MISSING

Ivee walked through the familiar halls of high school. The smell of cleaning chemicals in the air made her nose flare up. The white tile floors were dull, but clean enough. She smiled on the inside, she’d just gotten back from a wretched summer break and the year was new and fresh. She thought of who she wanted to be, and who she had so desperately tried to be over the summer--a normal person.

It wasn’t too long ago, merely a school year, that Ivee was part of a clique. But it wasn’t just any clique, it was the clique. The people who were always fawned over because they were popular; the ones who got away with anything they wanted; the ones who were invited to the hottest parties of the year. They were who everyone talked about, good or bad. They were considered legends with every step they took.

And Ivee had been one of them.

There were only five in the clique: Ivee, Lauren, Nic, Shannon, and Maxx.

Ivee intertwined her fingers with the straps of her bookbag, she was lost in thought until she heard her name. “Hey, Wilkins,” it was a males voice, with the deep sound of puberty taking over.

It was her best friend, Cooper Marshall. “Hey Marshall,” she proudly called. He walked with her down the hall to her locker. Something seemed different about him, his hair was more dark than usual and his deep brown eyes more light. “How was summer break?”

“Eh,” he shrugged his shoulders and she couldn’t help but laugh. She had a younger brother, Lucas, that always did the same thing to her whenever she asked a question about himself. “The usual.”

Ivee gave a half-hearted smile, she had no clue as to what his summer was like, but she nodded in response. After all, it was just over the summer she’d begun branching out to her new friends.

She’d memorized her schedule and as the two of them stopped at her locker, she ruffled through her bag and grabbed her notebooks and pencils and put everything else in her bag away in her locker: binders, extra papers, school I.D., etc. She glanced over the notebooks on the ground in front of her kneeling body. They were for her first two classes of the day: Biology and English.

Closing her locker with a thud and click of the lock, they walked down the hall and were talking as they took a corner and crashed into a flawless, manicured barbie.

Shannon Rodgers.

Her hair was like gold silk woven from the gods with bright extensions and her eyes a dark hazel in contrast. Her skin was tan from the hot days she’d spent in Saunderstown--which was a fairly small community.

“Hey Shan, are you okay?” Next to her came Nic, her boyfriend. His hair was a similar gold, but darker, like a crispy sunset and his eyes were an ocean blue. He looped his pasty hands around her tiny waist.

“Yeah, just a bunch of nerd losers,” Shannon said viciously. Her words were like a needle to a balloon, popping Ivee’s memory of when she had been one of them. And to think, it had been not too long ago she was getting mani-pedis with the girls. Her words filled Ivee with a cluster of anger. Ivee was focused on mentally ripping Shannon’s head off and using it for volleyball.

“Where’s the other two of your friends Shan,” Ivee began, she knew nothing but anger at that very moment. “’Cause you seem to be missing twenty-five percent bitch,” Shannon’s mouth fell open, exposing her pearly whites.

“What did you just say to me?” She crossed her hands over her cotton white shirt. Her wrists covered in huge sage green beads.

“Come on, let’s go,” Cooper led her friend away. Ivee could have sworn he saw Nic give her a wink and toothy smile as they went past. “What was that all about?”

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that she called us losers,” she let out a huffed breath, clutching her notebooks closer to her chest. Honestly, Ivee wasn’t mad about the way Shannon had called her a loser, she found it was more about protecting her pride. Shannon was going to dominate her, in front of her crush, Nic. And Ivee wasn’t having it.

But that wasn’t the only thing on her mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about the charming way Nic had looked at her. The way he smiled, it was like he had over the summer, before Shannon found out about everything that had been going on behind her back.

“Oh look,” Ivee whispered to Cooper. “There’s the other fifty percent of stuck-ups,” Cooper shot his head down as Lauren and Maxx walked by. As Lauren walked by, her long black hair swished in Ivee’s face as the red-headed girl swatted away the hair.

“Sorry dear,” Lauren turned around. When she saw it was Ivee, her pitiful expression fell. “Oh, it’s just you.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Ivee fired. She was still raging over the earlier events that unfolded with the other girl. Lauren rolled her eyes, a scorn on her face as she strolled away, the big, flat beads of peach pinks, lavenders, and sky blues swayed gently around her neck.

Maxx walked by with a heavy cologne smell and messy brown hair that matched his crazy brown eyes.

“I don’t think Lauren is too bad,” Ivee turned just in time to see that Lauren and Cooper’s eyes were intertwined for more than a second. Lauren’s green eyes staring deep into her best friend’s eyes. Ivee considered his words.

“I guess not.” Ivee shrugged, turning away from Cooper and Lauren. She knew then that she had to calm down, she had to be careful of her words and next actions. She didn’t want to hurt Cooper.

Brushing back a stray lock of dark red hair, Ivee opened the door and walked into the class just as the first warning bell rang. Cooper and she both had the same class in the morning, so the first part of the day wasn’t all so miserable.

