Amber felt like she would lose her mind. There was nothing productive to do. There were no assignments, clubs, or activities to attend to. She was so ashamed, that she barely left her room to be in the presence of her parents except for when she needed food.

The guilt and uneasiness of not knowing what had happened to Hayden was eating at her conscience. She hoped and almost prayed that he'd be back in school as if nothing happened. Amber spent half the week of her suspension convincing herself that he was okay. She imagined him sitting in math class, joking around with Tatsuya and Lance. She didn't even like Tatsuya and Lance, but at this point, she'd rather Hayden be talking with them than dead.

She tried watching television to get her mind off her unproductive fears, but all those shows were too cliché and shallow for her taste.

Amber sighed. There was only one thing in her room that could bring her amusement. She made sure the door was locked before sitting down and opening Ultima Online, one of the most popular MMOs. The game had barely been released last year, but already it had hundreds of thousands of players.

Combatting other players was a perfect way to release her frustration with the real world. But first, she planned to visit Trammel Castle Blackthorn for a special event item. Hopefully, it would be a resource she could use for crafting. It had been a few weeks since Amber played, and she really needed to upgrade her elf avatar to stay on top of her game.

Amber's character spawned next to a quiet coast in Felucca. She sprinted up the moonlit hill through tall grass to collect more material for crafting. However, she wasn't alone. Her specialized night sight helped her spot a gargoyle pacing near some rocks. Amber approached stealthily. She positioned herself behind a tree before aiming her crossbow at the gargoyle.

Her method was quite simple. She would shoot the oblivious player with a high damage arrow. By that point, they would either start defending themselves or attacking. Amber had the advantage, however. Elves were uniquely hard to track, so she would simply have to skitter through the grass and sneak up behind the player again to deliver the final strike using her favorite close-range weapon; the Serpentine dagger.

Just before Amber could shoot her arrow, the gargoyle flew into the air while holding a battle axe. Bold yellow text quickly appeared above its head:

???: Amber dont kill me

How did this creep know her name? She ought to have killed him right then and there.

Amber's quickly typed a message back. Hers appeared in white text.

Amber: Who r u

???: Ur favorite nerd

Amber: Reveal yourself or I will kill u right here, creep

???: im not a creep! Its Hayden from school

Amber sat back in shock. He was alive! Out of nowhere, she laughed in slight amusement. How in the world did he find her? Of all the places and servers she could have been on, how did he run into her at this exact spot?

Amber: LOL beanie kid ur weird.

Hayden: i was worried ok. haven't seen u at school lately. r u good?

Amber stepped out from behind the tall grass and walked to the moonlit shore. Hayden's character landed on a branch above her. Technically, the branch was next to her since the graphics were mostly flat and partly 2D.

Amber: I guess so, I'm alive at least. Thx for worrying, Hayden. I did get suspended AND grounded tho. -_-

Hayden: suspended!! wow.. it's bc of the seance I imagine :/

Amber's fingers danced across the keyboard to type multiple messages asking him about how he was before backspacing. She almost sent a message that made her sound unhinged and too emotional. Wait, but that next message would make it sound like she couldn't care less what happened to him! Some emotion was obviously necessary, but how much was enough?

Hayden: Amber? Are u afk?

Amber hopped over to his character and stabbed him. The damage was small, but it lowered his HP by 1/5.

Hayden: Amber what the hell!

Amber: That's what u get for making me worry about u all week, u annoying nerd

Amber: I was supposed 2 enjoy this vacation but all I did was think about ur sorry behind every stupid minute of the day

Hayden: Pervert, why r u thinking about my behind every minute of the day huh?

Amber almost fell off her chair when she realized what she'd written. Oh god, there had to be a way to delete that entire conversation. There had to be a scientific way to wipe his memory of that. Amber covered her face and groaned.

Amber: Shut up, please. I've been through enough alrdy

Hayden: Can I see you?

Amber: I told u, I'm grounded

Hayden: Then sneak out. School is boring without u

Amber chuckled to herself. It sounded like he missed her. Also, he was delusional for even suggesting sneaking out to someone as goody-goody as Amber. It wouldn't be easy sneaking out of a mansion with maids, gardeners, and cooks roaming the halls.

Amber: No way, I don't want to get in any more trouble than I'm alrdy in

Hayden: I've been thinking about Rain Wilson

Amber: What about her?

Hayden: i want to help. u said ur running out of time, and idk if the seance helped

Amber: Not really, but I'm suspecting Joel and Darren now.

