ATTENTION

A recently arrested prisoner at Garrison Prison, Katie Holt, has escaped. All that was left behind in her cell was a chunk of hair, which scientists have proved to be hers.
She was arrested as a suspect for murder of her brother and father, Samuel and Matt Holt, who have been missing for a year, as well as hacking into a government facility. Her whereabouts are unknown.
If you encounter her, call 911.

~•~

Lance McClain drove his car to school. It was a blue 2006 Scion tC that he called Blue. He was about 5 minutes away from Garrison High, the school he'd been going to since he started high school.

He was an average student, mostly getting A's and B's, along with the occasional C. He was popular, sort of. He flirted with every girl he met, though he didn't really care for any of them. Except, of course, for the most popular girl in school, Allura Altea. She had sunkissed skin, with severely bleached, long, wavy hair. Lance flirted with her more than anyone. Even if she was dating Takashi Shirogane.

He was known around school as Loverboy Lance. Most girls avoided him, and most guys laughed at him. He had a rival, Keith Kogane, who was apparently better than him at everything except flirting and socializing.

He also had a friend, a big guy named Hunk Garrett. He was a lot smarter than he looked, and liked cooking in his spare time. They'd been friends since middle school, so it was no surprise that they were friends now.

Lance pulled into a parking space in the school parking lot, then parked. She got out of his car, grabbing his blue school bag, and locked it. He started walking into the school.

He saw Hunk waiting for him, waving. He went over to him. "Hey, Hunk," he said.

"Hey, Lance!" Hunk responded happily. "Come on, let's go to class!"

They went inside and headed to their separate classes. It was a pretty normal day. Nothing out of the ordinary. That was, until Tech class.

Lance and Hunk were walking to the classroom for Tech. They both had it the period before Lunch, so they walked there together. When they got to class, they went and sat down at computers next to each other.

Their teacher, Mr. Smythe, walked into the classroom 2 minutes later, along with a small kid that Lance had never seen before. They looked about 12, but that wasn't right. Was it Mr. Smythe's kid or something?

"Good morning, students!" Mr. Smythe greeted.

"Good morning, Mr. Smythe!" responded the class.

"I'm sure most of you have met him, but we have a new student here! Now he'll introduce himself."

The small boy walked up in front of the Tech teacher and said in a monotone voice "I'm Pidge Gunderson, I'm 15, and I skipped a grade."

"What a lovely introduction," said Mr. Smythe. "You can go sit down next to Lance over there." He pointed to Lance.

Me? Really? I have to sit next to the new kid?

The kid, Pidge, walked over to where Lance was and sat down next to him. He had light brown hair, in a soft but spiky style. He wore huge round glasses, and had hazel eyes. And, as previously mentioned, he was as short as a twelve year old.

So he skipped a grade, huh? He must be super smart.

He half-listened to the lesson, mostly focusing on the new kid next to him. He seemed very focused on the lesson, though very bored, like he already knew everything.

"And now for our project," the teacher said. "You will be put in groups of three, and your job will be to create a computer animation simulating a space flight. I will be assigning groups, and you'll have the rest of the month to work on it.

"Also, this project will be worth half of your grade." Mr. Smythe waited for the students to stop complaining and panicking before announcing groups.

After a while, he stated the last group. "And lastly, Lance McClain, Hunk Garrett, and Pidge Gunderson. Now, start working!"

Great. I'm sitting next to him, and now I'm working with him for a month.

Pidge turned to him and Hunk. "I know you're Lance, but are you Hunk?" he asked Hunk.

"Yup, that's me!" Hunk replied.

"Okay," he said. "So I'll do the programming, and you two design the people, style, and audio." He turned back to his computer and started typing rapidly.

"Hey!" said Lance. "What if I wanna do the programming?"

"Trust me, I should do it," he replied, not looking away from the computer. "I'm a programming expert, and I've hacked into several websites."

"Really?" Lance questioned.

"Yes, really."

Lance turned back to Hunk and started whispering. "What's up with this guy?"

"I don't know," Hunk whispered back. "Though he seems strange."

Lance and Hunk kept whispering for the rest of the period until the bell rang. When they started to leave, Pidge talked to them.

"I finished most of the programming, and all I need is your part. Finish soon."

Lance stared at him for a second. That fast? The assignment was supposed to take a month, yet he'd finished it less than an hour. Then he realized that it was probably the easier part, so he'd dumped all the real work on them. Let's just say he wasn't very knowledgeable of the subject.

