These days, everyone is being stirred up by the latest news about the kids from high school who kept disappearing. More than five cases have been recorded, and the killer left no trace anywhere which complicates the investigation. The lack of evidence and eyewitnesses to the case means that they can't find the culprit quickly, meanwhile, the kidnapper is still out there. Sarah Harper is a student who attends one of the famous high school in her place. She has light brown hair, dark brown eyes, and some freckles on her face. Even though she's not very sociable, she's very talkative to her close friends. "Ice americano and the ham sandwhich please." Sarah said to the cashier while sliding her money to the table. The cashier took it and type something on the computer before telling Sarah to wait there. Whilst waiting, Sarah looked around, trying to amuse herself while waiting for her order to come. Most of the interior are dark colored, and the tiles are all white and black. The sound of jazz music playing blended with the sound of people chattering. "Here's your order mam." said the cashier. Sarah whisper a small 'thankyou' before stuffing the sandwhich to her bag and walk out with the drink on her hand. The school will start around eight o'clock, which means she will have enough time to walk to school. But since the rumor spreaded, her parents got worried and told her to get there as soon as possible. Sarah, who actually doesn't really care about the issue, still follows what her parents said. She turned on her mototbike, placed the drink on the cup holder, and ride her way to school. When she arrived, she could see one of her friend waiting for her there. "So you're told by your parents to get off early too?" Ask Roxanne, the girl with black hair and light silver highlights. "Yea, it's such a bummer, I still kinda wanna stroll around before coming here." Sarah huffled, turning off the engine and lock it before placing the key back to her bag.
"The others haven't arrived yet huh?"
"Nope, it's just you and me."
"Well, I guess having a breakfast here would be fine."
They both then decided to go to their own lockers, placing and organizing some stuffs there before going to the caffeteria. No one is there except for them and two other person who is cleaning the floor. The place is as big as their field outside, not to mention that they even got a coffee maker that the students can use for themselves.
"And.. it's still closed."
"Wanna have mine?" Sarah asked, shoving the sandwhich infront of her friends face.
"Nah, Imma just wait, it won't be long 'til the owner arrives anyways."
"Fine then." She then opened the package and eat her breakfast in quite, waiting for the others to come too. While they're waiting, Roxanne decided to make a cup of coffee for her own. A few minutes passed, and finally all of them have already gathered there. Liam, the laziest between them all, is the last one to arrive.
"Didn't your parents tell you to arrive earlier?" ask Aiden.
"You guys are stupid if you think that I'll do what they said."
That's him, Liam Hudson, the boy with black hair and sharp blue eyes. He's the 'clown' of the group and somehow always makes someone pissed off. But, eventhough he's a trickster, he's actually pretty reliable.
He lifted one foot on the table and cover his head with his hoodie. "You guys can do anything, Imma sleep."
Aiden Alexander, the other boy beside him, just sighed at his friend's behavior. Aiden is the type of person who doesn't really care about anything. He only cares about he himself and his close ones if he had the energy to. He's not that friendly, but when you get to know him, he's actually an easy-going person.
"I've told him not to stay up all night, we have a math test this morning." he sighed again.
Emma sat down infront of him, rummaging something inside her backpack before taking out a notebook from it. The color of the notebook itself is red with black strips on the edges. She then opened the first page, revealing the title, 'The Missing Kids'.
"So.. this is the fifth?" Jack asked.
"Yep, and the authorities still have no clues on who the hell the culprit is."
Sarah and her friends are the only ones who joined the school's journalism club. Their job is to do a research and then summarize all of the info that they have got before finally turning it into an article on the school's website so that it can be reached and read by everyone. At first, they were surprised that Jack Palmer, a kid who actually know nothing about Journalism, is chosen to be the captain of the group. But since it's the school who chose him, they can do nothing about it.
"I swear the school and the authorities does nothing about this case, it seems like they don't give a shit at all." Aiden cussed.
"Language Aiden." Sarah reminded.
Julia, the one who's now holding the book finally speak up. "Atleast we now knew this person's patern right?" she asked. The culprit is kidnapping students from Palmer High in an order, and it only took them a while to notice it. Luckily for them; the culprit choses an easy one.
"It's class A first, then class B, class C, and so on, and he randomly picks one of the student from that class for each month! Why are they telling us to do a research about this anyways? It's just like we were told to help them find out who did it." said Roxanne who's suddenly pissed off.
"Look it at the bright side Roxanne, if we can find out who done it, we could be famous!" The class clown laughed it out.
They spent the rest of their morning talking and discussing together in the caffeteria, and when the bell rings, they went to their own classes, worrying about the math test. Just as she has arrived, she saw that the class is already crowded and is full of students who's studying for the test. The air is so tense and serious that it could make your hair stand.
