Story #1 Vanessa

Story # 1
 
“I can’t believe Amber is dead, not now she was twenty years old and had her whole life ahead of her” at least that’s what the people getting up and talking were saying, I knew the truth though. She wasn't dead, I was standing there playing the part of the grieving friend and accepting condolences I understood that they felt the need to apologize and they chose me and my best friend Amanda. Only we knew the truth that she wasn’t dead but kidnapped and held hostage they figured saying she died would stop people from looking for her and finding out what she knew, I thought about the two girls who were closer than sisters to me, Amanda and Amber are both certified genius’s we had been friends since we were little and they got teased for being smart while I got teased for being quiet I’ll never forget the day I saw these two genius girls come up to me though I was a year younger and tell the girls bugging me to back off and they then proceeded to use quite a few big words that the other girls thought were insults, at first I thought that it was directed at me until Amanda looked straight at me and told me that someday I would show all the people who had ever put me down. Amber then looked at me and said that from that day on they would help me to show them, and it was true we were inseparable they would tutor me in school and I would tell them about myself. I frequently said it wasn’t a fair trade but they wouldn’t here of it, eventually I stopped trying to talk them out of it and pretended that I was okay with how unfair it was. Then as I stood next to her grave after everyone else had filed away to go to the luncheon Amanda and I prepared, rain started falling starting at a drizzle and becoming a true Texas storm. I couldn’t help but shed a few tears for the friend I know deep down was alive and I remembered the last funeral I was at where it was raining three months before, my grandfather’s funeral. I had the same detached feeling then like I was watching some one else kneeling down at the grave and sobbing until Amanda and Amber came and helped her back to her feet. I couldn’t believe he was gone dead never to help me through the difficulties in life again. A noise behind me brought me out of my reverie.
As I approached my best and last true friend I felt as if the laptop in my hands was becoming heavier. A couple feet away Vanessa whirled around “Oh it's you! Don't sneak up on me like that” She said surprised. through the rain I could see she had been crying, her eyes were red. When her words registered I went on the defense immediately “Well if you weren't just standing out here in the rain by yourself maybe this wouldn't have happened. Are you forgetting they would have gotten her alone?” the fire that briefly appeared in her ocean eyes extinguished “your right, I'm sorry. Neither of us has gotten much sleep lately and I guess tempers are running high.” Oh I missed that fire seeing it again reminded me how much we actually lost. Until we solved the puzzle we couldn't get any of it back. Thinking about that made me ignore my frustration for a while and look at the laptop that could possibly be key to everything. Obviously Vanessa noticed a change since she looked at the laptop as well “Is that” she couldn't even finish the sentence, she didn't have to. I knew what she meant and we both knew the answer. “Yes it's Amber's” she still looked disappointed like she had hoped by some miracle it wasn't the same laptop we had seen Amber pack around since she got it. “I...I” she took a deep breath and started again “what does it say” I couldn't help but say the first thing that came to mind “A lot” Vanessa glared at me “no duh, she's a super genius I mean that has to do with her 'death'” I could tell she was anxious to get all this over with, which made it that much harder to say what I had to “It's a puzzle just like we thought, we need to solve it to get all this over with and” I was nervous to say it “to find out what happened to your grandfather.” “My grandfather got in to deep. He should have stopped, we should stop.” Her voice broke on the last part. I tried to console her “It'll be okay. Amber was close to cracking it, we just need to” “No!” Vanessa cut me off “I am not keeping myself awake at night wondering if I'll be next, I can't do it” In the instant before she wiped her tears I saw the girl that she hid from the entire world except her grandfather and I silently cursed him for getting us all involved in this and for leaving such an amazing girl alone. I regretted that I would have to involve her more but I needed to and I knew just how to do that. “yeah so you are going to let these people get away with this. You and your stupid grandfather got us into this in the first place. Do you realize that Amber would still be here if it wasn't for that, do you care about her at all?” I kept wanting to say 'gotcha' but I knew I couldn't “of course I care, maybe she and I aren't as close as you two geniuses but that doesn't mean I don't think of her as a sister” I knew my words had struck the intended nerve. Vanessa was hurt. I kept my mouth closed until the urge to apologize left, I couldn't, I needed her to help and if it took making her feel mad and guilty then that's what I'd do. I needed her, she would never realize how important she was to Amber and I.
