By Cyra Rahman, TIWP Student

Aurelia

I am sitting in the church’s pews, almost asleep. I pull my phone out of my purse and turn on some random kpop song. My purse is annoyingly big, I thought it would be smaller. Well, at least I can put a lot of random stuff in it and I even lose stuff. I have gum, my phone, a watch, some hair ties, post its and pencils (who knows anymore?), my wallet, tissues and a Swiss knife, plus who knows what. Astrid, the annoying show-off from my class, is here, sitting in the front left pew. Probably asleep.

Genevieve

Aurelia and Astrid went off to the Nave of this church. Scarlett is playing on her phone, and Willow is in the bathroom. Scarlett is a complete goldfish and is very naive and oblivious. Apparently George Roberts found that cute because he confessed to her earlier today. I am honestly jealous of her. Is it bad to be jealous of your best friend? She is optimistic and gregarious, and like five boys have a crush on her. Sometimes, I just pretend to be happy around her, it is hard to keep up with her bouncy personality and constant energy. I pull my hood over my head, the color a dreary gray. I take almost no care in my appearance, just a big jacket and jeans. Scarlett is photogenic and also just in general always manages to look nice, no matter what she wears, but she wears nice clothes all the time because her family is a rich prominent old family that has been around forever. They came from England a long time ago, and have lived here since, for centuries. She has everything I don’t.

I moved her in 4th grade, barely able to say hello in English, 3 years ago. My parents are poor because Grandma Lucy and Granddad disapproved of my parents even marrying and then leaving France.

Scarlett

I sit, playing crosswords on my phone. Genevieve leans against the wall, chewing gum and spacing out. She is always kind of aloof and far away now. I wonder if something happened, or if I did something bad. She is always kind of snappy with me, since around October. I walk over to her. “Hi Genevieve!” I say. “Hi Scarlett,” she says, sounding tired and annoyed. Maybe she hasn’t gotten enough sleep recently, does she have insomnia? Willow comes back from her infamously long bathroom breaks. “Hey Willy!” I say, breaking into a laugh. Back in 6th grade, when we met, a teacher called her Will O, not Willow. Since then, it’s been a private joke where I call her Willy or Will. I see Genevieve out of the corner of my eye glare at Willow then look down, turning on her Apple watch. “Hi Scarlett! Isn’t Mrs McCathy just so strict? Like seriously, I got ten percent off the notebook check for not putting the date and page numbers,” she whines. I have Mrs McCathy, as well, at a different period, but she is nice and has a dark sense of humor. She is funny, sometimes you take a moment to notice she makes a joke. Genevieve looks upset, maybe something happened at home.

Astrid

I walk to the bathroom, but get lost in the hallway to the bathrooms. I see the choir room, for practicing. I go in, curious. A person in a black hoodie sits in a chair. Was anyone wearing a black hoodie today? I know Genevieve had that heathered thin gray one, but everyone else is not wearing jackets. It is pretty hot, even in the air conditioned church. They quickly turn their head and see me, then dart into the hallway that is accessed through the choir room. My sensible part of me is saying “Don’t chase them! Don’t be stupid! Go and find the freaking bathroom!” But a little oppressed voice says, “Ooh adventure! Let’s chase this guy! They are definitely suspicious!” Who to listen to?

Aurelia

I chew some gum as I mindlessly scroll through mostly trashy YouTube shorts. Some of them are exceedingly high on the dumb-o-meter. Like one channel is just hungry for views, likes and subscribers. Probably a broke 10-year-old. Stuff like “Like if you think this {Picture of a Pomeranian} is cute!” “Subscribe if you have a house!” “Subscribe if you think this {pinterest picture of steak} looks delicious!” It is absolute trash. They only have like ten real videos and like two hundred, ten second shorts. I drink from my water bottle. I tie my coat around my waist. I hear a scream, and duck down between the seats, covering my head with my hands.

Astrid

Possibly rather stupidly, I give chase. I dart into the secret hallway, my rainbow leg warmers making me trip as they slip over my shoes. I go down with a yell, grabbing for something to stop me from falling. They are gone by the time I push myself back onto my feet and are ready to pursue them. My blue shirt is dirty, and my white Lululemon shorts are showing brown marks. I pull my hair clip out, and shake my head to let my hair down. And walk away, to get back to the main room. Someone pushes me over from behind, and hisses “Don’t mention this to anyone!” I gasp the air out of my lungs. They yank my headband out, and run away. I have no idea where they are, because my face is pressed to the ground. My curls get messed up and dirty on the ground. I barely peel my face off the ground for long enough to scream, then fall to the ground, losing consciousness.

Scarlett and Willow

We walk together. Scarlett’s school uniform skirt swishes around her legs. Willow deliberately kicks her legs out to make her steps sound like horses clopping. Willow tears the hair ties out of her hair, shaking it out of its bun. Her hair falls down her back. We walked to the main room. Willow asks about Astrid’s whereabouts. “I have no idea,” Genevieve states.

