19 people sat in a big room on the top floor of their old university. Roman, Seth, Dean, Charlotte, Becky, Bayley, Damian, Rhea, Liv, Carlito, Finn, Grayson, Raquel, Lyra, Drew, Chelsea, Braun, Alexa and Aleister. The university had been kind enough to let them use the school for their reunion. Of course it helped that Raquel was working there as a teacher now. Liv was Raquel's best friend and she had been in charge of arranging the whole thing.

"Isn't someone missing?" Alexa asked.
"Yeah, Kathleen," Carlito said.
"Didn't you invite her, Liv?" Damian asked.
"Didn't she die?" Seth asked.

There was silence for two seconds and then Liv cleared her throat.

"She jumped off a cliff, I think," Liv said.
"I thought she fell," Rhea said.
"I heard someone pushed her," Dean said.
"Who?" Roman asked.
"I don't know," Dean shrugged. "Look, man, it was just something I heard."
"You got it wrong. She drowned," Drew said.
"You all got it wrong," Lyra said. "It was Alba from a year below us who drowned. I know we all remember Kathleen as the sad girl with no friends but don't go around claiming she killed herself when Alba is the one who tragically passed away. You're pissing on both of them by creating fake rumors like that. Alba deserves respect. Some of us still miss her."

A few of them mumbled their apologies. Lyra was right. It wasn't fair to Kathleen or Alba.

"Anyway," Liv put on a smile. "Let's dive in before the food gets cold. I ordered a little of everything for a lovely buffet for us all since I don't know what kind of diets or allergies you're all having these days."

They all got up and walked over to the long table and started plating food. They sat back down to eat while talking to each other. Aleister suddenly looked up and his eyes widened.

"Kathleen?" Aleister asked.

They all looked towards the door to see the woman with long, straight, ginger hair and amber eyes walk towards them.

"Aw, you started without me," Kathleen said.

Kathleen grabbed a chair from the stack placed in the side of the room and dragged it over to the head of the table. Liv sat on the opposite head of the table while the remaining 18 sat on the sides.

"I heard you were dead," Braun blurted out.
"So did I," Dean said.
"So who killed me?" Kathleen asked.

She looked around but no one had anything to say. It was absurd to even have this conversation when she was right there.

"Did any of you go to my funeral?" Kathleen asked.

Once again they all remained quiet. None of them had cared to check if anything they heard was true. The truth was that Kathleen had never fit in. She was bullied relentless. Liv was the class leader organizing everything, and most of them went along with it while the rest kept quiet to avoid becoming Liv's next target. To them Kathleen was an outsider and had no friends so they hadn't cared about her dying or not. It was just another random conversation topic to them.

"So you all heard I was dead but didn't care enough to actually reach out to anyone about it. Gee, thanks guys," Kathleen laughed.

Kathleen laughing made several of them join in. She wasn't mad and the reunion could go on as planned.

"I must apologize for being late," Kathleen said. "You see, I didn't get an invite. I happened to lurk on Chelsea's social medias an hour ago and saw she had posted about going. I got ready as fast as I could and came here. I assume it was a mistake or my invitation got lost in the mail."
"I didn't have your address," Liv said.
"Did you have any of our addresses or did you have to look us up?" Roman asked.

Liv looked angry for a split second about being called out but then put on a fake smile.

"But you're here now. No harm done. Let's continue the party. Grab a plate and eat," Liv said.
"I'm not hungry," Kathleen said. "But I am ready to party."
"Great!" Liv giggled fakely.
"Didn't you use glasses back in the days?" Finn asked.
"I don't need them anymore," Kathleen said.
"Why not?" Finn asked.
"My eyes magically got better," Kathleen said.
"Really? How?" Finn asked.

Becky laughed and reached a hand over to ruffle Finn's hair.

"Contact lenses, Finn," Becky said.
"Right," Finn laughed at his own stupidity. "That makes sense. I'm not all that bright today."
"Or tomorrow or any other day," Bayley said.
"Hey!" Finn protested.
"This is what I love to see. People laughing and remembering the good, old days," Charlotte said. "Let me put on some music."