Lane Alexander sat in Helen's office, alone for now. He wasn't exactly sure why he'd been called in here, at 7.30, an hour and half before classes started or why the Blackbox Theatre, and the corridors leading up to it, was locked up tight and marked with police tape, but he could guarantee it wasn't a good sign. And that feeling he had went up when Helen walked in with a grave expression and two people in fitted casual suits, one male and one female.

"Lane. Thank you for coming in early." Helen nodded, taking a deep breath and seating herself behind her desk, as the two other new comers stood off to the side. "These are Detectives Diaz and Fowler."

"Why are there two detectives here?" He asked, raising one eyebrow. "Are all the kids OK?"

Helen glanced at the two officers before heaving a sigh. "Lane, do you remember a student here; Ryder Daniels?"

Lane raised an eyebrow. "Yes. He graduated last year. Had a few issues but not too bad a kid."

"Last night, Ryder Daniels was stabbed to death in the Black Box Theatre." The female detective, Diaz, stated, crossing her arms.

"Oh my God..." Lane's eyes widened before his breath caught in his throat. Because he was pretty sure he had given another student permission to stay late in the Blackbox last night. "Jade! Jade West should have been in there, practicing her monologue for an audition...is she OK?" As a teacher, Lane knew he shouldn't have favourites, but there was just something about Jade that tickled him the right way; she was wickedly funny, incredibly talented and off the charts intelligent. He admittedly favoured that whole friend group.

"Well...yes and no." Fowler ran his hands through his hair. "Jade West was the one who stabbed him."

Lane froze, as did Helen; this was evidentially the first she'd heard of that part of the story too. "What do you mean? Jade's a little different, but she's not a murderer!" Helen exclaimed; eyes wide.

"We're currently...looking into it being self defence." Fowler explained, eyes trained on the guidance counsellor. They were almost always veritable gold mines when it came to cases like this, with schools. They knew the inner goings on of the school, moreso than the rest of the teachers, and could give the most information about students and their behaviour. It was always best to get on the sweet side of high school guidance counsellors when having to investigate in a high school. "I hope you both know that this is highly confidential information that cannot leave this room. But...has there any been any issues between Jade West and Ryder Daniels?"

Helen shook her head, but the Detectives eyes were more focused on Lane. "There was an incident but...Jade was barely involved. Ryder started dating another student..." Lane gave a hard swallow. "Tori Vega." Both Lane and Helen looked down, swallowing hard at the mention of the girl. "It turned out Ryder had a habit of using girls for his grades and when Tori and her friends found out, they publicly shamed and embarrassed him. But Jade had nothing to do with it, it simply enhanced tensions between Ryder and that group of friends." It was still hard to talk about the youngest Vega, even almost a year later. "Other than that, out of all of that group of friends, Jade was the only one who was on even semi-decent terms with him. I think they lived next door to each other. He gave her rides to school if her and her boyfriend were fighting. But over the last few months...he's been seen around the school again, even though he's graduated. I've spotted him talking to Jade once or twice. Jade always looked...off. I thought it was just because she didn't want her friends or boyfriend to see her speaking with him." Lane shifted a little awkwardly. He didn't like talking about the gossip he heard about his students, but he had a feeling these were extenuating circumstances. "According to gossip, Ryder had some fairly...intense feelings for Jade. This put him at odds with the rest of the group, because of her boyfriend."

Diaz and Fowler glanced at each other. 'Intense Feelings'? That certainly lined up with what had been theorized, that Daniels had been stalking Jade. And he had been showing up at the school when he didn't even go there anymore, and speaking to an 'off' looking Jade?

"Had Jade come to you with any issues or worries recently?" Diaz asked, jotting notes down in her small notebook. "Worries about a stalker for instance?"

Helen and Lane's eyes met briefly, and Helen nodded. "There have been issues with Jade and another student here. Not Ryder." Helen added, as if pre-empting the question. "Sinjin Van Cleef. He's a rather...odd child. He's been noted as having rather obsessive feelings for Jade. But Jade never seemed too worried about him and never complained, even if a teacher brought it up with her. She seems to have an understanding with him and has no issue with putting him in his place."

"She has been a lot more...clingy with her boyfriend though recently. I've noticed that he seems to never let her go anywhere in school alone. But they go through phases like that sometimes." Lane added. "She's a very closed off girl. She wouldn't tell a staff member unless she felt she had too."

"You said Ryder used girls for his grades. Was he ever...forceful or violent towards them?" Fowler asked curiously, glancing down at Diaz's notes to make sure they were covering everything.

"Not that I know of." Lane shook his head. "We've never had any complaints from girls about him; even when he was found out, the humiliation and revenge was carried out with the staff having no knowledge. His issues were all fairly tame. He got in a few fights with Beck Oliver or Andre Harris once or twice. But mostly, it was just smoking on school grounds or skipping classes."

"Beck Oliver and Andre Harris?" Diaz jumped in. Those names kept getting mentioned, especially Beck Oliver. "And one of them is the boyfriend of Jade?" She remembered David, just a few hours earlier, had mentioned both of those names, along with two others.

Helen nodded. "Beck, he's our Star Actor, along with Jade. He and Jade have been dating for a long time. Since before I came to this school."

Lane jumped in. "I think they started dating before they started Freshman year. A few bumps and breakups along the way but they're very close. They're somewhat known as the 'It Couple' of Hollywood Arts." A brief smile crossed Lane's face as he thought of the very volatile but very loving couple.

"What about Harris?"