Scarlett

I leave Willy, going to find Astro by myself. I have nicknames for almost everyone. Willow is Willy, Astrid is Astro, Genevieve is Vivi, Aurelia is Lia. I hear a scream. I raced to the choir room. I see Astrid lying on the floor, limp and her limbs splayed out, a bag of goldfish spilled on the floor a few feet away from her. My uniform collared button up shirt is uncomfortably thin, and I pull my blazer over my torso. My tie is askew. My slippers are tight across my feet, and I begin to sweat. “A-a-Astrid…?” I stutter. My long hair against my chest suddenly is itchy and starts to bother me. She exhibits no response, seemingly unconscious. I feel stress and fear. Her left hand is curled in a fist. I see on her right hand her long fake nails she got yesterday, still shiny new, with a gleam. I would have loved to have Willow or Vivi here to reassure me that this isn’t real. My back straightens automatically, like when my teacher walks by me doing an assignment. I see her blond roots, starting to grow in after she dyed her hair blue last year.

Aurelia

I turn on the lights as I head to the bathroom, illuminating the hall. My hair swishes in my face. The baggy sleeves on my tee shirt stick to my arms. I see a person in all black out of the corner of my eye. I yelp at them, surprising me. They run at me. I don’t see their face, they wear a mouth mask and sunglasses. And you can’t identify a person by their nose and eyebrows, obviously. They grab my shirt and pull me towards them. “Hello Aurelia,” they say in a low but velvety voice, a female voice. She reached their hand up and slapped me, then punched me in the stomach. I scream and go down swinging, trying to slap and hit her legs. I managed to kick her legs out from under her. She doesn’t make a sound, but falls down. Her hood has slipped back, revealing jet black lustrous hair. She laughs darkly. She gracefully gets to her feet. I clamber up clumsily. She readjusts her hood and yanks my hair, holding me by it as I fall to my knees easily. I am Aurelia Julius, and I do not give up even if I am on a stupid diet and don’t eat enough real food. I rise up, a fire burning inside me, egging me on, preparing me to fight. I try to punch her in the nose, but she dodges. She crouches down and then I throw a folder in her face, the papers spilling out and distracting her. She gasps, but jumps to her feet and quickly shoves me, making me fall to the ground with a pathetic thud. I am lying on my stomach. She puts her foot on my back, not putting much weight on it, but when I try to get up she keeps me down. I lose consciousness, the last thing I hear is her sinister laugh and saying, “I win, Aurelia Julius.”

Astrid

I get up, all alone. I run out to the entry, and get into the outside area. I ran up the path. I escape into the driveway. My leg warmers make me trip multiple times. By the time I am near the exit of the parking lot, I am panting for air and clutching my chest. I can escape, there are plenty of places near here! There’s a Starbucks, 7-Eleven and Subway not far away. I can eat dinner out here. I retie my shoes, and I tried to escape to Starbucks. I hear footsteps behind me and whip around. The jacket guy is less than six feet away. I scream, turn around and bolt for the road. I heard his feet pounding against the ground, but they stopped, as soon as I left the parking way. He has stopped at the end of the property. It seems he will not or can’t leave. I smile slightly to myself, then make a run for it. I barely could lug myself to Starbucks after the halfway point. I definitely should have joined the after school Phys Ed class. My shorts expose most of my legs, and they are very cold, and it starts to become hard to walk.

I barely have any remaining money. I only have thirty dollars left. I brought fifty yesterday, but I may or may not have bought some of Luciana Mayberry’s overpriced slimes, and the school lunch. Seriously, I got two slimes for ten dollars, and they started to melt by the time I got on the bus. Where am I supposed to go, to sleep and eat?

I can buy a drink here and go to Subway to eat, I guess. Wait, can’t I text Mrs Robinson to come pick me up. She is my neighbor and mom and dad are on a trip so she is taking care of me. Starbucks always has wifi. I text her that I’m at the Starbucks near the church. Thirty minutes later, she picks me up and takes me to her house.

Astrid has survived.

Scarlett

Astrid and Aurelia have disappeared. I wonder why everyone’s nerves are a wreck. Even Willy is panicking. Astrid has been leaving her stuff everywhere. I saw her hair clip in the choir room, and a bag of goldfish that I think belongs to her. I saw that red hairband she brought with her dumped near the bathroom. I turn around and see that Willow is gone. Where did she go? I swear, although mom says I shouldn’t swear like Uncle Robby does, Willow was here 1 minute ago. It was 6:32. I check my watch, 6:47? How did I space out that long, who knows where Willow went?

Willow

Scarlett has spaced out and even though I waved my hand in her face, and talked to her, she was unresponsive. Eventually, I left to go to the bathroom. I am washing my hands and hear banging on the window. I freak out and look up, a person wearing a black hooded jacket is there, creepily standing still. I scream and run backwards, but slam into the wall. I try to open the door but it won’t budge. Tears start to roll down my face, and I curl into a ball on the floor, pathetically. I hear the window start to open, and I gasp, turning my head slowly. I see the person sitting on the window, feet on the sides of the sink. “Hello?” I say. They seem surprised.

They say to me in a low voice “Willow. How nice to see you, again.”

The voice is familiar, one I can not forget, even though I’ve tried. It is truly her, back for revenge.

Aurelia

I wake up, my head is aching. That jerk must’ve knocked me out when I found her. I stumble to my feet and look around.

Willow

How can she come back, she was supposed to be gone. She was supposed to be living with Aunt Rita in Alabama. Why is she here now? Nova should have stayed away. How dare that brat come back here?