I look up from my book as Linzie groans and yanks the blanket over her head.

"Zach. I can hear your IPod from here. SHUT IT OFF!" she yells.

"Linz." Zach says, rolling his eyes. "You're on the other side of the couch from me. And we all know you're not asleep, so knock it off."

"I'm trying to be normal, and get some sleep at three in the morning like everyone else on this planet!" Linzie snaps.

"Haven't we all just given up on that?" Drew interjects, looking up from her crossword puzzle.

"You have a point." Rebecca, Drew's half-cousin, sighs, stops pacing, and collapses in a chair.

"Yep. " Jackson says. "Other boys play Call of Duty, I analyze DNA."

Jordan slams shut his laptop. "You know, on those rare normal nights, I can't sleep anymore. My body's so used to staying awake so long, even when I'm with Mom, I can't sleep."

"Same here." Linz moans, trying (and failing) to smooth her blond hair back down.

"Look." Zach says. "Can't we just stop acting like a couple of whiny kids and just face the fact that we are incredibly abnormal children?"

"Zach has a point." I say. "I doubt our parents are ever going to quit, so we might as well get used to it."

"Hey, I can get used to spending all day with you."

Zach flashes me a smile and I swat his arm.

"I can't concentrate. " Jordan interjects.

"Same here." I put my book down.

Drew sets down her crossword, Linz sits up straighter, Jackson closes his laptop, Zach puts away his IPod, and Rebecca looks up.

"Alright." I say. "Who is about ready to strangle Jason?"

Everyone's hand goes up.

"I swear, I almost wanna tell dad about him." Drew says. "And that's pretty serious."

"Do not even think about it." I snap. "I am not allowed to do anything as it is, and guys are scared to date me because my father has a gun, and he's just-he's just- "

"They're all that way." Jackson says.

"They're our parents." Linz says. "It's a 'duh' thing. And I just think it's like that for you guys, because my mom's only problem is she doesn't want me to end up like her at that age."

Jordan, Jackson, and Zach snigger at this one.

"Oh, shut up." Linz sighs.

"Anyways." Rebecca says. "It's not just the fact that they're our parents. Technically speaking, it's my aunt and Jackson's older brother. But you do have a point. Our parents have serious issues."

"Um, yeah. I wonder why?" I say sarcastically.

"Hmm, let's see." Zach says. "Maybe the fact that dad doesn't want me to take after my big sister-"

"Or the fact that Hascal is loose." Jordan says.

"Or because of the time we got lost in Lady Heather's um, uh, uh, creepy twisted psycho place when we were like six years old-"

"Or the fact that we get a million drug cases every day-"

"And dead teens-"

"And all the crazy, scary stuff they have to talk about on their cases-"

"Yeah. " I say. "We just have to live this way. You know, being abnormal, watching case videos instead of horror movies on Friday nights, solving our parents' cases, being raised in a crime lab, whatever. Deal with-"

The door opens.

"Natalie, honey, I'm so sorry it's another late night, but-"

"It's okay, Daddy." I say. "Can we please go home now?" I say to my father, Nick Stokes, Level 3 CSI.

I wave goodbye to my friends/practically siblings as their parents/brother/aunt/whatever comes walking in.

I get in the backseat of the car and stare out the window as my dad drives.

I guess I should explain.

You see, I was basically raised in Las Vegas' CSI crime lab, in the 'lounge' (as me and my friends call it).

Why we're there, and have been there for most of our childhood, is due to a lot of weird scenarios.

First Linz and Zach were in daycare with me. Then it went out of business and there was hardly any time to find a daycare, so we ended up in the lounge for the next few weeks.

In the meantime, Grissom's ah, ex-girlfriend Julia had some other guy or something going on, and she wanted to give Grissom custody of Drew.

So Drew ended up in the lab with us, since Grissom's job, Rebecca's aunt, and bugs are like, his life.

Soon after this, Greg and Jackson and their parents have some big blowout, and Greg takes Jackson and they move out. So now he's locked in the lounge too.

So THEN, a year or so later, Rebecca's been in foster care, right? So Sarah, her aunt, heard about it and got mad, since she was her aunt, and got custody of Rebecca, so Rebecca ends up in there with us.

And finally, several years ago, Gloria (Jordan's mom), wanted to give custody of Jordan to Ray before she got married to Phil. So now he's in the lab too.

And, since we were little, we've been pissing off Eckley, getting lost at crime scenes and seeing things we shouldn't (hence the Lady Heather drama), analyzing fingerprints, reading science magazines, watching truly frightening case tapes, analyzing DNA, breaking important lab equipment…You know.

So anyways, that's why the heck we're all here.

Anyways, so once I finally get home, I collapse upstairs in my bed and fall asleep for the few hours I need.

The next morning, I wake up, get ready, find my breakfast in the fridge, and head to school like I do every morning.

And the day passes normally until third period L.A.

That period is normally pretty interesting, but not for reasons you might think.

You see, me, Zach, Drew, Linz, Jackson, Jordan, and Rebecca somehow all ended up in the same class. This was okay for me, since they were my best friends.

But Jason's in our class too.

Way at the beginning of the year, Jason was a dickhead and that was that.

And then came the funeral bombing, and how my dad emptied his gun into his psycho bomber/serial killer of a brother (Jason's prolly one too, even though the P.A. couldn't make that case), and how Jason ended up spending a coupla nights in juvy.

But that's another story.

Anyways, so the point is, Jason's been making our lives living hell since the minute he got out of juvy.

