3

Heidi Porter was sat in AP American History. Since it was first day back, she hadn't started getting bored in her classes yet. In fact, she was quite interested in today's topic. It's a good thing that this could preoccupy her mind because over the course of the day, the news of Bradley Stafford's return had spread rapidly. She hadn't seen him yet, but she felt like she would break down if she did. Heidi knew that he would be back at some point, but she never imagined that it would be so soon. As she stared at a group of birds swooping down from the turquoise blue sky, the bell went. For a second, she just sat there looking out of the window. Afraid. Afraid that if she went out into the hall she would see him. "Heidi?" Someone called from the doorway.

"Oh hey Nick!" Heidi got up from her desk and walked over to meet him. Nick Bates, or Nicky B as Heidi liked to say to annoy him, was her best friend.

"You look baffled. Did you forget about the gym?" He didn't wait for her response. "I don't care we're going anyway!" He led the way into the corridors. Heidi picked up pace in fear of Bradley.

"How about we start warming up now Nicky B!" Heidi ran through the corridors pretending that she was only doing it for exercise.

"Hey slow down! Don't waste all your energy!" Nick cried clearly out of breath. Once they were outside, he stopped and bent over, panting. His eyes drifted upwards and froze on something. Heidi followed his gaze. Her worst nightmare has come true she thought. He was staring right at them. Bradley Stafford's bright blue eyes pierced her's like daggers. The look he gave her was menacing and Heidi was literally quaking in her boots. "Come on Heids," Nick grabbed her arm. "Let's get outta here." They began to walk away from the car park but when they turned back around, Bradley was nowhere to be seen. "You okay? You seem pretty shaken up," Nick rubbed Heidi's back.

"Yeah I'm fine. It's just everything that happened still bothers me." Heidi tried to give him a reassuring smile. She closed her eyes for a second and listened to the trees rustling in the wind. Her house was just up the road.

"Well you know I'm always here if you wanna talk right?"

"Yeah." She gave him a nod. "So I'll get ready and then meet you at your house?"

"Suits me." With that, he turned and continued down the road. When Heidi got to her house, she ran straight upstairs to get into her workout gear. Once she was done, she went down to the kitchen. Even though she knew eating unhealthy things before the gym kinda of defeated the object, she still tucked into a bag of M&Ms anyway.

"Did you run into that Bradley kid today?" Heidi's father Dom helped himself to one of Heidi's M&Ms.

"I saw him briefly, but he kept his distance. Can we not talk about it?" Heidi really wanted to keep Bradley out of sight and out of mind.

"But sometimes talking hel-"

"Dad, Please." Heidi shot Dom a dirty look then decided to go back up to her room. No matter how hard she tried to move on, someone had to pop up and remind her of that night. And then when she thought about that, she thought about a whole load of other upsetting things to. It was times like this when she really wished her old friends were all back together again because it's not like she could talk to anyone else about all this. No one else would understand what she was going through like the others would. Besides if she spoke to anyone else about it-the whole thing just was not appropriate to discuss with anyone else. Suddenly, her phone rang. When she saw that it was Nick, she answered. "Nick what's up?"

"I'm sorry Heidi, my aunt's coming into town and I have to stay home. Rain check?" Nick was apologetic.

"Yeah course!" Heidi replied.

"I know you're probably glad anyway. Talk later Heids!"

"Bye." Heidi hung up and put her phone on the bed side table.

She went over to her queen size bed and lay down on it. She thought about what Abigail would do if she were here. Heidi knew Abi would probably tease Bradley in his most vulnerable moment because she would be able to sense that everyone hated him. Then Heidi realised she was doing exactly what she didn't want to do. She had let the thoughts about Bradley lead onto memories of Abi. There were happy memories to ponder on of course, but those happy memories would eventually end up making her think about the night Abi went missing. If only she knew what really happened to her...