Murder Is A Debate

The bell rang, causing Nora’s nerves to twitch. Students eagerly jumped from their seats and rushed for the door. She took a breath and rummaged through her bag, letting everyone get a head start. The more people who left, the fewer she’d have to make small talk with.

“Hey, Nora, you ready for the debate tomorrow?” Of course. It had to be Stacey who waited for her. She was always trying to fish for news and drama. The girl lived off it.

“As ready as I always am.” It was the standard reply. The same one she gave to Stacey every week. It was a wonder the girl even bothered at this point. Nora scooped up her book bag and headed for the door, keeping her head low. Less eye contact equals less chat time. That’s what Charlie told her at their last Thursday meeting anyway. Nora hoped she was right. She needed to shake Stacey, pronto.

Her attempts were futile. Though she struggled and was a little winded, Stacey managed to keep up with Nora. “You going to practice today?”

Caught off guard by the question, she stumbled but managed to catch herself as she swiveled around to face Stacey. “What practice? It’s Thursday.” This cannot be happening. It can’t. Not today.

“Yeah…” Stacey drawled, her eyes filling with concern. As Vice President, Nora should have been the first to know of a change. This time she had obviously slipped. “Didn’t you get the group message?” As she asked, Stacey pulled out her phone. “You’re in it.” To emphasize that she wasn’t lying, she held the phone out in front of Nora.

Aggravated, Nora gets her phone out of her bag. How could she have missed something like that? A message was splayed across the screen, but not the one Stacey was referring to.

Can’t wait to see what creepy ass clues you come up with this time.

Nora’s pulse quickened, and she shoved the phone back into her bag. “Must have missed it,” she said dismissively. Stacey stood close as Nora began spinning the lock on her locker door. Stacey’s eyes were trained on her with skepticism. Nora shoved her books inside with a little too much force. How was she going to get out of the debate meeting? No way was she going to miss an MM meeting. It was her turn to set the scene.

Stacey leaned up against the locker and started examining her cuticles. “Personally, I think we should cut Brittany from the lineup. I mean, come on, she has an A-minus average. She flopped at our last debate.”

Nora’s shoulders tensed as Stacey’s condescending tone rolled over her skin. No wonder she had chosen her as the victim last time. “I think she’s pretty good.” Her remark was flat, her mind too occupied to come up with a believable excuse. Brittany wasn’t a bad team member, none of them were. If they were, they wouldn’t be ranked number one in the state.

At most schools, the debate club might not be important, but it was everything to their school. Northeast Pinewood Academy was known for many things, but its debate team was what many would consider the All Stars, especially if a debate member was also in volleyball, tennis, or golf. If someone was an athlete and on the debate team, they were a hot item.

Nora was not a hot item. She felt more like the debate team’s sympathetic project. Ever since her sister’s incident three years ago, nothing had been the same. Everyone’s forced attempts to include her was so notable it made her sick. Never mind the fact that without her they would have lost their match last week. Yeah, let’s treat her like the outsider.

“Whatever,” was Stacey’s response to Nora sticking up for Brittany. Typical Stacey response. “I’ve got to swing by my locker before heading to the auditorium. Want to walk with?”

Nora shoved her Algebra I book into her bag, her palms clammy. Her heart raced as she opened her mouth then shut it again. Sweat built on her brow and upper lip. This is stupid. Just tell her no. What’s she going to do?

“Actually, I can’t. I didn’t know about the meeting and I’ve already made other plans.” Nora’s voice wavered but she maintained her resolve with the decision. As expected, Stacey’s eyes went wide. Nora never skipped a debate meeting.

“You mean you’re skipping practice. Seriously?”

Irritation crawled all over Nora. It shouldn’t, but it did. It wasn’t like she was asking for a whole lot. She was missing a practice, one practice. In the last two years, Nora had never missed a single practice, debate, or meeting. Not once. It shouldn’t be as big of a deal as Stacey was making it out to be.

