Disclaimer:
I don't own Peter, Sophie, etc. I don't own the name Ford Explorer. I'm not using this for money. Yatsa, Yatsa, and Yatsa.
Claimer:
I own Emily, Bob, Evelyn, Sadie, Zillah, Danika, and all the people not of the HG Universe.
Most importantly, I own Xan Aleeza & Nickolas Francisco.
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How it All Began
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January 13th,
2000
Emily Georgian rolled over and grabbed her watch off the nightstand. '3:46 pm…Damnit!' Jumping out of bed, she threw on some clean clothes and made a mad dash of her room.
"Em?" Robert Georgian yelled, sleepily, to his wife.
"We overslept! I'm a half-hour late to the meeting!" She replied, running down the stairs. The au pair, Evelyn, looked up at her boss's kamikaze run through the three-story colonial house.
"Something wrong, Emily?" Eve asked, looking up from the coloring book Zillah was attacking with red paint.
"Did you
see what time it was?"
"No. The power went out a little while ago. It reset all the clocks. Don't worry. It can't be later
then two forty-five."
"Its 3:46,
Eve."
Eve's eyes widened, "Run. Get them. I'll call the school."
As Emily
took off again, Eve grabbed the cordless phone off the coffee table and dialed
the school's phone number. As it rang,
the twenty-year old got up from her spot on the floor, "Bob!"
"Yo?"
"Emily's gonna need you! Gotta get out of bed, man!"
"Alright."
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Emily
pulled into the high school parking lot and jumped out of the Ford
Explorer. She ran up the short path to
the concrete sidewalk and into the building. Stopping at the detention room, Emily discovered that while the teacher
who was watching the students was there, Xan and Nick were gone. "Jenny? Where are Xan and Nick?"
Jennifer O'Toole looked at
Emily from her detention list, "They left. I knew they had a teacher meeting with Renee, and they told me that they
were going to catch the after-school and come back with you. Why? Didn't they come home?"
"No! I just called Eve. If they were on the after-school, they didn't come home."
"Go look in the office. I'll go see if Ricky Ortega is still in the building."
Emily took off again, headed toward the main office, and making it there in record time.
As it was almost forty-five minutes after the after-school buses left, so had most of the staff. The only people left were two secretaries, and all of Xan and Nick's teachers, as well as the caseworker for the twins, Renee Resse-Alcott.
Renee walked over and looked at Emily, "We've been worried. Evelyn called and explained. She said you've been looking around for them." She paused, "Don't worry – We'll find them. And this isn't going to be held against you. You are going to adopt them." Another pause, "So do you have any idea where they are?"
"I don't know!" Emily exclaimed, bursting into tears. As Renee pushed her into a seat, the young mother of two toddlers and two foster teens babbled on, "I watched for them the entire way here! I stopped at Graciela's house, Lindsay's house, and Nikolai's house. I stopped to talk to Kellie, Luka, Tassie, and Noah. Jenny says they were supposed to be on the after-school, but they never came home!"
Donna McHale, Nick's math teacher, interrupted the group trying to comfort Emily, "They DID go outside. With Ricky Ortega, Bill Hayes, and Megan Greenburgh. It didn't register until now."
With that, twenty teachers ran outside followed by both secretaries, Renee, and Emily. Several students cut them off, allowing two people to jump out one of the first floor windows and run into the woods.
"Xan! Nick!" Emily called, "Come out here!"
Not faraway, in a section of
woods, laughter pierced the air like a nail through Jell-O.
"SHH! They'll hear us!" Bill's voice whispered, not very quietly.
"OLLIE-OLLIE-OXEN-FREE!" Ricky yelled.
Following the laughter, now painfully obvious that it was high induced, the group came upon a gathering of sixteen teenagers. Three seniors, nine juniors, three sophomores, and one freshman were sitting in a circle; oblivious to the trouble they were suddenly in.
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"All rise! Juvenile court is now in session. Judge Danika Reyes presiding."
"Be seated. Would council please rise?" Pause. "Xan Aleeza and Nickolas Francisco, you two are really pushing it. Both of you have been before me MANY times, and I have known you two out of court as well. This is by far the WORST stunt either of you has EVER pulled. Emily is not your keeper! She is not responsible to watch you every minute of the day!"
Silence.
"I've had a long conversation with Emily and Bob. Now the three of us have all come to the conclusion that until the drugs and alcohol are completely out of your systems, the adoption cannot take place. It just is not possible. So I have made a call to a friend of mine. Peter Scarbrow is willing to accept the twins to Mt. Horizon. With the interests of the twins and the Georgians in mind, I've decided that Horizon is the best place for both Xan and Nickolas. Court is adjourned."
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Xan looked up at her brother as he angrily stuffed his blue suitcase with black shirts and red bandannas, "They charged Ricky with endangerment of minors. Fifteen counts. Possession of narcotics. Four counts. Meggie's parents and Opal's parents are charging him with statutory rape."
"Guess him and Bill shoulda kept their mouths shut when Tony told us that the adults were looking for us." He replied, shoving yet another bandanna into his suitcase.
"Look. Don't take this out on me! Danika came up with this punishment. Not me! If I had my way, none of us would be in trouble and you know it!"
"Sorry. I just don't want to go. Sammy's here. Emily and Bob and Sadie and Zillah are here. I'll even miss Evelyn. I just don't want to leave our friends or
anything."
Xan walked from her bed to his, "We'll be back." She pulled him into her arms, and squeezed him, "We always are. Just a month or two, and we'll be back with Jax and Pete and Kelsey and Julia and Ana."
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Hiya guys! I decided to write a story about how Xan & Nick got to Horizon. So I hope ya' like it!
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Cassie Jamie
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