“If you cared you wouldn't be ignoring this, you would help me get her back” Amanda's words cut like a knife. I knew if I didn't help those words would haunt my dreams, I didn't need more of that so I took a deep breath and replied “okay you win I'll help, but why do you need me your the super genius and I got you into this mess remember.” Amanda didn't waste time with the formalities of making me feel better “For one thing Amber put a voice activated lock on the files we need to access and somehow she got it to be your voice.” I couldn't believe it why would she want it to be my voice, I couldn't do any good. Then it registered, that was probably the exact reason: I wasn't a threat. Amanda grabbed my arm leading me to the car. “come on it's freezing out here and I don't want to short out the laptop with the rain” I didn't know if that was possible but then again Amanda was smarter than me. As I drove out of the cemetery she started the computer. “Now what would Amber put as a password that you would know” It only took me a second to realize what it was “my little butterfly's light will someday shine so bright” “Where did that come from” sometimes I forgot that there were things Amanda didn't know “my grandpa used to say it to me and one time Amber overheard she thought it was cute actually she put it in my yearbook every year.” it felt weird laughing at something that had happened with Amber when it was possible I would never see her again. Amanda let out a little kind of giddy laugh “we're in I don't know what word it was that was actually the password but whatever it was it worked.” I let out the breath I hadn't been aware I was holding. “One step closer to getting this over with” “Oh my gosh! She left us messages!” “What” I shrieked and swerved the car “V, eyes on the road.” Amanda told me, only half joking. “Well you can't drop a bombshell like that and expect me not to react” I defended, it felt like old times teasing each other “You just keep your eyes on the road and I'll listen to my message first. Uh” she paused “My headphones are in the glove box” I told her realizing what she didn't want to say. The message wasn't for me to hear.
Donning the headphones I tried not to look at the hurt expression Vanessa was trying to hide. If the screen hadn't specifically said that under no circumstances was I to let Vanessa listen, I would have had no problem letting her hear what Amber had to say to me, at least until I heard it. “Amanda I know you think I'm going to tell you some big secret to help you solve this thing but I'm not.” At that part Vanessa tapped me on the shoulder to tell me we were home and I carried the laptop in the house. “What I will tell you is this: we are basically pawns in a plot, a plot to get Vanessa. The people I am with won't let me tell you anymore while you are in contact with her, I need you to change the password so she can't access it until she is ready” Through out the whole thing pictures appeared on the screen, they were of us but most of them I hadn't seen before. In the ones that I had seen there were people circled in red marker, it was the same people in all of them. “When she opens it they will come after her and Amanda be ready because: you're next” The last words appeared on the screen in red lettering I took it back to the document page so that when Vanessa opened hers she wouldn't see it. “Um V” I tried to get her attention without making her jump. “you're done?” she asked. “yeah it's your turn.”
