Chapter 1- Mysterious Student Five

Realizations and Trust

Chapter 1- Mysterious Student Five

“See that boy over there?” Hiding behind a corner Alic pointed to a carrot topped, curly haired boy with glasses struggling to juggle multiple books while pulling out more from his locker.

“Yes I do, just get to the point!” Maya snapped. This was the fifth person Alic had pointed out to her while refusing to say anything further.

“Touchy! His name is Benjamin and he along with the other four all have a similar issue or problem. Your task is to find out what it is and who the sixth person is that began it all. Then you are to help resolve this problem. Good luck!” With these final parting words Alic dashed away before Maya could utter a single salable of response.

“This is child's play.” Maya said to the Alic's retreating back with a confident smile on her face.

The first thing Maya did was information gathering. Maya discreetly followed Student 1, Julie, a short haired blond with a pixie cut, hazel eyes, average height, and a lean figure, to her track and field practice. Quickly jotting down notes into her case book Maya wrote the following information she retrieved through Julie's fellow track members, using the excuse of a class assignment.

Student 1- Julie. She is popular, dedicated to track, and almost a straight A student. When asked about any usual occurrences was informed of a falling out between her and her best friend Rylee, who is on the school dance team and is Student 2. Rylee is described as having long dark brown hair, light brown eyes, above average height, and hour glass figure. No other information was able to be attained, requesting that she speak to Julie directly about the reasoning behind the falling out.

Walking away in search of Student 2, Maya was annoyed by the foolish loyalty that prevented her from attaining valuable insight. Maya's found herself being overwhelmed by thoughts of her childhood. It was her first foster home. The wife Lacy was a personal secretary to her husband Matthew who owned a law firm. They were well off and gave Maya anything she asked for. When she took an interest in the cases at the firm and gave her thoughts on some things she saw missing or things they could use to win the case, she was often asked to help. One day she saw the light on in the study and went to knock on the door until she herd her name mentioned.

“I knew Maya would be useful!” Matthew said with enthusiasm. “When I heard abut her parent's death and the investigation a brilliant idea came to me and I bribed someone into showing me their file. If we had the surviving daughter in our home we would defiantly land the case when they caught that basted. I would be the first one to represent their case and we would be raking in the dough. However, who knew that she would be a genius. These cases we have falsified she has somehow found ways to make them believable. We've won almost every trial. All we have to do is keep the little brat happy and we will make it all the way to the top!”

Ten year old Maya cried herself to sleep that night and then the next morning came up with a plan to ruin their firm and get out of that horrible house. When all the law cases started to fail and they realized what was going on Maya had enough blackmail to get her transferred to another home. When the next home and the next home turned out to be full of the same selfish and underhanded people she decided the most foolish thing anyone could ever do was to trust.

Shaking her head to rid the memories Maya set her mind on the task at hand. Walking into the gym she saw the girls hard at work on their routine. When the signal for a ten minute break was given Maya approached the girl that seemed to dislike Rylee the most with the same school assignment excuse as before. Rachel had no restraint towards dishing out dirt on Rylee.

Student 2- Rylee. People think she is kind but transparent. She has one of the lowest grades in the school and loves gossip. She is often given attention by any male and commonly switches out boyfriends. When asked about the falling out between Rylee and Julie was given may useless assumptions based on bias but was told no one knows for sure. Inquired information on Student 3, Benjamin. Was informed he is a nerd with little social skills and bullied. Is often seen running errands for Jake the Student Body Secretary. When asked who was in the Student Body was surprised to find Alic is President. The Vice Presidency is vacant when previous individual stepped down for unknown reasons, used to be Alic's best friend Rick (Investigate further).Treasurer is Subject 1 Julie and Public Relations Directer is Subject 2 Rylee.

Maya felt disappointment raise in her chest then tried to dismiss it. She knew there was a reason Alic was so persistent, so why feel disappointed? There was no logical reason to. She came into this bet understanding he couldn't be trusted and there was more underneath his mask. He was using her to benefit him in his role as Student Body President. Now she just needed to find out how.

