Three days, seventy-two hours since Olysses Rivers' untimely demise. Zee tried to block the scene out, and spent most of her time with her lovely boyfriend, or friends. Sadly, the same couldn't be said about Rae. She was a loner through and through. Not that her schoolmates hated her, it was actually the opposite; The girl couldn't get a moment of rest. The scene of finding her best friend's cold, hard body replayed like a bad movie. Frozen look of fear plastered across his face and the pool of blood played on repeat. His laughter was now nothing but a memory in the back of her mind. One she can never forget. 'Screw you, Rivers.'

The bell rang, which signaled the end of last period. "Hey Rae," a guy from her class whom she didn't care to know the name of approached her. Other schoolmates, however, would call him Jake.

Rae turned and looked at him, her; hazel eyes met his grey ones. "What do you want?" She asked, not hiding her disinterest in the conversation. 'Ew he smells like moldy eggs.'

"A couple of us are going down to the stream. Would you like to join us?" He asked as he flashed her a crooked grin. 'I wouldn't be seen with a garlic-breath stink, boy.'

"Hard pass." She coldly replied as she turned on her heels to leave.

"Come on, just because that lame scholarshi-" Rae turned back around and pushed him against the wall, she clutched the collar of his shirt.

"Oly wasn't lame." She spat. "He was my best friend, and significantly better than anyone at this godforsaken school." Rae spat venomously. 'He had the brightest future out of everyone here.'

The boy pushed her away to free himself. "Sure he was. He realized he wasn't good enough to breathe the same air as a literal goddess such as yourself and offed himself." Jake laughed like the thought of losing a schoolmate was funny to him. "He was the biggest joke." 'The only joke here is you, and the one your mom made when you were born.'

"It wasn't a suicide." She corrected, "Oly wouldn't do tha-"

"According to the police and faculty he did, It's all over the internet, you know. He slit his throat in the school's abandoned greenhouse." 'Slit his thro- that isn't what happened at all!'

Rae knew better than to believe things she saw on the internet. If he really offed himself, would he really leave her a threatening letter blaming her? 'He absolutely didn't do that to himself, he was laying in a pool of blood but it didn't come from his neck. "I-I got to go." She stammered before she ran off in the direction of the Headmaster's office.

****

The door swung open as Rae glared daggers at her twin sister. "Hey Rae." Leander greeted as she silently cursed the golden boy out.

"Get out." Rae spat before she turned her attention to her sister; the door slammed shut behind her. "You lied to me Zee."

"Can you give us a moment, Lee?" Zee asked as she looked up from the textbook opened in front of her.

"See you later, babe," He said, planting a kiss on Zee's cheek, and left the girls alone in their dorm room, the door closed behind him.

"I didn't lie about anything." Zee corrected as she got up from her comfy bed and confronted her sister. They were identical in almost every single way.

"You said you've never heard of the Midnight Bloom Society before, yet Headmaster Voss told me you looked into it freshman year?" Rae retorted as Zee made an 'o' shape with her mouth.

"Oh, that... I was failing biology and for extra credit, I had to do a research paper on types of flowers." Zee sighed, "it went smoothly until I came across..."

"Let me guess Orchids." Rae stated as Zee nodded. "There was one pinned to Oly's blazer."

"Someone wiped every mention of the flower from the library computers. It was suspicious, so I asked the headmaster and he gave a bullcrap answer." She said, as her eyes rolled. "Digital reorganization, or some crap like that."

"What's that have to do with MBS?" Rae huffed, with her arms crossed in front of her.

"There used to be a club here. Thirty years ago. They appeared to be some sort of gardening club." Zee replied.

"Gardening clubs normally don't murder people."

"And the police normally don't cover up murders." Zee stated as she gave her sister a knowing look. "We saw the scene and both know he couldn't have done that to himself. He wasn't bleeding from his throat. Someone killed your friend; I'm sorry Rae."

"This is on me..." Rae trailed off as she went to rummage through her desk.

