The next morning, there was another new kid coming to the school that was assigned to our dormitory. I waited in the room with Rosemary and Aria for her to arrive. A few minutes before breakfast time ended, she walked in. Actually, she skipped in.

"Hi people! It's really nice to meet you! I'm Amber, how about you? I'm 15 years old, how old are you? This is a nice room, by the way. And this school is so cool! It's so fancy! And all this stuff about magical powers is amazing! I already figured out my superpower, it's fire. And how about you people? What sort of things do you learn in this school? Do you still have to do math? Because I hate math. I suck at it. And what are the teachers like? Does the school cafeteria have horrible food? Because most do. But this is a boarding school so I figured it's different. And--" The girl--Amber--paused to take a breath.

Aria, Rosemary, and I were just staring at this girl like she was crazy, which she probably was. None of us talked so much. Amber's chatter was so...different from what we were used to. "Maybe you should stop asking questions," Rosemary suggested. "I'm Rosemary, and this is Aria and Crystal."

"I'm Amber! And I have fire powers! How about you people? Plus, I'm 15. You?"

"You already said that," Aria pointed out. "And it's really none of your business." I wondered why Aria wasn't being nice to her, and then remembered what Rosemary had told me about her not liking change. However, I definitely agreed that this girl would probably turn out to be very talkative and annoying.

Amber sighed. "Yeah, people tell me that a lot."

"That's surprising," Aria muttered sarcastically.

"So, there's still some time left before breakfast ends, and if you want food, you might want to hurry," Rosemary said, probably trying to get Amber out of the room.

"Oh, right! I'm hungry! Bye, people, see you later!" Amber dashed out the door, and a few seconds later, I heard her crash into another person. "Oh, hi! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I was just in a rush, because I want to get down before breakfast ends. I heard the food is actually good--"

The door slammed shut, and for a moment I was freaked out at how it seemed to close on it's own, before I remembered Aria had wind powers.

Anyway, it muted Amber's chatter, which really helped. "I don't like her. She talks too much and doesn't know how to mind her own business," Aria decided.

"Yes, she is too talkative," I agreed. "She's definitely going to make this room a lot louder. Plus she's really curious."

"Give her a chance. She just got here, she is really excited," Rosemary protested, taking Amber's side.

"I have something else I want to tell you, actually," I added. They both looked at me expectantly. "I want to find out who it is who killed the two kids."

"Crystal, are you crazy?" Aria burst out. "It will most likely include sneaking through hallways at night and breaking rules. Besides, the teachers have got this."

"Guys, have you considered what might happen if one of us get killed?" I pointed out. Aria stared at me in horror.

"That would never happen...would it?" she whispered.

"You never know," Rosemary sighed. "So far, it has been other kids who we don't really know. It certainly could be us next time."

"Besides, it would be cool to try and find out who it is and how they are getting into the school and everything! Let's do it," I pleaded. "Please?"

Rosemary and Aria looked at me, and then at each other, and they sighed and shook their heads as if to say, What is the matter with her? I grinned, absolutely sure they would do it. "Great!"

And, at that exact moment, Amber barged into the room.

Rosemary, Aria, and I gaped at her. "You're--but--you're supposed to be eating breakfast!" Aria stammered.

"I want to help!" Amber announced. At first, I had no idea what she was talking about, but when I realized, my jaw dropped.

"You were eavesdropping on us?"

"It's my room too, and I wanted to come in!" Amber defended. "And if you don't let me help, I'll tell the teachers." The three of us looked at each other helplessly. We all knew she had us trapped.

"Fine," Rosemary muttered. "But not a word to anyone else."

"Oh, and what's this about dead kids? Because if students are getting killed, this place isn't safe. Maybe if they have some sort of security system, like cameras--no, they must already have those. But if--ooh! If they had some sort of cool machines that could--" All three of us groaned. This girl was going to be really hard to put up with.

* * *

"I cannot believe we are actually doing this," Aria whispered. "Breaking into a teacher's office! What are we thinking?"

"You're not doing anything. Me and Amber are," I whispered back. "You and Rosemary are just keeping watch." We had discussed everything back in the dormitory and had concluded that the murderer had to be someone who worked at this school. Of course, my first suspect was Mrs. Crow. Although it had taken a while to convince the others.

