• A silence fell over the group of students, chilling the atmosphere to a dead space. The air suddenly filled with the excited breaths of the teenagers, the crouching silence building up the tension through the group. Eyes darted, between each other, their faces becoming eminent with a burning, wild sensation beating quietly between them. Fingers started to drum, falsely starting the billowing energy, resulting in glares between one another. The clocks ticking suddenly came into hearing range, as if their minds were too bundled up with contently chaotic fantasies to notice their immediate surroundings. The ticking noises irked and startled the group with each precise sound, calming the fierce energy that had almost billowed over the edge a few moments ago. Antagonized, the group’s breath began to fall into boredom again, as the longing burst of news, that would send them all into fleeting screams of excitement and exaggeration, was nowhere to be seen. A whisper smashed the ever long silence, releasing the room of a curse, which left in sighs of disappointment. However, a sudden rattle of the door was heard, as the students were startled and remained paralyzed, as mutters could be heard under a breath.
    The door swung open, causing some students to almost jump out of their seats. A man, no older than 30, with shaggy bleached blonde hair entered the room. His face tanned from the days he spends simply surfing. His expression, however, was far from the hopes of the students, who were leaning on the edges of their seats, waiting to hear the blissful news.

    “Shelby Harrison is dead. Her body was found in a ditch in the edge of town, by the train tracks. Police have yet to identify the killer,”

    A rush of gasps swept through the students, as they looked at an empty seat in the front in disbelief, while others just simply sat there with desolate eyes, still processing the fatal news. A girl sitting next to the empty seat burst into tears, as other girls came to comfort her. Her words became muddled in tears, as she tried to say something, but the only thing that came out were high-pitched mutters of childish of grammar and parts of words. Students in the back got up to see the girl that burst into tears, trying to calm her down at the sudden turn of events. However, some students just stared at the teacher in an unconcerned and seemingly heartless way.

    “... And ... School is dismissed. Enjoy your spring break,”

    The teacher finally sighed, a handful of students dashed past the crowd of concerned students besieging the girl who broke into tears, who was now burying her face into her arms. While making a dash to the door, a few of the students knocked over the girls, causing a small world of chaos. Time seem to slow down, as a boy looked over his shoulder of the girl he just stampeded into, his speed to fast to slow down in the narrow doorway. The girl glared at him, while others in front of her turned to see what had pushed them over. A few were pushed into the crying girl who fell onto the floor. In a rush of events, that only took less than a few seconds to play out, half of the girls dashed into the halls to go kick the boys ‘heartless’ asses, the teacher had left to go stop the running in the halls, and the crying girl was on the floor next to the empty desk. The remaining group of comforters, cooed the girl if she was alright, offering their hands to her. But she shook her head solemnly, her tears dried up suddenly. She looked up, offering a solemn smile, which calmly shocked the group; she shook her head again, this time seemingly to herself. She finally held her head down, and spoke with a wither in her voice

    “She died because of me. I should of saved her”

    In the events that followed, the group left the room, shaken up from what they had just heard. A few were talking to their friends, informing the student body of what had happened, others talked to each other, wondering if they should report what the girl had said, weighing the friendship and pity between the law. The girl stayed in the classroom, simply clutching the leg of the desk, and muttering jumbled sentences of how she was the worst, and how she could have saved ‘her’. A few students came into the classroom, friends of the dead and crying girl. They offered their comfort, some of them even silently crying themselves. The atmosphere of the room began to decline again, the excitement leaving with the last of the group of girls leaving with the girl who broke down. She walked silently, her legs moving stiffly as her eyes were outlined with a sunken look, tears still slipped down her face, as the others left the now silent school. She looked back at the empting school, the last of the stragglers coming out of Robert E. Willet high school, destined to a week full of chaos and parties. Her sunken eyes turned into a sorrowful happiness, as she knew a secret. Silence fell in the group, slowly walking away from the high school. A few blocks went by, and then came the intersection of Anderson and Hudson, leading to the Canary apartments. The girl stopped, and turned down Hudson but, suddenly turned back to the group after a few steps apart, and a few breaths of sighs.

    “Good bye. Thank you”

    The group was suspiciously startled by the sudden response to what they had done. A few of them muttered ‘you’re welcome’ as the girl smiled and started her way to the apartments a few meters away. However, the girl wasn’t saying ‘thank you’ for the comfort from the group; she was saying ‘thank you’ for something that will be guessed by friends for years to come. Maybe she said ‘thank you’ for knowing them, maybe she said ‘thank you’ for living with her in her untimely life never traveled outside of the town, maybe she said ‘thank you’ just because she wouldn’t see them next Monday. That would be the last anyone has ever heard of Tina Heartland. Found dead in a ditch not far from where Shelby Harrison was found, similar wound marks in the stomach area and a silver chain necklace found around her neck.

    No killer identified.