Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 74

“Alright everyone, listen up!” Coach Mac’s voice boomed over the track, catching everyone’s attention. He waited for everyone to gather around him before speaking again, leaving everyone to wonder what this was about.

After clearing his throat authoritatively, their coach said, “As most of you know, the first meet of the year is in two weeks; and this year we’re the ones hosting it.” A murmur spread through the team for a couple seconds before Coach Mac began speaking again. “It runs all day Saturday — pun intended — and everyone is expected to be present and accounted for the whole day, even if you don’t make the cut to participate.

“Coach Mac, there aren’t enough of us for anyone to be cut,” one of the girls pointed out, earning a laugh from the other students.

“Don’t ruin my speech,” he told the student but the smile on his face said he was as amused as the rest of the team. “We’ve got someone to participate in each event, but you’re expected to spectate events regardless is we’re participating or not. We’re going to make a showing of good sportsmanship this year.” The coach’s eyes flicked over to the group of students who were considered the stars of the team, one of which was Laurent. “So let’s not let things devolve into dumb shit again this year, yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah,” one of the senior boys by the name Anthony called out with a roll of his eyes. “We’ll behave.”

“See that you do. Otherwise I will bench you even if you’re our top athlete. I’m tired of getting fines, penalties and angry phone calls and letters. If any of you are the reason I get even one of those things the entire team will pay the price.”

Everyone exchanged looks, feeling trepidation over group punishment for a single person’s behaviour. Using peer pressure to keep everyone in line only worked if the person breaking the rules cared what others thought about them. Vivian glanced at Anthony, who wore a smirk on his face. He didn’t seem the type to care if others suffered because of his actions. Hopefully the threat of being benched would be enough to keep him in line.

“Excited for your first competition?” Theo asked once Coach Mac told them to get back to practicing.

Vivian thought about it for a second. Was she excited? “Not really. Nervous, maybe.”

“That’s normal. You might not place, but from what I’ve seen you won’t get last place either.”

Staring at him, Vivian wasn’t sure how to feel about his comment. It was nice to hear he didn’t think she was the worst, but at the same time she wasn’t sure if she should trust his judgment either. “My goal is to cross the finish line, anyway,” she eventually said, averting her gaze from his as she spoke. “I’m keeping my expectations low for now.”

Theo gave her shoulder a quick pat. “That’s fine for the first meet, but you should try setting a goal you need to work towards. It’ll give you a reason to push your limits.”

Raising her eyebrows, Vivian shot him a quick glance. “How is making sure I finish not pushing my limits?” She could manage the shorter sprints, but the 400 metre was pushing it; finishing that without collapsing afterwards would be improvement in her books.

“Alright, alright, I get it,” he laughed in response, raising his hands in the universal sign of surrender.

As practice came to an end, Vivian made her way to the locker room. She’d learned her lesson on leaving things unattended where anyone could get to them and brought her own lock. When she reached the locker it looked like it should with the lock still in place, but a faint smile crept into the corners of her mouth as she carefully spun the combination before removing the lock.

Vivian cast a quick glance over her shoulder but no one was acting off. Yet.

Grabbing her things, she found an empty shower stall, set her things up and began to wash the sweat from the morning practice away. About halfway through the process a loud shout echoed through the room, followed by a flurry of responding calls asking what was going on.

Finishing up as quickly as she could, Vivian was ready in record time in order to join the crowd of girls who were talking all at once with one of them looking distraught.

The first thing Vivian did was look down at the girl’s hands; the fingers and palm on her right hand had turned a lovely shade of blue. It looked like she’d used a blue marker, then tried to wash it off without luck.

When Vivian’s things had been taken she knew simply keeping stuff safe would never be enough to deter them from finding a new way to bully her. Retaliation also had its risks, which would mean getting in trouble herself if the bully or bullies had enough pull or brains to sell their side of the story. There was also the lack of evidence pointing to anyone in particular; Vivian had no way of proving anything and her word against the word of someone who’d been at the school for years, who the teachers and administration were already well acquainted with? Yeah, there was no way she could win.

Not yet.

Which was why she’d chosen a slightly different approach. “What happened?” She asked after taking a moment to hear how everyone was reacting to the blue fingers.

“Look at my fingers!” The girl shouted at Vivian, holding up the aforementioned digits. “They’re blue!”

“Huh. So they are. How’d you manage that?”

“I don’t know but it won’t come off!” The girl was near tears as a couple of the others tried to console her, saying things like they’d find a way to get it off while others were busy using their phones — something strictly forbidden in the locker room — to search for any information online.

Vivian looked over the group and had to work at keeping the smile off her face. “Any luck finding a way to get it off?” She asked Izzy, the slow runner who was looking at things online.

“I don’t even know what caused it so what do I even use for search words? ‘Blue fingers’ doesn’t narrow anything down. All that shows up is stuff on cyanosis.”

“That’s tough,” Vivian nodded before shouldering her school bag. “Well. I’m off.”

“You can’t just leave me like this!” The girl with the blue fingers shouted, causing Vivian to raise her eyebrows and stare for a long moment.

“Funny… You all left me on Wednesday under worse circumstances. You’ll live; it’s just blue fingers, after all. It’s not like someone threw all your shit in the shower, yeah?” Not waiting for the girls to get over their surprise at her reply, Vivian left the locker room feeling… conflicted.

It had felt good that her plan to find out who had messed with her things worked out, but now they would jump to the conclusion she’d been behind the blue fingers — which she was — and they would retaliate in kind. But they couldn’t *prove* she’d done anything. They’d have to first figure out how she’d done it, and that evidence was long gone.

Coating the sides and back of the lock she’d brought with a powdered dye that reacted to water — like sweaty fingers or a hot shower — marked the most likely person who’d done the deed on Wednesday and who would have done something again today.

Vivian had taken the time to thoroughly clean the lock in question during her shower, carefully using disposable gloves to keep what remained of the dye off her own hands. Even if they figured out how she’d done it there was nothing left for them to find.

Until they decided to do their bullying out in the open instead of when no one was around Vivian had no intention of letting them get away with it. Throwing her things in the shower when she wasn’t there to witness it was a coward’s way to make a point.

Now she just had to keep an eye out for whatever they came up with next. They would most likely start escalating and Vivian would continue to mark the perpetrator in a way that couldn’t be ignored. Eventually they would crack and either leave her alone or complain to someone — the school or a parent — which would prompt an investigation into the matter; an investigation that would be likely to uncover what they’d been doing to Vivian.

*They’ll learn not to mess with me one way or another*, Vivian thought to herself as she stopped at her locker to get what she needed for first period. *I know I said I wasn’t going to do anything about it, but this is just to figure out who’s behind it. Now I know who I need to keep an eye on in the future. Well… one of them, anyway. I’m sure there are plenty more left to weed out, but I’m patient. I don’t mind sitting back and waiting for everything to fall into place.*