Whitlock's Puzzle

Kiera's POV(Continued)

“I've got chemistry next and the best seat..”

“...... is the middle one?” I finished for her.

“Yes! Not too far from the board and not so forward the teacher has to call on you all the time.”

Hmm. I never thought of it that way. I always chose the back because it was as far away as I could get from the teacher AND all the mini monsters in my school.

I stared at Sarah again, trying to imagine which side of the coin she would have fallen on at my old school. She was way too pretty to be bullied. Maybe she'll do the bullying? But I couldn't reconcile this bubbly, affectionate girl with those vapid bimbos at my school.

Tamara and her cronies were nowhere as pretty Sarah but were meaner than actual street cats.

“C'mon!” She urged again, pulling on my arm.

I got up and glanced to my right but the seat was empty. He must have been one of the first to leave the class. Good riddance.

My only hope was that I didn't share any other class with him apart from this one.

“So what's your next class?” Sarah asked again when we were outside the class.

I consulted my sheet of paper again before groaning out, “I got AP calculus.” I could hardly count anything I hated more than math.

Sarah groaned in sympathy. “Not a fan of math huh? Me neither.”

She collected my paper again and perused it. “We don't have any other classes together. I guess I'll see you at the cafeteria. You can join us for lunch at our table.”

I could have hugged her. She was an angel sent just for me. “I’d love that.” I replied, feeling a little misty eyed.

“Cool, let me get your digits so we can coordinate better. It gets crowded in there.” She snapped out a silver smartphone with a lot of glitter on the back.

Oh. I deflated. “I don't have a phone.” I whispered, feeling very ashamed.

I've never had a phone. I was certain there was no other teen in America, eh, UK without a phone in this century.

“Are you for real? Why not? Did you lose your phone or something?”She scrunched her face in confusion.

“Uhh, something like that.” I mumbled and avoided staring directly at her.

More like I've never had one because I've never had any friends and Frank thought it was a waste of money seeing as he was the only one who would call me there anyway.

“ ‘Kay. What's your woo handle? Let's follow each other.”

“I don't have any social media accounts.” I whispered.

She stared at me nonplussed, looking shocked and I felt like the ground should open up qnd swallow me. “Why ever not?” She blurted, affronted.

I shrugged my shoulders and hunched them.

“I don't think I've ever met any person under the age of 50 without a phone or social media account. It's so unusual. Even my grandpa has a woo account and he’s 70!”

My shoulders slumped at her frank assessment.

Her face pinched and she reached for me. “I’m sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. Please do forgive me? Mya is always saying I don't think things through before I say them.”

“It's okay. I'm not offended.” I reassured her hastily.

Actually, I found it refreshing that she spoke what she thought without any filters. Then I’d always know where I stood with her, unlike with Sophie. I quickly turned my mind off that unwholesome topic. Thoughts of that traitor was guranteed to ruin my day.

“My mum will get me a phone soon and then we can be friends on Woo.” I promised.

“Aiit. This will keep until then.” She shrugged easily and returned her phone to her pocket.

“Where is the cafeteria?”

“Oh, it's the building directly across from the main building. The grey one.”

“There's a building just for eating? Isn't this supposed to be a public school?”

“Actually, it was a public school but it's now owned by the town. All schools in Llwanytrd except for Clearwater are owned by the town. No individual member or company has a school here.”

“Okay. The town council must be very rich then.” She chuckled.

“Hey Sarah!” A tall brunette yelled and practically hopped over to us

“Celyn!” Sarah shouted in response, her face lighting up.

They embraced happily, screeching in joy before they finally disengaged several minutes later.

“You're back! How are you feeling now?” Sarah said before pushing her away to look her over.

“I'm much better now. Syl cleared me last week but mum wanted me to stay one more day just to be certain.”

“I'm so glad you're here.”

“Me too! I was so afraid I'd never walk again.”

Sarah’s face turned sympathetic. “What an awful thought. I’m so glad you were able to pull through. Kiera, this is my friend Celyn.” She said, pointing at me with a small smile.

“Hi Celyn.” I waved at her briefly.

“Hi. So I have a lot to tell you! We so need to catch up! Are you on your way to class?” Celyn rushed out happily, her sole focus on Sarah. She had barely spared a second to cast a glance in my direction before she continued with her conversation with Sarah. Rude.

I shifted my feet, feeling lower than dirt. Celyn was wearing a dark green gown and a white and yellow jacket with a black snarling wolf in its middle -the school’s mascot was an angry wolf?”. It was the exact same jacket jerkface’s cronies had been wearing. Either her boyfriend was a jock or she was a cheerleader.

Was there a rule that said jocks and cheerleaders have to be so godamnful of themselves? Incase they aren't aware, after college, they were nobodies again, just like the rest of us.

Simple as her dressing was, I was certain that it was a designer and very expensive. Maybe it had something to do with the louis vutton purse she carried.

“Of course. I'll be there in a minute.” She turned back to me and smiled. “So I’ll see you later?” She crinkled her eyes at me.

“Of course.” I smiled at her with all my joy. She was my favorite person in the world right now.

“Okay. See you at lunch then.” She turned away from me and made to join Celyn who was a few feet away in the midst of

“Will you please tell me where the Ap calculus class is?” I called hastily, having just remembered that I couldn’t make heads or tails of this puzzle being paraded as a school.

“It’s on the ground floor in room 14.” She answered glibly.

What? I turned and stared at the black and gold number next to the classroom we just exited pointedly before turning back to her. “But we just had social science in room 12. Why would room 14 be three floors down? Was the janitor or whoever the hell numbered these lockers high as a kite when doing his job?”

She laughed heartily, her eyes lighting up with her mirth. “I assure you it's not random. The building is based on whitlock’s puzzle.”

“What is whitlock?”

“Who not what.”

“Another town legend?” I ventured

“Yes. he’s-”

“Saraaah.” Celyn moaned throatily.

“I’ll be right there.” She answered before turning to me. “I'll tell you who he is at lunch, I promise.” She hurried over to her circle of friends and Celyn’s angry glare morphed into a smile.

I'd have to be wary of that one. Hopefully, I’d have very few interactions with her. Or none. ‘Whitlock’s puzzle my ass.’ I grumbled as I stomped down the stairs and came face to face with the long stretch of the ground floor hallway.

I didn't give a rat’s ass who this Whitlock person was but it was obvious that he was not right in the head or rather the person who thought it was a good idea to use a maze as the basis for the design of a high school was definitely mentaly unstable.