As the hours of school passed, Cooper left to go to Engines, and Ivee had to find her way to English. Once there, she took a spot at the back of the classroom, wanting to be completely out of sight.

She glanced up as a tall figure walked in.

Nic.

He looked more stressed than usual as wrung his fingers and cracked his knuckles. He finally decided to take a seat, in front of Ivee. Her heart raced in her chest, Nic is sitting in front of me, okay, keep it cool, she told herself.

Mrs. Larson, the English teacher, walked in the room, her short, peppered hair clinging to her neck as her short figure glided to the front of the classroom.

Ivee flattened her hands on the cold, wooden desk, finding her hands to be clammy. She glanced up as the blonde boy in front of her turned around, “hey Ivee?” Nic asked, looking into her eyes. “I have a question.”

“Yes?” she asked, her voice shaky as her heart began to pound in her ears.

“Would you like to go to the movies with me sometime?” Ivee’s eyes widened in awe. The world around her froze and all she saw were Nic’s ocean blue orbs, looking into hers.

“Sure, I’d love to!” she perked up, her face heating from embarrassment. “Um,” she swallowed, gathering her thoughts. “What t-time and place?”

“Okay class, my name is Mrs. Larson…” the sound of the teacher drifted off as Nic turned around to face the teacher, not giving her a second glance. He hadn’t even answered her question.

Ivee’s mood fell as she pondered why Nic hadn’t answered her. Was it something I said? She tried to focus on the lesson in front of her, but thoughts of Nic kept clouding her mind.

Before she realized it, the bell had rung and everyone got up and left the room. As Ivee was gathering her notebook and syllabus, a hand on her shoulder grabbed her attention. She turned, it was Nic. He gave her half a smile before slipping her a folded, ripped piece of notebook paper. Ivee watched as he left, not saying another word.

When his figure passed the doorframe and she couldn’t see him any longer, she eagerly opened the chunk of paper, glancing at it.

SwanLake Cinema @ 4:30 p.m.

Come Alone

The “Come Alone” part freaked her out a little, but she shoved it back down, telling herself it was nothing.

Putting the paper in her back pocket, she pulled out her phone, texting her friends first.

Ivee: Hey, I can’t make it tonight. My mom wants me to go shopping with her.

Cooper: Aw man. Okay.

And that was the end of that conversation. She then went on to her mom.

Ivee: Hey, Cooper wants me to come over tonight to play the ps with him.

She knew she wouldn’t hear from her mom till five, since that was the time she got off of work.

Ivee stood in front of the Swanlake Cinema. She had paid the cabbie ten minutes ago. It was five minutes after the time Nic had asked her to come. She wondered if they were in the theater. She pushed open the big brown door, opening it to a dark waiting room. The theater was large and spiderwebs shone off the light from outside. Dust and dirt littered the counters, animal droppings scattered the floor beneath her.

Unnerved, Ivee backed away from the door, wiping her hands on her jeans. Her heart sunk as she realized her instincts were right: Nic had pulled a prank on her.

Ivee pulled out her phone from her back pocket, hoping to call her mom. Except, there was no signal. Her heart raced and sweat beaded across her forehead in a panic. She raced to the road and waited for any oncoming cars.

None came.

Ivee glanced everywhere, finding only a security camera that didn’t move. She glanced into its lens, wondering if it was still working.

A gravely noise perked up her head as Ivee turned toward an oncoming car. It was a black van. The only windows were up front. A man in a black coat sat in the driver’s seat, a blonde woman next to him. There was a rash on the left side of her face, it looked like it had been recently developed. “Are you lost sweetie?” She asked, her voice soft.

“No,” Ivee replied, a terrible feeling in her stomach grew. Something in her said this was wrong. She had learned from her earlier mistake to trust her instincts, that maybe something was wrong with this situation. “I was just on my way home.”

“We could give you a ride if you’d like?” the woman asked again, her voice growing more agitated than sweet.

“No, but thank you.” Ivee turned around, finished with their conversation.

Having moved away from the van, she heard a loud bang behind her. She snapped her head around, seeing that the man sitting next to the blond woman had gotten out of the van. He was a tall, muscular figure with a slightly healed red gash on his right cheek.

Panic filling her, Ivee took off running, her blood pumping through her body as she realized the danger she was now in. Her tennis shoes hitting the cracked pavement below her the only sound she created.

She noticed a payphone stand in front of her. She hadn’t realized those still existed. She ran up to it, clasping the black phone tight in her right hand, digging through her purse for any spare change.

Fear prickling her toes, she turned back around to see where her pursuer was at now, only to feel a striking pain in her head. She fell limp as the world around swam in darkness. She tried to keep her eyes open, hoping to see what was happening; a crimson ooze clouding her vision. Instead, the lens of the security camera she had seen earlier caught her eye before the world around her faded and she was swallowed into the darkness.