When Chantelle gets ahold of Granger's death, she goes insane. So obviously she goes to our Year Eleven group chat which was once for innocent enquiries and now for gossip.

fucking hell granger's DEAD??

is like death spreading over dugray or something

wtf? how?

apparently he died in his car after school.

check the news he was on there last night

this is so freaky why do people keep dying?

apparently he was having an affair.

you're kidding. he never shuts up about his wife

My breath catches in my throat. An affair. That has to link to Eden in some way.

who was he having the affair with?

Thank God Jacob doesn't have a tactful bone in his body and is excused when he just says stuff like that.

no clue. must've been someone who didn't mind that awful beard

I snort. Granger's beard is something we all make fun of. The first two two and a half years of our school lives he was clean shaven, maybe even kind of attractive if you were into the waistcoat-and-suit-wearing-History-teacher-nerd thing. But when we returned from Lockdown he had grown a beard. A really awful beard that sprouted giggles and mean comments that were mainly behind his back.

imagine if he was shagging a student

life isn't a tv show jake

just saying it's possible

that's actually really disgusting. not only would he be cheating on his wife which is awful and she deserves better if so but he'd also be taking advantage of a vulnerable minor which is so NOT ok.

I smile. You can always count on Inez to destroy romanticised tropes you see on TV and in the media with a pretty smile and a carefully structured argument.

slay <3

and if you're so desperate for info ask someone who's actually in school today, they're probably dealing with it there like they did when mrs challen died.

Mrs Challen dying shocked our little school world back in July. A heart attack on the weekend, quick and sudden and unexpected. The whole school cried because she really was a nice teacher and a nice person and you couldn't go to Dugray without knowing who she was.

Right on cue, there's a Teams message from Mrs Roberts. I skim read it, my heart racing. It's similar to all the stuff about Josh, a notice about his death and how the school has already offered its condolences to Mrs Granger. The circumstances of the death are currently unknown and just like with the Josh Hartley case, we are to stay firmly out of it.

There's a knock on the door just as I finish reading.

"I'll get it!" Dave yells.

He thinks I'm revising, not reading all the gossip on my dead teacher. And I was revising until Chantelle texted about Granger. Well, I was trying to.

"Eve, get down here!" His voice isn't angry, it's almost scarily calm.

There are police officers standing in the front hallway. My heart is pounding so loud I'm sure everyone in the room can hear it.

"We're here in relation to the death of Mr Marvin Granger," Diane Matthews states, also terrifyingly calm. How can she be so goddamn calm? It's not natural. "Can you tell me where you were yesterday?"