I own nothing but the plot, and anything else that you don't recognize!!

I knew that I had to tell my mom about my new power, but… I didn't want to do it alone. I took the easy way out, and asked Jess to come with me, to help me break the news. She agreed to go, but only because she knew how hard it was to tell some one that you had acquired what the government would call ESP—extrasensory perception. So she came, and helped me to explain to my mother about my new talent.

"Are you ready?" Jess asked, climbing out of Rob's truck. We had just pulled up into the driveway of my house.

"No." was all that I said.

"Good, let's go." She said as she pulled me out of the passenger's seat. I knew that my mom was:

a.) not going to appreciate having Michael's mother in her house

b.) certainly not going to want to accept that I was not normal and

c.) going to freak that I had told Jess about my secret talent before I told her

And just as I had predicted, all of these things came true.

"Hello Mrs. Bristially" Jess greeted my mother as I led them both to the kitchen. "Um… Samantha and I have some very disturbing news to tell you"

My mom stared at Jess for a moment, and then tuned to me. "Oh, really? And what might this disturbing information be, Sam?" she hissed through her clenched teeth.

Thankfully, Jess came to my rescue when she saw that I really didn't want to have to be the one to tell her that I had an unnatural ability to predict when a person was going to go missing. "Well, Mrs. Bristially, your daughter is a very special person. It just pains me to say that she may not be special in the way that you may think."

"What do you mean she might not be special in the way that I think?" my mother began to yell at Jess. "Jessica Wilkins, if you think that my daughter is a freak like yourself, then you truly are insane. There is nothing wrong with my daughter, and I would greatly appreciate it if you got off of my property this instant!"

Now it was my turn to rescue Jess. "Wait, mom. Jess isn't lying." I whispered, afraid that my mother would allow her temper to lash out at me as well. Once I was sure that she had calmed down, I continued, "When Grace sent me into the concussion, it gave me a certain, well… talent, I guess you could call it." Instead of looking enraged, my mom now seemed to be utterly confused.

"You mean that you can find missing people too?" she asked, gracefully starting to cry.

I really did feel sorry for her, I mean, who would want their only daughter to be a freak of nature? I certainly wouldn't. "No mom." I told her, "I can't find missing people." When I said this, you could literally see the relief wash over her. It made it even harder to tell her the truth. "But I can tell you exactly who is going to go missing, when they're going to go missing, and where they are going to be when they do go missing."

The tension poured back over my mom's shoulders. "Oh." She sighed. Well, what else could she say? Not much.

Jess decided that she could help me out a little bit then, and said, "It's really no big deal Mrs. Bristially. I mean, I know that it's not what you wanted for Sam, but really, she can do good things with this power of hers. As long as the FBI doesn't get to her." At the words FBI, my mother's eyes widened in terror.

"FBI? What would the FBI want with her?" mom asked, horrified. "They wouldn't take her and lock her up, would they?"

Thankfully, Jess knew the answer. "No. They wouldn't lock her up, but they would want her to work with them. If they do come knocking on your door, tell them to get the hell off your property."

My mom didn't approve of Jess's language, but she didn't dare say anything about it. "Is that what they did to you Jessica? Did they make you work for them?"

Jess kept her answer simple, "Yes, they did."

I chose to put a little bit of my opinion into the conversation. "Mom, I think that I should stay with Jess and her family for a while. If Jess is okay with that." When Jess nodded, and my mother gave me an offended glare, I added, "Just until I learn how to deal with this. She wants me to give what ever information I get to a child protection agency that she knows of, so that they can take care of whoever is going to get snatched."

Finally, my mom understood that I really did need to go and live with the Wilkins for a while. They, at least, knew how to deal with people like the FBI, since Jess had been part of their staff. I told Jess that I would pack my things, and that I would have my mom drop me off later that night. Jess tried to get me to go with her right then, but I told her that I had to give my mom a chance to get used to the idea.

After all of my things were packed, my mom and I drove over to the Wilkins' house. Michael was overjoyed that I was going to be living with his family for a few weeks. My mom on the other hand, was about ready to drag me home when Jess said that I would have to share a room with Michael, considering that it was either that, or the couch. I convinced my mom to let me stay, though.

Jess invited my mom to stay for dinner, an invitation in which she gladly declined. As soon as there was any mention of food, my mother fled the building. I suppose that she figured if she stayed around long enough for the food to actually be prepared, that she would be forced to stay even longer than she had to.

"So, Sam is staying with us for a while huh?" Rob asked when we sat around the dining room table. "Well, welcome to t our family Sammy."

