I ran home as fast as I could.

I raced up the stairs two at a time to my room, and hurled myself not-too- terribly-gracefully onto my bed. I hung over the edge of the bed and dug around under the bed.

"AHA!" I found it! My diary, or the Notebook Of All Things Weird (In my Life) as I officially called it, or for short, "NO-wAy!". The last entry was that Marco had died. Most of the entries before that were ponderings of why I liked Marco and did he like me? After all, all's weird in love and...stuff.

I dug around some more and found my special gel pen, or as it was officially called, the Pen Used for Writing About All Things Weird (In my Life), or for short, "The 'WAAT' Pen."

With the WAAT Pen, I wrote in NO-wAy about seeing and hearing Marco at the 7-11. I knew it was actually him because I heard the weird kid and the other kid say his name. Also, only Marco could say something stupid-yet-funny like the,
"Don't call the cops or Fido here gets it," I heard in the same exact voice that was Marco's. **sigh** I wrote with the WAAT pen in my incredibly-sloppy-readable-only-by-me-and-Leigh(my best friend)-writing:

~~~~OMG I cannot believe what just happened. At the 7-eleven getting smores stuff, I SAW MARCO! He's supposed to be dead and all, but apparently he's not. Y'know, before he died, he had seemed really stressed, really tired, and older than a high-schooler, but only like half the time. The way he talked, he seemed like a war veteran half the time.

The other half the time he was really funny, normal, like he's been since 8th grade. **sigh** But that's not the point.

He was the funny self, despite the fact that he's supposed to be dead. I'd think I mistook someone else for him, but I can ALWAYS pick him out of the crowd, and I've NEVER mistaken him for someone else.

I wonder what Leigh will think.~~~~

Leigh is my best friend. We perfected our handwritings so that only we are able to read it. We perfected it for the WAAT pen and no-way notebook- she has one of her own, and we solve little mysteries together. Well, since we *have* practically nonexistent love lives, we have a lot of free time!!

I picked up the phone in my room and dialed Lindsey's number. Busy. Okay, Lindz must be online.

I thundered down the stairs to the computer room. Wonderful. My brother, Chris, who was younger than me by a year, was emailing his girlfriend, Jordan. YES, Rachel's little sister. Oy!

I ran back up the stairs, grabbed my mini-backpack/purse that I took everywhere with me, shoved the notebook and pen in, and yelled,

"MOM! I'm going to Leighs's house! I'll be back soon!"

Leigh lived across the street and two houses towards Rachel. I fairly flew out the door, across the street, and down the street to her house where I breathlessly rung the doorbell. Leigh opened it.

"Faith, what's up? Another mystery?" She asked when she saw my breathlessness and my awed, wild, starstruck eyes, for Marco may as well have been a celebrity, at least in my eyes. They knew each other, and somewhat liked each other,but just as friends and they next to never talked.

See, now that I saw him, I wasn't thinking about Marco in past tense, as in he lived and died, but now in present/future tense like most other people- he lives and he will die.

Leigh led the way up the stairs to her room and locked the door.

"What is it?" She asked, eager, excited, and concerned all at once.

As soon as I caught enough breath I said two words, "Marco. Alive." and sat on her desk chair while she sprawled on her bed, disbelieving.

"He's alive?" she asked. I nodded. "How do you know?" she asked.

"I saw him. At the 7-11." I said.

She shook her head in disbelief.

"No. He can't be. He and his father died. Mrs._____________ was devastated, remember? She still is! She can't even say 'x equals y plus 17' without remembering how much Marco hated algebra!" Lindz exclaimed.

"HATES." I corrected her. "Marco hates algebra, not hat-ED." I said.

"Are you SURE it wasn't someone else?" Lindz asked.

"Lindz, have I ever mistaken Marco for someone else, or vice versa?" I asked.

"No," she admitted with a shrug.

Let me explain something: Lindz and I are nearly opposites, but enough alike that we have something in common, and enough different that we don't get on each other's nerves.

Lindz tends to be the skeptic, the non-believer, but not the pessimist. She tries to see the bright side of things, but she can balance it. I, on the other hand, am a full-blown optimist. I can always see the bright side of things. I also tend to miss things in conversations, but I tend to think, in that situation, that ignorance is bliss.

She has dark hair with natural reddish-brown highlights, blue eyes, and glasses, and is the perfect weight. I'm blond, with gray eyes, and I'm a little on the chubby side, but not awful. She's this total genius, and gets straight A+'s with a few regular A's. I'm an A average with the occasional B. Another thing: we both like sci-fi and mystery books.

See, we're alike, but different too.

She was reading the latest entry in NO-wAy. She shut it and said,

"Well, Faith, we've got ourselves another mystery."
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A/N: I know, sort of a cliffhanger, but I'm not entirely sure where to go from here. I know where I want to end up, but I'm not quite sure how to get there. Please give me some suggestions WHEN not IF you review?