The Mystery of The Kidnapped Friends

The Beginning of The Holidays

It was the second Friday of April and the streets of New York were bustling with office crowd breaking for lunch and college kids thrilled that the weekend was around. A tall and slender girl stood under the shed of a grocery store, tying her long, shiny, reddish-blonde hair into a pony tail.

"Hey Susan!" A voice called out from behind her. Suprised, Susan turned around and smile lit up her face instantly.

"Alisha! How have you been?"

"Fantastic! Hey, I heard Megan and Samantha pushed off on a holiday, without you. Why didn't you join them?" Alisha asked, as she pushed back her long, brown, curly hair.

"Oh, I told them I had a few cases to follow up on and so they'd have to go without me. They're probably having a ball with the Californian sun and sand!" Susan smiled, picturing her to best friends; she'd missed their company, that week. Susan, often, helped them solve cases, by consulting her father- a famous detective named Carson Smith. Susan, now 18, had always been busy with her dad's work and spent time learning from the best.

Alisha, a year younger to Susan, was a small farm girl, whose parents had died when she was small and had, recently, come to live in the city. She had joined The River Heights Academy- one of New York's finest schools, where she had become, soon, good friends with Susan.

Alisha was on her way to the pizza corner to meet her friends.

"Would you like to share a pizza with me and my friends?" Alisha asked Susan, excitingly.

"Sure!" said Susan, as they walked towards the pizza corner.

"Okay. Here we are! This is where my friends and I hang out, most of the time." said Alisha, taking Susan by her hand, as she entered the crowded pizza shop. Alisha scanned the crowd for her friends.

"Is that them, over there?" Susan pointed, to a group of youths of their age, seated at the far end of the joint.

"Wow! You're good! How did you know? I bet, you've got some sort of sensor or something, that helps you pinpoint the right spot." said Alisha, happily.

"Ha ha ha! Nope! It was just a lucky guess." said Susan.

They walked up to the pleasant-looking group.

"Hey, Alisha! How are you?" called out, Maureen.

"I'm great!" Alisha exclaimed, as they reached the table.

"I'd like you guys to meet a good friend of mine, Susan! She's Carson Smith's daughter." said Alisha, proudly.

"Hi, Susan!" they chorused, cheerfully.

"That's so cool! You're really Carson Smith's daughter? I've heard so much about him, like how he solves impossible crime cases and stuff!" remarked Kevin.

"Wow, Alisha! Just as I predicted, in my head. I like your friends. They're really cool!" whispered Susan to Alisha.

"I know! They have been like my brothers and sisters ever since my parents died." Alisha whispered back to Susan.

"Susan, meet Maureen Runella; Isabella Hengelo, Izzy, in short; Christina Jackson. Next, we have Kevin Mingle, Joseph Carton..."

"Call me Joe, in short" interrupted Joseph, with a smirk on his face.

"...and this is Daniel Swanker, or Dan, in short." continued Alisha.

They all stood up and welcomed Susan with a shake of hands. Then, they all sat down to relax, at the table.

" I bet you girls and boys are hungry!" said the waiteress, hurriedly, coming towards them with two, big, freshly baked, pepperoni on cheese pizzas, in her hand.

"Oh, yeah!" screamed the boys.

"Enjoy them! I'll be back with your drinks, in a jiffy!" she said, as she hurried back to the kitchen counter.

"So, Susan, how does it feel to be like a detective?" asked Kevin.

"Pretty good, I guess." giggled Susan.

After a long chat, with laughter and sharing delicious pizzas, Susan and Alisha returned home. On their way back home, Alisha said, to Susan, "Susan, I want to be a detective, too!"