I felt my cheeks heat up, and then thanked them for allowing me to stay. Jess had explained why I was staying before my mom dropped me off an hour earlier. Michael thought that my power was awesome, and kept telling me and Jess that we could seriously be related. Jess told him to shut up; there was no relation between our families, unless of course Michael and I tied the knot. It shocked me when she actually suggested this, with Rob and Michael present.

"Really Michael," she had said, "Unless you and Sam get married, our families do not share bloodlines."

At this Michael laughed, and said "So why don't Sam and I get married, so that you can't say that anymore?" I have to admit, that when he said this, I couldn't breathe for a few seconds. There was nothing that I wanted more than to become a Wilkins, but… it was really quite embarrassing when Michael actually confirmed my hopes out loud.

When he suggested that we get married, I knew right then and there that he really did like me. I also knew that someday, we would get married, because… well, I just knew. Rob and Jess seemed to agree with the whole idea. The only problem was that, Michael and I? Yeah, we were still freshmen in high school. It really wasn't fair.

Anyway, we sat through dinner, uncomfortably talking about marriage. Well, at least I was uncomfortable. Everyone else seemed to enjoy talking about how ironic it would be if Michael and I got married. Ironic because, well, Rob had married a psychic, and if Michael married me, he would also be marrying a psychic. I just sat there, listening to the small family discuss my marriage.

Eventually, Michael spoke to me. He apparently noticed that I was being very quiet. "So, Sam, what do you say to calling it a night? It's Friday, after all, so we can do what ever we want to tomorrow." Was it really already Friday? Had I actually missed the rest of that week because of a stupid concussion? Apparently I had.

"Sure." I said, stunned that I had really lost track of the week. I usually know what day it is, at the least.

"Are you sure that you don't mind sharing a room with Michael Sam?" Jess asked, making sure that I was alright with the previous arrangements. "We could always kick Michael on to the couch if you want."

I laughed, and said, "No, that's alright. If anyone has to sleep on the couch it should be me. But as long as Michael is okay with me sleeping in his floor, that's where I'll be." Because, if I got to be in the same room as Michael for almost twenty-four hours straight, well then, halleluiah.

"Won't be a problem for me." Michael began, "If you'd rather sleep in my room, than on that old couch, more power to you." I couldn't blame him; the couch that was in the living room was pretty old. There was no telling where that couch had been.

I helped Jess with the dishes, even though she had insisted that she do them herself. Jess was trying to treat me as more of a guest than one of her own children, which in this case, I was. One of her kids I mean. If I was going to be living here, I at least wanted to help out a bit.

With the two of us working, the dishes only took like, five minutes to finish. Not long enough if you ask me. So, I showered, dressed for bed, and retreated to Michael's bedroom. Surprisingly, it had been cleaned since the last time that I saw it. There were no more clothes on the floor, but in there place was an air mattress, for me to sleep on. There were even sheets on it. Michael was already sitting on his own bed, obviously waiting for me to return from my shower.

"Finally!" he sighed as I sat myself on the edge of the air mattress. "I thought that you were never coming back. It takes you longer to dry your hair than it does to wash it." Did I mention that I have really long, dirty blonde hair? Well, I do, and he was right, it did take longer to dry it than it did to wash it.

"Sorry." I retorted playfully. "I didn't think that you were going to wait up for me. I mean really, I can't be that terribly exciting." Alright, I'll admit it, I was leading the guy on. It's not like I didn't want him to like me. There was no way that I was going to be able to sleep in his room, and not lead him on just a little bit.

Michael rolled his eyes at me, "What do you mean, you didn't think that I would wait up for you? Sam, you're sleeping in my room. It's not like I can just lay down and go to sleep knowing that you're right there."

I threw myself backwards on to the bed, showing him how easy it was to just lay down. "I don't think that it's too hard." I joked, teasing him just for the fun of it.

"Sam." He rolled his eyes again, "You know good and well that I can't just go to sleep knowing that the prettiest girl I have ever met is sleeping right beside me." He hit a nerve that time.

"Prettiest? Am I in the wrong room? Because I know that the girl that you are talking about can not be me." I was still toying around with him, and he knew it.

"And why not?" he whispered as he came to sit beside where I was laying. "Why can't you be the prettiest girl that I have ever seen?" and with that, he leaned down, and kissed me. Really, he kissed me. I really had to be dreaming. There was no way that Michael would ever kiss me. Is there?

