Grace | Before
I pretend not to notice Tristan trying to get my attention during the assembly. He's sitting right behind me to my annoyance and kicking my chair gently every now and then, trying to get a reaction. I'm tempted to nudge Max and whisper that Tristan's irritating me knowing he'll go all protective. Big brother mode as Kaci would laugh. But knowing that he'll do that causes a warm feeling in my chest, one I cling to desperately.
"No we can't." I begin walking away fast towards Physics.
"Grace, come on," he protests, following me. "I need to talk to someone. I feel like I'm going insane."
"Get in line."
My shoes clatter as I jog up the stairs towards the classroom, towards Ms Fields who makes us sit in silence for the first five minutes as we do the starter activity and the register. Suddenly, Physics seems welcoming compared to talking to Tristan. Bu
Max | AfterSeven minutes isn't much, but it's enough. I've already wasted three in switching my school uniform for a T-shirt and jeans. I drop down onto the floor myself and pry up the floorboard with a red stripe on it. It's hardly noticeable since Carlos the neat freak hasn't, well, freaked about it. I pull out my video camera, set it to record and start talking."This is week two of Max being a lunatic," I announce. "Can you believe I thought I could do this shit every single damn day? I mean, I have a life, you know. Unbelievable, but true. I have a life and I can't talk to someone who doesn't exist every single day.""It's been an okay week. I mean, okay as it can be. Grace is still dead and I'm still here and life is still mean."I talk fast about my last week, starting with the assembly. Grace's portrait, Officer Davidson, Tristan, Vivienne, Dr Summers and her grief counsell
Violet | After"That was interesting," Kaci remarks as we slip out of the Boys' Wing and up the stairs to our room."It was," I agree. "This is much more interesting than I thought England would be.""Rosewood might just be an anomaly. It rains here a lot, much more than it should so south.""What do you mean?" I ask, turning the corner."Well, the further south you go in the UK, the better weather you get," she explains, opening our door. "That's why Wales is so great. But up in Scotland, you have the mountains and it's so beautiful all the time so don't put off going there.""My parents live near Scotland. They sent me an address last week for our next break. Don't think I'll go though.""Why not?" she asks."We aren't exactly on the best terms right now. Stuff happened and let's just s
Max | After"Utterly unacceptable!" Mrs Elliot almost shouts angrily.I haven't been listening much until this point, basically just drowning her out by singing songs loudly in my head but this snaps me back to reality."We will find them," Keely says. "Ali's doing some tech thing to check the printers."I glance towards Ali who's sitting in the corner with a laptop. The sticker of the Rosewood crest— a rose with a raven in the middle— in the top right corner marks it as Rosewood property. His dark eyes are still tired like they were during breakfast, less than halfway through his cup of coffee. All of us are tired, not just me who got up at an ungodly hour to have a murder squad meeting in a graveyard. Elliot pulled us out of breakfast to Zoe's annoyance. Unless you're Mrs Elliot, you can't interrupt Zoe's breakfast and get away with it."This
Violet | AfterI'm sitting on my bed with wet hair hanging down and my sketchbook balanced on my lap. I finished all my homework before my shower and since I have an Art lesson tomorrow, I may as well brush up on my skills. I flick past the sketches of graveyards and ghosts and boys in football jerseys and girls in Harvard hoodies that I did on the plane and after getting out of Everly to a fresh page."Well, we're basically done finding the suspects," she tells me, flopping down on her bed. "Me and Carlos talked to people, hacked into his Mum's Insta and found alibis for every teacher and student not at the party except one.""Who?" I question. "And did you say you hacked into his mom's Instagram?""His mum was friends with Mrs Elliot when they went to school and she follows Elliot's private account so Carlos logged into hers and found a post from the night Grace died. She was at the ann
Max | AfterI'm sitting with Davidson again, in a science lab this time because they're closer to the changing rooms. I'm already in my football kit since I always change in our dorm instead of taking my clothes to the changing room. The officer hasn't changed at all. Same haircut, same clean shaven face, same questioning techniques. Just a small follow up, he promised."Some of my guys went north to the Covey House," he tells me. "We found this in her room, still in the Amazon box. It arrived on the day she died."He pushes a plastic evidence bag across the smooth tabletop towards me. I pull it towards myself with my index finger. Inside is a book— And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I remember mentioning to Grace I wanted to read it just before Carlos said that he wanted to watch the TV adaptation. Grace told him that he didn't have a Kindle to make his shelf look pretty.<
Violet | AfterThe bell tinkles above me as I enter Robinson's Art. Sitting at the front counter is a young woman in her late twenties with long, blonde braids and a magazine. She looks up when I enter and hastily shoves the magazine under the counter."Hi," she calls. "I'm Anna. Here to help you with all your arty needs. Need help with anything specific?""I'm just going to look around if that's okay?""Sure," she answers, shrugging. "It's pretty quiet today.""Everyone's excited about this soccer match up at the school," I tell her, making my way to a shelf displaying sketchbooks."Everyone's excited about this soccer match up at the school," I tell her, making my way to a shelf displaying sketchbooks.Anna laughs. "Rosewood always gets excited about football. Are you American?""I am.
Grace | BeforeIt's cold tonight. I've started wearing shoes to these little excursions, and a hoodie over my pyjamas, but the winter chill still gets to me. Rosewood always becomes freezing during the winter and about one hundred years ago (alright, less than one hundred, but who cares?) they didn't even have radiators in here. They only installed them in the late fifties when a kid almost died of frostbite. I hoist myself onto the roof and look around for Tristan. Oddly, he's not here. He's always here before me."Nice to finally meet you face to face, Grace Covey," a voice says further down the roof.I turn to see a man, tall and lean standing on the roof as easily as you can on a pavement. He wears a black shirt, black jeans, black boots and a silver belt. His hair matches, black with threads of silver weaving in every now and then. His eyes are a weird colour— black with a silver tinge to them.&nbs
Max | AfterThis wasn't planned. When a message from Darren lit up my phone screen just as Kaci gave the news of Zeph being alright, I didn't give it another thought. I left and met up with Darren and Keely before I could start overthinking and begin to spiral."Where are we going?" I ask as we walk, holding the silver flask Darren gave me tight."We're going to Thorn Meadow," Keely answers. "And that's for drinking, you know."I awkwardly twist the cap off the flask and take a sip of whatever is inside. It's oddly sweet. I take another sip and follow them, beginning to enjoy the taste. "It's good.""Right?" Darren says, taking a sharp turn. "Sit, Maximus.""Don't call me that." My head feels light already, but I sit anyway. "Why did you call me here? To drink this magical drink, sure, but why else?"Keely shrugs. "It's