I put on a clean(ish) shirt and squirted a large amount of hair gel into my palm. I had to leave in half an hour in order to meet Libby and Cindy at the Candy Bar with our bikes. I shuddered as I rubbed my hands together to evenly distribute the gel and then ran them through my hair, making sure it stuck up in spikes in all directions as randomly as possible. Random is good.

"Sheen, your girlfriend's here!" Mia's voice made me jump as she yelled from downstairs. I glanced at the clock. She was early.

"Coming!" I yelled back, taking on last look in the mirror before running out of my room and down the stairs, taking them two at a time. I saw my Queen, and her beauty took my breath away.

She had done her eye make-up in the way I like, not too thick, but really colourful. She had her hair in the usual braids, but had the front two pulled back and clipped at the back of her head, making it look like she was wearing a crown. Her lips were ruby red and sparkly (like, super shiny! They were mesmerising) and she was wearing a tight Grey Star band t-shirt that showed off her midriff and low rise dark jeans. She walked up to me and closed my open mouth.

"Come on, Sheen, I think it might take a little coaxing to get Miss No-Show out of her house."

"Who?" I was completely lost.

"Cindy! She called me and told me she was sick, and to give her ticket to someone else!"

"So?"

"Cindy and I have wanted to go to this concert for weeks! She wouldn't just bail unless something bigger is going on. We're gonna find out what." She had that determined face on.

"Uh... sure." I put my arm around her shoulder and walked her out of my house. "Why has Cindy been acting so strange?" Libby rolled her eyes.

"I have no idea! Not showing up for school?" She sighed and put on leg over her bike. "She broke her perfect attendance record. She's had in since... God knows how long! Since we've been in school, I think, except for that one sickday when she couldn't take the Sick Patch off, remember? She was torn up about it for weeks. And now she's ditching, not only school, but me as well?"

I got my own bike out of the shed and walked it down the driveway, where I got on and started riding it down the street with Libby right beside me. "Yeah, and before that, with Nick..." I remembered her fighting with him, and they never fought. And he pulled her into the woods so savagely...

"What about him?"

"They had a fight on the night I got lost. Didn't she tell you?"

"No!" Libby slammed on her breaks and stopped. I quickly did the same and turned around to look at her. She looked angry. "She tells me everything!"

"Don't worry, chica, I'm sure she just forgot..." I frowned. I never lie to Libby. And Cindy never forgets anything, let alone a fight. She still held the whole equator business over Jimmy's head (though she seemed pretty happy with him for a while after they were stranded on that island. I wonder what happened).

We started riding again, and dropped our bikes on Cindy's front lawn when we got to her house. Libby ran right up to the door and rang the bell, while I followed and stood behind her more hesitantly. The door opened a crack, and a green eye could be seen peeking around it. Cindy opened the door and looked at us. She was a mess!

Her hair was in a very sloppy low ponytail that was draped over one shoulder, and she was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt that was about a hundred sizes too big for her petite torso and track pants with old stains on them. Her eyes were red, maybe from crying, and her nose was running. She looked like Mia had when she found out that there was no Santa Claus.

"Cindy, what happened to you?" Libby gasped, stepping forward to give her friend a hug. Cindy flinched and took a step backward to avoid it. Libby looked and her and put her arms down from their ready-to-hug position and frowned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Cindy growled, bearing her teeth in a dog-like manner. "I told you to go without me."

"You aren't fine, girl, have you looked in a mirror today? What are you WEARING? Are you insane? Why weren't you at school? Are you really sick? You never get sick!" Cindy stared blankly at Libby as she flung questions at her, waving her arms to emphasise them. "Are you listening?"Cindy looked down at her socked feet.

"No."

"Cindy!!" Cindy looked ready to cry. "What's wrong? Why are you acting so weird? Why didn't you tell me you'd had a fight with Nick?" Cindy's eyes widened a little, and she tugged on the sleeves of her shirt as though to make sure they were long enough, though they were plenty. They were too long for her, coming down almost to the ends of her fingers, but she pulled on them anyway in a nervous manner.

"How did you know about that?" she asked quietly, her eyes looking hurt. I looked away; it was so weird to see her like that.

"It's obvious." Libby didn't rat me out for telling, bless her. She just put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one said as though it were obvious. "Cin, why aren't you coming to the concert? If you run and shower and get dressed right now, we can still be there one time." Cindy sighed and rubbed her toe into the welcome rug.

"No, thanks. Take Jimmy or Carl or Britney. I can't go."

"Why not?!"

"Because..." She paused, then looked up, her eyes glistening with angry tears. "Because I don't want to!" She slammed the door in Libby's face. She turned and looked at me, her mouth open.

"What the hell?!"

"She's just moody 'cause she's sick. C'mon, we'd better go if we don't want to be late." Libby's eyebrows were together in a tight look of displeasure as we reboarded our bikes and set off in the right direction. The concert was being held at our old elementary school, because it was one of the only places in town with a large enough stage.

When we got there we locked our bikes in the nearly-empty bike rack (most people got a ride from their parents) and went around to the front of the building.

"What am I going to do with her ticket?" Libby asked, frowning and looking down at the little slip of paper. "It cost me twenty bucks."

"Here," I said, taking it from her, "I'll get you your money back." I walked up to the door and into the crowd trying to get in. There were several fans trying to buy tickets."Anyone buying?" One man ran up to me grinned.

"I'll give your thirty dollars for a ticket," he announced proudly. "I only have one and I found out this morning that my daughter loves Grey Star..." I gave him the ticket and he handed me a twenty and a ten. "Thanks!" He disappeared into the crowd again.

I went back to Libby and shoved the money into her hand. "There."

She still wasn't very happy as we went through the doors and showed our tickets. She continued to be distracted even after Grey Star started playing. I tried every way I could to make her smile and enjoy herself, but she didn't seem to want to anymore. When they asked for a volunteer to dance with them on stage, she didn't even raise her hand, let alone jump up and down like everyone else screaming their lungs out. By the time she started to relax even a little, they were on their last song. She didn't enjoy the concert at all, and I felt disappointed for her. I knew that she'd regret it later. Grey Star didn't come to Retroville often. She'd be upset once this whole thing with Cindy blew over.

As we exited the building, the first a many drops of rain hit the back of my neck. We booked it back to her place, trying to avoid the inevitable storm. When it rains in Texas (which isn't that often, really), it rains in Texas.

I managed to get her home and get to my place before it really started. I grabbed a watereproof coat and walked to Jimmy's (I didn't want my bike to rust, now did I?) . I told him about Cindy not coming to the concert, but he didn't seem concerned.

"I heard she was sick," was all he said about the matter. But she wasn't sick. There was something bigger going on. Why didn't he get it?!