Chapter 3: Points of the Missing

1

Nate ran to the end of the dock and dove into the water, he came up quickly and yielded his hand telling the others to go in. Caitlyn was in her swimming suite and she decided to go on and jump in as well. Nate got out of the water in his short blue bathing suite, a little shorter then the average. Tess was laying on a towel soaking up the sun. Jason then decided to run to the end of the rock and do a cannon ball. Mitchie sat on a towel in her jeans and t-shirt. She didn't have her suite case, so she couldn't change into her suite.

"You going to swim?" Shane asked her as he took off his shirt. Mitchie looked up again, then back down shyly when she saw his perfect body again. He was also wearing pretty short shorts. He tossed his shirt over a steel bar next to the sand bar. "Well?"

"Oh, now, i don't have a suite." Mitchie said.

"Oh, well you can always get naked I suppose..." Mitchie looked at him shocked, "kidding of course." He then took a seat next to her, grabbing his acoustic guitar that Nate brought out. He then started to play it and sing a little song.

"Oh that was beautiful." She said, and she really did mean it. Tess decided to crawl up next to them and listen to Shane play the music. Mitchie thought, he she comes to ruin the moment...Tess smiled and looked at Shane dreamily.

"Your so good...you can teach me sometime?" Tess said, but it was a question. At least Mitchie was hoping it was, or else this girl was just plain all around annoying and rude.

"Sure." Shane said, not looking at Tess but at his fingers as he played one of the songs that made him famous. Mitchie knew the song and softly sang along with the jingles as the guitar played. Almost like he heard her singing he asked, "You want to sing?" Mitchie looked shocked and smiled.

"I would be...i would...yes!" Mitchie said. She then started to sing along with him who picked up after the second verse. Tess only made a gagging noise once then turned over on her back again to tan.

"You are doing very well! We should add you to our band." Shane said, and Mitchie started to laugh nervously at his offer, that wasn't really a formal one at that. She knew he was just being nice.

"But Connect Four isn't as cool of a name. Sounds like a board game." Mitchie said, then they both started to laugh. Shane looked at Mitchie and they both locked eyes for a good five seconds with smiles on their face. Mitchie was the first to turn away shly and let out a laugh. Shane smiled but felt embarrassed a little. He didn't know what he was expecting.

Nate splashed water at Jason, and then Jason went under water quickly. Caitlyn got out of the water and just laid on her stomach on the dock. She looked down into the murky water and for a second she saw a fish move by, it was pretty big. She smiled and thought about when she was little.

Her father, the one who had died in the plane crash had used to love taking her to the peer down by her house to go fishing. Caitlyn was actually pretty good. She used to catch the most fish. It was never the size that mattered, or the number of fish. To Caitlyn it was the stories that her father would tell her while they sat out there for the long day hours. They would leave at around five in the morning, and be out there until sunset. They watched the sun die down, and then they would leave before the mosquitoes got the best of them.

Caitlyn remembers the light bugs that would light the way back to the van that was parked a quarter mile from the Peer, it was so pretty. Caitlyn would always try to catch one, but they were always just too fast for her. That is until one day, when she saw about six years old. She did catch one. The feeling was intense.

She remembers opening her hand slowly to see the light bug, and when she did she saw that one of the wings were messed up, and it couldn't fly anymore. The other wing was flapping so fast that it made a small breeze in her hand. Caitlyn felt so bad for the thing in her hand, that she closed it so tight that the thing squeezed and died. She opened her hand and saw the glowing ooze of the bug that she had killed. "Daddy." She said, holding out her glowing hand.

"What?" He asked, turning to look at her hand.

"What happened?"

"Did you kill the light bug?"

"I don't know...what is that?"

"When you kill something...its wrong." Daddy said to her. Caitlyn began to cry softly, feeling so bad that she had killed something. She then looked back up at her dad who only smiled. He got down on one knee and pulled Caitlyn towards him. She sat on his leg and looked at him. "Sometimes sweetie, things die. It's a natural order. The circle of life, and how things must be." He began.

"But will I die?" Cailyn asked.

"Well, one day, but that's a very very very long time from now."

"Daddy i am scared! I don't want to die." Caitlyn said, terrified.

