To the four people who review this, I thank you graciously. Glad to know the work isn't unappreciated.

------

Friday, January 19th

Well, this week was my first back at school and at work. Mrs. Morrison was a lot more understanding about me missing work than Miss Fowely was about me missing school.

Agatha (Mrs. Morrison insists I call her by her first name now for some reason) hugged me when I came into work on Monday. She heard about Terry (then again, everyone's heard about Terry. News like that travels really fast in a tiny town like this one. Hell, any kind of news travels fast in a town like this one.) and called me into her office to ask if I wanted to talk about it.

I don't know why, but I spilled my guts to her.

I can't talk about it with mom, but to Mrs. Morrison I can. She just...she seems to understand. You know, now that I think about it, it occurs to be that she reminds me of nana a little bit. She has that same disarming way of getting me to talk about something I don't want to.

Speaking of mom, she's been acting...weird lately. It's nothing I can put my finger on, but something is up. She doesn't deal with death very well, I guess.

She's also been watching me like a hawk whenever I'm at home. Like she expects me to off myself at any given moment.

I still don't believe that Terry killed herself. I was talking about it with Leah and she said that she went out with Terry the day before and she seemed perfectly fine. Not so much as a hint of depression.

It still doesn't feel real. It's like I'm living someone elses life because surely nothing like this could ever happen to me and my friend. I mean...I'm seventeen. This kind of thing just...doesn't happen. Does it? We're supposed to have our whole lives ahead of ourselves.

It's not fair.

Saturday, January 20th

Was called in to work on my day off again.

Clark was there...again.

He told me he didn't stand me up. Amber is stalking him, apparently. Can't deal with the fact he dumped her for being too clingy.

Yeah, right. Like he's God's gift to girls.

Anyway...he asked me out again. I only semi-turned him down. I'm still grounded until the end of February, after all, so the only time I'd be able to see him outside of school is at work.

Besides, I'm not much in the mood to date. It's only been a couple of weeks since Terry...

Speaking of which, Leah told me that Terry's mom is moving out of Springwood. She's really shaken up and I can't blame her. I can't imagine what she's going through. First her marriage breaks up and then her only child dies.

Monday, January 22th

Terry's mom came over today. She brought a folder full of stuff that was Terry's. She said that she wanted me to have it.

It's her research on the serial killer from Ohio.

The Springwood Slasher.

I think I'm going to throw up.