• Road Tripping •

Chapter 1: Plane Rides

"Wakey wakey!" shrieked a voice in my ear.
"CHRISTO!" I instinctively screamed in return.
"Do I look like a demon to you?" asked Nicole as she stuck her head in my face.
"You sure act like one." I glared back at her, rubbing my eyes tiredly.
"Yeah, well, you sleep like a potato."
"Er-what?" I squinted my eyes at her.

"I said, you sleep like a potato. Now hurry up and come eat breakfast, will you?" commented Nicole.

"Thanks a lot, you jerk." I rolled out of bed.

"Die in a hole!" her voice echoed from the hallway.

I rolled off of the bed, bumping my head on the bedside table as I miscalculated the distance to the edge of the bed.

THUMP

My body hit the floor.

"I'm good!" I yelled, rubbing the bump on my head. Still half-asleep, I staggered out the doorway, stubbing my toe on the door frame like I usually did.

"Ow!" I hopped on one foot, rubbing the toe that was so rudely jammed into the wooden door. At least this time I didn't fall down the stairs. Nicole glanced at me, amused, as she casually sipped her mango juice. Clinking her spoon on the edge of her bowl of cereal, she raised her eyebrows.

"Don't laugh." I grumbled, as I grabbed some toast and Nutella. Sitting down at the worn table in the middle of the kitchen, I swung my legs up and sat crossed legged on the wooden chair. The old, run down house belonged to our old friend Anna. The house was very close to the high school we attended.

"We've got a case." stated Nicole, waving her phone in front of my face.

"So what is it this time?" I asked her.

She cleared her throat and read the article.

"Two days ago, a young girl named Michelle Bennet went missing in Colorado. She was never found." Nicole turned off her phone and went back to eating cereal. I stared at her incredulously.

"That's all?" I stuttered, confused. "What's so mysterious about a missing girl?"

Nicole shrugged while shoveling Fruit Loops in her mouth. "We go wherever Charlie tells us to." she mumbled through a mouthful of the sugary cereal.

"Right." I sighed. Charlie, the principal of our school, Freeman Heights, was the one who sent us on hunting trips. "But honestly? Colorado?"

Nicole shrugged again. "She gave us plane tickets." she muttered, almost spewing out the Fruit Loops stuffed in her mouth.

"We live in Canada." I stated, a bit confused. Charlie usually sent us on hunting trips near Freeman Heights, so our trips would last about 2 days.

"We get to miss school, though." grinned Nicole.

"But for how long will we be gone?" I questioned.

A loud honk outside our door startled me as I dropped the toast in my hand face-down on the table.

"Darn." I muttered, picking up the half eaten bread from the table, the Nutella sticking to the wooden table. I glanced up as Nicole stood from her spot at the table.

"And that'll be the taxi driver." she informed me.

"The-the taxi driver?" I asked incredulously.

"Better go pack!" she affirmed cheerfully, grinning when I glared at her. "6 minutes until he leaves!" Then, picking up her blue and red striped suitcase lying next to the table, she dodged the pencil I threw at her and flew out the door.