Tornado

Part 7

Ten minutes on the road, Cara's cellphone began to vibrate. She answered quickly, too distracted to look at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Cara?"

"Mom!" Cara's heartbeat quickened.

"Cara, where are you? Where's your sister? And why is my car gone?"

"Um..." Cara came to an intersection filled with slow-moving cars. She slowed down to 10km/h. She felt frustrated and distracted. "What are you doing up?"

"Cara, answer my question. Where are you?"

"Um..." Cara didn't want to get Kailee in trouble. But then something popped into her head. What if Kailee wasn't at the party? To be safe, Cara realized she had to tell her mother what was going on. "I'm going to get Kailee."

"Get Kailee? Where? She should be in her room."

Cara sighed. "Yeah, but she wasn't. I found her bedroom window open. I think she might've went to that party."

It was Ms. Jenson's turn to sigh. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were sleeping."

"Barely! And you could've woken me up!"

"I know... Listen. I'm on it Mom, okay? I wanna do this the right way and I'll bring Kailee home."

"Okay... Just stay on the phone with me."

"No, Mom, I need to focus on the road, okay? I'll have my phone nearby if you need to call. This won't take me long."

Ms. Jenson sighed again. "Okay. Please be careful Cara."

"I will. I'll talk to you later. I love you."

"I love you too." They hung up.

Cara made it to the Center's house ten minutes later. What took her twenty minutes that night, could've taken her ten minutes or less to get to that house on a gracefully flowing road. The Center's home was the only house on the street blaring with music and surrounded by badly parked vehicles. After Cara found a space to park her mother's car, she headed towards the trembling house filled with Halloween decorations. She moved past a group of smokers on the front porch - who nodded at her politely - and went into the house, not surprised to find the door unlocked. What startled her, was how loud the music was as she stepped into the front hall. Music blared in her ears as she made her way to the main room.

🎶 No more favors

Need more paper

No more favors

Need more paper 🎵

She found the living room easily, which was next to the staircase and where the music was coming from. The beat of the song made her ears tremble. The living room was overflowing with teenagers. The couches had about ten teenagers squished together on each. Things were scattered all over the floor. Empty glass cups, shoes, pieces of clothing, etc. Cara let her eyes wander over each teenager, looking for a familiar face. Right away, she could see that her sister was not among any of the teens on the couch. But, she spotted Tevyn and Hazel cuddled up on the corner of one of the couches. Hazel was laughing at something Tevyn had said. Tevyn noticed Cara at the living room entrance and his eyes widened. He grinned. "Heyyyy Cara! You joined us!"

Cara stepped into the living room and a few curious, judgmental eyes turned on her. But she was quickly dismissed as everyone went back to being fully invested in their conversations. "Um," Cara said. "You know where Kailee is?"