A/N: On with the chapter!

Alice was still lying on her bed. She had finally decided that she would sneak out the window. It would be much easier to not get caught.

Standing, she walked over to her window. Leaning against the frame of the window, she crossed her arms and just looked out. The sun was setting on the horizon, drenching the sky in colors ranging from yellow to red and, in between, from orange to gold. Though she never admitted it, she was a sucker for this type of phenomenon.

However, she couldn't really say she loved it enough to go wild crazy just because she had witnessed the perfect sunset. No. She loved just watching it. Quiet. Silent. Letting it's soothing effect take hold. Making her relax from the day's tension. She loved that.

She stole a glance at her digital clock. 9:22 PM. She sighed. Almost time. She walked over to the backpack carelessly slung onto a hook on her closet door. Digging through the first, small pocket she pulled out the short, thin chain that she always had clipped to her cellular phone. "Time to call up the Myst Detectives," she mumbled to herself. On the chain clipped to her cell, chimed a tiny charm-like item. Except it was a little too big to be a charm for something such as a charm bracelet. This thing was different. It was a simple, green, black, and white swirl that seemed to reflect light when it was hit.

Her father had given it to her when he'd bought her a cell phone at the end of her fifth grade graduation in which she'd delivered a speech to the crowd and had won the Top 10 Student's Award, gaining first place. She was young and stupid, as she usually referred to herself. The only reason she still kept it on the chain was because she'd promise to always keep it with her. And everyone knows she never goes anywhere without her cell phone. If she somehow managed to make it slip her mind, there was sure to be rain that day. Another reason she kept it there, was because her dad had seriously added emphasis when he told her she should always keep it with her. Here's how that memory went down:

FLASHBACK:

A younger Alice was walking down and out of the auditorium of Casper Middle School. Yes, the middle school. That was where the graduation had taken place. She was talking with her presently ex-best friend Cynthia Zuniga. They'd been friends since she could remember. Besides, she was the only person who really didn't judge Alice or call her a veggie as others usually did.

They were just about to exit the auditorium when Alice caught sight of her parents. They'd been near the back of the auditorium during the ceremony, so she hadn't seen much of them. But just being there meant a lot to her. They were talking about something, them holding young, eight-year-old Andrew by the hand since he seemed to be wanting to get away from them. She smiled slightly.

"Cynthia, wait here," Alice said. Cynthia isn't very smart, so she'd only gotten a perfect attendance award. Alice, on the other hands, would have had her hands full with awards since she'd gotten on from winning first at a science fair, perfect attendance, honor roll, the spelling bee, Top Ten Students Award, and citizenship award. Trust me, those trophies are bulky. She'd given some to Cynthia to hold since she couldn't possibly hold all of them at once. Now Alice only had on the two Honor Roll and Perfect Attendance medals about her neck and the Top Ten thing in her hands.

"Okay, but make sure I don't steal your awards!" Cynthia called after her. Alice waved the statement away and continued on her way towards her parents, her white heels clicking as she did so.

"Hey, mom! Dad!" she called.

They quickly looked up from the struggling Andrew and smiled at her. "Hey," Danny said. "You did great up there."

"Especially the speech. Are you sure you're teacher didn't dictate that to you?" Sam asked sarcastically. It had been Alice's task to think up the beginning speech for the ceremony. She loved to write and her teacher knew it.

Alice laughed slightly. "Mom, you do know that thing took me two hours to write, right?" she asked. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, I know," Sam said. "You know, I still think you should have dressed up a little more." She surveyed her daughter's clothes closely. She was wearing a baby blue dress and her hair was up in a bundle.

"I never thought I'd hear the genuine Samantha Manson say that," Danny had replied rhetorically.

Sam nudged him gently in the ribs. "This is stupid," Andrew had said sourly.

"Don't say that, Andrew," Sam scolded. Andrew pouted.

Danny took something out of his pocket, concealing it from Alice's view.

"And since we believe you really deserve a special treat after so many awards, I decided to buy you this." He held out a silvery-colored cellular phone. Clearly printed on the front was Cingular Samsung. Also, a tiny charm hung from it as well. Alice was handed the cell phone and she quickly took the charm in her hand, careful not to handle it too badly, fearing her parents might think she didn't like it. It was green, black, and white. A swirl, seemingly.

"What's this?" she asked, looking at her dad.

"A charm," he said. "Alice, I need you to make sure you've got this charm with you as much as possible. It's very important."

"Why?" Alice asked.

"Don't worry about that," Danny said. "But I promise that if you are ever in trouble, that with this, I'll always be there. Promise you'll keep it with you?"

"Promise," Alice said. Sam rolled her eyes playfully. Like Father like Daughter. Wow. That sounded way different than it should have. Maybe because it shouldn't be that exactly. She sighed.

"Good," Danny said. He noticed Cynthia walking towards them, some of Alice's trophies in hand. "Here, let me hold that for you," he offered.

"Sure," Cynthia said and the awards exchanged hands. "So, where you guys heading from here?" Cynthia had a thing for treating grown-ups as if they were teenagers as well.

"How about McDonalds!" Andrew cried, seemingly excited all of a sudden.

Cynthia laughed. Alice looked at her parents.

"I guess we could go there," Danny said. "Besides, I'm starved." Alice rolled her eyes.

"As long as they have a veggie menu, I'm okay," Sam had stated.

"Cool, you wanna come with?" Alice asked Cynthia. Cynthia nodded.

"Off to McDonalds!" Andrew cried. They all shared a laugh then.

:END FLASHBACK

Alice called up the Twins, letting the phone ring twice, their signal, then hanging up. She stuffed her phone in her pocket. She walked over to her door and switched the light to make her parents think she was asleep. Walking over to her bed and grabbing the pillows, she stuffed them under her bedding to make it a little more convincing. Besides, in the dark, you couldn't tell the difference. Now to escape. She had exactly thirty minutes to make it to the school, so she was in no hurry. But she did know that ambling was a bad thing to do since anything that could go wrong just might do so.

She climbed out the window, propping her feet onto the 'foot-holds' of the pipe that went down from her room to the floor. As I've said before, it was a little dangerous to climb out the window. Especially if she's on the second floor. Imagine that fall! She was halfway down the pipe, it only taking her about three minutes, when her foot slipped.

Her hands kept hold of the ring around the pipe, keeping herself up. Her feet tried to climb back up, sliding with every haste step for control. Her foot finally caught another ring, her panting slightly, heart racing, eyes landing on the floor beneath her. That was definitely close. She sighed and continued on, climbing down until she was about four feet from the floor, jumping down. She glanced up at her open window, wishing she'd closed it, but it was too late now. She looked over her shoulder at the direction to her school. Sighing, she broke into a run through the darkness of the night. Please don't let anything go wrong.

E/N: I'm starting to like flashbacks as you can probably tell. Just so you know, I used the names of the awards from awards I've previously gotten and Cynthia Zuniga - and I hope she hasn't a clue about this sight - is actually my ex-best friend. Also, Casper Middle School is made up. If any of you know of the actual name of the middle school in Amity Park, please feel free to tell me! I'd really appreciate it. Anywho, until next time!

--Airamé Phantom