A/N: Hey, sorry I didn't update on Sunday.
I was on vacation, so I didn't have my computer with me.
Oh, and Happy New Year/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/(Insert December Holiday Here)
So, on with the story!
Andrew POV:
The next few weeks came by in a blur of unemotional haze.
I couldn't force myself to smile, and everything I ate was bland and unappealing.
Now that... She... Was gone, everything seemed meaningless.
I guess it hadn't sunk in yet, not really, that Lena was gone forever.
And the worst part is- in my opinion- that Fang refused to tell me what had happened to her.
He said that it wouldn't do any good: that it wouldn't bring her back with us.
But, like everyone after they lose someone, I continued on with my life even though there seemed to be a dark veil shadowing any happiness from coming my way.
It was a week after they, whoever they are, took her.
I went to school that day, like every other day.
For once I wasn't late to homeroom like I normally was, since I didn't need to wait for Lena by her locker.
My primary seat next to Fang was waiting, so I lugged my binders over there.
Fang gave me a curt nod, remaining unsurprisingly mute.
I gave a meager smile back, not attempting to strike up a conversation.
After what seemed like hours, homeroom finally ended and I trudged over to my first class of the day, American History.
There was free seating in this class, so I claimed a seat in the back by the large window overlooking the courtyard.
The class began as my 75-ish professor with long wild grey hair stepped to the front of the room and began to lecture us on the effects of Triangle Trade on the thirteen Colonies' relationship with England.
Woo hoo.
About ten minutes into the lecture, Fang opened the door slowly and strode into class ignoring the looks he was getting from our classmates.
Ms. Dermont stopped talking long enough to fill out a pink detention slip and hand it to Fang.
"Tardiness is not accepted here." she croaked, her eyes narrowing.
Fang nodded silently (unsurprising) and took the open seat next to me.
He glanced unemotionally down at the detention pass to register the severity of the punishment.
I looked down over his shoulder at the paper to see that he was to stay after school tomorrow and the next day, to help Ms. Dermont file papers and clean the classroom.
Usually lateness only results in a day's detention, two if the teacher was in a bad mood, and today Ms. Dermont wasn't at her happiest.
After glaring at Fang one last time, she continued to lecture on and on.
Finally, the class ended and I sped off to biology.
We were learning about the endocrine system, which is like glands and stuff.
I spent the whole class looking out the window and sometimes doodling.
No one pays attention in biology, even though Mr. Pernice is a good teacher.
I mean, would a lame teacher make references to the movie The Princess Bride?
Yeah, didn't think so.
I think during that class we were doing a review for the test we were going to take the next day.
Period two dragged on and on as well, but the metallic beep of the bell finally released me so I could head on out to choir.
I'm in the baritone section so I sang mostly harmonies in songs.
The empty black plastic chair where Lena always sat taunted me, like it wanted to emphasize the fact that she was ripped from us without warning.
Rebecca, Casey, and CC sat around Lena's empty seat, murmuring quietly to one another.
The class started, and Mrs. Lengyel stepped out in front of the students.
We sang our usual warm-ups, song) like the sol fedge (or however you spell it) backwards and forwards, and then we started to work on one of our concert songs, The Carrion Crow.
It's a weird song about a guy that wants to shoot a crow, but then shoots his pig instead.
When I read over the lyrics, the first thing I thought was, Karma!
After Mrs. Lengyel went over the Soprano part with them, she came to teach the Baritones the harmony to it.
She sang our part, and we repeated it back to her.
Once we had perfected those few measures, she walked over to the Altos and taught them their part and we were free to talk quietly.
I sat there, not really feeling like talking to anybody, when Fang pulls a chair up next to me and begins to speak in a rapid whisper.
"I've been thinking, and you have a right to know what happened to her." he said.
I looked up at him inquisitorially.
"You're not going to believe me, but you need to trust that I'm not lying."
I nodded to show that I understood.
After hours of deliberation every night for three weeks about who took her and why they did it, I was finally going find out.
"There's a place called The School. It's a laboratory where they conduct experiments. Sick, twisted experiments. They, well, they put animal DNA into humans to see what it does. They have these part-human, part-wolf mutants that we call Erasers, that they made to do their bidding for them. That's who took Lena. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that they're going to try to do something on her."
I looked down at my feet, trying to absorb the information that had just been disclosed to me.
All I could think was: why couldn't it have been me?
"Thank you. For telling me what happened." I murmured.
Fang nodded, and headed back over to his seat.
Once Mrs. Lengyel was finished with the Altos, she stood in front and center of the chorus, and raised her conductor's baton.
With a flick of her wrist, she began to conduct and we started to sing.
The song ended, the final chords hanging in the air, at first echoing powerfully around the room, then eventually subsiding to a tiny whisper.
