Chapter 9
It had been a while, but Darien sighed when the plane landed softly on the ground in the Los Angeles airport.
"Thank you, sir," Terence said to the pilot.
The pilot nodded and went back inside the plane.
"Where do we look now?" Raye asked. "After all, we're sure that Serena's here. But where?"
Darien shrugged. "There's three of us here. What if we split up and then end up back here, in... let's say, three hours?"
Raye nodded.
"Sounds okay," Terence said.
Darien smiled. "Good," he said. "Let's go." The group entered the airport, found the exit, then went their separate ways.
Meanwhile, Serena's parents, and Sammy were worried sick about Serena. "Maybe I should phone Darien again to see if he got anything on her?" Sammy suggested.
Mrs. Tsukino nodded. "Phone," she said.
Sammy went into the other room, then quickly dialed Darien's number. He could hear his mother struggling to hold back tears in the other room. "Come on, Darien," Sammy mumbled to himself. "Answer the damn phone." There was a beep, then the answering machine went on.
"This is Darien," the familiar voice of the recording said. "Sorry, I'm not here right now. Leave a message and I'll get back to you."
"Darien," Sammy said, deciding to leave a message. "This is Sammy. Have you got anything on Serena yet? We're really worried. Is she okay?" Sammy hung up and sighed. Where was Darien anyway? he thought. He sighed, then walked back into the other room.
It
had been over two hours. Serena was tired of walking around. No place
needed an extra hand to help. "What am I going to do?" she
thought. "What am I going to do?"
"Psst..."
a voice said, from an alley.
Serena looked around, a little scared. It can't be the Negamoon, she thought, I dusted them.
"Hey you!" a voice said.
Serena decided to see who the voice belonged to and walked inside the alley. Immediately, she felt somebody grab her. "Let go!" she cried.
"Idiot!" the voice mumbled. "Joey, get over here."
Serena heard another boy come towards her. What have I gotten myself into? she asked, herself.
A few feet away, a dark haired boy heard a scream from the alley.
"Let go!" a female voice screamed. Then, a male voice screamed, "Joey, get over here."
The boy hadn't recognized the cry for help, but he had recognized the second voice. Running into the alley, he launched a kick at the guy holding Serena. It made contact with the attacker's knee and he boy crumpled. The second boy looked at the newcomer. He recognized him.
"Jordan, what the hell do you want?" the boy on the ground asked, obviously angry.
Serena took this distraction to turn a few feet away from the scene but still watched.
"Me?" the newcomer asked. "What's your problem? Grabbing an innocent girl from nowhere?"
The boy on the ground smiled. It quickly disappeared as he saw the look on Jordan's face.
"Look," Jordan said. "Just stop it. I didn't do anything this time. But I'm sick of both of you. Next time, I'll turn you in to the cops."
"Fine," the boy named Joey said. "We'll stop." Jordan didn't say anything else. He just turned on his heel and walked away.
Serena looked at the other boy on the ground and his companion. Joey helped his friend up, and they walked away from the alley. Serena ran after the other boy. "Hey Jordan! Wait!" she called.
The boy turned around to face her, the look on his face showing that he was surprised. "You?" Jordan asked, not having thought that she would follow her saviour.
Serena stopped and took minute to catch her breath. "Thanks," she said. "For stopping those boys." Serena's english was accented quite heavily but not heavily enough that the boy didn't understand what she had said to him.
"You're welcome," the boy said. "But it was nothing." He paused, then said, "You're new to this, aren't you?"
"New to what?" Serena asked.
"The streets," Jordan said. "You're new." Serena nodded in reply. "How long?" he asked.
"Just a few hours," Serena said.
Jordan smiled. "How'd you get here?" he asked.
"Father's VISA," Serena told him, smiling.
Jordan's face had a scared look on it. "You got rid of it, right?" he asked.
Serena nodded. "Burned it," she said. "I may be new, but I'm not completely stupid."
Jordan smiled. "Since you're new," he began, "Want to hang with me? I know everything about L.A. Or at least where people like us live."
"Uh, sure," Serena said, surprised by his offer.
"Come on, then," Jordan said, smiling. He started walking down the sidewalk.
Serena followed, deciding to trust the first friendly stranger she had met in L.A.
Darien sighed as he walked out of a restaurant two hours and forty-six minutes later. "Where the hell are you, Serena?" Darien asked, looking up at the sky. "Where are you?" He sighed and looked at his watch.
I'd better go back and meet them, Darien thought. Maybe one of them have news on her. I doubt it, but still, he thought. I will find you. No matter how long it takes. No matter where it you are. I will find you Serena. I will. Then Darien took off at a run to go and meet the others.
Serena was surprised when Jordan stopped in front of a broken down apartment building.
Jordan could see the surprised look on Serena's face and laughed. "It's not much," he said. "But it's home." He opened a door, letting Serena go ahead of him. He shut the door behind himself, then showed Serena to his apartment. Jordan opened the door. "It's pretty spacious," Jordan said. "But it's also not the sturdiest building. At least it's home."
Serena smiled and walked inside, following Jordan. He shut the door.
"It's a two bedroom," Jordan said. "The kitchen's pretty small, and so is the bathroom."
"Do you pay for this place?" Serena asked.
Jordan shook his head. "They were supposed to have torn it down," Jordan said. "But they never did, so a few of the homeless or runaways stay here. Make yourself at home."
Serena went to what she suspected was her room, and tossed her bag on the bed. She went back to the kitchen, where Jordan was sitting at a table. There were three other chairs.
Jordan looked out the window. The sun was setting. "Tomorrow we start your self-defense classes," Jordan said. "Living on the streets is way harder than you would suspect."
Serena nodded. "Thanks," she said. "I did not expect to have met somebody like you on my first day."
Jordan smiled. "You speak pretty good English," he said. Then, "Thanks."
Back at the airport, Raye and Terence were sitting in the coffee shop, waiting for Darien's arrival. They spotted him coming. "Darien!" Raye called.
Darien spotted them, and smiled. He jogged the few feet to their table. "Find anything?" he asked, anxiously.
Both Raye and Terence shook their heads. "Nope."
"Nada."
"Me either," Darien sighed. Then he looked at Raye. "I know you don't like to think this, but maybe your fire reading was wrong. It could be, you know."
Raye nodded. She had been guessing that herself. "I know," Raye admitted. "But it wasn't only the fire reading that told me to check out the Tokyo airport. It was my intuition. I actually felt that Serena might be there."
"Maybe she's back home," Darien suggested.
Raye nodded. "Maybe," she said, "Or maybe there's somebody else that looks exactly like Serena, and that woman made a mistake. Or maybe that woman's blind."
"We're
not going to find my sister just standing around," Terence said
in a loud voice.
"Terence, calm down," Darien said.
"You're not the only one that's worried about her, you know?"
Terence nodded. "We should head back to the plane," he said, trying to hold back his anger and disappointment in not finding his twin sister. "Louis is probably waiting."
The trio got up and Raye and Darien followed Terence to his uncle's private jet.
Thirty minutes later, they were in the air flying home. Darien looked out of the window. "I didn't find you," Darien said. Then after a while, he added, "Yet." He stared out the window, longingly, looking at the blue ocean down below and the clouds passing by in the sky.
