Hola, my very lovely chicas!
Ok, so...being the brillant girl I am, I am uploading this during a tornado warning.
Yep, tis me! The oh-so-smart one.
Anways, I'm sick...just came back from a chorus competition...
...stupid woman hated us so much she gave us a stinkin' 7!
Breath.
Find your happy place...
OK, I'm better...
Yeah, so...ON WITH THE SHOW!
--Autumn--

"Susannah...querida, open your eyes. Susannah!" I opened my eyes to see Jesse staring down at me. He sighed out of relief when I opened them and brought me closer to him. "You scared me."

"Suze, what happened?" Cee asked in a shaky voice.
I looked away from Jesse's shoulder and said, "Nothing. I'm fine."

"You most certainly are not fine. Susannah, you just blacked out for no apparent reason, and you're telling us that you're fine?" Jesse asked me, raising the eyebrow with the scar.

"Yes." I said with a smile. I got up and walked over to the window, watching the raindrops fall down. I felt everyone's gaze on me as we walked, like I was some sort of sucidal fruitloop who was about to plumit to her death. I looked down at the sign. It now read 'Ladies in free untill midnight'.

I leaned up against the wall never wanting to see, hear or speak the number 21 ever again.
--

"Number 21, your order's ready." Why? Why me? I groaned as I got up and walked over to the counter. I gave the lady my best smile and walked out to meet Jesse and Paul.

I looked down at my frappachino uneasy. Jesse sighed as he looked down at me staring at the coffee like Brad Pitt was going to pop out of it.

He sighed again as he switched our frappachinos. I smiled up at him as he mumbled, "You better be glad we like the same thing."

"Don't you think you're taking this a little to far?" Paul asked me as he licked the whip cream off his finger. "I mean, it is just a number."

I just stared at him. He shurgged and said, "What? I'm just saying."
I rolled my eyes as Jesse came up beside me and wrapped an arm around my waistas we walked into Times Square.

"So, where's Cee?" Paul asked as we walked. I turned around and smiled, "Why do you want to know?"
"I just do." Paul said, blushing slightly. Jesse snorted and said, "Sure, Satan."
"Shut up, de Silva." He said, in a rather rude tone.

"She's with David. They went to some art convention." I said.
Paul nodded and said to cover up the Cee thing, "Where's Gina?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "With Dereck."
"Come on, querida. He may not be a killer." Jesse said, watching me with amusement as I stirred around the whipped cream, making it melt faster. I glared at him, pushing out of my mind that I had refused to talk to the ghost of the victim.

I licked my straw and said, "You can't judge a murderer by their cover. You of all people should know that."
Without thinking, I looked at Paul. He gaped at me and said, "Why are you looking at me?"

"What, Paul? Have a deep, dark secret you'd like to share with the class?" Jesse said with a laugh as he took a sip of his frappachino.

Silence.

"Ok, Paul." I said, getting a little creeped out. "A little advice. Never go silent, that makes you look guilty."
"What?" He said. "I didn't say anything."

Jesse looked at him like he had just confessed his love for him, (Which wouldn't surprise me one bit. I mean, be honest Paul. Who were those roses really for?) and said, "That's the point. Didn't you hear- Susannah, what are you looking at?" He followed my gaze.

Our eyes fell on an ad for 'Forever 21'. He sighed and said, "Querida. This is just taking it a tad but far, don't you think? It's just a sign."

Yeah.
Yes, it is a sign.

Because at that moment, a car speeded towards us.
"SUSANNAH!" Jesse pulled me back, and I watched in horror as my oh-so-delicious frappachino fell to the ground.
Ah, leave it to me to onl care about my stupid Starbucks at a time when I barely escaped death...yet again.
And I am sorry, Starbucks, for saying you were stupid. Because without you, I would still be asleep...
...although...that could be the cause of this babbling problem...

Three things happened at once. Jesse and I fell backwards, my frappachino splattered on the sidewalk, and the car ran into the sign causing it and part of the building to go burst into flames.

