The Fifth Element

Part 2 Chapter 1

I walked into homeroom right as the bell rung. I took my seat at the back of the class and listened to our principle's monotone voice drone on and on about sports and after-school activities.

"Santana."

I looked up to see Maggie Albert standing in the door of my homeroom. We made eye contact, and she motioned for me to come over.

I pointed towards myself and mouthed, "Me?" she nodded. I looked towards my homeroom teacher, Mr. Smith, who was too busy doing something on his computer to care that half of his homeroom was skipping, let alone me getting out of my seat. So, I got up and joined the waiting blonde.

It wasn't until I was halfway to her that I began to wonder what she wanted from me. I wasn't part of the student council or dance team, nor was I anywhere close to being on her social radar. We were practically different species, according to the rules of the social hierarchy. In the animal kingdom of high school, I was a plover bird, and she was a crocodile.

A plover bird is one of those tiny birds that sit in the crocodile's mouth and cleaned its teeth, as long as I did what she wanted and stayed out of her way she wouldn't snap her jaws and eat me. And it wasn't just that way for me. Most of the school's population was made up of plover birds, but it was better to be a plover bird than a crocodile's prey.

I was a little different from all the other plover birds though, and that was mainly because I was the twin sister of the great Savannah Blake. Yeah, she was great all right, a great pain in the rear. I guess that's what happens when you have everyone at school, including teachers, kissing up to you all day.

Savannah and I were fraternal twins, not identical, but that was pretty obvious just by looking at us. Savannah's hair was blonde while mine was brown, her eyes were brown, and mine was blue. Savannah had the figure of a supermodel, while I was short and a little on the chubby side.

"What's up, Maggie?" I asked once I had reached her.

Her eyes looked at me yet past me at the same time, like my body was translucent. "Hey is Savannah sick?" she asked.

I scrunched up my nose in confusion, "No...I don't think so," I then remembered Savannah's car in the driveway. Maybe she hadn't walked to school after all. "Why, isn't she at school?"

Maggie shook her head.

"Did you try calling her?"

Maggie's eyes narrowed, and she looked at me like I had just announced 2+2= 10, or it was socially acceptable to wear orange sweat pants with an orange sweat-shirt to school, "I called her like ten times," she snapped and pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose.

Well sorry for wondering, I thought to myself but chose not to share. I instead shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know then,"

Maggie made a noise of frustration, "Never mind, just tell her that I'm looking for her," she said and walked down the hall without another word, and I went back inside the classroom.

The rest of my day dragged on like usual. I ate lunch with my friends, suffered through physics, and walked out to my car and drove home.

Whenever I think back to that day, I get angry with myself. Why hadn't I realized something was wrong sooner when I saw Savannah hadn't taken her car? Why hadn't I thought it was strange that she hadn't gone to school, even though she had an important meeting? Why hadn't I figured it was weird when she hadn't answered any of Maggie's calls, the girl she would lick dog poop off her shoe for without question? I don't think it was because I lacked imagination that something terrible could happen to her, I just think I didn't want to believe it.

When I got home Savannah's car was still there, and my mom's car was in the driveway too, which was unusual because she didn't get home from work until much later.

When I walked in, my mom was waiting for me. She looked worried and slightly agitated. "Do you know where Savannah is!? I got a call from the school saying she was absent, and when I try calling her, she doesn't pick up!"

I froze like a deer caught in the headlights, unsure what to think about this new information.

"No," I answered.

"When was the last time you saw her?" She asked.

"This morning..."

"Has she texted or called you at all today?"

"Hold on let me check," I pulled on my phone and saw I did have a message from her from earlier this morning that I hadn't noticed before, and a couple missed calls from mom, oops. I opened Savannah's message and read it.

The text was composed of only one word, "Real." She had probably meant to say really funny or real mature, but she had accidentally sent it before she could finish.

I showed the message to my mom, but it only made her more frantic.

"Try calling her. I'm going to call dad. I promised I call him back after I talked to you. He wants to file a missing person report, but I wanted him to wait a bit, now I'm not so sure," she said and left the room.

Missing person report, this couldn't be happening, could it!?

Not wanting to hear the conversation my parents were about to have, I went outside. I was starting to get worried, like extremely worried, almost on the verge of panic. I took out my phone and scrolled down to Savannah's contact. I pushed call and waited.

I was sure that if she was capable of answering her phone, and she hadn't answered Maggie or my mom, she wouldn't answer me. I was still going to try, though. We hated each other, so she knew I only called her for emergencies.

Her phone began to ring, and from behind me, I heard something, a low buzzing sound. I turned around, and my eyes landed on something pink and rectangular lying beside the sidewalk leading up to the front door of my house. It had been partially hidden by the shrubs, so I hadn't spotted it before, despite its obvious hot pink color. I bent over and picked it up, and as I did, my heart sank. It was Savannah's phone, her life line. This was the equivalent of finding her severed arm. It vibrated one more time in my hand, before going still.

"She got eaten by a black hole."

My head snapped around so fast it hurt, "Jesus, Arnold," I said, staring down at the fifth-grader angrily. I was mad and greatly alarmed that the little bugger had managed to sneak up behind me and scare me.

He stared back at me with his coal black, emotionless eyes, "She got eaten by a black hole," he repeated. "I saw it this morning from my bedroom window."

I felt my face grow hot with rage. How dare he try and mess with me at a time like this! I pointed towards his house with a shaking finger, "Listen to me you little sicko, this is not the time for your weird games! Why don't you run on home, and go back to torturing animals in your basement!"

Arnold smiled creepily at me, "No this is way more interesting than that," he said, and with that, he turned and ran back towards his house.

"Little snot face, sociopathic brat," I mumbled angrily under my breath, and went to go inside to present my mother with my findings, but before I went inside, I noticed something carved into the sidewalk. I bent down to get a closer look at it.

And when I saw what exactly it was, I felt ice shoot through my veins, "Mom!" I screamed, running into my house. There was no doubt in my mind now that Savannah was in serious trouble. Less than an hour later, police cars surrounded our house.