Chapter 38
Natalie's POV
“Tricia!.. Definitely her!” Ariana piped out the second I finished narrating the incident to her. I looked at her and shrugged. Sure, her intuitions were hardly ever wrong... It's still hard to take her on her word sometimes. We had given the stuff we found to Maggie because she said she had a friend who was a pharmacist and could help us identify the rest of the drugs used. She promised to get back to us tomorrow.
“How do you know that? You've only been in school for two days?” I said back, staring at her as she brushed her hair.
“Come on... That girl can never be clean. Have you seen the way she stared at me in class? Like she wants to murder me but can't because she knows I'll kill her too.” She said and folded her hands.
I chuckled then sobered up quickly.
“But why would she do that? There are other ways to attract a guy's attention rather than drugging them up.” I muttered.
“Hmm, I don't know... I can't think of any ideas.” Ariana answered.
“It's something we have to figure out ourselves. Too bad we can't ask about the history of Lucy and Tricia... That might lead us somewhere, you know?”
“I guess so... You know what? Let's drop that topic. I'm beginning to get bored already.” She said and put her chin on her hands, staring at me. I rolled my eyes.
“Soo... What happened? You were alone with Xavier, weren't you?” She prodded.
“Seriously Ari...” I drawled. “What if I was alone with Xavier? What did you expect to happen?”
“I don't know... A kiss? Cuddle? Anything!”
“Apart from a pillow fight, nothing else happened,” I said. Ariana looked at me, stunned.
“Are you being serious right now? Only a pillow fight??”
“Yeah... What did you expect to happen??” I shot back.
“Are you kidding me!?” Then she stood up and brought a pillow with her. “Well guess what, girlfriend? We are about to have our very own pillow fight!” Then without hesitating hit me with the pillow. I flinched and went to the bed to take mine as well, hitting with it as well. We chased ourselves in the rooms until someone knocked on the door, that's when we stopped.
“Come in....” I called out. The person peeked through. It was Jace.
“Hi, Jace. What's up?”
“Um hi, girls.” He greeted I walked into the room, looking at the mess we made. “We are having grilled chicken downstairs. Care to join?” He asked.
Ariana glanced at me, grinning.
“No, of course not. We'll be down in a minute.” I said, and he nodded. Ariana was just staring at him then puckered her brows, as if seeing something strange.
“Sorry, Jace... But is that a lipstick stain on your shirt?” She outrightly asked. I stared at her, shocked. Jace just shrugged. “Maybe?” He said and left the room. I hurriedly went to close the door behind him. Then turned to Ariana, who was busy pouting.
“Seriously? You seriously had to ask that?”
“What? It's a lipstick stain..... Besides, I thought your brother was going to wait till I finished school!” I scoffed and folded my hands.
”Having you as a best friend is already enough trouble. In law? That's not happening!” I finalized. She giggled.
“In your dreams...” she muttered.
”You know what? Maybe I should just lock you up here and go have grilled chicken.” I said and left the room.
“Hey! Wait for me!....”
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(Next morning)
”To think we are going to find a suspicious movement from Tricia today... That's a bummer.” Ariana whispered after glancing at Tricia for the hundredth time. She seemed pretty natural just sitting there as she'll never hurt a fly.
“Give it time... If she knows we are looking at her like that, she might get suspicious of us,” I muttered in reply.
“She had better... Cause she's about to go down!” Ariana muttered fiercely, making the teacher glance at us. She mumbled sorry and continued with her work. Soon the bell for the end of the period rang, and we left the class.
“Which class is next?” Ariana asked while we walked down the hallway.
“Biology,” I answered.
“I hate biology... Why don't we skip it?” I stopped and turned towards her.
“This isn't Middesville where we can skip classes for fun. I'm trying to get good grades here.”
”Whatever....” she muttered and froze, looking ahead of me, eyes widened.
“What?” I asked.
“Natalie..... You might want to turn.” She replied. I stared at her and did as I was told, only to see Xavier standing behind me.
“Hi...”
. ”Hi...” We both said at the same time. We stopped and chuckled.
“Hello!!” someone called out behind me. Of course, it was Ariana.
“Hi..... I haven't seen you here before..” Xavier muttered slowly. Ariana nodded.
“That's because I'm new here..... Natalie invited me here. It's so cool to finally meet you!” She squeaked. “I'd love to give you a hug, but someone would be against that.” She said while staring at me. I looked away.
“So... You're the guy that stole my best friend's....”