Lance and Hunk went to lunch, and Lance noticed Pidge was right behind them. He kept looking back, and noticed that Pidge had only stopped to seemingly follow them once they were heading to their usual lunch table. So he had the same Lunch as them too.

Pidge sat alone at a table, with a laptop out. So was this guy obsessed with computers or something? Lance tried not to focus on him during Lunch, but he failed.

At the end of the day, Lance and Hunk were walking to their cars. Hunk spoke up. "We should speak to that Pidge guy. Maybe we can work on the project at one of our houses."

Lance saw Pidge walking nearby. "Ok then," he said. He walked over to Pidge, with Hunk behind him. "Hey, do you think we could work on the project? Maybe we could go to your house and--"

"No!" Pidge shouted. Some people gave him weird looks. "Sorry, I don't have time to mess around with you guys." He started walking away.

"What's up with him?" Lance asked. What the heck? He hadn't wanted them to meet up at his house. What was going on there? What was his secret.

He never considered that Pidge didn't have a home. Or should I say, Katie.

~•~

For the next few days, Pidge was very distant. He barely spoke to them unless he needed to, and basically avoided them.

One day, Lance was taking a late night walk. The city was usually busy, but he apparently lived in a bad part of town, where a lot of crime had went down.

He passed by an alley, and heard a sneeze. He looked down the alley way, shining a flashlight. He saw another homeless person. There were a lot of homeless people around. He was about to leave when he noticed that the person seemed to be filling out papers.

The person looked up at him, and Lance instantly recognized him as Pidge Gunderson from school. Pidge seemed to panic that she'd been seen, and tried to hide in a shadow.

Lance walked up to him. "Pidge? Is that you?"

Pidge didn't answer. Instead, he took out a small knife and pointed it towards him. "Leave me alone, and you won't get hurt."

"Hey, it's only me, Lance!" he said. "You know, from school. Are you really homeless?"

"I sad leave me alone!" Pidge lunged, opening up the skin on Lance's arm.

"Ow!" Lance yelled. "What the hell, man?"

"I'll do it again, if you don't leave."

"Fine, fine," Lance said. He backed off and ran around the corner. He stayed there, however, out of sight but still nearby. He was confused. Pidge had had a laptop earlier that day, that had looked like a personal laptop.

I guess it wasn't, then.

No wonder Pidge hadn't wanted them to go to her place. He didn't have one. But why wasn't he in an orphanage or something?

He decided to drop it and head home. He had no idea what he'd gotten himself into.

~•~

The next few days of the weeks were a bit awkward between Lance and Pidge. Lance came to learn how genius Pidge was as he quickly became every teacher's favorite. Wow, that kid was impressive.

Friday had finally ended, and Lance was ready for the weekend as he walked towards his car with Hunk. While he was talking to Hunk, Pidge came up to them. "Lance, I need to talk privately with you."

"Okay then..." said Lance skeptically, following him into a corner. "What is it?"

"Meet me at the alleyway at 7 pm tonight," Pidge said. He then walked off.

Lance knew what he meant. He left the building and got into his car, then drove home.

When he got home, it was already 4:30. Great. He'd have to wait another 2 and a half hours.

He used that time to work on the character design for the people. He was going to draw the people, and Hunk would digitally animate them. He was actually good at drawing, but no one really knew that but Hunk.

He drew a character that, he eventually realized, looked a lot like Pidge. He decided to make the people look exactly like all three of them. He made his character the pilot, Hunk's character the engineer, and the Pidge-like character the communications officer.

After that, he looked at the time and realized he was 15 minutes late. He quickly put on his jacket and ran out the door, headed for the alley.

He got there 15 minutes later to a very angry little child. "You're late," said Pidge.

"Sorry about that," Lance panted, out of breath from running all the way there. "I was working on our project."

"Come into the alley. This is important."

Lance slowly came into the alley enough that he was engulfed in shadows. "So, what is it you wanted to talk about?"

Pidge was sitting down and looking at him. "You haven't told anyone about...seeing me here, or anything else about that, correct?"

"No," Lance said. He hadn't told anyone because it wasn't his secret to tell.

"Good," he said. "Can I trust you to keep more secrets?"

Lance looked at Pidge strangely. "What secrets?"

"Answer the question!"

"Fine, yes!"

"Okay," he said. He took a deep breath. "First of all, my name isn't really Pidge Gunderson. I won't tell you my name so you won't freak out, but you should at least know that I'm not a boy. I'm a girl."

Lance stared at Pidge. He was a girl? He was even more confused now. "You're a girl? How?"

"Don't act so surprised!" she said. "Anyway...I need someone to prove my innocence. You can help me investigate. And I'll need a lawyer..."

