Chapter 174 – Dark Logic – Silver Brooks

This was turning out to be a disastrous week. Everything began with the announcement of a new, temporary vice principal taking Ms. Sampson’s place. At first, the girls of the student council thought this would be a good thing since their workload would be reduced. That would turn out to be horribly, horribly wrong.

Instead of giving the student council less work to handle, they ended up with more. Mrs. Patton, the stand-in vice principal, formerly worked at another special education facility in the same district. The school board chose her because she was a humorless golem of an administrator.

Simply saying that she was strict would be selling her short. She was utterly tyrannical and mad with power after the school board bestowed some emergency privileges on her position. This was the type of woman that looked down on ‘delinquent’ teenagers and was practically disgusted by everyone she saw around her.

Needless to say, this wasn’t a healthy person to have in charge of the school. Her first action upon the morning of her first day was to schedule a mandatory uniform check-up. Members of the regular teaching staff tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t hear otherwise from anyone.

Normally uniform standards were lax, and the teachers tried telling her that it was for the best. To her, all the students shortening their skirts and wearing heavy makeup were degenerate. She told these other teachers that they were bad at their jobs for allowing such casual debauchery to go unpunished.

Unsurprisingly she wasn’t winning any friends amongst the students, staff, or the student council. She wanted to repurpose Val’s Student Corrections Authority, but that went nowhere. Val categorically refused Mrs. Patton’s every request to the point that Mrs. Patton suspended her as an office assistant.

An impromptu student council meeting was called during study hall on Wednesday, and I was allowed to attend beside Sam. Sam hated this new vice principal more than anyone. Her casino event was shut down. Mrs. Patton thought our group wasn’t worthy of a clubroom and wanted to revamp the club system to shut out groups like ours.

That’s why this unusual student council meeting was called, not by Val, not by the student council representatives present in the room, but by an organic student mob that formed in the library, demanding that the student council curb this new vice principal’s behavior.

“She gave me afterschool detention when I refused to take off my fake nails!” Megan said, displaying her long nails in mention, “I’ve got things to do after school! No way in hell am I attending that!”

“Me either!” Another girl spoke up. “She gave my entire club after school detention for using school equipment without permission. That equipment was gathering dust for years before we unboxed it! Why did she have to come snooping around anyways?”

“Don’t worry about the whole detention thing.” Val said. “I’ve been talking with the principal about this. He agrees that Mrs. Patton handed the slips out too liberally. The teacher that normally handles detention duty conveniently won’t be available for the next few days.”

A lot of the tension and frustration drained out of the room upon hearing Val’s good news. The library was uncomfortably crowded at the moment. All the tables were full of student council representatives from each homeroom class, with the student council sitting up front. The surrounding space was filled by random students that came in to witness and testify.

“Why doesn’t he just fire her?” One of the student council reps asked. “I mean, he is principal. He should have the final word here.”

Val gestured at Lilith to answer this one.

“He can’t... She was elected by the district school board, which is over his head.” Lilith explained. “The good news is that she’s only a temporary annoyance. They’ll choose someone permanent eventually.”

Sam scoffed unhappily.

“Eventually…” Sam repeated drearily. “Eventually can’t come soon enough.”

Riley, who was grossly playing with her bubble gum by stretching it out with her hand nodded at this.

“I don’t always agree with her, but Sam’s right.” Riley said, pulling her bubble gum back in, “The school has come too far to see everything undone by a single angry cat lady.”

Val gave Riley an unamused look for the unnecessary insult but didn’t disagree.

“I tried asking her for a private meeting…” Val said. “She wouldn’t see me.”

“She doesn’t listen to anyone.” Jay said. “She thinks everyone is beneath her. That includes the other teachers.”

“I never thought I’d find myself actually missing Ms. Sampson.” Zoe said with a sour chuckle. “She’s a menace, but she’s our menace.”

A few of the girls laughed at that. Alison Yale remained completely stony-faced.

