Instantly, I felt wary.

"Have you found her? I mean do you know where she is? Is she okay?" I asked, looking at Mrs Schultz and then the two cops.

Mrs Schultz gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

"Why don't you take a seat, Heidi."

I sat down and hugged my backpack to me. Mrs Schultz sat back down in her chair, on the opposite side of the desk to me, and the two cops came to lean on the low counter, to the left of Mrs Schultz's desk.

"Have you found Olivia?" I asked again.

"No, Heidi," Mrs Schulz said. She pushed her thick rimmed glasses further up her face which made her eyes look even more owl-like. Then she cleared her throat. "But the Bradshaws, Olivia's parents, have reported that you may know something about what's made her run away."

Oh god. This was getting worse by the minute. I hugged my backpack to me even tighter, even though there seemed to be something kind of sharp in there which was now jabbing into me.

"Heidi, I'm Officer Harrison", one of the cops said, "and this is Officer Franks," he continued gesturing to the cop standing next to him. "Can you tell us what you told Mrs Bradshaw last night?"

"Hasn't Violet, uh, I mean Mrs Bradshaw already told you?" I asked, looking at him now. I thought, absently in some corner of my mind that the one speaking, Officer Harrison, was really quite handsome. His colleague- not so much.

"She has," said Officer Harrison. "But we need to hear it straight from you if you don't mind."

"Why?" I said, confused. To me, it didn't make sense. They already had all the information, so why weren't they out looking for her?

"Because in cases like these, we need to talk to people directly. Make sure that no wires have gotten crossed," Officer Franks said then. He sounded impatient. I decided I liked him the least.

I've watched a lot of cop dramas in my time and a thought suddenly occurred to me.

"Don't I need a lawyer or something?"

"No," Officer Harrison said. He looked amused. "You're not in any trouble and you have a responsible adult here with Mrs Schultz."

Mrs Schultz have him a doe eyed smile. She must have thought he was as handsome as I did, even though she was clearly 100 years older than him.

"So, can you tell us what you told Mrs Bradshaw on the phone last night?" Officer Franks said, shortly. I decided they have must have a good cop/bad cop thing going.

I quickly told them what I had told Violet the night before, about the rumors, and about how I knew they weren't true, despite what anyone said. Officer Harrison noted everything down in a little notebook while Franks kept his beady glare on me.

"Do you really have no idea where Olivia might be?" he asked.

I shook my head and met his eye. I had nothing to hide.

"I really don't."

"Alright, thanks for your help, Heidi," Officer Harrison said. He closed his notebook and stood up properly now.

"What happens now?" I asked, looking at all three of them.

"What do you mean?" Franks asked.

For a cop, this guy didn't come across as too bright.

"I mean, will you go out looking for Olivia? Will you let me know if you find her?"

"We'll be informing the family of our next steps," Harrison said, but his tone was friendly. Still, it didn't exactly give me the information I was looking for.

"Why don't you be getting back to class now," Mrs Schultz said to me. "I'll give you a note to confirm you were with me."

I took the note, but instead of going back to class, I went straight to the school office instead. I wanted to go home. Yes, it was only the first week of school, but I didn't think I'd be able to concentrate anymore. I told Mrs Coots who works in the office that I wasn't feeling well, and she let me use the phone. I looked at my watch. It was mid-morning meaning only Hannah would be home which was a major plus as she was way more likely to be supportive of my request.

The phone rang a couple of times and then Hannah picked up. I quickly explained what had happened. When I mentioned police, Mrs Coots looked up in interest, so I turned my back to her and tried to speak quieter. Hannah was sympathetic, but then surprisingly, after she'd told me that talking to the police sounded horrible, she said she thought I should still stay at school.

"But I won't be able to concentrate, Hannah! All I can think about is Olivia and if she's okay!" I protested.

"I understand that, but being at home isn't going to help Olivia any, and you'll get behind in school," Hannah said. In the background, I could hear Starr start to wail.

"I can ask Guthrie to bring me home the work. And I can help you with Starr!" I said, desperately.

"Starr and I are fine here. She's just woken up from a nap so I gotta go see to her now, okay? See you later."

"Hannah! No! Please!"

"The answer's no, Heidi," Hannah said. I heard that tone of resolve in her voice that she uses with Adam sometimes when she means business. She hardly ever used it on me.

"Urgh! Fine!" I said, slamming down the phone in frustration. Mrs Coots looked around from her filing at me in surprise.

"Everything okay?"

"It's fine," I snarled and stalked off to my next class- math- feeling pent up and frustrated inside.

I was only a couple of minutes late as the change of period had happened while I'd been on the phone. My math teacher took my note and said nothing more about it. I must have only heard a fraction of what she talked about because I was so distracted, and that irritated me even more because I knew I'd have to spend time later going over the textbook to catch up. Why couldn't Hannah have just let me come home? School was no use to me today anyway! The more I thought about it, the more unreasonable I thought she was being; so at the start of lunch, I went back to the office. Hopefully my brothers would be home for lunch and I could persuade the one who answered to let me come home. Fingers crossed Crane picked up.

