DFP CHAPTER 2

Chapter Two
Paper Chaos


“Is it really a death threat?” someone asked me.
I nodded my head skeptically. I began examining the note. It wasn’t very long and the content was too the point. The letter read as follows:

GeNna
IvE nevER KnOwN Any1 as saTIstIC As yOu
iF yOU waNt tO LIvE ANOThEr daY i SuGgeST you StoP MEssiNg WIth m y lifE And get OfF THis IsLand.

The note gave me the impression that the person was in just messing with Genna and ultimately it seemed fake. I mean who would purposely bash someone in a letter and then just give out a death threat like that. It didn’t seem too likely that anyone in the house would actually plan to kill her. Not many people like her but I can’t see it going as far as murder. Since it was made out of newspaper letters, it was probably planned. Assuming it was planned, it couldn’t have been made by Genna or Kasey because they didn’t know about the trip until less than a week ago whereas the rest of us knew a month ahead. Hopefully this was just a false alarm and I wouldn’t have to put my friends on suspect lists. Just incase, I ran into my room and wrote it on a piece of paper in my notepad.

After reading it one last time I agreed that it wasn’t anything to be worried about. No one here actually hated her that much.

When I was all finished looking at it I handed it back to Genna saying, “Don’t worry, you’re not in any danger. Someone obviously was having a bad day when they wrote it.”

Great, now her whole day was ruined which means none of us would be having as great of a time as we had planned this morning. Knowing Genna, she would be nagging to us every second and it was all thanks to an idiot that thinks it’s okay to threaten her. The worst part of it is that it’s one of my friends that did it. Stephanie, Britta, and Debbie would have told me if they did this worries me. If Loni, Whitney, or Kasey didn’t do it, then one of my closest friends did. I myself feel sorry for her and hope that this hoax doesn’t go any further. I wanted to find out who did it and make sure they don’t do it again.

Being sucked into this mystery, I decided to start finding out more information.

My first questions asked if she has every gotten a threat and who she got it from. She told me that she has gotten a threat but not from anyone here. Her tone of voice was honest and had returned to her normal tone. That gave me the impression that she was calming down. She might even understand that there was only a small amount of seriousness to the warning.

“Now I want to know more about that letter. Where did you find it?” I asked.

“Right on my bed. It was on the comforter below my pillow,” she said walking towards the bedroom door.

She led me into her bedroom, pointing to the location of where she had found it. Since it was on her bed it must have been put there after she woke up. More than likely, it was put there after breakfast. I didn’t see anyone leave and go upstairs this morning but then again I probably wouldn’t even have noticed if someone did. We were all too busy talking and eating to have seen them leave.

“Did you take a shower this morning?” I asked.

“No,” she said shaking her head.

“So you didn’t leave you’re room until you went down for breakfast?” I asked.

“No,” she answered, “I got up, got dressed, brushed my hair, and went down to breakfast.”

“Okay,” she probably thought I didn’t believe her because she was talking precisely. At least I could add to and nearly confirm my theory that it was put on here bed after we had finished eating.

“Was Stephanie in here before you got back from downstairs?” I questioned.

“Yeah, she was looking in the closet for her swimsuit,” Genna informed me.

That didn’t sound good on Stephanie’s part. I knew she didn’t like Genna and they had a bad history but she has forgiven her for all the things she’s done. Plus I can’t imagine Stephanie being as rude to write something like that. In many ways she is a goody two-shoes. If it was a joke she would of told me and Britta.

I met Genna 2 years ago in 8th grade. She was one of my first friends at my new school and eventually I became part of her group. Her group consisted of Stephanie, Britta, Debbie, and a few other people. It felt good to belong so quickly and she even invited me to a Halloween party after only knowing me for one month. At the party we went to see “The Grudge” and then watched movies at her house. Stephanie was also there but Britta didn’t go because Genna was her “enemy” at the time. At the time I didn’t understand why Britta didn’t like her anymore, she just said she was an evil person.

Within the next few months there was lots of fighting between sides which caused everyone involved a lot of stress. Genna and Britta would cuss and threaten each other. After awhile both sides went separate ways and we ignored Britta’s group.

Every once and awhile there would be an argument and one day at lunch it got intense. Genna and Britta’s friend Miranda started swearing and pushing each other so the teachers had to break it up. Genna, Debbie, and I went to guidance because we were all upset. Debbie was one of Miranda’s good friends but since Debbie was on Genna’s “side” she told her she didn’t want to be her friends.