"Sweetie, your not going to die anytime soon. Your going to live so long, that one day you are going to want to just pass on and die. Nobody wants to die, but you see...its like a caterpillar. We are catepillers in a way."

"A caterpillar?" Caitlyn asked excited, tears still gloomy in her eyes, "Like the ones in the yard at home?

"Yes, and like Caterpillars we have a nice fun life, eating, sleeping, and being with our friends and familys." He began, smiling as he told this too her. "Then one day the caterpillar goes to sleep, but for us this is dying." He says. Caitlyn still a little confused, "But when the caterpillars wake up after its rest, it has..."

"Beautiful wings! A butterfly!"

"That's right. Except we don't turn into a butterfly, we turn into an Angel when we wake up from death."

"Oh daddy!" Caitlyn said and hugged him.

Caitlyn's thought was interrupted by Nate splashing her. "Hey!" Caitlyn said, and lifted herself up a little. "What's the big idea buddy? First you try to kill me, now you try to freeze me?" She said jokingly of course.

"Get in!" He said to her.

"I was already in."

"Well get back in, come on. It's so nice."

Caitlyn looked at him and then agreed and jumped back into the warm lake.

"Can I sing now?" Tess asked, as Shane started a new song. Mitchie kept her head low to hide her annoyed face from both of them. Shane stopped playing.

"Sure." He said. Then he started playing Old McDonald had a farm...Tess rolled her eyes to this. "What? It's a good song." He said.

"I meant one of your songs." Tess said.

"Nawh, i don't feel like playing anymore." Shane said, and laid the guitar back down. Mitchie smiled and looked at Shane who winked at her. Tess got up and walked down to the dock where she laid her towel back down and laid down and started to tan again.

"She's a little jealous i think." Shane said.

"Of what?" Mitchie asked. She went into her little fantasy of what he was going to say, thousands of scenarios going through her head that made her heart pitter patter, 'of our love for each other Mitchie! Our LOVE!' One of them said in her head, 'of the way that I like you, this crush I have, she must notice it.' Mitchie looked at him waiting for his luscious lips to open and reveal what he was going to day.

"Of your natural tan." He said. Mitchie's eyes put on a confused face, "I mean she hasn't stopped tanning." Shane said then started to laugh. Mitchie joined him in disappointment of his response. Jason walked up to them with a huge smile. Mitchie looked up at him, blocking the sun from her eyes.

"Aren't you going to swim?" He asked them both.

"Well Mitchie doesn't have a suite." Shane answered for her, Mitchie nodded as to agree to what Shane had said. It was the truth all and all. Jason rolled his eyes then pulled down his swimming trunks to his ankles, he then tossed them aside.

"Suite? What suite?" Jason said, laughing, then turned around and ran to the water screaming, "Skinny dip!" Mitchie covered her mouth and closed her eyes laughing. Nate and Caitlyn also laughed as they watched naked Jason running towards the water. Tess took off her sunglasses and her eyes were wide. Most of them were laughing, except for Shane.

"What are you doing!" Shane screamed as he stood up! "This is stupid! You're being stupid! No skinny dipping! Never!" Shane said and walked away. Jason looked shocked and then walked slowly back to his green swimming trunks tossed on the sand. He put them back on.

"What is his problem?" Caitlyn asked.

"I don't know." Nate answered.

"Shane wait." Mitchie stood up and followed him. Shane wasn't stopping. She then got in front of him and blocked his path. His face was red with anger, and his eyes were watering up a little. "What's wrong?" Mitchie asked.

"Nothing...just...forget it." Shane said, Mitchie then realized that she was holding onto his hand. She let go quickly and her face turned red as well, but for all the different reasons as Shane. "Sorry." Shane said, looking at Mitchie.

"Oh, it's fine." She said, "Come on. Let's go sit again." She said, and without a moments hesitation, Shane grabbed her hand and they both went walking hand in hand towards the towels on the lakes beach.

2

Brown parked the van next to the tow truck station. He thought since he was in town he would check and see if Connie, the chef for Camp Rock, was doing okay, or if she needed any help. He got out of the van and walked into the station. He saw the car parked outside, the tires were still flat. Must have been some accident. He thought as he walked inside. The tiny bell above the door jingled as he walked in. He saw Herb, the tow truck guy, and Ethan, the guy who fixed up most of the cars in town, sitting on stools talking.

