Golden Pieces

one

- Chapter One- Missing in Action. -

Cameron Flores. CEF. Cam F. Cameron F. Cam Flores.

If anyone took one look over at Cameron Robinson's notebook, she might have dropped dead on the spot. Nobody, however, would ever be brave enough to even sit near her, so she was pretty secure in her privacy.

Sighing, she looked up from the doodles that were her escape from Anatomy class, her eyes resting on the back of the very boy she had been daydreaming about. His blonde hair consumed her every waking thought. Cameron attempted to convince herself that the only reason he wasn't looking back at her was because he was too engrossed in his class, but she knew better. No, Teddy Flores was too busy passing notes with his girlfriend to pay attention to anything else in the room, even the droning of their teacher's lecture.

Sick of the happy couple, Cameron stood up to leave, hoping to avoid the signature squeal of the chairs. Her worrying was to no avail, the sound brought everyone's eyes to her immediately. One would hope, she silently thought, that private schools would be able to afford better chairing systems. Of course, her teacher decided it was a fantastic idea to point out he obvious, "Going somewhere Cameron? There's still 10 minutes left in class."

Cam could have sworn she heard a pin drop at that moment, her classmates holding their breath to wait for her response. She just smiled, baring all her teeth to her least favorite teacher. Anyone who has a passion for science was promptly filed under the Do Not Like folder in her brain, not that there were many people in the Likefolder in the first place.

Grabbing her backpack, she left without a single word in reply to the teacher and heard him carry on the lecture without too much haste. There weren't any more classes left in the day, so Cameron just started walking out to her car. On the way she ran into some nerd that she recognized as the front-row-sitter from Anatomy. Cameron spit out at him; "You should watch where you're going, suck-up. I'm not in the mood to deal with your type today." Normally, she would incorporate some sort of physicality in there, but all she wanted to do was get home. The only response she got from the nerd was a murmur of apologies, which were lost on Cameron as she walked out the giant glass double doors leading outside.

She usually left before everyone else, and in the morning pulled in after everyone else. There wasn't a point in sticking around to chit-chat when she had no one to talk to. It was also due to her car, or lack thereof, that she was so timid around her classmates. No matter what they thought, Cameron did not enjoy being the center of attention, and her bright purple motorcycle was sure to place her right there. Getting lost in her mind on the way home, she began to wonder about her peers. Nobody would ever say something to her about it, as they were far too terrified of her to even say hello, much less give her sass about something like the way she got to school.

But that was just how she liked it. Generally, the terms at school were: don't bother Cameron and she won't bother you. It was nice, but there were times, like now, when she sometimes wished that she had a friend to talk to about stupid stuff. Topics such as the boy that she liked, or the clothes she wished she had, or anything else going on in her life. She knew that these were indulgences that she would never have. And she was okay with that. Seclusion was good for her, and if she actually talked to people, she would lose her reputation as a Badass, or however much of a badass she could be at her private, catholic school.

Finally, home and shaking off any worries she had acquired on the way there, she walked inside her house and set her stuff down on the kitchen table. There would be nobody home at the moment, her parents were at work and Maddox would be on the bus home from school. She could do her homework in peace. Reaching in her backpack, she figured why not get the bane of her existence out of the way first, so she pulled out her Anatomy notebook.

Only there was one tiny problem.

It appeared to be Missing in Action.

Cameron had no idea what to do. If anyone found that notebook she would be absolutely ruined. Her whole reputation that she worked so hard for, bullied people for, would be torn away from her. Not only would she not be able to complete the homework for the night, but if someone found it and looked through, then her gargantuan, 6-year long crush on Teddy Flores would be made public.

"Why!", she loudly complained, not worrying about the empty house hearing her, "Why am I so dumb that I just had to write that stupid name all over." Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, and she swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. If the people at school had seen her, they wouldn't have believed what they were seeing. Cameron doesn't have emotion, she doesn't cry. But these weren't sad tears. She was very scared, and very frustrated.

The bells on the front door chimed, alerting Cam that her little brother was home from school. Wiping her eyes with her uniform fleece, she walked over to see Maddox, and he made all of her woes fade to the background. "Hey stinker," she greeted him, "how was your day at school? Anything exciting happen? Any new girlfriends I should know about?"

"Caaaaam, you know I hate when you do that!", he flattened out the crazy hair she had made even crazier by ruffling it during their hug. "School was so boring, I'm pretty sure my math teacher doesn't even know how to do long division herself, so why..."

Cameron laughed at him, and listened to him ramble about his day, and tried to take her mind off of the notebook being held ransom in some stranger's house. She set to work making him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and then propped her head on her hands, with the cold granite counter top digging in to her elbows. She could listen to her brother talk all day, he was her only friend, her trusted confidant, her partner in crime. Even though he was only in fourth grade, she was pretty sure he was smarter than all the dumbasses at her school, and she liked to tell him that too, constantly pointing out that he was 'wise beyond his years'.

It hurt Cameron's heart, though, to have to be the only person beyond school friends that Maddox could talk to. She guessed that there wasn't much to be done about it though, because her parents had shirked their responsibility as his caretakers ever since the incident last year. All the responsibility fell on to Cameron, and she was constantly learning how to juggle it. Maddox knew that he was the only one Cam showed emotion to, and he absolutely loved it, and took advantage of it every day.

"... and then, when I told on her to the teacher, she stepped on my foot and cried! I can't believe that she could be that mean to me!", he finished his story, along with his sandwich.

Cameron, taking amusement in the whole ordeal, still couldn't shake her fear over the notebook, and decided she was just going to avoid all responsibility by sleeping. "Maddy, I'm super tired from school today, so I'm going to head to bed. Tell mom and dad that I'm asleep, and not to worry about dinner", she said. She also couldn't deny that sleeping was a good way to avoid her parents.

She threw off her uniform skirt, blouse, and fleece, and jumped under the covers, trying to forget her worries and just sleep.

The next morning, after she made sure Maddox got onto the bus okay, Cameron walked into school and braced herself for anybody making fun of her for what she wrote in the notebook. After nobody said anything, and parted for her to walk by as usual, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was in the clear. She turned to her locker to exchange books for the day's classes, and was moderately horrified to find the nerd from yesterday's Anatomy class waiting for her in front of the locker.

To Cameron's absolute terror, he held up a red notebook with Anatomy scribbled on the front; "Looking for something?", he asked smugly. She could rightly say that she almost dropped dead then and there.