In a World of Trouble (Do You Remember, Book 4)

Prologue

"OK, now can someone tell me what's going on here?" Kieran Hamilton snapped as he, Samantha Bingham, and Jenna Holt faced Allison Webster, Matthew Garrison, Sophia St. George, and Tabitha Grimmauld in the Hollowpond High School library. A few minutes ago, Kieran had caught Allison and Tabitha reading a book, particularly a book that belonged to Kieran's older brother, Jed. To say that Kieran was angry was a huge understatement, as he felt that Allison was insulting Jed's memory when she had the book instead of handing the book over like a normal person would.

"I believed that he asked you a question," Jenna snapped. "Why do you have Jed's diary?"

"Well, if you want to get technical about it, we had the diary first," said Matthew. "So, I honestly think that there's no reason for you to have it, not that you didn't even claim the diary until now."

"It doesn't matter what you think, Matthew," said Sam. "The diary belongs to Kieran, not you. In fact, everything belonging to Jed Hamilton goes to his next-of-kin, which just happens to be Kieran..."

"And what if I tell you that's not exactly the case?" Joanna said as she came into the room. "What if I told you that I gave Allison the book for a reason?"

"You're lying!" Kieran snapped as he glared at Joanna. "There's no way that you gave them my brother's diary!"

"Try me," Joanna said as she opened the book. "In fact, why don't you stick around so you can find out why Allison has the book and not you."

Kieran frowned as he glared at Joanna, not knowing that he was about to find out some things about Jed that Jed had kept secret from him...

-----

"Well, we've gotten ourselves into big trouble and there's no way we're getting out of it," Jed said as he and his friends sat on the front porch of Jed's house. Two days had passed since they had failed to capture Jed's wicked stepsister Freddie Lloyd, and that guilt was eating them alive. Jed's other stepsister, Zoey, had been physically, mentally, and emotionally damaged from years of abuse that she refused to leave the house after her own secrets were revealed to the world.

Mary said, "It appears that no matter how much we try to avoid this, whatever happened with Zoey and Freddie will always affect us. I mean, there's no other way around it. Freddie and Zoey ruined our lives and we can't do anything about it."

"Not unless you happen to be Milton Holt and your sister was beaten up because she lied to Freddie," said Dorian. "And I thought that Barbara was nothing more than an annoying little..."

"Well, of course she is," said Claire. "I mean, just who does she think she is? She may be Milton's younger sister, but in all honesty, she's a freaking nightmare."

"I know," said Adrian. "What will it take to get her stop being such an annoying little..."

"OK, I think we need to stop right there," said Mariah. "We're not thinking about this rationally."

"And how should we approach the situation?" said Kaprice. "Like a third party that's not interested in the conflict, per se?"

"We should," said Emilia. "After all, we don't have much of a choice when it comes to stuff like this. The other kids in the school are wondering where Freddie went, and I'm guessing that no one really cares that Zoey is gone. Am I right?"

"Indeed," said Claire. "But still, we have other things to do. We can't just spend all our time chasing after Freddie. We have to go to school, you know."

"And yet, we can cut out all social aspects of school and just do our homework," said Mary. "But then the student council will notice that we're not participating in the school's activities."

"Who cares about school activities?" said Claire. "As far as I can tell, Zoey got kicked out of school for being a teen mom."

"You're right," said Mariah. "Zoey got kicked out for being pregnant, but you and I didn't get kicked out at all. That's not right and that's not fair..."

"Not unless you want to report that to the principal," said Kaprice.

"What good would that do?" said Dorian.

"What do you mean?" said Adrian. "If the principal knows about what's going on, then he'll want to know where we got the information. And if Kelsey Davis found out that we squealed on her, then there goes our lives!!!"

"She'll totally rip us apart!" said Dorian.

"OK, everyone, calm down," said Jed. "I'm sure that it's not that bad. After all, we have the power to put anyone who does something wrong on the run."

"And that's all we can do," said Mary. "We have to know that since we're magic, we can stop bullies and monsters that lurk in our town."

"Well, we can take down bullies all day long," said Claire. "But we also need to focus on the endgame. What will be the deciding factor that we need to be aware of?"

No one spoke as they let Claire's words sink in. They knew that they could stop bullies, but the big goal was still out there, waiting for them. But were they ready to reach for it?