Sheriwood

Chapter 2: A Sliver

Crystal woke up because some pain was coming from her neck. She looked around the small janitor's closet that she slept in. She flipped open her laptop and looked at the time. It was almost 6:40, so she got up and shook herself off of any dust. She looked in the reflection of a metal bucket and fixed her hair. Putting her beanie back on. Crystal looked at herself until her alarm went off, and she pulled her bookbag up onto her arm. Sneaking out the door, she walked on towards her first classroom.

"Ah, Early just like always, Ms. Shannon"

"Yeah... Just wanted to get here and get the day over with, you know?" Crystal walked to her seat in the back of the class and sat down. Pulling out her laptop she began typing when she realized that the battery was low.

"Something wrong?" Mr. Louse asked as he walked up to the distraught student.

"I forgot to put my laptop on charge last night and I didn't bring the charger." Crystal sighed as she slammed the laptop closed, and put her head in the palm of her hand.

"Well, I have a spare charger on my desk, maybe it'll fit your laptop?" Mr. Lounge headed up to his desk and searched the drawers. Soon pulling out a long black cord, walking back to Crystal's desk with it in hand.

"That definitely won't fit, Mr. Louse!" Crystal let out a soft chuckle. Mr. Louse let a smile break out across his face, and Crystal coughed, straightened herself. She sat up straight in her chair.

"You should relax some, Crystal. It's only Sophomore year. You've gone to school with all these kids your whole life, and you used to play with a lot of them. What happened that made you so-" The bell rang, interrupting his question. The crack in Crystal's facade was sealed, and Mr. Louse sighed in defeat. Walking back up to the front of the classroom to his desk.

Crystal used her hands to hold her head up by her neck. Her mind racing about how she almost let her guard down, and how she almost let out the secret about her home life.

The class piled in, filling in their seats. For once, the chatter was almost obsolete, and the smiles were faded. Crystal recognized some of them as Annalise's best friends, those of whom looked the happiest amongst the sea of sorrow. Crystal felt it to be a little odd, she would be sad if her best friend died.

"Alright. Today I want to start the lesson off with a little bit of writing. I want everyone to write a 10 sentence paragraph about losing someone close to you. I want it done before the bell and turned in to the tray on my desk, Monday we'll read them out to the rest of class."

The class tilted their heads down to the desks. Lifting their pencils and started writing, some pulled out laptops. Crystal looked at Mr. Louse with her lips tight together in a line, she didn't want to write about this.

She sighed and pulled a piece of paper out of her desk, along with a pen. The pen touched the starting line and Crystal's eyes zeroed in as she thought about what she would write about.

The memories flowed out as the ink of her pen, each word taking their toll as she remembered the events. The tears and anger formed the sentences as everything around her begun to spin.

The trance the soft sounds of the tip of the pen made as it mingled with the paper was only disturbed by the school bell. Crystal looked up as the world straightened itself out, and looked back at her paper. She had written on the front and back without even realizing it.

The students filed up to the desk and put the papers in the tray, the pile being neater than they usually were. Crystal followed last and hesitated to place her paper into the tray. She looked up at Mr. Louse, who gave her a supportive smile, assuring her that she would be alright placing it in the tray. Slowly she placed it in the tray and smiled up at her teacher. Walking out of the room, she felt suddenly overwhelmed by the number of teenagers that walked throughout the hall. Normally she would just put in her earbuds, but for some reason, she didn't feel like it. 

The hall was swarming, on the constant move. Crystal had made it her job to try to avoid most potential collisions, which seemed harder without her music. Today she took the time to watch the faces she passed, plenty of people just talking, some walking along with a fast pace not to be late, some standing by their lockers. Crystal had an opening to make it into her next class, Biology, and she decided to just gun to make it into the door before it was blocked by the walking teenagers. 

Thump!

Crystal's vision was suddenly black, and her butt had slammed onto the floor. Panic seemed to start to run throughout the veins, as she opened her eyes and looked up. As her eyes made contact with deep brown ones, her heart seemed to start to race.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" The voice was low and raspy like they had just woken up, "Let me help you up." The guy reached his hand out to her, and Crystal hesitated. 

"It's alright." Crystal said softly as she placed her hand in his, the rough skin made hers feel like it was on fire. He pulled her up gently and smiled at her. 

"Biology, right?" He gestured into the classroom, Crystal nodded and started to walk in. Following next to her he coughed slightly, "I'm Jacob." 

As much as Crystal didn't want to be rude, she also wasn't entirely social. She sighed before turning to him, "I'm Crystal, I don't talk to people as much, so please, don't take this the wrong way but can I be alone?" Jacob stared at her but nodded as she walked ahead of him.

Sitting down at her seat, she noticed that he sat one table ahead and over from her. Her eyes seemed to be drawn to look at his features. His hair a dark brown, messy and unkempt. He was wearing a leather vest with a white t-shirt underneath, the back of the leather vest had a big wolf head on the back, tilted back imitating how it would look if it were howling. Crystal had never seen that logo before and wanted to ask about it, but she decided it would be best if she didn't.

The logo seemed to peak the girl's interest. Intrigued by it, since it seemed to be more than just a wolf howling, it felt more like a logo for a group. The entire school was in limbo, all awaited for Tuesday, the day the autopsy of Annalise's Body would be revealed, and on Wednesday, they planned to make the first arrest. Not knowing that the trail was way more steep than what it appeared.