Just when she sat down in her seat, the teacher came in. "Are you guys ready?" Ready or not, the teacher of course does not care. They all came back to their seats with worry on their faces, eventhough some of them seemed like they don't give a shit anymore. The teacher then places a stack of test paper in the desk of the front lines students. After the front line kids spread the test papers, the test started.
A few hours had passed since then, and it's now time for them to go home. Except for the journalism group of course, they still need to finish their article for today since they haven't done any since two weeks ago. They are all gathering in the computer room, each of them bringing their own laptop. The light there is dim and the air is chilly, it's the perfect place for them to do their job. Jack and Emma is told to do a research about the case, Julia and Liam will be the one who'll gather the results of the researches and infos that they have into one file. Sarah and Aiden will be the one who make the article based on the file and Roxanne will be the last person to re-read and check it. While Jack and Emma is doing their job, the others are taking a rest.
"Have you ever think that, we'll be the next one who get caught?" Julia bit her lip.
Of all the children in the room, Julia is the one who is most afraid and worried about the case. Well it's not surprising though since she is the scaredy cat of the group.
They became silent after hearing Julia's words, starting to think about what would happen if one of them was really caught. "Never mind, we'll be going home together from this week anyway, right? Our teacher already told us about it." Sarah replied trying to lighten the mood. Since the victims were always missing after school hours, the parents and the school agreed to make a rule whereby students could only go home if accompanied by at least two other people. The culprit somehow knows all of the student's adresses and does their act where there's no camera to record and no eye to witness.
Jack, who have finished his task with the help of Emma leave their results to Julia and Liam to continue their work. Emma looks like she is rubbing her eyes, it looks like her eyes are tired from looking at the laptop screen for too long. "I heard our school will have an event here." said Jack. Roxanne nodded, confirming his words. Tommorrow, they will spend a week staying in at school. This event is always held once every year and at a different time for each generation. It's like a tradition for Palmer High. There they will do a lot of exciting and fun activities. However, due to parental concerns, some activities such as bon fires in the field and water activities had to be abolished.
"It's a bummer that some of the activities are cancelled because of this."
They all nod in agreement, after all, there was only one event for each batch, and of course they had all been waiting for that day to come. But it can't be helped, of course they are more concerned with their lives than some activities, right? When Sarah turned on the phone to see the time she just realized that it was already 15.23, they had spent two hours working in that room. Their job was done and now it was time for them to go home. "Then for today I will go with Sarah, my house is close to hers." said Julia. After getting a nod from their friends, both of them left the place. The ride back home always feels familiar. The wind that blew around them made their hair follows the movement. The sound of the street mixed up with the sound of her own motorbike. Shops and houses nearby already lit their house up, making the scenery looks more colorful. When they arrived infront of Julia's house, Sarah waved her goodbye before leaving. The distance between her house and Julia's are practically not too far, it only takes two to three minutes to arrive. As she opens the front door, you can see the light yellow paint covering every inch of her house. The interior mostly gives cozy and comfy vibes. She took the milk cart she have from the refrigerator and pour it onto a glass before walking to her room. Placing her backpack and the glass of milk on the desk, she then laid herself down. Her parents were doing their monthly shopping, so she was at home alone. He took a deep breath before finally sitting back down and thinking for a while. His mind was full of Julia's words earlier. What if one of them was the chosen one. The person who will be kidnapped by the perpetrator.
"Gosh, why do I even think like that, it just makes me more dizzy." Sarah snapped, ruffling her hair. She finally decided to clean himself up for a while before feeding his pets, two fluffy sugar gliders. Sarah has been taking care of them for two months already, both of them are black and gray colored. She opens the snack package and feed it to the cute creature, watching them eat well makes her mood lifted up a bit. Because of the boredom, she decided to play with them for a while, cuddling them, let them walk around the room, and taught them to fly. Whilst playing with her pet, she heard the doorbell rings. Since their parents knew that Sarah will go home a bit late today, they didn't bring their house key. "Wait a sec, I need to fetch the key!" she shouted and dashed to the living room. Taking the key below the coffee table and opened the door. "Here, help me with this." her mom said while handing her a bag full of stuffs that she bought. Sarah closed the door after her father came in, lock it, then helps her father organize the things they bought on the kitchen.
When they're both done with it, she went back to her own room. Feeling bored, she then decided to prepare the things that she need to bring for tommorrow. Sarah had packed her outfits, meds, toiletries, some snacks, her charger, and her headphones to her black suitcase. She did her last check-up before zipping the bag up and push it to the edge of the room near the door. Meanwhile on the other side, the school has already prepared a lot of surprises for the kids. Although some of them, are not meant for the students to unravel.
