Hidden Allies

Chapter Four

  Emma decided to do something stupid the next morning. She had it in her mind that the best way to find her friend was to find the man in the picture.

Pixel-face she nicknamed him.

He was the key to everything.

  She also wanted to visit her mom, or rather I.E.D. Ariel worked there, so maybe there was a connection between the company and her disappearance. She was sure to find a clue there.

  Emma showered and dressed quickly. She pulled on a fitting pair of jeans and a plain pink top which she covered up with a matching denim jacket. Her hair was the last thing to fix.
 
  Emma's hair was blonde, straight at the roots, but curly at the end and reached just past her shoulders, and it was an enemy she had to battle on a daily basis.

  Not wanting the stress, Emma first pulled the whole mess into a pony tail. But checking her reflection, she found that she fancied it let out. At least for today.

  She got her bag and made sure to take the call card the FBI agent had given her. She'd give a them call when she got any information. She didn't take her books. Emma didn't plan to go to any of her classes today.

  Don't get it wrong, Emma was by no means a delinquent. It wasn't a habit of hers to skip school, but there were times when her absence was needed to help clear her head. She was ahead in her studies so Emma wasn't afraid of falling behind.

  Having everything she needed for the day, Emma opened the door to leave and bumped into a girl standing in the doorway. The two of them jumped back with startled surprise.

"Oh Emma! You scared me!" The girl said. It was Sarah, one of the sorority girls that she and Ari knew and sometimes hung out with.

  I think you meant that the other way around, Emma thought as she forced her heart to stop pounding.

"Hey, Sarah. What're you doing here?" Emma asked, her voice running with extra politeness.

  Sarah was not someone Emma would call her friend. In fact, she only tolerated the other girls' presence because of Ariel. And that was only when Ariel was around.

  Sarah was the typical blonde Barbie doll, plastic attitude and all included. Ariel had somehow managed to befriended her and remain in her good graces.

  Emma had smiled and acted accordingly, trying to maintain her nice-girl attitude, but she was more than aware of Sarah's reputation for destroying anyone who annoyed her.

"Weeell..." Another voice drawled out and a head popped from beyond the doorframe. It was Lucas, Sarah's cliché footballer boyfriend. "Sarah wanted to get a first reporter scoop on what's going on."

  Lucas was  considerably more pleasant to deal with as a person, when he wasn't hanging onto Sarah's arm like a leashed puppy that is. And he was good to look at too, obviously.
Barbie need her Ken.

  Sarah held up a finger, silencing Lucas. She wanted to do the talking.
"Is it true that Ariel got busted for smuggling weed on campus?"

"What?" Emma jerked back. She had expected there to be rumours and talk about what hat happened yesterday. Her whole class and half the campus had seen her being escorted by a parade of cops after all, but what she was hearing from Sarah now was just craziness.

"That's absurd! Ari never got busted out anything." Emma said hotly in defence of her friend. "She wouldn't involve herself in anything like that."

"Told you that wasn't the story." Lucas said smugly and grinned. "You owe me a soda."

Sarah raised the finger again."Then where is she?" She asked Emma.