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Chapter 6 - Expelled
     
    I went back to my room after a tiring day of Chemistry. All those formulas and concoctions were giving me a terrible migraine, and I just wanted to sleep on my comfortable bed. I'd just miss my last class and hope no one noticed my absence. I shared the class with Evan and Reid, but I doubted they'd mind. I locked the door behind me and surveyed the room, but the first thing that registered to me wasn't the huge, imposing bed in the middle, but the disarray of my room.
    This wasn't how I had left my room. This certainly wasn't how I threw my clothes around. They were gathered on a heap at the foot of the bed. One quick inspection of the drawers told me that even my underwear--both clean and used--was strewn into the mix. It appeared like someone had piled up everything and wanted to do something with them.
    But what?
    As I stepped closer, the smell of gasoline couldn't be mistaken. Someone wanted to burn my things. I gasped, realizing what this meant. Someone inside this school was telling me to leave. I stepped back continuously until I felt the cold of the door behind my back and I stopped, clung to the wall, and slid down, sitting on the floor.
    What did I do? Was it connected with what I did yesterday? With my cutting of classes? With what happened outside school? Or was it Alice? Was she sending me a message?
    There was a knock that surprised me, but it was a slow, steady, patient rhythm. It's Reid. I tried to look composed as I stood up and opened the door, but of course he knows something's wrong.
    "Hi Kayleigh, are you alright in there?" he asks, straight to the point.
    "Hi," I replied nervously and blocked his view. His lips purse tightly after sniffing the air, which was reeking with gasoline. "Do they require the student president to have super powers? Because you seem to be perfect for the job," I say, trying to distract him.
    He looked at me with surprise, his usually friendly and smiling face flat and serious. "Well, it's not really required, but it can help." He looked at me for a long time, and then the familiar smile broke on his lips. "Oh, of course you're joking."
    I laughed hollowly, and he tried to laugh along, but we both know the joke had long flown out the window. "You always seem to know when something's wrong," I explained and held the door open widely for him to see what happened.
    "When did this happen?" he asked me, but his gaze was still at the makeshift pile in the middle of my room.
    "I don't know. I came back from Chem and this is what greeted me."
    He shook his head a few times before telling me that he will send someone to clean the room up. He also told me not to tell anyone, which I assume doesn't include his friends, since they look strained when I joined them for dinner.
    I know that they know something because they're always shooting me curious glances, as if there's something they want to discuss but couldn't say in front of me. Whenever I encounter such look, I just smile at them, encouraging them to talk, but not opening the conversation either. If they were going to talk about it, I won't be the one initiating it.
    But no one talked, and dinner was done in silence. I'm not quite sure if they know what happened outside school either, or if they think the two are related.
    "Asher got expelled today," Blake was saying to Xander, who was silent as usual.
    "Why?" I beat everyone from asking.
    Blake looked at me, his usual smirk gone from his face. "Something about breaking the rules."
    If I remember correctly, Asher was Spencer and Alice's group mate who never showed up for class. Where did he spend all his time anyway? "I never got to meet him."
    "Me too," Evan said, as grave-looking as Blake. Their expressions were mirrored all over school. Apparently, someone being expelled at school doesn't happen often. Reid wasn't at our table, which must mean he had something to do with the expulsion and was still speaking with either Asher or the