Adventures of a New Year's Kiss: A Holiday Romantic Mystery (Funeral Crashing Young Adult Mystery Books) (2 page)

Then I did the one thing that was my fault. It was probably why my necklace was gone. I didn’t lock my locker. I always had trouble with my lock. It was one of those padlock combination locks and mine always stuck. It took me ten minutes to open my locker one time. Since then I almost never locked it. I just left it on the locker so that a casual passerby would assume it was locked. Of course, if they took a good look at the locker, they’d know it wasn’t. Still, I never expected anything of mine to actually get stolen. Why would another student do that? I didn’t have anything valuable anyway. Until now. I should have locked that locker. Sadly, I didn’t. Had one of the girls around me noticed that?

By the time I was ready, only Ariel, Sarah, and Megan were still in the locker room. I only remembered that because they were now all talking about whose boyfriend or crush was hotter and Ariel was bragging that her boyfriend, Troy, was the hottest because he was in college, not high school. I rolled my eyes. In my opinion, I had the hottest boyfriend of all of them anyway. They might not think so, but they had no idea how amazing Kyle was as a boyfriend. My necklace was proof. I wasn’t going to join in on their conversation, though, so I ignored them and walked out to the pool.

The next forty-five minutes was a blur of swimming instruction. I never liked taking swimming during gym class at school. It was never fun to change into your swimsuit in the locker room for starters. Even though I could do most of the strokes that they wanted us to learn, I didn’t love having to do them on demand for school. To cap it all off, I looked like a wet rat when I got to Chemistry and saw Kyle. There was never enough time to blow dry my hair, put on makeup, and get dressed. Luckily, Kyle didn't seem to care. He thought I was beautiful even when I looked like someone had just dumped a bucket of water over my head. Yeah, he was way cooler than Sarah's, Megan's, and Ariel's boyfriends and crushes.

After swim class was over, I ran to my locker to get my shampoo and conditioner. If I was going to have wet hair when I saw Kyle in Chemistry, I was at the very least, not going to also reek of chlorine. I couldn’t remember if my necklace was in my locker at that point. I just grabbed for my shampoo and ran for the showers. If you didn't get a shower fast, you had to wait for one. Then there was even less time to get ready. The only person back by the lockers at that point was Scarlett, who obviously didn’t care if she smelled like chlorine because she was already putting on her clothes. There was no way that she could have showered that fast. Maybe she had rinsed off. Still. That didn't get the chlorine smell out of your hair.

I washed my hair thoroughly and walked back to the lockers. Sarah and Megan were already there, getting dressed. Scarlett was gone, probably waiting just outside the door with Mrs. Rowan for the bell to ring along with anyone else ready to leave. Claire and Ariel were probably still showering.

That was when I opened my locker and discovered that my necklace was missing. It had been ten minutes since then and I was still in my bathing suit staring at my locker. I’d looked in the locker and around the locker. I even picked through my clothes again and turned all of them inside out, hoping that the necklace had somehow attached itself to one of them. It hadn’t. My necklace was gone.

I shut my empty locker and started putting on my clothes. I had to get ready fast because the bell was going to ring at any second. I wanted to keep looking for my necklace, but it just wasn't there. It had disappeared. My brain mulled over the situation just as fast as I threw on my clothes.

I was absolutely positive that I had put the necklace in front of my clothes, just inside my locker. It wasn’t on the floor around my locker or in my clothes. It could not have disappeared into thin air by magic. So, even though I wasn’t Kait Lenox, murder mystery teen sleuth, I made the logical conclusion. If my necklace wasn’t lost, it was stolen. My suspects were the five girls around me. Even though I would have much preferred to read about a mystery like this, I was on the case.

I walked outside of the locker room just as the bell rang signaling the passing period. I had five minutes to get to class, but I needed to talk to Mrs. Rowan first. It was too bad that she was heading the opposite direction of my Chemistry class and toward the gym. I'd have to take the chance of being late to Chemistry. I ran after her.

“Mrs. Rowan! Wait,” I said as I came up behind her.

