Chapter 37 – The Conspiracy Grows – Holly Hayfield

The weekend had finally arrived and I was happy to be free of the tense school atmosphere. My plan for the weekend was to relax with a good book. Actually, that was more of a fallback plan. My ideal plan was to relax with Lilith. It took me a while to build up the courage to ask her to come over so we could chill and hang out. She rejected me immediately, of course. The idea of just hanging out sounded like a waste of time to her.

Giving up on an initial rejection that I was expecting would’ve been meaningless. I needed to be craftier about how I presented things to Lilith. She’d only involve herself in my plans if she could find an adequate logical reason to. Knowing that was the type of person I was dealing with, I decided to bait her. I told her that we could discuss these new revelations regarding Ms. Logan’s connection to Malorie in private, away from the others. The next thing I knew she was asking about how soon she could come over.

Lilith’s one-track mind made her predictable in situations like this. I had to admit that I was a little disappointed. I could’ve baited her from the beginning but I wanted some sort of confirmation that our friendship was progressing at least a little bit. I didn’t want to have to keep baiting her to come to my side. My hope was that Malorie was just the starting line for our relationship, not the be-all and end-all. My real focus this weekend was once again on Lilith, not Malorie.

Lilith’s aunt dropped her off not long after our phone conversation. Lilith always looked like a younger student in her casual clothes. I was almost certain that her aunt was the one picking out clothes for her. My casual clothes were items that I put together after long searches both online and in the closest mall. Lilith, meanwhile, was wearing clothing that looked like it came out of an old magazine catalogue.

“Come on in.” I said as I welcomed Lilith in.

“Sure,” Lilith said.

Lilith came in without all the reservations she had the first time she came over. At least we were making progress in this domain.

“Hey!” My mother said as Lilith came in, “We’re happy to have you over again, Lilith!”

“Hi Jennifer,” Lilith said casually.

I gave Lilith a slight love tap on the back.

“Err… I mean, it’s nice to see you too Ms. Hayfield.” She said.

“Haha, you can call me Jennifer if that’s easier for you to remember. Do you girls have anything planned for tonight?” My mother asked.

“Yep! We’re going to talk about how Ms. Logan might actually be the person that-…”

I put my hands on Lilith’s face and pancaked her cheeks to silence her.

“What she means is we were just going to talk about some stuff that happened this week.” I said.

My mother cracked a sly smile and tilted her head knowingly.

“You mean you’re planning to gossip, right? It’s okay Holly. I remember what it was like to be that age.”

Lilith pushed my hands away.

“That’s right, Holly.” She said smugly.

I brought my hands down to her shoulders to ferry her in the direction of my room.

“We’ll do our gossiping in private like good girls, right Lilith?” I said while winking at Lilith.

Lilith’s smug look didn’t go away. I had the feeling she didn’t care about letting my mom know about the Malorie conspiracy. I wouldn’t even be shocked if Lilith talked to her aunt about it. It wasn’t like she’d believe it. My mother, on the other hand, would freak out over the mere possibility of the school having a dark past. I was trying to keep my mother from stressing over my school situation altogether.

“Well I’ll leave you two alone for a while. Just know that tonight we’ll be eating out for dinner. I got a slight pay raise at work and want to treat you two.”

“Thanks mom! We’ll be in my room!” I said while pushing Lilith away.

That was painful. Lilith really had no regard for the after effects of what it meant to bring someone into the conspiracy circle. She just wanted as many people in this knowledge circle as possible. In that sense she was a liability that would have to be checked on. There was no telling who else she let in on this while I wasn’t around. My assumption was that this couldn’t amount to many people since she was a loner, but I could’ve been wrong about that.

“Lilith! You have to be careful.” I said after closing my bedroom door, “I’m serious. I don’t want you giving my mom something to worry about. She’s got enough on her mind as it is.”

“Mhmm.” Lilith hummed.

Lilith was looking through the book collection on my bookshelf. She had already tossed her bag beside my reading chair and was looking to pick something out. She returned the book that she borrowed last time and picked out the next volume in the series. With that same easygoing attitude, she strolled back over to the reading chair and plopped herself into it. She put her feet up and kicked off her shoes. I wondered if this was what she was like at home.

“Just promise me you won’t say anything weird to my mother when we go out for dinner tonight, please?”

Lilith looked away from the book to look me in the eye as her face turned serious.

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“Fine, I won’t tell her the truth. We won’t tell her anything until everything has been confirmed and we’re ready to go public.” She said.

That was hardly a compromise but I didn’t fight her on it.

Lilith seemed to be having a good time. Things were quiet between us as she read her book and I read on my tablet. Occasionally we’d talk about where she was in the novel and share a laugh about the story. It was simple, but peaceful. I cherished moments like these in my life. Then my tablet made a ‘Meow’ sound and the ChatCat notification began blinking. I opened it up to see a message from Val.

“What’s going on in chat?” Lilith asked, “I think I got the same message but my phone is in my book bag somewhere.”

“You’re going to want to see this. Come sit next to me on the bed. I’ll show you Val’s message.”

Lilith did as I suggested. She came close to me to get a good perspective of the screen. For her this was the opportunity to read something about the Malorie conspiracy. For me this gave me the chance to cuddle up against her. She didn’t even notice as I did so.

“Ha! I was right!” Lilith said, “I knew Ms. Logan had the same homeroom teacher as Malorie! That must’ve been how they met.”

This little theory was something that Lilith had suggested earlier in the student council room. Valentina said she’d look into it using the school’s website. Val had linked a picture of a young Ms. Logan from the yearbook. Each student had their photo grouped with the other members of their homeroom class. Ms. Logan and Malorie were both members of the same class in the same year. The implication here was that Malorie could legitimately be the ‘friend’ that Ms. Logan told me that she betrayed.

