NOW
“Lauren and Kayla were not just students. They were not just friends. They were kids with a bright future and it was stolen from them. I don’t know who would be able to look these sweet girls in the eye and shoot them point blank, but believe me, I will figure it out. Thank you.” Anna stepped down from the podium with tears spilling down her cheek. She looked out at the crowd. It seemed like everyone from Liberty High was at the funeral and she couldn’t bear to look at their grieving faces.
THEN
On May 29, a night that took months to plan, months spent in anticipation, ended a tragedy. The day started out like any other formal dance. The girls got up at the crack of dawn to put on their faces and sculpt their hair, while all the guys slept in till noon, hopefully showered, and threw on their tuxes. Lauren, Kayla, and Anna were getting ready at Lauren’s house. “This night is going to be perfect, as long as the juniors stay out of our way. Jenny texted me last night, all nice and sweet. Like I don’t know she has a voodoo doll of me in her closet”, Lauren told the other two.
“You have to be joking”, Kayla replied.
“Who knows? That’s just what I heard. I mean”, Lauren turned to her friends and raised her eyebrows, “I am going to prom with her current obsession”.
Anna looked at her with surprise, “You’re so lucky you’re nominated Prom Queen…” Lauren and Kayla tilted their heads in confusion. “I mean, Nick? Interesting…”, Anna said catching herself.


After everyone was done getting ready, the night began relatively normal. Pictures were taken and the party bus met them at Liberty High School to go to dinner in Seattle. Everyone was sitting down to eat and having a good time. About thirty minutes into dinner Lauren and Kayla see some girls mean mugging their table outside a window. They looked closer only to realize it was Jenny and Katie, both juniors, and both obsessed with Nick and Connor, Kayla’s date. For the last couple months Jenny and Katie have been trying to talk to Connor and Nick. It was verging on stalking. Kayla and Lauren did not like these girls trying to cause drama on their senior prom night. They both got up out of their chairs, and bolted out of the door, ready to start a fight. “Hey girls”, Kayla started, “how about you find your own boys and leave us alone?!”
“You guys are pathetic!” Lauren added.
“W-w-we don’t want any trouble. We j-j-just…” Katie started.
“J-j-just what?! Just embarrassing yourselves?”
Both Jenny and Katie turned so red their heads looked as if they might explode. Jenny might even have been crying as they ran away. They all went back to their seats, trying to enjoy their meal, but the sense of hostility still lingered in the air.


Everyone began to cool down and enjoy themselves when they arrived at the EMP for prom. As the group walked into the EMP one of the girls, Anna glanced over to her right and saw the girls, Jenny and Katie hiding behind a wall spying on Connor and Nick. Kayla and Lauren were disgusted by their obsession, so they told the boys they were going to get some punch. Lauren turned to Nick and told him, “Hey, why don’t you guys go talk to your stalkers. We’re going to get some punch.”


Nick seemed to be contemplating the idea, but instead told his date, “No don’t worry about it. Connor and I would be happy to get you girls some drinks”.


Lauren thought this weird since normally the boys were pretty selfish and never thoughtful. But she figured it was a special night so she said, “Thank you that’s nice of you!”


As the boys walked over to the beverage table, they spoke in hush tones. Connor being the first to say, “Dude, we need to get rid of Kayla and Lauren. Those juniors are hot.”


“Definitely, I would kill to have Jenny.” Nick replied.


Meanwhile, Jenny and Katie were huddled in a corner. “I can’t believe Lauren and Kayla embarrassed us like that. I seriously could kill them right now!” Katie screamed to Jenny.

“I know! We’re in love with Connor and Nicky; we can’t help it.”

“We have to do something.”

The night continued with a lot of dancing and good, clean fun. Lauren even won Prom Queen. As the dance began to wind down the groups started to leave to their buses when there was a loud BAM! BAM! Gunshots. The whole senior class began to scream and everything was chaos. The group ran to the bus for safety, until they realized they were missing Lauren and Kayla.

Connor turned to Anna, “Weren’t they with you?”

“Um. Uh. No, they’re your dates, weren’t they with you?”
Pandemonium ensued as the group began frantically searching for the girls. As they approached the police tape though, they realized where Lauren and Kayla were. They were sprawled on the floor of EMP. Dead.

Obviously there was no after party that night. A night that had started with so much promise had now ended in peril. The next few days were spent in investigation. Countless questioning, retracing of steps, and alibis did not lead the police to an answer.

NOW

After Anna stepped away from the podium, she quickly walked towards her car. On her windshield was a post-it reading, “I know what you did”. She turned her head to both sides making sure no one was watching. Not seeing anyone, she hurriedly got into her car and sped away, failing to notice Jenny peering from behind a tree only ten paces away. See, Jenny had seen everything. She saw Anna at the dance looking at Lauren with jealousy and hate as Lauren walked on stage to receive her crown for Prom Queen. She saw how the whole night Anna looked at Lauren’s crown with a glimmer in her eyes. She even saw Anna walk into the bathroom after Lauren, holding something dark that was definitely not a purse, and she definitely heard the gunshots that she will probably remember for the rest of her life. Jenny assumed Anna had no idea Kayla was also in there and therefore shot her being that she was a witness. The only real question was, what was Jenny going to do with this information?