anonymously blackmail him and you know to get him to the sheriff, and...,” I trailed off.

“Screwdriver?” I asked Michelle as we stood infront of James's locker.

He handed me the screwdriver and I continued,“...and we can also get a strong alibi for Chris.”

Turning those screws out in the awful flashlight was a hard job that went in vain. We opened his locker and there was nothing except a few books and stuff.

“As expected,” I sighed.

“What do we do now?” Aaron asked.

“Work a little harder,” I winked.

We headed out towards the parking after we put back the lock again. Luckily I brought my keys with me, so we sat in the car and drove out. It was everyone's question, that exactly where were we going? 

“James's house,” I grinned as I answered.

“And then?” they asked in unison.

“Break into his car.” 

“You sure you're gonna find something in there?” Michelle asked.

“90%. Look it's simple, it's not in his locker, and he won't keep it in his house, so I'm guessing, yeah,” I shrugged.

“Intelligent, huh!” Aaron smirked.

I parked my car a few steps away and luckily found James's car parked in front of his gate. 

“You brought the aluminium scale and copper wires?” 

“Of course I did,” Aaron replied.

“Alright, give me that,”

I carefully inserted the scale in the space between the door and the top of the car on the driver's side and asked for the wires. Folding it into three, I braided it and put the wire in through the space created by the scale. Although it wasn't tough for me, I felt the thrill. I was going to press the unlock button when the thought of a car alarm stroke me. 

“Hold it, and do not poke the button before I say,” I said to Aaron and went to the front.

I opened the hood of the car and looked for the alarm fuse box. I had experiences with car repair and service, so it wasn't that tough. I disconnected the wire and signalled Aaron to go ahead. And there it was, unlocked.

“Search the car,” I ordered.

“Take photos of everything,” 

I opened the glove compartment on the dashboard and there were some papers and a box. I pulled out a pin from my hair when Aaron called,“ Guys, I found a pouch.”

“Twiztarts,” we whispered in unison.

“I have got something inside the glove box,” I said once Michelle took the photographs.

Three of us hovered over the box as I literally struggled to break the lock. Finally, the lock clanked open and Michelle started taking photographs before even we could see what was inside. The only problem was, those weren't our usual candies.

“More, skittle pops and twiztarts,” I whispered.

“He's up to something,” Aaron whispered.

“What's this?” I asked as I held up a packet of white tablets.

“PEDs?” Aaron asked.

“You mean, Performance Enhancing Drugs?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows as Andrews took the snap.

“Maybe” he shrugged.

“Alright, it's been a while, not safe anymore,” I said as I quietly got out of the car.

I turned back to a final check, Aaron and Andrews were following me as silently as they could. With a rush, we got into the car as soon as we reached it. Without caring for anything else, we drove out from there.