by Milda Harris
"Yes, actually," I started, thinking rapidly. "I just needed to get some notes from her. I spilled pop all over mine and I know she has the same class."
Mrs. Walker considered this, "You know, you should stay awhile. You girls haven't hung out in ages and you were such good friends. I'll make a pizza."
I froze. I didn't want to disappoint Mrs. Walker, but I doubted Ariel was going to want me to stay the thirty minutes it took to make a pizza. Ariel probably wouldn't want me to stay the length of time it took to make a bag of microwave popcorn, which on my microwave was three minutes. I had it down to a science.
"Ariel!" Mrs. Walker called before I could think of a way to dissuade her from making the pizza, "Ariel! There's a friend here to see you!"
"What, Mom?" Ariel screamed from her room up the stairs.
I heard Ariel's bedroom door open and then listened to her heavy barefoot footfalls as she walked to the top of the stairs. I had a clear view of Ariel as she froze there, in shock at seeing me in her house. We stared at each other.
"It's Kait, Kait Lenox!" Mrs. Walker said, as if she had to clarify this to Ariel, who I've gone to school with and known since forever, "Isn't it nice that she came over?"
Ariel declined to reply and instead walked down the stairs slowly, as if she was trying to give herself time to figure out what in the world I might be doing at her house. By the time she made it to the bottom of the stairs, Ariel had a deep frown on her face. She was definitely thinking something.
Ariel put on a fake smile for her mom, "Yeah, it's great. We're going to go talk in my room, Mom. Okay?"
"Great! I'll make that pizza," Mrs. Walker said, running off to the kitchen before Ariel could try and dissuade her. She seemed so happy. Both of us just looked after her helplessly.
"Ariel," I said, as soon as her mom seemed out of earshot.
"Let's talk upstairs," Ariel said and motioned me to follow her to her bedroom. "My mom will totally eavesdrop if we talk down here."
As much as I hated to admit it, I knew Ariel was right. Her mom was so excited that I was over at their house that she'd be dying to find out what we were talking about. She probably had this misplaced idea that maybe I was there to make up with Ariel. I was sorry to disappoint her. If that was ever going to happen, Ariel would have to make up with me. And, just to use the cliché saying because in this case it was probably true - it would be a cold day in hell if that ever happened.
Besides, if Ariel was going to flip out on me and throw me out, I'd rather her do it out of earshot of Mrs. Walker. I was kind of glad Mrs. Walker still liked me, even if Ariel didn't. They really had been a second family to me for a long time when we were friends. Then when I lost Ariel's friendship, I lost them too.
I was in Ariel's bedroom for the first time in just over two years. It was amazing how much it had changed. When we were friends, her walls had been decorated with pictures of us and ripped out pictures of celebrities from our favorite movies and television shows. Now, all of the posters were gone. Her room had become more adult with white bare walls with red trim and a pop art looking painting of a sky of hearts on one of the blank walls of the room. The only traces of the old Ariel I knew were on her makeup table and her mess of a closet - full of trendy up-to-date clothes. She had always been all about being a girly girl and loved fashion and makeup. I should have seen the popular girl high school train coming from a long ways away, but I had thought our friendship could survive anything. It had survived junior high intact, after all. Still, I was wrong. High school was a whole different animal.
Ariel shut the door and turned to me, seriously, as soon as the lock had clicked into place, "I'm dating Troy. You have Ethan. End of story."
It took me a second to follow her train of thought. Ariel thought I wanted to talk about Troy and dating him again. The one and only time I had dated Troy, I had been helping clear him as a murder suspect in Ethan's half sister's murder. The date, unbeknownst to Troy and Ariel, had been a ruse to get information out of him. Troy was pretty cute and maybe if I wasn't dating Ethan, I'd go out with him again, but I would never in a million years try and steal a guy away from a girl. Even if that girl was Ariel. It just wasn't my style. I believed in true love and I wasn't going to be the reason someone else broke up.
"This isn't about Troy," I said, simply.
