"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Leo kept repeating over and over again.
We were sitting on the floor of the tenth grade chemistry classroom and my heart was pounding. Leo was hyperventilating so much I was sure he was going to faint at any given moment.
"Calm down Leo, it's ok, we're gonna be fine." Jason grabbed Leo's arm and pulled him to the ground. He had been pacing the room, fidgeting furiously and constantly running his fingers through his already crazy hair.
"We're gonna be fine," Percy repeated.
Were we?
I leaned back against the wall and sighed, high key annoyed that I wasn't allowed Nika here with me. Separating was always the worst idea, but matron was a crazy lady who believed in following the rules even at the worst times.
Looking around the room, my stomach churned. I didn't feel safe with these people. What if one of them was the killer... you never know when the people closest to you can turn.
Nico was sitting in the corner of the room crying silently. All of a sudden, he stood up and stumbled to the door.
"Nico come back idiot," Travis got up and yanked Nico by the arm to sit down, but Nico was somehow stronger and took his arm back, opening the door to leave. He stopped in his tracks for about two seconds to choke out the word, "bathroom," before sprinting out, slamming the door behind him.
"Do we follow?!?" Jason said, trying to stay calm. "It's not safe!" Percy replied, "we'll just have to hope that he'll be ok. No use putting anyone else in danger" 
Right. Hope.
We continued to mope around, getting increasingly more worried about Nico. It felt like hours, but after checking the clock I found that it had only been half an hour. But still, half an hour was a long time for a bathroom break.
The door swung open and we all jumped back, falling over one another. I could see the fear in the others faces.
"Sorry boys!"
It was Harris.
"I'm just understandably in a rush. Otis get your ass up and out with me!" He practically spit in my face.
What.
"I'm sorry? Sir?" I stood up slowly. He panted, putting his hands on his knees, "come with me I'll explain on the way!"
I noticed a gun by his side. Scary shit.
Turning my head, I saw the rest of the boys staring at me with fear and anger in their eyes. Did they think I was the one behind all this? If so, how would that explain Nico still not back. If I had done it and Nico was possibly dead, then how could I have killed him while sitting with them the whole time?
Harris pulled me out and shut the door of the classroom, taking a deep breath.
"Nika Becket? You know her?" Harris asked, his expression something I couldn't read. I nodded slowly, confused, "she's my best friend, yes."
He made a disgusted face. This guy was rude... what was wrong with Nika?
"Well I'm afraid that your best friend is the one behind all of these murders." I paused, my mouth hung open.
Nika??? NIKA??? She wouldn't hurt a fly... Would she? "I need to talk to her, get as much as I can out of the girl, and I want you there with me." Harris put his hand on his gun. "Sometimes criminals talk more when their loved ones or friends are present, y'know, like a source of comfort."
He just called Nika a criminal. I was still in so much shock that my head wasn't thinking straight. I merely couldn't make anything work in my mind.
Harris didn't wait for an answer before he took me by the arm and dragged me down the hall. Nika. No, not possible. Not Nika, someone else. It couldn't be Nika.
Was I in love with a psychopath?
Wait, in love?
My mind was a puddle of what the heck is going on. As we turned another corner Harris stopped again, turning to look at me. "Don't let your emotions get the best of you Otis, she's not who you think she is."
I gulped, deciding to keep my mouth shut and not say anything for fear of sounding like a lunatic.
As we got to the end of the hall, I recognised the stairs, and realised that we were by the washrooms. Harris stopped again for a minute before turning the corner to what was the strangest sight ever.
Nika was standing there, her hands tied to the stairwell by handcuffs. There were no tears or any sign of emotion on her face, and she was standing motionless, staring at the wall in front of her. I was about to ask how Harris even had evidence that she had done anything, but that's when I saw Nico. Lying on his back, legs halfway in the ladies room. His head was busted open and the fire extinguisher was lying nearby. From the looks of it, Nico's head had been smashed in with the extinguisher, so many times that his skull cracked open and he... died. Nika killed him.
I looked down and Nico, lying there motionlessly, and furrowed my brows, looking back and forth from my best friend to my dead roommate.
"It was self defense." Nika suddenly blurted as soon as she spotted me, "I would never intentionally kill someone."
But it wasn't self defense, and in more ways than any other, Nika was just like me.
Harris took a shaky breath. I wondered why he hadn't called the police over here yet, there was literally a dead person lying here. They were still positioned at every door, ready for action at any given second.
"It's easier to get information out of people when they're still at the sight of the crime," he whispered to me, as if almost reading my mind. "Overwhelming her isnt going to get us anywhere. Plus she's restrained so she's harmless for now."
Seeing Nika tied there made my blood boil.
She didn't deserve to be tied up.
I looked over at Harris one more time, and then back down at his gun