Stolen

Chapter 3

"You ok?" A voice came from behind, almost making me drop the pizza in my hand.

"Wha?...Oh, hey Clara," I greeted. "Yeah I'm fine, why?" I wanted to make that lie so that I would still be able to feel comfortable. Apparently though, it was noticeable to her.

"It doesn't take a whole army to notice that you don't look well," Clara responded. I tried fixing my hair sarcastically. "No not that way of looking good, you idiot." We both started laughing.

"Well what makes you think that I'm not looking well?" I asked.

"Not your looks, I probably said it in a way that I didn't intend to say. It just seems as though you're a bit depressed. And if you're wondering how I could tell, well I'll tell you right now that I have magical powers."

She sat down next to me. I was primarily sitting alone at one table, while everyone else was preoccupied within their own groups. If someone wanted to know about natural segregation, they could just come to our school's cafeteria and take a good look at all the boys on one side, and the girls on another. People like Clara tend to be all over the place. She wasn't the bad kind of popular, but instead, one of those people who were popular because of the positive side of their personality, and that was the only side she showed. She had friends on one side of the cafeteria and on the other.

"Tell me," she said eventually. "What's the matter?"

I sighed. "Fine." I thought it through for a moment, and then began. "You know how it's been a year since the incident with my mom and my sister, right?"

"What kind of a question is that?" She responded. "We all know, it's just that no one wants to bring it up in front of you."

"Well anyways, I had a dream last night about the crash, but there was something rather different. I saw people get out of the truck and take Mom and Julie from our wrecked car." I paused, recalling more aspects of the incident and the dream, and resumed. "I wasn't actually there in real life to actually say for sure that there was a truck which ran us off the road, and the guys inside the truck took them away, and this makes the most sense of all possibilities, because they were gone when I brought Dad back to the wreckage. I was told to run away as fast as possible,

"Tommie," Clara said after a short pause, reaching for my hand to hold, the hand which wasn't slightly stained by pizza sauce. I let her, but I wondered why she was holding a hand that belonged to a guy like me. I always thought that she wanted a more popular guy.

"Why are you?..." I paused, gesturing to our intertwined hands.

She loosened her grip. "Oh, do you find it weird?"

I shook my head 'no,' and told her it was fine. She held on.

"Some dreams and visions can get so strong that they have a better chance of becoming real," she told me. "If this actually happened...well...I'm not sure if I would call it a déjà vu, but you know what I mean, right?"

"Yeah," I replied. "But I can't shake the feeling that Mom and Julie are out there somewhere, probably being held captive, probably being tortured, or even executed..." I stopped to realize how much I scared myself.

Clara squeezed my hand tighter. "Don't try to think of any of that, you'll get even more worried. Maybe this whole mystery will be solved in due time."

"Yeah, maybe..." I dozed off to think and rethink about that word. Maybe...

I snapped out of my gazing into nothingness when Clara continued talking. "Just know that I'm here if you need me." I turned to take an actual look at her. Her darkish brown hair slightly over her green eyes, filled with sympathy. I had to admit, she was pretty.

"Clara..." I began.

"Yes?"

More staring at each other. Ten seconds later, I broke the silence.

"Any chance you're gonna let me go?" I asked, lifting our connected hands.

"Oh, right, sorry," she said as she retreated all the way into her chair, blushing a bit, and trying to hide her face. "I guess it could me kinda awkward at times."

"There's no problem in it though," I replied. "Based on the regular middle school stuff, I'd say it's normal."

"I see why you think that," Clara agreed. "Well I'm gonna go back to my friends, see you in class." I waved goodbye as she left.