S I X

The morning came. The morning of Monday school, of course. I stood at the entrance of the building after my mum had dropped me off. The temperature was extra cold today so I wore a hoodie and black skinny jeans. I struggled to keep my hair out of my face, because of the unyielding winds.

"You don't look good."

I looked up to see Reeve standing there with crossed arms and a smirk. He was dressed in a white hoodie that had some weird font wording on the sleeves. He eyed me up and down.

"Wow. Hello to you too, Reeve," I said, plastering a smile on my face.

He grunted. "Where are your friends?"

I tightened my grip on my bag, thinking about them. Whatever it was that they did to Kelly, it wasn't going to drive me to have a panic attack and kill myself. I was smart and aware now. I had already made sure I took my daily dosage of my medicine anyway so nothing bizarre would happen to my emotions today.

Though something inside me nagged at me to go and dig for answers because God, was I curious.

"Um, I just got here," I said, raising my eyebrow. I looked around and there weren't many people around. Reeve nodded.

"Biology," he mumbled, turning around to enter the building.

I groaned loudly. He put up a thumbs up and I smiled secretly to myself and followed after him. The hallways were typically cold but unusually clear and that freaked me out until I checked the time on my phone. The bell had already rung, so I was late. We were late.

"God, work on Saturday really sucked," I said, as a conversation starter, since our walk to Biology was pretty long. It was all the way in Block B. Thanks to Caleb, I knew.

"Then why are you working there?" he asked bluntly. I made a face. Did he have to be so moody? At least I was talking about working at The Benevolent and not about my new, scary friends.

I sighed loudly, squinting my eyes to get a better look down the hallway at a girl who was rushing to get to her class. A snort came out of my mouth. If I was late already, did it make a difference if I was five minutes later than I should've been? No, it didn't-- so I took my time, walking with Reeve.

"My family really has all the money we need," I said, biting my lip as we paced down the now empty corridors. He raised his eyebrow.

"Not surprising."

I rolled my eyes. "I just-- my ex-boyfriend broke up with me a while back before I left to come to Kellington and I've been doing nothing but laying in bed all day," I said, feeling weird that I was telling Reeve all this about my life. He was quiet so I continued talking as we made our way down the long hallway, connecting the two blocks. "My mum made me work to do something with my life."

Reeve gave a short puff, sounding pitiful for me. "Sorry about that. But you know, that's exactly what my mum did too. She was done with the moody, useless person in me."

I raised a brow. "Seems like you still are moody," I joked.

"Shut up," he said, cracking a smile that seemed genuine. I smiled back.

We passed the locker area where I had seen the scrunched up paper behind the locker when Caleb had shown me around the school. I stopped Reeve and went to see if the paper was there. It was. I yanked it out of the slot by the wall and the cabinet and felt Reeve come up close behind me.

"What is it?" he asked.

He was so close I could feel his breathing on my neck. I quickly stepped backwards and unwrapped the lined paper. It was blank. I flipped it to the back and there, in messy handwriting was a question, missing a question mark.

do u have 20ml of excelt

I frowned, feeling more confused than ever but also freaked out. "What in the world? Do you know what Excelt is?" I showed Reeve the paper and he took it, examining it carefully.

"I have no clue," he said, looking genuinely puzzled. I took the paper back, looking at it again and making sure I didn't miss anything.

"Do you think it could be something to do with them?" I said quietly.

Reeve shrugged his shoulders. "It could be but it doesn't really make any sense and I really have no clue what Excelt is. We can search it up, though."

I nodded. "Yeah, good idea. I shouldn't jump to conclusions." I shoved the paper into my pocket and sighed.

We carried on walking and stopped at the biology room door. B16. Reeve sighed and gave me a nod before turning the handle and pushing the door open. He stepped inside and I did too.

The class was quiet and everyone was staring at us. I met Caleb's eye and his gaze flickered between Reeve and I. His eyebrows were furrowed but the look dropped and was replaced by a cocky smirk. He was sitting with Kira and Jen, the same as always. They were all doing work in their exercise books. Lola was sitting alone at the back this time, doing work too.

