Vivian

Four people surrounded me. Anna was the fourth honor student of our class. She’s a petite and playful singer with pretty brunette hair. Leslie is her best friend. She and her twin brother, Louie, look very much alike, but they rarely spend time together in school since Louie is usually hanging out with the other boys. The third girl among them is Flora, the masterchef. I don’t know much about her to be honest. The only boy among them is Terrence. His friends call him Terri and he’s openly gay. These four people are the ones who barely involve themselves with Sarah. They don’t hate her, they just don’t click as much I guess. The group look at me, and then amongst each other.

Anna finally broke the silence. “Deon is right. Vivian would never do that to Sarah no matter how much she hated her.”

“Right?” Terrence’s pitch went up gleefully.

I give them the most confused look I could ever make. I was so scared inside that my grip on my sandwich just went loose and it fell on the ground. I look down towards my snack, an imaginary tear falls from my eye. What are they trying to achieve? I thought the manhunt was on.

“Oh no, she dropped her sandwich.” Flora said, looking concerned.

“We definitely scared her. This poor girl probably doesn't even trust her classmates anymore after what Sarah did.” Anna replies, looking at her friends.

UMMMMMM who in their right mind would? Sarah basically exposed me to our entire class.

I get off my chair to clean up the mess I made. Anna helps me out. My hand moved away out of impulse.

“Hey, Vivian, look at me.” Anna said, her voice sounding warm. “We won’t hurt you the same way Sarah did. We’re sorry if we ever gave you the impression that we were going after you for what happened with her.”

Leslie nodded. “My twin brother, Louie, and I think that they went too far. Family problems should be kept inside the family. What Sarah did was an invasion of privacy.”

My heart sinks from the memory of that day almost three weeks ago. I’m glad they understand, but it’s going to be hard for me to trust them… or anyone in class. Even Deon, who’s being helpful. He’s always around Sarah, even if he tells me he had nothing to do with it, my mind would tell me he did anyways.

That’s how deep I’ve fell into the hole of despair. I have no one to confide in.

“Thank you…” That was all I could say to them. Although their words make me happy, I can’t tell them what’s on my mind.

Flora opened up her bag and took out a small cake. “I baked these last night. Since you dropped your sandwich, maybe you could join us for some cake?”

Okay, cake speeds up the process of me liking them more. Homemade cake is always the best type of cake. They could see my eyes light up with excitement. They all smile. They moved their chairs to face me and we all share cake together. Our other classmates would ask some cake as well.

“Wow! This is very tasty!” I say with a smile right after filling up my mouth with this lovely masterpiece.

Terrence put his thumb on my lip to clean off the crumbs. “Girl, if you’ve never had Flora’s cake, you’re missing out. Her family runs Flora’s Bakeshop. The one right across school?”

“Wait! So that bakeshop was named after you Flora???” I look at her with surprise. “I love the blueberry muffins there! Oh my god.”

“Giiiiirrl, they barely follow Flora’s original recipe.” Terrence says with excitement.

“Flora, why dont you bake us the original Blueberry muffins?” Anna says with a grin.

“Pay for the ingredients. You guys know the drill.” Flora said with her arms on her hips.

“Business minded as always.” Leslie jokes.

I smile as I enjoy this morning snack with them. It’s been a while since I’ve had this kind of interaction with my classmates. In a way, this feels more genuine.

“Hey, the only reason we have cake today is because Anna begged me to bake her a cake. Vivian, tell me, is cake a great friendship offering or is it not effective?”

That question caught me off guard. Did they plan this out for me? Was this cake their way of cheering me up after what happened? I put my hand over my mouth and look to the side. Test the water before diving in.

“Only if there’s blueberry muffins involved.” I say playfully.

“The girl speaks her mind!” Terrence cheers. “Very cheeky I might add. I like that.” He grins playfully.

“Only if you’re willing to pitch in.” Flora puts her hand out for a handshake.

I grab her hand. “If this was a business venture, I’m all for it.” I say softly.

Maybe it’s time I try to make friends. Even if it’s going to be short lived.

Deon

Keith dragged me to the canteen and made me sit down. He went and bought our snacks and sat between Jason and me.

