CHAPTER 6.
Part 1
 
    Bored after the ceremony, I walked aimlessly around the gathering until I spotted a familiar messy blonde head.
    “Uh, Josh?” I asked uncertainly.
    He turned towards me. “Samantha, right?”
    “Yeah, no, it’s Spencer.”
    “Oh. So surprising to see you here. How did you know Opal?”
    Taken aback, I slowly questioned, “What do you mean?”
    He gave me a funny look. “Well you’re new and all, I guessed you wouldn’t have come across one of the most popular girls in our school.”
    I laughed nervously. “Haha, funny, ‘cause we live together, I don’t know if you knew...”
    Now he was snickering. “Spencer, Opal lived in a house with her parents near the school. Did you move in or something?”
    Now I was seriously confused. “Er, Josh, she lives in Miss Whitlaw’s orphanage... or did. With me.”
    He burst out laughing. “Miss Whitlaw’s? You can’t be serious Spencer. Opal had a family. And live in that dump? You’re kidding, right?” he shook his head with a smile. “Anyways, I’ll see you around.”
    “Wait!” I protested. “Wait, so Opal lived with her parents? How can that be possible? She was in an orphanage. Wait!”
    But he turned back to talk to his jock friends, all who gave me funny looks. Sighing exasperatedly, I ran over to Angel and Tammi.
    “Guys! Opal lived with her parents? Since when?”
    Angel looked at me strangely. “Spence, Opal always lived with her parents. She just visited the orphanage because he mom is the cook.”
    “The cook is a guy.”
    “Not him, the other one! You probably never saw her before, she’s very secretive. Just look over there.” Angel indicated a plump woman with curly dark hair.
    What was happening?
    Dizzy, I walked away and sat down on a bench while the funeral finished and the gathering was over. Finally, after the long bus ride home, I crashed exhaustedly on the shabby bed and rumpled sheets, laying awake for several hours, pondering the information I had learned and brainstorming possible outcomes. How could Opal live in a house when I had the strangest feeling she was an orphan? Josh seemed to think this was the last place Opal would be seen, but everyone else doesn’t see a difference.
    How could she have been here when I was in my room late the other night? Why didn’t I know she wasn’t an orphan? Why wasn’t I informed her mother was the cook? I thought I knew all the staff at the orphanage.
    Early in the morning, I finally fell asleep.