ONE

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His name was Logan.

Sometimes I like to forget about him. Who he was. But who he was, was what got him killed. I keep forgetting that and the fact I'm far more involved in all this than I should be. Minding your own business is hard when you find yourself stuck in a murder investigation.

I was always cocky about the fact something like this would never happen here. However, I was humbled very quickly. Now in a way, I wish things were different because a lot of things have become harder.

But.

In another fucked up way — I'm glad it happened. He deserved it. Don't tell anyone I said that because everyone is sensitive at the moment and I don't want to be thrown in a cell. I mean it though. I'm not surprised someone wanted to kill him. And do you know what?

I hope it hurt.

•

The first day of the term never looked so ugly.

I was fighting my way through a plethora of students, a sea of red and white weaving through me and nearly bashing my shoulder. I took some quick glances at the obnoxious group of year eights with their Peaky Blinder inspired haircuts and JD drawstring bags hanging from their shoulders. They seemed to be laughing at the student in front of them who had odd shoes on and couldn't seem to walk in a straight line.

Pushing my focus away, it goes to a couple at the lockers hard making out, one of her legs up against his waist as he held onto her thigh, pushing her up against his groin. I see their tongues down each other's throats as I walk past them and I could only think how they can do that at twenty to nine in the morning. I can barely keep my eyes open.

Finally, I make it to my locker alive and catch my breath, turning back to the chaos I was just in the middle of. Only a few months left of this hell and then I'm gone. I can't understand anyone who likes school.

Sighing, I slide my key into my locker and open it out, packing books in there that my dad had shoved in that I don't need.

"I got a grand total of two hours sleep!" A voice speaks up from behind my locker door and I narrow my eyes and immediately slam it shut, revealing one of my best friends Halle, sarcastically smiling at me with her thumb up.

"Congratulations." I stifle a laugh, I didn't want to laugh in her face because I doubt she'll be in the best of moods. Especially on the first day back.

"Not my finest moment. Now I look like a corpse." Halle comments.

"Is that necessarily a bad thing?" Another voice speaks up from behind me and I turn my head to see Amy standing there, her arms crossed over.

"Amy, I know it's hard to try and not be mean to me every day but sometimes I need a day." Halle hits back.

"I'll never stop being mean to you." Amy replies sharply.

"Guys." I huff.

Amy gives one last smirk to Halle before switching her attention over to me. "How come I never heard from you all weekend?"

"Weekend before the new term starts, have you forgotten I have an Indian dad who is obsessed with me getting straight A stars this year? I was revising all weekend." I explain.

"Sucker." Amy retorts. "You missed a banging party. Everyone was there."

"Yeah everyone except for me now spare me the lecture." I roll my eyes before they soon glide back to the chaos of the corridor.

A line of guys start to saunter through the mix of pupils who jump out of the way at the importance of these guys. Right at the front was Coach Watson of the football team who was an absolute dick and I will never understand why everyone loves him.

Next to him, the cuntiest student in the school with an ego the size of Jupiter — Logan Bates.

With a swift movement of his arm, he grabs an innocent year ten pupil who had his head buried in a book but was now being faced with a monstrous glare.

"Found another virgin!" Logan chortles.

Coach Watson lets out a roar of laughter, clapping at the same time as Logan pushes the nerd out of his grip, into the lockers that resulted in a clattering bang.

"Wanker." Halle comments as they walk past but don't hear her, or I guess they may have pretended not to.

The rest of the lads on the football team walk past at that point and my eyes catch onto another pair that was staring back at me, a matching sweet smile to go with them. As soon as I smile back, he breaks off from the line and walks quickly over to me.

"Clarkey!" Chris stops in his tracks, a groan following out but soon stops when Amy had grabbed his attention.

I'm greeted with a gentle peck on the lips and a grin being faced by my boyfriend who grins back at me gleefully.

