Today was normal if anything, school was drawing to a close for this year and we all were excited to be finally done with that dreaded sophomore year.  Today was the last day of true classes before finals week, which was notorious for having to do absolutely nothing.

"So, Brenton," Ty greeted me, "Are you coming to lunch with us on Tuesday?"

It was amazing how much Ty was obsessed with going out to lunch.  Any time there was an early release, let's go out to lunch, no school, let's go out to lunch.  Finals week was no different.  "I don't know, we'll see," I replied.

"Oh come on, both Alicia and Marissa are coming, it'll be fun," he said, although I think he really just wanted me there so it wasn't just him and two girls.

I sighed, fortunately I was saved by my best friend Tracy Lebel, who I think could sense my distress, "Hey guys!" she asked, "what's up?"

"Nothing much, I'm just trying to convince Brenton here to not be a party pooper and just go out to lunch on Tuesday," Ty said, too enthusiastically, "which by the way, you should totally come, it will be fun!"

Tracy and I shared the one look who's meaning could only be translated to "sigh". "Actually I should probably get going to Chem," she replied.

"Oh, well then I can go with you," I offered, "I have to go to English; that's right by there."

"Sound's good, see ya later Ty." she said, and we began to head towards our classes.  The hallways were bustling with students.  Summer Valley isn't that big of a town compared to towns like Jefferson, with 200,000 people, but it is a very nice suburb with highly ranked schools, so the hallways at Summer Valley high do get a lot of traffic.

"You know, I've been thinking about Lili, and her death recently." she commented.  I bowed down my head, I had tried to forget about that, push it to a  part of my brain where it could never be found.  Lili was such a nice friend, it was a tragedy when we lost her. "They gave up on the investigation you know, they are just calling it natural causes."

I looked at her grimly we all knew that Lili's death was anything but natural.  The same night she had disappeared, she sent Tracy a cryptic message, full of numbers.  We tried to bring it to the police, hoping it was some kind of lead, but they ignored it.

"You know what we should do?" Tracy suddenly seemed a bit more excited, "We need to investigate, solve the mystery, whatever.  You and I both know that something isn't right about all of this, let's take matters into our own hands."

Looking back upon it, I really should have said no, its too dangerous or something like that, but instead, I replied, "That's fantastic, we should totally do that.  You know I could start by trying to crack that cipher you were sent,  I still remember a thing or two from Comp. Thinking's cryptography unit!"

"Awesome, and then we can get Ty, Alicia, Marissa, Corrina together to head over to Prybank Forest sometime during finals week.  It can be a little 'get together'!"

"Well then it's settled," I said, as we came up to her Chemistry room, "I'll see you Monday and have fun studying for all those finals."

"Oh I will, and you too!" she replied sarcastically.  

I strode off feeling excited, thinking through every little detail of our upcoming trip in my mind.  It was going to be fantastic....