Apparently, his kiss was reality, because when I woke up the next morning, I could feel butterflies in my stomach. I was positive that last night's kiss had actually happened. The morning passed quickly, as we only ate breakfast and got ready to face the day. Before I knew it, it was already past twelve. Michael suggested that we go to the movies, since there was really nothing better to do. I agreed to go, so Rob dropped us off at the local theater on his way to work.

I didn't really watch the movie; I didn't even pay enough attention to know what it was called. All I know is that Michael didn't watch it either, because the whole time, he was staring at me, as I was staring at him. Okay, so, yeah, it was weird. I mean, who goes to the movies to stare at each other? The whole time I was thinking, Samantha Bristially, stop looking at him! You can't just sit and stare at him through the entire movie! Just look away… but I couldn't. Look away, I mean. And apparently, neither could he, because when the movie finally ended, he said, "Well, did you catch any of that?"

"No, did you?" I responded as we waited for Jess to come and pick us up.

Michael shook his head, and put his arm around my waist. "Of course not. No movie could ever compare to you." I took that as a compliment, and didn't say anything more. Even if I did want to say anything though, I wouldn't have been able to, because just as Michael said this, Jess pulled up in her car. I quickly climbed into the back seat, and Michael followed close behind me.

"So… how was the movie?" Jess asked, not really interested in the movie at all. What she really wanted to know was what went on between me and Michael while we were at the movie. She couldn't care less about how we enjoyed the movie itself.

I didn't know how to answer this particular question, so I allowed Michael to answer it. "It was okay." He said, lying of course, since he didn't even watch the movie. "Not too terribly exciting."

"Oh well." Jess sighed. "I guess you won't be going to see that one again."

"Nope. It's not really worth wasting money on." I said, joining the conversation. Not that anybody noticed my comment though. We spent the rest of the ride home discussing what we would do for dinner. Michael wanted to go out to Mastriani's, Jess's dad's restaurant. Jess on the other hand kept complaining that if we went to Mastriani's her father would insist on us not paying the check, which, to Jess, seemed to be a problem.

I finally decided that I would put my comments into the argument. "Why don't' we go to Mastriani's, and if your dad says that we can't pay, then we will leave a tip that covers the check?" I suggested.

"I guess we could do that…" Jess thought for a minute before continuing, "but we'll have to tell Rob to meet us there, because Mastriani's can be a very crowded place on Saturday nights. I'll call my dad and make sure that he saves us a table."

Michael seemed pleased that his idea had won the argument. I didn't mention that he would have lost if I hadn't suggested the tip. Jess called and made us reservations, and we went back to the old farmhouse that they called home.

I excused myself from Jess and Michael, and went to shower before we went to dinner. I let the hot water relax every muscle inside of my body. Once I was finally relaxed, I got out, dried my hair, and dressed for our night out.

"Finally… Mom was just starting to think that you weren't coming with us to dinner." Michael whispered into my ear when I sat beside him on the couch.

Jess laughed and sat down next to me. "Sure…" she rolled her eyes at her son, then whispered to me, "He was beginning to think that you were going to run away. He's a little bit over protective if you ask me."

Michael glared at her; he had obviously heard what she told me. "I am not over protective." He defended himself, "And besides, I knew that Sam wouldn't run away. Would you Sam?"

He stared at me until I answered, "Now, why would I want to run away from you?" He seemed to take that as a compliment, and Jess seemed to recognize my comment as an appropriate time to leave us alone.

I was glad that Jess left us on the couch by ourselves, because soon after she left, Michael decided to kiss me. Again. I was shocked. Really, how did I get to be lucky enough to score two kisses from the guy that I loved in less than twenty four hours? It was unreal.

Eventually, Jess came in and broke us apart, saying that if we wanted to eat, we would have to leave immediately. Michael and I obliged, reluctantly, and climbed into the back seat of Jess's car. As usual, Michael's hand wrapped around my waist, and I leaned my head against his shoulder. The car ride was short, and we pulled up in front of Mastriani's within five minutes of our departure.

Jess's dad was at the counter, waiting for us with Rob. When he saw me standing hand in hand with Michael, he asked, "And who might this nice young lady be?" to Michael.

I took the liberty of introducing myself, before anyone else could say anything. "I'm Sam Bristially. Nice to meet you." Mr. Mastriani shook my hand, and then pulled Michael aside. I could have sworn that I heard him ask something like, 'Is she your girlfriend, Mikey?' I didn't get a chance to see what Michael's response was though, since a waitress came over to show us to our table.