With new determination Maya set out to find Rick. Pulling up the school website on her phone she clicked on Rick's picture. He could rival Alic in looks with his beach blond hair, blue eyes, sturdy build, and tall frame. Looking through his bio she found the helpful information she needed. Looking at her watch Maya realized it was getting late. Debating for a bit Maya reached the conclusion that she might just catch him as he was leaving after all being the captain of the baseball team he problem is the last one to leave. As luck had it Rick was just stepping off the field as she approached him.

“What do I owe the pleasure of speaking with the beautiful but notorious ice queen?” She was used to being descried as such. With her long straight black hair, olive skin, green eyes, and tall skinny yet curvy figure she was often told she had the body and beauty of a model but her cold eyes and comments usually deterred any welcomed attention.

Deciding honesty was the best way to get him to talk Maya explained about her bet with Alic and asked what he knew about all the students involved. Ricks face fail and didn't answer for an uncomfortable period of time. Abiding her time well she looked directly into Rick's eyes trying to intimidating him into answering honestly.

“I don't care about your bet with Alic find someone else to ask.” Surprised that her usual method didn't work she tried her next one which boarded on humiliating. Giving her best pouting and flirtatious face she responded, “Come on I don't like Alic either, you can be open with me. It might work to both our advantage.”

“Does that usually work?” Rick responded with mocking curiosity.

“Yes it usually does for your information!” Anger flowed visibly throughout her body. How dare he mock her! Resorting to one of her most effective methods she tried to play to common human selfish persuasion which in this case is to play on his emotions for revenge towards Alic. The most likely reason for a fight between guys is probably a girl which she could use to stir him up.

“I know you had a falling out with Alic and knowing what I know of him there must have been a very good reason. He isn't what he appears to be with that fake friendly and charming manner. He probably did something to steal your girl. So if you help me I'll help you with destroying his plans and reviling his true self the the whole of the school.”

“How dare you! You know nothing about Alic he is exactly as he appears. If you mess with him I'll mess with you!” Taken back by his defense of Alic she stared blankly at Rick and honestly asked, “I thought you hated Alic, why defend him?”

“I'm the one he hates! We both liked the same girl, Julie, and I was the one who stole her. Even after telling her the truth and breaking up with her I could never gain back his trust or forgiveness. I'm the one who's fake pretending nothing happened and that I'm still a good guy.” For the first time in her life she saw true honesty and vulnerability in someone's eyes. Her mind went back to the time before her parents died and she had a fight with her parents. She couldn't remember what it was about but she sharply recalled the look in her parents eyes when they asked her to forgive them. It was the same look Rick had in his and for the first time in a long time she reached out in compassion and held his hand.

Rick looked up in surprise never before would he had believed that the ice queen could show compassion he was so surprised he almost missed what she said. “I'm sorry I was wrong. I am usually right about people and their motives. With the information I gathered on this case I assumed he had ulterior motives in this bet to help raise his potion as the Student Body President. I'm still not convinced that isn't what this is but I believe you when you said he wasn't at fault for your falling out. It was wrong of me to push you into trying to give details in this case. I'll be going now.

“Wait!” Turning around she saw him struggling to respond. “Alic doesn't care to raise his position as the Student Body President he usually is looking for ways to help people. I'm sure there is someone involved in this case that he is trying to help. My guess would be Benjamin. As you probably know Ben is bullied by a lot of guys in this school but the one that bullies him the most is likely Jake. Jake had blackmail on me that he said he would tell Julie about if I didn't ruin the relationship between Alic and Julie. I gave him a secret of Alic's to have Jake use to ruin their relationship. Afterward I regretted what I did but it was too late. I don't want Benjamin or anyone else to be forced into doing something like what I did. I'm sure Jake has dirt on Benjamin that he is using to make him do his bidding. Please help Alic with his plan.”

“If it turns out you're right I promise I'll try.” As Maya turned around for the first time she realized that people can change. Rick's honesty and sorrow were real. She truly believed he was sorry for what he did and wanted to change and be better. Why else would he be so open with her and trust her to help Alic. Not to mention by reviling his involvement with Jake he put himself in danger.

Looking at her watch and realizing there wasn't any more time to investigate she headed towards her used red catalytic. While driving to her new foster home she analyzed and compacted all the information she acquired. From what she understood abut Jake's personality he is incredibly good at manipulation and planning. He wouldn't be sitting in the position of Student Body Secretary if he wasn't. She concluded that Benjamin was being blackmailed into starting the fight between Julie and Rylee. As for why Jake wanted them to fight, the most likely explanation would be that since both are part of the Student Council if their relationship gets worse then one or both would drop out leaving the only two remaining positions being Jake's and Alic's.

