"Look who's finally here?" Amaya said, making a face as I plopped my ass next to her.
"You knew it was Leah?" I smirked.
"Lucy Evelyn Vance, I've been your friend for five years now. I can tell between you and your sister."
"Mom can't tell between us at times. It's not a big deal," I said lightly.
"Did you even know what happened while you were in your bathroom with diarrhea?" she said, perking up suddenly.
Diarrhea, seriously? She couldn't come up with anything better?
"It's all over the news," said Amaya in disbelief. "How do you not know?"
"Cut to the point."
"You remember that blonde senior from drama club?"
"We have quite a lot of blonde seniors in drama club. You'll have to specify."
"The one with shoulder-length blond hair, brown eyes, and triple piercings in her ears."
"I really don't know."
"The bisexual one who was rumored to be sleeping with Professor Rogers."
"Oh, that one. Yeah, I remember her."
"Her body was found near the airport yesterday in a very mutilated condition. Everybody is talking about that."
Wait a damn minute. She was talking about Amber. So, she had been our senior all along? Blonde at that?...But how did that get out? Private information about agents was never released under any conditions. It was a serious breach of rules. Dylan is going to kill that police officer.
"Hey," Amaya snapped her fingers in front of me. "Be here. I need to tell you more."
More? What more? How much had that idiot police officer revealed?
"I heard she was kidnapped by that gang active a few months ago, and they murdered her when she refused to give them what they wanted," Amaya said seriously.
And of course, the media would add some nonsense.
The class suddenly seemed to become quiet. My attention went to the door.
Axel Davies. The typical bad boy of the class. Rich (rumored to be), intelligent, and of course, handsome as hell.
"He looks good today," said Amaya, blushing a little.
And of course, my best friend had a crush on him.
He took his usual seat in the back corner of the classroom.
"Why is he sitting alone?" Amaya asked, looking at me.
She was interrupted by Professor Clint, who had finally stepped inside. She appeared to be lost in thought.
It was the usual boring lesson—with her harping on and on about glaciers and polar bears. Not that social studies is a boring subject, but the way they taught it was so...
"Mr. Davies!" yelled Clint all of a sudden. The entire class turned around simultaneously.
Of course, he was sleeping in the middle of the classroom. Poor bloke, he was gonna get detention for sure. Clint did not easily let students off.
Axel glanced up expectantly. He did not even blink; it was his daily thing.
"Go wash your face and then come back," said Clint in a firm tone.
What the actual...? When I once accidentally dozed off in her class (in my defense, the topic was the Municipal Corporations Act of 1831), I got a week's worth of detentions.
"Pretty privilege," I huffed.
The rest of the class was pretty uneventful, and I spent my time imagining how much trouble Dylan was going to be in with the department.
We sat in the cafeteria, enjoying french fries and chicken sandwiches, when Amaya's phone buzzed.
"Oh, check this out. Ryan's throwing a birthday party, and he has invited all of us."
"Is that why that dimwit is absent today?" I thought, taking her phone.
"My name's not on the list," I pouted.
"Of course, your real name isn't. Erica Collins is right there."
"Oh yeah, there it is," I said.
"Are you going to come?" Amaya said hesitantly. "I know you don't like them much...."
"Are you kidding me? Free food and games? Of course I'll come. Who cares about his ugly-ass face anyway?" I said, chuckling. "But I'll have to check in with Leah. She's more skeptical of them than I am."
"Plus point: Axel's sitting alone," Amaya brightened, spotting him at a table in one of the corners. "You wanna come with me?"
"I'll pass," I said quickly. Leah was heading in my direction, and from her face, I could tell there was bad news. Amaya walked away.
"What happened?" I asked, watching her face.
"We need to report to the department right now," she said urgently.
"Why?" I asked, my anxiety rising by the second.
"The body is gone," she said with a serious face.
"WHAT?" I said unbelievably.
"Yeah, I know," she said. "It has disappeared from the police station."
"What do you mean disappeared? Somebody has stolen it, right?" I said.
"Nope. From what it looks like, the body has disappeared on its own," said Leah, and I could tell she was not entirely convinced herself.
"It can't just run away on its own."
"I don't know the details," Leah said. "But from what I've heard, they only have one of the eyes now."
"So, that's why they released it on the news with the actual name? So that the body could be found?"
"That's what we've deduced," she nodded.
"Why would someone steal her body?" I remained doubtful.
"Yeah, like, who did she piss off?" Leah said, pursing her lips.
"Someone really bad," I nodded.
×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
"You guys took a long time," Andrew greeted us at the door.
"They found the body?" I asked tentatively.
"No, it just seems to have disappeared," Andrew said, shaking his head.
"Why would someone go after Amber? She wasn't even one of the fighters," I said in disbelief.
"Nobody knows as of yet," Andrew said silently. "But the rookies are spreading stupid rumors."
"What rumors?" I asked curiously.
"That she turned into a zombie," said Andrew darkly.
"The media's rumors are better, to be honest," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Yeah, but right now, you and I need to pull out all the footage from that area of the police station to check who took the body."
"On it," I said, sitting down with legs crossed.
Fifteen minutes later, we stared at the screen—our mouths wide open, unable to comprehend what we were seeing.
What the actual fuck?