Would You Really Tell?

"Louis!" Ren's voice broke the surprisingly existing silence of Louis' bedroom that evening.

"What?" Louis asked. "I'm trying to concentrate on becoming my character."

"For one thing, you don't have a character," Ren replied. "You haven't even turned in your slip yet! And another thing: if you do anything stupid at all on this trip, it'll be my neck."

"Don't you mean my neck?"

"No, my neck. It's my responsibility and if anything happens, my entire high school career could fall to pieces, especially if my high school teachers found our that you're my brother."

"Oh, come on, Ren," Louis replied casually, placing his arm around his sister's shoulders. "You're acting like I've already ruined your life again. Don't you worry about me. I'll be on my best behavior."

He gave her a goofy smile and pinched her cheek.

"Uh!" Ren pushed away. "Whatever, just whatever."

She started to walk away, but Louis grabbed her arm. "So, Miss High School Helper, when do we find out our characters? Who's making the decisions? They'd better be good."

"Turn in your slip first, then we'll talk." Ren returned Louis's casualty.

She shooed her him away and headed into her room.

>>>>

"Now," Ren said to herself back in her own neat room. She seated herself at her computer. "What would be the perfect character for dear Louis?"

She began typing away at her keyboard.

"Tawny? Twitty? Allison?" The typing didn't cease.

>>>>

"So, are you guys excited to see your characters?" Allison asked the next day in the lunch line. "I heard that we should be getting them in the mail pretty soon."

"Yeah, and if any of us is the murderer, we have a pact to tell each other, no matter what," Twitty added.

"Oh, definitely," Louis replied, grabbing two extra bowls of chocolate pudding behind the lunch lady's back. "What fun is it waiting until the end? It's a done deal."

"So, where's this place again?" Twitty asked as the group carried their lunch trays outside to eat. "I keep forgetting."

"Stevenson House," Tom Grabulski said, approaching the group. "It's located downtown. I hear that it's this huge mansion with all these cool artifacts from the old age—the Victorian Age. It should be really cool."

"Yeah, we know, Tom," Louis said.

He set his tray next to Tawny and seated himself.

"So, are you fellows looking forward to next week?" Tom asked, scooting Allison over to make room for himself. "This murder mystery is going to be so cool! I can feel my heart beating with both nervousness and excitement!"

"Yeah, can't wait," Louis replied, not wanting to encourage Tom to continue talking.

"Yeah. . .I'm ecstatic," Tawny added. She forced a smile.

"It's gonna be the bomb!" Tom exclaimed, smiling broadly. "This will be the best spring break ever!"

"Now you sound like Ren," Louis commented, hoping to bring Tom down.

"I hope I'm not the murderer," Tom continued, paying Louis's comment no mind. "I don't believe in violence."

"Oh come on, Tom. That's the best part of the whole trip!" Allison laughed, seeming to have gotten over her anxiousness about the murderer. "Besides, it's all fake."

"But it's still scary. And what is also scary is the idea of leaving Doris alone at home for an entire week—you know, with all those crazy lunatics running around at night. She goes to the convention center to play Bingo during the week around 7:00 in the evening. I hope she comes home safely."

He became lost in thought, to the relief of Louis, Twitty, and Tawny. Allison, on the other hand, looked like she wanted to comfort Tom. She placed a consoling hand on Tom's arm, but luckily, he remained quiet.

Tawny broke the moment of silence. "It's fun being the hider, or victim too," she pointed out. "You never know who's going to be behind you—"

"Hey, guys!"

"Ah!" Tawny jumped. She turned to see Ren standing behind her.

"Sorry, Ren," Tawny apologized. "You scared me."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ren smiled. "Well, it's my free period at the high school so I decided to come down here and make sure that you all turned in your slips! I don't believe it was fair that they only gave you one day to turn them in. You see, we didn't get the opportunity to go on the trip until last Wednesday afternoon, and we had to act fast because spring break is next week—"

"I can't wait," Louis interrupted.

"I am so ecstatic!" Tawny added sincerely (as an actress, at least).

"It'll be fun!" Allison added.

Tom's face fell. "I'm just worried about Doris."

"Oh, Tom, your mother will be fine. Remember what we talked about yesterday."

Tom's face brightened and he laughed (and not to mention snorted). "Oh yeah. Thanks, Ren!"

"Oh, it was nothing," Ren smiled. "So, after you finish your food, remember to go to the office and hand in your slips!"

Then she was gone, well, at the next table at least.

"Well, I guess we should get our slips in now," Tawny said, standing.

"And remember our pact!" Louis added. "Tom, are you in?"

"I think I might try to be surprised," Tom said. "But I'll sleep on it anyway and tell you Monday."

Everyone threw away their trash and headed inside to the office. Halfway there, Louis remembered, "Hold on, I left my slip in my locker."

Every stopped and waited as Louis opened his locker. The second he opened the door, everyone jumped back, but they weren't surprised.

A mound of junk, rising up about a foot, fell out of Louis's locker. Louis bent over and picked a small water gun out of the pile.

"I'll need you later," he said to it quietly, and then stood and stuffed it back into his locker.

Tawny started picking up the junk and stashing it back in Louis's locker, as Louis dug around for his permission slip.

"Got it!" He said as Tawny put the last thing, a rubber duck, back into the locker.

Louis shut the door, narrowly missing Tawny's finger, and the group continued down the hallway.

"Thank you for your slip, thank you for your slip, oh! Thank you for your slip! Have fun on the trip! Oh! That rhymed." Principal Wexler's secretary giggled as she continued to take each slip one at a time from the line of students in the office.

"Have fun!" She repeated over and over again as she accepted Louis, Twitty, Tawny, Allison, and Tom's permissions slips. "And beware of Stevenson House!" She added in a Dracula-like voice, a voice unlike her "peppy" talk she had been using for the other students.

"Oh, we will!" Louis said over his shoulder, exchanging a sly smile with Twitty.

>>>>

"Mail's here!" Ren called that Saturday. She dug around for her own letters, and also pulled out two "Murder Mystery" letters from the school, which she had proudly delivered to the school the day before.

They were pulled out of her hand immediately.

"It's about time!" Louis examined the two letters and tossed Ren's on the floor.

He tore open the letter and glued his eyes to it.

A/N: Suspense, suspense, suspense. . .tell me what you think!