“If our canteen sold coffee, I would have gotten you that. Here, have the next best thing, soda.” He put a can in front of me and looks me in the eyes.

Jason rubbed his neck while looking at me. “You should drink water instead… Too much sugar is bad for your health.”

“Bruh.” Keith scoffed. “He clearly lacks sleep. Look at them eyebags. Are you even fit to study man? You look like you could pass out any second.”

My hand meets my face again for another stressed out facepalm. At least his intentions are sincere. I let out a deep groan. “I wish I could relax. There’s too much going on.”

Keith opens the can for me. “Let it out man. You and Sarah have one thing in common. Both of you never talk about your problems. We’re your bros dude. We’re here for you. If you keep hiding your problems, or rejecting our help, you’ll only be pushing us away.” He puts it in front of me. “Now, drink and pour your heart out to the loves of your life.”

He bursts out into laughter while looking at my face. My eyebrows furrowed and my mouth distorted as if I was looking at the most disgusting thing in my life. I was judging him intensely.

“You are a dumbass, Keith. Please know that.”

He laughs at me. “My god, man. I was joking about the last part. I don’t want to sound like one of those assholes promoting alcoholism. Damnit, I was trying to loosen up your mood.”

The fool gives me a playful smack on my back. “I hate you sometimes… Well, more so lately.” I said, keeping my voice low so nobody else would hear. I didn’t want gossip to spread. “The incident with Sarah’s bag put me in a lot of pressure. Mayor Bravura wants me to watch over her now, and he also wants the incident investigated. With all of you being assholes to Vivian, it’s no surprise that someone with an innate grudge against Sarah would take advantage of the situation and use Vivian as a scapegoat.” I look down and ruffle my hair, remembering the anxiety of what Sarah could do to me for being out of line. “And then there’s Sarah fricking Bravura herself, stressing me out so much. I just want the days wherein all I’d be thinking about is making sure my grades are at the top and wondering if the dailies for the mmo I’m playing has reset.”

Jason and Keith look at me all puzzled. “Is there something going on between you and Sarah?” Keith asked curiously.

I just realized that I spoke too much. “Ah… no. It’s not like that… She’s the queen of our high school. She doesn’t have to be the queen of the grades as well…” I look away as I lied through my teeth.

“No. You’re lying. The way you said it was as if there’s more to it than just grades.”

My hand covers my eyes as I look down, frowning. My thumb and index finger rub the bridge of my nose. “I called Sarah out on her bullshit. She doesn’t seem happy about it.”

“Oh damn, I thought you two were starting to go out.” Keith laughed. “You’re going through a lot, man.” He crossed his arms. “Hey! How about we investigate the situation with her bag? Maybe she’ll get off your back if we find answers.”

That’s not a horrible idea. It’s going to be more work on my side, but at least we’re going to try to figure this thing out. What if the criminal figures out that we’re sticking our noses into their business? That’s going to be the pain in the ass of a lifetime. “Let’s keep this investigation to ourselves and not let anyone else find out until we have solid evidence.”

Jason looks excited. He’s a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes books. Although he rarely reads books, he eats up so many mystery, detective themed movies that it’s pretty obvious he wants to become an investigator himself. This is great practice for him. “We have your back, Deon.”

He says reassuringly.

I smile, knowing that I can trust these two to help me figure out the truth. “Alright, recess is almost over. Let’s hurry up and finish our snacks then go.” Keith says with the biggest grin.

“Yeah, dont forget to apologize to Vivian for being an ass.”

“Whaat?”

My hand grips his shoulder as I give him a firm look.

“Deon with more backbone. I’m liking where puberty is taking you m’dude. Fine, I’ll apologize to her.”

Jesus these two are just too much sometimes. I never realized that they do have my back whenever I have problems. I thought our friendship was solely because we grew up together and got used to being around each other so much that it’s just hard to not hang out for lunch, recess, after school or even in our online games.

Keeping things to myself and suffering on my own was the habit I picked up growing up. My parents taught me to confide in my family more than my friends because they come and go. Family stays no matter what. Who knows if the guys will stay in touch once we hit college, especially if they go to different schools than me? For now, I should take their kindness and enjoy my last months as a senior. Who would expect the quiet kid to be tossed in this shitstorm of a rabbit hole.