Chapter 7

"What do you think of this one?" Harriet stepped out of her closet wearing a hot pink crop top and a tight blue pair of jeans.

"Wow." Ellis breathed. "You look amazing Harriet!"

"You really think so?" Harriet blushed.

"Yeah! Now it's my turn!" Ellis grabbed some clothes from her suitcase and went into her friend's closet. She emerged wearing a black top and black leggings with black combat boots.

"Oooh girl!" Harriet squealed. "I think we are already to party!" Harriet put on a jacket to cover up her crop top. She didn't want her mom knowing she was wearing in fear she might make her change.

The two girls grabbed their bags and headed to the kitchen.

"How do we look?" Harriet asked her mom.

"You two look beautiful. Are you ready to go?"

"YES! I mean-yeah."

When they pulled up to the party strobe lights were flashing and music was blasting. It looked like there were over 200 people there.

"Wow…" Harriet gasped.

"Let's go!" Ellis grabbed her wrist and yanked her out of the car. "Thanks for the ride Dr. Kepner!" Ellis smiled.

"I'll be back at 12:00. Have fun girls!

"We will!" Ellis shut the door of the car and the two girls ran toward the open garage. They entered the door into a sea of balloons. "This is so cool!" Harriet squealed.

"Sh! Remember! Play it cool!" Ellis spoke softly and Harriet nodded her head.

"So what do you want to do first?" Harriet smiled. "Go swimming, eat, dance, jump on the trampoline, talk to boys?" She nudged Ellis with her elbow.

"First, come with me." Ellis dragged her off to the nearest bathroom and closed and locked the door. She took off her bag and pulled out a box hot pink hair dye, a bottle of bleach, and two pairs of rubber gloves.

"Oh no...Ellis what are you doing?"

"Dying my hair what does it look like?"

"Um...I don't think this is a good idea."

"Why not?"

"You know because your mom always says you look like your dad and-"

"I don't care!" Ellis was mad now. "And don't mention my mother again tonight! She's the main reason I'm dying my hair."

"You are doing this because of your mom?"

"Yeah why does it even matter?"

"You know parents make mistakes-"

"Ha! You call this a mistake? It's called bad parenting! Now are you going to help me or not?"

Harriet sighed. "I guess."

"Okay good because the faster we get this done the faster we can go meet some boys!"

Harriet smiled slightly. She was excited about getting back to the party but was nervous about what her friend had in store for the rest of the night.

Meredith found her way to an empty on-call room and called up Zola and Bailey to see if they had any luck finding Ellis.

"Did you find Ellis?" Zola asked eagerly.

"No." Meredith let out a sigh. "I was hoping you had some answers for me or at least some sort of clue." They had been searching for Ellis for at least two hours.

"We checked every place we could think of that Ellis likes. We even went to the library and the medical research center." Zola sighed.

"Think, you two, think! Did she mention something earlier this week about going somewhere today? Maybe it wasn't just the spur of a moment thing?"

Zola and Bailey sat in silence for a couple moments.

"A PARTY!" Zola yelled and stood up. She mentioned a party earlier this week! She said her and Harriet were going to a party!"

"Oh my gosh! I'm going to call April and find out the address and you guys go and get her!" Meredith voice was filled with hope.

"But-" Zola interrupted.

"But what?" Meredith questioned.

"We called Harriet and she said that Ellis wasn't with her... She had no idea where she was." She said.

"No!" Meredith placed her hand on her head. "Did you call Alex? What did he say?"

"He said he had no idea. He called her several times but she didn't answer."

Zola then turned towards Bailey who was waving at her frantically.

"What?" She mouthed.

"Hang up the phone!" He mouthed back.

"We have keep thinking and searching-" Meredith pager cut her off. "I have to go. It's Nellie. Call Harriet again, call Ellis again, text her I-I just don't know."

"Uh… okay mom I got it we'll keep searching bye!" Zola said frantically then hung up.

"What?!" She snapped at Bailey.

"Come on, are you honestly going to trust Harriet?"

Zola gave him a confused look. "Yeah?"

Bailey lowered his voice. "I think Harriet just covered for Ellis."

Zola's eyes widened. "What are we standing around here for, let's go!"

Zola grabbed her keys off the dish by the front door and dragged Bailey out to their car.

"There!" Ellis smiled and looked in the mirror. "All done! And it looks great!" Harriet peered behind her also looking in the mirror and nodded her head in agreement. They cleaned up the bathroom as best as they could and left.

"SO WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO FIRST?" Harriet yelled over the booming music.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?"

"EAT SOMETHING AND TALK TO BOYS!"

"OKAY LET' DO THAT FIRST THEN."

Zola pulled the car up alongside a curb close by to the party house.

"Let's go in find Ellis, and get out of here!" Zola said. The pair entered the party and Bailey went straight to the food. "What are you doing?" Zola asked in a quiet voice.

"Getting food! Mom forgot to feed us...again!"

"No not now Bailey! We need to find Ellis!" Zola retorted.

"We need to blend in!" He gritted through his teeth so no one could hear them. "So get some food with me and we will look around and talk and pretend like we are part of this party!"

