"Attention faculty and students, one of our dear classmates, Anthony Luca has gone missing.
If you ever see Anthony, or even just hear about his location. Please report to Deputy Brady
or Me, so that we help his family bring him home", Mr. Bobo said.


"Was that announcement specified enough?" asked Mr. Bobo.
"Yes, I'm going to need all the help I can get. Thank you", said Nicole.


"Now if you need anything else, ple-", Mr. Bobo said, as he was caught
off by the ruckus outside his office door.
"You cannot go in there right now!" yelled Ms. Roman.
"Mr. Bobo! What happened to Anthony?" Dylan said barging in.


"Well, who is this?" Nicole said flabbergasted by all the noise.
"Oh, Nicole this is Anthony's best friend Dylan. Dylan, this Anthony's aunt, Nicole", Mr. Bobo said as he introduced them.
"Why is Anthony missing?!" Dylan asked ignoring the introduction.


"It's my fault that he ran away from home. I should've cared more about his feelings", Nicole said bowing her head.
"Why?" Dylan asked.
"It happened two days after his mother's death. We were all going
over the will with the lawyer..." Nicole said.

_________________________________________________________________


"Dear Anthony and Lucas,

I am sorry that I won't be there to see you two become men.
I was hoping to see the day that you two are surrounded by a wonderful family.
I know that times will get tough without me and your father around,
always remember that you have each other. You are not alone after all.
And I'm sure your father would say the same thing, which is why I've decided
to make Nicole your guardian.
Nicole, I know that you think I'm crazy for choosing you. But I know you'll
do an excellent job at raising our children. And you are the only person that I can trust.
Please take care of them.

Love,
Tessa."


"As you already know, Tessa has left Anthony and Lucas to Nicole", said Mrs. Cheng
as she had finished reading the will.
"Me?!" Tessa said confused.
"Yes, is that a problem?" asked Mrs. Cheng.


"If you don't think you can handle the children, we can take care of them", said Emily.
"Really? You'd do that?" asked Tessa interested.


"If you don't believe you can handle the task Ms. Luca,
we can let the children live with their other relatives, the Hawkens", said Mrs. Cheng,
"Adopting a baby and a teen isn't going to be easy on someone as young as yourself and with no experience".
"Whoa, what?" asked Anthony.
"You're right, that is something I should consider", said Nicole.


Somehow those two people were apart of the family.
Emma and Jonathan Hawken, who have a son named Caleb.
Why hasn't anyone heard of them until now?
And why did they decide to show their faces now of all times?
Not to mention the fact that Tessa never mentioned to anyone she had a sister.


"Hold the phone, we are not going to live with the Hawkens", Anthony said emphasizing their name,
"We don't even who they are and we've never met them until now.
Not to mention they aren't even in the will".
"Anthony, it's only something to think about. I don't really have time to
take care of you two, with the type of job that I have. And my apartment is too small", said Nicole.
"Stop making up excuses and just tell me to my face that you don't want us!"


"Anthony, it's not that I don't want you. It's just not a good time in my life to take you boys in",
Nicole said trying to calm him down.
"Don't you think that my mom left us in your hands for a reason?" asked Anthony.
"Anthony...I can't", Nicole said hesitant.
"I'm not going to sit here and listen to your bs",Anthony said getting out of his seat.


"Anthony! Where are you going?" Nicole yelled as Anthony continued to run out of the kitchen.


"He hasn't came by since", Nicole said walking toward the exit,
"I just hope he comes home soon because Lucas is getting worried".
"I'll help you look for him", Dylan said following her.

__________________________________________________________


Dylan pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and began to dial a number.
"Please pick up", he thought to himself hearing his phone ring.

__________________________________________________________
Kyle


I could feel my soda begin to slip out of my hands as I stood still staring at the wall.
What the hell is wrong with this dude? He has pictures of Mimi framed on his bedroom.
Pictures that date back to when we were in middle school together.
He had images of her that I had never seen before; in a towel, at the beach, dancing in her leotard.
Judging from the camera that was on his desk, he must've hunted her down to get these photos.
Was he stalking her?


As I kept drifting off looking at the wall, my cell began to ring.
Who could be calling me at a time like this?
I put the soda on the desk to look at the caller ID, Dylan.


"Hello"
"Kyle!" Dylan yelled as I took my phone away from ear for a second.
"Um ow, why the hell are you loud?" I asked.


"Anthony's missing", said Dylan.
"What? Since when?" I asked worried.
"Since three days ago", Dylan said informing me, "It's bad Kyle, his mom...passed away".


"Oh my god", I said suddenly feeling overcome with guilt.
Why am I just finding out about this?
"Oh my god is right. We're all going to meet at my garage. Get your ass there so we can chat".


Before Dylan could even say goodbye, I hang up and began running toward the door.
Anthony, I know what he's doing. He's trying to cope with the pain all
by himself like he did when his dad died.
But now this happened? There's no telling where he might have
gone off to at this rate.


I pulled up to Dylan's driveway to find everyone's car parked in his driveway.
Dylan wasn't kidding when he said everyone would be here, I literally had squeeze my car in on the side of the street.
________________________________________________________


Moments later, I was in the garage talking to Dylan as everyone was sitting down on the couches.
"Should we check the skate park?" asked Dylan.
"Are you serious? I don't think this is the time for Anthony to be doing olley's", I said agitated.
"Calm down Kyle, he was only asking", Flint said as if he sensed hostility.
"Yeah, we're just as worried as you are dude", Dylan said.


"Shouldn't we start by looking for him?" Asia asked very quiet.
"Yeah, I mean last time he did this, we found him at Rob's place", Flint said.


"But he's not going to wait and be found in the same spot once again", Jenny said.
"Jenny's right, we need to try other places", Mimi said agreeing with her.
I could tell just by looking at Mimi's face that she was worried about him,
but from the looks of it she didn't really want to show it too much.


After all our idle chatter, we decided to split up to make our search easier.
Dylan would ride with Jenny, and Asia would ride with Flint.
Leaving Mimi to ride with me. How awkward.


Hopefully we find Anthony fast, so that I don't have to be near Mimi
any longer than she doesn't want to be near me.
These past few weeks has only made things more complicated between us.
I don't know who's suppose to be angry with who in this situation.

_________________________________________________________________



He walked into his bedroom only paying attention to the Physics book he held in his hands.
"This Physics test tomorrow should be easy", he thought to himself.


He looked up only to find something that was out of order in his room.
A can of Mountain Dew soda.
"Was Taylor in here?" Riley thought, "No way".
No one in this house dared to step foot in this geek's room but the maid herself.


"Taylor!" He yelled loud enough for the neighbors to hear.


"What do you want dweeb?" Taylor asked Riley who looked annoyed.
"What were you doing in my room?" Riley assumed.
"Why would I ever go inside your room, ew?"
"Then who the hell did? Riley asked.


"What do you mean who the hell did? Did you forget that we have a maid?"
Taylor said digging through her clothing rack.
"Does Juliana drink Mountain Dew on her break?" Riley asked.
"No, only tea", Taylor replied.
"Okay then", Riley said beginning to walk away.

"If it wasn't them, then who was in my room?" Riley thought to himself.

__________________________________________________________