LIFE WITHIN THE HALLS

Gideon

Thursday, 12th February, 9:28 a.m.

I was dying to know why Victoria had been in the records room the night before, but priorities, right? Economists call it the scale of preference, and something else took precedence.

"Is someone going to tell me where we're going?" Victoria asked, glancing around at Jayden, Sandra, and me as we trudged up the stairs to the third floor.

"Feel free to leave if you want. No one's forcing you to join us," I said, rolling my eyes skyward and quickening my pace.

"Please tell me," she urged, hurrying to keep up with me.

"I'm not telling you anything," I said, turning to face her as we reached the top of the stairs. "You told us yesterday you didn't want anything to do with us. Forgotten?"

Victoria crossed her arms and leaned against the glass railing. "I remember, but I'm still not leaving. You better tell me."

"I won't tell you. Maybe they will," I said, jerking my head toward Jayden and Sandra.

Jayden looked up, seemingly counting the ceiling lights to avoid explaining things to her. Sandra was her last option now, since I didn't want to.

Victoria gave Sandra a pleading look, and she, being so empathetic, fell for it.

"Last night," she began, "we broke into Mr. Bennett's office, and—"

"You three were the ones who broke into his office?" Victoria exclaimed, cutting her off.

"Shh!" I whispered. "Keep your voice low. If you knew what we found on his computer, you'd be more concerned about that than the break-in."

"What did you find on his computer?" she asked.

"Hannah Bentley's naked video."

"Seriously? I never thought she'd stoop that low," Victoria said, her eyes wide with shock.

That's where things got murky for me too. Hannah wasn't known for that behavior, and she was Daniel's girlfriend, so why would she send her naked video to Mr. Bennett? Was there more to their relationship than we knew?

Victoria pushed off from the railing, and we continued our walk after Sandra filled her in on our plan. Our plan was to manipulate the fake Daniel into revealing the whole truth to us: who he was and whether Mr. Bennett was indeed his accomplice.

When we got to Daniel's class, we looked through the window and saw Mr. Bennett inside giving one of his normal biology lectures. The fake Daniel was in the real Daniel's seat, acting it all up with a nose mask on.

It was surprising how no one else seemed to notice he was a clone. The way he sat there even screamed "fake" to me.

"How do we proceed with the plan when class is in session?" Victoria murmured.

I checked my watch, noting the few seconds left until the first break. "What about now?" I said, just as the bell rang, punctuating my words.

"You win!" Victoria acquiesced, always treating everything like a competition.

Amidst the bell's noise and students milling around us, a phone beeped. My eyes landed on Jayden, who retrieved his phone from his shorts pocket. His hands shook as he scrolled through the screen.

He looked up from his phone and noticed me staring at him. "How do we make the fake Daniel talk?" he asked, his creased brow indicating something was wrong. It was clear he was bringing it up to avoid whatever had rattled him on his phone.

Before I could respond, Sandra called out to us and pointed to the fake Daniel. He was coming out from class with his backpack, adjusting the nose mask to sit snugly under his eyes.

I now understood why people didn't see him as a fake. With the mask on, it was really hard to distinguish him from the real Daniel. They shared the same hairstyle, eyebrow shape, and eye color. If it weren't for the scar on the real Daniel's palm, I would have been deceived too.

Whoever came up with the plan to kidnap Daniel and replace him with his lookalike must be very intelligent. How did they find a perfect lookalike? It was as if it was meticulously planned during the entire six-week semester break.

"What do we do now?" Jayden mouthed, as we all fixed our eyes on him.

He noticed our stares and began to fidget uncomfortably, swallowing hard with rapid, nervous gulps.

I closed the gap between us. "Who are you?" I asked. "Who brought you to this school?"

"What kind of question is that?" he stammered, attempting a smile. "I'm Daniel Blay, your best friend."

He seemed well-versed in Daniel's mannerisms, likely coached to avoid suspicion.

