Chapter 3
Ronny barely sees Ingrid for the rest of the week. He tries to catch her after class, but she seems to always be in a hurry. He invites her to hang with him and his friends at the mall this weekend, but she doesn’t tell him yes or no.
Saturday rolls around and he meets Wallace, Tita, Duke, Samuel, and Bart at the mall. First place they head to is the game store to see if they have anything new. After that, they wanted around aimlessly. They go into some stores and chat with kids from school who are either there to shop or are there to work.
Ronny takes a picture of them together and sends it to Rachel. They make to take it in front of her favorite bookstore. She texts back that she loves it and can’t wait to be in the picture with them. He shows the guys before they head for the food court, all of them complaining about being hungry.
They give each other a high five before they head off to buy food from whichever food stall they want. They meet up at a big table near the entrance after Ronny insists.
“Just in case Ingrid shows up,” was his excuse. But she still hasn’t shown up. He feels down about it, He wants to make her feel welcomed since she’s been getting bullied at school. But it seems Ingrid doesn’t care to make friends or cares about being bullied.
Ronny drives home and plops on the couch. He flips aimlessly through the TV, bored.
The new pops up and catches his attention. He sits up when the news anchor stands in front of his school. This weekend the cheerleaders were having practice. He almost turns it off thinking it was just some stupid story until he hears the word murder. He freezes as he listens to the details.
“After practice, the cheerleaders went into the lockers to shower. That’s when they found fellow cheerleader, Sonia, dead in the showers. It seems someone snuck up on the unsuspecting girl and bludgeoned her to death by what looks like a scale. The kind people use to find out their weight.”
Ronny swallows hard and touches the back his head. He rubs it and jumps when he hears the door to the garage opens. He sighs when he sees it’s his mom and drops the remote on the couch.
“Mom!” He leaps off the couch and takes the bags from her. “Mom, someone killed Sonia from my school. They said the person bludgeoned her to death in the head with a scale.” He sets the bag down on the counter and makes the motion of someone hitting someone else repeatedly.
His mother makes a face at him. “Oh, Ronny, stop that.” She heads back into the garage to retrieve more groceries.
Ronny’s dad walks in and hands more bags to his son. “Did I hear that right? Someone was killed by a scale?”
“Yup, like the one has in your bathroom.” Ronny rubs the back of his head again after he puts down the bags.
“That is horrible. Her poor parents,” his mom says when she brings in the last of the groceries in and closes the door. “She went to your school?”
“She’s one of the cheerleaders, the team captain. She’s also one of the girls who mercilessly tormented Rachel and us.” Ronny shrugs. “She also bullies Ingrid now.”
Ronny’s dad puffs out his cheeks. “Seems like someone had it out for her.”
“Maybe one of the other cheerleaders were sick of her bossing them around,” Ronny says as he grabs a bag of chips and an apple from one of the bags. He can see the shock on his parent’s faces. “What? Ther’s Emily. She wants to be the team captain. She bullied Jackie to lose weight to be on the teams, too. The other girls probably have their own reasons. Or maybe it’s Ingrid.” Ronny smirks and bites his apple, leaving the kitchen.
His parents look at each other then after their son who plops back down on the couch. He holds his apple in his mouth and texts the guys about what he’s seen on the news. He drops his phone, grabs the remote and starts going through the channels again. He opens the bag of Cheetohs and sits watching nothing while he snacks.