As I put on the headphones part of me was worried about what I'd here and part of me was worried about what I wouldn't. I braced myself to hear her voice and the accusing note in it but that isn't what I heard. Music flowed through the headphones, songs I loved but I couldn't pretend that I wasn't disappointed. Even as the words appeared on screen I wasn't fully aware until the pictures started. Pictures of Amber, Amanda, and I. Some we took and some I didn't recognize that looked as though other people had taken them at random times for years. When all the songs ended I exited out of the program and saw the words your next in big red letters. I screamed before I had time to think about what it would cause, Amanda came rushing into the living room with a pan of some kind raised over her head. “What is the problem” she yelled. I showed her the computer, after I pressed play and the threat disappeared, now the screen read give god what’s right not what’s left. “amber always liked scavenger hunts” I said distracted by trying to get my heart rate down again. Amanda looked confused and…..relieved at what I was showing her, I wondered if she had seen the title of the file because it said Amanda-message. “That makes no sense Amber was never really involved in a particular organized religion” The first thought I had was that maybe now she would realize how I felt having nothing ever make sense but I knew I wasn’t actually mad at her. “It’s just like I said a code” I turned the computer back to myself. “what church has the theme or saying ‘give unto god’ or whatever?” Amanda thought about it for all of two seconds and then answered me “that is the (insert name here) church.” “Ok lets go” I said already picking up my keys. “where?” Amanda looked genuinely confused, to the church”,
I said it with an uh-bah-duh tone to my voice, but that didn’t stop her from still trying to be the voice of reason “Vanessa first: there are hundreds of them and we don’t know which one she was talking about. Second: we can’t just go wandering around a church in the middle of the night.” I stopped gathering my things “Look first” I said mimicking her words “it’s this one” I pointed to it on the map I had pulled up on the computer “and second: you got me into this to begin with” I knew that technically it wasn’t true, my grandpa had gotten us all involved in this “I didn’t know you would start going off on a…on a treasure hunt” I knew what she had started to that she hadn’t known I was going to go on a wild goose chase and the truth is she was right I could feel that it was pointless but I had to know I had tried. Something in my face must have given me away because she dropped the subject simply saying “I’ll drive”. On the way to the church I couldn’t get rid of the idea that something bad was going to happen. A feeling of foreboding had settled over me as I had seen the words on the computer, how could she not have told me. All the old insecurities about Amanda and Amber just stringing me along invaded my thoughts, I tried to push them back with the thought that nothing bad was going to happen.
“The Girls are smart we can give them that.” My bodyguard didn’t elaborate on what he was talking about, he didn’t have to, they had taken the laptop with them effectively making any attempts at retrieval likely to compromise the plan. Whether it was a conscious safety procedure or they had just wanted to study it more was the real mystery. “Why don’t we have audio? Shouldn’t I be able to hear what they are saying?” “We are trying our best to get audio but it complicates things to have them where we are trying to put the mics and cameras. Does that make sense?” I didn’t miss his condescending tone, or the fact that the look on his face was saying he really didn’t care if I wanted audio it only mattered what his bosses thought, but I pretended to. If I had to play the part of an insignificant idiot to get what I wanted then that’s what I’d do. “Why didn’t you do it while they were at the funeral?” That made him laugh “Bugging there house and car while they are at their friends funeral, now that’s just harsh” As he said it he started the car having guessed that it was a far enough distance that the girls wouldn’t figure out they were being followed if they decided to check which everyone doubted they would do. “Why don’t we bug their house now then?” it was a reasonable question even if the big boss had ordered for the girls to have someone watching them at all hours the organization was big enough to have others bugging the house. “We have other plans right now” that was a new development and I couldn’t resist asking about it “like what” He flashed a smile at me “We are going to raise the stakes” I felt like screaming at him “ this isn’t a game, there are things going on that your little pea brain can’t even begin to comprehend. One wrong move and the girls will figure out everything” but I was supposed to not be important so I just kept quiet.

Bleh

Gallagher girl four is coming out soon and I just put a countdown on my phone (I actually went on my calender and on every day from now till it comes out I put the number of days left.) I think it would be fun to go dress up when it comes out like people have done for Harry Potter and Twilight (I already have a costume.) I went to look at my other fake blog that I made and I saw that there was a comment and it took me a while to realize that it was me and that I had put it there using the type of words that I see on other blogs (mostly Ally Carter's) that is how blonde I am. I also decided that I want a nickname because everybody else I know has at least one nickname that they are called a lot and I don't have one (this I realized after going through old facebook notes) I am trying to come up with one but the problem is you aren't supposed to give yourself a nickname other people are supposed to give it to you, and you can't really go up to your older brothers and say "Hammy, I want a nickname" because then they will give you a stupid one that you hate. (Hammy isn't actually my brothers name, it's just a nickname)That is why I titled the post "Bleh" cause I feel kinda bleh today, so I'm going to do something else to try and get out of my funk