She turned around to face me. It seemed like she was surprised that it was me. I don’t think I had ever spoken to her before, except for a “Here!” at roll call. I didn't talk much unless I really knew people. Besides, it was gym class, usually you were supposed to be running the mile or practicing your backstroke. Talking during either of those activities was impossible anyway.

“Suzie?” Mrs. Rowan asked.

“Sorry to stop you Mrs. Rowan, but I lost my necklace in the locker room,” I said.

“Did you look around for it?” Mrs. Rowan asked.

“Yes,” I said and then added. "I couldn't find it. I looked everywhere."

“I’ll alert the main office’s lost and found,” Mrs. Rowan said. “You should check with the office after school and see if anyone has turned it in.”

“If they haven’t, can you ask everyone during class tomorrow if they saw it?” I asked.

“Yes,” Mrs. Rowan said.

That was what I was hoping for. Since I was pretty sure that the necklace was stolen, I doubted that anyone would turn it in to lost and found. It couldn’t hurt to check, of course. If it was there, my case was solved. I would not go the extra mile to find out who picked up the necklace. All I wanted was my necklace back and to keep Kyle from getting hurt. That was good enough for me.

I wanted Mrs. Rowan to ask the class, though, because I wanted to see how my suspects would react. I could ask them, of course, but I got a little shy around people and it made me anxious just thinking about trying to interrogate anyone. This was a better idea anyway. Mrs. Rowan had an air of authority since she was a teacher. Maybe one of my suspects would turn the necklace in or maybe I’d get a glimpse of a guilty face. Regardless, my time to get back the necklace was limited. Winter break started on Friday and that was tomorrow. If I didn’t find it before school let out for break then the necklace was surely gone forever. In the two weeks of winter break even a guilty person would forget about their minor crime. Then again, if they got careless and wore the necklace to school after we came back in the New Year, I'd have them! The only problem was that Kyle would know I'd lost the necklace by then and his heart would have already been broken.

"Anything else?" Mrs. Rowan asked because I had been just standing there in silence, thinking in my head.

"No," I said.

Then I turned and ran to Chemistry class. My brain was whirling as I dodged around people in my rush to get to class. Was this how Kait felt trying to solve murder mysteries? I didn't really like it. I felt a little sick. Kait seemed to like it, though. I guess I could see why if I thought about it. If you actually solved the case, the reward was solving the puzzle. In my case, my reward was getting my necklace back. I'd be pretty happy with that result. I had to focus on that and try to not to throw up with worry in the meantime.

Okay. Although I wasn’t a sleuth like Kait, I had read some mysteries, so the first step seemed to be to narrow down the suspects. Who had the opportunity to steal my necklace? Even better, who had a motive to steal it?

I thought about the five girls with lockers in my section of the locker room. I didn’t know Sarah and Megan that well. Thus, the difficulty I had in telling them apart from each other even though they were not twins at all. I mostly just knew that they were Ariel’s friends and that they were popular. I thought of them as a unit. They seemed sort of like her henchmen. I didn’t know if they’d steal my necklace or not, so I was inconclusive on if they had a motive. They did both have the opportunity to steal it before class, though.

Then there was Ariel. If I were Kait, maybe she would have stolen it to torment me. Since I wasn’t, I kind of doubted that she’d do it. She seemed to have everything. Ariel always wore the most expensive and stylish clothes. There was no reason why she’d steal something of mine. She could just go to the mall and buy herself the same necklace if she wanted to or order it online or even have her boyfriend Troy buy it for her. So, I didn't have a motive for Ariel either, although I did suppose she had the opportunity before swim class actually started when I left her, Sarah, and Megan talking about their boyfriends. Hmmm. I’d put her last on my list. I didn’t want to antagonize Ariel if I didn’t have to. I didn’t want it to come around on Kait because she was my friend now. I also knew how horrible Ariel could be if she thought you were her enemy. Mostly everyone just left me alone. I preferred it that way.