"It's not?" Ariel looked confused. "Then what do you want?"
"I wanted to ask you about Madison Brown," I said.
"What? Why?" Ariel looked suspicious. "Are you trying to get into her funeral or something?"
"No," I shook my head, "It's not about funeral crashing. You seemed like you were her friend and I just wanted to know a little bit about her."
"Are you going to her funeral?" Ariel asked flatly.
I was honest, "Probably. I genuinely want to know about her, though. I'm not trying to exploit her. I mean, does that really seem like something I'd do? You know me, Ariel, even if we aren't friends. I know you remember all the sleepovers we had and the best friend bracelets and stuff, you know who I am. I genuinely want to know about Madison. I swear."
"But why?" Ariel asked again. "There has to be some kind of angle. I mean, you showed up at my house and talked to my mom. That's crazy."
"I know," I said. I thought fast. Should I be honest with Ariel? Or not? I felt weary about it. The last time I had been honest, Ariel had told the whole school about how I crashed funerals. From then on, I was a graveyard girl. Not a good nickname for a high school girl if you ever wanted to have a social life, even a small one.
The funeral crashing started about a month after my mom's funeral. I was still really struggling and I happened to catch the obituary section of my dad's newspaper. Yes, he still got the real paper. He was old school and liked the idea of the real thing. I started reading them and found myself fascinated that so many people died. I mean, it made sense, but I never really thought about it until it happened to my mom. People died all the time, of course, but until then it hadn't happened to someone I knew. Then I saw there was a wake being held that night, just after I got out of school. So, I decided to go. The people there would know how I felt. I wouldn't be alone.
It was the best decision I ever made. The deceased name was Jacob Viola. That's right. That's how I met Leonora. Her husband's funeral was the first one I crashed, although we didn't talk too much that night. I was sort of out of it when I went. It immediately brought back memories of my mom. Some people started talking to me and I had no idea about any of the rules to not getting caught funeral crashing and said I was a relative when someone asked how I knew the deceased. They assumed I was a granddaughter and brought me over to say hi to grandma. Except, Leonora didn't know me. That's when Ariel swooped in and saved me, even though she didn't know that's what she was doing. I had made a fateful mistake. It turned out Leonora was Ariel's great aunt and Jacob was her great uncle.
Ariel claimed me as her friend and then took me off to the outside back of the funeral home to talk. At first, Ariel, very typically, thought it was all about her. She thought I had stalked her to her great uncle's funeral. That was so not true. I wouldn't have come if I'd known Ariel would be there. We weren't friends anymore and she made fun of me every chance she got. Still, I, in a moment of weakness, admitted that I was funeral crashing. I tried to explain how alone I felt and why, but Ariel must not have heard me continue on after my grimly shocking revelation. Thus, Ariel found out the one thing that I would have definitely kept a secret if I had taken the time to think about it and hadn't been in a really vulnerable state of mind.
I trusted Ariel and of course, she took the opportunity to blab it to the rest of the universe known as our high school. I guess it would have been a totally awful night if I didn't run into Leonora as I was trying to get out of there, away from Ariel and her freaking out about my weirdness and wondering how we had ever been friends. Leonora had stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. I was crying and she stopped to ask me what was wrong and then we co
nnected despite the vast age difference. Leonora started telling me about Jacob and I started telling her about my mom and it was like kismet. It's the one thing I really love about funerals, the sharing of stories and the remembering of loved ones who were gone. It created a bond between Leonora and I, although I made sure she never told Ariel about it. Leonora, at least, could keep a secret.
I hesitated a little longer as I thought about if I could tell Ariel the truth about investigating Madison's murder. I knew Ariel and deep down a part of her still had to be the same girl with whom I had grown up. When we were kids, Ariel and I really were the best of friends. I had one memory when Ariel had this favorite toy. We were about five. It was this doll that Ariel always carried around. For some reason, I took a fancy to it and asked her if I could borrow the doll. Her name was Miranda. Ariel freaked out and burst into tears, but after her mom calmed her down, Ariel let me borrow the doll because I was her best friend. It was only for a day, but still. Her mom didn't force her. She wanted to lend it to me to be nice because I was her friend. That had to still be there, somewhere inside of Ariel.
