Me: Hey everyone, thanks for reading! Thanks to Denow, Firefrostflare, and Princess Jewel101 for supporting and reviewing. For those of you who did review and are looking at these words right now, scroll to the bottom and please please review!

Solace: You can't expect everyone to do that.

Me: I realize, but it would be nice to have more than 5 reviews.

Brooke: 5 is a pretty number.

Dean: 7's better.

D'Anna: My fav number is Pi.

Dean: Excuse me? Pie is not a number.

D'Anna: No, Pi. As in P-I? As in

3.1415926535897932384626433832 795028841971693993751

0582097494459230781640628620 8998628034825342117067

9821480865132823066470938446 0955058223172535940812

8481117450284102701938521105 5596446229489549303819

6442881097566593344612847564 8233786783165271201909

1456485669234603486104543266 4821339360726024914127

3724587006606315588174881520 9209628292540917153643

6789259036001133053054882046 6521384146951941511609

4330572703657595919530921861 1738193261179310511854

8074462379962749567351885752 7248912279381830119491 And that's only the first 500 numbers. Pi goes on forever.

Dean: *sweatdrops* Does anyone get that? And more importantly, was anyone listening to that?

Brooke: No...and no.

Solace: Her genius brain is beyond me.

Dean: Pie should be able to do that.

Solace: What?

Dean: Go on forever and ever. Endless Pie Supply!

Brooke: You are absolutely right.

Me: Read on as we go for a pie break.

D'Anna: *sigh* Enjoy...

Chapter 4: Lying

I woke up drowning in my sheets, the thin material tangled around my legs.

I cried out as I fell onto the floor, a sharp pain running through my spine.

As night slowly crawled into morning, I sat on the floor glaring at my ceiling.

My hand fingered the letter I had stolen from the study, and I wrinkled it with my forefingers. I traced the bumpy thick material, squeezing it as if I could extract the information just by force, but it refused to crease.

The simple horizontal fold through the middle was all that remained as I tucked it into my vest when I finally got up.

I had ran through the letter over and over, trying desperately to decipher some of the words.

I now knew it had something to do with Kalyn, and something to do with the Black Swan. My only question was: why would my parents have it?

At school, I used my lunchtime to look in the library for anything that could tell me more what this was about. Part of me was pleading me to stop investigating, to push Kalyn and the Black Swan out of the way. But part of me had a strong feeling that this was important, and I needed to look into it. After all, it was affecting my family in a way I didn't know possible.

I had to help, somehow. I just knew.

"Since when were you all secretive?" Solace asked as she caught up to me on the way to my next class.

"What do you mean?" I asked plainly.

I knew what she meant. I had been avoiding my friends all week.

"You haven't talked to us all week!" She lamented "Just when are you going to tell us what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," I lied

"You can't say nothing's wrong when you are still investigating," she replied, handing me my letter.

Panicked, I checked my vest pocket, not surprised to see it empty. I snatched the letter from her and shoved it into my overcoat.

"So what is going on? Don't you dare play the I don't remember card on me, because it won't work. You've been investigating, and you found something. Speak."

I breathed sharply. I hated it when she did this.

"I have class, Solace, I can-"

"I DON'T CARE!" She cried, causing a few heads to turn. "Library. Now."

I was taken hostage, dragged by my ear to the library. The walls of books didn't comfort me, as I was plopped onto a chair and glared at.

"Speak!" Solace said annunciating the word harshly as if training a dog.

Wounded by her command, I opened my mouth, searching for words. But the vast sea of memories in my brain were frozen and I didn't speak.

"Let's try this again," Solace sighed "Brooke, what does the letter say?"

"I don't know," I replied simply.

And I wasn't lying;I didn't.

"Where did you get it?"

"From my fathers study."

"Why?"

This was the difficult part. I had to tell her the truth:she would know if I didn't, but I had to protect it too. I had to leave as much as possible out and it had to still be believable.

"Well, the boy said that he was being chased an organization called the Black Swan. The letter fell on the floor when I was in my dads study. And on the back of the letter, was a black swan. So I thought they might be related."

"Anything else?"

"Honestly that's it. I don't have any clues."

"Did you figure out what he wanted?"

I froze. I couldn't tell her what he wanted, because it was illegal. But I couldn't lie to my friend. I but my lip as dread washed through me.

"No." I didn't feel the word escape my mouth.

Solace let out a deep sigh.

"Tell me why you said you forgot."

"I wanted to forget so I took a temporary potion," the excuse came surprisingly fast "I didn't want to be involved so I took it. When it wore off, I remembered and saw the letter."

