Chapter 1

Amelia!” I heard my mom call from downstairs, “Dinner!”

         “Coming mom! Hold on a sec,” I said, rolling my eyes. Ever since Dan had left for college she had been making me eat every meal with her. It was like I was her only one left, so she had to cling to me every second of life. While she wasn’t a bad cook, I missed eating over at my friends’ houses. Not that I had many friends in the first place—I was generally pretty shy, not the social butterfly my sister used to be. Oh yeah. I had one of those, too. Leah had been the perfect one, the one who always got good grades and was good in school. Then, something went wrong during her senior year in high school. She had gotten into a lot of great schools, and I don’t know what happened. She and Mom had a huge fight. I wasn’t allowed to listen, but I could catch a few words here and there, and I knew that it was about Ryan, her boyfriend. She stormed out of the house and, as she was eighteen and could live on her own, only came back to pack up her stuff and then moved to the city. As far as I know, she has a small apartment downtown and is living with Ryan. I don’t know how they pay for their place, seeing as Mom’s definitely not paying for it, and last time I heard she didn’t have a job. Maybe Ryan works. He’s a year older than her. I don’t really know, we don’t talk about them.

         “Amelia! Get down here!” my mom shouted, interrupting my train of thought.

         “Hold ON!” I yelled back, pulling out my earphones and standing up. “I’m coming, just wait a second!” I slowly started down the stairs, biding my time. Mom was a mess these days, with two of her children gone. It didn’t help that dad was almost ALWAYS on a business trip, flying somewhere around the world. Maybe he just didn’t want to come home to such a dysfunctional family. I have to admit, if I were him I’d want to stay away from our family as much as possible. We’re pretty messed up. I finally reached the bottom step and walked into the kitchen. Mom was just finishing setting the table.

         “You know, it would be nice if once in a while you could help me make dinner. You have to carry your own weight around here Melie.” Ugh. I hated that nickname. I stopped trying to point this out long ago, Mom just couldn’t break the habit of calling me that.

         “Or at least help me set the table,” she went on, “I’m tired of doing everything myself.” I rolled my eyes, knowing full well that if I ever tried to touch the food she was making, she would have a fit. She is kind of a control freak in that way. Everything has to get done the way she wants it to get done. Maybe that’s why Dad is so busy flying around the world; he just couldn’t stand being around her any longer.

         “I made lasagna, your favorite,” she said. That was another one of her things. She tried to be really nice to me by making all my favorite foods, playing my music, taking me places with my few close friends, etc. I guess she just doesn’t want me leaving like my other two siblings, even though she knows it will eventually happen. I enjoyed it the first couple of weeks, but soon it became tedious. I was sick of my mom kissing up to me like that, and I’d tried to tell her, but she just denied it.

         “Now that Dan and… your sister are away, I’m just more free to do things you want.” That was her excuse. Yeah, right.

         She set the dish down on the yellow and blue tablecloth, and sat down. There were only two place settings now. I helped myself to the lasagna and started to eat in silence.

         “So, Melie, um, how’s school?” Mom asked in a fragile attempt at a conversation.

         “Fine.” I replied. I wasn’t in the mood to talk, and I think she saw that, but she kept pressing me.

         “How’s that boy you like—what’s his name—oh, Andy?” Great. Now she’s questioning me about my personal life.

         “He’s… fine, I guess.”

         “That’s nice.” she replied warily, apparently giving up. She let out a long sigh, and I looked up into her face. She seemed to have aged several years in the few weeks since Dan had left. There were streaks of gray in her once reddish-brown hair, and the lines n her face had multiplied and become more pronounced. I can still remember her old hair. It used to be thick and curly, but silky smooth at the same time. I remember when I was little I used to play with it, twisting it into styles that to me, as a 7 year old, looked pretty. And when I was done, it would always just fall perfectly again, not one stray hair out f place. Now it was graying, and she didn’t seem to care as much about how it looked. Having to say goodbye to Dan was hard for her, even though he was going to a good college. I think she was just upset that she didn’t get to say goodbye to Leah like that, so it was extra-special when Dan left. She cried for hours, and when Dan called the next day to say things were going great, she burst into tears again. A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.

         “I’ll get it.” I said when my mom started to get up, “I’m done anyway.”

         “I don’t know if you should Melie. It’s getting late and I don’t know who would be calling this time of night. First let’s wait and see if they leave.” warned Mom. She was becoming very overprotective these days.