The choral conductor smiled contently as the bell rang to go into our next period class.
I had lunch next, along with Fang, Rebecca, Chris, James, and Joe.
The choir room was just down the hall from the cafeteria, so I was usually one of the first to show up.
I dropped my books down by our usual table by the door leading to the parking lot, and hurried into the lunch line.
The entrée for that day was pizza, so I grabbed a slice along with a water bottle and went on to the cash register.
"Your total will be $3.14." said the 50-ish lunch lady.
I nodded, fishing out my wallet from my pocket.
I opened it up to try to find a five-dollar bill.
Once I had found the money I took it out of the wallet too quickly, knocking some papers to the ground.
The lunch lady stood there impatiently while I scrambled around trying to collect them again.
When I picked up the last one, my breath caught in my throat.
It was the picture of Lena and I at a Yankees game last summer.
She looked so happy, so carefree, and so unaware of the horrible fate she was destined to.
Apparently I had been sitting on the floor of the cafeteria for a while, since the woman behind the cash register suddenly said, "Are you gonna pay or not, kid?"
"What? Oh, um, yeah. Sorry." I stuttered as I handed her the five and took my lunch and walked away still staring at the picture, not waiting for my change.
James, Chris, and Rebecca were already seated at the table by the time I had gotten there.
"Hey Andrew." said Chris softly.
They had all been a little more quiet and careful around me since the night it happened.
"Hi." I managed to say.
The bell rang with a metallic beep, and a bunch of freshmen hurried into the cafeteria at the last minute and sat down with their tiny friends.
I began to eat in silence while the others talked to one another.
"So do you guys want to all hang out tonight?" asked Chris conversationally.
"I think I'm free." said James.
"Sure. It's not like I have anything better to do." responded Rebecca, only half-joking.
"What about you, Andrew?" asked Chris, since I'd zoned out.
"Um, ok. Sure." I replied.
He looked concerned for me, but didn't say anything else.
Then, Joe and Fang came up behind us.
"Hey. Sorry we're late, but Mrs. Tully asked me to stay late after art and help put away the paintbrushes and then my locker wouldn't open, so Fang came and helped me, but then I accidentally dropped my books in the hall and the papers went everywhere so we needed to pick those up, and then we saw the principal coming so we needed to run so she wouldn't see us 'cause then we'd get detention and since Fang already has two from Ms. Dermont that wouldn't be good, but now we're here and we're not too late, are we?" said Joe, panting and out of breath.
Fang just stood there silently like usual.
"Hey, do you guys want to come over after school? We're just going to hang out around town.
"Sure, that'd be epic! We haven't all gotten together for a while; ever since-" started Joe, but stopped himself before he could finish the sentence.
"Yeah." Fang replied simply with a nod as he and Joe headed off to the lunch line.
Ok, I'm going out tonight.
I guess it'll be good to get out a little bit.
Ever since last week, I've been avoiding my friends a little bit and have been coming straight home after school.
Maybe tonight will take my mind off the past events of this week.
8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8*8
The End Of Ninth Period:
A girl with a high ponytail named Alexis served the volleyball over the net and it successfully went over to be bumped by Lucas, a tall dark-haired boy.
The volley continued on until the white ball was hurtling straight at me and I, not exactly being a volleyball prodigy, closed my eyes and did some kind of strange thrust forward with my hands, hoping to connect them with the ball.
I succeeded in hitting the ball, but it did a pathetic little bounce and rolled under the net to the opposing team's half of the court.
I was perfectly aware of the disapproving looks I was getting from my teammates and the snickers coming from the other team, but I honestly didn't give a rat's ass.
The other team rotated their positions and the ball was about to be served by Lena's friend, Casey, when the gym teacher, Mr. Phelan, barked out, "You pansies were almost decent today. You still have a lot to work on, but slightly better than that crap you showed me the first day of this unit. Dismissed!"
Mr. Phelan used to be a drill sergeant in the army, and he came to Sweetbriar High School as kind of a retirement from the battlefield.
All of the students rushed off of the volleyball courts with looks of relief on their faces.
I headed into the locker room along with all of the other guys in my class and began to change into my normal clothes.
The lock on my locker opened with a faint click as I put in the combination.
I took off my gym shirt and replaced it with the blue tee shirt I wore that day to school, and threw the gym shirt into my gym locker.
I did the same with my soccer shorts and jeans, when I took out the books I had taken to gym (you never know when Mr. Phelan will give a pop quiz) and slammed my blue metal locker.
The final bell of the day rang and everyone stampeded out of the locker room like a herd of cattle.
My regular school locker awaited me as I headed upstairs to the A hallway.
I saw my 10th grade Spanish professor and greeted her.
"Hola, señora." I said to her.
