ilysb ; steve harrington

ll . f i v e • dig dug

Dustin and I only had a few hours of sleep last night, but we were so nervous about today that we didn't have a chance to be tired. When we got out of bed we got ready and went downstairs for breakfast but got downstairs to see our mom looking around the house for Mews.

"Are you guys sure you haven't seen her?" Our mother asked worried, just like she was last night.

"No, mom, we haven't seen her since we left for school yesterday morning." I told her taking another bite of my cereal

"Okay. I'm going to look outside again." She informed us before she made her way outside with Mews orange cat toy.

Dustin got up right after and ran to his room, probably to check if Dart was still there and hadn't gotten out. When he came running back to the kitchen he quickly looked outside and saw my mom walking back in, and he ran to the phone and picked it up, without dialling any numbers to call anyone.

"Dusty, baby, you're sure she's not in your room?" My mother asked with one hand on the door and the other holding the toy. Dustin didn't respond and just held his pointer finger up, for her to pause and stop talking

"Uh-huh. Thank you, so much Mr. McCorkle. Thank you so much. You are a true lifesaver. All right, this was great. Thank you. All right. Have a good one. Bye-bye, now. All right. You too." He responded to his fake phone call, I sat in the kitchen watching as my mom stood waiting for an answer.

"All right. Great news!" Dustin told my mom as he hung up the phone.

"They found her?" She asked about to cry

"No. But they saw her wandering around Loch Nora." He told her smiling, walking closer to our worried mother

"How did the poor baby get all the way out there?" She sounded relieved but I could tell she was going to cry if she hadn't been already

"I don't know. Lost I guess. But they're gonna look for her. Hazel and I will stay here, just in case they call again. And you're gonna go help look? Yeah? Yeah? Give me a hug. Go get her. You're gonna find her all right. We can find her." He said as he and our mother hugged, then she grabbed her bag and sunglasses.

"I love you" Dustin said to her as she opened the door

"I love you. And I love you! I love both of you so much." She told us standing in front of the open door with her hand on the knob.

"Love you too, mom." I replied back, taking the last bite of my cereal.

"All right, go." Dustin said with both thumbs up and my mom gave us both one last smile before leaving the house and shutting the door.

Once she left I put my dishes in the sink and Dustin ran outside. When he came back in he ran straight to the closet and grabbed old hockey equipment for himself. I watched him as he struggled to carry it, I offered to help but he dropped it on the living room floor and ran to the fridge right after. I followed him around the house as he threw slices of bologna on the ground starting from his room, leading all way outside to our cellar doors. Once he got back inside he grabbed all his hockey gear and pul it on.

"Pass me the oven mitts!" He called to me, I quickly ran to grab them and threw them at his bare hands as he caught them and patted them on.

"Do you want any gear?" He asked holding his hockey stick, peering through the helmet cage

"No thanks. I'm good." I told him with a straight face as I followed him to his room. We stood outside his door getting ready to open it and run to the shed.

"All right, Dart. Breakfast time!" He yelled through the door as he slowly stuck his arm out to open it. Once he got a hold of the door he yanked it open and began to run. I was behind him and he pushed me aside as he hobbled off making his way outside.