BROOKE AND ELLA "How do you feel this morning?" Ella asked her daughter, seeing her applying her makeup in the bathroom. Ella overlooked her daughter's overly small shorts and tight V-neck. "Better." Brooke answered, glancing over at the small woman. "Yeah? That's good." Brooke stared into the mirror. What was her mothers problem? Any other time when Brooke came down with something, Ella was nowhere to be found, and now, here she was, checking up on her every few hours. "Hey mom, did Damon take off already?" "He never came home last night," Ella answered, eyes still on Brooke, as if examining her. "I talked to him last night. He said he was going to do a little work at the office." Wasn't that interesting? "So, do you want to tell me what happened yesterday? Damon mentioned that a friend of yours was arrested." Brooke gave a nod. This was going to be a long story to explain Brooke thought, but she would tell it and be sure to leave her lies and problems out of it. THE LOVETT
KAHLAN I stood at the edge of the swimming pool, looking at my reflection in the water. Another problem just fell into my lap. Someone was out to kill me, or so they vowed. Carly hid herself in the room. She felt guilty, that much I knew. Damon left to go check in on his family, making the promise that he would be right back. Trouble always seemed to find me; with that said there was something else rattling my mind. The pictures started up again, but Ryan was in prison, so who else would be sending them? Justin peeked through the wooden fence on the side of Kahlan Redding's house. There was a side ally that he had used a few times to take a short cut to school when walking. Tonight, he was using it for a whole other purpose. With everything with James spiraling out of control, he just wanted to peek in to be sure that the girls were okay. Right now, all he saw was Kahlan, in her bathing suit, standing at the edge of the pool. Was she going to jump in, or was her sole purpose just to
DAMON AND CARLY Damon stopped his car across the street from Kahlan's home, eyes out the passenger window, wondering what happened. He had seen the flashing emergency lights from a mile away. He had told Kahlan that he would be right back, however, right back turned into three hours. It didn't help that on his way out, he and his mother had gotten into a little argument. It seemed that she was upset about Damon getting his own place. To him, Ella was frustrated with her daughter and wanted Damon to fix it. The truth of the matter was Brooke was old enough to make hew own mistakes and learn to deal with them. Sure, he could try and fix her broken heart but he was sure he couldn't do much to help. And sure he could try and help mend her relationship with her best friend but Carly had enough on her plate at the moment. Damon tried to see through the flashing red and blue lights that took up three of the houses, including Kahlan's. He was getting ready to get out of the car and see if he
THE GROUP The time continued to pass. Slowly seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours. Damon found himself lost in a world he had never known before. A world where a person he cared for was fighting for her life. He had never been put in this position. He had never been faced with this uncertainty and the cloud of gloom hovering over his head. His eyes were heavy, as he wanted so badly to sleep but he couldn't. He wanted to be the first one to know of any news, good or bad. He prepared himself as best as he could. The news could only be bad if it were taking this long. The waiting room was less crowded, as people decided to go home and wait for news in a more comfortable environment. The Meir family stayed to support Damon, and Sandino, well, he stayed for his own personal reasons. Brooke had fallen asleep on her big brother's shoulder; a soft quiet snore making itself known. Damon looked down at her. Her face was relaxed, every part of her still. The doctor looked down at his
THE WOODS Carly couldn't believe what she was seeing, nor what she was hearing. Her father was being escorted out of their home in handcuffs, being accused of murder. He hadn't been home for more than a few minutes before being taken away. She was in disbelief as she heard the charges and who this crime was against. "Dad!" Carly cried, tears ruining her makeup. He looked back at her as best as he could. The officer guiding him to the police vehicle seemed to be in a rush, as they were moving at such a fast pace. "What do I do? Tell me what to do!" Robert Woods had no answer for his scared and worried daughter. She had no family to call on. She was going to be alone while he waited in a prison cell. "Don't worry," he spoke, "everything will be fine. This is all a misunderstanding. I never killed anyone." She nodded. "No matter how much he may have deserved it." Those were his last words before having the car door shut on him. Carly cried even harder as they drove away. THE WINGO'S