“Ms. Logan didn’t want to be involved with whatever happened to Malorie.” Lilith said. “There must’ve been a reason that she betrayed her friend like that.”

I agreed with her on that much.

“Whatever that reason is I get the feeling that it’s directly related to the reason Malorie was murdered in the first place.” I said. “What we really need to figure out is the circumstances that led up to Malorie’s murder.”

“Well, we have Ms. Logan to give us breadcrumbs now.” Lilith said. “You just need to keep helping her out and press the subject.”

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. I hardly pressed her at all the last time I talked to her and she fell to pieces. Eventually this Malorie situation will destroy her. I’d rather not be the one to push her over the ledge.”

Lilith pulled away from me and gave me a look of resentment.

“Did Ms. Logan have these compassionate reservations for Malorie? Did she stop Malorie from being pushed off the ledge?” She asked.

“That’s not fair, Lilith. We don’t know what went down back then. We can’t just condemn her as guilty without knowing the truth.”

Lilith came back close to me so that she could look me in the eye closely.

“Once we know the full truth of her deception then will you condemn her? You can’t pardon her forever just because she’s a mess. Hell, it’s like you were telling me earlier today. She’s probably a mess because of Malorie weighing on her conscience.”

Lilith’s heart was both in the right place and wrong place at the same time. It was natural to want to know the truth behind Malorie’s fate and to seek justice. My fear was that Lilith wasn’t out for justice. She was out for vengeance. The truth, whatever truth was revealed, would ravage Lilith from the inside out until she did something radical. I couldn’t let her become that sort of zealot. It was my job as her friend to reel her back in.

I put my hand on Lilith’s.

“If we find out that she was conclusively involved in Malorie’s murder then we’ll alert the proper authority to deal with it.”

Lilith pulled her hand away from mine.

“Proper authority,” She scoffed, “Here I was hoping that you’d start to understand. If there was really any justice to be had then it would’ve happened long ago. What we need to do is release everything to the public and reach critical mass. Then things at this school will finally start to change.”

“Lilith…”

There was a knock at the bedroom door.

“Girls, are you ready to go? I’ve made reservations for us at a place nearby.” My mother said.

“We’ll be out in just a second!” I called back.

Lilith started to get up to get her shoes back on. I reached for her hand one more time.

“At least promise to keep this conversation between us. My mom can’t hear anything about this. We’ll pick things up later. We’ll talk about where to go with this new information when we get back.”

“That’s our deal, then.” Lilith said.

Lilith kept up her end of the deal. My mother took us out to a seafood restaurant, nothing fancy. Instead of talking about Malorie we ended up talking about some of the same books we liked. My mother didn’t input much to the conversation. I didn’t feel like that was out of alienation. I think she just wanted to provide a place where we could have a unique experience out on the weekend. My mother was thoughtful like that.

I don’t know if it was because of the great food or relaxed atmosphere, but Lilith actually opened up a bit more than usual. She talked to my mother about her grandmother Judith, and some of the urban legends that were tied to the school. As promised, nothing about Malorie came up during this conversation but I couldn’t help but be a little nervous anyways. Lilith could be cautious if she wanted to, normally she just didn’t have the regard for it.

When we made it back home it was already getting late. My mother kept an eye on the time. We had to beat my curfew even on the weekends. My weekend curfew was a bit more lax at an even 10PM sharp, unlike my 8PM school night curfew. It was still something that had to be kept in mind every time we went out. It would be a headache for Angelica if I was caught away from home after curfew.

Lilith took a shower first when we got home. I was happy to see that she decided to bring her own pajamas this time. I took a quick shower so that I wouldn’t have to leave Lilith alone for too long, not that she cared. I was probably the only one that cared about such a thing. That was another facet of my personality leftover from my days with Ellie. Ellie was clingy, in an adorable way. The memory made me wish Lilith would be less rigid.

When I came back into the room I found Lilith laying across my bed while looking at something on her laptop. I didn’t know she brought it with her until just then. She waved me over.

“Come here! I found something interesting!” She said.

Without asking I already knew this would be something about Malorie. Her face always lit up when she made another discovery or revelation. She was even kicking her feet back and forth excitedly. That small detail made me smile. I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to join her on the bed. I lied right next to her and rested my chin atop my hands.

“What are we looking at?” I asked.

“While you were in the shower I was looking through that yearbook from 10 years ago. I found this picture of Malorie and Ms. Logan.”

It was an image of Malorie and Ms. Logan standing in front of a painting of a white rose. The white rose was just like the one in the old art club room. The background of this painting was abstract. I assumed this was a team project between them. The painting had a 1st place ribbon placed at the top of the frame. They were both smiling for the camera in front of their work.

That wasn’t what Lilith really wanted me to see though. There was another person in the frame of the image. There apparently was a third member of this art club. Some girl I didn’t recognize was standing on the other side of Malorie with one hand on Malorie’s shoulder. This girl wasn’t smiling though. In fact her place in the image seemed involuntary. She was looking away with a distant expression on her face, had her other hand in her coat pocket, and overall looked like she didn’t want to be there.

“It doesn’t look like they’re inside the school. Who’s this other girl?” I asked.

“I’ve got no idea but check out this text beneath the image. It says ‘Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls wins art contest at the Western Heights Public Library’. That place isn’t far from the school.” Lilith said.

“You’re right, it’s close. I’ve been there before. Do you think they might have more information on this contest photo?”

“There’s only one way to find out. We’ll go to that library directly.” Lilith said.