hatching eggs
Justin is just a normal boy until friday nights when his babysitter comes over and introduces him to a new world. Elllie is just a normal teenage girl unless she's babysitting then she gets to be a kid again. Two ordinary kids teach us all that anybody can take an ordinary night and make it magical
Justin Scott sat on the couch pouting, he didn't want his parents to leave. He had to stay home and have a babysitter his parents just laughed when they looked over at him./ A knock sounded on the door and Ellie was let in she was the new neighbor and when Mr and Mrs Scott had learned that she was a babysitter they decided to go out. Justin blamed her for his parents leaving. Justin didn't move once while Ellie talked to his parents./ After they left Ellie smiled at Justin but when he just sank deeper into the couch she knew that she would have to try something else./ walking over to the sliding door Ellie gasped, "Why didn't you tell me Justin?" Justin couldn't help himself he answered her "didn't tell you what?" "You have dragon eggs in the backyard!" Justin ran to the back door but didn't see anything/ Ellie opened the door and went outside, Justin followed her, she stopped at a collection of big rocks "These are huge. They're gonna hatch any day" /Justin frowned "what are you talking about, these are rocks" Ellie looked down at him "you don't see it? the smootheness of it the way that the you can almost feel it breathing." as Ellie kept describing what a dragon egg was like Justin started to see it too he could even feel it breathing then all of a sudden the egg started shaking/ "Whats happening Ellie." "I think the eggs are starting to hatch" Justin looked around "But where are their parents? What if they forgot them? Ellie whats gonna happen to them if their parents don't come home?" /Ellie got down in front of him "Don't worry Justin Dragons leave to go and get their babies food and things like that but they always come back, they love their babies and would never leave them forever. If the eggs hatch before the parents get back we could watch them." "Do you know how to watch baby dragons?" Ellie laughed "its a lot like babysitting. We can do it" /The eggs started shaking even more "Ellie I think they're hatching!" after he said it one of the eggs made a big cracking sound a little flat head popped out followed by a tall neck the other eggs hatched too but while the first had been blue one of these was green and one was red/ they all climbed out of the eggs showing round little tummys and extra long tales. Justin laughed at them, the dragons got up and started playing./ "look at them, they know that their parents will be back." justin did see/ he got up dragged Ellie with him and started playing with the dragons- they played dragon hide and seek,- dragon go fish---- in the middle of a game of dragon tag the three dragons cried out they had gotten their tales tangled up/ Ellie and Justin helped to untangle them and when they started to play again Ellie stopped Justin ran up and tagged her "your it Ellie. Whats wrong?" "what? Oh nothings wrong but look Justin" she pointed to the sky "I don't see anything"/ "you don't? You don't see anything flying towards the house." then Justin saw it two big things flying towards the house as they got closer he could see that they were two huge dragons. "their parents! they came back!"/ as the dragons landed and reunited with their children Ellie and Justin watched after they left Justin looked at his house and saw lights coming into the driveway. "Mom. Dad"/ Justin ran in the house and hugged his parents when they walked in./ Ellie got ready to leave and before she went she smiled at the big rocks in the backyard. /After she was gone Justin asked his parents "is she coming over again next week?" His mom laughed "we'll ask" Justin couldn't wait for their next adventure. It would be as fun as this one.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, October 7, 2010
post
Hey I haven't posted in a while (I couldn't think of anything) so I found something first Anna had a baby second Abby is in town again this is the second time this year. She is taking Cinderella back with her cause Cinderella dropped out of school, I always feel like an outsider, like I just don't quite belong with this close fun happy loving family. I'll post more later, see ya
Thursday, September 16, 2010
FFA
Hey everybody,
I am a member of the FFA which is the Future Farmers of America. Our chapter isn't very big but we are going to try and change that, I'm basically using this blog post as an idea board that I can bounce off of. I am trying to think of ways that I can improve the chapter and ways that the chapter can improve in general. although my ideas will be random anybody else who has an idea can post as a comment. Here is a quesion to get your thought process started: What is stopping you from joining? Some of my ideas are a website for our chapter and a scevenger hunt for National FFA week in February a big long one with new things everyday. I can't think of anything else right now and my sub is giving me the evil eye so bye.
I am a member of the FFA which is the Future Farmers of America. Our chapter isn't very big but we are going to try and change that, I'm basically using this blog post as an idea board that I can bounce off of. I am trying to think of ways that I can improve the chapter and ways that the chapter can improve in general. although my ideas will be random anybody else who has an idea can post as a comment. Here is a quesion to get your thought process started: What is stopping you from joining? Some of my ideas are a website for our chapter and a scevenger hunt for National FFA week in February a big long one with new things everyday. I can't think of anything else right now and my sub is giving me the evil eye so bye.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Shouldn't I know things like this?
