BLUEBERRY Secrets
Backstabbed, Loser, Used,Erring, Broken, Emotional, Regretful, Reckless, Young.
From all the words I have ever been called, one word stuck out to me: Framed. As a little kid, I had always been the one to get blamed, since I was an orphan it was easier to be the target, everyone knew I didn’t want to be turned into child services so I stayed low.
“Hey kid, hands up in the air, right where I can see them” a police officer calls out. My hands shoot up in fear. A shining white flashlight beams at my face making me squint, my face doesn’t get red or hot like I’m scared of trouble, instead I stay calm. I remove my hood to make me less of a “Stealing-teen” look, my dad used to remove my hood when we went to stores, he said the clerks always suspect young kids with hoods for stolen or damaged items.
“Sir, I have no threat nor harm,, I am only a student in 11th grade” I plead, saying the same words from a court movie. “Show me your student ID” he snarls loudly. I tremble as I hand the officer my ID, “Eastpong huh” he says examining my ID. “Officer why am I stopped” I ask, “Haha playing dumb I see”, “No really why am I here stopped”, “There was a shooting at your school, must go through all suspects kiddo”. My face burns now, from pure fury. Immediately I hide the blood stain from the side of my sleeve. The cop sure wouldn’t be in mind to listen to my part of the story. “Buckle up kiddo” he growls and locks my hands with the tight, cold handcuffs.
When we arrive at the police department , they bombard me with questions, “Name”, “Louis Hansberry”, “Age”, “16”, “You said 11th grade eh?”, “I skipped a grade”. After they give me a paper to fill out, each question gets me anxious, I tremble. They were all questions about parents or guardians. Which I didn’t have either at the moment, I mark IDK as all the answers and hand it back to the officer. “Kid, no parent” he says, eyeing me head to toe. “No sir, I am an orphan, from the past 2 years I have been working at Diner Spoons for a living wage”. The officer and his colleague go to a room and whisper. Thirty-five minutes after serious discussions, they return back telling me what my plan is. They tell me I would be locked with an ankle monitor and everyday they will cover transportation with school, everyday after school you will be taken to court for your case.
An ankle monitor, really? Did they think I did it? , “We just added the ankle monitor for safety,” Bob says, studying my face. “If it was you, it’s very easy to lose teenagers.” They attach an ankle monitor and drive me back to my house. Soon as I arrive, I remove the bloody hoodie and hide that deep in a safe. If anyone found this, I would never have a chance to explain.
With no appetite I go straight to bed. I sleep like I slept on sticks and stones. All night child services run through my head, not letting me sleep peacefully.
The next day I wake up in silence, just as they said, they drive me to school in a black car instead of a police car to avoid the attention. Although I am the most invisible kid, it didn’t matter to me. On the ride to school, they ask me more questions, this time they ask about friends. The same cop as yesterday picked me up, this time he has his badge on his uniform, Bob, a simple name but he did not seem simple. “Morin kiddo, I would like to investigate more about you and your friends”. He asks all about my ex-girlfriend, Jessica ,since she was shot at the school shootings, Bob suspects me. The whole day at school was miserable, the sky filled with dark clouds, the awful stench of rain made the vibe really depressing. My teachers must have heard of my situation, they eyed me weirdly, so did the students. Nobody dared to bully me after the word got around how I am a suspect. Way to go Bob.
I try to hang out with my friends, although in my friend group, Jessica’s best friend Olivia is part of our group, so she knew how to make everyone quiet. Cameron has never listened to Olivia so he did talk with me, “Heyyyy Louis” he runs up dapping me, I dap him back with a broken smile. Cameron’s backpack swings around, a bloody napkin sneaks through, before I could sneak a picture to show Bob, he stuffs that back in his backpack. “I heard about your prob Louis, just talk with me anytime you want, don’t go harming others” he quickly says, without giving me a chance to talk. I wasn’t in the mood to fight back and tell him I was being framed, anyways it was lunch, finally no teachers treating me weird, but the students sure were weird, the staring, I knew Cameron would have said something to the rest of the hockey team, so I was not welcome there. I spot Jessica’s other friend, Selena. She kept staring at her locker and her seat, poor Selena, must have felt upset about her best friend. I walk up to her, “Hi Selena, how are you taking it, if there is anything I could do, let me know” I tell her in a humble voice as I take a seat next to her unwrapping my sandwich, “Hey Louis, thank you, I just can’t believe who…” “Hellooo you guys, it is very upsetting news about Jessica isn’t it” Olivia comes in interrupting. Surprisingly she didn’t seem too upset although Jessica is her best friend.
Thinking back, I noticed Olivia around Cameron’s backpack a lot…she does borrow his notes often.
