Betrayal

Just because she was dead didn’t mean she had to lie.

IN THE DAYS AFTER HER DEATH viewership of Olivia Grant’s YouTube videos went up exponentially. She had posted them under the name Cher Boynton for her friends back in London, and by the Thursday after her murder they were making the rounds of the Facebook and Twitter accounts of Kingston High students faster than the Missoni line at Target had sold out.

Hayley and Taylor kept track on their phones during the break between first and second period. Bria

“This is so Bria

“Maybe she’s been kidnapped?” Taylor said, scrolling through the video, and only momentarily being distracted by a clip featuring four hundred Filipino kids singing a Kesha song.

“Maybe she’s dead?”

“Then she’d really get some attention, wouldn’t she?”

“Yeah, but not of the type she could brag or whine about,” Hayley said.

Taylor clicked Play on the video. Olivia waited for a musical interlude (a snippet of a Jessie J song) before she started talking. She moved her fingertips through her long ci

“Hello, kitties,” she said, her eyes fixed on the lens of her webcam. “I’ve been immersing myself in so-called American culture in the most miserable place on the planet. All right, maybe not as miserable as Birmingham, but close enough.”

She caught herself in the reflection of the computer screen and paused long enough to adjust her hair again before carrying on with her video blog. Her face went from interested to dour as she composed her thoughts.

“Nothing but rain and wind. I haven’t felt warm in three days. No kidding. The bedroom, which I call DSB for ‘dead sister’s bedroom,’ is a freezer. Now I’d like to update you on the people I’ve met here. First of all, there’s Beth, whom I consider to be a nice but confused girl. She seems to want to fit in so badly she’ll be whatever anyone wants her to be. I like her. At least, I like some of her divergent personalities, but sometimes she tries too hard. There’s also Beth’s friends who keep coming ‘round: the Ryan twins, Hayley and Taylor. Beth can’t seem to tell them apart, but it’s obvious to me. Hayley has a boyfriend, Colton, who is pretty cute, and Taylor has no one. Taylor is always fussing around like she’s mad at her sister, and her sister is always trying to appease her. They act all close and everything, but I’d bet that they’d take each other out if they were locked in the same room. Colton is part American Indian, and he’s been nice to me. Really nice, if you know what I mean. I like him. The good news is I have a new best friend. Her name is Bria

“Wow,” Taylor said. “She’s mean. At least Colton got a nice shout-out.”

Hayley shook her head and glowered. “Yeah, a little too nice, if you ask me.”

Taylor clicked on Olivia’s second video. Like the first, it was filmed in Christina Lee’s old bedroom. One of Beth’s drawings, a dark and brooding piece with a ghostly figure in a bramble forest, filled the background.

“Hello, kitties, it’s me, Olivia. I’m a little down today. I had to spend the day with Beth, her mother, and those Ryan twins at the Silverdale Mall.”

She held up a pale orange, scoop-necked top. “I got this top, which I think is brilliant, from the Gap. Love it? I do. We had lunch at the Red Robin restaurant, and I had the worst thing ever. Something called a Banzai Burger, which is a Japanese take on a hamburger, America’s national dish. They make fun of British cooking all the time in America, but at least we’ve never come up with an abomination combination like hamburger, teriyaki, and pineapple. I can almost feel it rising up from my stomach to my throat right now. Also on the down side, things have been getting a little weird with my new best friend, Bria

“Drew is a player, if you ask me,” Hayley said.

“Maybe last year,” Taylor said. “This year he seems to have settled down. Getting Bria

“Two levels,” Hayley said, thinking. “Remember Je

“‘Je

Hayley didn’t know any of that. Taylor had her own life too.

Taylor waited for the next video to load.

“Olivia looks different in that video we just watched,” Taylor said.

“How?” Hayley asked.

“A little scared. Did you see how her eyes kept straying from the camera lens?”

“I guess so,” Hayley said. “I thought maybe she was a

Taylor shrugged. “Maybe. Let’s watch the next one.”

Finally, for the third time, Olivia Grant took to her computer video cam. It was a different kind of Olivia this time, quite a bit less focused, almost frazzled. She didn’t adjust her hair. She didn’t pause for a musical interlude. She just started talking.

“Hello, kitties, Olivia here. Just a few words about Kingston High School. Not sure why they call it Kingston High. There’s nothing high about it. Don’t get me wrong. I think the school itself is pretty decent, but the students seem to spend half their time talking about the football game and what Katy Perry song they like the best. Between us, they all seem the same to me. The classes aren’t challenging at all. I’m surprised how much these kids don’t know about the world. I was talking about the euro the other day, and one girl said her brother drove a Euro and had nothing but problems with it. No joke! It was all I could do to stop myself from laughing right in her dull face. In case you don’t get the reference, she thought the euro was a car! I’ll bet she thinks Greece is a musical. I’m getting really close with someone, but for now it has to be a secret. Not my choice, but I guess if I actually lived here I’d be more wary of any repercussions.”

Taylor set down her phone and met her sister’s gaze.

“Wow,” she said.

“Yeah, wow,” Hayley said. “Olivia seemed so nice, so classy.”

“It was that accent of hers,” Taylor said. “The accent made her seem regal.”

“Did she always talk that way?”

“With the accent? Yeah. Trashing everyone? Probably.”

“I wonder who she pissed off. Because someone must have been pretty mad to do what they did to her that night.”

Taylor agreed. “Yeah. And who was she getting close to?”

“No idea,” Hayley said. “But it sounds like whoever it was had a reason for nobody finding out.”

Taylor looked back at the cell phone screen, frozen on Olivia’s face. Behind her in Christina’s bedroom was a bulletin board with a series of photos pi