Free Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

show up for class, we all thought he was sick. Only he wasn’t in the dorm that night.
    “The school searched everywhere. They questioned his friends, his roommate, his girlfriend, practically everyone who knew him, but nobody had any idea where he was. And then they finally found him.”
    Eleanor gazed around the table dramatically, her eyes glistening with excitement.
    “He was in the forest. It was a Monday; I remember because I was wearing my pink-and-blue headband, the one I always wear on Mondays. We were outside in Earth Science when we saw them carrying Benjamin’s body through the gates. Dead, of course. I remember they’d thrown his coat over him so none of us could see his face. All we could see was one of his arms swinging below him while Professor Bliss and Professor Starking carried him to the nurses’ wing. It was so pale it was almost blue.”
    The table went uncomfortably silent, the din of silverware clinking against plates blurring into white noise around us as we all imagined Benjamin’s arm dragging lifelessly across the green.
    “But the strangest part was that nobody could understand what caused his death,” Eleanor continued. “He wasn’t harmed in any way. No scratches or bruises or anything, so it was obvious that no one had attacked him or murdered him. And he didn’t have anything with him, so it wasn’t like he was trying to run away. When the nurses examined him, they said he died of a heart attack, and that there was no other possible cause of death.”
    I froze. “Wait,” I said, my heart beginning to race. “He died of a heart attack?”
    “Yeah. It did seem kind of bizarre at first. A fifteen-year-old dying of something like that. But that’s what happened.”
    Images of my parents flooded my mind. The car, the woods, their lifeless bodies. “Did they find anything else? Like anything out of the ordinary? On his body, maybe?”
    She gave me a confused look. “I don’t think so....”
    “They didn’t find anything out of the ordinary but a dead kid,” Rebecca added sarcastically, biting into a cherry tomato.
    Eleanor rolled her eyes.
    “So what does Dante have to do with it?” I interjected.
    Eleanor gazed at me as if it were obvious. “Dante was the one who found him.”
    I stopped chewing.
    “No one could understand how Dante discovered him. It was in such a remote location in the forest that the chances seemed nearly impossible.”
    I could feel myself begin to sweat.
    “Afterward, there were rumors that Dante had killed Benjamin. That’s how he knew where he was.”
    “But why would Dante do that?” I said, trying to steady my voice.
    “Well,” Eleanor said, taking a sip of water, “Benjamin was dating my old roommate, Cassandra Millet.”
    “Wait,” I said. “I thought we weren’t allowed to date.” I paused. “Why aren’t we allowed to date?”
    Eleanor gave me a perplexed look. “Well of course we’re not allowed to date. The school thinks it distracts from our academics. I guess that’s the way they did it back then—brother and sister schools. Same with the dress code. No short skirts or bare shoulders. But that doesn’t mean no one dates. You just have to be discreet about it. Anyway, Cassandra was adorable: creamy skin, these huge green eyes, flowing golden hair—a little Aphrodite walking around campus. Everyone loved her. Even Dante. They were best friends—both part of the same group. The Latin Club. People think Dante was in love with Cassandra and killed Benjamin to get to her.”
    “That seems a little extreme....” I said.
    Eleanor shrugged. “It’s just a rumor.”
    “So are they together now or something?”
    “Cassandra dropped out,” Rebecca said, shaking her head.
    “Or transferred,” Eleanor added. “Either way, she left the school.”
    “Maybe Cassandra killed Benjamin Gallow,” a girl named Bonnie offered.
    Eleanor shook the idea off. “Then they would have let the police deal with it. And I already said