Then there was Scarlett. I thought she’d be more likely to steal something from Ariel, Sarah, or Megan just because she thought that they were ridiculous. The necklace didn’t even seem to be her style. Still, Scarlett would have had the opportunity to take my necklace while I was in the shower since she didn’t take one.

And my last suspect was Claire. The only motive I could think of for her was that I knew she wasn't rich. There were like six kids in her family and they did not have much money. I didn't know much more about her except that she was like me. She wasn't popular and she wasn't unpopular. We just didn't know each other. Still, maybe Claire took it to sell it or something. Wait. Claire went out to the swimming pool before me and came back from the showers after me. Didn’t that take her off my suspect’s list? I thought about it. Technically, she could have stolen it when she went to grab her shampoo. I just didn’t see her when she did that. Still, Scarlett probably would have been there at that point. Most people didn’t obviously commit a crime in front of someone else, especially a stranger who might tattle on them. I thought about it. Okay. I’d put Claire last on my list of suspects and move Ariel up to spot number four.

Ariel. What about her, Sarah, and Megan? Would one of them steal my necklace in front of the others? Yeah, I had no doubt that they would if they were so inclined. If one of them took it, I was probably out of luck too. They'd all have each other's backs against a foreign threat.

Well, I was back at step zero or close to it. At least I was pretty sure that Claire was innocent. Maybe.

I made it to Chemistry class just as the bell rang. It was the second class in a row where I was almost late. It was so unlike me. I usually made it to class early so that I could get in a few pages of whatever book I was reading. Kait was already sitting next to Kyle when I walked in. I felt a little disappointed. I enjoyed talking to Kyle alone before class started. Now I wouldn’t have the chance.

At the thought of Kyle, I automatically put my hand to my throat feeling for my non-existent necklace. Well, maybe for today that was a good thing. I didn’t know how I was going to tell Kyle that it was missing. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. My shirt could in theory be covering it.

I walked past Kyle, looking down. I knew that if my eyes met his that I’d have to tell him. I couldn't. Seriously, how could I do that? He’d be devastated. Giving that necklace to me meant so much to him. He’d think I didn’t care about it, that I'd been careless with it. That was worse than anything else because it so wasn’t true. I loved him so much that it hurt to think of him feeling any sort of pain because of me.

I felt Kyle’s eyes on me as I walked past, willing me to look up. It took all of my willpower, but I didn’t. It also felt like I was walking in slow motion through gelatin. It took forever to get to my table. I almost collapsed into my chair when I got there. It had taken everything out of me to make the walk from the door to my chair. It was like I had relived that first day of Chemistry class over again, except a billion times more stressful.

I looked up as our Chemistry teacher started to lecture. As I did so, out of the corner of my eye I caught Kyle looking at me. I couldn’t help myself. I looked back at him. He was frowning at me. Oh no. He knew. He knew I had lost his necklace. Fear shot through my chest. I wanted to put my hand to my throat again to feel for the necklace, but I didn’t dare. I had to tell him. I had to let him know what happened and that it didn’t mean that I didn’t love him. He had to know that I hadn’t meant to lose it.

“Are you okay?” Kyle mouthed.

Relief coursed through me. He didn't know. Of course he didn't know. Yet. I noticed that Kait had turned to look at me too. Oh no. I didn’t want to drag her into this. Yet.

What should I do? My brain answered me without pause. I needed to tell Kyle. No matter how much I didn't want to, the cornerstone of a relationship was honesty and this was something important. I couldn’t lie to him about this even if all I wanted to do was protect his feelings. I had to tell him even though every inch of my body was screaming not to.

I somehow managed to shake my head no to Kyle's question, answering that that I was not okay, even though my stomach twisted in knots at the mere thought of telling Kyle the truth. It was going to be hard, but I had to do it. The frown already on Kyle’s face deepened. I wondered for a second if he was going to come back to my table and ask me what was wrong even though he couldn’t do that without disrupting the teacher’s lecture. Kyle didn't, although he kept looking back at me between writing notes. I kept smiling to reassure him that I'd make it through class. Besides, I needed that time. I had forty-five minutes to figure out how to tell him that I had lost my necklace and it wasn't nearly long enough.