"Santa Carla!" The ten year old squeaked from the back of her mother"s van, her arm shooting out and hitting her older brother, Michael, by accident. They had driven past the large, colorful sign and it sent the little girl into a fit of joyful laughter. Her mother chuckled at her youngest child's excitement.

"Why can't you all be more like your sister?" Lucy asked her two boys in a jokingly way. The two boys were not impressed by moving. Lucy sighed softly to herself. This was humiliating to her. Having to uproot her children and move in with her father that lived nearly a thousand miles away from where they had lived. She'd have to start working as soon as they moved, which would mean that she wouldn't be home a lot. That also left her oldest boy, Michael, fully responsible for fourteen year old Sam, and ten year old Johanna. Lucy trusted Michael though, and she knew that he'd take good care of Sammy, Joey, and Sam's dog, Nanook.

As they drove past the boardwalk, little Joey's eyes lit up in happiness.

"Wow! Mommy, did you see all those rides?!" She exclaimed. Lucy laughed again. "I sure did! Your big brothers are gonna take you down there tonight, does that sound fun?"

Before Michael could protest, Lucy shot him a glare through the mirror. Joey was practically bouncing at this point. Sam groaned, but turned to look at his little sister. "And you better not run off again."

Joey had a bad habit of getting lost in crowds or getting distracted too easily. She literally had the attention span of a small goldfish, and it drove her older brothers crazy. Sam looked back to his younger sister and smiled to her, "I'll take her with me, scope out an ice cream shop or something, sound good to you, Joey?"

The eager girl nodded excitedly, "Duuuh!"

Soon enough, it was nightfall and the three siblings were out on the town. A large crowd was yelling as heavy rock music blared and echoed into the pitch black sky. Joey was clapping along, and tightly compacted between her older brothers, keeping her in the middle of their sight. They knew that if they even looked away for a minute, she'd be gone, lost in the sea of hippies and freaks. Michael noticed that there were almost millions of missing children flyers flooding all of the streets and buildings. His biggest fear was that his little brother or sister would be on one. He swore to himself that he would do anything to prevent that from happening. His mother was already a nervous wreck because their father leaving her. Thank God that Joey was too young to understand all of that. losing a kid would hurt anyone, but Michael knew that it would send Lucy over the edge. Suddenly, something caught his eye. A beautiful woman darted right past him, which caught him and Sammy off guard.

"Hey...", A small voice whispered. Joey turned a little bit to acknowledge. A small boy stood, who looked a little older than her, "I'm Laddie." He went and extended his hand out to her. Joey giggled and grabbed it. In an instant, the two banished; gone without a trace.

Michael and Sam noticed almost a minute after she escaped their view and frantically started pushing around the crowd, hoping that their sister didn't get trampled by the much larger group of people. Joey was tiny. She was about four and a half feet tall and barely weighed sixty pounds. Everyone was worried about the girl. The doctors said it was just the fact that she was so young, but Lucy knew it wasn't that. She thought it'd lead to something serious and like all mothers, she was very concerned. Sam screamed out her name, but it wasn't like anyone could hear him over the hard rock music and the shrieking clump of rebellious teenagers. Joey was already halfway down the boardwalk with her newly made friend, her blue eyes wandering at all the bright lights. Laddie was leading her to David, who was relaxing up against his bike, cigarette smoke lingering near by. As soon as the boy saw the young girl, a toothy grin crept upon his face. He extingushed his butt and strutted over.

"Well, Laddie… Who's your little friend huh?"

Laddie smiled happily, "This is Joey! Can she come with us, David? Please? I want a friend."

With a moment of thought, David nodded, "Yeah, kiddo, okay."

It didn't affect him, for Star took care of the younger vampire. She had maternal needs, so another child wouldn't hurt. as soon as the others came, the group departed, Joey gripping tightly to David's jacket. Joey was so young. She didn't understand. She just knew that she made a friend… And bluntly disobeyed her brothers… And that's all that mattered.