"Oh, how you doing Mr. Brown?" Ethan asked, his hands were covered in black grease. Brown just shook his head, "Good then?" He said.

"Yeah, great. I was wondering if you knew where Connie was?"

"Who?"

"Connie, she's the women who's car is parked out there, with the flat tires."

"Oh, we haven't seen her. We thought she would be by the car, she wasn't"

"That's odd, her daughter told us that she was waiting next to the car."

"She wasn't there. We would have saw her, that's for sure." Ethan said, then laughed a little, "Might have to send her little pike over here and pay for the damages. We had to order the new window, but we have the tires."

"New window?"

"Yeah, looks like the side window was crashed through." Herb said.

"That's weird; they said it was just the tires."

"Something crashed it; glass was on the road, and in the car. We had to clean it up ourselves." Ethan said, and Herb agreed with a tender nod of his head.

"Well the daughter is young, she wouldn't have the money I'm sure." Brown told the two men.

"Well we aren't fixing it until we talk to somebody about it."

"Are you sure she wasn't maybe in the woods taking a leak?" Brown asked concerned.

"We called out a few times; we were there...what thirty minutes?" Herb asked Ethan.

"Just about, cleaning the glass, and then calling for the broad."

"Gottcha." Brown said.

"You can go ahead and swing by there again I guess, but like I said, no money, no service." Herb said then started to laugh wildly, he smacked Ethan's side and both of the men started to laugh. Brown nodded at them, and then told them to have a great day that he was going on his way.

3

All of them sat together now, except for Jason who was still playing around in the water. Mitchie laid next to Shane, and Caitlyn was on the other side of her. Nate was sitting on the high Life Guard chair, and Tess was standing against it, taking on the sun. They were all laughing, then Mitchie said something, "Okay, I got one, what's green and red, and goes a thousand miles an hour?" All of them thought about it.

"What?" Shane asked.

"A frog in a blender." Mitchie said, and then they all started to laugh again. Mitchie was shocked she thought they would just call her stupid; it was a pretty dumb one that was for sure. Then Nate hopped down, landing on his feet.

"I got one!" Nate said. "What's brown, and sits on a piano?"

"Your thing.." Tess said, all of them made an OoooOOo noise, Nate only looked at her and gave her a grossed out look then said no. Mitchie thought about different things at that moment, she looked at Shane's tanned legs, and his perfect chest and smiled. He caught her looking and covered his body, joking around of course.

"What is it?" Caitlyn asked, "I will never get it..."

"Beethoven's last movement..." Nate said.

"Eww!" They all said and tossed stuff at him.

"What? It was good no?" Nate said laughing.

"Help!" A scream came from the lake. They all looked in terror of what they heard. They saw Jason scream again, and then go under water. He didn't come up. Shane got up and ran towards the water, Mitchie did as well. Tess and Caitlyn went to the canoe's and pushed it into the water towards the area that he went under. Mitchie dove in first and went swimming through the water as fast as she could.

"Where is he?" Tess asked screaming, her face red as can be.

"Around that area!" Nate screamed back, he then jogged to the end of the dock and looked around the water. Shane was now in the water moving around looking for where Jason could have been.

Caitlyn let out a scream and pointed towards the side of the dock. Mitchie looked and saw Jason's body floating next to it. Nate started to pull him up, and then Shane helped. Mitchie crawled out of the lake, her clothes now soaking wet. She looked down at Jason, whose eyes were closed. "CPR!" Nate screamed. All of them agreed.

Without another moment Mitchie put her head down and went to blow air down into Jason's lungs, as she did water squirted out of his mouth and into Mitchie's face. "Gottcha." Jason said, and then started to laugh.

"Jason!" The girls in the canoe screamed.

"So not funny." Shane said walking towards the end of the dock. Mitchie's face was now red, and her eyes were tearing up.

"Look I'm sorry, you guys seemed bored." Jason said standing up. Mitchie looked at him then slapped him across the face, and hard. Jason just looked at her in shock, and felt at his face, which was now warm with a red hand print on it.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Mitchie said, wiping tears from her eyes. Everyone just looked in silence as Mitchie walked away from Jason and off of the dock. Shane tried to stop her, but Mitchie fought her way away from him. She walked towards the outhouse bathrooms and she slammed the door.

