World Turned Black

I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM HIGHER GROUND

Chapter 2

Peter's Office

Sophie walked in to find Peter with his face in his hands, and Roger looking just as stressed. "Who was on the phone?" she asked cautiously

Peter looked up and sighed, "Well, Scott."

Sophie was confused, "Well isn't that a good thing? What did he say? When is he coming back?"

"That's the thing…I didn't talk to him…well, not really." He tried to explain, "All I actually heard from him was him say Peter, and then, I'm guessing it was his started to scream and the phone went dead."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Wait."

"That's it?"

"That's all we can do Soph"

"Aren't you going to call his house or the police or something?" she couldn't believe he was just going to sit there and wait while Scott was obviously in pain.

"We already called back with no answer and the police couldn't do anything for his father yelling at him." Roger answered for Peter

"I don't like how this sounds."

"Me neither Soph, but right now the best thing that we can do is just wait for a call back."

She could see the frustration in his face and realized he probably just had the same conversation with Roger. She began to leave when Peter called her back.

"There's a new admit named Zack who should be here any minute, I want to put him in the Cliffhangers group and I was wondering, because I think it would be best if I waited here, if you could admit him?"

"Sure no problem, what's his background?"

"His parents got a divorce and he went to live with his mother who says his grades started to drop a few months after. When he was arrested for shoplifting, he was found with drugs in his possession and the court has sent him to us."

"Ok, Roger can you just tell the Cliffhangers to meet in the lounge?"

"Sure. No problem, good luck Peter."

Lounge

Everyone was sitting around waiting to see why they were gathered. All roger had told them was to meet there.

"We better not be having group, we just had one after breakfast." David complained

"Yo chill man it's probably just an update on Scott." Auggie said

"Why is it such a big deal that Scott isn't here? Apparently he has something better to do that's not here. We just aren't on the top of his list, give it a rest." Shelby said hatefully with her wall back up

"Why hasn't anyone heard from Scott the entire summer and why is he a week late coming back now?

"What crawled up your ass? Scotty not play nice over the summer?" David antagonized

Daisy knew David was hurting from something but she wasn't in the mood for him to take his pain out on Shelby, so instead, when Shelby stood up, she grabbed her hand and pulled her into the bathroom to calm down.

Sophie stood in front of her group with Zack next to her and noticed Shelby and Daisy were gone. Right before she was about to ask where they were, she saw them come out of the bathroom, "Nice of you to join us." They both just rolled their eyes and sat down.

"Ok group, this is Zack and he's going to be joining the Cliffhangers."

"A newbie!!!" Jules squealed

"God Princess, you're going to scare him off." Shelby said while noticing how cute the newbie was. He had light brown hair and warm brown eyes, nothing like Scott she thought then tried to get Scott out of her mind, she apparently wasn't as important to him as he said. He didn't really love her or else he would've called or wrote or something. Then she realized she was thinking about him and focused on what Sophie was saying.

"Ok everyone go around and introduce yourself and tell why you're here…David dince you're his first week buddy, you can go first."

"Umm ok…I'm David and I stole a penguin from the zoo." Everybody laughed but Sophie gave him a stern look that said try again. "Ok ok, umm I beat up kid…good enough?"

"Perfect…Auggie"

"Ya, I'm Auggie and I was a tagger…and Jules here is my girl."

"I'm Juliette but everyone calls me Jules, I'm bulimic and a cutter." He smile faltered for a second but was replaced almost instantly, "Ezra"

"I'm Ezra; I'm here because apparently the pharmaceutical department isn't a good field to go into?"

Sophie just sighed and tried to suppress her smile and motioned for Daisy

"I'm Daisy, my parents were both alcoholics, which killed my mother, but when my father almost turned abusive, I took a seven iron on him." She smiled at his shocked face and look towards Shelby.

"Well…I'm Shelby and I had problems at home so I ran away." She said smiling at him seductively

Auggie couldn't believe what he was seeing, Shelby was flirting with this kid like Scott and her never happened. He decided to end their little stare and drool fest and remind her. "Scotts not here right now but he's real cool." He blurted out suddenly and saw the slight smile on Daisy's face, while Shelby just glared at him.

"That's right, but he will be back soon," added Sophie

"Yea when his schedule clears," spat out Shelby

"Shelby we don't know the whole story. Zack why don't you go now, just say your name and why you're here."

"Umm..ok…I'm Zack, and my mom is a bitch."

"Zack that language is not expectable," Sophie warned

"Whatever."

Peter's Office later that day

Peter sat doing paper work when suddenly the phone rang which caused him to jump.

"Hello Mount Horizon, this is Peter Scarbrow."

"Hello Mr. Scarbrow this is Mr. Barringer."

At the name, Peter sat up anxious to hear what he had to say. "What can I do for you Mr. Barringer?"

"Well I'm calling to tell you that Scott will be up later today, I had to go on a business trip so that's why he's so late, I'm sorry."

"That's fine, what time can I expect your arrival?"

"Well actually he should be getting there in a few hours; I had to go away again so my wife is going to bring him up there."

"Your wife? You got married again?"

"Well, you could say that I mean it's more remarried."

Peter was excited for Scott, he knew how much it would mean for his parent to get back together. "Well congratulations!!!"

"Thank-you, we worked out our problems and realized how stupid all the fighting was." He replied, "I have to get going good bye Mr. Scarbrow."

"Good bye Mr. Barringer." After he hung the phone up, Peter went to tell everyone the good news, he found the group sitting in the cafeteria for lunch.

"Hello, how is everyone's day going?"

"Best day of the year." Shelby said while looking at Zack. Peter noticed this and tehn realized he hadn't met Zack.

"Oh sorry hi I'm Peter how are you settling in?"

"Just fine," he said looking at Shelby

Peter just continued, "I have some great news!!!"

"Oh Peter what is it? Is it about Scott? Is he coming back now? Are we getting another newbie?? What is it Peter?!?" Jules exclaimed

Peter just smiled and said, "I just received a phone call from Scott's dad, Scott should be here in about and hour now," he said looking at his watch, "Apparently his dad and mom got remarried and she is bringing him here. I think it would be really nice if we all waited for him on the admit stairs."

"His mom and dad got remarried?" Shelby said before she could stop herself

"Yea. Why?"

"Well he used to always talk about how much they hated each other. I'd rather not wait for him thank you very much."

"Well they much have worked out their differences, look you don't have to, but if we don't, there's group, and if one person doesn't want to wait then no one does." He really wanted Scott to see that no one forgot about him and knew the rest of the group wouldn't let Shelby force them have group. All they had to do was look at her,

"Ok, fine well wait for him," she said then glared at Peter who just smiled at her.

Outside the Admit. Building

"Peter I thought you said an hour?" Jules complained

"I did, and it's only been ten minutes over, calm down, he'll be here soon enough." As if on cue, a black Mercedes pulled into the driveway and stopped.

"They're here!!" Juliette exclaimed

Everyone was staring at the dark car with tinted windows with bright smiles waiting for the "leader" of their group to rejoin them. Shelby was nervous, she felt nauseous and dizzy.

When the door opened and the two inhabitants of the car stepped out, there were gasps then silence. The only thing running through everyone's minds were: What Had Happened to Scott Barringer?