[ 5 ] 2014
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"The owner of this house is Cole Hood."
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Two more weeks passed without any of them hearing anything from Calum. For those two weeks, Harley with Andrea and Niall showed up at his house, everyday without fail, only to find it completely empty. The front gates were now padlocked and from the outside, she could see it was bare inside his house. Niall and Andrea thought to give up after the first few days. It didn't look like Calum was coming back to Sydney, and according to the letter he left behind for them, he didn't want to be found. Everything indicated he had made the decision and left on his own account. But Harley thought there were too many strange things surrounding his disappearance, or his decision to leave.
If he had left on his own, why didn't he take any of his belongings?
After seeing the way he had left everything behind and was sending others to move his things, Harley almost felt like he left without having the chance to take anything. It was almost like he was running from someone. Harley doubted that Calum could be so upset and hurt that he would decide to leave.
She also thought it suspicious how the movers told her he was planning to sell or rent the place, and the fact that they hadn't seen Calum in person. He had merely called them asked them to move his belongings without a very good reason. That Harley knew of, she thought he would never rent, much less sell, the house. It was passed onto him by his grandfather, it had some meaning to him and his family. There were dozens of important books and artifacts in it as well. It was strange to her that he hadn't taken any of them, or that he was having it sent to a warehouse where it would be abandoned.
At St. Genevieve's, everyone went about their normal lives as though he had never existed.
Calum wasn't a very popular student to begin with. His only real friend was Harley, and perhaps there was a small chance that he was missed on the soccer team because of the position he held. But he was easily replaced when it was known he wouldn't be returning. Now when Harley stayed for cheerleading practice which took place on the south lawn, the soccer boys trained at the other end, led by Dirk Van Rankin who had been co-captain and was recently promoted.
He was also taken off the class rosters for attendance, his name was no longer called in each of Harley's classes. It was truly as though he no longer existed at St. Genevieve's.
It angered her that they had all forgotten him so easily like he was dead while she still hoped he would come back. She never forgot about him, and she feared that wherever he was, that he would be in trouble and may be needing her help.
Harley felt like she wasn't doing enough to find him.
What more could she do?
She was only seventeen.
It was a Friday after school when she tried to ask the administrators at St. Genevieve's about Calum. She knew that whenever someone transferred schools, they would provide the address of their new school so the former one would send over their files, and permanent record. If anyone at St. Genevieve's could let her know where he went, it was the people who worked in the administration office by the exit of the school.
Harley had been lucky that practice had been cancelled that afternoon, the cheerleaders and the basketball team were all planning a fund raiser at a burger place to gather money to get varsity jackets for the fourth year students. They were extra special jackets, as Cindy put it, that would let the rest of the school know who the athletes were, as though everyone didn't already know. The populars had a way of always getting noticed by the rest of the student population. Harley said she would catch up to them in the afternoon, since she claimed she had some errands to run and they would be there for hours anyway. Cindy was very understanding, as captain of the cheerleading squad, and told Harley they would be waiting for her at the burger place.
Harley had grown to actually like Cindy, and considered her to be a friend. She had actually decided she would go later on, if only to distract herself a little while. All she did since Calum left was to go to school, cheerleading practice, Calum's house, then she would return home and cuddle with Ashton for hours until she fell asleep.
Harley felt like there was a hole in her heart. She was incomplete.
She knew she was in love with Ashton, but a part of her would not let her be fully happy until knowing Calum was okay.
On her way out of the school, she passed the administration office. There was a woman sitting behind the reception desk. The rest of them were outside, making sure the students were being careful crossing the street, or making sure no fights broke out after school hours. By now, the last of the students were piling out of the main building. Harley had taken her time to walk to the front office, to avoid people seeing her if she had to resort to using her powers to get the information she wanted.
The woman was the same one that had been one of the chaperons at the dance months earlier. She shot Harley a polite smile, asking her, "May I help you?"
Harley nodded her head, trying her best to appear casual and calm. It was a difficult thing to do, considering that she was possibly one step closer to finding Calum. "Yes, I was just wondering if you could give me Calum Hood's new address." She said to her.
The woman shook her head, refusing. "Sorry. We can't give out that kind of information. Its confidential."
"Please," Harley begged. "I just want to talk to him. He's not answering his phone, and I'm worried."
