The Thrashers(18)

Like this one, next to the pathway around the bleachers.

Principal Robbins stood at exactly 7:00 P.M. and tapped the mic. Jodi took a deep breath.

“We’re here to mourn the loss of one of our own. Emily Mills was a sweet girl. She would have been entering her junior year next week. Her mother tells me that she was looking forward to applying to both Azusa and Vanguard and hoped to study theology.”

Jodi snorted. “Um, no? She wanted to go into political science, like Paige.”

When Zack didn’t respond, she looked over at him. His eyes were glued to Principal Robbins. Jodi refocused.

“She excelled in science and math and was always willing to help out a friend with their homework. But before we say more about our friend Emily,” Principal Robbins said, “Emily’s sister, Hannah, put together a slideshow for us tonight.”

She nodded at the guy running sound and lights and took her seat.

“Oh god, no,” a voice said from behind them. Jodi spun. Lucy had snuck up on them, Paige just behind her. “Tell me there’s not a slideshow.”

“You guys came.”

“Zack said you were set on going.” Lucy shrugged.

Jodi moved to Paige as the lights around the field dimmed. “Happy birthday. I’m glad you’re here.”

Paige smiled back, but it looked like more of a grimace. Over her shoulder, Jodi found Julian a little distance away, vaping and texting.

She rolled her eyes and turned back toward the baby pictures of Emily on the screen. Emily and Hannah playing dolls. Emily in church. Emily’s first day of high school at Sac High, before she transferred to New Helvetia for sophomore year. Throughout, Zack’s gaze was riveted.

Jodi looked at the people in the stands she could make out from this angle and found some bored faces staring down at their phones. Reagan Matthews was sitting in the front, tears streaming down her face.

She knew for a fact that Reagan had no idea who Emily Mills was until the Monday after she died. Jodi was the one to answer her when she’d asked, “Emma Miller? Did I have a class with her?”

The slideshow music slowed to a conclusion, and on the screen flashed one more image.

Emily and Jodi, smiling at the camera.

Narrowing her eyes, Jodi took a step up to the bars of the bleachers, as if getting closer would help. When was that taken? It looked like a selfie, the camera flash bright in Jodi’s eyes. Emily’s head leaned on Jodi’s shoulder.

“Isn’t that at Lucy’s cabin last year?” Paige stepped up next to her. “I did your hair like that.”

Jodi stared. The earrings. She’d lost one during that trip and never wore them again.

Emily wasn’t there.

Jodi’s eyes snapped to Hannah, wondering why she would edit together a picture that didn’t exist.

“I guess maybe…” Jodi paused. “If there were no pictures of Emily with friends for the slideshow. It would make sense to edit one. For her parents.”

“No. It’s creepy, Jodi,” Lucy said. “That little girl is just as creepy as her sister.”

Mr. Mills took the microphone then, thanking everyone for their kind words, and said a prayer. She knew he was very active with their church.

“I didn’t realize we were a Catholic school,” Julian mumbled from a distance. Jodi pressed her lips together.

Zack’s head was leaned against a metal pole, still watching the stage.

Just as Mr. Mills took his seat again, Jodi spotted a familiar figure standing to the side of the bleachers near the faculty. Her stern ponytail and crisp suit would have given her away, but it was that red lipstick that had Jodi standing straighter.

Detective Harding was here.

She was scanning the crowd, her eyes quick and catlike. Holding a large coffee in one hand, she looked like she had just dropped in, not quite a part of this.

Before Jodi could mention Detective Harding to the others, Principal Robbins took the mic again.

“The faculty of New Helvetia and I are at a loss for words. Emily was much loved among the teachers, and we know she was just as beloved among our students.”

Lucy snorted.

“I intend to make a solemn promise tonight,” Principal Robbins continued. “The toxicity at this school has to end.”

Zack tilted his head, leaning forward onto a bleacher pole.

“My staff and I will be monitoring the bullying situation at New Helvetia much more carefully in light of Emily’s death. We’ve always had zero tolerance here, but clearly what we’re doing isn’t good enough.”

Jodi’s skin felt itchy and tight. Behind her, Paige whispered, “Oh, my god…”

“Anyone caught contributing to the bullying of another student, either in person or online, will be subject to punishment from the administration—possibly expulsion.”

Jodi wanted to ask Who was bullying Emily?

But she also didn’t want to hear the answer.

On the screen behind Principal Robbins, her own face beamed over the assembled student body, large and looming. Incriminating. A picture that didn’t even exist because Jodi wouldn’t have taken a photo with Emily like that.

They weren’t really friends.

As Principal Robbins introduced the high school orchestra, which would play one of Emily’s favorite hymns, Jodi heard murmuring behind her. She turned to see Julian on the phone, his eyes flickering wildly to the rest of them.