“Okay... That's enough.” I said as I clasped my hands in Ari's mouth. “Xavier? We'll talk later. Now's not the time. See you later.” I said and dragged her away. She managed to get my hands for her mouth.
“Yeah... We'll talk later, handsome!” Ariana yelled. Xavier just stared at me quizzically. I shrugged and pulled Ariana along.
“Damn... He's hot!” Ariana muttered. I raised my brows as I glared at her. “She sobered up.
“Sorry... Miss boring.”
”That's better. Now can we go to class?”
“Whatever.....” she mumbled.
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During lunchtime, Xander came to see us. We were all seated at our usual table when he excused. I was supposed to go alone, but somehow Ariana managed to tag along. Mira said it was fine since Darren would call her up sooner or later. When we got to a quiet and less crowded area in the hall, he stopped.
“Why'd you call us here? I asked after a while. He rubbed his hands together as if nervous.
“I wanted to ask you something.” He said.
“Hmm mm?”
”The drugs we found..... Do they have any side effects of any sort?.. On people with schizophrenia?”
“And what's that?” I asked. Ariana glanced at me and offered to explain.
“It's a kind of mental disorder. People with it often have illusions about things that aren't real.” She said.
“And how do you know that?” I asked Ari,
“Remember the time I spent an entire summer with one of my aunts I told you usually acted strangely. The doctor diagnosed that as the problem. It's usually not that serious if taken care of... Properly, that is. "
“Wait... Why'd you ask that... Does Lucy have...” Xander nodded, confirming my sentiment.
“Wait... And you dated her?” Ariana asked.
“I thought it was cute....” Xander muttered.
“No way! I don't know about you, but Xander deserves the boyfriend of the year award.” Ariana said and clapped her hands together, giggling. “They are really hard to be with and sometimes you just have to play along.”
“Ari... Did you by any chance use any of her pills because ever since you returned, you've been acting pretty strange?” I said and folded my hands.
“You know? I did... Thought they were birth control pills. But then I remembered that she was never married so there was no way she could get pregnant. Why do all these pills have the same bottles?”.
Xander pursed his lips as if trying hard not to laugh.
“Seriously? Birth control pills??”
"Just at the back of her house were some hot dudes, and I used to sneak out at night to go their parties. I needed to be safe, you know.”
“I knew there was a catch,” I muttered.
“Anyway, there are little or no sides effect, depending on the mental health of the person at the time. So don't worry, your handsome self, we don't want wrinkles on that face.” She said and bopped her head to one side. Xander nodded. “I won't.” He promised.
“I knew you won't. I have to go now... See you later,” she said and slowly stepped back, not looking at where she was going.
“Next time you visit, I'm going to have to check,” I said, as she walked away.
“Oh, you don't have to. My disorder is caused by being surrounded by handsome boys and bitchy girls... Buh bye!” I grimaced and turned to Xander. He was chuckling silently.
“Hey don't laugh! It's not funny!” I scolded.
“Is she always like that?” He asked. I shrugged.
“No... She's worse.” I said as a matter of fact. Xander raised his brows.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
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Ariana and I were in the locker room, stashing our books in it. Mira had gone earlier, giving us time to talk a bit before going home.
“But I don't just get it. Why would Tricia do something like that if she knows Lucy's condition?” Ariana spoke up.
“Maybe she didn't...” I suggested. Besides, we don't know if it's Tricia.”
“Come on, who else would do that, you?” She taunted.
“I would... But I wasn't in this school two years ago.” I said back. She shrugged.
“This is taking way longer than I thought... We should have figured something out by now.” Ariana muttered.
“We will if we keep searching,” I said and closed the locker. On our way out we were stopped by Bella. She was alone, by the way.
“Good afternoon. You're in our way.” I said carefully, checking if the rest of the girls were around here. She chuckled and scoffed. Ariana and I glanced at each other.
“It's okay... I'm alone and I wanted to talk to you guys.”
“You wanted to talk to us?? About what?” Ariana asked.
“It's nothing serious... Just felt you should know. I take you've been researching on what might have happened between the brothers two years ago.” She offered.
“Yes... And how do you know that?” I asked carefully again.
“I've seen the way you've been staring at Tricia today in class. Frankly, I don't think you'll get anything that way.”
“Really?”
“Easy... I know Tricia more than the rest of you.” Well, I won't deny that.
“So what it is you want to tell me... Or us I mean?” She stared at us as if she could trust us. Once satisfied, She opened her mouth to say something. My breathing hitched.
“Tricia is Lucy's stepsister.” She blurted out. Ariana gawped. “No way!” She muttered.
“Yes, way..... She is.”