         “Mom, at least let me look through the peephole so I can see who it is. If it’s someone we don’t know, we can wait for them to leave.” I stood up and started towards the foyer, but before I had time to get there, I heard a muffled voice through the door.

         “Julie! Amelia! It’s me, let me in!” I immediately knew who it was, and clearly, so did Mom. It could only mean one thing: Dad was back early. Mom rushed to the door and let him in before I even had time to react.

         “John! What in the world are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to be back from India for another week!” Mom’s words came out a mile a minute. “I didn’t make any preparations, oh, I hope there’s enough lasagna. But… what are you doing here?”

         “Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there. Let’s sit down, there will be more time to talk.” He gave her a quick kiss and then looked over at me grinning.

         “Amelia! I’ve missed you so much. Come over here!” He scooped me up in a hug.

         “Dad. Dad! Agh, help!” I said, but couldn’t help laughing. I hadn’t seen him in over a month. But… what was he doing back? The only time I could remember him coming back early from a business trip this important was when Grandma died. It suddenly dawned on me that the reason he was here might not be good news.

         “John, come, sit down, eat something! You must be hungry, why didn’t you tell us you were coming?”

         “I only flew in this morning; there was no time.” His face suddenly became very grim, as if the initial happiness had been drained out of it, and my suspicions were confirmed. He was here to bring us bad news. I think Mom sensed it too.

         “John—John what is it? What happened?” she asked, anxiously.

         “It’s…Leah. They—the police can’t…” he couldn’t finish his sentence.

         “Oh god. No. No, this isn’t happening. No. I knew something like this would happen, I knew it! Oh, oh god.” She buried her head in her hands.

         “Honey, she’s not dead. Or at least, the police don’t think she is. They would have found a body by now. Honey, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. Julie—“

         “I knew it! I knew it I knew it I knew it! Oh god John, where is she? Ryan! That idiot boy, does he have any idea? Oh, it’s all his fault.” Now Mom was sobbing. “John, it’s Ryan’s fault, I knew I didn’t trust him, and now who knows where she could be! We should press charges.” She suddenly stopped crying. “Yes, we should press charges against him and question him. I bet he knows something, yes I bet we could get something out of him…” She trailed off and then started to cry again. I sat next to her in silence. Leah, with such an outgoing personality, had just disappeared off the face of the earth? No, she’s got to be somewhere. I bet she and Ryan had just had a fight, and she left for a while but would come back in a day or two. Yes, she was always so dramatic, it wouldn’t be a surprise if that had happened. But something was nagging me and I knew there was more to it than that. Somehow, I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

         “But… why did the police contact you first? How come I didn’t find out about this earlier?”

         “They didn’t know how to contact you. Ryan only had my cell number, and he gave it to them.”

         “So Ryan was there. Did they question him? What did he say?” Mom asked desperately.

         “I spoke with the police earlier when they called me. Apparently she had gone out two nights ago and hadn’t come back the next morning. Ryan figured she was probably out at a party or something that he didn’t know about, and didn’t bother to call the police until yesterday afternoon when she didn’t return. They contacted me immediately and I took the soonest flight back here. According to the police, he seemed a little angry at her, possibly for going out without telling him, or maybe for some other reason. I think they are still holding him at the police station to be questioned again.” When Dad finished, Mom sat back and absorbed the information. Then, of course, she started crying again.