Zola opened her mouth to argue but her brother's plan was actually very good.

Harriet squealed as she saw a tall blonde boy.

"What is it Harriet?"

"A boy…I bet he's cute and he's not talking to anyone…" She bit her lip nervously.

"Go talk to him!" Ellis gave her friend a shove forward not sure where the boy was that she was talking about.

Harriet walked over to the refreshments table where he was standing and started to pour herself some punch. She turned to look at him.

"Hi…" she smiled nervously and giggled a little. For some reason he looked familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on where she knew him from...gym class maybe? Or Chemistry?

"Hi." Said the boy he did not look at her. Harriet took note that he was more interested in looking around the party, probably scoping for someone hotter, but she continued to talk to him.

"I'm Harriet." She stuck out her hand and the boy turned to face her.

"Harriet!?" There was shock in his voice.

"Bailey!?" Harriet turned around and gagged. She couldn't believe she was flirting with her best friend's older brother.

"Where's Ellis?" He asked sternly.

"W-w-what do you mean? There was shaking in Harriet's voice.

"I know she is here with you! Now where is she?"

"I-I don't know!"

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean I don't know! I came over here to flirt-" Harriet gagged again. "With you thinking you were somebody else and she's off who knows where. She has been acting really strange lately…"

"Yeah I know! Especially today…" Bailey added.

"Yeah. But you know she doesn't want to see or talk to you so since you know she's safe with me now you might want to leave before she sees you."

"I need to talk to her and see her myself and she is coming home with us."

"What do you mean us? I'm not leaving and either is Ellis we just got here! Can you just give us until midnight and she's all yours."

"I was talking about me and Zola. Speaking of Zola..Bailey looked around the room and she was nowhere in sight."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know! I don't even know where Ellis is. I am going to find her. See you later." She walked away.

"Harriet! Harriet!" Bailey called, but she ignored him.

Where did Bailey go? Zola thought to herself and shrugged her shoulders just as her phone vibrated.

Bailey: Hey just saw Harriet she don't no where Ellis is but she's gonna look for her but Ellis is here

Zola: Good follow Harriet. I can't seem to find her anywhere outside or in the basement

Bailey: no I haven't looked very much. I'm gonna go dance now

Zola: What? No stop getting distracted

Bailey: I'm gonna DANCE meaning look in the crowd. Maybe you should go jump on the trampoline lol.

Zola: Oh, lol I'll be outside if you need me.

Bailey: K

Bailey pushed his way through the dancing circle looking for Ellis. He yelled her name. "Ellis? Ellis!" Trying to see if she was in the circle. She might not respond verbally, but she would most likely look around like anyone does when their name is called.

Ellis stopped dancing and looked to see who had called her name. She didn't see anyone and went back to dancing. Bailey saw someone he did not recognize stop dancing. Maybe there is someone else named Ellis here thought Bailey. He turned around to walk away when he realized something. Girl with pink hair...all black...that's his mother as a teenager. He remembered the stories she used to tell. That's Ellis! He turned back around, but she was now gone. "Shit!" muttered Bailey under his breath. He pulled out his phone to text Zola again.

Bailey: PINK HAIR!

Zola: What?

Bailey: ELLIS HAS PINK HAIR LOOK 4 A GIRL WITH PINK HAIR!

Zola: Oh my mom's not gonna be happy...

Bailey: I know! She's wearing all black too

Zola: Thx I'll look

Bailey was headed toward the basement when he thought he saw Ellis at the refreshments table.

"Ellis!" He called to make sure it was her. She turned around and there was Bailey standing there.

"Son of a bitch!" Ellis went to run but Bailey grabbed her. "What the hell are you doing here!?" She struggled to get out of his tight hug.

"Coming to take you home! Mom is worried sick about you!"

"I don't care what mom thinks!"

Zola walked through the glass sliding doors from the backyard and saw Bailey holding on to Ellis.

"Oh my gosh Ellis...What did you do to your hair?"

"I dyed it what does it look like? And can you tell Bailey to let go of me? I'm trying to enjoy myself here!"

"Put her down…" Zola sighed. She noticed people starting to stare.

"WHAT? WE found her!" Bailey argued.

"People are staring!" She gritted through her teeth, but Bailey continued to argue.

"If I put her down she's gonna run."

"Just do it."

Bailey lowered Ellis to the ground and she went to run but Zola stopped her.

"No! Stop!" Zola grabbed her.

"NO!" Ellis screamed and broke free of Zola and booked it toward the backyard exit, but turned around to look at them. "Give me until midnight and I will be at Harriet's house. Tell mom AT MIDNIGHT you found me. If you tell mom I am here right now I will personally kick both of your assess and make sure Bailey doesn't go ANYWHERE until the end of his senior year and Zola I don't know yet...but I will figure something out!" With that she opened the door, walked out and slammed it shut.

wow that was a long chapter! Sorry for the delay! Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think! As always if there are any mistakes please let me know! Thanks again for all the reads, follows, favorites and reviews!

until next time,

Lucie