I looked on at the horrifying scene played out right before my eyes. Jesse stuck out his hand, and lifted me up.
"Just a number, huh?" I asked him. He and Paul (who had of course ran for his life) looked over at me.

I took a deep breath as I collapsed onto the bench beside me.
---

"Granny, do you remember a Taylor?" Her emerald eyes got wide when I asked that. She looked over at me and said, "Yes. How did you-"

I took a sip of my tea and said, "-I know his grandson. He mentioned something about you and-" She looked down at me and smiled. I smiled too and said, "What?"

She shook her head and said, "Nothing, Susie." She went to her closet and got out a big box. She blew on it so the dust flew off of it, and put it in the table in front of us.

I looked inside to see all these yearbooks. I opened one up and saw her. She smiled as I stared at it in shock. It looked just like me.

"I was about your age." She said with a sigh.
"Why didn't you tell me you went to the Mission?" I asked her. A look of sadness washed over her face as she said, "Sweetheart, somethings a person just wants to leave behind her and never go back to it."

I looked back down and saw him. And wouldn't you know it, he did have that 'Slater Smirk'. He looked alot like Paul, but also had Jack's weird kind of cuteness.

"We started dating when we were freshmen." She said. "He was the perfect man. He truly was. A charmer, though. Had every girl around his little finger." I smiled, it sounded a lot like Paul. She stopped smiling though, and said, "But, the night before our graduation...he started rambling about some Spanish group. His friend Ricardo, well, didn't approve of it. Ricky came to me. Scared. I've never seen him that scared before. I talked to Taylor... that's when I found out-"

She broke off. I looked up at her and asked gently, "Found out what?"
"He was a Satanist." She said, shaking her head. "He believed in...soul-splitting, I think that's what he called it."

I looked back down at his picture as she said, "He got so mad at me. We got into a fight...and...ended it." She paused before saying, sadly, "I felt like a part of me died that night."

She didn't know how right she was.

"What was Ricardo's last name?" I asked. Why? I don't think I will ever know. Something just told me to.
"Um..." She said, thinking. "De Soto...something like that."

Without looking up, I said, "De Silva?"
She nodded and said, "Yes. That's the one."

I flipped the page, and saw him.
And there was no denying that he was related to Mr. Spanish Adonis himself.

"Susie, what's wrong?" She asked. I smiled and shook my head, "Nothing."
---

"Well, that just made this even weirder." Paul said with a groan. Jesse took the book from me and looked down at the picture of Ricardo and Taylor playing football.

I plopped down into the chair and said with a sigh, "I know." I put my head in my hands and said, "What do we do? We leave tomorrow, and we haven't found out a thing."

Paul, I soon realized, was paying no attention to me. I followed his gaze, to see him staring at Cee who was in the other room, packing.

Jesse groaned and said, "Would you please ask her out?"
To say Paul looked startled at Jesse's remark, would be an understatement.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Paul said. Jesse snorted as he looked up from the couch and said, "Oh, I think you know exactly what I'm talking about."

Silence.

I sighed and said, "Remember what I said about the silence, Paul."
"You're full of it." Paul said.

Jesse smiled and said, "And you're lying."

Silence.

"Guilty." I muttered, walking to the door. Paul groaned and said quietly so I would not hear him,
(well, surprise Paul. I did), "Well, if you're such a ladies' man, you help me."

Oh, poor Paul. Forgive him for he knows not of what he has done.
Once ya get Jesse started, you can't get him stopped. Believe me, I know this stuff.

I walked into the kitchen and saw that the clock read 11:21. I reached out and pressed the minute button, changing it to 22.
---

David yawned as he walked out of the airplane. Cee and I were following Jesse and Paul, who were walking ahead of us, whispering.

"I thought they hated each other." Cee said, as we got our bags.
I smiled at her and said, "It's a love/hate relationship." She smiled as I walked behind them and said louder, "Because deep down, they know that they can no longer hide the burning desire they have for one another."

Jesse, as if he was noticing I was there for the first time, walked over to me with a smile. He kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear, "You say that again, and you're dead."