Hayden: Darren? The bf?

Amber: He's odd. he helped Rain through a panic attack, and then gave her a slightly racist speech about why she wouldn't succeed

Amber: he also said he'd be there for her anyway, making himself sound like some kind of hero

Hayden: that is pretty weird...

Hayden: i have a cousin who works with the police here. he could get us in to look at some archives, we might find something

Amber: hm, but the newspaper said the police couldn't find any evidence of murder

Hayden: it's worth a shot, don't you think? it's the one place you haven't looked.

Amber: Ok. Meet at the local park, we'll walk to the station from there.

***

Thanks to the boredom of her suspension, Amber had been able to study the order in which the gardeners tended the plants through her balcony on the third floor. She also knew that there was a thirty-minute window of solitude after 12 pm. The morning maids would leave before this time, and the evening maids would come in after the thirty-minute window. Amber didn't have to worry about her parents, since both were at their workplaces.

Hayden was already waiting at the park when Amber arrived. He was wearing his iconic red beanie and a flannel, standing with his hands in his jean pockets and his leather side satchel slung over his shoulder.

A cold breeze shifted autumn leaves across the pavement just as Amber approached him.

"Hey." Amber adjusted her scarf nervously and shoved her hands in her cashmere coat pockets.

"Hey," Hayden smiled softly.

A moment of silence passed between them until Amber threw her arms around him. Hayden was so surprised, that he barely had the time to pull his hands out of his pockets to hug her back.

"I was worried about you, you dummy," she muttered, still holding him close. She couldn't let him see her blushing in broad daylight. Why did her cheeks have to betray her everytime she was around him?

"I know," Hayden chuckled gently, finally finding the courage to squeeze her tighter. She was warm and smelled like warm vanilla sugar.

Amber let go and faked a cough. "So um, how did you find me online? It couldn't have been a coincidence."

Hayden shrugged. "I remembered you talking about how you liked farming mobs on that coast in Felucca, and how you preferred that particular server since it's always empty."

Amber was surprised he'd remembered so many details. "That's impressive," she admitted.

"Nah, not really. I mistook three other players for you the other days and almost got killed," he laughed.

Amber let out a snort. "Well then, I guess we should start walking and thinking of a plan. I doubt your cousin's just going to let us stroll in there and look at old police records."

***

"I didn't know you were taking journalism. I didn't even know Willowburg High had a journalism class," Hayden's cousin, Elias, said from behind the counter. He looked like he could be Hayden's older brother, except he had a dirty blonde military buzzcut as opposed to curly hair. He had a friendly and open demeanor, but Amber was beginning to worry he wouldn't fall for their facade. "I guess things have really changed since I was a Willowburg student."

"You went to Willowburg High?" Amber's eyes lit up. It was completely possible he might've attended school with Rain.

"Yeah!" Elias grinned handsomely. "Class of 1986! Hayden didn't tell you? I grew up here, that's part of the reason my Uncle Erik, or Hayden's dad, got a job here."

Rain would have graduated in the year 1980. Amber's sunk into her shoulders. In that case, Elias would have still been in middle school when Rain died. There was no chance they knew each other. Unless... Amber thought about how Hayden convinced her to investigate the police files despite her expectations that it would be a dead end. Maybe she had to be more open-minded like Hayden.

"Say," Amber stroked her scarf nervously. "You wouldn't have happened to know a Rain Wilson growing up, would you?"

"Rain Wilson..." Elias looked up and scratched his chin. "You know what... yeah. An African American girl, right? She tutored me when I was in fourth grade. She was so sweet. I still can't believe what happened to her."

Amber and Hayden passed each other a surprised look.

"Um, so why do you ask?" Elias narrowed his eyes and cocked his head to the side.

"Oh, our teacher gave us a list of old cases to look at for the project. I remember seeing Rain Wilson's name on it," Amber said confidently.

"Hm, are you doing your project on Rain Wilson? If you are, there's not much to say about it. She hung herself," Elias shrugged. "Surely your teacher showed you more interesting cases. Was Becky Howard on it? That case was dark as hell. Everyone thought she died on accident, but her murder was perfectly planned. Her killer wasn't found until six months later, but that was thanks to our brilliant detective and persistent police force. You should have seen how crazy the whole town got during those six months. They were spooked even after Jamar Pierre finally got arrested. The local news had every white girl thinking they were going to be the next victim."