I could tell Mrs Coots was not happy with me when I went back to the office, but she let me use the phone anyway.

I was in luck. Crane answered.

"Hi, little one," he said.

"Hey."

I had just launched into my story again about what had happened that morning when I heard Adam's voice in the background.

"Crane, is that Heidi on the phone?" and then when Crane said it was, he was immediately replaced with Adam.

"Adam- hey- I-"

"Did you slam the phone down on Hannah earlier?" he demanded. He sounded mad. And not the kind of controlled mad, either. Mad mad.

"Um, well sort of, I mean I-"

"You either did, or you didn't Heidi."

"I did, but it wasn't what you think- she'd already told me bye anyway!"

"Uh huh, well whatever you think it was or it wasn't, when you get home, you and I are goin' to iron out the proper way to talk respectfully to the adults in this house.

My belly lurched. I didn't say anything.

"Heidi, d'you hear me?" Adam barked.

"Yes," I said, as respectfully as I could.

"Why are you calling here again anyway?" Adam said.

I knew there was absolutely no way on earth that Adam would agree to me coming home now, especially now he knew that Hannah had told me no. He'd want to back her up and all that jazz.

"It's nothing. I'll see you later," I said. I knew I sounded sulky, but I couldn't help it.

"Straight home."

"Okay," I said. I waited until Adam had hung up the phone first before I replaced the receiver, just to make sure there were no misunderstandings.

/

If this had been last year, I would have gone to find my friends at our usual table in the cafeteria, but everything seemed different now. Olivia was missing and I didn't feel like being with the other girls without her. Plus, I was smarting from my conversation with Adam on the phone. I felt like he was being really unsympathetic. I mean, yes, if I really thought about it, I had been rude to Hannah, but didn't they both understand how stressed I was? My best friend was missing for god's sake! And Hannah- to go and snitch on me to Adam like that. It was really out of character. Yes, we'd had our share of disagreements, but she was usually so understanding and sweet and nice. Although I had to admit that being pregnant was playing havoc with her mood swings. She'd never normally run to Adam. It reminded me of the first time she and I had 'fallen out' as it were. It was a few months after she'd come to live with us and one day, toward the end of summer, she'd asked me to help her with housework. I hadn't wanted to, and so had gone outside to do something else. I hadn't thought it was a big deal, but Adam had gone ballistic and made it very clear that obeying or being respectful to Hannah was not a choice. I suppose it could have driven a wedge between us if Hannah wasn't so nice.

I decided to go to the library. I wasn't hungry anyway, and not many kids go there at lunch, so it would be quiet in there. Maybe, if I could concentrate enough, I could go over the math in my textbook and save time later.

It was just what I needed. I didn't get much work done, but it gave me some time just to be. To rest. I enjoyed it so much that I outwardly groaned when I heard the bell ring for afternoon class, even though I like English.

I had to take the senior corridor to get there. It's called the senior corridor because that's where the seniors have their lockers and all the announcements are posted for them there. They even have their own study room. And as I was walking down, I saw the unmistakeable figure of Josh. He was standing, facing my direction, leaning against a locker which I assumed was his. Instantly, I felt butterflies and excitement. He looked as handsome as ever. But no more than a couple of seconds later, and it really was a couple of seconds, I noticed that he was talking to Cassidy Duncan, one of the prettiest and most popular girls in the school. She was also head cheerleader and wore her uniform to school most days. I personally thought it was stupid when girls did that- what was wrong with normal clothes? They were laughing together, and then Cassidy laughed and put her hand on Josh's arm and he flashed her one of his winning smiles. The kind that had turned my knees to jelly when were they were meant for me.

I looked down at what I was wearing- plain blue jeans and a green T-shirt. I'd been running late that morning, so I thrown on the first clean clothes I could find. I felt ugly and childish compared to Cassidy with her perfect figure and her long, blonde hair like silk and porcelain skin. Who was I kidding? Of course, Josh was going to meet other girls now that we'd started school. Pretty senior girls who didn't have an army of brothers to get past if he wanted to take her on a date. Girls whose parents let them do whatever they wanted. I know what you're thinking- that all I'd seen was Josh talking to another girl, that's all. It's hardly the crime of the century. But I was already having a nightmare day, and that's just where my mind went.

I didn't want Josh to see me, so I quickly raced back the way I'd came and took a different route to English. It meant I was I tardy to class- only a couple of minutes, but the school policy is clear. It meant I had detention for 30 minutes after school and couldn't go 'straight home' after school as Adam had said.

I knew Guthrie was staying for soccer practice, so I got the later bus home by myself. I was not looking forward to getting there either. This day had been a major bust and I still had to face Adam and Hannah. Urgh!