Not Named (yet)

Chapter 1

"WHERE'S THE BLOODY NOTE?" Alex questions me while looking through the boxes of Andri's old stuff. "It should be in here! How are we gonna find the goddy reason Andrianna disappeared if we don't have her letter?"

I finally look up to see Alex standing with her hands on her hips giving me a stern stare. "Well, we could start by thinkin' about places Andri hid her stuff, I guess," I mumble, I still haven't fully comprehended that Andri just vanished. Alex realizes my discomfort and tries to say something, but justs keep opening and closing her mouth as if she were a fish out of water.

"Um... Well... You wanna try again tomorrow?" Alex asks me gently while putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Sure, I guess," I reply after a short silence. I grab my bag and head for the door behind Alex. But then something catches my eye. A piece of paper hanging from the doorway.

"Alex, wait a minute," I say while staring at the piece of paper protruding from the doorway.

"What's wrong?" Alex asks me while walking back to the door.

"That," I say as I point to the piece of paper lodged inside of the door. Alex slowly notices the paper; her eyes growing larger and larger as she realizes what it is. She quickly but carefully pulls out the piece of paper. It's a page from Andri's diary; blue with a black and white rainbow going from one corner to the other. Alex holds the paper as if it might explode at any second and reads it to me.

Jan. 17, 2021

This letter is for Alexandria and Aubree only.

Meet Me Under The River.

XXX Andrianna

"What does that mean?" Alex asks while rereading the short letter. Why would she write this three days before she disappeared? Why would she write something so vague?

"Bree? Bree!" Alex is saying my name as I was staring off into space, lost in my thoughts. Then it hits me. Andri loved puzzles, so this must be one. She was a stickler for grammar also, so she would never capitalize all the words in a sentence.

"Alex. I think I know what it is. See how all the letters are capitalized?" I point to the capitalized letters, "Well, it might be a secret code so if anyone saw it, they wouldn't know what it is. If you put the first letter of each word in a line, Then you would get 'M.M.U.T.R'. But what does that stand for?"

Alex listens to me carefully and sits down on the couch in Andri's living room. She puts her hands on her head in deep concentration.

"M, M, U, T, and R right? It might give away a secret place, or be a code to something like you said, or it could be anything. Geez, why did Andri have to be so smart, Bree?" While Alex is saying this, I'm lost, staring into space again. My mind going back to when I first met Alex and Andri.

It was 4 years ago, when I was 14 and had just moved to El Paso, Texas, and I was sitting on my front porch petting Opal, my bright white Lhasa Apso. The movers were bringing everything in; the furniture, the TVs, and even my pet mini pig, Peridot, who was riding on the couch while trying to get to my birds, Lapis and Silver, who were being carried in their cage by my dad. Everything was fine except for the fact that my only best friends in the world were either hundreds of miles away from me, or they were animals who couldn't talk to me. Don't get me wrong, my animals are still my best friends, but animals can't do things like humans. They can't best you out on a video game or show you your answers for the previous night's homework if you forgot it, or help you study for a quiz last minute. Humans and animals both have their own special touch. It was at that time I needed a special touch from someone who could help me around, show me new places, and be my friend.

Alex was an exchange student from England and came to Texas a year before me. Andri was the first friend she made and the only person that would talk to her. She's drawn to people like Alex. Alex is the complete opposite if me. She's loud, extroverted, confident, and so much more. Meanwhile, I'm shy, introverted, and doubtful. I'm honestly surprised they walked up to me and said hi at all. I'm guessing Andri thought that I was running a mini zoo because of all the animals going in the house. She's always loved animals. One thing led to another and I was being walked to SweetFrog by two girls I didn't even know the name of. One with bouncing blue curls, the other with a green pixie cut. My mom just wanted me to make friends, so she let me go. In one moment, I had just met the people that would be there by my side forever. I was right about Alex, but not Andri. Andri left our side. We don't know why, but Alex and I are trying to find out. Andri was the happiest person in the world. Why would she leave? Why would she leave us?