Chapter 93 – Disturbing Revelations – Holly Hayfield

Erica had gathered new information on what Sofi and the Society of Sisters were planning. According to Erica, they were planning to use the spirit event to run an advertisement and smear campaign against the vice principal. While none of us cared about protecting Ms. Sampson from the negative press, we were concerned with the fact that the Matriarch's plans were going just as she wished. From the Matriarch's perspective, this school event was probably coming at the perfect time.

Naomi had dozens of questions about the Matriarch's motives and her plans since she didn't hear the full story from Sam. We could only answer so many of them. While we understood her motive well enough, the more exact details of her plans were still a mystery. We still didn't know how the Matriarch planned to turn student action into police action. This gave me the distinct impression that we were only seeing half of her plan. She was certaintly planning to use this in a bigger fashion, but the question was how?

All of the student council members were particularly annoyed to hear this. We spent so much time coming up with so many ideas and plans for the student council event. It was annoying that someone else was already trying to undermine it. If that weren't enough, they were abusing the school club system that we worked so hard to create. They claimed to be an official club, and were using a club room, but none of us recalled doing paper work for the Society of Sisters. It was more likely that they were never officialized as a club. If they created trouble for the staff under the guise of being an officially recognized school club then the teachers would blame us.

"She also mentioned that she's suspicious of a girl named Emily, but wants to look into her more before going into detail." I said. "She believes that Sofi may be involved with more than just the Society of Sisters stuff."

"This is going to make things harder for Alyssa." Jay noted.

"I don't know why Alyssa keeps trying to bring Sofi back instead of just making a new paranormal club of her own." Lilith said. "It isn't like we wouldn't agree to help her if she wanted to go for it. We know that she isn't the one at fault."

"It isn't solely about the club." I said. "Sofi was her best friend. It's only natural for Alyssa to try reeling her friend back from potential harm. That's part of what being a friend is about. Think about it like this, if you were in Sofi's shoes right now then all of us here would try talking you out of that position."

"She's right." Val agreed. "We're tied together now, beyond just the responsibilities of the student council. We have to look out for each other. That being said, we obviously can't let Sofi's plans go through."

"Well that much shouldn't be a problem, should it?" Sam asked. "Erica already told us that they're planning to use double-sided propaganda posters as a way of causing a stir."

"Which is why we'll intercept those," Val said.

Naomi, who was lying on the couch behind us, sat up straight upon hearing this.

"If I were them I'd probably have a backup method the moment that we kicked Erica out." Naomi said. "They'll probably assume that Erica told Ms. Sampson or something, right?"

"We'll need to look over the Society of Sister's club information on Monday." Jay said. "I don't think they're officially recognized as a club. If they're using a clubroom without permission then we can put that to a stop.”

"Then they'll go entirely to ChatCat and be even harder to monitor..." Val said.

Everyone went quiet for a moment while thinking about this. I decided to break the silence.

"For what it’s worth, Erica says she already has a hidden account in their group. She plans to keep tabs on whatever they're doing." I said.

"No offense, but I don't want to rely solely on what she says." Val said. "While you might trust her, I'll never be able to trust her again."

Sam inched away from the coffee table and started to get up.

"How about we put all this aside for now and make something to eat?" Sam asked. "I don't know about you all but I haven't had lunch. We just got a lot of groceries and to be honest I'm not as great a cook as my sister seems to believe I am."

"I am," Jay said. "How do you feel about fish and chips? That is, if you're okay with us using those ingredients, of course."

"Be my guest," Sam said, "You'll probably make better use of the ingredients than me or Naomi."

"Hey!" Naomi protested, "I'm not that bad of a cook!"

"You aren't," Sam admitted, "You just have a tendency to get easily distracted and burn things... Remember those pancakes you made yesterday...?"

Naomi mimicked the act of gagging.

"Please, don't remind me... I'll admit defeat. I'm still recovering from my stomach ache from yesterday." Naomi said.

Our cooking session together turned out to be quite fun. Sam and Naomi weren't lying about not being all that useful in the kitchen. Lilith, unsuprisingly, had little interest in cooking but was willing to stick beside me and watch. Val stayed behind in the living room to look over our spirit week notes. That meant Jay and I were the ones to lead our little cooking group. We actually shared a few laughs together while trying to teach the others. It was nice that we were finally getting along these days.

Come to think of it, this was the first time that the whole student council group was spending time together out of school in a relaxed environment. The only other time we really hung out outside of school was to investigate Ms. Logan's house. Compared to that, this was blissful. It was unfortunate that Val was choosing to sit out of this by staying in the living room. I decided I'd go talk to her and try encouraging her to join us. Surely she must've realized the importance of something like this, right?

I let Jay take over and told everyone that I'd go ask if Val wanted to join us in the kitchen. When I went into the living room I found Val still sitting on the ground beside the coffee table, still pouring over the few notebooks that were sprawled out across it. She had both of her hands on her head like she was stressed out about something she was reading. I walked over to put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped in surprise the moment I touched her.

"Holly..." She said and put her hand on mine, "You surprised me."

"You surprised me too," I said, "I thought you'd be more interested in hanging out with the rest of the group on the weekend. This is our first real student council meeting outside of school, not counting house break-ins."

She laughed a little at the last part. The smile faded from her face as she turned from me and back down to the notebooks.

"Well, I was just thinking..." She said with a soft exhale. "I don't want anything to be derailed."

