Missing

This Girl Is Trouble

That morning Rebecca went next door and waited for Jay to come out. She wanted to be there for his ghoul for the day back at school since the funeral. Caleb had already taken her little sister Nicole to school already so Jay agreed to let Rebecca walk her to school that day.

"So are you going to tell what happened after the funeral," Rebecca asks, "Or why you left in the middle of the day last week?"

"Nothing big. I just needed to get out of Hogan High for a while." Jay answered.

Halfway to school though they run into Camren who was running late for the bus. Camren was dressed in her fearleading uniform practicing for tryouts later after school.

"Hey, Camren, if you don't hurry up you really will miss the bus," Jay says, "In that case do you want to walk to school with us."

"No thanks," she said, "You two go ahead."

"Alright. Let's go, Rebecca."

Once at school they stopped in front of Jay's locker. She opened it up and got out her books for class. Rebecca leans into her and kisses her. She offers to walk her to her first class of the day. Jay's first class was Home Ick.

"Will you save me whatever dish you make?" Rebecca asks.

"Watch it."

In HomeIck Jay sits with her new partner. This semester she was paired with Sophia and this year in Home Ick the students were going to sell the best dishes they cooked to the school cafeteria.

This class went by fine though, well, until the middle of class though. A text came for Jay making her phone vibrate.

"I warned you and now Rebecca won't be the only secret I tell. Remember the Lory Incident?" -L

The secrets about to be told worried Jay. This L person was starting to get on her nerves and she didn't even know who it was. What Jay wondered now was how did they know about what happened to Lory. All she knew was that she had to tell her friends what was going on and what might be happening.

"After all, last week the four of us found out that we were all getting texts from L.," Jay thought to herself.

Sophia nudged Jay's shoulder and tells her that the bell had rung.

"Is everything alright?" Sophia asks.

"Yeah, thanks. What was our homework assignment?"

Sophia tells her and Jay hurries to her next class. The second-period class was Literature and like with the class before Jay had that class with Kayla, Camren, and Maple. Before the teacher came into the classroom though, she texted her friends the news. All four of them agree. Class begins though and they stop talking.

When class was over and all four friends meet by the catacombs Jay tells them why she wanted to meet here. She started with L's latest message.

"But how could this person know about Lory?" Maple asks, "No one else knew besides Lia. Besides we had a right to do that to Lory, she was messing with Kayla again."

"Lory didn't deserve what happened to her though. She didn't deserve losing her ability to change into a bat and fly," Camren added.

"And the prank wasn't supposed to go bad. I didn't want that to happen. Now she hates us even more," Kayla says, "It's amazing though that she didn't tell who did it afterward. Do you think she could have told anyone or that Lory could be L? It totes confusing."

"I don't know all I know is that the secrets this L knows can't get out," Jay says.

"But how do we stop it?"

The bell for the third-period rings, the ghouls are late, and they hurry to their class. Their Clawculus teacher gives them all after school detention though.

Lunch finally comes around though and the hallways are packed with students trying o be the first to eat. At the cafeteria doors, Nicole blocked her older sister's way into the room. Nicole was angry and in her hand was a scrap of notebook paper with quickly scrawled handwriting on it.

"There you are! I can't believe my older sis would betray me like this!" Nicole shouted.

Camren, Maple, and Kayla back away behind Jay. Jay asks Nicole what is going on.

"Like you don't know," Nicole stuffs the note into her sister's hand, "Read it!"

Jay read the note aloud:

"Nicole, did you know your sister stole Rebecca from you? Here's a picture to prove it."

Nicole showed the picture that came with the note. Someone had taken a photo of Rebecca and Jay kissing the first of the month. "From now on stay out of my life! I don't have a sister anymore!" Nicole says before storming off.

Before Jay could go after her sister, Headmistress Bloodgood called her name and her friend's names over the intercom. She told them to come into her office. As the ghouls went straight towards the office the surrounding students stared down at all four of them. On their way there Camren tells Jay that Nicole will get over this. Kayla says that she and Rebecca make a cute couple and Maple says she has a new respect for Jay.

In Bloodgood's office, the ghouls sit down across from her desk. Along with them and Bloodgood, the only other person in the room was Detective Johnson that they had met last week. Bloodgood tells them that she'll leave them alone so that Jonson can question them in private but that she'll be right outside in case they needed her. They thanked her and Bloodgood left and shut the door behind her.

Detective Johnson paced back and forth for a few minutes before speaking. At first, he just said he hoped that they could have done this meeting in the morning. The only reason they didn't was that the headmistress convinced him it would be better if he let them attend their morning classes at first and only question them at lunch.

"Now answer me this," Johnson says, "What happened when Lia disappeared? I know you know what really happened."

"We told the cops after she went missing. One moment Lia was with us, and the next she was gone," Camren tells him first.

"If we knew anything we'd tell you," Kayla added.

Jay and Maple agree as well. Johnson doesn't buy it though.

"You all probably planned what to tell me, didn't you. And you planned what you'd say when you told the cops those months ago. Now tell me the truth."

"We are. Maybe you should check your facts you already investigated," Jay says with an attitude as she dug her nail file out of her bag to file her nails after flipping him off. "Did you think of that?"

Johnson leaned in towards Jay and tells her not to give her attitude, then he walks over to Maple next.

"Isn't it true that you Miss. de Nile, that one of our officers caught you shoplifting a few days before? You could have orchestrated Lia's demise."

The other three were surprised that Maple would steal anything.

"It was last week that I took those bangles and sunglasses and unfortunately I'm paying it off."

Johnson now goes over to Camren and Kayla. He says Camren could have a motive with all the money her family had come into, that money causes more problems than solutions. He tells Kayla that there's nothing more suspicious than an overly innocent person. Finally, since none of them would admit anything at all Johnson lets them go.

Lunch is almost over, so instead of having to eat in a hurry they avoided the cafeteria and met in the bathroom. On one of the mirrors above the sink, there's a message written in red lipstick. It said:

"You can't hide from the truth or the past. Get ready for more pain. Your nightmare begins Liars."-L

"Why is this L doing this to us?" Kayla says getting scared.

"I don't know but I know what I'm doing," Camren replies, "Let's meet at my house after school, we'll have more privacy."

The lunch hour ends and the four of them head back to class. Now they had Dead Languages but none of them could concentrate on the lesson, and Kayla had a harder time focusing on the class than her friends. She decides to get out of her diary and begins to write in it. Since she was in the back row no one could see her write in it.

September 10th.

L is starting to get to me. What if he or she tells my secrets as they did with Jay and her sister. I don't know what I'll do if they tell Caleb about what happened with that doctor. And if anyone found out about what happened to Lory we'd all be in totes trouble. It was an accident, we didn't mean for it to go wrong but no one would believe that. Everyone would take Lory's side and the cops would be all over us. I just want this all to end. Hopefully, Camren has some kind of plan.

After school, they all met at Camren's house. She suggests that they all delete and block any and all unknown users from their phone, email, everything electronic. Everyone agrees. When that was over they got a jump start on their homework and had snacks, but soon it was time for Kayla, Maple, and Jay to leave Camren's house.

As everyone settles into bed they all assume that they won't be bothered again. At Kayla's house, her phone rings, it's another text message. Kayla reads it aloud.

"It won't be that easy to get rid of me. Do as I say or Caleb finds out your secret and the cops find out about Lory."-L

Tuesday morning the next day was not much better. When Kayla gets to her locker she sees a folded note sticking out of it.

"Roses are red

Violets are blue

Steal Maple's idol

Or I'll get you"

Kayla wonders how she is going to get the idol but it doesn't take long for her mind to wander back to that day with the doctor.