         “This is all my fault. If only I hadn’t started that stupid fight…” The rest of her words were drowned out by the sobs shaking her body. Dad stroked her hair and tried to comfort her. I just watched in shock. Mom was right; it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. But how? And…why? I had so many questions, and almost all of them were unanswerable. Suddenly, I knew exactly what I needed to do. This was the kind of adventure I had only read about in books. It was dangerous, and, when I look back, a totally insane idea, but it was the kind of thing I had been waiting for my whole life. The kind of thing that I wished I could experience every time a finished an adventure story. It was stupid, a sort of snap decision that I made, but I knew that now that the idea was in my head, there was no turning back. I made a stupid excuse to leave the table and bounded up the stairs to my room where, lying on my bed with my ipod on, I devised a plan that, to my 13-year-old brain, seemed like a plan worthy of a master detective. I looked around my room for something to pack up in, and found my neon-green backpack that I normally would use for school. I turned it upside down and shook out all my schoolbooks, including my very heavy Algebra 1 textbook. Storing my binders under my desk for later, I walked over to my dresser. I folded 3 pairs of plain old blue jeans, 2 pairs of rainbow striped socks, 3 pairs with monkeys on them, (you can never bring too many socks), underwear, and three tee-shirts, one with a purple owl on it, an old grey camp shirt from a thousand years ago, and finally my favorite "Nerdy Chicks Rule" shirt, with a large chick on the front holding a ruler. While I was debating whether or not to bring pajamas, something glittery caught my eye. I looked over to it and realized that it was the necklace that Leah had given me for my 11th birthday. That was back in the time when I idolized her, and would do anything to be her friend, so when she gave this to me I was so excited that I wore it every single day for the next year, and personally made sure she was wearing her half too. See, it was one if those friendship necklaces that come in pairs and, when put together, the charms form a heart. My half was a light purple and rimmed with silver, while hers was pink. As I held it in my hand, the cool silver back pressed into my palm, I wondered if she still had hers. I wasn't a big jewelry person, and I hadn't worn the necklace in over a year, but I had a sudden urge to put it on. I hid the charm under my shirt, just in case Mom caught sight of it and started bawling again. She seemed to have stopped crying, and was now ranting to my dad about Ryan and how he was an awful boy who she shouldn't have trusted. I think she was just upset and had to blame someone, because when I had seen Ryan he seemed like a pretty nice guy, not someone who would do anything bad to Leah. At least, I think they had a fairly happy relationship. Anyway, I thought some more and realized that there might be times when I needed something to do, so I  pushed around a few books on the shelves until I found the book I was reading: "Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince" for the fifth time. I put that in my backpack too. Then, dragging my bag downstairs into the kitchen, I was thankful that my parents had moved to the living room because now it was time for a little food stealing. I opened the fridge door and rummaged through the piles of tupperware until I found what I was looking for: tomorrow's lunch. It contained of two tuna fish sandwiches, a very red, shiny apple, and a small plastic bag of pretzels. This seemed pretty boring to me, especially since I had to survive on this the whole weekend, so I grabbed a big bag of peanut butter sandwich cookies, 2 bottles of water, some leftover lasagna, and a few slices of pizza from yesterday's dinner. I hoped that the cheese was still good. Finally, I dragged my over-stuffed backpack up to my room again and printed up a map of downtown, telling my parents it was a project for school. Then I began tracing the different streets and figuring out my route. I heard the door creak behind me just as I finished.

.        "Amelia, honey, it's almost 10:00. You need to get in bed." It was Dad.

        "Okay, okay I was just finishing some homework." I lied.

        "If you go to bed this late you'll never be able to get up tomorrow. Come on, lights out."

What he didn't know was that I wasn’t actually going to school tomorrow. According to the plan, instead of taking the school bus, I would go the few extra blocks to the public bus stop and take the bus downtown to begin my search for Leah. Of course, I had to deal with the fact that my parents would wonder where I was when I didn’t show up at home after school. Since tomorrow was a Friday, I made up the excuse that I was sleeping over at my friend Amber’s house and would be spending the weekend with her. They said that was fine, and that they needed some alone time anyway to deal with Leah’s disappearance. My plan was already in motion. Once I was downtown, I would first go on foot around the outer edge of the city, going in and out of restaurants and bars, checking to see if she was in them. I wasn’t sure how long this was going to take; that’s why I booked the whole weekend. I planned on returning home Sunday night. I would leave the more dangerous neighborhoods until the end, and I hoped that I would find Leah before I had to get into those parts, but just in case, I also packed an extra kitchen knife for self-defense. Now, where was I to sleep, you might ask? I had that covered too. There was a small forest on the edge of town that had a lot of pine trees. I planned to make a bed out of needles and sleep there. It was April, and getting warmer, so I wasn’t worried about cold, but packed a blanked just in case. And finally, I put $200 in the inner pocket of my backpack, money that I had been saving up from years of tedious lawn-mowing, leaf-raking, and snow-shoveling, just in case. I was ready to go, stage one of my plan was already in motion. But first, I needed a good night’s sleep. Any detective needs sleep before their cases. I said a final good night to my parents, and then ran back to my room and set my backpack in my closet where it was always colder than the rest of the house. I got into bed where I grabbed a book and read for a little while until I was tired. When I felt like I could barely keep my eyes open, I sank back into my pillows, thinking about tomorrow's adventure and what was to come in the next few days.