“Seriously,” she snapped. “And if you or anyone else has a problem with that, I can sit out Saturday.” The blood drained from Stacey’s face. She knew what kind of hit the team would take if Nora didn’t compete. They’d get slaughtered.

After giving Stacey her best fake smile, Nora turned on her heel and headed for the main exit. She felt lighter, almost free. She’d confronted people in her life, sure, but it was usually people she didn’t know or someone online. Debates she could handle in person or online, but standing up for herself was a rarity.

As she hurried down the hall, she dug out her phone. “Crap,” she mumbled and shoved the phone back into her pocket. She was going to be late.

A low whistle caught her attention right before she spotted them. Leaned up against their lockers were Reed Benson and Kyle Austin, two of the only students at the academy who could care less about their grades yet continue to get a full ride scholarship.

“Surprised you have something like that in you, Fletcher.” Kyle smirked. “Didn’t think being rude was in your nature.”

Nora tightened her grip on the backpack straps to hide the fear tensing her body. Something about Kyle had always given her the creeps. Reed only seemed to follow along with him because there was no one else at the school who would give him the time of day when he transferred three years ago. She’d never seen them together outside school.

“You’d be surprised what people are capable of,” she remarked, pleased she was able to keep the quiver out of her voice. Kyle laughed, making chills break out across her skin. Reed said nothing. As she rounded the corner toward the exit, she glanced back over her shoulder. Reed’s eyes met hers for the briefest of seconds before he disappeared out of view. It didn’t matter. She got the challenge in his eyes loud and clear. He was calling her bluff.

Nora’s head swam from all the excitement as she pushed through the main entrance. With a greedy gasp, she sucked in the sweet, crisp air. Six months ago, she would never have talked to anyone like she just had Stacey or Kyle. Had she been confronted back then, she would have kept her mouth shut and tucked tail.

Maybe Liv and Charlie were right. Maybe the Murder Club was changing them.

~

“You’re late,” Liv said before shoving another Dorito in her mouth.

Nora slid into the chair across from her. “I don’t want to hear it. You have no idea what I went through to get here.” Okay, it wasn’t all that dramatic. It’s not like she got into a real fight or anything, but still. It wasn’t a walk through the park, skip over the bridge, and grab a bag of chips at the corner store experience like they had on their walk over.

“Is our prep getting overwhelmed?” Charlie made sad puppy eyes at Nora before snagging another Dorito from Liv. Nora followed her lead and snatched one of her own. The cheesy flavor sent waves of comfort that she needed.

“I thought we were over this crap. I’m not your prep and you’re not my home girls. We are just people with common interests, status aside.” Nora prepped and pushed this mantra since first meeting the girls six months ago. Before that day, she never thought to hang out with two girls from the west side of town, let alone to solve fake murders with them.

They’d all met online, where status and appearance were nothing. People were hateful, nice, complimentary, or spiteful depending on their mood and a person’s cause. Someone’s status in society means nothing online. Nora knew that, which was why when Liv asked if she wanted to meet up in person once she discovered Nora was a local, she froze. Online Nora was like the rest of the people on Murder Chat. They were there to solve murders and create the next one. It was a lot like D&D, but with dead bodies and crime scene clues. The more someone chatted and solved, the more popular they became. Nora had become quite popular. Her solved crime rate was one of the highest in the group. Then Liv reached out to her. She wanted to take the debate offline and get more active. She wanted to meet in person, which meant Nora showing who she really was and having a dozen panic attacks before coming to that first fateful meeting at the library.

Charlie took another chip, to which Liv stuck out her tongue. The two went to school together at Center Valley High, where the football team was a solid two and the art department was shut down due to funding.

