Saving Avalone

Prologue

Prologue
The crisp autumn air and the crunching of dry leaves on the sidewalk made my afternoon a little bit brighter. My best friend, Annika Shaw kicked up the leaves making a lot of noise as she shuffled along next to me. Her sister, Jenna trailed behind us. I tightened the strap of my backpack as we turned onto Main Street where both of us live above our family's shop. Mrs. Shaw makes amazing smelling candles and she runs a little gift shop in our small town. Mr. Shaw writes for the newspaper of the next city over, which is way bigger than our little town called White Bird. I've never ever lived anywhere else. In this town, everybody knows everybody. People know my dad as the carpenter. He is great with building stuff and he carves wooden sculptures for fun. I have many in my bedroom. He makes me at least one a year for my birthday.
Annika, Jenna and I turn into Mr. Leon's floral shop, as is tradition on the way home from school everyday. We go in to say hello to our friend, and if we're lucky, we'll get some beat up flowers to take home. I love to take home the flowers that aren't sellable, because even if they don't look as pretty, they still smell amazing.
I grin at the familiar scent of walking into the little shop. The bell rings above us as the door clangs closed.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite visitors!" Mr. Leon exclaimed grinning, "Is it that time of day already?"
"How was your day Mr. Leon?" Annika asked, walking up to him as he gathered the dying, broken or somehow ruined flowers for us.
"It went wonderfully, thank you Annika! And how was yours?"
"It was alright," Annika shrugged.
"Well, here you are, lovely ladies! See you tomorrow!" He handed us the wonderfully smelling flowers and we headed back outside.
"Wanna meet at Ness's cafe after dinner for dessert?" Annika asked me.
"Um, I think my parents are heading to the city for a business trip for my dad tonight, so yeah!"
"Oh, is it that one day thing? Maybe a sleepover tonight, eh?" Annika asked playfully punching me in the arm.
I laughed, "Sure I'll ask."
Later that night after dinner and after my parents left, I met Annika at Mrs. Ness's cafe called Birdie's.
I sipped my hot cocoa and played with the remaining pieces of my pie. Annika, who's allergic to gluten, went with ice cream, that was now melted to a thick soup in her bowl.
"I'm stuffed," I groaned.
Annika laughed, "me too. I don't think I'll be able to eat again for ages!"
I giggled too, and leaned back in my chair.
"Kailani Ellington?" A man approached our table. He was wearing a suit and a tie. He had a briefcase and his hair was slicked to the side in a professional style.
"Yeah?" I asked, wondering how this man knew my name. I'd never seen him before in my life. Not that I can remember anyways. He definitely wasn't from White Bird. I knew everybody from White Bird and he definitely wasn't from here. Plus, he dressed too nice. Not a lot of people in White Bird had a lot of money. Here this guy was in a suit.
I saw out of the corner of my eye that Mrs. Ness had walked over, probably noticing a strange guy in a suit talking to two teenage girls.
"Miss Ellington, I have to speak to you privately. Can I escort you outside?" The strange man asked.
"Um... who are you?" I asked.
"Forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Frank Harris. I'm with the FBI," I looked at this stranger skeptically. He seemed trustworthy enough. I glanced at Annika and then at Mrs. Ness.
"Can't we just talk right here?" I asked.
"If you want, sure."
I nodded.
"Kailani, your parents..." My breath caught in my throat. His somber tone, the FBI... what happened to them? My heart started to race, I glanced fearfully at Annika, whose eyes echoed my fear. "Your parents were in a car crash on the way to the city. A drunk driver hit them head on," My eyes widened, and then he said the worst thing he could have ever said, "There were no survivors."