"You've reached the inbox of William Pepperjack. I either can't get to the phone or can't be bothered to. If it's Eli, there should be some microwave ravioli in the freezer. If you're Council Woman Nuñez, f**k off."
Rachel groaned. William was the only lead she had. After exhausting every dead and dying language known to google, she had almost given up. In a desperate final search she stumbled across some kid's blog with a picture of an arm-like stone and the caption 'The Creeper army is real and they've come to destroy us!"
It was obvious that The_Truth_Seeker was a conspiracy theorist who shouldn't be taken seriously, but that wasn't Rachel's concern. The post dated back to a month and a half ago. Two weeks before the mysterious rocks sprang up and the raccoons disappeared.
She'd tried to get in contact with the author, but the blog was anonymous and hadn't been active in a month. The part of Rachel that had seen too many horror films thought that maybe he had been "replaced with a giant Creeper!" as the blogger warned of their principal, but that was absurd.
So instead, she tracked down the image to a museum rock show. The rock had coincidentally gone missing, Ms. Namura had informed her, during her unannounced leave. Which meant that the only lead she had left was the man who discovered the rock arm, and he hadn't picked up his phone the last seven times she'd tried.
Grasping at straws, she stalked his Facebook page instead. A few posts lamenting his current job... A picture of his son asleep on his computer keyboard... an old photograph of William and his sister for 'Throwback Thursday'...
Wait.
Rachel scrolled back down, eyes locking on the screen. Behind the drooling preteen boy, she could see a login page. She zoomed in. Was that...?
It was.
The_Truth_Seeker's blog.
Rachel grinned, finally, finally, she had a lead. All she had to do was hop in the car and drive to Arcadia high. (The post had mentioned a 'Principal Stickler)
"And sleep." A voice added, thin arms wrapping around Rachel as a head rested on her shoulders.
Rachel reaches up to hold one of the dangling hands. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"
"Yep" Lauren nodded, popping the p. Rachel couldn't help but giggle, free hand tracing around a small box in pocket of her jacket. Her heart fluttered.
"Now come on," Lauren tugged on Rachel's arm, pulling her out of the chair. "You've already missed two days of work for this- don't think I didn't notice that- and your boss isn't going to let you miss another."
"But-" Rachel protested half-heartedly, stifling a yawn.
"It's 10:00. You need six to eight hours off sleep.
"I wake up at 7:00. That's nine-"
Lauren cut her off with a kiss.
So… remember that secret Lauren would do anything to protect?
That's Rachel.
While Rachel searches for the connection between the stone and the raccoons, and wrestles with whether or not to propose, your lovely author is on emotional overload.
I asked my crush to dance with me at Sadie's.
His idea of a 'slow dance' is a fucking ballroom dance. Dips and turns and everything. My poor heart can't handle it. The wort part? Half the school thinks we're dating and HE STILL DOESN'T GET IT.
Whatever 14 year old with wifi connection and a computer that's writing about me from the fourth dimension needs to STOP. My life is a fucking fanfiction, I swear.