I took a deep breath and then just said it. Maybe it was foolish, but a part of me hoped that Ariel had grown as a person in the last year and wouldn't just announce my plans to the whole school so that she had some ammunition with which to make fun of me, "I'm investigating Madison's death. I want to find out who murdered her."
"What?" Ariel looked at me in shock. "Are you crazy? You almost died like a week ago and now you want to go chasing after some murderer again?"
I was shocked into silence. She and Ethan had the same reaction to my investigating this murder. That was weird, right? They should in no way be on the same wavelength. Ever.
"Yeah," I said finally.
"Why?" Ariel asked, frowning at me.
I thought about this for a moment. "I just feel like her parents and the people who loved her deserve some answers. They should know who did this to her and why, so they can be caught, charged with murder, and go to jail. If my mom's cancer could have been locked away in prison, I'd feel much better, but all I can do about that is donate to Ovarian Cancer Research and try to do Cancer walks. I'm totally for both of those and I do think they really help the cause, but at least with Madison, I can personally dig around and see if I can find anything out. Maybe I can help her family and friends deal with what happened."
Ariel looked at me like I was insane, "But that's the police's job."
"Yeah, I know," I nodded. "And, they're great at it, but if I happen to find something out, it's not going to hurt. And, I'll tell them all about it. I swear. I'm not dying to get shot again or anything."
"Wow," Ariel said, "I never thought I'd say this, but you should just stick to funeral crashing."
I shrugged. Ariel was probably right, but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to find out what happened to Madison and who was it going to hurt if I did a little asking around about her friends and enemies? If I didn't find anything out, nobody would even know and if I did find something, I'd go straight to the police. I, in no way wanted to put myself in danger again. I had learned more about hospitals in the last week than I cared to know.
Ariel sighed, "But you're not going to, are you? I just don't get you, Kait. You can be so totally smart, but sometimes you just throw it away on the wrong things."
That's where Ariel didn't understand me and it was the crux of why we had stopped being friends. Our values were different. She coveted the acceptance and admiration of her peers. For her, the wrong things were anything that didn't make you popular. As much fun as popularity looked, I didn't actually need it. So, those things that Ariel thought were important, didn't mean anything to me. Sure, it made life a lot easier if people thought you were awesome, but I shouldn't have to be someone I wasn't for that to happen. I was just me and that was all I wanted to be.
"I am who I am," I said.
Ariel looked at me and seemed about to say something, but changed her mind as she exasperatedly said, "Fine. You want to know about Madison? I'll tell you all I know about her. Where should I start?"
Mrs. Walker chose that time to knock on the door. Ariel and I froze as if we were doing something wrong by being in her room together, talking like almost friends.
"Pizza's ready!" Mrs. Walker yelled through the door.
It had only taken Mrs. Walker about fifteen minutes to make the pizza. She must have known my time was limited. Mrs. Walker was using her time wisely to keep me there a little longer by forcing me to eat.
Ariel unlocked the door and Mrs. Walker brought in the pizza. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I smelled the freshly baked dough and cheese. Yum. Ariel didn't look as thrilled. She was probably on a diet. I remembered her wall banter with Madison about eating salad and not pizza. I took a big bite of my slice and looked at Ariel curiously, as she blotted away at hers with a napkin, getting off all the grease.
"So, you were friends with Madison?" I asked again, after Ariel had relocked her bedroom door and we were sure Mrs. Walker was out of earshot.
"Yeah," Ariel said, taking a tentative bite of her pizza, "We were both in Pep Club together. That's how I met her, actually. She was a senior and I mean, I saw her around school because she was always involved in stuff, but we had never talked until the beginning of this year when I joined Pep Club."
