13 years till death

Chapter 1

I was walking home in the rain, again. Today was the third day in a row I got soaking wet from my golden brown hair to my high top Converse. I keep forgetting my umbrella and I'm not a forgetful person, but I know why I have had a constant foggy mind that blurs all my thoughts but one. A birthday. Sarah's birthday. Her 13th birthday. In 2 days Sarah is turning 13 and I don't know what to get her. I need to get her something that it so amazing that it will make her forget about what happens at 2 o'clock.

I remember my 13th birthday. I had no idea what was going on. I woke up that morning and everything was normal, which was strange because usually on my birthday my mom comes in and wakes me up with breakfast in bed, but today the house was silent. I walked down stairs in the dark. I heard the creaking of the stairs, on ever step, I prayed the dog or cat wasn't at the bottom of the steps so I wouldn't have to scare myself from the sound of an animal howling from pain. I took the last step down and felt the cold wood under my feet. I walked down the hall with my eyes closed, walking only by memory for I had walked down this hall a million times before. I reached the living room carpet and rubbed my feet against it trying to get them warm. I felt for the wall and bumped into the couch but finally felt the switch, I flipped it up and saw a note sitting on the coffee table. It said- Happy Birthday sweetie. You only need a lunch today for school and after school is done go to the office and tell them that it's your 13th birthday. ~Mom
And the rest I don't want to remember.

Crap. I just passed my house. By how far? I think it was only by a few houses because right now I'm at Keith's house. Might as well stop in to see if he did his part to the science project. I walked to up his gravel pathway and tripped on his newspaper. The headline said "Kid Gone Missing to Avoid Trails".
Another one. This is the 5th one this month. I understand why they run but it's going to happen any way. They would find you know matter where you are. I grabbed the paper to give to Keith, he's one of those people that looks at things that need to be moved or cleaned for about 2 minutes and then keeps walking. I walked up the two concert steps and knocked on his door, no answer, so I just walked in. We are just that type of friends.

I opened the door to see Keith standing their in his blue jeans, collard orange shirt, black socks, and his square glasses that were slightly askew, he must have been sleeping. I walked over to him and pushed his black hair out if his face and fixed his glasses before I took of my shoes, dropped my backpack on the floor, and plopped down onto the old, brown, fabric couch.

"Hey Argo, you woke me up."
Argo is my last name and my nickname he gave me.

"Chill, you needed to wake up any way. Aren't you wondering why I came here?"

"I thought you came to eat my food, watch Netflix, and stare at my amazing features." He made a gesture to his face and sat down next to me. He put his arm around me and put his feet up on the ottoman. He grabbed the remote and turned on Netflix.

I leaned against his shoulder to get more comfortable. The only reason we could do this was because we were basically siblings. "I did come for that and because I needed to know if you did your part of the science project."

"Yeah. I did it. It's over on the kitchen table." I got up and walked over to the table to get it. And of course there it was, his A+ work. I walked back over to sit on the couch when I felt my phone vibrate. It was Laura.

"Hey Keith, Laura just texted me. Can she come over to? She is part of the science project and our trio."

"Yeah, sure. Tell her to bring over the math homework too. I totally forgot to do it and I don't want to do it."

I texted exactly what Keith said and sat back down. I resumed my position and Keith and I continued to watch Netflix. A few minutes later Laura walked in the door.

"Hey L, how's it going." I said to her.

"Awesome, got an A on my Spanish test. Clap for me!!"
She put her stuff by my stuff and curled up on the couch and leaned against my shoulder on the couch.

"Yo Laura. Did you bring the math homework?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, you lazy little kid." She reached down and grabbed her math homework out of her bag and handed it to Keith.

He looked at it for a minute before he got up to go copy it onto his paper. When he stood up I had nothing to lean in so my torso and head fell down onto the couch and Laura followed but instead her head landed right on my stomach.
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Keith's parents came home about 2 hours after Laura and I got there.

"Hello Laura. Hey Emma. How are you girls doing?" Asked Mrs. Mullen.

"We are doing well, thank you." I answers for the both if us.

"Do your parents know you are here?" Mr. Mullen asked.

"Um, not exactly..." Laura said shyly.

"Ditto for me." I said.

"Well we will call them in a moment and tell them you are here. Shall we also ask if you can stay for dinner?" Mr. Mullen was now standing behind the couch watching Netflix over our shoulders.

"Yes please." Laura and I said in unison.

"Thanks Dad." Keith said. It was the first thing he said for an hour. We had gotten back into the position from when we started watching Tv.

"Hey Argo, when does your sister have her... uh, trail?" Keith asked.

"2 days, you know you could just have asked when her birthday was." I said jokingly. I poked him in the stomach and he poked me back. Then Laura laughed at us for being stupid, like usual.

"Dinners ready." Mrs. Mullen said from the kitchen.

At dinner we all sat down and ate, laughed, talked, and smiled. Like a family. Because sense Laura, Keith, and I have become best friends our family's had mashed together into 1 big family.

"Thanks for dinner guys. It's getting late I think Laura and I should head home." I told the Mullen's.

"See you guys tomorrow in school guys." Keith stood up and we all hugged and said goodbye.

Laura and I grabbed our stuff and headed to our houses. I got home at about 7:50 at night. I walked in and my family was no where to be seen, they must be upstairs. I set my stuff on my chair at my desk. I opened up my backpack and put all my stuff into neat piles according to subject and I put all my homework on the top of the subjects pile. I'm a bit of a neat freak.

Afterwards I walked over to the table to look and see if I got any mail. I opened to letters. One from my dentist about any upcoming appointment and a letter from a teacher about an award I was getting for perfect GPA. Then I look to the other side of the table and say the same newspaper I saw that I was at Keith's house. I decide that being a bored as I was, I should read this.

The article started of describing the kids and where they lived and where they might be. The rest were story's of the kids that the parents told the paper. But at the bottom of the story was the thing that caught my eye. There were pictures of the kids. And the third picture was the most interesting. The picture was a girl, age 12, 2 days from being 13, blue eyes, and solid dark brown hair. Sarah. It was Sarah. She had run away from her trails, and I didn't even know until now.