Jake's most probable ambition would be the position of Student Boby President but couldn't get it before due to Alic's popularity. If so many people drop from the Student Council then it questions Alic's position forcing the school to redo the election with the most likely candidate for Student Body President being Jake. All she needed to do was find out why Julie and Rylee are fighting and who the mysterious Student 5 is who started the process. Meaning it's the person who got the information to Jake so Benjamin could plant it. Benjamin couldn't have obtained the information since he doesn't know Julie and Rylee well.

The hardest part would be finding Student 5 who would would seem to be the only person who knows beside Jake weather it was verbal or written information shared. There could be a chance Julie and/or Rylee would know, but how could she get them to tell her? Maya pulled into the garage attached to the small yellow three bedroom house and got out of her car when an idea struck her.

Smiling to herself she opened the back door of the house leading into the kitchen and walked in. Then her smile dropped when she saw her foster mom, Abigail, cooking in the kitchen. Maya usually got home from school earlier and went straight to her bedroom to work on her online college classes. Her bedroom was downstairs which had it's own little a kitchen and living room area. Much of the time she could avoid Abigail and pretend she lived on her own. This was not one of those times.

“Good evening! I'm making dinner if you want some?” Abigail cheerfully greeted. Abigail was a great chef and owned her own restaurant. You would think being a chef she would avoid cooking outside her work place but it didn't seem to bother her. From her larger figure you could tell she loved eating but she wasn't obese either. She also had an appealing face, shoulder length strawberry blond hair, and dark blue eyes so altogether she was a fairly attractive woman.

Before she could respond the appetizing smell of freshly baked garlic bread and lasagna reached Maya's nose and unfortunately it set off her stomach with a loud growl echoing throughout the kitchen. “I'm taking that as a yes. Take a sit it should be done in five minutes.” Finding no way out of her predicament Maya silently sat herself down knowing that soon Abigail would start overloading her with questions. When five minutes pasted and no questions came Maya became concerned.

Looking over she saw Abigail looking longingly at a picture in her hands. At first she thought it was a picture of her husband who had passed away a couple years back but when the timer beeped and scared her the picture flew from her hands and landed on the floor where Maya could see it. It was a picture of a newborn baby girl taken at a hospital. After Abigail pulled the lasagna from the over she looked over and saw Maya looking at the picture. She carefully picked up the picture and set it on the counter. While scooping up the food and putting it on the plates she brought them over and sat down then began her tail.

“My husband and I had a hard time conceiving. When I found out I was finally pregnant we were both so happy. I took extra care and when the due date arrived I bore a beautiful baby girl. However, there were complications during the delivery and she couldn't breath. After a couple weeks she seemed to be getting better and then unexpectedly grew worse and passed away. Due the complications during my delivery I found out I couldn't have children anymore or I would die. The picture I have of her is the only thing left and today would be her 9^th birthday.”

The first thought that came to Maya's head was that she was a replacement for a woman who wanted a daughter and not because she cared about Maya. Then she looked at Abigail's eyes and saw the same look as was in Rick's earlier and thought again. She had misjudged Rick what if she was doing the same for Abigail? While she thought about how to respond her question was answered.

“I know that you have had numerous terrible experiences with foster homes in the past. I don't know all the details but I do know you don't trust me. I don't expect you too but I want you to know I didn't agree to be your foster mom to replace the mom you lost or to replace my lost daughter. I just know that we both lost something precious in our lives and if you need someone to talk to I'm here. If you don't want to talk I understand I just want to provide you a place to stay that you don't have to worry about being used or expected to do things because you live in this house. I want you to feel like you have freedom and independence to choose what you want to do. You can even just think of me as a roommate or land lady if that helps. We both know you are more mature than your age and could be living on your own if it wasn't for the way the law is.”

As Maya lay in bed that night she thought of her strange day. Just one day she began to doubt all she ever know about trust. Could she finally start to trust? Or would she just get hurt all over again? She pondered on Abigail's words and how she couldn't find any underline motive. Maybe just maybe her life could be normal for just a little while.