What the Hell Happened to Amy Cross?

"Ava!"

I heard my boyfriend yell my name from across the parking lot. It was the first day back at school. Senior year. I was so excited.  I missed this place.

 My parents dragged me off to some old beach house they've owned for years and basically ostricized me from all of my friends, and my life.  Don't get me wrong. I love the ocean, but spending 3 months there with my mom who is overweight and still insists on dawning embarassing bikinis and my dad who reminds me of a cross between Jim and Drew Carrey, annoys the hell out of me. 

"Hi Baby!" I yelled back.  There he was, my beautiful figure of a boyfriend.  He stood about 5'9, had curly dark brown hair tousseled neatly on top of his head, and the brightest green eyes I had ever seen.  His face was clean shaven, and his chest was smooth as ice.  He wore dark blue jeans that were loose on the legs and better fit in all the right places.  His t-shirt was decked out with a Hurley symbol and his shoes were nice black and white Nikes.  I ran to him and wrapped my arms around his neck.  I kissed his lips and stayed in that moment for only a minute before we were interrupted by the evil bell that so sets out to destroy our lives!  "I missed you!" I told him as I curled my fingers through his hair.  "I missed you too honey, but we will have to continue this later.  I hate being late!"  he said as we began to walk briskly through the parking lot and up to the old familiar building that I had seen the past 3 years. 

The corrider was crowded.  The school had recently installed metal detectors. "New policy" the principal would tell us later over the intercom as I sat in homeroom wishing I was with Mason instead of sitting here.  Mason Turner, I scribbled my boyfriends name all over the front of my note book before being interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. "Are you Ava?"  I looked up to see a girl just an inch or two taller than me staring down at me.  "What?" I asked, annoyed that she would interrupt my doodling session.  "We are study partners. I drew your name. Can I sit here?" She motioned to the chair next to mine.  I hadn't been paying attention at all to the teacher or I would have realized they were in the process of drawing names, and that mine had been picked first.  "Sure, help yourself." I said as I faked a smile so that I didn't come off as a total bitch.  "What's your name?" I asked, attempting to be friendly.  "Myah" she said as she opened her bag and took out her schedule.  "What classes do you have this year?" She asked me.  I reached in my folder that was already out and grabbed my schedule.  "Um, Biology, Physics, Art History 3, Drama, and Calculus." I answered.  "Me too" she said, "Well, except for the drama part. I have enough drama at home." She joked nervously.  "ME TOO!" I said, finally finding something we had in common. 

"Class, these will be your study partners for the rest of the year. Depend on each other to help you through some of your tougher classes. Please put your stuff away and get ready for the bell."  I shoved all of my crap back in my backpack and asked Myah what she had next.  "Biology" she sighed.  "Me too." I said with a smile.  The bell rang.  "Let's get out of here" she said as we got up and walked toward our next class. 

When the 3:00 bell rang, I was ecstatic.  I was so ready for our after school get together that we have done every year on the first day of school for the past 3 years. This year we were meeting at Penny's Pizza Palace.  Cliche I know, but oh my God, their pizza is to die for.  On my way out the door I saw Myah fidgeting with her locker.  "Need help?" I asked her as I put my bookbag on the floor and took the peice of paper holding her combination.  Myah was asian. She had black hair that flowed down to the middle of her back. She was wearing skinny jeans and a black tshirt that had a hot pin tank underneath. She wore hot pink converse and a necklace around her neck with a skull on it.  She wore quite a bit of eye liner, but nothing too extreme.  I wondered if we would become good friends this year.  I opened her lock for her, then paused before asking her if she'd like to come to our get together at Penny's Pizza.  "Um, sure" She said hesitantly.  She closed her locker, grabbed her book bag and walked along side me.

"Hey Mason!" I said as we met him at his car.  He drove a 2010 ford focus. Not exactly a cool car for high school, but it was brand new, and a hell of a lot more that my 1984 Chevy.  "Hey Sweets!" he said back as I pecked him on the cheek and took his hand.  "This is my new friend Myah. I invited her to Penny's" I told him as I got in the front seat after opening the back door for Myah.  "Awesome" he said as he smiled and looked at her. "Nice to meet you Myah".  The ride to Penny's was only 2 minutes down the road. "Where did you transfer from Myah?" I asked her as we swerved through the curves of our small little town.  "Santa Monica" she said with a shy smile on her face.  "Sounds nice. Wish I could afford to live in that city." I told her as we drove around the parking lot before finally settling on a parking spot right next to the front door.  "Here goes!" I said as I jumped out of the car in excitement.  "I LOVE this place!!!!" I shouted.  "OW!" I yelled as I felt a slap across my butt.  "Dang, its only you" I said as I looked over at Mason who was in a fit of laughter. We walked in and found a spot closest to the pizza buffet that they offered all day.  We found a table with 10 seats. That should fit everyone.  "We're a little early" Mason said as he picked up a menu off the table before setting it right back down after settling on the buffet and a water.  I had the same, as well as Myah.  We waited for about 20 minutes and finally our friends started coming through the door. First in was Kayla and her boyfriend Christopher.  Not Chris. He hated having his name shortened.  Kayla was the blonde cheerleader stereotype.  She wore mostly skirts and small t's while her boyfriend was of course the cliche jock.  He played football and basketball though this year, he was playing nothing due to a nasty shoulder injury at the end of last football season.  He wore baggy jeans and a green hurley shirt and white and green nikes.  His shoes ALWAYS matched his clothes and he owned close to 70 pairs of Nikes.  He lived on the wealthy side of town with his mother, father, younger sister Emma, and their butler and 4 maids. Yes 4.    Kayla was of similar influence.  Except she only had 3 maids, and her dad died when she was 6 leaving her mom a great fortune. Totalling over 2 billion dollars.  He was a big-time stock market investor. Her and her mom relocated here to Long Beach after he died. She said the memories of New York City were too much for her.  

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Mason yelled across the pizza parlor at Christopher and Kayla.  "Hey!" they said almost simultaneously as they pulled up a chair at our table.  "We are it" he said. "The rest of the crew can't make it.  "Danny has pneumonia, and his girlfriend stayed at the hospital to take care of him.  And I haven't seen Amy all day.  Have you?"  Come to think of it, no I hadn't. I looked down at my phone.  It was blinged out with my name in fake jewels on top of a purple case.  She had texted me at 7 this morning letting me know she was excited to see me.  "Shit" I must have said out loud because everyone looked at me.  "Where the hell is she?" I asked, starting to panic. "She said she would be at school today. I just talked to her this morning.  I quickly dialed her number on my phone.  Ring.... Ring... Ring.... "This is not good" I said as a tear dropped down my cheek.  "What the hell happened between 7 this morning and 8:30 when school started?" I asked out loud, not expecting an answer.  Ring... Ring.... Ring....

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