I felt like I had committed a crime and was facing the jury. Judge Solace Printz cocked her head and frowned. Then she spoke two words:

"You're lying."

I raised an eyebrow instinctively.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then let me ask you something. You said you wanted to forget. But you saw the letter when you remembered. Why would you take it if you wanted to forget?"

I forced a shrug "I changed my mind."

Solace stared at me with cold teal eyes for an excruciating long time.

"Fine," she said, and her next words cut like knifes "I trust you, you're my best friend. You would never lie to me, and if you did, you would admit it. What kind a friend is a person who lies? Right?"

She stared at me and awaited my answer. I knew my response was crucial.

"Right," I said playing with a smirk.

Just then the intercom voiced: "Brooke Matthews and Solace Printz, please return to class."

"Better go," I sighed and we walked silently to our classes.

I didn't turn back as I entered my room, and she didn't say goodbye.

"Detention?" Dean wailed "A week of detention?"

I stirred my food and looked down. Guilt swirled through my stomach and twisted me up. I had lied and then lied about lying. Solace was right. What kind of friend was I?

Solace just nodded. "A week."

"It's not that bad," D'Anna transmitted to us "A week will go by faster than you know it."

"Easy for you to say," Dean complained "What am I going to do ALL WEEK?! I'll have nobody to hang out with!"

"I am hardly classified as nobody," D'Anna glared.

"But you'd probably just make me study all week."

"True," D'Anna made no move to object to his insult. She turned to me with a smile "We still on for tonight? Meta physics, my favorite."

I gave a quick nod and excused myself. Sadly, not before hearing Solace whisper "There is something wrong with that girl."

Life was torturous, I decided as I lay on the couch. I didn't want to face my friends at school, and I didn't want to go home and ask my parents. Kalyn was bothering me to no end and I still wasn't any closer to finding out anything. Unless I magically was granted a Ancient tutor to teach me cipher runes, I guess this was a dead end.

Night wasn't much better. Usually sleep was rejuvenating and peaceful, but tonight was just another worry.

"Where is it?" I heard my father cry

"Where did you leave it?" My mothers whisper said

"Right here, folded on this pile."

I gulped, realizing they were talking about the letter, currently laced between my fingers.

"I have to find it."

"I know."

"I miss him so much."

My heart stopped; him?

"He'll smart, he'll turn around and go back home."

"I still don't know how I could have miss placed it!"

"We'll find it."

I heard them climb the stairs and walk into the bedroom. I didn't sleep at all, guilt almost overcoming me and eating me up. What was I getting into?

"I found this," I said causally the next day, slowly handing my dad the letter.

My father paled, his reading glasses sliding off his nose and clattering onto the desk. He stared at me in shock, words forming in his mouth that he never said. Then his voice came seriously.

"Where did you get that?" He hissed, pulling the letter from my firm grip.

"I found it on the floor." I said

"You're lying," he said firmly, seeing through me "You found this in my study! Do you know how long I've been looking for this?"

"I wanted to try and decipher it," I said finally then added "I thought it might be a cool puzzle."

"It's not a puzzle," he sighed tucking it away.

"What does it say?"

His eyes darkened.

"I can't tell you."

I grumbled in exasperation "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Everyone?"

"I-" Lost for words, I ran out of the study and into my room.

My room had become kind of a sanctuary these days, because I spent a lot of time thinking. Now I was almost positive Kalyn and the letter fit somehow. They both looked like they knew what the letter said and meant when I showed it to them.

Staring at the ceiling, which had also become one of my favorite things to do, I summed up today's events.

Not only had I upset my dad, lied to my friends, and stole, I had also lost my only clue to this mystery. Looking at my investigation from a glance, it looked like I wasn't finishing this puzzle any time soon.

Me: Hey, so I hope that you liked my chapter. I know it's shorter, than my others, but I'm trying to get the chapters to you guys as fast as I can.

Solace: Again, not in it enough, but the kidnapping part was a nice touch.

Me: Im going to take that as a compliment.

Brooke: I know this is really off topic, but is there a symbol that sums up that big number D'Anna was talking about? Cuz, honestly, who would want to write down all that?

Me: Yeah, its this pretty do-dad: π

Brooke: Thats a pretty symbol?

Solace: I like the one with the circle divided into three black parts better.

D'Anna: Um, that stands for a nuclear bomb.

Dean: A bomb?!

Solace: See, I knew I liked it better.

Me: *facepalms*