• “Lea!”
    Lea’s mother shouted from the kitchen, “Yeah, mom?” she yelled back
    “Jake and I are going to bowling; turn your cell phone on!”
    “Okay, mom” she replied, she climbed out of bed and walked over to her nightstand. She picked up the ice blue Verizon Juke and flipped it open. On the screen a brightly light house shone against a starless night sky. In the corner a white watch showed the time, 7:48 Saturday. No school, no friends, she thought.
    She was new in their new town of Dallas, Texas. So far nobody at her new school, Ranchview High School, had offered to be her friend, maybe it was because she was only in the ninth grade. Yes, she thought, that’s it all the ninth graders don’t seem to have any close friends and it’s the beginning of the year.
    Lea sighed and closed the phone, “I’m hopeless” she murmured, “I’ll never make a friend.” She let out a ghastly moan and flopped onto her bed. Her phone slipped out of her hand, and it hit the floor with a thud. Suddenly she wished she could drive, and then maybe she could have gone to the mall or something. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling, it was plain white, the same with the rest of her room. Except the floor boards which were a dark oak.
    She rolled over again and landed face first onto the floor, “Stupid” she growled, getting up. She paused; the low rumble of a car was right outside the window. Lea warily walked over to the four paned window.
    A black jaguar waited outside, the passenger door was open and a tall man was getting out. He had long black hair tied into a horsetail. His eyes were covered by black shades and he was wearing a black suit. He walked in between the two tall elms and along the stone path to the door and knocked. His fist pounded hard, making a large echoing boom inside the outsized house. Lea quietly started to back away from the window when a boy about her age stepped out of the car.
    His hair was short and black in layers, of which the longest reached just below his shoulder, his eyes, too, were covered with shades. He wore a night black leather jumpsuit along with matching leather gloves and boots. Over his mouth he dressed in a black scarf with white edges. Lea stopped, her heart lurched when he took out an exact replica of the black key her mother and she used to get inside the house. He followed the other man onto the threshold, then, taking out the key, he mumbled something to the man and he took out a handgun.
    Lea jumped back when he looked up at the window, she carefully looked back and they weren’t there. Out of the corner of the window she could see the open door, footsteps sounded on the staircase so she dropped to her hands and knees and crawled over to her closet. The two were in the hallway before she even knew; their voices grew as they walked down to the end of the hallway. The young boy had a whimsical voice that sounded like music. And the guard, she guessed, had a levelly strong voice. She was in the closet and had the sliding doors closed when they entered her mother’s room just to the right of her door. Her breathing slowed and her hearing doubled, the two entered her room, “Hand me one of her necklaces” the boy sang, “One from the closet, over there, the glass closet” there were only two closets in her room, one of which had sliding glass doors, she was in that one!
    The man slowly stepped over to the closet, his breathing was shallow and his hand shook as he opened the closet. Lea looked up at him, and he grinned, “She’s here” he laughed, Lea jumped at him. He blocked her and she was sent hurtling into the dresser. The boy turned around and looked at her, “Stop thrashing around with my buddy, we just want to ask you something”
    “No!” Lea cried, she ran out of her room and headed down the hallway turned her head and saw they were running after her. She jumped onto the landing, then, instead of turning to go the down the rest of the stairs she gripped the railing and flew over it, to land on the wooden dining table. The boy and his friend looked at her and she ran out the door.