I remember a couple of years ago at Christmas grandma was taking all of her grandchildren to build-a-bear workshop to make a bear, Charity couldn't come. Before we went in the store Lashelle and I talked she told me about problems she was having and I listened. Now I don't have any idea what is going on with her she was anorexic and nobody ever told me, I suspected just because she is tiny and wasn't eating. Shouldn't a friend know these things? Shouldn't a cousin know these things? I love her so much and I have no idea what is going on in her life, same goes for Dezey she moved out of Jessica's and I have no idea why, I can't mention it because if I say the wrong thing then everybody will get mad. For a while I really thought that Deezey and I were going to be close and now I haven't talked to or heard from her in weeks. I haven't talked to Mourn in forever either. Everytime I think I've found a good friend in my family something happens and it's like nope Erica just kidding. It wouldn't bug me so much if it weren't for the fact that for the most part my family is my friends, I don't have many other ones. I know that I get on people's nerves so I try not to I tried giving Amanda space and where that left me was needing a friend and my mom giving me the third degree. Amanda Dezey and Lashelle are all so important to me and I think they are so amazing I feel like it's my fault that I've lost them like if I were better they would still be here. That's always how I feel in everything, if I was: smarter, faster, funnier, thinner, cuter, nicer, worldlyer, just better then things would be different and maybe I would be happy. If I was a better friend than maybe Amanda, Dezey and Lashelle would actually tell me things and I would actually know them. Shouldn't I know these people if for no other reason than jsut because they are my family? How can a person with such a huge family be so alone?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
AAAH
So I realized that I haven't posted anything that matters in a while so here goes.
You remember my post about camping and the go cart starting on fire and me crying well a couple of weeks ago I was at my grandma's and my little brother "D-rock" was riding my grandma's mower (obviously it was a riding mower) and then it ran out of gas and so we went into my mom and she told me to go fill it up with gas and I told her I wasn't going anywhere near that thing with gas and so she went and filled it up and came and told me to mow the front lawn so I slowly walked outside and to the mower I started it and rode it to the side of my grandma's house, then I went in teh house handed D-rock the keys and said you can do it then my mom said that he didn't have enough experience to do the front yard (he has mowed that back lawn twice while as I have done it once and that once I ran over a hose) so I take the keys and walk outside I sat on the lawnmower and started crying I was so scared then apparently my mom noticed that there wasn't sound coming from out front cause she comes and finds me tells me to get off and then she starts mowing the lawn later my brother calls and asks her what she's doing she says she's mowing the lawn cause Erica is to lazy to do it. I was crying because I was so scared and she thinks that I'm just being lazy. nobody actually realizes how terrified I was when that go cart started on fire. Then the other day I was at my house cleaning the back yard when the subject turned to bikinis now I am against bikinis in general but they were talking about my mom getting one which is disturbing on many levels a few of which I will tell you now besides the fact that I don't like bikinis in general thinking about my mother getting one is upsetting for no other reason than the fact that she's my mom! I think the thing that really made me mad that day though is this: my mom can wear a bikini and I can't she's had seven kids and yet me, who has been excersicing like crazy and not eating much (not that I'm trying to become anorexic or anything I just don't have any appetite lately) I have gained weight. I can't even be happy lately the only things that make me happy are reading and playing with/holding my neice (who I don't see very often) I haven't even written anything recently. The person that I text the most is my mom and that is because she tells me to clean stuff I haven't really texted anybody other than my mom for more than a week. I haven't seen or talked to my dad in months and missed my family reunion. I miss my step mom but can't go see her because I get fed up of everybody who is with her, I added one of my poems to a discussion and everybody in the discussion told me it was horrible. I just want to escape, get away from all this stupud crap (which also annoys me because Charity who dropped out gets to move to Texas) On top of all that I keep daydreaming about HSM4 and them having a contest, because they want to give young writers a chance, to write HSM4 (of course in my dream I win and honestly I don't think my idea is that bad but who knows I've been wrong about everything else I think) the weird thing is my ideas for HSM have been pretty close to what they end up doing (minus the me having something to do with it.) I want to end all of this junk and I don't know how to.