Elias stood up and leaned over the counter casually as if to let Amber and Hayden in on a secret. "Honestly though, you never know who you'll meet on the streets. Most of our criminals are Blacks and Latinos, so that's already telling you something about those types of people. Our city's been going downhill since more of them started moving in. There's crime everyday, but at least it's not as bad as the ghettos where most of them live. All I'm saying is, Detective Jones would have never let it get this bad. It's a shame he retired."

Amber leaned away from the counter in disgust. If he wanted to be blatantly racist, he could say it louder. She doubted he would. Amber side-eyed Hayden to see his reaction. To her relief, Hayden appeared visibly uncomfortable as well. He had his hands in his pockets and was tapping his foot.

"It doesn't say much about Blacks and Latinos as much as it does about our broken criminal justice system," Hayden stated loudly while looking away.

Elias rolled his eyes and laughed while jerking his thumb at his younger cousin. "Oh boy, get a load of this guy. This is why we can't have nice family reunions."

Despite Elias' bigotry, Amber figured it was best to stay on his good side if they wanted to gain access to the archives.

"I like that about Hayden, he really knows how to challenge my mind and stir up intellectual debates," Amber said with a smug smile.

"He sure knows how to argue," Elias agreed before taking out his keys. "Anyway, I won't take up too much of your time. You two can investigate the files in the basement for the next hour. If you haven't left by then, I'll come down to let you know time's up."

Elias led them to the basement, where he unlocked the door leading to some steps and a cold and dimly lit room filled with hundreds of shelves stacked with folders. Old newspapers were pinned to almost every inch of the walls.

"Officers rarely come down here, so you'll pretty much have this entire room to yourself," Elias said.

Amber blushed and glanced away from Hayden. Dumb brain, of course he wasn't insinuating that something like that would happen here.

"If they do come in, just let 'em know Officer Elias let you in. Alrighty then, you have one hour starting now. No funny business!"

Hayden smacked his forehead and groaned. "Bro..."

"Of course not, we're just friends," Amber said quickly.

"OK good! See you in an hour." Elias shut the door, leaving them alone in the dusty room.

"Wow, I didn't know I disgusted you that much," Amber scoffed while walking fast down the stairs.

"What? No! What are you talking about?" Hayden ran down the steps to catch up to her.

"You groaned and smacked your forehead," Amber reminded him while rolling her eyes.

"That's not what— I— no, it's not like that."

"Whatever, dude. Don't take it so seriously," Amber laughed a bit harder to overcompensate. "These seem to be organized by year and last name, so let's start searching over there for 'W' and '1980'."

"Yes ma'am."

After about ten minutes of flipping through binder after binder, Hayden finally landed on Rain Wilson's case file.

"Bingo."

"What's it say?" Amber leaned over his shoulder to look at the report.

"Ahem. It has a code for the box containing evidence collected from the site, photos of the evidence, and details of what they found. The only evidence they found was a hair sample from Rain and the rope itself. They ruled it a suicide due to a lack of evidence to prove otherwise. There's also a small comment about a request to reopen the case, but that request was denied since there were too many other important cases to focus on than what was clearly a suicide."

"Does it say who requested the case be reopened?" Amber asked while jotting down key facts in the small notebook she borrowed from Hayden.

"Let's see..." Hayden flipped through pages of related documents. "Aha. Here we go. There's a formal request submitted by... hm.. that's interesting."

"What?" Amber said impatiently.

"Darren Banks submitted the request."

Amber furrowed her brows. "That's so weird."

"I guess he did love her, but in a twisted way," Hayden muttered.

"I expected one of Rain's friends would have submitted the request... Are there any other documents like that?" Amber wondered aloud.

"No," Hayden said, flipping back and forth through the few pages there were in Rain's files. "Just Darren."

Jeez, Amber knew the group broke apart but did they even care about their friend? Why was Darren the only one who refused to believe it was a suicide? At this point, it looked like Sloane and Joel didn't question her death and fully believed it was suicide. Unless... Sloane and Joel worked together to kill her? Did Darren have any reason to suspect it was murder?

Shelby was the only one who could investigate that.

Amber leaned back against a cabinet and slid the notebook into her coat pocket. "I guess we've found what we could here. Shelby can take the lead from here and ask Mr. Banks a few questions."

"I'm sure she'll find something," Hayden said confidently, leaning next to her.

Amber smiled at him before glancing back at the newspapers on the walls. "Hey... I knew I recognized that name."

"Hm?" Hayden turned and followed her gaze.