But this period, all eight of us get called down to the office.

We are told, by the receptionist, that no one has any idea what's going on.

Apparently, our very pissed off guardians called and want us at my dad's house NOW and we won't be coming out of school, and Jason's here because apparently Linz's mom wants to, as she put it, 'haul his ass to P.D.'.

And so we sit in the waiting room.

For about thirty seconds.

Then the receptionist disappears, to go copy papers or whatever.

Then Jason whispers to me, "By the time you get home, Natalie, daddy will be blown into itty-bitty pieces. Maybe he'll be sorry then."

"Shut up!" Zach snaps.

Naturally he jumps to my defense. He has the world's stupidest, hugest crush on me, for like ever.

Jason shoves him back.

Rebecca explains in extremely choice words where he can stick his bombs and what, in her very esteemed opinion, she thinks he is.

Jason raises a hand to Rebecca, and Linzie slaps him.

Jason raises a hand to her, but then Jackson and Jordan step in, shouting.

Jackson throws a punch.

Then Drew stands up and tries to get everyone to please calm down, but nobody feels like doing that right now.

You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

Then Jason calls Drew a bitch, and a fight breaks out among the guys.

Pretty soon, Linz and Rebecca get involved, too, and finally, once Jason starts taunting me about my father, I get involved too.

Finally he starts making nasty comments to Drew about how her father seems to 'like bugs a little too much, if you catch my drift' and asks Rebecca how her aunt could have married a man with such interesting sexual tastes.

Well, that gets even Drew riled.

Pretty soon, we're all screaming and yelling and punching and kicking, and the receptionist never comes back to stop it.

So ten minutes later, a bunch of cop cars holding out parents show up, and they walk in and instantly get really, really, really mad.

That's justified, though.

Me and the girls quickly explain what Jason said to royally piss us off, and Catherine gets really scary on him and even handcuffs him and puts him in a cop car.

Once we finally, finally get to my house, we're told that Jason apparently put a grenade in dad's yard, and he's really mad.

So Catherine has enough sense to keep her mouth shut about what happened.

But Catherine tells him what happened in the office the next day, and all of our parents get really concerned and beg to know why we didn't tell them about this sooner.

Well, I try to explain, but they give us a megalecture on our own safety and bullying, I get even madder.

So I just walk off.

I have no idea where I'm going, but I just want to get out.

Fast.

Anyways, I start walking, and as I'm crossing the street, some dickhead about runs me over with a motorcycle.

"HEY!" I scream. "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"

He gets off the motorcycle.

He's wearing helmet, so I can't see his face, and jeans and a sweatshirt. He's several inches taller than me, and a heck of a lot more muscular, so maybe I was a little stupid for blowing up on him like that.

Instead of yelling at me, the guy says, "Ohmygosh, I'm so, so, so, so, sorry. Are you okay?" It sounds like a guy about my age.

"Yeah, I'm fine. " I say, feeling kind of bad for blowing up on him like that.

"Look, I really didn't mean to, I'm sorry!"

"No, it's fine."

"Hey, can I make up for your almost-death by giving you a ride, at least? Where you headed?"

I honestly don't know.

But I say, "The library." How lame is that? He might be hot…

"Hop on."

I know I shouldn't have, but the kid was my age, and I just wanted to piss off my dad, okay? He was being so overprotective.

A few minutes later, I say, "Y-You missed the turn."

"I know a shortcut, don't worry."

Oh-kay….

A few minutes later, I am freaking out. We're out in the middle of nowhere, when the kid pulls off the road, headed into the trees.

"Let me off!" I say. "This is nowhere near the-"

"SHUT UP!" the kid roars, flooring the pedal on the bike so we're speeding ultra-fast through the trees and I can't jump off without killing myself.

I try to decide what to do.

I really wish I hadn't blown up on my dad.

Focus, I tell myself. If I'm thinking about what I should have done, not what to do next, I'll never get out of here.

However, there's not that much time for thinking, because a coupla seconds later, the guy stops in front of a cabin.

Not like a campground, like a cabin the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Before I can run, the kid grabs my arms, twists them behind my back, and forces me up the steps and into the cabin, one hand clamped over my mouth.

He locks the door behind him, and pushes me down onto my butt.

"Who-who-what-why-" I start to stutter, not even looking at the room I'm in before I start to panic.

Why, why, why did I have to be so stupid?

I'm starting to sob, and my chest heaves as I try to breathe evenly. Tears stream down my face.

He kneels next to me, down on his knees.

"Shh!" I think the boy says, but it's hard to tell between his helmet and my crying.

I start to scream, long, loud, bloodcurdling shrieks, like a girl in a horror movie.

The boy starts to panic a little.

He takes a damp rag out of his pocket and slaps it over my mouth and nose.

I've been in the lab long enough to know by the smell-chloroform.

My eyes widen as I try and hold my breath, but my screams already winded me.

I don't even last thirty seconds.

When I wake up, I don't have any sense of the time, but the room is a lot dimmer, so I think it's been awhile.

My head is pounding, my throat's raw, and my entire body is trembling with fear.

I try to sit up, but find that I can't. My hands are cuffed behind my back.

I hear a sound on the other side of the room and I see the boy, still wearing a helmet.

I try to sit up again, but I can't, and the boy hears me or sees me. He walks over and gets down on his knees right beside me.

He props me up against the wall in a sitting position, and the he takes off his helmet.

It's Jason McCann.