You remember my post about camping and the go cart starting on fire and me crying well a couple of weeks ago I was at my grandma's and my little brother "D-rock" was riding my grandma's mower (obviously it was a riding mower) and then it ran out of gas and so we went into my mom and she told me to go fill it up with gas and I told her I wasn't going anywhere near that thing with gas and so she went and filled it up and came and told me to mow the front lawn so I slowly walked outside and to the mower I started it and rode it to the side of my grandma's house, then I went in teh house handed D-rock the keys and said you can do it then my mom said that he didn't have enough experience to do the front yard (he has mowed that back lawn twice while as I have done it once and that once I ran over a hose) so I take the keys and walk outside I sat on the lawnmower and started crying I was so scared then apparently my mom noticed that there wasn't sound coming from out front cause she comes and finds me tells me to get off and then she starts mowing the lawn later my brother calls and asks her what she's doing she says she's mowing the lawn cause Erica is to lazy to do it. I was crying because I was so scared and she thinks that I'm just being lazy. nobody actually realizes how terrified I was when that go cart started on fire. Then the other day I was at my house cleaning the back yard when the subject turned to bikinis now I am against bikinis in general but they were talking about my mom getting one which is disturbing on many levels a few of which I will tell you now besides the fact that I don't like bikinis in general thinking about my mother getting one is upsetting for no other reason than the fact that she's my mom! I think the thing that really made me mad that day though is this: my mom can wear a bikini and I can't she's had seven kids and yet me, who has been excersicing like crazy and not eating much (not that I'm trying to become anorexic or anything I just don't have any appetite lately) I have gained weight. I can't even be happy lately the only things that make me happy are reading and playing with/holding my neice (who I don't see very often) I haven't even written anything recently. The person that I text the most is my mom and that is because she tells me to clean stuff I haven't really texted anybody other than my mom for more than a week. I haven't seen or talked to my dad in months and missed my family reunion. I miss my step mom but can't go see her because I get fed up of everybody who is with her, I added one of my poems to a discussion and everybody in the discussion told me it was horrible. I just want to escape, get away from all this stupud crap (which also annoys me because Charity who dropped out gets to move to Texas) On top of all that I keep daydreaming about HSM4 and them having a contest, because they want to give young writers a chance, to write HSM4 (of course in my dream I win and honestly I don't think my idea is that bad but who knows I've been wrong about everything else I think) the weird thing is my ideas for HSM have been pretty close to what they end up doing (minus the me having something to do with it.) I want to end all of this junk and I don't know how to.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Only The Good Spy Young
So I read only the good spy young and it was amazing and I can't wait till somebody finishes it so that I can discuss it so.....DON'T READ THIS PART UNLESS YOU HAVE READ ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG! Just exit this page, Now! Though feel free to somehow ask me to borrow GG4.
AAAAAAAHHHHHH Zach's mom is in the circle ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!!!! and Cammie runs away without Zach (from what I gathered). Mr. Solomon was also in the circle and now he's dead and Mr. S is in a coma. Zach is going to the Gallagher Academy because He is now an enemy of the circle and his mom and can't go back to blackthorne cause It's a school for assassins! Zach's mom told Cammie that they didn't want to kill her (which I think is true) and that they were going to make her remember some things and take her to her dad (which I think is partly false) oooh idea maybe they don't want to take her to her dad they want to use her to lure her dad out of hiding so that they can kill him. Townsend uses Cammie to try and lure out Mr. Solomon so it isn't any surprise that the circle would use Cammie to get her dad. Oh and the Loch ness monster is real. Mr. Solomon is so awsome in this book, in this one more than the others you can tell that he loves her. He was willing to get caught to tell her to follow the pigeons, and he was willing to tell the circle stuff to save her and (to what I think is a lesser extent) Zach. In a way I am glad that the traitor turned out to be Mr. Solomon (who happened to not actually be a traitor) I was to worried that it would be Liz or Macey and in the beginning of the book I was worried about it being Bex and her family (which is weird, subconsciously I would rather have it be them then Solomon) I can't think of anything else at the moment when I do I'll either edit this or post them as a comment. Oh by the way apparently not only the good spy young
AAAAAAAHHHHHH Zach's mom is in the circle ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!!!! and Cammie runs away without Zach (from what I gathered). Mr. Solomon was also in the circle and now he's dead and Mr. S is in a coma. Zach is going to the Gallagher Academy because He is now an enemy of the circle and his mom and can't go back to blackthorne cause It's a school for assassins! Zach's mom told Cammie that they didn't want to kill her (which I think is true) and that they were going to make her remember some things and take her to her dad (which I think is partly false) oooh idea maybe they don't want to take her to her dad they want to use her to lure her dad out of hiding so that they can kill him. Townsend uses Cammie to try and lure out Mr. Solomon so it isn't any surprise that the circle would use Cammie to get her dad. Oh and the Loch ness monster is real. Mr. Solomon is so awsome in this book, in this one more than the others you can tell that he loves her. He was willing to get caught to tell her to follow the pigeons, and he was willing to tell the circle stuff to save her and (to what I think is a lesser extent) Zach. In a way I am glad that the traitor turned out to be Mr. Solomon (who happened to not actually be a traitor) I was to worried that it would be Liz or Macey and in the beginning of the book I was worried about it being Bex and her family (which is weird, subconsciously I would rather have it be them then Solomon) I can't think of anything else at the moment when I do I'll either edit this or post them as a comment. Oh by the way apparently not only the good spy young
Thursday, May 20, 2010
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.
“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.
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