Whoa

Three

         The next day there was an announcement through the school, one of the students was found dead Saturday night at the McCoy’s Manor. May and Hunter freaked out thinking it was Jane but when they called Jack he said that Jane was still alive but knocked out.  That’s when they attended the assembly in the lower quarter.  It was Sarah Lowell. Hunter didn’t remember seeing her at the McCoy Manor though. But she must have been there. Demetrius, Ben, James and Oliver were standing side by side at the back of the room. Hunter found this kind of strange and nudged May. “Look don’t you think that’s kind of strange? They don’t seem to show much emotion for the whole thing do they?” Hunter mumbled to her.


         “Your right, come on let’s get a seat closer to them so that we can see if they say anything on the matter,” May said, they made their way back to the back row. It wasn’t like they were going to get in the way back there, plus they usually sat near the back in assemblies. The announcements started. First was the fact that Sarah was now gone and they wanted them all to attend her funeral. And secondly was the fact that she was killed. No one really knows how yet. May was really shocked at this because if the same thing that killed Sarah is killing Jane then they had a problem.


         “This is an unfortunate event and we must address the fact that she was murdered at the McCoy’s we are very sad to say. You will be seeing police around more often these days because of this, don’t be alarmed…” That was the jest of it all. The McCoy’s left half way through the assembly. May watched as Jake followed them. It was getting kind of nerve racking being this cautious around the McCoy’s. Usually they could just wander the halls without having to be cautious about what they say and what they do around them. Now they had to be on the look out for anything suspicious that had anything to do with the McCoy’s. Though it was going to be tricky to keep and eye on all of the McCoy’s because a lot of the time they didn’t hang out together. And that was kind of expected because they had to deal with each other at home too.


         After school Hunter had May over along with Jake and Jenna to discuss the matter as to what they found. Jake was also going to be entered into one of May’s ideas to try and help him get over his nerves about riding. “So what have we figured out?” Hunter asked opening an empty notebook. May had her notebook there as well. The hay loft made a perfect meeting place.


         “Well…Ben won’t stop talking about May, um Demetrius wants Ben to go out with you May for some reason…” Jenna sighed.


         “EW, never I’m sorry but he creeped me out,” May answered.


         “James is actually torn up by Sarah’s death because it turns out that he actually liked her and no one else really cares. Um, I think I heard Oliver talking about how Jane was drunk or something,” Jake answered. Hunter scribbled it all down along with May.


         “Alright do you remember any of that conversation?” Hunter asked. Jake shook his head no.


         “Right, we’ve got some but still not enough of anything for us to do something with. Did Oliver say why Jane was drunk? Or if he knew what happened?” she asked.


         “I think he said that he thought the punch was spiked but one of the others said that it wasn’t…then Demetrius said that Jane was a long time in the washroom. Possibly his brother got to her hand asked her out or something. James was kind of feeling sorry for himself and couldn’t stand the fact that his girl friend was gone,” Jake answered. May made a disgusted face at that. That was what they had to work with and that still wasn’t enough.


         “I’m kind of sorry to say but we’re going to have to hold a stack out, possibly break in to the McCoy Manor and maybe go through their garbage,” May cringed at the thought. It was going to have to get dirty. There was also a possibility that it was going to get a bit dangerous. They had to talk to the McCoy’s only it was possibly going to be hard to…. “Crap, I’ve got an idea.”


         “What? Why crap?” Hunter asked.


         “’cause it involves me going out with Ben,” May answered.


         “Well you have to admit he is kind of cute,” Jenna answered.


         “I guess, okay we’ll have to do that, that way we can get a way to talk to them with out it being out of the ordinary,” she answered.


         “Take one for the team…just don’t tell him that otherwise you’re dead,” Jake encouraged. May sighed, it was going to have to be that way, if they were going to get any information it would have to be from and inside source and May had connections, Ben liked her.  That made it a whole lot easier, but it was also kind of painful for May because she didn’t exactly like him. I mean he was cute and all just had a weird personality. Not the most normal McCoy if you were to ask if he had any ideas toward something.


         How was she going to do this? Could May just randomly go up to Ben and ask him out? Or would that be too weird, there was a fine art to asking someone out and May had no clue how to go about it. Then again, she could just put herself out there and be around Ben as much as possible. This being that she’d kind of show up randomly at the same place he was. The plan could work, but certain measures had to be taken. For example May couldn’t just start talking to him or just suddenly run into him. She’d have to start showing up in the hallway where his locker was, or just showing up near him in the cafeteria. Then she could go for it and bump into him.


         After they had finished discussing everything that had happened that day May started helping Jake with his nerves. Jenna and Hunter went on a trail ride. May had a saddle on a tower of two hay bales that Jake was sitting on. May had him sitting there with his arms spread and his eyes closed. “I don’t see how this is going to help me on a horse,” he said.


         “Shush, now keeping your eyes closed I want you to lean forward until you feel the horn on your stomach then sit back up after you count to five,” Jake slowly started to lean forward.


         “This is dumb,” Jake said.


         “No it’s not trust me it will help you with your balance in the saddle,” she argued. That continued until May finally got Jake up onto one of the older horses in the barn that wouldn’t do anything to scare him.  “I can’t believe that you used to barrel race last year.”


         “Well, I don’t know maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t been riding Lance very long.” Jake answered.


         “But I’ve had you riding my horse before and you didn’t seem to care. Really, why are you so scared…how long have you been riding?” May asked.


         “Since I was eleven,”


         “Exactly now suck it up,” May snapped. It was going to be a long night. He didn’t seem to mind riding the old gelding of the barn. May didn’t want to rush him but she got him to jog and eventually to lope. He seemed to be a bit tense on him but not as nervous. “Relax he won’t run off, trust me I know.”