Chapter 5 – Part 1
That night after dinner while Ronny is cleaning up, his phone vibrates in his back pocket. He dries his hands off and retrieves it to see a text from Rachel. He grows excited and opens it.
Hey you, I got here a little earlier than expected. Meet me at the high school.
Ronny puts his phone away and rushes through cleaning the rest of the dishes. He has to see Rachel. He dries off his hands and runs into the living room to find his mom. His dad had left the day before on a business trip for two weeks, so it’s just Ronny and his mom for a while. Ronny plops down on the couch.
“Mom, mom, Rachel’s here. She just texted me. Can I please go meet up with her?” Ronny can barely contain his excitment.
“Sure, but don’t stay out too late. It’s a school night and there’s been another scale murder. They just reported on the new that they found Emily Sharp.”
Ronny’s eyes wide. It wasn’t Emily. “I’ll be quick.”
“Where does she want to meet you?”
“She says she wants to meet at the high school,” Ronny says, already jumping off the couch and grabbing his shoes. “I’ll see you later, mom.” He sends a text to Rachel to let her know he is on the way and rushes out the door. His mom yells something but he doesn’t hear her. He grabs his bike from where he left it by the garage door and pedals away from the house as fast as he can.
The streetlights aren’t on yet and the sun just sits inches above the horizon. Ronny needs to hurry. He slows for a turn at the end of his street and wonders if he should text the guys. Deciding to do it when he gets there, he takes off down the hill.
By the time he gets to the school, the sun is gone, and the streetlights have been on for about three minutes. He stops to see the front door has been left propped open, but Rachel is nowhere to be seen. He hops off his bike and leans it up against a tree closest to the front of the steps.
Ronny checks his phone and sees he has a new text from Rachel. He opens it and sees that Rachel wants to meet in their spot. Ronny texts her back, asking if she wants him to text the boys to join us. She tells him no, and to hurry up.
Ronny shrugs and runs up the front steps. He heads down the hallway until he reaches the door that leads to the roof. The door is unlocked. Usually, it’s always locked especially after the principal had found, Rachel, Ronny and the others sitting up there during their breaks and lunches. The principal thought they were doing drugs but that was farthest from the truth. They hid there from the bullies.
Ronny takes the stairs two at a time and shoves the door open at the top. He looks around then walks towards their spot. He uses the phone’s flashlight to see.
“I should have grabbed a flashlight,” he mumbles when he trips over a discarded brick.
“You never did think about grabbing what you needed before you left to go somewhere. You were always the runoff kind of guy because of your excitement,” Rachel says as she walks around a small wall they had made their freshman year. She shines her flashlight so he can see how to get to her safely.
Ronny joins her and his jaw drops. “Ingrid?”
Rachel laughs and takes off the blonde wig, letting it drop to the ground. “Hey Ronny.”
Ronny walks closer, looks over his best friend who had been bullied because of her weight in the past. She’s lost quite a bit of weight, has dyed purple-red short hair, and is wearing contacts that changes her green eyes to deep brown. She takes out the contacts and stores them in a container made for them and slips them into her pocket.
Ronny laughs and grabs Rachel into a tight hug. His foot hits something and he looks down to see he has kicked a dark blue duffle bag.
A few scales slip out from the bag from his kick, and he heels likes someone has punched him in the gut. He lets Rachel go and takes several steps back away from her.