Paper Towns (A 5H Fanfic)

S i x

Day 0: The Discovery

Lauren got back to her hotel room and luckily Dinah was out of the room doing God knows what with Normani. Ally had just left to take a nap in her room and Lauren was finally alone. She took this as an opportunity to crack open the book Camila had left. Lauren sat down on the bed and opened the book. There were random letters circled on the page. The next page had more letters circled. What did any of this mean? The business card with the number 2713, the random letters circled in the book, there was a reason for this all but what?

Camila was full of surprises but something like this was far too thought out for it to have been a random surprise. Lauren half expected Camila to pop up at her hotel room door any minute, laughing because she successfully pranked Lauren.

2713.That number was so familiar to Lauren but she couldn't figure out why. She tried to decode the number. Twenty seven could be for July 27th, the date Fifth Harmony was officially formed on the X Factor. Lauren's birthday was June 27th. That had nothing to do with Camila though. Thirteen could be for 2013 the year the girls released their first single. Thirteen could stand for anything.

The sound of a key card swiping through the lock disrupted Lauren's thoughts and Dinah soon appeared in the room.

"Hey Louser. What are you up to?" Dinah asked as she tossed the key onto the desk. "You've been quiet all day. You ok?" she laid down on the other bed next to Lauren's.

"I'm fine." Lauren lied. She closed the book slightly so Dinah couldn't see the random circles in the book.

"Didn't you read that already? You talked about how you liked that book before everyone else liked it." Dinah noted. Lauren didn't respond. "Wasn't Camila reading that too recently?"

Dinah knew both girls too well to just overlook this situation. Dinah eyed Lauren, noticing she wasn't making eye contact and was picking at her jacket zipper, Lauren's usual giveaway to being anxious or nervous.

"Lo you sure you're ok?" Dinah questioned.

"Mhum." Lauren nodded, trying to act casual and calm.

"That's Camila's book isn't it!" Dinah exclaimed. "You don't bend the pages of your books like Camila does. You preserve the binding of books, Camila folds pages of books." Dinah got up from her bed and sat on the edge of Lauren's.

Dinah was right though. The way Camila opened books irritated Lauren to no end. She hated sharing books with Camila because the brown haired girl would nearly trash the book by folding pages and corners of the book.

"Why do you have Mila's book?" she asked curiously. "Miss her that much already?"

Lauren hesitated. She could tell Dinah the truth or she could come up with a really good lie. As good of a liar Lauren could be, Dinah was always the one person to never buy it. "It's just.. I went back to the bus to find my wallet and there was this business card in it. A souvenir of one of me and Camila's misadventures. It was in her book as a book mark and this number was on it but I don't know what it's for."

Lauren showed Dinah the business card. The other girl held the card and examined it. 2713.

"Weird.." Dinah commented, handing the card back to Lauren.

"Gets weirder. Look at the inside of her book." Lauren turned the book so Dinah could see the pages. The many circled letters that scattered the page. "It goes on like that through the entire chapter."

Dinah studied the book for a moment then handed it back to Lauren. "Can I see the card again?"

Lauren handed her the business card. Camila's distinct and childish handwriting spelled out 2713 in the corner of the card.

"Her phone." Dinah said abruptly. Lauren's head shot up. "It's her phone passcode." Dinah and Lauren exchanged looks. "She explained it to me last week when I asked to see her phone. Twenty seven is for Fifth Harmony, thirteen is for Taylor Swift. Her lucky number."

"Why write her passcode on her book mark? Just in case she forgot it?" Lauren said, thinking out loud.

"You got a business card in your wallet randomly right?" Lauren nodded. "There's a reason you got that. Like she's trying to send you a message or something."

Lauren looked down at the book. She flipped the pages back to the beginning of the chapter Camila had been reading. Chapter thirteen.

"Oh my god." Lauren breathed. "Chapter thirteen. Thirteen in her passcode was for Taylor Swift. Chapter thirteen is the same way. It was this chapter for a reason. But what fucking reason?"

There was a knock at the hotel door, startling both girls. Dinah stood up and opened the door and soon both Ally and Normani walked in with worried looks on their faces.

Lauren raised an eyebrow at the girls. "What?" she said, breaking the silence.

"Normani opened her backpack and found Camila's iPod." Ally explained. Normani held the iPod touch out in front of her.

"Someone put that there and it wasn't me." Normani said.

Dinah and Lauren turned to each other, both with wide eyes, both figuring out a small piece of this puzzle Camila had thrown together. Dinah took the iPod from Normani and typed in 2713. She was into Camila's iPod.

***   ***   ***

"What are we looking for?" Normani asked, Ally and her were studying the book carefully while Dinah wrote down tiny clues they'd already found.
"Clues. Anything that explains anything." Lauren said. Scrolling through Camila's iPod.

She opens the notes app and found a 'list of possible tweets' note, it wasn't even her list, it was Normani's. Something got mixed up and Camila ended up with Normani's notes on her phone and iPod. Lauren found a small paragraph written out in the note bellow.

To whom it may concern,
I'm not sure how to explain this but I promise you I'm fine. Here's the thing, if you want a real explanation, this isn't where you'll find it. Keep looking, keep digging and you'll find it. Maybe you'll find me too. In the words of Taylor Swift, "people throw rocks at things that shine." Take that quote as you will, hopefully you'll take it as I had envisioned you would otherwise this whole thing is a bust.
With love, Camila.

Taylor Swift. The number thirteen. Chapter thirteen. It was starting to come together in Lauren's mind. She took the book out of Normani's hands and pulled the pen and paper from Dinah.

"Lauren what the hell?" Dinah said.

"Camila keeps bringing Taylor Swift up. Maybe we were reading too far into things. With every album Taylor leaves hidden messages by capitalizing certain letters in the lyric book. Maybe Camila did the same but by circling letters in the book." Lauren explained.

She quickly wrote each circled letter down and soon saw the message. 'You'll go to the paper towns and never look back'

"What? So she's imitating the movie?" Normani asked.

"Book." Lauren corrected. "But Camila wants to play a game of cat and mouse. We'll play and we'll find her and hopefully we can end this better than John Green did."

A/N:
If you caught that real life reference about Camila and Normani's phone notes then you know what's up. Anyway, things are starting to unfold and discoveries are being made.