Chapter 2

Chloe's POV

Derek and I were waiting in a telephone booth for Simon and Tori to finally come out of the department store across the street. It was raining outside hard. When the two of them had gone in the weather had been fine, warm and dry. Because of this we were only wearing thin t-shirts and zip up hoodies.

"D-d-d-derek," I said for once my stuttering was caused by the fact that my teeth were chattering in the cold, "H-h-how long do- do you think-k-k they'll b-b-be in there f-f-f-for?"

"I don't know," he said scooting closer to me to help me get warm, "by this point I wouldn't be surprised if they've finally killed each other."

I laughed a little.

"Well I think we should just go in after them if they don't come out in the next five minutes."

Derek sighed and looked at me, "Chloe I don't think that's the best idea, besides they're probably arguing over my t-shirt size, but if it comes to it I will go in and find them."

"Derek-"

"No arguments."

"Fine then, but if you didn't realize going to find them without me leaves me out here all alone."

Derek looked at me for a minute as if trying to stare into my soul.

"Fine," he growled out, "but don't go anywhere I can't see you."

"Derek it would probably be more efficient if we split up and look for them."

"It would, however you're still 'missing' and with the price on your head people will be looking for you."

"Ugh fine we'll stick together-"

Suddenly there was a knock on the side of the telephone booth.

"Let us in, love birds," came a very familiar voice.

"Yeah, let me in, she can stay out here," came another voice.

I opened the door to the telephone booth and let the two of them in. It got crowded quite quickly; it actually made me happy for once that I was so small.

"What did you guys get?" I asked.

"You mean other than kicked out?" asked Tori.

"YOU GUYS GOT KICKED OUT OF THE STORE?" Derek growled quite loudly.

"No," Simon said calmly, "we left with a warning."

"That's just as bad."

"Hey at least we didn't knock down a tower of can food," replied Simon.

"Nope, but you did last time." Tori shot at him.

"You guys are going to get us caught, I think from now on we'll let dad and Chloe's aunt do the shopping." Derek said calmly.

"Well that would require finding them first." Simon said guiltily

"Why would you say that?" I asked him intrigued.

"Well, um," he began tentatively, "you see dad may or may not have sort of called the disposable, and he might or might not have said that he and your aunt could have possibly been-"

"Simon spit it out already, what happened?" Derek said impatiently.

"Well-"he began again but was cut off.

"Your dad called," Tori said almost as impatient as Derek, "and said that him and Chloe's aunt ran into some Edison Group guys and are currently on the run… with out us, he was about to tell Simon where we could meet him before the phone, that Simon conveniently forgot to charge, died. At this point he started freaking out, in other words the phone got confiscated by the manager because Simon was slapping it repetitively against a freezer door trying to get it to work the manager won't give it back until Simon's dad comes to get it, but seeing as we would have had to go to the motel to charge it, and that the motel is probably being watched there is no point in getting it back anyway."

"Great," Derek growled obviously aggravated.

"Well," I began, "what are we going to do?"

"Run," Tori said, "It's what we always do, and look we're still here. What we've done has worked, so why not do what we already know works."

"Tori, that much was obvious, but where will we go?"

"I don't know where-"

She was abruptly interrupted by a knock on the booth. We all turned to look; standing there was a shivering teenage girl wearing basketball shorts and a plain black hoodie that looked like it had seen better days.

Simon moved to open the door, but Derek stopped him by putting his hand on Simons shoulder.

Simon turned, "She's freezing out there Derek. Why can't we let her in?"

"She could be a spy for the Edison Group."

Simon and Derek kept arguing, but I looked at the girl, she looked strait at me, her eyes were an unsettling violet color, but it was quite obvious that she wasn't wearing any contacts. I couldn't see her hair because it was hidden by her hood, but from what I could see she was quite beautiful, but, and I don't know how I knew, she seemed to be sorrowful. She was around 5ft 8in, and had a modestly curvy body. Her nose was big but it didn't distort her beauty, and her eyes were framed by the thick long eyelashes that every girl wants.

While we were looking at each other she seemed to have an epiphany of some sort, her eyes widened and her lips formed a small 'o' she pulled off her back pack and sorted through it. She finally emerged with a notebook and pen. She zipped up her back pack and put it back on, she then leaned her head against the booth while at the same time she put one knee up balancing the notebook there and began to write, while at the same time keeping the notebook dry and balancing on one foot. At one point after she'd been writing for a while I actually thought she would fall but as it turned out she had finished writing.
She looked up again, and hugged the notebook to her belly with one arm, while trying to dry a large portion of the glass on the booth. Once she was satisfied she put the notebook up so I could read what it said, and what I read made me gasp.

My gasp seemed to grab Derek and Simon's attention, so they stopped arguing long enough to see what had shocked me.

Derek growled when he read it.

It was amazing how much affect four words could have on a person.

I read the note again.

Chloe? Derek? Simon? Tori?

Simon used this opportunity to open the booth door and drag the girl in.

Derek immediately rounded on the girl and growled out the question that had been plaguing my mind since I'd read the note.

"How do you know who we are?"