Chapter 1

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"Elle! Hurry up! You have school!" I heard my mom call from downstairs. I lace up my black Converse and grab my bag.

"Coming!" I yell as I walk downstairs and see my mom standing in the kitchen. You look at her and she would instantly be the most beautiful woman you've ever seen; Donna Blake is her name. Her dark wavy brown hair, her caramel brown eyes. No surprise that my dad easily fell for her when they were kids.

"Oh darling, you look beautiful!" My mom says, pulling me into a tight hug. "Mom!" I laugh as I pull out of her hug.

"I need to get to school. Can you drive me?" I ask her, grabbing a piece of toast off of the counter and taking a bite out of it.

"Of course, the cars already started. Let's go." She responds. I grab my house key off of the counter, and head outside. I opened the door of my mom's car and climb into the front seat, slamming the door behind me. She does the same and begins backing out of the driveway. I turn the radio up and look out of the window, seeing the sight of the rising sun.

"You have your schedule, right?" My mom asks, looking at me through the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, it's on my phone." I respond, showing her the picture of my schedule. She nods and looks back at the road. We arrive at the school after around ten minutes. "We're here!" She says, looking at me with a smile.

"Oh, bye, love you mom." I said, getting out of the car and shutting the door behind me. I see her car drive off as I walk into the big doors in the front of the school. I look at my surroundings and see that the school is smaller than my old one, which I expected. The bell rings, and I look at the schedule on my phone, which says that I have Science first. I walk to my class, and talk to the woman, presumedly the teacher, who is standing outside the door.

"Hello, you're...Mrs. Jacobs, right?" I ask her, looking at my phone, then back up. She nods and smiles at me. "You must be Noelle Blake!" She exclaimed, leading me into the classroom. I look around, and see a classroom full of people, not paying attention.

"Pick any open seat!" She smiles. I see an empty seat, so I walk over and sit down, thankfully it's an empty table too. I hang my bag on the back of my chair and look up at the board. "As you all can see, we have a new student, she's sitting in her seat already, but please be kind and welcoming to Noelle!" The teacher says.

"Okay, on with the lesson. Today, we will be starting a research project on any topic we've learned this year! So, anything you can think of, you can do! Also, you can pick your partners. You will be working with this person for the next few weeks." Mrs. Jacobs exclaims as everyone gets out of their seats to pick their partners. Having no friends isn't very helpful in this situation.

"Hey, uh... Noelle? want to be partners?" I hear a male voice say, so I look up and see a tall, Mexican boy looking down at me.

"Oh! Sure, thanks, I literally don't know anyone here." I sigh as he sits down next to me and sets his stuff down. The lesson goes on, and we decide on the topic of Chemical Reactions. The bell rings, and everyone gets up. I grab my stuff and look at the boy who sat next to me.

"Hey, uh, I didn't get your name?" I stated, seeing the boy look back at me. "Oh, my names Miguel, Miguel Arellano." He responded, walking out of the classroom.

Miguel. I have to remember that.

I walk out of the classroom and look at my phone, and because I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, I bumped into someone.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" I say, looking at the girl in front of me. "It's completely fine! I'm Aneira Yamada, what's your name?" She asks, examining me.

"I'm Noelle Blake, but people usually call me Elle." I respond, putting my phone in my pocket. "Well... want to sit with me and some of my friends at lunch?" She offers with a smile.

"Sure! That would be amazing, I have Math right before lunch, so maybe you could meet me at Mr. Johns' classroom?" I respond, taking her offer.

"I also have Math before lunch! Same teacher, see you then, Elle!" Aneira says with a smile, before walking away. I smile to myself, then the bell rings, and I have to go to Social Studies, so I begin walking towards my class.


11:36 pm, math class.

The bell rings, and I walk over to Aneira's desk. "Hey! You ready?" She asks, standing out of her chair. "Yeah, let me put my stuff in my locker first." I responded, walking out of the classroom alongside her.

We got to my locker, which wasn't far from my classroom.

"So, I know it's your first day, but... got your eye on any guys yet?" She asked, giggling. "Oh, uhm not really... I mean, there is this one guy, he's kind of cute, his names Miguel." I respond but see her face full of shock. "Miguel Arellano?  He usually sits with us at lunch!" She says as I slam my locker shut.

"Thats nice but let's get to lunch." I said as we begin walking towards the lunchroom. "So, the people we sit with at lunch are Caleb Stagg, Hayden Showalter, Levi Hopper, and Miguel Arellano. We are all friends because are dads went missing together, and the only person who moved out of this town was my dad's best friend, Finney." She rambled, walking towards a lunch table.

I nodded as we sat down at a table with four other people. The first one was a boy with copper colored hair and deep green eyes, sitting next to him was a girl with layered dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, then it was a boy with curly light blonde hair and Icey blue eyes, and sitting across from him was Miguel.

"Hey guys, this is Noelle... uh what's your last name?" Aneira said, looking at me. "My name is Noelle Blake." I said, looking back at her.

"Blake? I recognize that from somewhere... Eh, it's nothing." Aneira smiled. The blonde-haired girl cleared her throat and smiled at me. "I'm Hayden Showalter!" She exclaimed. "I'm Caleb Stagg." The copper haired boy followed. Everyone introduced themselves to me.

"So, where did you move from?" Hayden questioned, fidgeting with a plastic fork. "I moved from Sacramento, California, but my dad grew up here." I responded.

"All of our parents grew up here, they went missing in 1978, all at the same time. Thats why were all friends." Levi said, looking up from his phone. "Weird, I think my dad went missing when he was a kid too. Weird coincidence." I said, looking back at Levi.

"Hey, Miguel, you aren't really talking as much as you usually do, what happened to your blabber mouth?" Caleb said, kicking Miguel underneath the table. "I just can't think of anything to say." He responded, kicking Caleb back.

"Maybe try and get to know the new girl a little better?" Aneira suggested, to which Miguel rolled his eyes and sighed. We all talked for the rest of lunch, then the bell rang, signaling it was time for the next class, so, we all got up and walked to our classes. 

As I was walking, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around to see Miguel.

"Hey, can we do some work on our research project after school? At your house preferably." Miguel suggested.

"Sure! Meet me at the parking lot after school!" I responded and walked to my next class.


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