"Hola Andrew." she replied warmly, "¿Cómo estás?"
"Estoy bien, gracias." I answered.
She nodded, and I continued on to my locker down the hall.
Once I got there, I opened it and took out my books for every other class to be met by Chris.
"Hey Andrew. So do you want to come on my bus, and then we could go out later? Almost everyone else is coming on my bus too, even Fang."
"Um, sure." I said, "Let me just tell my mom."
"Cool, okay. I'll meet you and everyone else on the bus ramp."
I nodded, and took out my cell phone from my messenger bag.
I pulled up the messaging screen, and shot my mom a quick text: Hey, I'm going over to Chris's house after school and then we're going out. I won't be home until like 10 tonight.
My phone was put in my pocket and Chris and I went on our merry way.
Once we were at the bus ramp, Joe, CC, and Wenny came up to us.
"Salutations." said Joe, waving.
"Hey guys! What's up?' said CC.
"Nothing much, CC. You?" replied Chris.
It's all good." she answered.
"So we're still waiting for Rebecca, James, Austin, Marco, Fang, and Dakota," remarked Wenny.
Just as she said that Austin, Rebecca, and Dakota came wandering up to us.
"Hey." said Rebecca grimly.
I think she was one of the most affected by Lena's disappearance because she was close to her and also had no idea why Lena was taken.
In a few minutes, the rest of our crew came to us and we boarded Chris's bus.
It was extremely loud and filled with students, but we managed to find a few empty seats in the back so we could all sit together.
Chris, Rebecca sat in the back on the right, Casey and Wenny on the left, CC and Fang in front of them, Marco and James next to us, and Austin, Dakota and I in the two seats in front of them.
The yellow bus soon parted from Sweetbriar High School and we were on our way to Chris's house.
I heard the familiar tune of the Mario theme song: my message tone.
I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and saw that I had a message from my mom.
Okay, that's fine. Just remember that your curfew is 10:30. Have fun, sweetie.
My phone went back into my pocket and I jumped into the conversation my friends were having about light sabers from Star Wars.
The school bus soon turned onto a shady road with lots of trees and green lawns, and stopped at the corner.
"Okay, everyone off!" Chris commanded to us.
We stepped outside, and Chris and a few other boys lead the way to a cream-colored house with a dark-brown shingled roof.
Chris went over to a door that lead to a garage and brought out a shiny silver key.
He unlocked the front door and put the key back in the garage while the rest of us went into his house.
His house had mainly white walls, with big windows on every wall.
It gave the impression of being really open and relaxing.
A woman that looked to be about 25 with her hair dyed all different crazy colors and giant "hipster" glasses walked past us and gave us one of those weird head-jerk-nod things.
"Hey Jillian." said a few of my friends.
Jillian was Chris's sister, and was a junior at Yale University who had come home for Spring Break.
A tall woman with long brown hair, green eyes, and jeans and a tee shirt on came into the foyer where we were all standing.
"Hey guys. How was school?" she asked.
There were mumbles of it being fine when Chris came into the house behind us.
"Mom, all of us are going out tonight, okay?" Chris informed his mother.
"Sure, that's fine. Did everyone's parents say it was okay?"
There were nods from everyone.
We hung out at Chris's house, the ten of us, for about half an hour, doing homework and just talking.
Eventually, we all decided that we should go out before it got too late.
"Okay, let's get out of here." Chris announced, starting to walk towards his front door.
"Where are we headed?" asked Rebecca, stepping up next to Chris.
"I don't know, just out." he responded, giving her a sad little smile.
She looked up at him as if seeing him for the first time, nodded, and continued to walk out the door, waiting for the rest of us to follow.
The night air was cold as we walked along the cobblestone streets lined with the shops I had known for all of my life.
But now, the tiny orange bulbs in the buildings illuminating the window displays seemed foreign to me.
I felt helpless, hopeless, like there was no way to recover.
I never even got to say goodbye to her.
During her last day with us, I gave her a peck on the cheek.
At that time, I had no idea that it would be our last kiss.
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, breathing heavily and trying to calm myself.
No way was I going to cry.
There was Dakota's voice coming from behind me, "Andrew, are you okay?"
I took one final breath and turned around to face him, wearing a false smile upon my face.
"Yeah, I was just… um, looking in the window of that store." I lied lamely, gesturing towards the nearest shop window that happened to be a K-Mart.
He didn't look convinced, but gave an uncommitted shrug and hurried to catch up with the rest of the group, which had walked ahead.
"Pull yourself together, Andrew." I whispered to myself, standing up straight and jogging up to meet my friends, who had decided in my absence to visit the Blue Moon café.
The coffee shop was just a block away, so we got there in about five minutes.