I sat down in between Rob and Michael, and flipped aimlessly through the menu. Rob seemed to notice that I wasn't really sure what to get, because he showed me what the best dishes were, and helped me to choose what I wanted. I swear, if it weren't for Rob, I would have been sitting there all night trying to figure out what to order. When the waitress came to take our order, I was able to tell her exactly what I wanted. Thank God for Rob.

Our food came quickly, and looked wonderful. The Mastriani's chef was extremely talented. Not only did the food look great, but it tasted great too. I could totally see why this was my mom's favorite restaurant, the service and quality were amazing. Mr. Mastriani came and sat at our table for a while, and asked a lot of questions.

"It's Sam, right?" he asked, and when I nodded he continued. "So you go to school with Michael?"

I nodded again, and said, "Yeah, we have all of our classes together." When he heard the word all, his eyes widened. He seemed to be going through Michael's classes in his head, until he found the one he was searching for.

"When you say all, does that include choir?" he speculated, glancing from me to Michael. Thankfully, Michael decided that he would lift some of the pressure off of my shoulders.

"Yes, choir included." Michael answered cheerily. "We are doing the duet at the concert this year." He sounded very proud of his last statement. I really couldn't blame him though, from what I could see, the concert's soloists, or duettists in this case, are very lucky people.

My observations were apparently correct, because Mr. Mastriani whistled under his breath. "Wow… the concert solo, huh? That's pretty impressive. Not too many freshmen get the solos. Especially not since Grace started at Ernie Pyle." That was another concept that I hadn't included in my previous assumption, anyone that wasn't Grace Celestial who got the solo at the concert is very lucky.

"Yeah, I know." Michael bragged. "But on the first day of class, the teacher pulled us out of the group to do a duet. It made Grace really mad. Sam here almost broke her nose." Once again, I was asked 'What did you hit her for?'

My answer was really quite simple, "She threatened me" I shrugged.

Michael's grandfather seemed to understand, since he just nodded in amusement and muttered, "Nice…" Well, at least he took it just as calmly as Jess had. Even better, he didn't even want to know anything else. Apparently, Jess had him pretty well trained, considering that she used to go around punching people all the time. If my mom had been the person standing there, being told that I had almost broken a girl's nose, I would have been sent to my room, and have all of my privileges taken away for a year. Yeah, she would have over reacted.

Mr. Mastriani was pretty cool about it though. He was just all, 'Good for you. She probably deserved it.' I mean, really, what grandparent encourages violence? Definitely not mine. Mine would be, like, 'Samantha, you have no right to go around punching girls in the face!' Not my definition of fun.

But Mr. Mastriani, he was awesome. He was totally cool with me using my fists to solve my problems. I couldn't blame him either; I mean, look at how Jess turned out. Soon enough, dinner was over. I went back to the Wilkins' house, and retreated to Michael's bedroom. He let me change before he came in, and then asked me to go down stairs so that he could also change into his night clothes.

I obliged to his request, and went back down the staircase to go and sit next to Jess and Rob on the couch. As soon as I sat down, Jess started mauling me with questions.

"So Sam, I think that we need to try to start to figure out this new talent of yours." She said to me softly. I nodded, so she continued. "The kids that you predicted would be taken, did you… hear about them anywhere before hand?" I had to think about that for a minute, but shook my head slowly. I couldn't think that there was any way that I could have heard about the kids that I saw in my dream.

"There was no way that you could have seen these kids? Okay… so you can find whoever is going to go missing next. But why? I mean, I can only find people that I have seen before, so you are going to have to help me with a theory." Jess was really confused. She was really trying to figure out my problem. I, on the other hand, did not want this crazy power to take over my life. Sure, Jess turned out fine, but she still had had the FBI on her heels for a few long years.

"Jess, how about this. Let me wait until I predict some other kidnapping, and then we'll call this, 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU, and tell them where to find the kid, where to find the criminal, and then figure it out from there. Okay?" Jess nodded, and I said goodnight to her and Rob, and then returned to Michael's room.

He had already finished changing, thank god, so I went straight inside. Michael was sitting in the middle of his bed, waiting for me. "Hey, what's the latest verdict on this whole ESP thing?" he asked, motioning for me to come and sit down beside him.

I skipped over to the side of his bed, and sat down on the edge of it. "Nothing new." I shrugged. "We can't figure anything else out until I find another kid. This, unless something else preoccupies me, will probably be tonight."

"Oh." Michael sighed. "So I guess I probably shouldn't do this then…" and he kissed me just as he had the night before.

When we both ran out of air, I breathed, "No, that probably wouldn't be a very good idea…" then started kissing him again.