So that's what she was worrying about? Sofi's plans were giving Val that much pause? I mean, I understood her worries to an extent. The reputation of the student council could be on the line if they used our event as an opportunity to cause trouble. Val was so personally invested in the student council that it must've felt like an an affront on her person.

"Do you mind stepping outside with me to get some fresh air?" Val asked.

"Sure," I said.

The two of us stepped outside and sat on the front porch. We could hear the others laughing from the inside even with the door closed behind us. That made Val's melancholic mood seem even more depressing somehow. This wasn't the first time that I had seen her like this before, either. The first time I saw her like this was after our meeting with Ms. Hoffman. She had a look on her face like she was lost in thought, staring at something in the far distance.

I leaned against her shoulder in an attempt to cheer her up a little. She barely reacted until I moved closer to her so that I was sitting up against her. She noticed what I was doing and put one arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. This, just like with Lilith, was probably because it was cold out and neither of us was dressed for this weather. Unlike Lilith, however, I could easily tell that she was much happier to share warmth like this. I didn't have to spend time guessing about how she felt about contact because she cracked a smile.

"I guess I haven't been myself today." Val said. "It pisses me off to no end to think that someone out there is trying to undo everything I've done."

Her voice was suddenly hostile and she held my shoulder tighter as she spoke. She seemed self-aware of this change in attitude and let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry to make you miss out on cooking with the others... You shouldn't have to come out here to try cheering me up." She said.

"Nonsense," I said, "It's like we were saying to Lilith just a while ago. This is what friends are for."

She turned to face her body towards me in a way that she could put both her hands on my shoulders.

"You all are the realist friends I've ever had in my life. I don't want anyone ruining all the things that we've accomplished together so far."

"I understand how you feel." I said.

"That's why when this week starts I'm planning to deal with Sofi on my terms." Val said more harshly. "We tried giving Alyssa a chance. We tried being nice about it. She's run out of forgiveness from me."

"Now hold on, what do you mean by..."

"The student corrections authority was made for things just like this. It's time to put it to good use."

I pulled away from Val.

"I think it’s too early to resort to methods like that. Give me another chance to talk to her. Someone else is inside her head, leading her astray. Surely you can understand her confusion?"

Val grimaced at me.

"I see what you're getting at, but it won't work." Val said firmly. "We've reached out to her multiple times and she refused to hear us out. She was fortunate enough that we didn't use the SCA the first time we were meant to deal with her. Now, after all this, I'm feeling far less sympathetic. I'm only upset that Alyssa will have to watch Sofi go through this."

"It sounds like you've already decided." I said. "Let's not rush into anything too hastily. Let's at least have a student council meeting about it this upcoming week. There's no need to handle all this the moment we get back into school."

"We can still talk about this," Val said, "But I don't think there's much to say."

The door opened up behind us and Lilith stepped outside.

"Jay wants your help, Holly." Lilith said. "The two troublemakers are trying to take over things in the kitchen."

"Okay," I said as I stood up.

I put my hand out to Val.

"Alright," Val said with a smile, "Let's see how things have turned out ever since I pulled you away."

Luckily, things in the kitchen didnt turn out that bad. Jay maintained control of the situation even with Sam and Naomi messing around. She noted that they acted just like her younger siblings. Although we were only meant to be having fish and chips, Jay added pasta into the mix. The problem was that Sam and Naomi wanted to add 'custom' ingredients that definitely had no business being there. It made me worry about how they handled cooking whenever no one was around.

Our lunch meal turned out to be more like a dinner meal. I was so full by the end that I probably wouldn't be able to eat anything else for the rest of the day. We ate in the dining room sort of like a family. It took a while, but Val came around and decided to relax now that Sofi's antics weren't at the forefront of her mind. Although, some of her worries rubbed off on me. Part of my self-image as a counselor meant being able to handle student problems like this. Was I failing at not being able to return Sofi to her normal self? Or was the Matriarch's pull on her that strong?

We watched a movie together before Val and Jay decided they'd better head home before traffic got too bad. My mom came to pick up me and Lilith shortly after that. Lilith, after gathering some things from her place, decided to come over and stay the night with me. I wanted to use this time to talk about the situation with Zoe but Lilith seemed to be trying to put that topic out of her mind. Instead, we talked about something that Lilith had been researching on her own. She had been searching for information about the other women listed in the Ritual of Knives.

"It sounds like most of them still live within the area." I said while looking over Lilith's notebook, "Only one of them was willing to hightail it out of here."

Lilith lied down on the bed beside me to get a better look at the notebook. She pointed out something she wrote down beside that person's name.

"She's not that important anyways. She wasn't in the art and theater club for long. I'm not even certain she was part of this whole ritual, now that I think about it. This list did come from Ms. Logan through Sofi after all. I think the most important people on this list were the ones closest to Ms. Sampson and in the club for much longer."

"The veteran members," I said in agreement, "It looks like you have that information on all of them?"

"There are a few I'm not sure about, but these are estimates based on past year books. Some of them were in the theater club for more than a year. I'm planning to put this information on the Immortal Diary website."

"You want everyone else to know this too?" I asked. "I'm not sure people will find this sort of information very relevant. Didn't you yourself say anyone on the list was guilty?"

"They're just guilty of being in-the-know, I think." Lilith said, "I'm not entirely sure which are guilty of Malorie's murder. I think the veteran members on the list are just a good guess."

I nodded and pointed out a different name in the notebook.

"Who is this Sarah person you underlined? What's so important about her?"

"She's another person in a suspicious damage control position." Lilith said. "She works for one of the local news stations."