“You know, things would be better if we had Holly here to help us.” Alison said over the laughter. “If anyone could reach her, it would be Holly Hayfield. Holly is good at getting the things she wants. I’m jealous of her specialty in that area.”

“Holly’s still sick.” Alyssa said, trying to raise her voice loud enough to be heard across the room. “She says she’ll be back soon.”

“Does she have the flu?” Someone asked. “She’s been gone all week. How soon is soon?”

“Let’s not focus on that.” Val said. “Instead, let’s talk about some ideas to deal with this ourselves. Firstly, I…”

Val went on, but my attention was diverted away when someone on the side waved me down. I moved away from the front of the forum arrangement to go over to them.

“Psst! Silver!” Tia whispered. “Britt wants to see you.”

“Is she here now?” I asked, scanning the crowd.

“No, follow me. I’ll take you to her.”

Tia and I walked through the school in awkward silence. We shared a couple of classes together, but I barely knew her. I expected that Tia might lead me to a classroom that they were using as a base, but that never happened. Instead, she ended up leading me outside.

We walked far from the school’s main building, out to a remote section of the woods surrounding the school. The place she brought me to was so obscure that I never even heard of it before. There was a designated picnic area this far from the school? Since when…?

There were six large wooden picnic tables in a clearing, a small brick restroom building, an area for outdoor grilling and food preparation, and a water faucet and sink, along with a few other camping amenities. Brittney’s gang members were eating, chatting, lounging, playing on their phones, or eyeing me suspiciously as I approached.

“Silver!” Brittney called out to me, waving me down. “Over here!”

Brittney was sitting atop one of the tables, with a few of her friends occupying the seats around her. Candace was the only one that I immediately recognized. She was purposefully looking away as I approached. What was that about?

“Thanks Tia. Why don’t you grab a drink for Silver since she’s our guest?”

“There’s no need.” I said. “I’ll have to return to the meeting soon.”

“How’s that meeting going, by the way?” Brittney asked. “We weren’t the only ones pissed off at the new taskmaster. Thank God... With this many people unhappy something is bound to catch fire.”

“It isn’t going well. Everyone wants Holly back to solve it.”

“Holly…” Candace muttered quietly, still refusing to face me. “I need to talk to her too. Of all the times for her to come down with something…”

“I assume you’re out here because of the vice principal then?” I asked.

“Yes. She doesn’t recognize our group as a ‘club’, even though we went through the trouble of doing all that paperwork. What a pain in the ass.” Brittney complained. “That’s not why I dragged you out here. Our conversation will take place somewhere more private. Come with me… You too, Candace.”

The three of us walked a significant distance away from the rest of the group. Brittney brought us all the way to a random part of the school fence. I leaned my forehead against at and glanced side-to-side. It was overwhelming just how expansive this thing was, considering the scale of the property it encompassed. This was a relic of a bygone era.

My idle thoughts were interrupted by Candace pulling me by the collar of my uniform and pinning me against the fencing behind me. There was a notable lack of strength in her grasp. This maneuver was for emphasis only. She stared down at me with a narrowed glare.

“You held onto information about Leigha’s murder this entire time and didn’t tell a single soul?” She asked.

“Brittney told you…?”

“Of course I did.” Brittney said unrepentantly. “She was the person closest to Leigha. She deserved to know.”

“I want to know why, Silver. Why didn’t you tell anyone else?”

“Because a notorious killer was breathing down my neck, watching me from the shadows? Because my presence at that warehouse party was already questionable to begin with. Because my mother was scared out of her mind by the time I returned home! Take your pick.”

I bit my lip before adding the next part.

“And because Leigha wasn’t innocent. The Killing Cat did save me, even if she went overboard. I questioned her personally about that, and she remained stone-cold in her resolve.”

The anger in Candace’s eyes eased up and was fully replaced by sorrow and resentment. This obviously wasn’t what she wanted to hear but it needed to be said.

“You talked to her?” Candace asked.

“I talked to her.” I admitted. “At first, I feared her, and worried that she might kill me if I told the truth to anyone. But eventually I came to understand her. You could say I gained some insight into her philosophy. She’d never kill me on a personal vendetta like that. That’s not part of her ideology.”

