*Hands out imaginary lollipops to all the reviewers* Hey guys i'm back...i did not expect that i would be able to post again but hey that's life. i laughed at some of your reviews that i still have to film *insert nervous laugh* i love you guys

i'm sure you're going to hate me, you made that clear in the reviews but you're going to hate me even more. do you guys have a juicer? You should get one because i tried this juice that had beets, orange juice and carrots. i loved it! XD

TO THE STORY!

Chapter 37: Runaway?

(Adam's pov)

"We…the jury…have decided that the custody go to Mr. Smith."

I stopped breathing, my heart shattered and my world fell apart. 'No… no, no, no, no, no, no, no,.' "Is this for real?" I whispered.

Mr. Smith had a smug look on his face as he leaned back into his chair. It took a lot of will power to not punch him in the face right then and there.

The judge seemed shocked but relieved that it was over. "This case is closed." She banged her grabble once again on her desk and left.

Not a second after, I heard the door slam shut. I did a quick head check of everyone in the room counting Jason since he booked it out of the room a few seconds after I turned. Everyone was there except… "Brittany!"

(Jason's pov (new pov for once)

"We…the jury…have decided that the custody go to Mr. Smith."

My eye widened. 'Now I'll never be able to-' My thoughts were interrupted when something crossed my vision. It was Brittany.

She ran out the door so fast that almost no one caught that she ran out at all until she slammed the door. I ran after her, 'Dang, she's fast!'

She was at least 50 feet in front of me and showed no signs of stopping any time soon. I quickened my pace to try and catch up with her.

You could hear people calling her name from almost 100 feet away. By the time we were outside, I thought 'the stairs should slow them down' Boy, was I wrong. Brittany kept jumping and leaping over steps until she reached the bottom.

I chased her until we were about 2 blocks away from the court house. I don't know how, but Brittany was able to flag down a taxi. Cursing, I ran back and got into my own car. No one seemed to know where we were since I was the only one outside.

I remember which direction the taxi went but I was too far behind. The only thing I had to follow was a gut feeling.

I gave up trying to find them and made my way back to the La house. There it was…the taxi was parked outside. Parking my own car, I ran over to see what was going on. Brittany ran outside in different cloths, a suitcase in hand and some papers in the others. "Brittany!" I ran up to her. "what on earth are you doing?!"

(Adam's pov)

The others and I ran all over the court house looking for Brittany and or Jason. We almost got arrested for "disturbing" the peace. We told them out dilemma and they helped us lok outside. "where is she?" I asked myself as I ran on the sidewalk.

We covered about 5 blocks worth of land around the court house before we headed back. "where's my daughter?" Mr. Smith asked me with arm crossed.

I sighed. "I don't know but I have a theory." I slowly walked to my car and signaled the others to get into theirs. When I opened my door, I turned to Mr. Smith and said. "Get in."

"What?"

"Get in."

"Why?"

"We're BOTH going to check the house."

"But you live miles away from here, how could she get that far?"

"She's not a child and she's not stupid, despite what you may think." I got into my car and started the ignition. "Are you coming or not?"

Mr. Smith grumbled something inaudible but got into the car. I (you can say) drived like a mad man while trying to get to the house.

When we got there, nothing seemed out of place. Jason's car wasn't here so he must still be looking out on the road. Although, there was something in the air that said that something was wrong. After I got the message, I parked the car and got out of it as fast as I could. "Something's wrong."

"She's not here, how could there be something wrong with this place?" Mr. Smith got out of the car. The others just pulled in and parked on the property.

I ran into the house and searched the most obvious places. When I got to her room, my eyes widened and I fell to my knees. After about 10 minutes of looking around and registering the information, I got up and walked (almost fell a few times) down the stairs.

"Well, where is she?" Mr. Smith didn't move a muscle. The either saw or heard me coming down the stairs, they started crowding around Mr. Smith.

I ran a hand through my hair. "She's not here."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you! Now we should-"

"That's not what I meant." I cut Mr. Smith off. "Her room's a mess and part of her stuff is gone. Her computer screen was left on an airline website saying your ticket is fully purchased and printed. Brittany's just not here, she's leaving the state."

(Brittany's pov)

"Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up!" I sat down in the aitinfg area of the gate. "Brittany?"

"Yes? May I ask who's speaking?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Starly…what happened?"

"Long story short, I'm coming to visit." I fake cheered. I knew she would get the message though.