A headline in the newspaper read "Detective Jones' daughter, Holly Jones, wins the 1970 Little Miss Willowburg Pageant". The article included a photograph of a young Holly Jones posing in a sash, crown, and a short fluffy dress while standing next to her proud grinning father.

"That's the popular chic Sloane and Joel were gushing over," Amber said. "But that article has nothing to do with crime, so why is it here?"

Hayden shrugged. "My cousin says the officers sometimes like to pin good news in here to lighten the mood."

Amber's eyes panned over the newspapers pinned to the wall. The majority of articles were related to local officers and shared positive news. Amber noticed how many of them were related to Detective Jones, but nothing else in particular stood out.

"You wanna know what's juicier than this wall of pretentious victories? Follow me," Hayden nodded with a coy smile.

Amber lifted an eyebrow while crossing her arms. He led her to a bulletin board on the opposite side of the room.

"This is the Wall of Shame," Hayden explained. "It's basically the exact opposite of the Wall of Victories since it exposes all the crimes committed by some of the most powerful people in town. Of course, not everyone gets shamed on this wall. If you're friends with the right people, your crimes will never see the light."

"Interesting," Amber mused while surveying the articles in front of her. This time, she saw another name she recognized.

A headline read: CEO of Ivory Inc. is sued by Banks Corporation for embezzlement.

"Sloane's dad got shamed," Amber realized, taking a closer look at the details. "This was in 1982, just a few years after Rain's death. Apparently, they'd started negotiations for a merger in 1980. That means Sloane's and Darren's fathers were working together during those years."

"I doubt this is related to Rain's murder, right? I think their dads had their own separate drama going on," Hayden said.

"I guess so... but I do wonder how Darren's father figured out that Sloane's father was taking advantage of his company."

"Do you think Darren had a role in exposing Ivory Inc.?"

"Maybe he wanted to prove his loyalty and usefulness to his father so he'd support him again," Amber pondered. "What if this was his way of making sure he'd be financially supported enough to step away from the competition and make space for Rain to win?"

"Why would he want her to win? You said he didn't believe she could succeed."

"He did have a hero complex, though. This could've been his way of shooting two birds with one stone: gaining back his father's support and showing Rain he supported her while secretly expecting her to lose."

"What reason would he have to sabotage Sloane, though?" Hayden wondered. "Could he have suspected her?"

Amber snapped her fingers. "Since his request to reopen the case was denied, he might've had to take matters into his own hands."

Hayden held his head. "Ok ok, I think we're on to something. But this doesn't explain why Sloane, or Madam Vadoma, is helping you."

Amber rubbed her chin and paced in front of Hayden. "According to that article, Sloane's father had strong charisma and a knack for lying that made it easy to take advantage of other companies. I wouldn't be surprised if Sloane picked up the same traits."

"Although," Amber pounded her knuckle on her palm. "It could very well be that Darren was barking up the wrong tree."

Hayden covered his mouth and chuckled.

"What?" Amber said.

Hayden shook his head and looked away bashfully. "Nothing."

Amber squinted and stepped closer to him with her hands on her hips. "What's so funny?"

"You're adorable when you play detective," Hayden smiled up at her. Amber could've sworn she saw his eyes sparkle under the dim lights of that mysterious room.

Did he seriously just call her adorable? Not only that, but he said it right to her face! The blush on her pale cheeks instantly betrayed her. Amber was at a loss for words. She rolled her eyes and forced herself to frown despite a smile threatening to tug at the corner of her lips.

"W-we have to concentrate Hayden, there's time— I mean, there's no time for jokes!" Amber retorted. She didn't want to act like that comment fazed her. For all she knew, it might not have been so much a flirt as much as a condescending statement. It frustrated her to hope it was the former.

"Sorry, I seem to remember you saying that we found what we needed," Hayden reminded her in a playful tone.

Amber sighed and leaned back against a bookcase set against a wall. "Yes, I suppose I did say that."

"And we did make progress," Hayden pointed out.

"In any case, I think we make a great team," she admitted with a coy smile before glancing away.

Hayden smiled back softly. The two dropped their gaze to the floor, hesitant to recreate the surprising spark that blazed the moment their eyes met. Their silence said everything.

Yet, neither could resist the temptation to glance once more. Their eyes met again. Amber felt her heart speed up as her breath caught in her throat. Hayden smirked and glanced away shyly, feeling as though he'd been caught red-handed. Regardless, Amber had been caught just as equally red-handed as him.

"Amber..."

Just before he could continue, the lights shut off without warning.