The guidance counselor’s didn’t help at all and their advice to us was to ignore each other. I thought that was stupid because that was partially why we had gotten so mad. Genna didn’t take the advice well either. She had actually walked out after about a half hour. We all had a bad day after that.

Genna had an especially bad afternoon. That night I got an email or IM from her saying she was going to kill herself. She said she was cutting her wrist and that it was a matter of minutes before she would be dead. I tried to reach her many times and I emailed everyone I knew telling them I needed their help. I didn’t want to loose her.

The next day she showed up. I was so angry. I didn’t talk to her. I didn’t go to stand by her before school. Instead I went to Britta and told her what happened and they assured me that it wasn’t the first time she had done something like that for sympathy. We also purposely walked passed her joking about how psycho someone would have to be to fake suicide. Debbie also joined sat with Britta for lunch that day. She cried when she heard Genna was ending her life.

That did not make Genna happy. All her work had been for nothing; nobody pitied her which wasn’t satisfying to her. Sometime during the day she got the idea to actually cut herself. During health class she showed me what had happened and said that I was being immature. Genna was also in my next class and I told one of my friends that she cut herself. The girl went to the guidance office and reported it sometime. When someone saw her scratches she told them her cat did it but the guidance counselors knew better than that. She was sent home.

She didn’t come back until Monday. On that day we talked and she told me where she had been. Apparently, when she got home she fought with her mom and her mom felt threatened by her and called the police. When the police came her mom told them that Genna chased her around the house with a baseball bat and the police brought her to a mental hospital. According to her she was in a 24 hour lock-down. I didn’t believe her but I felt sorry for her so I started hanging out with her again.

Around January or February she began acting really weird. She argued with everyone and everything and was pretty much a total bitch to me. One day at the beginning of February she came to school mad at the world. She looked like she wanted to kill someone. In my social studies class she told me why she was acting so evil. Stephanie had made plans with her to go to Milwaukee and stay there with her dad. Then the night before she called and said she couldn’t go. Somehow Stephanie mentioned that she would be with Britta and Genna took it to mean that they had planned to go party in Milwaukee. She started lying, saying they’d be having sex together because there lesbians which isn’t even close to the truth. Neither of them are gay and Stephanie wasn’t going there at all. She was invited to Loni’s birthday party and was told not to tell anyone that wasn’t going so it didn’t hurt their feelings. Well Genna found out and at lunch she started fight with Miranda punching and screaming at the top of her lungs about the ordeal. Then when Loni came she kept screaming saying she was going to kill her. Miranda was a lot stronger than her and held her back. Loni went away so Miranda let go of her but then she dragged Debbie into the bathroom threatening to kill Loni. I went in there at one point but left immediately. She was acting crazy and it scared me. When I went back into the lunch room Loni was at a table crying. All her friends were with her comforting her. It made us so sad some of us started to cry.

Genna didn’t come back to school until Monday because she had been suspended. I had heard a rumor that she went to the mental institute and I told one of my friends and someone told Genna. In one of my classes she totally blew up in my face. She started yelling at me and she threatened me. Then she just stormed out of the room saying she was going to give me a referral which wasn’t good at my school because it could mean suspension. That was on a Friday and the next week I didn’t even get called down to the office. They obviously knew I didn’t do anything.

The last few months were great especially since we didn’t have to put up with her moods. I finished my candidate training for karate and received my black belt in March. I also never got in trouble again and I kept my 4.0 average. In fact, at the end of the year I was invited to an honors breakfast that included the top 9 or 10 percent of my whole class. Stephanie and I participated in solo and ensemble for choir and got second place. Britta had a better time concentrating on lacrosse and karate. We were all less stressed.

Although we had some bad experiences with Genna we forgave her. Debbie, Stephanie, Britta, and I still don’t trust her enough to be friends but Loni and Whitney have been nice to her lately and Kasey having just met her is becoming her friend. Maybe Debbie, Stephanie, or Britta did do this to her. We all just came here to relax so I can’t see any reason why they would do this. Although I didn’t think this was anything serious I did think it was strange that someone would do this especially since we are on vacation.

“I wouldn’t worry about this Genna,” I said calmly, “lets just go relax on the island.”

“Okay,” Genna said hesitantly.

Not long after, my friends were ready at the door. We were just waiting for Genna who was still upset about the letter. Once she got there we walked silently on the path to the beach. I was surprised that Genna wasn’t accusing anyone of doing it which led me to believe that she wrote it herself. But a few minutes later she was going off about the threat again.

