No More Trees

Summary: Mr. Sweet really hates trees

Evie's Notes: Happy Friday! I hope you all had a wonderful week . Thank you so much your support of this story, it truly means the world to me 💜! I hope that you all enjoy the this new update 🌺.


Liliana wasn't quite sure how long it took for the cop car and ambulance to arrive. She stood shivering in the autumn chill, wrapped in Mick's sports jacket. As soon as he got off the phone with the emergency operator, Mick had dashed back into the house to get Vera and Victor. Lili knew that she should do something, but she was paralyzed by the sight of her yearmate lying on his side bleeding from their head. She couldn't believe it, Jason had just been playing music at the party, dancing, celebrating and so just full of life.

"...the victim?" asked the cop.

Shaking her head, Lili tried to lock away her shock, she needed to focus. "I beg your pardon, what was the question?"

"Officer Roebuck was just asking what you were doing when you spotted Mr. McCreery" explained Vera, passing Lili a thermos of hot chocolate.

"Oh, I was taking out the trash with Mick" replied Lili, her eyes locked on the white cloth that had been draped over Jason's body.

"And then what happened?" prompted the cop.

"Well we were walking towards the bins and I tripped over what I thought was a log… only it was really" here Lili cut herself off as she couldn't bring herself to actually say the words. She just gestured over towards the cloth covered body of Joy's bandmate.

"How did you hurt your hands?" asked Officer Roebuck, jotting down her responses on a notepad.

"I cut them in the driveway when I tripped. I used Mick's handkerchief to wipe them off and then used my phone to figure out what… or well who, I had tripped over" explained Lili.

"Is that when you had Mr. Campbell call 999?"

"Yeah, he called 999 and then ran back to the house to get Victor and Vera. Victor checked Jason's body for a pulse… but he couldn't find one" sniffed Liliana, swaying slightly as the night's events began to catch up with her.

"Is there any way we can reschedule any other questions for another day?" asked Vera, placing a supportive hand on Lili's shoulder.

"I think I've got everything I need. I will give you a call if the students need to come down for any follow up interviews" decided Officer Roebuck. Waving over Mick and Victor who were standing off to the side, the officer let the group know that they were free to go to bed. The cop and the medical team would handle things from here.

It took a bit of light prodding to get the students moving, but the adults were soon able to convince the pair to go to bed.

* Scent of Lavender * Scent of Lavender *

A heavy air hung about the house in the days that followed, almost as if a dark cloud had rolled in with Jason's death. The police had apparently ruled it an accidental death, saying Jason tripped and hit his head on the asphalt, the force of the blow leading to his death. Lili wasn't so sure, something just wasn't lining up with that conclusion. She couldn't shake the image of Jason's body lying so still on the ground his brown hair matted with blood. Amber, Jerome and Alfie all assured her it was just trauma messing with her brain, but trusting the local cops wasn't something Lili was prone to do.

Wednesday brought the group's second business studies class and Liliana was thankful that academics provided a great escape from her current troubles. Lili had enjoyed messing around on the ancestry website the school had paid the subscriptions for and had discovered so many cool things about her family. The site held marriage certificates, deeds, wills and so much more! Opening her laptop, Lili pulled up her family tree document, excited to share her findings with her teacher and class.

Eddie stomped angrily into the classroom and threw himself down in his seat next to Joy. "I should have known better than to go to my dad for support or sympathy" griped the boy.

Joy just hummed encouragingly and patted his arm as she proofread an article Jace had sent her for The Jackal.

"I can't believe how normal he wanted to pretend to be! Like for crying out loud my friend just died and he's asking after my love life! And then when I brought up our family tree project he acted like a complete maniac and kicked me out of his office. I didn't even get to finish my sandwich" pouted Eddie.

Patricia, hearing the complaint, threw a granola bar at him, smacking Eddie right in the middle of his forehead. "Thanks yacker!".

The rapping of Miss Denby's knuckles on the desk brought the class to attention. "Good afternoon students! It's great to have you all back. Today's class will be two parts. In the first half you will be sharing what we have learned of our family trees so far. In the second half of the class we will be discussing the importance of knowing oneself and how you get your energy. We will be taking two online personality tests which will help you to understand how to best manage your connections with others. Can I get a volunteer to go first in sharing their family research?"

Unfortunately the professor was interrupted by a knock on the door before she could select a speaker from the raised students. "Miss Denby, may I speak with you for a moment?" demanded Mr. Sweet, popping his head into the room.

"Very well, Joy you are in charge" declared the teacher, before following her boss out of the room.

"I wonder what that's about?" asked Jerome.

"Probably Mr. Sweet's apparent aversion to family trees" posited Joy.

"Yeah, he just kept yelling 'No, No, No' over and over again as he ushered me out of the room" added Eddie. "No clue as to why, since my secret birth has been revealed already, but who knows what else he wants to keep secret".

"Well hopefully Denby puts him in his place, I actually like this project" suggested Jude.

"Wouldn't bank on it Dude, Sweetie is literally purple" sighed Rhyn from their place by the window.

"Okay everybody, computers off" ordered Miss Denby as she reentered the room. "The family tree project has been officially canceled".

"But why?" protested Tanya, one of the commuter students.

"I have absolutely no idea. Orders from above I'm afraid" sighed the teacher. "But all clouds come with a bit of sun… Now we have extra time for our personality type discussions!".

* Scent of Lavender * Scent of Lavender *

"So I did some research on that mystery bracelet you received Amber" commented Nina, as she lay on her belly with her laptop resting on the comforter before her. "It says here that in antiquity the layout symbolized the god of Anubis".

"Of course it did" whined Amber. "Why can't a pretty piece of jewelry ever just be a pretty piece of jewelry?".

"Because you are best friends with a girl from the line of Anubis priestesses, it comes with the territory" teased Nina. "Anyways, after I found that it tied to my family, I checked some of Sarah's journals and actually found an entry about it! Apparently the gold band is supposed to represent unity, while the teal stones are representing me. The black stones represent the god Anubis while the amber pieces, representing firey protection, represent Eddie".

"Huh, that is pretty cool. What was it used for?"

"It's supposed to be a grounding symbol to be worn in ceremonies. The priestess would be able to use the band as a way to stay connected with the real world while conducting a ritual".

"Well I guess you should have it then" sighed Amber sadly, it truly was a beautiful bracelet.

"How about you hold on to it for me" suggested Nina. "I'll let you know when I'm holding any ceremonies and borrow it then".

"Awesome! You've got a deal" grinned Amber, happily placing the gorgeous cuff back on her wrist.


Evie's Notes 2: Thank you all so much for reading 💕! I hope you enjoyed this update, let me know your favorite part of in the comments! I hope to see you all next week 💗!

I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story as a whole in the comments or my Tumblr House-of-Secrets! Have a great week and stay safe! - Xo Evie🌺