"His uncle checked him out of school." The woman explained. She saw the worry on Harley's face and wanted to help her, but she couldn't. "He said Calum was moving to Brisbane with him, but he didn't want anyone to know the address." Normally, it wasn't easy to remember a student's name. But the woman who worked in administration remembered well, primarily because when his uncle showed up to check him out of St. Genevieve's, he was unaccompanied. Calum was not with him, and she found it a bit strange, though not enough to question it.
Placing her hands on the office counter, Harley leaned forward and focused her energy into her eyes. She concentrated and said to the woman slowly, "I need you to tell me where Calum is, please."
The woman behind the counter shook her head absently. On command, she began to tell Harley, "I want to give you the information you need. But we don't have a new address on file for Calum Hood."
Harley raised an eyebrow at her, intrigued by what she was hearing.
In a monotone voice, the woman continued, "His uncle didn't provide a new address. He only said Calum would be leaving with him to Brisbane because he had no legal guardians to watch over him here in Sydney."
"Hm." Harley brought her lips together to form a tight line.
She thanked the woman for giving her information and left the school. All of her friends had already left. Niall and Andrea headed for the burger place. Niall alone swore he could probably buy enough burgers to pay for everyone's new varsity jackets, and Andrea didn't doubt him. As soon as they were dismissed that day, he raced out of the school with Andrea in tow. He wanted to be the first one at the restaurant.
This time, Harley didn't mind walking to Calum's house. It wasn't very far from St. Genevieve's, and it gave her plenty of time to think.
On her way there, she checked her messages, and tried calling Calum's cellphone number. Her calls were going straight to voicemail, which let her know that his cellphone was off. But it had been weeks since she had been trying to get a hold of him with the same result. Her calls always went straight to voicemail.
When she arrived at his house, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw cars in the driveway. Two cars, and neither of them were Calum's. She had always been accustomed to seeing the black sports car in the driveway, which he always drove. Surprised upon seeing there were actually people in his home again, she even blinked back several times as though to make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. Perhaps it was wishfully seeing things that weren't there. But that wasn't the case for Harley Quinn. There were people in the house.
It wasn't something too out of the ordinary.
She knew Calum was supposedly planning to rent the house or sell it to other people. And it was a nice house to live in, located in a calm neighborhood in the wealthy neighborhoods of Sydney.
As she got closer to the front gates, slowly, hesitantly, she saw there were two new security guards at the front booth next to the automatic gates. These were not the ones she always saw when she visited Calum. When they were aware of her presence, she turned to them and asked, "Is Calum here?"
Her question seemed to catch them off guard and caused them to look at her with confusion. "No one named Calum lives in this house." One of the guards told her. He thought that she was confused and probably had the wrong house. Their response was what she expected they would say, but she still hoped in vain.
"Oh," Her expression dropped and she chewed on her bottom lip before explaining. "Its just that my friend Calum Hood owns this house. And I just thought he came back."
The security guard shook his head, there was still confusion in his eyes. "The owner of this house is Cole Hood. He hired us." The name sounded similar, but it was different to the one he knew. He had been hired by someone named Cole, not Calum.
Harley didn't think it was a coincidence anymore. Calum's uncle probably knew exactly where his nephew was. And getting the information out of him would likely be much harder.
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an update for you all. guys, im so happy and excited because IT RAINED IN LOS ANGELES AND ITS COLD. and it finally feels like fall. i can actually use a fUCKING blAnKEt!!1!!1!111!! do you know how long it has been since i have been able to sleep wrapped in a warm blanket like the mexican burrito i dream to be? SINCE like JUNE. but like early june. so FOUR MONTHS.
anyway, this is semi filler ish. im hoping i can come up with some drama in between this whole calum disappearing bit. but it will get better, i promise.
thank you all so much for reading.
as i do at the beginning of each book in this series, here is our question of the day: who are you? tell me about yourself. my name is claryvette, but you can call me clary. or yvette. or clara, or kaya (my dad calls me that fondly), you can call me clar, you can even call me patito (my mum calls me that. its the spanish word for duckling >.<). im a girl that loves 5sos (im an ashton girl - we were born on the same yr, so its true love), 1d (im a niall girl - he is catholic, i am catholic, meant 2 b), the janoskians (im a jai girl), and football (seleccion mexicana is my life - chicharito is my husband but he doesnt know it yet). my fave color is white, i live in la, and im american/mexican.
have a blessed day everyone!
-clary xx