"Enough games!" I said, stepping closer until we were inches apart. "You look like Daniel, but you're not him."

"What...what are you talking about?" he stuttered.

"Don't. Push. Me!" I warned him.

He suddenly gripped my arm, pulling me to the corner near the elevator. Jayden, Victoria, and Sandra closed in, curious like me.

"I'm sorry," he blurted, falling to his knees as sobs wracked his body. "My real name is Matthew Clark. I was paid to impersonate Daniel."

I exchanged glances with the others, surprised by how things had played out. I hadn't expected him to confess like that. I thought we would have to force the truth out of him.

"Who paid you to do it?" Jayden growled, his hand clenched around his collar as he pulled him to his feet. "Speak up, now!"

"Mr. Bennett," Matthew choked out. "He killed Hannah and kidnapped the real Daniel. He paid me $55,000 to impersonate him and gave me contact lenses matching Daniel's eye color. Please, don't turn me in. I needed the money for my mom's hospital bills."

"But the doctor's report stated Hannah died from a pre-existing condition," Victoria said. "How's Mr. Bennett involved?"

"Hannah didn't die from any condition," Matthew replied. "She was poisoned. The report the doctor gave to the police was wrong. Mr. Bennett blackmailed the doctor to alter the results."

"He blackmailed the doctor with what?"

"Ugh... Mr. Bennett somehow got to know the doctor was cheating on his wife and used that against him."

We all stared at each other in stunned silence until Sandra spoke up, "Do you know what you're saying? That's a huge accusation."

"I'm not lying, trust me," Matthew said. "Mr. Bennett and Hannah were in a relationship. He poisoned her to death because she left him for Daniel. That's why he kidnapped Daniel."

I couldn't wrap my head around what he was saying. How was Mr. Bennett able to do all that? And even if he did, poisoning Hannah seemed senseless. He killed his supposed girlfriend simply because she left him for another guy? It was the classic 'If I can't have her, no one can' scenario.

But what did Mr. Bennett gain by kidnapping Daniel?

Victoria signaled us to huddle together, forming a circle that created distance between ourselves and Matthew. "I don't fully buy anything he's saying," she said. "If Mr. Bennett was truly obsessed with Hannah, why kill her? He'd have targeted Daniel instead..."

As Victoria spoke, I tore my eyes away from her to look at Matthew. He checked his watch, tapped out a message on his phone, and slowly rose to his feet. It was as if he was waiting for a specific moment to make a move.

The elevator doors slid open, but no one came out. Just as they began to close, Matthew sprinted in, pressing the button for the first floor. The doors shut behind him with a soft thud.

I hastily took the stairs to catch up with him, drawing attention from others. Jayden followed me in the rush. We took two steps at a time in order to get down fast.

Despite our quickness, Matthew had already left the elevator when we got to the first floor and was hurrying toward the school's exit. We chased after him but couldn't catch up. He leapt over the fence wall and jumped into a brown Toyota Yaris parked outside the gate. The security guard tried to stop the car, but it sped away.

All I could do was snap a photo of the car's license plate.

Returning to the girls, we recounted Matthew's escape.

"Now we're back to square one," Victoria sighed, deflated. "We still don't know where the real Daniel is."

"Well, at least we know Mr. Bennett isn't innocent," I pointed out.

"Do you actually believe Matthew's story?" she interjected. "He confessed too easily, then fled with a waiting car. Was Mr. Bennett the one waiting for him in the car? No. While you two were chasing Matthew, Sandra and I checked Mr. Bennett's office. He was having breakfast."

"Are you trying to say Mr. Bennett is innocent? Even with a naked video of Hannah on his computer?"

"You're getting it all wrong," Sandra said. "What Victoria is implying is that whether Mr. Bennett is guilty or not, there's another person involved. A third person."

Sandra's notion made quite sense. There had to be someone else apart from Mr. Bennett. Someone Matthew was unwilling to mention. Someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes.