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Black Knight 03: Read and you shall see

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And without further ado...

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Chapter 3: She returns

"I need to know something, and I need to know it now."

Jo was slightly taken aback. Lizzie was usually calm and collected, incredibly sweet; not demanding or protesting in any way.

"Anything, sweetie. What is it?" she asked her daughter.

"Why did the Gordon's move?"

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Jo closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a pained look emerging on her face. Lizzie bit her lip in anticipation, and looked up at her mother's face.

"Wow, I didn't see that one coming," Jo chuckled at herself and continued, "Well honey, you know most of it, we went there for your party, and they were gone. We called the Sanchez's, but they were just as shocked as we were. We spent weeks trying to figure it out, but we just couldn't."

Lizzie fought back her tears bravely and questioned her mother further.

"What about Dad? Did he try to find the also?"

"Of course he did, he wasn't as close with Gordo's father as I was with his mother, or you were with him, but he tried to help us all the same."

"Just how close exactly were me and Gordo?" Lizzie asked.

"Gordo and I," Jo corrected.

"Same thing."

"The two of you were very close, all three of you for the matter. Inseparable, some might say," a smile spread across Jo's face while she recalled some of the memories of the children playing together.

"The three of us..." Lizzie started, "so what happened to the Sanchez's, why aren't we still friends with them, they didn't move away also, did they?" she asked, Jo could see questions bursting in Lizzie's eyes.

"We all stayed friends for about a year or so after the Gordons disappeared, then you both went to kindergarten. You went to the public school, Miranda went to a Catholic school, so we didn't see each other as much."

Lizzie nodded.

"So they just disappeared, just like that? They never called or anything?" Lizzie asked hopefully, changing the subject back to the Gordons.

"They never called. Not once."

"Oh." Lizzie turned away from her mother and looked out the window, closing her eyes tightly to hold back the tears.

Jo put a comforting hand on Lizzie's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, babe, I know it hurts, but try to get so sleep ok?" Jo felt bad for her daughter, but she wasn't exactly sure how to help. It was all so complicated.

"Yeah."

"You have your last half-day of school tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah," Lizzie replied. The teenager shifted her gaze to another window. This window had a perfect view of the McGuire's backyard; a grassy hill that led down to a secluded cove on the beach. The wind blew through the screen and toyed with Lizzie's hair, bringing it from where it was hanging by her face, and leaving it flowing down her back.

"Go to sleep, honey, you have school tomorrow."

Lizzie slid under the covers, without saying a word; thankful that that was the last time she'd have to hear that for a while. Jo quietly backed out of the room, closing the door as she left.

A loud alarm ran through the air and broke Lizzie's uneasy sleep. She slapped the 'off' button and swung her legs off the side of the side of the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She stretched and yawned, and made her way downstairs.

"Last day of school! Last day of school! Last day of school!" Matt ran circles around his sister as she inched her way into the kitchen.

"Matt. You're 12 years old. Lose the energy." Lizzie grumbled, pouring some orange juice into a glass, her eyes still half closed.

"My, my, we are cranky this morning, aren't we?" Matt joked, but he quieted down for his sister's (and potentially his own) sake.

Matt used to be quite an annoying to his sister, but they seemed to grow closer with age. Of course, Matt would still start up with her from time to time, but hey, what are little brothers for?

The rest of breakfast was uneventful, and the siblings started up the stairs, parting at the top to go into their separate rooms to begin getting ready for the last day of school.

"I don't even see why we have to go to school today," Lizzie complained, "we graduated last week."

"Oh I'm Lizzie. I'm almost in ninth grade. I'm too cool to go back to middle school for two and a half hours." Matt joking teased his sister.

They pulled up to the school and Jo stopped the car; Lizzie turned around to face Matt in the backseat.

"I'm Matt. I'm short and annoying, and I pulled all of the flowers out of Mom's garden." Matt's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open and Lizzie flashed him a grin.

"Matthew McGuire..." Jo started yelling at Matt, who was frozen, halfway out the door with a pleading look on his face.