"Smooth move there Jason."

"Real smooth." Tess said, climbing out of the boat.

"Just a practical joke."

"Here's some advice bud, you joke too much." Caitlyn said, then walked towards the outhouse. She opened the door and saw Mitchie leaning against the sink looking in the mirror. "Wow, guess the girls bathroom is much cleaner." Caitlyn said looking around, it was very clean.

"Yeah." Mitchie said, with a laugh. Her nose was a little stuffy from crying, and her eyes were still releasing her warm tears.

"Look Jason is just very immature."

"It's not just that..." Mitchie said, turning around to Caitlyn.

"What is it?"

"I am very worried about my mom. I mean she has been gone for a long time, and...and...I am just...eghh!" Mitchie said, turning around again. Caitlyn walked up to her and grabbed her wet shoulder.

"I know what you mean." Caitlyn said and gave her a hug.

"Cold.." Mitchie said and laughed.

"Yes." Caitlyn agreed.

"There is a drier in the main office house. We can dry your clothes, and you can wear my robe i got. It's pink." Caitlyn said.

Mitchie smiled and just looked at Caitlyn, "Sure."

"Good. Now let me go get some of the shampoo and you can shower and get that nasty lake water off of you. Okay?"

"Okay." Mitchie agreed. "Tell Jason I am sorry."

"Not yet..." Caitlyn began, "Let him suffer." She said and started to laugh.

4

Brown went down Wicham Street slowly, waiting to see if he could see maybe where the tires had popped, and when he reached the area, he knew. Not only was there a piece of tire on the side of the road, but there was broken glass. Brown got out of his car after her parked it on the side and walked towards where the glass was on the road.

It was getting a little cooler now, and the skies were graying up pretty nicely. The store that he knew about was on its way, going to arrive completely very soon. The breeze danced the leaves on the road, and cooled off Brown's back that was drenched in sweat. The truck had no air conditioning.

He saw big pieces of glass, and then thought about the guys saying that they cleaned it. Yeah they missed a spot. He leaned down and looked at the glass; there was blood on some of the pieces. For sure it was blood. Brown stood up again and looked into the woods when he heard something. "Hello?" He called out into the woods. "Ms. Connie? Is that you?" He called out into the dark, damp woods. The noises were now of a beast, maybe a bear, he wasn't sure.

Brown started to walk slowly into the woods, looking around for anything that he could see. The twigs were cracking under his boots. "Connie?" He heard a noise again. He then saw somebody in the distance moving. They then hid behind a tree. Brown started to jog towards that area, as he did he tripped over something and fell flat onto his face. He lifted his body and turned around to see what he had tripped over. What he saw was legs, a woman's leg.

Brown's eyes widened and he moved to get a closer look at what it was, and then he saw it. It was Connie; her eyes were opened and red. Brown saw that she was moving, her head was anyways, alive. He thought and reached out to grab her shoulder. As he did, her head moved quicker now as a large black snake moved out of the cut in her neck. She was dead; it was the snake that caused the movement. Brown let out a squeak of terror when he saw this and fell backwards. He got up quickly and started to run towards his car. When he got into his car, he locked the door and scrambled for his keys.

They were not in his pocket. He looked outside and saw them on the ground, just sitting there next to where the glass was. He must have dropped them. He looked into the woods and didn't see anyone. The tiny drops of rain started to fall onto the wind shield. Brown's hands were shaking so much, that when he went to unlock the door, it took longer then normal. He kept locking it when he unlocked it. He then looked into the woods again and swung the door open, running to grab his keys.

He heard something in the woods and let out a scream as he ran back into the truck. He slammed the door closed and put the keys into the ignition. He then smiled and turned the car around and started to drive towards the police station as fast as he could. He looked at the side mirror and fixed them, he then fixed the rear view mirror that had moved downward. When he did, he saw in the reflection someone in the back of the truck holding a large spear. "NO!" Brown screamed.

The spear crashed through the back glass and straight through his head, and even cracked the front windshield. As he died, his foot hit the accelerator and the car speed off the side of the road, through the woods a little, then crashed into a tree. The truck exploded.