"If this isn't a good idea, then why is it continuing?" He muttered when we paused for air again. I just giggled and pulled myself away.

I shrugged and answered, "Because it's not a good idea if I want to dream about kids that are going to go missing." He threw himself back on his bed, and watched me with interest.

"So, let me get this straight, you would rather be kissing me than finding missing kids?" He inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Something like that, yes." I chirped, prancing across the room and throwing myself down onto my own bed. "But, for the record, I should probably try to sleep now… so that I can try to figure out this 'power' of mine. Okay?"

He looked at me for a minute, pondering whether or not he should consent to my request, or decline. After what seemed like forever, he said, "Alright, I guess that that would be okay. Not that I'm too happy about it though…"

I laughed at his remark, and slid in between the sheets on my bed. "Hey! I'm not all that excited about this either! It's not like I asked for this you know!" I settled into my sheets as Michael walked over to turn off the lights.

He stopped when he reached me, and kissed my cheek softly. When the lights were successfully turned off, he walked back over to his own bed, and whispered sarcastically, "Alright, fine. Goodnight Sleeping Beauty."

"Goodnight." I retorted bitterly. "I don't particularly enjoy being nicknamed after fairytale characters by the way." He laughed quietly, and rolled over to face the wall.

I fell into a deep sleep, not stirring until about nine thirty on Sunday morning. When I finally did wake up, I saw Michael sitting silently reading a magazine. "Michael?" I asked, hesitantly. "Where is your mom?"

"Well… she's finally awake. Mom's downstairs. Why?" he chuckled, putting his magazine face down on the bed beside him.

I stood, started for the door. "I just need to talk to her for a little while. You can come if you want to." I shrugged, and headed down the stairs. Jess was in the kitchen, clearing the dished from breakfast. I noticed that there was a plate still on the table, untouched.

When Jess realized that I had come down from Michael's bedroom, she turned slightly, and said, "The plate on the table is yours Sam. How are you feeling this morning?" I sat at the table and began to eat the eggs and toast that were in front of me.

"I'm fine, but a… Lisa Perkins isn't going to be all that great after about… two forty-five this afternoon." I grumbled, sick to my stomach. Jess pivoted around and stared at me for a few long seconds.

"Sam, who is Lisa Perkins?" Jess asked quietly. From the look on her face you could tell that she was scared. I couldn't blame her either, I mean, who can tell you that a girl named Lisa Perkins is going to go missing at two thirty in the afternoon? No one that I can think of.

"Lisa Perkins is a ten year old girl, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She lives in Bakersfield California, with her mother, father, and two older brothers." I informed Jess quickly. "A man named Jack Kostmen is going to kidnap her this afternoon, at the local Wal-Mart, while her mom isn't paying attention; unless, of course, someone stops him." Jess stared at me in amazement, pondering over her next words.

Finally, she decided on a simple statement, that frankly, I couldn't blame her for, she said, "Wow."

I nodded, and turned to see Michael also staring at me in awe. "What? I told you that I could tell you where, and when some creep was going to take a kid, didn't I?"

"Well… yeah, but, I didn't think that… well," he stuttered, at loss for words. "I just, didn't think that you had that much information. I mean, if they can catch this guy before he takes Lisa, you would be saving her life. Its just, crazy I guess." Crazy. That was a very good way of describing this.

Jess gave me a number to call, and a piece of paper with what to say written on it. She didn't want the FBI to get involved with this, so we had to be very careful about what information we gave. The number that she gave me was cleverly written, 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU.

I called the number, and an old, soft voice answered. "Hello, this is Rosemary. How may I help you?"

Perfect. Rosemary was just the person that Jess had told me to ask for. "Hi," I said quickly, "Um, I'm Sam, and I have some information on a child that is going to go missing later today."

There was a short pause before Rosemary answered, "Are you Jess's friend, sweetheart?" I told her that I was, and she continued, "Alright, your secret is safe with me, now, what is the information that you have on the missing child?"

"Her name is Lisa Perkins, she will go missing at about two thirty this afternoon, at the Wal-Mart in Bakersfield California. A man named Jack Kostmen is going to take her from the parking lot, and then bring her to his home." I waited until Rosemary asked me to give a description of Lisa. "She is ten years old, has light blonde hair, and blue eyes. She lives with her mother, father, and two older brothers. She needs all the help she can get from you guys."

Rosemary finished writing down the information that I gave her, and promised that there would be a police escort for Mr. Kostmen at Wal-Mart, and that Lisa Perkins and her family would be safe. I hung up the phone, and then finished eating the breakfast that was still sitting on the table in front of me.

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