I smiled and said, "I'll just come back and haunt you."
He smiled back and said, "And I don't doubt you." Cee walked ahead of us, and I said, "What did you tell him?"

"Nothing." Jesse said, smiling.
"What did you tell him?" I asked him again. He looked hurt and said, "Come now, querida. That really hurts. Accussing me, of all people, of meddling in other people's business." He said all of that in a 'look who's talking' voice.

I shook my head and looked as Cee and Paul were talking. "I gotta say though, it feels good knowing he's after someone else for a change."

"Sure you don't miss it?" Jesse asked. I turned around and stared at him.
He smiled and kissed me. "I'm kidding."

"No, you weren't." I said, following after him.
"Yes, I was." He said, smiling.

I'll admit it. It felt good being home. It really did.

"So, Susie. How was yours and David's trip?" Mom asked me, handing me the bread. I took it from her and said, "Good."

"I hear you went to see your grandmother." She said, looking at me. I looked up at her and said, "Yeah. That a problem?"

"No." She said, quickly. Too quickly.

"Where's Sle-Jake?" I asked. Brad snorted and said, "Having an orgy with his-"

"BRADLEY!" Andy yelled from the kitchen.
I smirked at him. Little Mr. Steroids is gonna get it now.
"Do you want to make it another grounding? I can do it." Andy said, putting a bowl of mashed potatoes on the table.

"But I'll miss the Green Day concert!" Dopey screamed.
Loud enough to wake up Doc who had been asleep over his food.

Andy waved a spoon at him and said, "You already were for that Sister Ernestine and Father Dominic crack you made last night."

I gaped at him and he said, "What? Mad I made fun of your little boyfriend?"

"THAT IS IT!" Andy said. Wow, someone had man-PMS tonight, didn't they? "Upstairs now!"
Dopey stared as his father, open-mouthed, as me and David looked at him with looks of amusement.

"But-" Dopey started, with bread bits flying out of his mouth.
"No, buts. Up the stairs now!" Andy yelled.

Doc looked over at me as we tried to hide out smiles.
"Well, that's just freaked up." Dopey muttered as he walked up the stairs. Only, he didn't say 'freaked'.

"Brad." Andy said, in a warning tone.

"Gosh, what happened?" I asked Mom after Andy left.
She sighed, rubbing her temples, and said, "Andy caught...Brad and his girlfriend-"

"-Debbie?" I asked. Mom nodded and said, "Yes. He found them in a...compromising position."

"Let's just say they were wrestling." Jake said as he walked in. He walked over to Mom and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He laughed at my appaled expression. "What, Suze? That was the nicest way I could put it."

Doc opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted saying, "I don't think any of us want to hear you description of it. Wrestling is fine with me."

"Me too." Mom said, with a disgusted look on her face.
I looked down at my food and said, "You know. I don't think I'm hungry anymore."

Doc started down at his food like it had grown legs and was walking away.
"Kids." Mom said. When we looked up at her with pleading eyes, she said, "Fine. Just put your dishes in the sink."

We nodded and gathered up our plates and put them in the sink.
"So, found anything more out about Taylor?" David asked me.

"Nope. Although, Granny did give me alot of her old yearbooks and newspapers and stuff." I said, rinsing my plate.

"She didn't tell you anything?" He asked me after he was done.
"No." I said, looking up at him. "Nothing more than I told you."

The phone rang. I walked over and glanced at the caller ID.
221-2121

Gosh, are you serious?

Doc saw the number and said, "You want me to take it?"
I shook my head, picked the phone up and said, "Simon-Ackerman residence."

"Susannah?" Came a voice I didn't recognize.
"Who may I ask is calling?" I asked, my voice suddenly shaky.

"Susannah?" It asked again.
"Who is this?"

Silence.
Meant one thing.
Guilty.

The woman coughed and said, "Susannah, this is Madam Zara."

What
the
Hell?

Now, go press that button!
Love ya'll!
One more day 'till Friday!!!
YES!
XOXOXO
--SASTMJ--