“I feel like there is no one I can trust,” she whined, “All I wanted to do on this trip is relax but now I’m so tense…”

She trailed on like that for quite some time. Each of us took turns encouraging her that nothing was wrong.

“Genna get real,” Whitney started, “why would someone actually kill you?”

“The question isn’t why it’s how,” I pointed out, “Not only is it immoral but it’s illegal.”

Everyone agreed that someone was just fooling around and assured her that she wasn’t in any danger.

“You promise you’ll look out for me?” she said pathetically.

Of all people I know Genna was one of the most independent people. She was a brutal red head. Even though she isn’t athletic she’s fairly powerful on account of how big she was. She’s the same height as me and Britta, about 5’2” but unlike us she’s about 40 pounds overweight. I don’t know anyone here that could come out of a fight with her and win. That gave me even more of a reason to believe she made it up.

Finally we exited the jungle. We all scattered away from Genna but she followed Kasey and Debbie anyways. Britta and Stephanie followed me as I walked to a spot on our right. Debbie looked over at us with confused look as she pointed to Genna. We all laughed because we knew exactly what Debbie meant. She was upset that she Genna was going swimming with her and Kasey.

“Debbie’s stuck with Genna!” Britta laughed.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to hear her crap anymore!” I said rolling my eyes, “She wants me to find out just who did it.”

“Everyone knows who did it,” Stephanie said slowly. Both of us nodded our heads saying Genna.

“I know she did it. She’s done it before. I know the signs,” I said.
It was true that she had faked a threat. She made a fake note that was supposedly sent by Britta.

At that point I stopped. The spot we were at had a view of the whole coast. It was on the left side of the coast where there was less of a tide.
We were a good distance away from the jungle and Genna (at least 100 meters). Then we settled on the hot sand.

“She better not blame this on me again,” Britta raged.

“I’m so sick of her,” said Stephanie.

We started emptying our bags out. Britta and I were going to share my blanket today. She grabbed it and started unfolding it and straightening it out.

“She’s so great at ruining everything isn’t she?” I said.

Britta jumped at that statement, “I mean Loni planned such a great trip why did she have to start her old crap?”

“Yeah,” we agreed.

“We should go save Debbie from her shouldn’t we?” I asked.

We joked that swimming with sharks is better than swimming with Genna as we all silently agreed to get her. We tried calling her over there but didn’t want to be loud enough for Genna to hear. When that didn’t work I made up a plan.

“One of you can go tell Loni or Whitney to get Debbie over here,” I suggested.

“Genius!” smiled Britta.

“I’ll go,” said Stephanie.

In the end my plan succeeded. Stephanie and Britta told Whitney to get her and Debbie came.

“Debbie!” I howled cupping my hands around my mouth, “Did spending time with the monster make you deaf or stupid?”

Britta and Stephanie laughed, “BOTH!”

“We were calling you,” I said.

“Yeah we wanted to save you from Genna,” said Britta.

“Aww! You guys are the best!” Debbie said childishly.

“We guessed that you’d rather spend time chillin’ with us than swimming with her,” I explained.

“Duh!” Debbie exclaimed.

“So you’ve heard about Genna?” I asked smiling.

“Obviously!” she said, “How could you not have! She’s been complaining the whole way here!”

Then Britta began to rant about how it was just a ploy to get everyone’s attention. Soon we were all discussing the topic.

“What I still don’t get is why Loni would invite her,” I said.

“I know,” Debbie said.

“She told me her parents made her invite her,” answered Stephanie.

“None of you wrote the threat right?” I questioned.

“No!” everyone shouted at me.

“I know, I know, I know!” I apologized, “I wasn’t accusing, I was just making sure.”

“It was Genna,” Britta said.

“I know! We’ve been through this,” I said. I was sorry I asked.
“She’s so stupid!” Debbie said changing the subject away from me.
That also started our Genna bashing. It was impossible not to since she is such an easy target.

Once you get us talking about her you can’t easily get us to stop. We talked for at least an hour about her stupidity. Half the time we were talking about the things she had done to us.

Britta had a deep history with Genna. They were great friends for years, since elementary school actually. I have no idea what happened to Genna that made her start acting so evil but in seventh and eighth grade she treated Britta like crap.

Because Genna is such an insecure person, she always likes to make fun of people and that’s what she started to do to Debbie. Debbie is a sweet and loyal friend but Genna used her. Genna made her hang out with her even when Debbie didn’t like her.

Seeing Genna now made me angry. She put all my friends through a lot of pain. We haven’t had any problems with her since eighth grade but I still have a grudge that won’t go away.

