New Worlds Lead to Nothing but Pain.

Is it possible for a 15-year-old African-American girl to be as mature as Malani Kyler? Yes. Is it possible for Malani to be forced to raise her 10-year-old brothers? Also yes. Is it possible to walk down the hall in your school and see a picture of your parents on someone else's locker? I don't know. But that's exactly what she saw when she was walking down the hallways with her friend, Elena Mahoney. "Hey El, do you see that?" Malani gasped, elbowing her. "What is it? A teacher?" Elena asked, glancing around frantically. "No," Malani led her closer to the locker and directed a finger towards the picture. "aren't those my parents?" Elena leaned closer, pushing her black glasses further up on her nose. "Mmm... it seems so." "Well who in the world has a photo of my parents?" Malani asked herself, stroking the metal locker with her fingertips. A male voice said from behind them, "that would be me." Malani and Elena spun around to face said figure, their gaze landing on a guy barely older than them with short black hair and green eyes. "Uh, hi! We don't mean to cause any trouble. We were just admiring the picture, isn't that right, El?" Malani chuckled nervously, elbowing Elena once again. "Y-yeah! That." Suddenly, Elena felt the need to wrap her blonde hair around her fingers and giggle softly. "Oh. Well I'm Anthony Plaris. Nice to meet you, girls." Once everybody ran out of things to say, Malani dragged Elena across the hall. "El! That guy looks a lot like Kai and Jayson!" Malani exclaimed, watching Anthony from a distance. "No he doesn't. Speaking of, aren't you supposed to be leaving to go retrieve them from their school?" Elena asked, watching as Malani sped off. Since Malani was only 15, she didn't have a car. But Kai and Jayson's school wasn't too far from hers, so she ran. She continued to see frequent clues attached to her mother and father. Her dad was a construction worker, and when she came across a giant construction site, the huge metal rods spelled out, FIND HIM. She got closer and closer to the school until she eventually reached it. "KAI! JAYSON! GET OUT HERE!" Malani shouted, both of the twins rushing out in their little navy blue uniforms. "We're leaving this early? I was just about to talk to some ladies!" Kai exclaimed. "Talk to some neighbors!" Malani grabbed both of them by the straps of the backpacks and basically dragged them home. Kai and Jayson immediately ran up the stairs and into their room, slamming the door behind them. "Ugh, Malani is so bossy! I can't stand her!" Kai groaned, taking his backpack off and darting it at the wall. "She's just trying to look out for us. She is losing school time, after all." Jayson squeaked, picking up Kai's backpack and placing it neatly on his bed. "I don't care what she's lost! Everything that she lost, we lost too!" Kai cried, kicking the wall and almost fracturing his toes. "Not everything..." Jayson mumbled, climbing up the ladder and into his bed on the top bunk. "When did you even change into your pajamas?!" Kai asked. "The entire time you were talking." Jayson yawned, instantly falling asleep. "Loser..." Kai grumbled, changing into his pajamas and jumping into his bed as well. Malani was in the kitchen looking through photo albums, trying to see if any pictures matched the one on Anthony's locker. But there was something even worse. A picture from the 15th page was missing, and that may have been where he got it from. "But this album was in my room! I—" She gasped in shock, dropping it on the floor. "this means he was in our house."