"So really, if I had to be stranded, the one food I would really need is twinkies."
"But you would have no water."
"Exactly. Then I wouldn't have to pee all the time. And the outer part of the twinkie gives carbs."
"And sugar." Katie said, giggling.
"You got it." Zac said, smacking her a five.
"You're so strange sometimes." She said. "Maybe I should pretend that I don't know you."
"Nah, you've never thought about it, that's why you're jealous." He said.
"Right." Katie said. They both laughed and entered the hallway where their lockers were located on Monday morning. They got to her locker, and Zac leaned against the one beside hers, his hands jammed in his pockets and looking around.
Katie opened her locker and slowly her laughter faded. There, sitting in her locker on top of a few books, was an envelope.
Zac heard her stop laughing and looked over. "What's wrong?" He gave her a concerned look.
Katie could only point to the envelope. Zac reached in her locker and picked it up. It was a plain, orangish, mailing envelope, about twelve inches tall and six or seven across. He felt that it had something in it. He handed it to Katie wordlessly.
"Open it." He said. Katie was still gaping at it. She took it and opened it, peeking in.
She pulled out three pictures. The first one was of her and Zac leaving her house before the dance, arm in arm. The next was of the two of them, standing outside the gym. Katie was standing there, smiling at Zac, and he was grinning at her, and his hand was reaching up to touch her hair. She flipped to the last, and felt her breath catch in her throat. It was of her and Zac, outside Nicole's basement. She was leaning against his chest, her eyes closed, arms around his waist. Zac had his head down, and it looked like he was whispering something in her ear.
She handed him the photos. Zac looked at them, frowning. "Whoever took these has a special camara." He said.
"They do?" Katie asked. That made it sound even more creepy.
"Yeah. Check this out." He leaned over to show her the first picture, of them leaving. "If this person were taking the picture with a regular camara, they'd be fifteen feet away."
"Yeah..." Katie said.
"So, think about it. Fifteen feet away, we would have seen them. The sun was just setting; it wasn't even dark out yet." He said. "And they certainly weren't in your yard, the angle is wrong. We would have seen someone standing in the street."
"So....." Katie said.
"What I'm saying is, this person had to be not only across the street, but several hundred feet away. You could have easily taken this with a good zoom."
"Oh."
"Look at this." He said, flipping to the next photo of them outside the gym. "When was that taken?"
Katie slowly realized what he was talking about. The pictures looked like they were taken in broad daylight....when it was really ten o'clock at night.
"At night." She said slowly.
"Right." Zac said. The next picture of the two of them at Nicole's was the same.
"Wow." Zac said, looking at them.
"What?"
"No only do they have a great zoom, but a nightshot too."
Katie bit her lip. "Oh god, Zac, now I'm really scared."
"No no..." He said, handing them back to her. "They're just trying to freak you out. But I do think you should tell Judy."
Katie looked at the pictures again. Zac picked up the envelope and frowned.
"What?" She asked frantically, trying to see.
"There's something else in here." he said. He stuck his hand down into the envelope and pulled out a piece of ribbon and a shrivled up leaf.
"What the heck?" He looked at the two small objects in his hand. "That's a ribbon, and that looks like...some kinda leaf or something. It's a white leaf." Katie leaned closer to look at them and gasped.
"What?" He asked, looking at her, then at the objects.
"That's not a leaf, it's a shrivled up petal." She said.
"Oh." Zac said, frowning.
"This." She picked up the piece ribbon. "Zac, what color is this?"
"White." he said slowly, not sure where she was going with this.
"And what color is the petal?"
"White." he said again.
"What color was my corsage?"
Zac frowned again, and his mouth dropped open a little. "White." He choked out.
"Oh my gosh." Katie said.
"Holy shit." Zac said, looking at the two. "Wait wait, are you sure that's from yours?"
"Yes! I remember looking at it when we were on our way to Nicole's and thinking that the ribbon on it looked strange, like part of it was missing."
"Was it like that when I gave it to you?"
Katie shook her head. "No...I'm pretty sure."
"Oh gosh." Zac said taking a deep breath. "How can we check? We won't get the pictures back for weeks."
"I know..." Katie thought a moment. "Wait, Morgan took pictures. I'll get those developed at the drugstore tonight, at the one hour place." Katie said.
"Good idea." Zac said. Katie threw the rose petal and the ribbon back into the envelope and leaned her back against her locker.
"Zac, do you know what this means? This means that whoever has been taking all those freaky pictures was close enough to me Saturday night at the dance to cut off part of my corsage and pull off a petal." She said.
"Where were you standing that long?" Zac asked.
Katie thought back to that evening. "Oh gosh. We were all standing around talking in the gym where it was dark, we stood in line for the pictures, we sat in the bleachers while the court was announced...."
"Yeah. Gosh, it's hopeless." Zac said with a sigh.
"I don't even remember who was standing remotely near me during any of that." She said.
"Shit." Zac said.
Katie leaned her head back against the lockers and sighed. She looked at Zac. "This is a mess."
"I know." He said. He reached over and laid his hand on her shoulder, watching her. Sensing they were being watched, they both looked over. A few lockers down, Jeremy was watching them while half heartedly digging through his locker.
Katie looked at him, then at the pictures. "You." She said, stalking over.
"You!" She shouted, waving them in his face.
"Whoah whoah, Katie Katie..." Zac said, grabbing her arm.
"What do you know about this? You're in on it, aren't you?" She shouted, still waving the pictures around.
"Katie, calm down." Zac said, trying to surpress her. People passing them in the hallway were starting to give them strange looks.
Katie, sensing that she was making a fool of herself, stopped. She looked around, then back at Jeremy.
"I know you have something to do with this. And it had better stop." She said.
Jeremy just stared at her.
"Come on Kate." Zac said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Lets go." He said.
Katie gave a final glare at Jeremy, then followed Zac back to her locker.