"Oh no…I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, you had nothing to do with this. And if anything…I should be the one saying sorry. If you guys get caught, then you would be arrested." I bit my lip.

"I'm well aware of that and here's something you should know. I told Dakota that you would only be coming over if Adam couldn't afford the trip to Tokyo for the tow of you. So, he might ask you some questions regarding that."

"Thank for covering me Star. I owe you big time"

"You better believe you do. I gotta go tell Dakota about this and how we'll be there to pick you up. What time will you be here?"

"About in an hour or 2." I nervously chuckled.

"God dang it Brittany." Starly sighed. "Dakota's not going to be happy about this."

"Why?"

"The house is a mess."

I laughed. "It can't be in any worse condition than how I left my room.

She laughed as well. "I can only imagine, I got to go Brittany. See you soon."

"Yeah, see you soon." I hung up and sighed. "I knew he would rig the system somehow, but why did it have to be the whole jury?"

"flight 87 now boarding."

I took in a deep breath and stood up. "Here I come Washington."

(Adam's pov)

"How?!" Mr. Smith screamed.

"How should I know?" I yelled back. "I didn't know she had the money!"

"This is all your fault!"

My blood boiled. "Why is this all my fault?! This wouldn't of happened if you hadn't come back into our lives!"

"But she's my daughter!"

"You didn't raise her! You weren't there for her! SHE IS NOT YOUR DAUGHTER!" The whole house shook and the others looked at me with wide eyes. Mr. Smith seemed unfazed, all he did was push his glasses back to their place on his face.

"If I recall Mr. Dahlberg, you weren't there for her either, and you certainly didn't raise her."

"If I may interrupt you civilized conversation…" Jerome butted in. "I'm not going against the court or anything but Adam was there for her while she was in the orphanage. He may not have raised her but he was there for her through his videos. So, in a sense, he should of gotten the custody but you got it instead."

"Why don't we file in a missing person case?" Ian put his hands in his pockets.

"We can't it has to be a 24 hours time period that we hadn't seen the person to file in a missing person case." I rubbed my temple and sat down on the stairs.

Suddenly Jason came through the door looking very distressed. "Any sign of her? Jason asked us.

"Ummmmm…sort of…" Quinton sat down on the floor.

"What do you mean, sort of?" Jason started looking very nervous as he glanced around the room.

"She left the state." I said as I put my head in my hands.

"Do you know where she's going?" Jason ran hand through his hair.

"No, it could be anywhere in the country to anywhere in the world." I leaned back against the stairs.

"Well, why don't we call her via Skype?" Mitch suggested. Suddenly his phone went off causing most of us to jump. "I got to take this." He walked off with the phone to his ear. "Julianna…no I… it didn't go well."

"Does Mitch know you're dating his sister?" Quinton asked Jerome.

Jerome shook his head. "Not yet, I've been waiting for the right time to tell him."

"Good luck to you man." Ian patted Jerome on the back.

"Is it only 24 hours" Mr. Smith turned to me.

"Huh? What?" I feel so exhausted right now.

"To file a missing person case, is it only 24 hours?"

"Yeah?"

"Then tomorrow we'll call the cops, file in the case, call Bethany by Skype or whatever and then she comes home with me."

"Don't you mean Brittany?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Mr. Smith waved me off. "I'll be leaving now. Wait for me to come over here with the cops tomorrow then we'll call her. Got it?"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, what gives you the right to-"

"Goodbye!" Mr. Smith slammed the door, cutting me off.

"Listen, Adam...we all…we-" I cut Ian off. I got the message he had a hard time saying.

"It's ok Ian. You guys can go back to your normal lives…there's nothing you guys can do…it's just me now." I sighed.

"Sorry Adam."

"You guys are fine."

They left me one by one. They're good friends and all but they still have their own lives and problems…they can't fix this anyway. Jason was the only one that didn't leave though. He was just sitting there against the wall, once again looking depressed. "Jason?"

He looked up and looked at me. "Uhhhhh… you ok man?"

"No." Was his only reply and he went back to being depressed in the corner.

"What are you upset about?"

Jason bit his lip. "It's just…I should of told her that I was sorry. I did something stupid to try and get back with her but I made it worse…and now I might never get that chance."

I raised my eyebrow. "To get back with her?"

"No…to tell her I'm sorry. If she doesn't take me back…I get it, I understand, I was stupid…but I just want her to know I'm sorry."

"Deep."

"It happens to all of us."

I got up and sat next to Jason. "I hear ya man…I hear ya."