They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

I didn’t know what was over now, but in any sense, I saw Birdie. She came through the gym doors, she and the other basketball girls laughing, and I had a feeling they might have taken a little smoke break. I caught their attention while with Royal, raising my hand, and though Kiki, Shakira, and the others on the team waved back, I just got a tight smile from Birdie. She really wasn’t on the same page as me tonight, but that was okay. I did get it.

“Jax said I was the first girl ever in Windsor House,” I said, transferring my attention back to Royal. “Paige never went…”

“Paige never wanted to,” he explained his eyes flickering away. “When it came to the Court, that was my thing, never hers.”

“So why did you let me in?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have,” he said, pulling strong arms around me. “But I guess I don’t fucking care anymore.”

He was going to pull me in really good this boy and almost kissed me had I not noticed Birdie and our friends again. They stood off the dance floor with their phones, their hands over their mouths, and whatever they were looking at caused a stir amongst them. They looked up at me almost immediately, all of them, and had I not been distracted by Knight pushing onto the dance floor to Royal and me, I would have gone over.

“You need to see this,” Knight said, his phone in his hand. LJ and Jax were behind him, and whatever needed to be seen, they showed Royal first and not me.

Royal took the phone, and it was like the world whispered around me. I noticed everyone had their phones out, everyone on the dance floor looking at something, but I was the only one not in on whatever was going on.

“What is it?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

Royal wouldn’t let me see at first, and it was LJ to take Knight’s phone and give it to me. There was a news story on the screen, an announcer talking about a local girl who was found downstate. She’d been dragged there… found under a train.

A picture flashed of the girl, only one, but it was enough to make my world around me spin on its axis. I collapsed in arms, boys rushing around me. They spoke words to me, so many words, but I heard none of it.

I needed to throw up.

I ran, ran away from everyone, and I barely made it outside the school before I was on my knees in dirt. I ruined my sister’s pretty dress, heaving my guts out as I attempted to forget what I just saw on a phone screen. My sister, Paige, would never get to wear this dress.

My sister was dead.