"I've got a surprise for you tonight so are you free to come round mine at six?" Tom asks softly.

"Course." I smile.

"Tom!" Chris sighs, giving me a quick smile afterwards.

"Okay, better go." Tom says quickly before rushing off with Chris to catch up with the rest of the team.

"A surprise, eh?" Halle questions, her eyebrows raised.

"He's gonna propose!" Amy squeals.

"He's not gonna propose. Where'd you get that idea?" I laugh.

"All the best couples get married." Amy grins.

"My dad would hit the roof if I got engaged with Tom, he doesn't like him as it is." I explain, fumbling with my fingers.

"Who cares about your dad? You and Tom are childhood sweethearts and that's a good sign." Amy smiles.

I roll my eyes. "Easy for you to say you've got the most chilled-out dad in the world. So marrying Chris won't be a problem for you."

"Have you even popped the cherry with Tom yet?" Halle asks.

I stay silent.

Amy gasps. "Maybe that's why he wants you round!"

"Girl, you've been together two years! Come on, when is it gonna happen?" Halle questions.

"I dunno, it's not my top priority to lose my virginity, I'd much more concentrate on my exams this term."

"Ugh, not Claude 2.0." Amy scoffs, referring to the smartest kid in the school who also happens to be our close friend.

Halle meanwhile, gives me the craziest look. "Are you— GIRL, you have opportunities flying at you like a frisbee every day! I know if I had a girlfriend we'd be at it quite a bit."

"Step one: get a girlfriend." I hit back.

"Oh, haha." Halle sarcastically pulls a smile back to me.

Before we could discuss anymore, deafening ringing floods into my ears and I jump slightly looking over to see the grey bell ringing out signalling the first period.

Lesson one: PE.

Kill me.

•

The ball comes flying towards me at maximum speed, not even giving me enough time to process that it was hurling towards me so I could catch it. It ends up impacting my boobs and relays back onto the floor. Fuck that hurt.

"Selena, what the fuck!" Melanie shouts across the sports hall, echoing across to me and I glare at her back. I couldn't stand the extremely sporty girls who thought they were in the fucking Olympics every PE lesson.

I watch Halle darting about, before with a perfect swing, throwing the basketball into the hoop netting perfectly and as a result, her whole team cheered. Halle was the only sporty girl I liked because she was my best friend but that was it, even then sometimes Halle can get a bit aggy, especially at Amy.

Talking of Amy, she hadn't even shown up. She hates PE with a vengeance and tries to avoid it as much as she can. She's already on the radar with the headmaster but she would much rather spend this time shagging Chris behind the bins than participate in basketball.

"Selena, run! My god!" Melanie shrieked again and on top of the fact my boobs were killing me, her shouting made me a lot more unenthusiastic.

A lot of the other girls were staring at me now, including the chavs who were smirking and enjoying me getting roasted constantly. Fuck this shit.

So I walk out.

I hear everyone, including the teacher shout for me back and just give them the excuse that I need the toilet before continuing to stomp out of the sports hall. You'll only ever catch me at the gym or having runs sometimes every morning but I am hopeless at any other sports. Maybe taking a leaf out of Amy's book isn't a bad idea after all.

Eventually, I make my way to the changing rooms and grab a plastic cup from the water machine outside, instantly filling it up with ice-cold water. As I stop filling it up and raise it to my lips, I hear hushed voices but the tone of them sounded off.

I take a few gulps from the cup before placing it down and slowly start creep walking towards the voices. The closer I got, the more they sounded clearer and it sounded like arguing.

After a few moments, I peek around the wall to view a pretty much empty corridor but keeping it from being completely empty was two people - Logan and one of the guys from the football team.

Logan had him rammed up against the lockers, his fists clenching the collar of his jumper. "You do it else I'll tell your girlfriend everything."

"Get off me!" Bailey attempts to fight back but Logan was too strong for him.