“The formal is next week. You want to hit the strip mall with us after this?” Charlie’s bright hazel eyes peered at Nora with excitement and a drop of hope. The last time she’d invited Nora over to her house, three weeks ago, she’d tucked in her shell, mumbled an excuse, and hit the ground running. It wasn’t that Charlie’s mom’s homemade salsa and tortillas sounded horrible, they sounded rather amazing; it was the prospect of having to hang out with them outside their meetings.

Again, Nora started to give a roundabout excuse, but stopped. If she was ever going to conquer life and become the FBI agent she hoped to be, she was going to have to start picking up on some social cues. She struggled with it, but she knew a moment when it presented itself. This was a moment, one she didn’t need to pass up no matter how badly it terrified her.

“Sure, sounds fun.” Once she said it, she was surprised to learn it didn’t feel like a lie. A little excitement was actually starting to build. She couldn’t remember the last time she went shopping offline.

Tossing the empty Doritos bag aside, Liv scooted up closer to the table. Her green eyes, framed by beautiful red hair, looked at Nora with anticipation. “What do we have this week, detective?”

Nora smiled. Now that the small talk was over, it was time to get down to business. Dragging out her flashcards, she settled down into her chair while Liv and Nora poised their pens over their notebooks, ready to take notes. Nora’s nerves flared, as they always did right before she was about to present her crime scene.

“Jackson Ash, seventeen-year-old male.” She paused and glanced down at her notes. The description she’d written last night was for Gary, the head captain on the debate team. Her victims were always from the debate team. Gary, with his perfect caramel complexion and accusing brown eyes, had called her out in front of the team yesterday for being thirty seconds late. Thirty seconds. Excuse a girl for starting her period. Case and point being, when she got home last night, still fuming over the incident and needing to write out the crime scene, she had easily chosen him. Problem was, it was a pattern they were sure to pick up on and question her about. Was she out to murder everyone on her team? Maybe, but for the sake of fun, she decided she needed to shake things up a bit. A new face appeared, and she hastily changed the description as she read it out loud.

“Light brown hair, five-eight, small build. He was found floating face down in the lake. There are laceration marks on his forehead, neck, and back. Autopsy reports indicate he died due to blunt force trauma, not drowning.”

Liv looked up from her notes, her face now pinched and serious. It always got intense as they absorbed all the facts. “Dang. Dude took a beating.”

Nora thought back to Kyle standing in the hallway today, a smirk on his face. Sometimes, the best way to let off some steam was to murder someone. Even if it was only pretend.

“Thought I would get a little more creative,” she said with a shrug. “Gun shots and knife wounds were getting a little old.”

Liv considered this. “True. So now we’re going for blunt force trauma. Got it.” Her pencil scratched across her paper, hard and fast.

“Suspects?” Charlie asked, her own pencil poised and ready. A thrill rushed through Nora. This was the best part.

She knew she was going to have to make some adjustments to accommodate the change in victims, but for the most part she kept the details the same. “Three suspects. David Evergreen, age eighteen, was last seen with the victim an hour before his cell lost signal. Sarah Pine, age twenty-one, was last seen arguing with the victim outside the 7-Eleven on Main Street. Last, Hazel Oak, seventeen, student at Eastside Cedar. Texts were discovered of her threatening the victim, with promises of torture before death.”

Charlie slapped her hand on the table. “I choose her. It’s obvious.”

“You always go for the obvious ones,” Liv argued. “I want to hear about the witnesses.”

Nora smiled. Liv always wanted to hear about the witnesses. They were her first suspects. “Wes Maple stated he saw the victim leaving his home at 9:45 pm, which, according to the autopsy reports, was two hours before time of death. Wes stated Jackson was alone when he left his home.” Nora flipped her notes over. “Mrs. Birch was the one to report the argument between Jackson and Sarah Pine. She stated Sarah looked rather rattled and tailed Jackson once he pulled out of the gas station.”

“Evidence?” Liv prompted.

Nora smiled and handed over the file she’d made up. “You’ll find everything you need to know in here.”

Liv returned the smile, full of anticipation.