Mary POV
"Ruby, stop. Don't ask those stupid questions. Lana, you should rest," I said.
"I know you would like to catch up with your friends, Lana," Mrs. Hart said. "Your dad and I are going to see the doctor. Don't stress yourself. We'll be back later. Have fun, kids."
She smiled warmly before leaving with her husband.
Mrs. Hart is cool. My mom would have stood guard by the door and interrogated every single visitor.
The door closed.
"Who found me?" Lana asked immediately.
"Lee did," Ruby replied a little too quickly.
Lana turned to him. "How did you find me?"
"Umm... Peter said you didn't attend your last class. Then, after school, you were nowhere to be found, so we decided to look for you. I happened to pass the storage room and heard your voice," Lee explained.
Despite the dark bags under his eyes, he still looked extremely worried.
"Mary, can we talk privately, please?" Lana asked.
The others stepped outside, leaving just the two of us.
"You think Maya did it, don't you?" I asked.
"I don't know," Lana admitted. "She's not usually like that, but my mind keeps telling me she's the one."
"How do you mean?" I asked.
"Not everyone knows about my phobia. Honestly, I don't even think my parents remember. But Maya does."
She took a deep breath.
"What do we do?"
"Maya isn't that sick in the head. Even though she's terrible, she hates insects and reptiles herself. I remember when we were younger, she saw a spider and screamed so loudly that our house had to be fumigated."
"I don't understand," Lana said, struggling to keep her eyes open.
"She has an alibi."
"What do you mean?"
Peter's voice made us turn. The others had returned.
"I mean Maya couldn't have done it herself. She hates those things too. How could she have brought all those ants and spiders into the storage room? Unless she told someone about Lana's phobia and that person carried out the plan."
Ruby cut me off.
"Are you seriously asking us to rule your sister out when she's the biggest suspect?"
"This is exactly why I didn't support this gathering," she added with a scoff.
"Ruby, just chill," Peter said.
"Don't tell me to chill, Peter! We have the sister of our enemy sitting right here. She hasn't proven herself trustworthy, yet she wants us to ignore her psycho sister!"
"Ruby, I'm not asking you to rule her out," I said. "I'm just saying she probably didn't do it herself."
"I think Mary is right," Lee said. "Maybe Maya told someone, and that person carried it out."
"But who brought Lana into the storage room?" he added.
The question shocked everyone into silence.
"So you think there's someone else involved?" Peter asked.
"Shit. This is getting scary," Lana muttered. "Maybe we should stop talking about it. I'm getting chills."
Ruby rolled her eyes.
"And whoever helped must be influential," she said. "Who else could move all those ants and spiders into a school without getting caught?"