"I will, once you agree to do this for me," Logan demands threateningly. "It's not my fault I found out about your dirty secret. I'm trying to do you a favour by keeping quiet."

"But this is wrong! I don't wanna do this!" Bailey desperately responds.

"Fine. I'll just go tell your girlfriend what I saw." Logan lets go of him calm now this time and begins to walk off.

"Wait!" Bailey suddenly shouts back, stopping Logan dead in his tracks.

His heels slowly turn on the squeaky floor, followed by him turning his full attention back to Bailey and the most sinister smile appears on his face. "Yes?"

"I'll do it." Bailey sniffs. "Just please... don't tell her."

"Darkroom. Come on." Logan nods his head at the rest of the empty corridor and Bailey defeatedly pushes himself off the wall.

Narrowing my eyes, I watch as they walk off together. What was all that about?

•

I couldn't stop thinking about what I saw during PE and I came up with so many scenarios in my head as to why Logan and Bailey were on bad terms because they're usually good friends. Unfortunately, because of this, I was distracted during the group project I was working on in history with the gang. Not that they noticed.

"We've got a big match coming up soon."Chris starts, doodling random faces on the table.

"Well don't be nervous." Claude breaks in, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "I've done a stats report and it's looking good."

"Weyyy." Tom grins, holding out his fist to Chris who fist bumps him in natural response.

"Hey, if we win which we fucking will. I'm gonna try and get us in a club on Friday to celebrate!" Chris claps his hands and rubs them together menacingly.

"WHOO YES!" Halle squeals.

"Oh wow, and on today's episode of how unrealistic Chris is being." Claude comments making Quinn give him a dirty look.

"Alright, you party pooper you don't have to come."

"He's not being a party pooper. How are you gonna get us fake IDs?" I question.

"Exactly, you're being so unrealistic." Luke cuts in. "Plus we don't look old enough. Kinda."

"I know someone," Chris states proudly. "He can make them. He made mine."

"Why did I have to go and date the most troublesome boy in this school." Amy comments, her hand on her temple which slightly pushed up her blonde curly hair.

"Uh, be nice, fellow partner." Chris snaps back.

"Right, you can count me out. I'm not getting involved in anything illegal." Luke rejects.

"Pussy." Chris rolls his eyes.

I chuckle. "Don't be mean. He's just being smart."

"I'll come and happily wreck my liver." Halle grins.

Chris cheers. "Yes! Sel, Clarkey... you in?"

I exchange a glance with Tom and we both snort before looking back at Chris. "Yes, fine!"

"Nice one. See youse aren't boring." Chris remarks giving Claude and Luke a side-eye.

"So this Friday yeah?" Tom checks.

"Yep, I'll message Axeman and let him know about the fake IDs." Chris replies casually.

Everyone falls silent and we all exchange looks with each other, all seeming to be equally confused and creeped out by that one word in that sentence.

"Uh..." I chuckle nervously. "Axeman?"

Chris just stares at me and nods. "Yeah. He's totally cool."

I nod. "Right."

At that point, the bell rings out and immediately the same sound of chairs getting scraped back and banging against tables was heard and everyone collects their things together. I place everything in my bag before slinging it over my shoulder and exchanging a smile with Tom who takes my hand into his.

"Yes! Remember your assignment in two weeks! Guys!" Mr Hendricks yells to everyone who simply wasn't listening and fighting to get out of his classroom. "ASSIGNMENT! TWO WEEKS! AGH!"

As I step foot out of the door, I'm met by a clamour of students but for some reason, they weren't moving towards the canteen or outside. Everyone stayed staring around and ahead of them. Mixtures of whistles from guys could be heard before a flood of panic from girls seep in.

I stop and take my first look at the wall and lockers and that's when I see the most horrifying sight.

Pictures — of all the girls in my PE class, including me, in the changing rooms.

Someone had taken pictures of all of us in our most private moment.

And we were paraded around the school walls for everyone to see.