I swear the clock was broken.

Not only was the class dragging on forever, but James was flicking things into my red-tinted hair again. I tried to ignore his silent taunts, but the more times I felt something hit the back of my head, the closer I became to turning around and hitting him, risking getting caught, and getting in trouble again. My hair was down to my mid-back, which made my hair an easy target for small flecks of paper. Ms. Brown kept droning as usual, and the class was in its usual stupor. Another piece of paper hit me on the back of the head, and I blew my top. I spun around in my chair, and opened my mouth ready to scream at that blasted James, when a balled -up piece of paper hit me on the back of the head.

At first, I froze, afraid that Ms. Brown had caught me doing something that she didn't approve of, and was going to put me down for a demerit. But I slowly turned around, and looked into the face of my best friend, Amy. She was looking at me wide-eyed, and shaking her head minutely. She glanced down towards the balled-up paper that had ricocheted off of my head, and was now lying on the floor.

I reached down and unrolled it. Scrawled quickly, and untidy were the words, 'watch it, don't let idiot James get you in trouble again.' Leave it to your friends to help you…then the bell rang. Finally…

I jumped out of my seat, and was out the door before anyone else had even stood up. Amy was quickly at my side, and my other friend, Holly, joined us from a class down the hall. Today was shaping to be a typical day at Gotham High.

"Wow, that's a new record!" Holly said enthusiastically.

"I can't stand that class!" I said hotly. Amy chortled, and then spoke.

"Neither can I, but the grade matters for the rest of our lives."

"Leave it to you to point out the deep, dark, truth! We have to hurry, or else we won't get a table." I said back. My mood was lifting a little bit. My friends could make anyone happier. But that happiness ebbed away quickly, as Justin came walking towards us. Amy's blushed a furious red, and she put on a seductive smirk. Holly and I rolled our eyes. Justin and Amy embraced, and then gave each other an open-mouthed kiss. I kept walking, and Holly followed me.

"Aren't you going to wait for her?" Holly asked.

"No, let them have their fun making-out." I said back sarcastically. I noticed that she was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and the temperature outside was near seventy degrees. I dismissed the thought, and we continued walking to the lunch room. Justin and Amy had been going steady since 10th grade, and in my opinion, things were getting a little too steamy between the two of them. And something else was nudging me, almost like a feeling of uncertainty. Like there was something wrong between them…I told Amy this once, and she said it was jealousy. I dropped it, and never brought it back up.

We finally reached the lunchroom, and there were plenty of empty tables. Holly and I picked a small round one next to the east windows. The school sat on top of a small hill, but the hill was large enough that you could see the entire city from the top. Gotham High was the farthest building on the east side of Gotham, which made it a major pain to get to, since I lived on the west side of Gotham, on the city side of the bay. But I wasn't far enough from the city to escape the sounds of sirens. They were everywhere lately, since the Joker escaped from Arkham again. The lunchroom's windows faced the hill, so we couldn't see the city from where we sat. The windows facing the city were mainly in the Library on the upper level, on the west side.

Holly and I sat down, and gazed out the window like we always do, and we gazed out the window until we got bored, and then we took out our lunches. Holly had a small lunch, composed of a granola bar and an apple. She ate this everyday. Me on the other hand, I didn't eat anything for lunch. For some reason…I just seemed to 'kick the habit' of eating lunch.

Amy didn't come to lunch at all…we agreed that she was probably in a closet, or in the abandoned choir room getting frisky with Justin. But we shrugged it off. The bell soon rang for the last class of the day, and we both left for French.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Halfway through French, Mr. Kenneth gave up on trying to silence the class, and just let us talk. Amy was still not there with us…this worried me, but Holly didn't seem to care. She took out her small Covergirl mirror, and examined her pale face. I could see that she was mentally picking at her facial features. Her black hair shimmered in the white light, and her face shown brightly into the mirror.

The dismissal bell rang, and the room cleared within ten seconds. Holly and I accompanied each other to the front doors, and we waited for Amy at our usual spot. When she didn't come, we called her cell phone. The line rang twice, and then went to her voicemail.

Hey, it's me.

I'm not here…obviously.

So leave me a message.

That nudging feeling came back, and it was making me nauseous.

Something was not right.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

I burst through the door, and dropped my backpack on the floor as I walked towards the kitchen. My mother was putting something on the stove, and didn't look up at me as I entered noisily.

"How was your day?" she asked.

"Good."

"Good." She replied. I walked over to the pantry and began to rummage through it for a cereal that appealed to me at the moment. I ended up picking Coco Roos, and scuffing my feet over to the cupboard to get a bowl. I picked a small bowl with basketballs on it, and put it on the counter. Then I scuffed over to the fridge to get some milk. I opened the door, and groped with my hand for the milk. But it wasn't there.

"We're out of milk, honey. Sorry Anna." My mother said. I rolled my eyes, and turned around to face her.

"So how am I supposed to eat my comfort food?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

"Dry, I guess." She still didn't look up. I swiped the bowl off of the counter, and trudged down to my room, jumping down the stairs to the basement. I opened the door, and put my bowl on my nightstand, and then flopped onto my bed with an exaggerated sigh of exhaustion. Without looking, or lifting my head, I grabbed my remote for my stereo, and put on my favorite song at the moment, 'American Band', which is a re-make by Poison. In my opinion, they made it better.

My cell phone text tone went off, and I lifted my head to see who it was from. It was from Holly.

Has Amy contacted you yet?

I texted back quickly, but accurately! It really bothers me when people use 'MSN' abbreviations in texts. It drives me insane.

No, I haven't seen her since lunch

I waited with my phone in my hand for her to respond. She's a fast texter, luckily.

Her mom just called me, and she hasn't come home from school at all.

I put my phone down and thought for a second. Worry was gripping my stomach, and I could feel my blood pressure rising. I didn't text back.

Where could she be? It's not like her at all to go missing like this? I sure hope Justin had nothing to do with this…if he did, I will take desperate measures. If he touches her at all, or even lays a hurtful finger on her, I would kill him.