I pushed open the door of the café to be met with a surge of warm air wrapping its fingers around me, encasing me with the scent of coffee beans and vanilla.
There was music softly playing in the background, and people were sitting sporadically at small tables, sipping drinks, quietly chatting, or typing on laptops.
A bell on the oak door tinkled as the rest of my friends entered the subdued café.
We made our way to the counter to be greeted by a barrista with thick black curls and long lashes.
"How could I help you?" she asked, sticking out her chest a little bit more and batting her eyelashes when she saw us.
This really ticked me off.
But of course I didn't do anything rash and just stuck to my mild-mannered self as usual.
"Hey, could we get an espresso," started Chris.
"And a vanilla cappuccino," continued Marco.
"And a coffee," said Casey.
"And another coffee," said James.
"And a mochaccino," said Wenny.
We all paused awkwardly for a second, because usually when we go out for coffees this is when Lena orders, but after a second of hesitation we all start up our old rhythm again.
"And a hazelnut cappaccino," continued Dakota.
"And another espresso," said Rebecca.
"And a macchiato," said CC.
"And an Irish coffee," I said.
"And a hot chocolate." finished Joe with a sheepish grin.
The waitress looked overwhelmed for a second, but soon snapped out of it and gave Chris and I a flirty grin as she walked off to fill our orders.
Soon we were all seated around three tables with our hot drinks in hand, just chatting about nothing in particular.
Everyone knew the one topic we all desperately wanted to discuss, but none of us had the nerve to bring it up.
Throughout the very interesting conversation we were having about how to get the loudest pop when you pop bubble wrap, Joe, usually perky and talkative, remained silent with a thoughtful yet sad look on his face.
During a lull in the conversation, Joe took a deep breath and began to speak.
"Hey guys, can I tell you something?" he asked slowly, as if it was going against his better judgment to be speaking right now.
We all nodded with confused looks on our faces, because I had never seen Joe this serious the whole eight years I had known him.
"So, um," he began to say, seeming nervous and reluctant, "well, I'm gay."
He looked up at us with the eyes of a defeated man, as if he put us in power of him and we had control of him.
We were all silent for a moment, and then Rebecca reached across the table to put her hand on his shoulder.
One by one, we all reached over to him, with a reassuring squeeze of his arm and a supporting smile.
"We will always be here for you," murmured Chris, giving a resolute nod.
I could see a grin broadening over his face, and small droplets of moisture staring to form in his chocolate eyes.
"Thank you." he whispered to all of us.
It was obvious that it had been hard for him to tell us this, but he seemed overjoyed at the fact that we accepted him for who he was.
After everyone had finished their drinks, we opened the door and headed out into the pitch-black night.
We made sure not to go anywhere near the side street that we had walked down three weeks ago.
I pulled out my iPhone to check the time.
8:42 it blinked up at me.
There was still over an hour before I had to be home.
Soon Chris's house was in view.
"Do you guys want to hang out here until your curfew?" Chris asked us.
We all agreed because we all had the same curfew, give or take a few minutes.
"Oh, if anyone needs a ride home, I can drive you, since I don't need to be home until eleven," said Wenny.
Dakota, CC, and I all accepted her offer, and the ten of us, led by Chris, climbed the stairs to the latter's room.
The green walls were covered with posters of video games like Call of Duty and Modern Warfare 3, and a television and Xbox were in the corner.
There were cushions scattered around the floor, and we all found a seat either in the beanbags or the cushions.
There wasn't really anything to talk bout, until Fang started to speak.
"There's something you all should know," came his deep voice.
We were all startled because he so rarely speaks, but none of us spoke as he retold them what he told me today during choir practice.
A stunned silence filled the room, until CC finally said, "So she could still be alive?"
Fang nodded, and continued.
"She probably still is alive. It's only been three weeks. But with the things they do there, death is probably preferable."
Fang looked at Casey, and a look of pure terror was washed across her face.
She closed her eyes, and was shaking her head back and forth slowly, as if she couldn't believe what she heard.
Casey POV:
No.
It can't be.
Not the School, not Lena.
I told her stories of what they did there, but we never expected her to be taken.
Why, though?
Why would they take Lena of all people?
Oh god, I know she's strong and acts tough on the outside, but it's impossible not to be broken by their sick experiments.
But now that she's in their grasp, I can only hope that the torture they'll put her through isn't fatal.
There is still a chance, however slim it may be, that we could see her again.
I mean, I got out of the School alive, and so did Fang and his "flock".
But for now, all we can do is hope.
Hope that she's strong enough to face them with the determination we all love so much about her.
Hope that we're strong enough to live in constant fear that she could be in pain, to go on without her presence by our side to guide and support us.
And maybe, if there really is someone up there in the sky listening to us, maybe they will bring Lena back to us, safe and whole.