"It's not your fault Rae," Zee began

"No, there was a note left at the scene." Rae stated as she showed her sister the note. "The killer knew my name and blamed me."

"They're working with someone." Zee stated as Rae raised a brow. "So both notes were handwritten, and the handwriting doesn't match. I've seen my fair share of party invitations to know everyone has a different way they write certain things." Zee fished the original note out of the trashcan. "Look at this one the letter e is backwards and the letter a is almost perfect then that one with your name..."

"The e is normal, yet the tail on the a is more curved." Rae added as Zee nodded. "Since when are you a detective, all you know is cheerleading and parties?"

Zee laughed, "I'll pretend you didn't just say that, I'm not that two dimensional, y'know, I also like collecting plushies and binge watching Sherlock. You really liked Oly, didn't you?"

"I loved him." Rae sighed as she sat on her bed. "He was the only person who got me, I didn't have to pretend to be perfect around him."

"Must have been nice..." Zee muttered to herself as she joined her sister. 'Love what did that even mean?' She pulled her sister into a sincere hug. Perfection was the only thing Zee knew, some would strive for it but to her, it was nothing more than a curse. "I'll help you find who did this under one condition."

"Oh? What's that?" Rae asked as she pulled away from the hug and looked at her sister.

"Promise me this investigation won't consume you; I can't lose my sister." Zee said as she held up her pinky.

"I promise," Rae said as she held up her pinky; pinky swears were the utmost form of trust for them.

"Good, now we have a stream party to attend." Zee said as she got off her sister's bed and turned to her closet.

"There's no way in hell I'll attend something like that, my best friend died and you want me to party? What is wrong with you?" Rae scoffed.

"Please, I'm not that heartless. A good detective goes where the suspects are and tries to get them to confess," Zee stated, "If a student offed your friend, they might just drunkenly confess with a little TLZ"

****

Zee and Rae make their way through the woods. It was now after curfew something Rae rarely ever broke before. "Are you sure they're going to be here?" Rae asked as Zee nodded.

"Yeah, even if not, we'll be safer in a group than alone." Zee replied.

"Yeah, because nothing says reliability like a group of drunken'd teenagers," Rae scoffs. "We'll get murdered in front of them and they'll think it's just a lucid dream."

"Trust me, I've seen enough True Crime to last a lifetime. We'll be safe here."

"I can just see the headline now. Two girls were found dead in the woods with multiple stab wounds. One dressed like a wannabe Brat-"

"That's not funny." Zee said as she shook her head; her natural dark curly locks were now straightened and bounced with every movement. Rae, on the other hand, rocked a half up half down hairdo with a stylish clip from her sister that held everything in place.

"You're right, I'm sorry." Rae apologized. The girls made it to the bonfire where some classmates already stood with red plastic cups in hand. "Hey babe." Leander greeted as he approached the pair. "Rae, didn't think you'd come."

"Ugh." Rae replied as she rolled her eyes and walked away. She never liked Leander. He was too perfect. It was almost criminal. The fact she caught him cheating on her sister multiple times didn't help; but she couldn't tell Zee unless she wanted to evoke her mother's wrath.

"She'll come around," Zee tried to play the role of supportive girlfriend as she watched her sister leave them.

"You've been saying that for ten years babe," He stated as he flashed Zee a kind smile which she mirrored. 'Ten long years spent with a guy I didn't even like God; I wish I was born to a whole other family.'

Rae bumped into someone, which caused them to spill their drink all over her black long-sleeve shirt that matched her dark ripped jeans and Nikes. She didn't recognize them, but that was normal for her. "Excuse me." Rae began as she pushed past the guy who wore a mask which hid half of his face..

"You don't belong here Zarael," the guy whispered in her ear as she stopped in her tracks, "You killed Eleanor and for that you Vallisair's are going to pay."

Rae turned around, but the guy was gone, like a thief in the night. She scanned her surroundings, but all she saw were her schoolmates wrapped up in their own little worlds; drinking, flirting, and gossiping was all they were good for. 'Who the hell is Eleanor?'

WP WC: !539/4774