Chapter 1
I didn’t mean to kill him! It was an accident, he was just so annoying, and everyone helped! So, I accidentally killed him. Cleo was the person who helped the most. They hated him as much as I did! But let me start from the beginning…I was just walking down the hall when I saw Cleo and Daisy, two of my best friends, they loved talking about anything like gossip but they didn’t spread it. Cleo was nonbinary so they basically were both genders and used they/them and Daisy was a female and used she/her and sometimes I forgot Daisy was bisexual, I mean when you looked at her she looked straight, acted straight, and even talked straight but she was into girls and boys which was cool! Cleo was the person who half of the school hated and half of the school loved, they loved making art and they sadly shared their band hour with Nate Rehman, the one who we accidentally killed, Cleo hated him a lot especially since he was basically dating Cleo’s 8th grader child, yep you heard me, 8th grade. Cleo wanted to hurt him as much as I did but I wasn’t the one getting suspended for fighting him and cutting most of his hair off, I mean I thought they went too far with that but then again, he’s dating an 8th grader. He’s literally a tenth grader! But Daisy, she was everyone’s friend but would normally tell us what she figured out about the people we knew since 8th grade, we didn’t take her for a gossiper but she didn’t spread the business around but she only told us which was okay with me. But those two were my best friends but on with the story! “Hey guys.” I said to the two as I opened my locker, luckily our lockers were right next to each other, “Hey Lemon.” Cleo answered “Hey Hailey!” Daisy said “So did I miss anything yesterday?” I asked as Cleo’s eyes drifted to Nate Rehman passing us “Not yet…Not yet…” Daisy said, making Cleo snap out of their trance. “Um…Cleo? Did I miss anything?” I asked again, “Oh yeah, you missed two quizzes from Coach Bird and Mrs. Leslie.” Cleo answered again, drifting their attention to someone else “Are you serious?!” I panicked “Yep. Sorry.” Cleo said “Oh yeah and we have an art project from Mrs. Pandas! Don’t worry we were paired together!” Daisy reassured me “Sadly Cleo was paired up with Nate for a band project.” Daisy teased “Oh shut up! He literally begged Mr. Albany to pair up with me.” Cleo argued, I could hear the anger in their voice getting riled up so Daisy and I of course had to calm them down. “Come on just do all of it and tell Mr. Albany you did all of it! It’s easy!. I said, knowing I planted the idea in Cleo’s head “Yea! Take all the credit!” Daisy agreed, looking at Cleo as their face rested “Yeah! I can do that!.” Cleo said yet I smelled something, it was disgusting…it was Joseph. He came up to greet Cleo, as he was basically dating their best friend “Hey Annagail!” he said, Cleo got angry again and screamed at him “I’M CLEO DUMB ASS!” “What?” Joseph said “I’m Cleo. I’m not Annagail, that’s my deadname, I don’t use that anymore.” Cleo said, angry “No. You use Annagail, it’s your name.” Joseph argued. I started to get mad, Joseph never cared for people’s preferred names, besides his significant other. “Listen dude. They use They/Them and They use either Cleo or Elliot. Not Annagail. That Person never existed.” I argued as I wanted to punch this man in the face, “Oh sureee.” Joseph mocked, rolling his eyes “...I’m about to get detention.” I said, as I punched him across the face, bashed his head against the floor and kicked him in the privates. I’m not letting someone use my friend’s deadname like that, especially when they argue about it, I’m definitely not allowing that; I got up and walked to class as Cleo and Daisy followed me. We were talking in class as the intercom said, “May I have Hailey Lemoine to the Office?” “Um She’ll be right there!” Mr. Oliver answered, signaling me to go; I already knew what I did but went to the office anyway. Mr. Pennier and Joseph were already in there and I sat down in the chair next to Joseph as Mr. Pennier asked, “So what happened?” “She went crazy! I didn’t even do anything!” Joseph accused. “That’s a full on lie. He used Cleo’s deadname, which as you know Mr. P, they don’t use anymore. He then argued about it with me and Cleo as we both explained that Cleo doesn’t use their deadname anymore.” I argued back. Mr. P was…let’s just say protective when it comes to people’s preferred pronouns and names, so obviously I didn’t get detention but Joseph did instead and after that I just walked back to class, not before I saw Kaci Jones and Nate Rehman being sent to the office. Cleo and Daisy were sitting down as they looked at each other then at me, “Did you get in trouble.” Cleo asked, well more like demanded, “Nope. Joseph got in trouble.” I answered. Daisy and Cleo basically told me what just happened with Nate and Kaci, “Nate basically argued about how amazing Cleo was with Kaci for a full hour before it got physical. Nate slapped Kaci and Kaci stabbed him in the arm with a pencil!” Daisy said “Bro is a literal simp. He still thinks that I like him as a friend and has a chance.” Cleo said, I laughed at Cleo’s statement and then the bell rang so Cleo went to Biology and me and Daisy went to Art. Mrs. Pandas. It was boring in there but Mrs. Pandas let us go to other classes with our friends in it, all the teachers did, so me and Daisy went to Cleo’s class, “Hey Cleo!” I said as a horrible scent entered my nose “EWWW! You’re dissecting frogs!?” Daisy screamed as Mr. Jean stared at us “You and Daisy borrow a mask and goggles, they help with the smell.” he answered. Cleo looked annoyed, we realized that Aiden Franovitch was their partner and was basically yelling at Cleo so we obviously went over there and asked to help Cleo and Mr. Jean being Cleo’s uncle said yes so Aiden had to move to Shelby and Mckenna’s station. “Thank god.” Cleo said “You’re welcome for saving you my good sir/ma’am!” Daisy said in a posh voice; I also said you are welcome and helped them until we had two minutes left so we left and said goodbye to Cleo and Mr. Jean. That is where I’ll leave off today. But I’ll tell you more tomorrow.
