Adventures of a Graveyard Girl by Milda Harris

for it. It was disappointing, though, Casey's account of what happened was pretty important to my case. I'd have to hope, for now, that she came back to school in the next couple of days. Otherwise, I might have to hunt her down since I didn't see Detective Dixon giving me a copy of Casey's police statement so that I could read it.
    I kept a lookout for Noah Robertson, who would have no reason to skip school, unless he was on his way to Mexico, but I didn't see him in the first two hours. I wasn't even sure what I was going to say or do when I saw him. I mean, I couldn't exactly go up to him and say, "Hey, did you murder Madison Brown? Oh, and can you tell me your motive?"
    It was before third period and I was rushing to my locker to grab a book, so I almost missed him. It was obviously Noah, though. He was tall, broad shouldered, and had brown hair clipped super short, like he had let a buzz cut grow out. I don't know what was wrong with me because I didn't even stop to think about it as I walked as hard as I could into him. It's not like little old me was going to make a dent in this massive guy, but then again Madison Brown had managed to break his foot by accident. Still, at least I took the time to notice that Noah was wearing a walking cast on his right foot and smashed into him on the other side.
    As I felt myself fall backwards, my books scattering out of my arms, I pondered the intelligence of my choice. Sure, it had worked with getting to meet Troy. And, really, I couldn't just walk up to a random guy in high school and start talking to him out of the blue, could I? That would be crazy. So, yeah, the old fallback, run into someone and run into them hard, had to work.
    "I'm so sorry," I said automatically as my butt hit the hard tile floor. I did mean it. I shouldn't have run into him so hard. That hurt.
    Noah was still standing, looking down at me with a frown, like I was a total idiot, and didn't saying anything to me. Then he just turned and walked away, leaving me looking stupid, sitting on the ground with my books scattered down the hall. I could hear a couple passersby snickering because they had seen the impact, my fall, and the odd results. I ignored them and gathered up my books. Okay, obviously the old run into him as hard as you can fallback didn't work. Now, I had a lead in to talk to Noah, though. I definitely wouldn't mind yelling at him for ignoring me when I apologized to him. That was totally rude. Did the guy have no manners? I glanced around, suddenly anxious. Okay, good, Ariel hadn't been witness to this. That, at least was promising. I ran to my locker, grabbed my book, and made it to my third period class just as the bell rang.
    I kept a watchful eye out for Noah as I walked to my fourth period Chemistry class, but we didn't cross paths again. I was still mad even though an hour had passed. My butt still really hurt. I was almost positive that I had a black and blue mark from my fall. I didn't see why Noah couldn't even acknowledge me when he was the person that had made me hit the ground. Sure, I had made it happen, but Noah didn't know that. He was so totally rude. Maybe it was just this easy and I had stumbled across the killer right off the bat. Either that or Noah sure had a lot to learn about manners. I really couldn't wait to find him again so that I could tell him off and, of course, continue with my murder investigation.
    I made it to class a couple of minutes before the bell and saw Kyle and Suzie talking at my lab table. I felt a pang. Even though Madison Brown had been murdered, it looked like Kyle and Suzie's big Homecoming date had been a huge success. Suzie's hand was on Kyle's arm and she was laughing. Kyle was smiling up at her from his chair like she was the only person in the entire world. I, on the other hand, didn't know where I stood with Ethan and I had repeatedly broken my promise to him in the last twenty-four hours. That probably didn't bode well for any romantic