"What was she really like?" I asked and took a big bite out of my slice of pizza. It was good. I wondered what brand Mrs. Walker bought. We needed some more good pizza to eat in the freezer at home.
"She was amazing," Ariel gushed, thinking about her friend, "I mean, Sarah and Megan are my bffs, but Madison was really starting to be a good friend. I mean, we just went shopping for Homecoming dresses together and I don't just go to the mall with anyone."
I knew that was a dig at me, but I ignored it. In the weeks before our friendship had blown up, Ariel blew me off to go shopping at the mall with other friends - namely, her new, more popular, cooler friends, Sarah and Megan.
"Can you be more specific?" I asked. "Like what were some of her key character traits?"
"She was really positive and upbeat although she could be a little sarcastic like you sometimes. It was just in a funny way. She was a lot of fun to be around," Ariel said. "Like when we were dress shopping, she said the funniest thing and..."
Ariel froze. I could see that it had just occurred to her that Madison wasn't going to be making any more funny comments, ever. Ariel's eyes started tearing up. I didn't know what to do. I would have hugged my old best friend, but since we weren't friends, I wasn't sure how to react.
I moved toward her, but Ariel stepped back in reaction and wiped at her eyes quickly. I tried not to feel hurt as I saw the mask come down over Ariel's face, hiding her emotions from me. She was always trying to maintain the cool. It finally occurred to me how really hard that must be for Ariel to do, especially when she was hurting.
"What about her close friends? Who were they?" I asked, trying to ignore what had just happened. I knew Ariel would prefer it. Besides, I had an idea about this from the posts on Madison's Facebook page, but it would give me more evidence if Ariel actually told me who her friends were.
"Leslie Frank, Dana Julian, and Desiree Reed were her closest friends, I'd guess," Ariel said.
I nodded, " They were in Pep Club too, right?"
"Yeah," Ariel said, "Why didn't you stay in Pep Club anyway?"
Ariel remembered that I was there. Why did she care if I quit anyway? I mean, I couldn't exactly tell Ariel that seeing her there had made it a total turn-off for me to ever go to another one of the meetings again, especially since Ariel was being so nice to me at this very moment. I didn't want to piss Ariel off just as she was opening up to me.
I shrugged, "I just got caught up with school and work and stuff. No time."
"Funeral crashing?" Ariel said haughtily.
So much for Ariel being nice. Still, I ignored her, "So, did Madison ever fight with her friends or anything
?"
"You think they might have killed her? That's laughable. You are so not good at this detective thing," Ariel said. "They're so upbeat and awesome. No way."
"Well, I have to ask and not assume," I said flatly, refusing to take Ariel's bait to start a fight.
"Well, if you asked me who might have had a good reason to murder Madison, I'd tell you to check out Noah Robertson," Ariel said pointedly. "Noah definitely had a reason to off Madison."
I didn't know Noah Robertson, although I vaguely thought he was a football player. I'd have to look him up in my yearbook and online to get a clearer picture of him.
"And what was that reason?" I asked.
Ariel paused for effect, "Well, Madison was all excited after the first football game and she was jumping around, doing cartwheels and stuff. We were all goofing around. Noah wasn't paying attention and she accidentally tripped him. It was a total accident, but Noah broke his leg and he's a senior, so that means he won't get to play his last season when it might be important for college scouts to see him. He was super upset about it and harasses her all the time now. Well, harassed. I'd say Noah Robertson should be your number one suspect."
Chapter 6: Head Spinning
My head was spinning by the time I got home. For one thing, I had just spent over an hour talking and hanging out with Ariel and we hadn't killed each other. Sure, there had been moments where we almost went for each other's throats, but all in all, it was almost kind of, sort of, dare I even think it...fun? I mean, besides the very somber topic of death and murder. Still, things had gone so well, it had to be an anomaly. Ariel and I didn't hang out...anymore.
More importantly, I hadn't thought about Ethan in at least three hours. Oh, and I had my first murder suspect. Of course, I wouldn't have a chance to try and purposely run into Noah Robertson until tomorrow morning at school.