THE WOODS FAMILY "Dad, I need you to tell me what happened?" Carly now looked at her father through steel black bars. He sat on a little cot off to the side, hoping she wasn't questioning the truth. "I didn't touch that kid," he insisted. She couldn't believe what was happening. She never thought that this would be something that she would be faced with, never thought that she would see the day her father was arrested. "I know that Dad but I still need to know what happened." "I was just going in there to talk to him, to yell at him. Maybe I had some intention of slapping him around but I would never take a life." She could hear it in his voice. He was an innocent man, she'd never doubt her father. "When I found out what was going on back here, I had to come home. No matter what my boss said, no matter what my job was. I knew you were okay. The cops told me that much, so, I just… I wanted to see what James had to say for himself but when I walked in there, he was laying in the bed
THE GROUP The room was starting to feel stuffy and hot. I was tired of lying in this bed, cut off from the outside world. I didn't know what was happening with the murder of James, or Tina's funeral arrangements. No one spoke of it, like they were trying to make sure that I didn't know anything. I never asked. Most of them wouldn't say anything without Damon or Carly's permission. It was like a world of silence. I was tired of these white sheets sticking to me, tired of not being able to toss and turn when I wanted to. Tired of having to be careful of every movement I made, so I wouldn't pull my I.V out. Ugh. This was something I hated and I hoped I'd never find myself in this position ever again. There was nothing on TV to keep me occupied. Personally, I always thought cable sucked. I wasn't interested in watching it. The sun burned into the room, creating more heat. I didn't want to be here and neither did my friends. I could hear their voices outside of my room. They always talked
KAHLAN AND JUSTIN Nope! I can’t do it, I thought, as I looked around the hospital room, seeing the same four walls, the same nurses, the same bed sheets...Everything was the same and I was in the same position, lying flat on the bed. I need to get out of here. I am not waiting on Dr. Mellow to run more tests. I climbed out of the bed slowly. There was some pain, but on a scale from one to ten, I was a comfortable four. "What the hell are you doing?" Justin asked, walking into my hospital room, with a small bundle of pink flowers in his hand. By this time, I was dressed in loose jeans and an overly large T-shirt, folding up the hospital gown I was once wearing. I threw the gown on the corner of the bed, making my way over to Justin. He still stared at me with large lines forming on his forehead, waiting for an explanation. "Are those for me?" I asked, pointing at the gorgeous flowers he held, feeling like I could collapse at any moment. "Yeah," the fit young man answered, handin
~ELLA~ Ella rushed up to one of the cops on the scene. The waiting around was killing her. The cops had begun to clear out one part of the building. There was an automotive class-taking place, and their escape was out the garages of the North side of the building. Officers were planning on storming through there. That was the last that she had heard of their plans. There were two students hurt, but at least ten evacuated. That gave some hope. There were no fatalities. Ella wanted to help."I'm an off duty nurse," she stated, "I'm here to offer any assistance." The cop looked at her."Do you have your badge?" She pulled out her nursing badge and let the cop examine it. At least he was being thorough."Go on over to the par
~JUSTIN, EMETT AND MYA~ Mya snuck the guys into one of the pool exits. It threw them off course just a bit to get the front office, but as long as they got inside, Justin didn’t care. He would find a way to Kahlan."How did you know this would be open?" Justin asked quietly. He wasn’t comfortable with Mya leading them. As men, they should be protecting her. She should be behind them."They cut the electricity off," she whispered back, "That means that the doors that were usually on manual locks, would open." Justin never paid attention to things like that, so he was glad that Mya did, otherwise, they may have still been outside, trying to find a way in, or they would have given up."How did you know there were
~KAHLAN AND BROOKE~ "It’s been five minutes!" Brooke shouted at me as quiet as she could when I returned to her side. She had gotten loud as if she was angry, but she was scared. She was sweating bullets, her face looking as if she had gotten caught in the rain."I know, I'm sorry," I said, "Did anyone text back?" She shook her head. "Damn it." Brooke looked at me. She wanted so badly for me to have good news for her, but I didn’t."What are we going to do?" she asked as she placed a hand over her belly. I stared down at her stomach. It was more than out lives at stake, it was the life of this unborn child. I couldn't give her an answer; so instead, I looked around, trying to come up with our next move.