I turned around slowly to face Mrs Ganges, the biology teacher. She had her eyebrow raised.

"Reeve, you're late again," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking extremely unimpressed. Reeve gave her a sheepish look and ran his hand through his hair. Mrs Ganges pursed her lips and turned to look at me. "Stella, just thought you should know that I do not tolerate students being late often. If this happens again, you both will deal with detention."

My cheeks flamed.

"We won't, Miss," Reeve spoke up for me. I felt relieved. Wow, I felt like hugging him. Mrs Ganges nodded firmly.

"Go and sit at the table in front of Caleb," she ordered. "I specifically made Lola sit at the back so Reeve and you could have a clear view of the board and Reeve could learn a thing or two from the new student-- but Stella, I don't know what to expect from you now. Please, do not disappoint me."

I swallowed a lump in my throat. God, I felt attacked right now.

"I'm sorry, Miss. It won't happen again," I said meekly.

Throughout the lesson, Caleb, Kira nor Jen spoke a single word to me. Lola couldn't since she was sitting at the back and there was no use in speaking across the room since Mrs Ganges was in a sour mood. I was extremely relieved, yet disappointed. What if Lola and her friends all stopped speaking to me? The curiosity racking in my brain was going to eat me up if I didn't find out what drove Kelly to kill herself?

What if they didn't do illegal things but instead were just extremely brutal bullies who found different ways to torture her?

God, I was sick.

When the lesson ended, everyone left the class in a hurry to grab a snack during break. Lola came up to me at my desk with Caleb and Kira and Jen when Reeve left and I was shoving everything into my file. Mrs Ganges had given us extra homework due to her crabby condition. She gave the class glares throughout the two hours and to make it worse, Reeve didn't speak a word to me.

"Hey, Stella," Lola said with a smile. At least she was still nice. I stood up quickly, distancing myself from her, ready to find Reeve.

"Hey."

"You need to stop talking to Reeve," Caleb said bluntly. I raised my eyebrow and turned to look at Caleb with a look of disbelief. I had forgotten how pretty his face was, though. His eyes reminded me of Autumn, and his skin was an olive colour which suited him well.

"Excuse me?" I said.

Kira and Jen just folded their arms, staring. Caleb had a hand on Kira's lap. I could see from here, under the table.

"Yeah, it's just-- I don't know if you know, but he's had a bad past with girls. He could be dangerous," Caleb said and I blinked. He sounded so believable, I really didn't know what to believe. And the eye contact he was making really added to the real effect.

"How does a bad past with girls make him dangerous?" I questioned.

Lola spoke up. "He didn't exactly have a bad past with girls, Stella," she said, looking at me with a kind smile that made me want to consider her next words. She folded her arms across her chest and swallowed tightly. "His last girlfriend killed herself."

I blinked. I already knew that since Reeve had told me, but I pretended to be shocked and horrified. I technically was, but I stayed silent for a while.

"I know, it's horrible. But I'm just saying, Reeve has been through some shit and he could be a threat, to you, or anyone," Lola said, pushing her mouth to the side, looking uncertain.

"Thank you for telling me," I said with a sad smile.

Lola and Caleb nodded.

"Yeah, no problem," Caleb said, grinning. "Just looking out for a girl."

Lola smiled warmly. She placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. I nearly flinched and I wanted to push her hand off, but I decided against it. That was until her sleeve came down and I saw it. The same scar that was on Caleb and Kira's arm.

Oh, my god. I knew I wasn't overreacting. Something was definitely wrong with them.

I was breathing heavily and I didn't even notice it until Caleb spoke. "Are you good?"

"Yeah. I-- I need to go," I said in a rush. My words came out in a stutter and I felt unsafe around them. Around everyone. I felt like I was hanging by a thread while I stood in this building. I took a shaky step backwards, never forgetting the anxious looks on their faces, and bolted out of the classroom.