Candace winced at every other word. I understood. My explanation sounded better in my mind. This was far from a condemnation of the Killing Cat. In truth, I had some personal stock in the Killing Cat’s mission by now. Maybe that said something about me ever since meeting with her…

“Let her go, Candace.” Brittney said unemotionally.

Candace thought about it for a moment, struggling to make the final decision herself. She let me go in the end but didn’t stand back much. She clearly wanted me to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.

“Is this why you called me here?” I asked Brittney. “So that I might give you peace of mind…? I’m sorry that I can’t... Everything I said to you before is as true today as it was then.”

“Candace needed to hear it from you herself. And honestly…” She paused thoughtfully before going on, “Honestly, I thought about what you said. It was at least partly my fault. We shouldn’t have been there that night. If we weren’t, then maybe…”

Candace looked at Brittney in surprise. She wasn’t expecting such an admission of guilt. Brittney just gave Candace a heartfelt look in return.

“She’d be alive if it never happened.” Brittney said to Candace, before turning back to me. “That’s why I want things between us to end. There’s no sense in letting another person die over old grudges. I’ll never forgive the Killing Cat, but I can learn to live with your stupid girlfriends.”

I smiled weakly.

“That’s a start, at least.”

Brittney grimaced painfully and stared down at the ground.

“It shouldn’t have taken Leigha’s sacrifice for us to learn this.” She said beneath her breath.

Candace turned away angrily from us and started to walk away. She stopped suddenly when she got about ten feet away from me and then turned back.

“Tell me that the Killing Cat is done here.” Candace demanded. “Tell me that she isn’t going to descend from the shadows somewhere and take another one of my friends away.”

“I don’t think she will.” I said. “You’ve seen a glimpse of her dark logic now. She got what she wanted from us in the end. Peace between our groups…”

This evidently didn’t make Candace feel any better because she stomped back towards me and Brittney overdramatically.

“That’s it?! That’s why she took away someone’s life?!”

“That’s it.” I said flatly. “It’s no secret that she’s avenging a girl that was murdered at our age by people that treated her harshly. This behavior is in line with who the Killing Cat is.”

I looked between Brittney and Candace speculatively. The two of them were at a loss for words in response.

“You two didn’t believe in Val’s dream that day she gave her big speech, did you?” I asked.

They both studied me, perhaps trying to work out where I was coming from.

“I mean, neither of you are particularly fond of Valentina herself.” I said. “You even ran against her alongside Megan if my memory serves me correctly. Not only that, but I know your group had just as many run ins with the SCA as our group did. You didn’t believe in Val’s dream.”

“Your point being…?” Candace asked impatiently. “You’re saying we should’ve known better because of Val’s flowery speech?”

“My point is that there was someone present that day that took Val’s words to heart and used them as her manifesto.”

Their eyes widened as they stared at me in momentary silence.

“You mean to say that the Killing Cat was among us that day…” Brittney asked. “Even now…?”

Candace crossed her arms and gave me a serious look.

“People always suspected that she was a student here.” Candace said. “But you have real proof?”

I nodded.

“You weren’t the only ones struck by the Killing Cat. She’s visited our group too, back when Perri was trying to take over and make her own group. I asked the Killing Cat for a non-violent solution to bring my people together. Do you know what her solution was…? She burned down the discipline hall.”

“That was her?!” Brittney asked.

“That wasn’t all she did in the name of the school’s future.” I said. “That’s who the Killing Cat is. We need to learn to move on together so that nothing like this happens in the future.”

Brittney and Candace thought about this in silence for nearly a full minute. The silence was interrupted when Brittney reached out to me and took me by the hand.

“I believe you.” Brittney said firmly. “Let’s go into that meeting together, if it’s still happening. Afterwards, I want to talk to Sam about settling this for our underclassmen. As much as I don’t like it, I’m willing to look past everything.”

I held onto her hand tightly and nodded.

“Thank you for hearing me out.” I said. “We have a lot to discuss.”