Troubled Child

This Huge Mystery I Have To Solve

Holly and Emily had been friends for three weeks now. Emily was always with Holly whether they were at Holly's house, her Aunt Riley's House, or even her Uncle Lucas' house.

"I can't believe we're in our teacher's house." Emily said looking around.

Holly giggled. "It's my Uncle Lucas' house, and actually it's more of a condo." She explained to her friend.

"Who are these kids?" Emily said grabbing a picture off the mantle.

"That's my mom and dad when they were younger." Holly pointed to the young boy with his arm casually draped behind a black haired girl. "Oh, and that's my Uncle Zay." She pointed to the African American boy beside them. "He moved away last year with his daughter Camille, she's my best friend." Holly frowned a little. "And that's my Uncle Lucas and Aunt Riley with some blonde girl. They don't talk about her much, but she was my Aunt Riley's best friend." Holly sighed. "I think her name is Maya because I've heard the name Maya once or twice, but I never met her so I always guessed the blonde in this picture was her." Holly shrugged.

"Your Uncle Lucas is smiling at her real big, but his arm is around your Aunt Riley." Emily observed.

Holly nodded. "Yeah, he used to date my Aunt Riley, but they never got married or anything. They always seem so close and sometimes I ask them to get married and give me a cousin." She laughed and Emily laughed with her. "But they just get all weird and start stuttering, then they change the subject. I don't know why they broke up in high school."

"Well, not everyone stays together after high school." Emily shrugged.

"Yeah, I know, but it's just weird. It would be one thing if they went their separate ways and haven't seen each other in years, but they talk almost every day and they go over each other's houses all the time. They are like a couple, but not a couple."

"Maybe there was no reason." Emily shrugged and put the picture back beside the picture of Lucas Friar holding up his teaching degree. "Maybe they just decided they were better off just being friends. Maybe they just didn't click as a couple."

"I think he cheated." Holly mused.

Emily chuckled. "Wow. Quite the accusation." She laughed. "What makes you think that happened?"

"The picture, his arm is around my Aunt Riley, but his eyes are glued to that blonde girl. My guess is he cheated, they broke up, then the blonde girl left." Holly hypothesized.

"But if he cheated on her why would they be like best friends still?"

Holly pursed her lips. "I guess she must have forgiven him." She shrugged. "Aunt Riley always says forgiveness is the best thing."

Emily scoffed. "Forgiveness isn't that great. Forgiving people just gives them another chance to hurt you."

"That sounds like something Maya would have said." Lucas chuckled. "I got the pizza, girls. I see my home is still in one piece, not that I was worried about leaving you two alone."

Holly and Emily shared a look.

"But you were." Emily said.

Lucas opened the pizza box and laid out the plates. "No, I wasn't."

"Liar." She scoffed.

Lucas gave her a serious look. "I'm not lying. I chose to trust you girls alone and I'm glad that my trust was not misplaced. That's all I meant."

Emily started picking pepperoni off her pizza. "Whatever you say, Teach."

"You remind me of an old friend." He smiled a her. "The things you say, they way you act, and-" He chuckled. "-and picking pepperoni off your pizza."

"Your friend Maya?" Holly asked.

Lucas' smile changed to a straight line. "My old friend, Maya. I wouldn't call us friends anymore considering I haven't seen her in thirteen years."

"Why did she leave?" Holly asked.

Lucas shook his head. "Sweets, we've told you about that. We don't know and we don't like to talk about it."

"Sore subject, eh Teach?"

Lucas nodded. "Yes, actually. Talking about what happened won't make her come home so eventually we moved on. I guess we just lost hope that she would ever return. Not even her parents could get her to talk to us. They barely get to talk to her."

Holly frowned. "That's sad. I wonder what made her leave. You guys seemed like you were such great friends, in the pictures that is."

"No, we were great friends. The best of friends." He let out a forlorn sigh. "That's why it hurt so much when she left, because none of us saw it coming. One day she just left, no goodbyes, and no contact after that. We tried. Riley and I tried the most, calling, texting, even sending her emails, but we got nothing back and eventually we knew that we had to stop trying." He frowned deeply. "We had to give up hope, which was really hard because we used to always have hope, but-"

"Hope is for suckers anyway."

Lucas looked up at the little girl. Her blue eyes, blonde hair, and frown all reminded him of a young Maya. He took a deep breath. "She used to say that." He whispered as if he was lost in an old memory. "She never wanted to hope for things. She used to say when you hope for things you just get disappointed." He sighed. "You two finish up the pie. I'm gonna take a walk. I trust you to be by yourselves." Lucas said getting up off the couch and walking back through the door.

"I've never seen my Uncle look so sad. I think I was right. He did love her."

"I think you should talk to your Aunt Riley about it." Emily suggested. "If you really want to know that is, you might not like what you find out."

"Even if my Uncle did cheat it was a long time ago, before I was born."

"Yeah, but it could still change the way you think about him."

"But I have to know. Maya is like this huge mystery and I have to solve it."

Emily chuckled. "Okay, Nancy Drew. I'm with ya." She held up her hand.

Holly clasped their hands together. "Rain." Holly said with a smile.

"Hurricane." Emily smiled back.

"Monsoon." Holly laughed.

"Typhoon." Emily laughed with her.