Days feel shorter than the night.

The nights are all of a sudden getting longer and longer, and the days are vanishing away even before I know.

Yeah, talk about the side-effects of watching too much of Supernatural.

I have this feeling that this year is going to be great. Many possibilities, challenges and oh, yes – no-nonsense. Eleventh grade is a pretty big deal, you know, with all those new admissions in school, shuffling of classes and all. For most, it is an excellent opportunity to experience change.

But for me? It’s back to first base. Back to where I started from two years ago, when I changed my school. Oh well! Everything has good undertones, right? 😉

Sometimes, I feel like I just don’t know anybody. I had a fight with my best friend whom I haven’t seen in months, and somehow, it isn’t having the kind of effect it should have. But whatever. People always come around, sooner or later. 🙂

Nothing much to talk, so a little excerpt from Yours, Truly, which has reached a good 210 pages!

Enjoy:

Cryptic stuff doesn’t do me good. At all. This is why I was fixed to the bed with an upset stomach as soon as we got home. Jason’s home, technically.

 However, the doctor believed, I had food poisoning from a stale hamburger I’d eaten. Actually, all three of us had eaten it, but Liam and Jason were in good physical shape. So why was I the only one with an aching belly?

 Which is way irritating. I mean, first I have to share my bedroom with two Greek Gods, and now that I finally manage to get a separate space, I can’t do anything more than lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling. I cannot even read a book if I want to, because if I move an inch, it is like volcanoes setting off inside of me.

 And I’m not alone, either. Jason informed my mom, but she wasn’t really worried—it takes a lot more than a minor illness to rattle my mother—but his mother is acting all jumpy and jittery, like I have influenza or something. So she keeps checking on me every ten minutes. Really.

 Maybe she has a point; worrying about me like that. I’ve puked three times in the past six hours, and my face is yellow (Ew, I know).

 ‘Mrs. Parker’ I tried to reason, ‘I’m all right. It is just food poisoning. I’ll be okay.’

 ‘but Scarlet—’ she wanted to repeat the you-need-a-lot-of-care deal, but I cut her off.

 ‘I’m serious, ma’am. I’m okay. Could you please send in Jason and Liam when you leave?’ I said, giving her direct tip-off that I want to discuss the dirty past—the one that they’ve all been hiding from us—with my two partners in crime.

 She left my side halfheartedly, but went out the door nonetheless. It hadn’t been a full minute when Jason and Liam came in through the door.

‘Called for us, Cinderella?’ Liam joked, taking his place on the chair Mrs. Parker had vacated. Jason came to sit next to me.

 I propped myself up on pillows so that I could talk to both of them properly. ‘Yeah, I wanted to know how far you’ve gone with the ‘thing’.’

 The ‘thing’ was that we wanted to check out if there are any public records of Melissa McCall and Andrew Marin’s deaths, and see what the local police had to say about that. It wasn’t easy, yes, but we found out a way all right.

 You see, our school library is well equipped with newspapers dating back to 1900s, since that was the time around which Hayden High was founded by its initiator, Sir William Hayden Trevor. So as far as we knew, finding a little piece of information about the town royal isn’t that much of an issue.

 While I lay on bed all through the day, both of them were busy in the library sorting through old newspapers from 1997 to 1999—since that was the time both the fatalities, or murders according to Nina Winchester—took place.

 ‘We tried, but couldn’t find any newspaper clipping on that. I think we need more facts on this one.’ Jason said. His voice had the kind of texture people have when they are disappointed with themselves. I took his hand in mine, and pressed it tightly. Liam snickered quietly at that.

PDA—public display of affection—is not my thing, really. But occasionally, you just cannot help it.

 ‘Well, Liam, I’m sorry I’m being blunt, but can you tell me when your mom die— I mean, passed away?’ I asked, and watched Liam’s expression turn morose. He replied anyway, ‘April 14^th, 1998.’

 My mouth fell open at that. ‘Are you serious?’

 ‘Does it look like I’m not?’ he spat out, glaring at me. I bit my tongue. I have a big mouth; so big, that someone just might stuff it with old, smelly socks someday to keep me from talking.

 ‘I’m sorry, that was the wrong thing to ask. But that’s the same day that Lydia’s father, Andrew Marin, died.’ I explained myself, and his anger slowly receded, and something else took it place, which I couldn’t put my finger on.

 ‘So it is true. Katelyn killed my mother.’ Liam snarled, and to be honest, he kind of creeped me out. But I guess that’s justified—the guy just found out who killed his mother. It was miraculous that he was still sitting there and not holding a revolver to Mrs. Marin’s cranium. Now I knew what had taken over his expression—vengeance.

 ‘Now we know what to look for. Let me call Arthur.’ Jason spoke very low and very quick, dialing Arthur’s number on his cell phone.

 ‘Why Arthur? What can he do?’ Liam asked, irritated.

 ‘He’s a computer geek, Liam. He’ll get all the information that we need in next to no time. We don’t have to waste our precious time in the library anymore.’ I explained while Jason settled things with Arthur over the phone. It hadn’t been longer than a minute when he snapped the phone shut and said, ‘All done. Tomorrow morning, we have all that we need in our e-mail.’

 Liam was, of course, still skeptical about letting in Arthur in our little ‘secret’. Like we—Jason and I—were going to pay any sort of attention whatsoever.

 ‘This could ruin things, you know.’ Liam said, and I rolled my eyes.

 ‘Oh really? If you are so fond of spending summer days in the library, you are most welcome to do that. But we’—I pointed to Jason and myself—‘are good at home, thank you very much.’

‘What if something goes wrong?’

 ‘Listen, easy things never cause harm, you get me? Even if something does go off beam, it’s on me.’ I glared at him one last time—and pretty much made up my mind to dig my fist into his face if he said even a word further—which well ended the talk.

 Not really—ended the conversation, I mean—because my phone beeped again. It was kept on the table beside the door, nearest to Liam. He opened the message and read it aloud to everyone.

 Smart work, people. Be ready for the biggest surprise of your life tomorrow. And as you do so, how about checking over your friends?

 ‘You know, if I ever get my hands on this son of a bitch, I swear I’ll kill him.’ Liam declared as he snapped the phone shut. No wonder he was so annoyed. When you’re the hot son of a millionaire, life is supposed to be a runaway victory—but for him, it was turning into a nightmare.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Believe it or not, I’m having so much fun writing this novel that I often forget that I also have to go to sleep. Like now.

See you later!

– Snigdha ❤