“Cameron never liked Jessica, I did find a napkin that seemed red with a sharp edge like it was a wrapped knife when his backpack fell down except Cameron didn’t notice” I told Bob on the way to the department. “Kiddo we got another suspect in the scene, funny how Cameron had complained to you” Bob tells me in a serious tone. My stomach drops, no way it was Cameron, or could it be Cameron. The bloody napkin did look like there was a sharp edge, but not for sure, Cameron didn’t seem to notice that, and he was the first one to find Jessica lying on the floor at the bathroom entrance.
It has to be Cameron.
Bob takes an U-turn and drives back to the school, he takes Cameron to the department with me. Except that does not go well.
Half the school was watching, tik tok was sure gonna fire up with this news. Cameron was the son of a really famous cream brand. Cameron punched and fought Bob, I should have warned he is black belt in taekwondo, “BACK UP BACK UP NOW” Bob yells into his walki-talki. After struggling for 20 long minutes, Bob and his team finally get the handcuffs on him.
His face was red, furious, embarrassed, for the first time Cameron was scared. He grumbles as the officer grabs him and is kept in the backseat along with me. We both were cuffed, for the whole twenty minutes ride to the police department , we didn’t say a single thing. Sweat was dripping from his forehead, he was worried about his reputation. When we got to the department , he was asked many questions, meanwhile the news playing on a TV fired up with scenes of Cameron being arrested, he was mad for sure.
“Two kids on the case of murder” Bob tells his colleague, they ask us both more questions, Cameron was stubborn, since he actually had a family, he needed consent. Except Cameron’s parents were also stubborn, “Big lie, no son of mine does this ” his dad yells through the phone call. Cameron breaks down into tears, he tries holding back not to embarrass himself. Heartbrokenly he answers every question, no matter how many times he screams that he is innocent, nobody listens to him.
They keep the both of us in the jail cell asking questions all night long. The next day they made us stay here for another while. They go through Cameron’s backpack, a knife dried in blood.
Cameron’s feet jump up, “IT IS NOT MINE, I AM A GOOD KID, PLEASE BELIEVE ME”
They looked deeper in his backpack, there was also tiny little ziplock bag with a white capsule
He looks at it like he saw a ghost, pale, Bob looks back at Cameron, Bob shoots a serious look.
“Cameron we need to press charges against you, there is no more evidence we need”.
“NO, I AM BEING FRAMED, CHECK THE CAMERA’S PLEASE”, Bob sighs, after an hour of connecting with the principal, we finally get the access to the camera’s, although the whole time the principal was very adamant to not give access. After Bob threatened him he could be charged for not having adult supervision at all times . We open search up for September 7 2026, a black static pops up in all the cameras. We look for the latest history, an old recording from 1983 pops up.Bob and his teammates looked through every recording until they could find proof. But after 3 hours of searching, there was nothing to be found. “Prinicpal Evans, why has the camera not been working from 1983?” Bob questions in a scary tone, ”Officer this is uh an low-funded school…so uhh you know not enough funding…”, Bob whispers to an officer and she takes the principal to settle in with the cost. Meanwhile Cameron loses hope as Bob talks with him, “Well sorry Cameron, we have enough proof to show the criminal, you will be taken to the court to decide your consequence, child murder is no funny business kid.” he says in a very serious tone.
Cameron doesn’t move, he cries, this time not even caring about his reputation, an officer cuff’s back on and they go to a room. “Well kiddo come here, let me remove the ankle monitor”, he grabs some tools and unlocks that heavy thing.
Bob drives me back home. As we arrive, he hands me a card, Child services, “You know kids can’t live on their own, they will call you soon” he tells me. I knew one day I would have to be with the services but I think I could enjoy company.
* * *
“CAMERON SKILISKY, YOU HAVE A VISITOR”, the warden calls me over. I shuffle over in the smelly orange jumpsuit. I sit on a chair, there’s a glass divider on a wooden table. You know, I had always hated Jessica, the attention all the time, I was a shadow. It was unbearable staying near her, so I moved away from her, but every step was her. I always came second from her. Louis was the right one to take cover for me, but then I remembered, a bully who tormented me for years. I needed you”.
For a whole minute I bury my face into my hands trying to process everything.Just then the warden calls time up. She starts to walk away, “NO NO NO, OLIVIAAAAA”. As the warden pulls me away, a small piece of paper is slipped, I pause and slowly unfold the paper, blue ink, one word. CHECKMATE
Authors note: Q&A title
Q: Why is it called Blueberry secrets if it didn’t involve blueberry in any way?
A: The first sentence is all the words that described this story, as this is an acronym
Backstabbed
Loser
Used
Erring
Broken
Emotional
Regretful
Reckless
Young