"So, what happened with Vi?" I ask Zach. We're sitting at a table in the courtroom at school.

"I already told you. She said yes."

"Yeah, but details!" Leo yells. "Did she say yes, or yeah, or just nod? What did you say? What did she say? Tell us!"

"Why do you care?" He asks.

"Because we're girls. We gossip. You hang out with us, you gossip," I say.

"I really need to get a guy to hang out with you two."

"You have. Yourself. Now spill!"

"Ugh, fine. But, you both owe me dessert. For a week."

"Ugh, fine. Spill!"

"Okay, we're going out Tuesday to Boho Fro-Yo. If it works out, we're also going to Homecoming. No biggie. Now, Leo, I heard you're going with my sister's ex."

"I am. Ricardo Montoya. Tell your sister I said thanks." He rolls his eyes.

"Anyway, you two wanna come over for a movie night?" I ask.

"I'm down for it," Zach says.

"Same."

"Great. Lee, drive us home?"

~~~

Leo drives Zach and I to my house. She parks in the driveway next to my mom's car, and we walk inside. I gag when I take a breath. "Ew, Zach! You couldn't do that outside?" Leo asks.

"What?"

"You farted!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" It's quiet. "Mom? Dad?" Leo goes into the kitchen. I hear her scream. Zach and I run in. I drop to my knees. My parents are dead. My mother has a knife in her hand, a bloody piece of paper in the other. My dad has a stabbing wound in his chest, my mom's throat slit. I start to cry. Their new novel is still up on my mom's computer. "Mom! Dad! Why?"

"I'll call the police," Zach says.

"What's that?" Leo takes the note out of my mother's hand. "Um, Kate? Do you understand this?"

"What?" I ask.

"Smooth and sweet, no place is beat. The picture, the frame, puts the book to shame," she reads. Zach walks back in.

"What does that mean? And the police are coming."

"I don't know. Um, Kate, do you want a minute alone?"

"N, n, no. I, I, I'm, I'm fine." I get up and run outside, still trying to process what happened. Zach and Leo run after me. I sit down on the grass. My friends stand behind me.

~~~

A few minutes later, a police car and two ambulances drive up to the house. They take about ten minutes to analyze what happened before deciding it was a murder-suicide, my mother doing the killing. They interview my friends and I one by one and decide that the note was just a line from the new book, finding proof as it is on page 103, though I doubt that as the case. They take my parents and put them in the ambulances before driving Zach home and Leo and I to her house in the police car.