Chapter 1 – Riley

I pushed through the crowd of people in my way, muttering curses. Why do they all have to be so close to my locker?

As I reached my locker, I groaned at the huge piece of paper taped to it.

"Watch out or she'll get you too!" I read aloud. Several people surrounding me burst into laughter. Oh, they think this is funny?

"Why don't you all just leave me the fuck alone?!" I snapped, glaring at the crowd.

"Whoa, careful there, we don't want any trouble." One of them raised their arms. "We don't want to end up dead too."

"I didn't kill or kidnap anybody, now get out of here before someone does end up dying!" I hissed. The crowd slowly evaporated. I let out a sigh of relief. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best method to solve my problem, but at least it worked, right? I ripped the message off my locker, crumbling it and throwing it in a nearby trashcan.

Ever since my friend, Kate, has gone missing, everyone assumes my friends and I committed the crime, just because we were present at the time.

As I fumbled with my lock, my "buddy", Isaac, came into the scene.

"Hey Riley-"

"Quiet Isaac, I don't want to hear your crap. And no, I am not a murderer!" I hissed. He quickly turned away, dealing with his own locker. Good, at least that's one less of a person to deal with.

"Hey Riley." I sighed in relief at the familiar voice. I waved at Richie, one of the other accused murderers. "I see you got that note too, huh?"

"Yeah…Seriously, how much bullshit are they going to pull until they realize that it's impossible for a bunch of 12 year olds to kill somebody?" I sighed.

"It's not like there's much we could do about it, maybe we could wait it out." Richie suggested.

"Well, I guess that could work." I shrugged.

"Just try not to overact to what they say, alright?"

"Fine, whatever. I just can't understand why people would think that Kate's friends would kill her. We're her friends for a reason, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's not like she's actually dead…Right?" He laughed nervously. An awkward silence filled the air, as no one had anything to say. Truth be told, we weren't 100% sure if Kate was actually dead or not, but we could still hope, right?

"What's up?" Angelo greeted. "We have double Olleib."

"Alright, I'm up for it, I didn't get much sleep last night anyway." I smiled.

XXX

"Bye guys!" I waved to my friends, who were gathering their lunch from their locker.

"See you, Riley, have fun at band!" Dorothy, one of my newest friends, smiled. I raced down the stairs, speeding to the music room. Yes, I was a part of my school band, but that's not geeky at all, right?

I stood by the door of the music room. Looks like the teacher is late again, I sighed. Kate and I would always attend band practice together, but now that she isn't here…

I fiddled with the case of my saxophone.

"Yo Riley!" A high-pitched voice called. I groaned as Alex approached me with his trumpet. "I heard about what happened at the camp-"

"Enough, Alex. I don't care who told you but I killed no one, I kidnapped no one, we didn't do anything to Kate." I snapped.

"Relax, bro, I believe you." Alex smiled. "I just feel sorry about what happened to Kate…"

"We all do." I said. "Worst part is we could do nothing to save her."

XXX

Finally, it was the end of the school day, which means Taekwondo lessons.

I quickly tied my dark brown hair into a ponytail as my car pulled up in the parking lot of the dojang.

Taekwondo was the only place I could really release my emotions my anger, and let me tell you, I have a lot of it, especially now with all these accusations. I admit; it hurts a little to be called a killer, as if someone might think you actually killed your very own friend.

As I got out of the car, I quickly tied the red belt over my dobok.

"Try hard, and have fun!" My mother said as I waved goodbye, watching her leave the parking lot.

I stormed through the doors of the dojang, entering an open class. I spied a lone punching bag by the corner of the room. I dashed over, executing a jumping side turning side kick and landing with a hook round-house kick. The punching bag received a straight punch, an uppercut, and a low kick as I swung my arms and legs to no avail, determined. Those kids got nothing on me, they don't know anything, nothing they say is true! I would never kill Kate! I furiously continued punching and kicking the bag until my muscles ached, imagining the bag was every kid who ever called me a killer-

I stopped.

Wait a minute.

This is exactly what they're looking for, exactly what they want. They accuse me of being a killer, and here I am, acting like one. Oh, the irony…

I glare at the punching bag once last time before calmly walking out of the dojang. I thought this would help me feel better, as it always does, but strangely, it makes me feel worse.

XXX

I glanced at the clock on my bedside table.

10:30 P.M

I should really be asleep by now, but…

I jumped as my phone vibrated in my hand. I quickly turned to the screen;

'RILEYYY!' I rolled my eyes at the text I received from Angelo.

'What?!' I replied.

'It' s about Kate…'

'Oh gosh Angelo, please don't talk about that D:'

'But Richie just told me…It's Evan, he was at the library, and on one of the books there was a note about Kate!'

'That's ridiculous, how is that possible? How do you even know it's our Kate?'

'I don't know, it could be, but that's all I know. I'll try to tell you more tomorrow, I gotta sleep now. Good night!'

'Good night' I shut down my phone, and as I laid down in bed, I nearly screamed at the ceiling.

Engraved upon the ceiling, in what looked like black marker, were the words 'I have Kate.'