"Let's review the signals," Rosemary suggested under her breath. "The knocking pattern Anna does in Frozen if Mrs. Crow is coming, 2 long, 3 short knocks for a different teacher, and we will tap it several times with our fingernails for a student. Although I have no idea why a student would be out in the halls at this time."

"We are out in the halls! And we could get caught!" Aria's voice was slightly hysterical.

"Isn't this her office here?" Amber asked. We turned and saw she was right. Since we were so busy talking, we hadn't seen that we passed Mrs. Crow's office. "And, uh, how do we get in? Because we never really discussed that and I was wondering how we were supposed to open the door and stuff, and--"

"Shut up," Aria hissed.

"Besides, Aria has a plan," I added.

"Yeah, Crystal is going to freeze the lock," she explained.

"Exact--wait, I'm going to what?"

"You're going to put your hand on that doorknob and freeze the lock," Aria said slowly, like she was telling a kindergartner. "You will turn it to ice. Then Amber can melt it, and there will be no lock!"

"Couple flaws in that plan--one of which being that neither of us can really control our powers," I said nervously.

Aria threw her hands up in the air. "You still haven't figured it out? Why didn't you say so before I can up with the plan?"

Rosemary sighed. "We could just go into the classroom and into her office through there. We could see if she left it unlocked."

"Good idea!" Amber exclaimed, and skipped down the hallway.

"Wrong direction!" I called over my shoulder as we walked in the opposite direction from Amber. I heard her squeal as she stumbled into a wall as she tried to skip backward. "Oh, and Rosemary, that really is smart. I can't believe Aria didn't think of that."

"Shhh, let's hurry. I want to actually get some sleep tonight."

As we reached the classroom, we tried the door. Rosemary was right--it was unlocked. We hurried inside--and I almost fell on my butt. I caught myself, but the rest of us weren't so lucky.

"Ow! What is this?" Aria complained.

"Woah, is this ice?" Rosemary wondered. "Crystal, did you just freeze the place?"

"I may or may not have lost control of my power the other day when we were practicing in this classroom..." I muttered, embarrassed.

"Forget it. Let's find the office door." Aria said, and rose up 6 inches off the ground. "Come on." I followed after her, gliding on the ice gracefully, thanks to the 10 years of figure skating lessons I had taken. Rosemary and Amber were left to stumble after us, cursing under their breath and trying not to fall flat on their faces.

We found the office door unlocked and slid inside, where, to my friends' relief, the ice was gone. "I call the hallway!" Rosemary pushed past us and hurried into the hallway, probably because she didn't want to spend another second in the frozen classroom. Aria sighed and floated back into the classroom. Meanwhile, Amber and I flipped on the lights and started searching for anything that could point to Mrs. Crow being the person who was behind the murders.

30 minutes later, we had found absolutely nothing. We headed back to our dormitory, exhausted, but this time I was sure the murderer wasn't Mrs. Crow. 

* * *

Over the next week, we snuck into three more suspicious teacher's classrooms. None of them had any evidence whatsoever pointing to the fact that they were the culprit. Aria, Rosemary, and I were starting to lose hope, but Amber found the midnight walks very exciting and was actually considering breaking into teacher's classrooms for fun.

A week later, there was a 3rd death. I didn't see the body, knowing I would definitely throw up, but apparently they had been stabbed multiple times in the chest. It made me feel sick thinking about it. I was also starting to see a pattern. The first student was from dormitory #1. The second was from dormitory #2. The third student was from dormitory #3. We were in dormitory #5. At this rate, within a few weeks, one of the four of us would be dead. It was not a fun thought.

However, a few days after the 3rd murder, we hit a jackpot. We had decided to search the headmaster's office (stupid, I know) and found an interesting bit of information. On his desk, in plain sight, was his calendar. And marked on the calendar were the dates of the deaths--except, it said stuff like "behead the girl who sleeps by the window" and "stab the boy whose bed is by the door"--basically instructions for how to kill people. And, to top it off, there was a bloodstained knife next to it.

"Amber? Tell Aria and Rosemary we found out who did it," I whispered, excited. I checked the calendar for the next date he was planning to kill someone, sure it wouldn't be for another week or so. We had time to prevent more deaths. But when I found it, I froze in horror.

We were too late. It was that night.