The band had already begun rehearsing by the time Dane and I arrived. We spotted Stacey swaying near the front of the stage, so we went to join her. A few other girls were there as well in front of the stage.
I tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned. The music was so loud we couldn’t hear a thing.
“Hey! You guys made it!” She threw arms around both of us then turned back toward the stage.
“Isn’t he hot?” she shouted.
I nodded for her sake, even though my guy was standing beside me. Dane nodded at Ashton, and he grinned before winking at each of us standing before him.
I began to sway to the music. I couldn’t help it. Their sound was infectious. It was a mix of pop and alternative rock.
Then I felt someone’s hands on my hips. I turned my head and saw Dane standing behind me. He rocked with me to the beat.
After a few songs, the band had a short drink break. Stacey and a few of the other girls excused themselves to go to the bathroom and get a drink as well.
Dane and I waited beside the stage, talking to the drummer Bobby, when a blood-curdling scream pierced the near-empty theater.
“What was that?” Dane asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s go find out.” We ran toward the bathrooms at the back of the theater because that’s where it sounded like the scream came from.
When we got to the girls’ bathroom, a horrifying scene worthy of the most gruesome horror films awaited us.
“Oh, my God!”
Stacey was sitting against the tiled wall beside the washbasins, staring at a blonde girl. She was lying dead in one of the toilet cubicles.
She had been stabbed multiple times.
Dane ran out to get help, and I rushed to Stacey’s side.
“What happened, Stace?”
She was sobbing and shaking. “I… I just came in and found her like that. Oh God. Oh God.”
“Come on. We have to get out of here and tell a teacher so they can call 911.”
I held out my hand toward her, but she continued sitting there on the cold floor, staring at the dead girl.
The blood pool was growing by the minute. Soon the poor dead girl would be soaked in it, and it would reach Stacey’s shoes. There was so much blood.
A minute later, a few teachers came running in and gasped or screamed. The male football coach got on his cell phone to call 911.
“Miss Miller, come on. We have to go. It’s okay,” said Mrs. White, the drama teacher.
Stacey nodded and finally snapped out of her paralyzed state. She was in shock.
I didn’t blame her. I think we were all in shock.
A girl had just been murdered in the girls’ bathroom at the back of the theater. A junior. She was only fifteen years old. Way too young to die.
The question was, who had killed her?
School was canceled for the rest of the day and the day after that. Two days later, the principal called an emergency assembly outside in the courtyard. They were usually held in the gym or the theater, but no one wanted to go near that building. Plus, the area was still an active crime scene. Police had interviewed several students, including Dane and me.
But they were still waiting to talk to Stacey. She had gone to the hospital in shock and checked over but was released and sent home a few hours later.
She stood next to me now in the courtyard as the principal went over essential things. I heard whispers all around me.
I found it odd that no one cared about whether one of their friends and fellow students was murdered at school. All anyone cared about was the status of the school Halloween dance.
It was one of the only events kids around here cared about—that, and the before school party at the Circle.
“Are you okay?” I whispered to Stacey. She was facing forward, watching the principal talking on the small stage they had set up.
“Yeah, fine. Why?”
“Oh. I just thought… I was worried about you. You haven’t been answering my texts. I heard you didn’t even talk to the police. And now you’re back at school.”
She shot me a look of annoyance. “I’m fine, okay?”
Yep. Something was up with Stacey, and I was determined to figure out what.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one hiding secrets in this town.