“Hey! You guys want to play volleyball?” called Loni from across the beach.

We all look at each other, “Yeah!”

Talking was fun but volleyball is the ultimate thing to do on vacation. I was in volleyball in eighth grade but didn’t want to continue in high school because I was in drama which had clashing practices. I was also in stage crew where I helped design sets, a representative in student council, and a member of key club.

Volleyball is best when you have a good team of friends to play with. In eighth grade I was new but I got along with my team. Today everybody was playing which meant teams of four.

“Debbie, Steph, Britta,” I called, “you can be on my team.”

I looked at our opponents. Genna was surprisingly happy for someone who had just been crying about dying. What a faker. I couldn’t wait to beat them especially since Loni, Kasey, and Whitney were really sporty. For this game athletics didn’t matter you just have to be skilled at it and I was. And most of all you need to relax and have fun.

“We can serve first,” my team said, specifically me.

“Fine,” said Loni throwing the ball, “Losers first.”

I caught the ball and got ready to serve. To start out with I served underhand. It was an easy hit for them. Loni returned it and it went right towards Stephanie. Britta ran for it incase she didn’t hit it but she did and it went over to Kasey who flung her arms up aimlessly.

“Yes!” exclaimed Britta doing a “cha-ching!” motion with her arm.

Kasey smiled and laughed at herself, “we’re just warming up.”

The game was really fun. We all had a lot of energy bottled up so we played hard. Throughout most of the game we were tied. In the end the other team won. I knew that would happen considering they were considerably better at sports than the members of my team.

I walked up to Kasey at the end of the game and said, “Good job. Maybe next time we can mix it up you can be on my team.”

Kasey didn’t appreciate that. She looked away, not smiling.

Playing the game had gotten our minds off Genna’s ordeal. A half hour in she had whined that her ankle hurt. We had to take a long break until she was better. I went and put suntan lotion on and sat in the shade with Kasey and Debbie. Our subject, of course, was Genna.

“I’m so sick of her,” I began, “That note was made by herself so that people would feel sorry for her.”

“Wait are talking about Genna?” Kasey said with a genuinely confused face.

Debbie answered her nodding her head, “She wrote the threat and Loni and Whitney are taking it seriously.”

“You guys it is real,” said Kasey looking disappointed that we would even begin to think that we believed otherwise.

“Kasey,” I sighed, “how can you be so gullible?”

“I can not believe what I’m hearing,” Kasey said standing up, “You have no sympathy at all.”

She shook her head and walked away.

Sympathy?

How can I have sympathy for an attention hog like Genna! All her life she’d been a drama queen but this week was everyone’s vacation. Ruining it isn’t going to run smoothly with me. Gazing over at her I couldn’t help but feel anger. She was making Kasey, one of my good friends, think that I had no heart. I could see in her eyes that she was enjoying this. At that moment I wished I would have never paid notice to the threat. When I had questioned her I was just playing into the whole charade.

Involuntarily I walked over to Genna.

“Christina what’s wrong?” Genna said kindly.

Noticing I was now staring, I began walking off.

“If this is about the threat you’re right,” said Genna, “You know who did it...” a pause and then, “don’t you?”

With that I looked back.

I’m right?

Was that a confession? Did she just admit to faking the note?

“What?” I said dumbfounded.

At that moment my groupies, Debbie, Britta, and Stephanie, arrived.
Not now!

“Come on Kris,” one said, “we’re going to get lunch with the others.”
Hesitantly I answered, “coming.”

What horrible timing! Upset about my friends interruption, I looked at Genna who was silent. Then I slowly turned towards my friends and I left unsatisfied.

It was equally as bright out now as it was when we first came out. I scanned the scenery as I had the day before. Something wasn’t right. Everything about every moment here should be perfect. For some unexplainable reason, I couldn’t shake off the situation with Genna’s threat. I also couldn’t believe that she had told me I was right. Right about my instinct? Is she seriously trying to get more attention.

It’s probably a misunderstanding.

What if it wasn’t? If it wasn’t I should tell the others. Then again, why would I want to do that? Because I had bad memories from last year?

Once, she told everyone I was pregnant. Many shrugged it off, knowing that it wasn’t true. Some believed the witch. My friends set things straight and it was a topic that didn’t come up often.

In my opinion, Genna has become increasingly congenial over the past six or so months. That’s one of the reasons why I became her friend again, she got rid of some of her “evil” ways. Like being an attention hog, that’s not who she is… anymore.