~AMY, CHAD AND JASON~Jason looked, asking himself the same question. What was his problem? The fact that his friend and girlfriend lied to him… yep, that was it."I don't have a problem," Jason answered softly."Well you sure do stomp around like you do," Chad said."I'm upset," Jason replied. "I don't know how I should feel, but I know I don't hate you. Most of me misses you guys, but there is still a part of me that can't get over the fact that you two lied. And when I think about it, I can see you guys in my head, and it just makes me sick to my stomach.""Let us help you get over it," Amy said getting to her feet, "trying to avoid us and staying mad at us obviously isn't helping." Jason looke
~JUSTIN~ Everyone got to their knees outside, at the sound of another gunshot. The group was pushed back further from the school as more people escaped. Now officers had arrived on the scene. They had begun pushing everyone back across the parking lot, closer to the street and the surrounding homes. Justin couldn’t just stand around and do nothing. He was not the type to feel powerless."I have to get in there," he demanded, pushing past Carly. He didn’t even get a few feet, before he was thrown to the ground. He landed on his left knee pretty hard, feeling the pain of the pavement. He looked up and saw Coach Myers on top of him."Where do you think your going boy?" the coach growled."I ha
~KAHLAN AND CARLY~“So you have a date tonight?” Carly asked as we made our way to the front of the school. I glanced over at her as we walked down the hall. I had to stop by my locker to drop off my textbooks. We agreed that to car pool for a while. It saved time and gas money.“Its not a date.” “Yeah, but you want it to be.” She grinned. I looked over at her. It seemed that Carly might have knew more than I did. Justin and I had discussed going out together. As far as I was concerned it was just as friends. Though I wasn’t sure exactly what we were doing. Justin just said it was a birthday surprise.“Its two friends hanging out.” I responded. She looked at me. &l
~CARLY AND JUSTIN~Justin rushed through the crowds of teens pooling into the lunchroom. He was chasing one particular person down, and wanted to get to her before she reached their lunch table. He reached out and touched Carly’s shoulder, pulling her back.“Hey,” she said with a slight chuckle, his force a bit surprising. The last time she was grabbed like that, James was the one with the force. She was able to push the thought away from her mind rather quick. “What’s going on?” He seemed eager.“What do you think I should get Kahlan for her birthday?” That wasn’t a question she thought he’d ask.“Well, what do you think she wants?” She questioned, “besides you naked in a bow?”
~BROOKE AND SANDINO~ Brooke knocked on Sandino’s door. She had heard that he didn’t go to school, and figured now would be the best time to go over, since his mother would be at work. Dino opened the door, looking at her through the screen."What do you want?" he asked. She looked. So far, this was going better than expected. She didn’t even think that he would open the door, let alone speak to her."Just to talk.""I don’t want to talk. Not to you anyway.” He looked as if he had been sleeping the day away, hiding from the embarrassment that she caused."I don’t want you to hate me," she spoke out. Hate was a strong word, but if anyone was going to
~KAHLAN AND JUSTIN~ I stood at my locker, putting away my books when Justin walked up to me. I could feel his presence before I saw her. He stood behind me."Hey," he said. I turned around to look at him. We hadn't talked since what happened in my pool, and since I blurted all my thoughts and feelings at the lunch table. It seemed that our time had now come. I was ready to talk to him and it seemed that he was ready to talk to me."Hi," I said quietly."How are you?" he asked."I'm good," I answered, "You?""Not so much," He responded, putting his hands into his pockets. I looked at him. He did look a mess, as if he were losing sleep