The Mystery of Andy Collins

### Connor Sullivan, Andy Collins, Marty Byers, Torrien King, Casey Whitlock, Crystal Reed, Jeffery Collins

There is a quiet book-ish girl in every classroom. You know the sort of girl I’m talking about. She doesn’t really belong to any group of friends, always has at least one book, if not several in her bag. She doesn’t talk, but always seems to know the answer when called upon by a teacher. She is the sort that popular kids don’t really care if she hears their secrets, or maybe just don’t notice, because they know she won’t share it with anyone and their secrets will be safe. She is the sort of girl who the studious kids don’t mind if they are partnered with her because she’ll do her portion of the work, but once the project is done, she returns to her solitary life.. The girl that people rarely notice, but is in every class.

        In my class, that girl was Andrea Collins. I didn’t really know her, as I mostly hung out with my football teammates. She wasn’t really part of any social group at school – I didn’t know if that was by her own choice or not, and to be honest, I had never really thought about it.

        All this changed October of 11th grade. My parents said one evening that they would be visiting my grandmother in Spain for a month or so, as she was not doing very well. Because they didn’t think I should be missing quite that much school, they arranged for me to stay with some of their friends, who had a kid in the same school as me. It was one of my dad’s co-workers from his law firm. I had met Mr. Collins a couple times, but hadn’t made the connection who his daughter was.

        I tried to convince my parents to let me stay by myself at home, or at least with a friend, but they were adamant. I had to stay with someone they knew and trusted.

        Due to changed travel plans and a bit of confusion, everything moved quite quickly. I didn’t get a chance to meet the Collins – or to figure out who the daughter was, before my parents left.

        I had about a week at school, trying to figure out who this girl was I would be staying with, but my dad couldn’t remember her name, or even if she was in the same grade as me. I guess I would meet her when I moved in.

        Grabbing a bag of my stuff, I headed out to the car, already filled with my parents' suitcases, and we headed off to my new home for the next month.

        I had figured that since Mr. Collins was my dad’s co-worker, and the kid went to my school, that they would live somewhere close-by ish. I was shocked when we turned towards Eastside. The east side of Colchester and the rest of the town didn’t mix. Eastside was considered the sketchy part of town where you didn’t want to have to walk in the dark.

        I studied my dad’s face through the front mirror, just to check if it looked like he was lost, but nope, he did not seem very concerned. How could my parents consider staying here in Eastside would be safer than with my friends?

        The house we stopped in front of looked no different than the other old houses on the block; it was hard to believe it belonged to a lawyer.

        Dad knocked on the door, and I sort of tried to hide behind him and Mom. I wasn’t usually the shy sort, but I was out of my comfort zone here.

        I could hear barking and a voice yelling for them to shut up.

        “Good evening, John,” Mr. Collins greeted my dad, inviting us inside.

        “Evening Jeffrey.”

        As Mr. Collins ushered us in and took our coats, I caught a glimpse of a pitbull staring at me from around the corner.

        “Oh, don’t worry,” Mr. Collins reassured me, “that’s just Killer, he’s harmless.” A dog named Killer with a spiked collar, harmless, yeah right.