"Andre is a musical prodigy at the school. And also, Beck and Jade's best friend. He's known to be very defensive of Jade, almost as much as Beck is." Lane explained, deciding not to let the detectives in on his small hunch that Andre had feelings deeper than friendship towards Jade. He wasn't 100% sure of it, afterall.

"And is there need for people to be...'defensive' of her?" Fowler asked. "Is she bullied or harassed?"

Helen and Lane glanced at each other and Helen sighed. "Jade seems to attract...negative attention. Mostly just rumours about her being...fairly promiscuous. Accusations of her cheating, sleeping around. We think they're mostly coming from girls who are jealous of her for dating Beck. Sometimes some male students try and get a little fresh with her because they believe the rumours."

"All completely untrue." Lane added in, before noticing the questioning looks. "Jade...wouldn't ever be able to be 'easy'. She has a fairly bad case of haphephobia; the fear of being touched. Only a very select few people touch her, unless she's performing. If she's in character it's fine but otherwise...the only ones she lets touch her are her boyfriend, Andre, Cat Valentine and occasionally Robbie Shapiro."

Fowler and Diaz looked at each other before Diaz asked the obvious question in their minds. "Was...Ryder Daniels one of the people who had 'permission' to touch her?"

Lane shook his head. "No. Not at all. There was a confrontation between Beck and Ryder in the halls once, and Jade stepped in between them. Ryder put a hand on her shoulder and she threatened to castrate him if he ever did it again."

"You said that you thought it was self-defence and then discussed a stalker? What exactly happened in my school." Helen asked, her voice deep. And despite the fact the two detectives were used to dealing with all types of criminals, they realised they didn't want to tangle with this woman. Especially when practically accusing one of her star students of murder.

"Although not proven but...all evidence points to Ryder Daniels attacking Jade West in the Black Box Theatre last night." Fowler explained.

"Attacking her?" Lane asked, sitting up a little. Ryder hadn't seemed the type; charming bad boy, yes. Violent thug? No.

"From what we can tell...he beat Jade around the head and face, held her at knife point and then proceeded to rape her." Fowler shot Diaz an exasperated look, all too used to his partners blunt attitude when discussing sensitive things. He often thought it was the only way she could get through giving the news without being too upset herself.

Diaz, however, studied the reactions of the guidance counsellor and the principle. Both of their eyes went wide and Lane covered his mouth in shock.

"Midway through, it seems like she got the knife from him and stabbed him in the neck." Fowler gently said, knowing it may give the two educators a little bit of hope. That she had fought back and won against her attacker. "I know this is all a shock, but we need you to keep this completely under wraps for now. If any word of it gets out, it could affect the case as a whole if it goes to court. Now, Mr Alexander, Ms Dubois...what was Jade West like? Her personality, her attitude. We have to explore every avenue with this case for...multiple different reasons."

Lane sighed, running his hands through his close-cropped curly hair, obviously shaken. "Jade is...I guess you could say difficult. She's very honest, to the point of cruelty and refuses to sugar coat anything. She's quite dark and angry, and has a very vivid and bloody imagination. She has a genius level intellect as well. If she was at any other school, I think they would have pushed her into university by age 15 to be honest." Lane shook his head with a small smile. "She's a talented actress, singer and dancer; one of the stars of the school, as we said, alongside her boyfriend. But Jade is...well, troubled. She's been caught smoking on school grounds, skipping classes occasionally, getting into fights with other students. She's not a bad kid." Lane promised, shaking his head. "But she's...she's had a hard life."

Diaz and Fowler glanced at each other. "A...hard life? I was under the impression Mr West doted on his daughter." From what they'd managed to get out of Officer Vega after the briefing this morning, Mr West was ridiculously protective of his only child and spoiled her rotten.

"Mr West does. Jade however, hasn't always lived with her father." Lane sighed. "I don't know all of the details but I did get her record from her middle school sent over when she started at Hollywood Arts. I know the guidance counsellor at Page Academy, Jade's Middle School. Jade lived with her mother and her mothers boyfriend from age 6 to 12, after her father left her mother. It was...not a good environment. My best professional guess? From what I've heard from Jade and seen in her behaviour, along with her middle school file...her mother and the boyfriend were drug abusers. And Jade suffered physical and sexual abuse from a young age in that house. When she was 12, the boyfriend killed her mother and she was sent to live with her father, who'd had no idea there was even a boyfriend in the house."


"Abused from a young age..." Fowler stated as they headed to the meeting room, where they'd be conducting some interviews with the students, primarily Jade's friend group. "That would explain her overly violent reaction to Ryder Daniels. A stab in the throat is normally powered by pure rage. She didn't go for his stomach or even his crotch, which a lot of rape victims would. The throat means it was a deep seated anger, not just a fumbled reaction." Fowler said to Diaz, and it was looking more and more like this was just a dog-and-pony show. The facts all pointed at one thing and now they were just going through needless questions. But it was what the top brass wanted for this case. "Who're we speaking to first?"

Diaz glanced down at her notes. "I think they're sending in Caterina Valentine first. Seems to be the only female friend Jade has, so hopefully, she maybe opened up to her."


Authors Note

The plot thickens and the mystery continues! This story will be split into two parts - interviews with the related characters (with most of them having flashbacks to the incidents) and then a part two, which is a surprise!

Hints of what happened to Tori in this chapter, and you find out for definite at the end of the next chapter, which is when it starts to pick up a little more. This chapter was more just establishing the case and the relationship between Ryder and the gang post-Begging on Your Knees.

Hope you enjoyed!