Page 99 of Driftwood Daffodil

When I just stared at him and didn’t say anything, Atlee held up his hand and said, “Don’t worry, I’ve only got one camera left to plant.”

“Camera?”

He nodded.

I threw my thumb at the wall, “you put cameras in there.”

He nodded again, “Yeah.”

As much as I’d love to give him shit, it was actually kind of genius. We might be able to find out if Veda saw anything without going through her sister.

“Do they have sound?”

“I’m not an amateur,” he snorted.

“Well,” I slapped my hand on his back, “let’s go get the last one planted then.”

NOVALEE

The next morning when I woke up, I decided to put all the disturbing occurrences behind me.Allof the disturbing occurrences. Especially ‘the event that shall not be named’. I needed to embrace the new normal day, because normal was exactly what it was going to be. If I had to kill someone to make sure that happened, then so be.

I had a bat somewhere in the truck. There may be a few chunks missing–I vaguely remembered trying to play baseball with a gator–but it was still perfectly usable. A little sharper maybe. If anything that would work to my advantage. Were the cops really going to believe someone when they said they were stabbed with a bat. Don’t think so.

Thankfully, whatever weird mood that enveloped St Agatha’s yesterday, was gone when I arrived. I was tripped twice on my way to my locker and someone called me trailer trash. Personally I thought they could’ve come up with something more original, but I’d tae it.

Plus, I didn’t have to dig around for my trusty bat. I wasn’t entirely sure what was in the back of my truck, but I think I heard something moving around the other day.

“Watch where you’re going, whore,” some guy growled when I bumped into him.

Ah, it was good to be back on the bottom rung.

Wait…

He called me whore. My neck twisted as my eyes zeroed in on the brunette head walking down the hall. Could this guy be the mispeller? Nothing really stood out about him, other than a small birthmark on the base of his neck.

Making a mental note of my new suspect, I turned back around and opened my locker. It took a few tried to remember the lock’s combination, an action that I blamed entirely on Gio. My mind wasn’t exactly running regularly. Then again, it could be from lack of sleep – which was also his fault. Gio plagued my school days, I’d be damned if I was going to let him invade my dreams too.

“Should’ve bit his tongue off,” I grumbled while stuffing books in my bag.

“You don’t have Advanced Chem today.”

That comment caused me to damn near jump out of my skin. When did Memphis get here?

“How do you know my schedule?” It took everything I had not to curl my lip at the sparkle in his bright eyes. How did he wake up so happy every day?

“I know all your schedules. By the way, your period is due in eight days.”

Ha, showed how much he knew. “I got the shot. So, no period for me for three months.”

“No, your last shot is almost up,” he leaned over to rest his shoulder on the locker next to mine. “You have an appointment to get your next one on Monday.”

Damn. “You scare me sometimes.”

His shoulders lifted in a small shrug, “You’d be lost without me.”

I really would. Memphis was the only person who stood a chance of organizing my chaos.

“So,” he sang. “How’d it go yesterday?”

---