Shawn's POV

As the sun rose over the horizon, I packed my backpack with everything I would need. Snacks, a water bottle, and about 8 hours worth of entertainment. I bid my mom farewell, then walked to my bus stop. I rode for a while in silence. I didn't like what we had to do, but we didn't have much of a choice.

When we arrived at school, I noticed that Elo, Maddie and Elias were already there. I nodded at them, and we all began walking. We stopped when we reached the playground. We looked around to make sure no one was watching, then we ran. We dashed through the hole in the fence and across the street. Thankfully there were no cars to stop us. After we were a block and a half away from the school, we stopped. "Ok, the spot is only a block or two away from here," I told them. "Let's get moving." We walked at a comfortable pace. "Do you think Nora's group will be able to get out ok?" Asked Elo. I nodded. A bigger group would arouse more suspicion, so we decided to split up. The four of us were one group, and Nora, Lana, Lily and Tommy were the other group. "Tommy, you lucky little..." Elias grumbled. "What did you say?" Asked Maddie. "Nothing," he said.

After a few more minutes of walking we stopped at a small lot behind a building. We put out some picnic blankets and some food and then sat down. This was how you cut classes.

"Are you sure about this, guys?" Elias asked. "School hasn't started yet, I bet we could make it back there in time..." I shook my head. "In all honesty, it's too dangerous. Did you see what Ganon did to Caleb's arm? And the worst part is that all the staff are doing nothing about it. Until we can find out what's going on, it's better to stay out of school. I don't like running away either, but what choice do we have?" It was sad, really. We had no options, and an enemy we couldn't beat. What else could we do?

"But I think he has a point," said Elo. "Also, with all these kidnappings, out on the streets isn't exactly the safest place either." We all sighed. It seemed like everything was going to shit. But maybe that just happened to everyone at some point. It just feels like everything is going wrong, and you have nowhere to turn...

At that moment, we heard someone calling our names from around the corner. Before we could hide, Maeve ran right into our spot.

"Maeve?" I asked. "What are you doing here?" She recovered her breath for a few moments before answering. "Two things. One, you owe me drug money." I begrudgingly handed her a ten. "Two, my dad. Mr. Schoenbeck. He's... he just... disappeared." This was news to us. But when I thought about it, it made sense. Nobody in the class has heard anything from him since he had been fired. "What do you mean?" Maddie asked. "Did he leave a note or something?" Maeve shook her head.

"He left for a convention in LA two weeks ago, but he was supposed to be back a week ago. We checked with the airport, but apparently he never even arrived," she explained. "We've called everyone we could think of, but none of them have seen him."

As she explained, two kids wearing dark hoodies walked past the alley we were in. One of them turned and saw us. He seemed almost... Familiar. Was that a strand of orange peeking out of his hood...? After a moment, he pulled out his phone and continued walking.

"This entire thing is really shady. It seems like horrible things are happening to everyone that's affiliated with our class. If that's the case... We could all be in a lot of danger," I said. Everyone nodded solemnly.

"Maybe we should try and... I dunno, investigate or something," said Elizabeth. "Like go to their houses, look through their rooms, you know, that kind of stuff." That didn't sound like too bad of an idea. "We should get a few other people together and search the rooms of Dyanara, Xiomara, Julian... Maybe even Mr. Schoenbeck," said Maddie.

Before I could reply, we all heard sirens rapidly approaching. We turned to look and saw a police car turning deliberately down the alley.

I quickly checked my watch and saw that it was 8:42. Crap. If those guys saw us, we wouldn't have any excuse as to why we weren't in school.

We all sat there in silence as the police cruiser pulled up in front of us. Two officers came out and walked up to us.

"Now just what are you kids doing out of school?" One asked. Trying to think quicky, I said, "Oh, we, um, go to private school and we have a day off." Elias nodded vigorously. "Yeah, what he said!"

The second officer shook his head at us. Then he pulled out a book. "Aren't these kids you?" He asked. He was showing us what looked like this year's yearbook pictures, which was strange because Picture Day wasn't for another few weeks. Unsure of what to say, I just looked down awkwardly.

"Well skippin' school is a big no-no now. New anti-truancy laws were just passed a few days ago. So let's get you kids and the rest of your friends back to school, alright?"

What? I thought. We were quicky ushered info the back seat of the car, where to our horror, we saw Nora, Lana, Lily, and Tommy. Lana attempted to wave to us to lighten the mood, but all of us were shocked. How did they find both groups in a row? Did somebody tip them off that we were cutting classes? Who could it have been? Countless questions swirled through my mind as we drove back to our school. As we passed by the turf, I saw that it was recess, and noticed the rest of our class (save for the new kids) looking sadly through the fence at us. We were discharged from the car and began the slow walk of shame into the building.