Lizzie hopped out of the car and Matt shot her a glare during the few seconds Jo had stopped her rant to take a breath. Lizzie waved and blew him a 'You-know-I-love-you' kiss, and went to meet her friend Kate, who was waiting for her by the door.

"I'm so going to kill her later."

After school, Lizzie and a few friends went to the Digital Bean, the local teen hang out, for lunch. Lizzie and Kate went to order the food, and Ethan and Larry went to get a table. The four friends didn't hang out too often, and weren't extremely close, but they enjoyed each other's company all the same.

The girls picked up the food (hamburgers and french fries), and went to sit down with their friends. They started eating and talking, finally settling into the mood of summer.

"So what are you all doing this summer?" Kate asked, sparking the conversation.

"I'm going down to Florida to visit my dad's parents," Ethan said, "that's only like, an hour from here though," he finished, in a somewhat disappointed tone.

"Ethan," Lizzie began, "Florida's across the country, it's a lot further than that."

"Really?"

Lizzie, Kate, and Larry all nodded; they were all used to Ethan's adorable ignorance by now.

"Word," Ethan took a huge bite of hamburger and leaned back in the chair, placing his hands behind his head.

Larry laughed, and the girls turned their heads away from Ethan until all of the food was safely inside his mouth.

"Kate, what about you?"

"I'm going to a cheerleading camp on the East Coast somewhere," Kate said.

"You mean there are camps full of cheerleaders like, cheerleading?" Ethan asked, wide-eyed.

"Yes Ethan, and you're not allowed to go," Kate giggled at the look on his face.

"Oooh, shutdown Ethan," Larry laughed.

"Shut up Larry," Ethan shot back.

Larry laughed again and turned to Lizzie, who was watching the boys argue, and seemed to be very much amused.

"What are you doing, Lizzie?" he asked.

"I'm going to be a counselor for the day-camp at the college."

"Nice Lizz-ay, cha-ching!" Ethan said, slapping Lizzie's arm lightly. The group laughed and turned to Larry.

"I'm taking a biology class and the college in the next town, so I can take chemistry in ninth grade next year," Larry stated.

Lizzie raised an eyebrow. "Whatever floats your boat, Larry."

"Wow Liz," Kate said, "please, do us all a favor and never say that again." The four teens laughed and enjoyed the rest of the day together.

Back at the McGuire household, Matt was in the backyard planting flowers under the close supervision of his mother. Lizzie was up in her room getting ready for her first day as a counselor. She filled out the forms and put them on her desk so she wouldn't forget them on her way out the door tomorrow.

-- Next Morning -

Lizzie woke up and got dressed. She grabbed the papers and ran downstairs, jumping the last few and swinging around the banister at the bottom.

"How's it going, dweeb?" she yelled to her brother, who was already on his hands and knees outside digging away at the garden.

"It'd be going a lot better if it weren't for you!" he shouted back.

Lizzie laughed and quickly finished her breakfast. Sam came downstairs and drove her to the camp, dropped her off, and started back to the house to see if he could give Matt a break and take him out for the day.

Lizzie walked up to a man who knew like he knew what he was doing and asked where she was supposed to go. He pointed to a group of about eight to ten teenagers sitting together on the grass. The group was about half boys and half girls.

Well I hope I make some friends this summer, Lizzie thought.

She approached the group nervously. The smiled and asked her to sit down with them.

"You're a counselor here too?" a boy asked.

"Yeah, it's my first summer," Lizzie replied.

"Well cool, we'll show you around."

Lizzie smiled; she was very happy, but surprised at how nice these kids were.

Lizzie was assigned to a bunch of kids. She walked over and they began talking to her at once. Her group consisted of nine seven-year-old girls.

Wow I hope I don't have to do this alone, she thought.

As if an answer to her prayers, she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see another girl standing next to her.

"Hi," she said, "I'm in this group with you," She smiled at Lizzie.

"Hey," Lizzie replied. This girl seems nice also, Lizzie thought, "I'm Lizzie," she introduced herself.

"Miranda."

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AAH Cliffhanger... hehe. Review! Review! Tell me what you think, please, I look foward to it!! Thanks! Another chapter soon.