"Hold on, hold on," Lance interrupted. "Prove your innocence? What were you accused of? I can't help you if I done know what I need to find."

"Ugh..." she said. "Well, fine then. I'll tell you. But promise you won't freak out."

"I promise..." Lance was a little scared now.

"I was framed for the murder of my brother and father."

~•~

Lance and Pidge met in that alleyway every night. They usually didn't talk much. Lance and Pidge would search anonymously through the internet to gather data, until Lance had to go home.

Lance wondered why she'd asked him to help. He was average, and most girls avoided him. He decided to ask her, so when they met up that night, he asked.

"So...I've been wondering. Why did you ask me of all people to help?"

"Well, you knew one of my secrets, and I needed someone to help me investigate, so I decided to bring you to my side," she said. However, when he looked towards her, he couldn't sworn that her cheeks were a bit pink.

Lance dreamed of him and her that night. They were in a snowy forest, hand in hand. Their coats were gone, flying away in the wind. She shivered, and Lance hugged her close to keep her warm.

Then they were suddenly in a cabin, where Lance was still hugging her by the fire. Pidge looked up at Lance, and Lance looked at her. And then, they kissed.

Lance jolted awake, finding that it was already morning.

What was that dream?

Lance felt stranger than normal around Pidge from then on. He blushed every time Pidge looked at him or spoke directly to him. He still remembered most details of the dream. Especially the last part...

In Tech class, they finally put together their project. They played it, and it obviously showed that it was made by nonproffesionals, but it looked better than it would've normally been with someone that wasn't Pidge.

That night, Lance anonymously looked up unsolved cases for a father and son probably murdered by the daughter. There were more than there should be, but only one local one. The case of Katie Holt.

He looked up Katie Holt, and found a recent newspaper article warning of her escape. He saw a picture of her. She looked so much like Pidge, but without glasses and with longer hair. It had to be her.

Lance knew he should be afraid. After all, she had been arrested for killing her father and brother, who were probably very important to her. He could possibly be killed with no hesitation. But somehow, it made him feel safer that she was on his side.

He admitted it. He had feelings for her. He didn't know why it had come so suddenly, but he accepted it. She just hoped Pidge, or Katie, felt the same way.

He needed to tell her. That was the only way.

~•~

It was the day the project was due. They had to present it to the class. Pidge did the least amount of talking, and Hunk did the most. Lance talked as well, but he was more nervous about what he planned to do next.

During Lunch, Lance went up to her and asked to speak to her in private. No one else knew that she was a boy, so it'd be more awkward to say in person.

"What do you want?" asked Pidge.

"Well, uh, how do I say this..." Lance stalled.

"Spit it out, Lance!"

"Okay, yeesh!" Lance took a deep breath. "I like you."

That was the best moment of his life. Pidge pulled his head down to her level and kissed him. He hadn't been expecting it, but he enjoyed it, so he kissed back. They kissed passionately for what felt like a lifetime, though it was probably only minutes. The bell rang for the next class, and they stopped.

"I--" started Pidge. Then she ran off.

Lance would've stopped her, but he was too stunned. He had a huge grin on his face. So she had felt the same way...

He had that grin on for the rest of the school day. Even when Hunk was trying to get his attention, he ignored it. He couldn't stop thinking about his moment in heaven.

"Earth to Lance," said Hunk, waving his hand in Lance's face. "Hello?"

Lance snapped out of his trance. "Oh, uh, yeah?"

"Can I come over to your place today?" he asked. "Your mom's cookies are the best!"

"Nope, sorry," said Lance. He had to spend some more time with Pidge.

"Why not?"

"She has something important for work tonight," Lance lied. "She needs to be as focused as possible."

"Oh..." said Hunk, disappointed. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow I guess!"

"See ya!"

Lance continued walking towards his car. He saw Pidge starting to walk in the way she usually did after school. "Hey Pidge!" Lance called. "Want a ride home?"

Pidge looked over at him. She blushed, but she wordlessly came over and sat in the passenger seat of his car. Lance got in and they drove off.

"So about earlier..." said Pidge.

Lance instantly blushed and grinned. "Yeah?"

"Um..." she started, gulping. "I like you too...and I know I overreacted...it was just the heat of the moment...and I..."

"It's fine," chuckled Lance. "I didn't mind."

Pidge blushed and looked away. "So how exactly are we gonna deal with this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone at school except you thinks that I'm a boy," said Pidge. "So unless you're known to be bi..."

"Some people tease me about that," responded Lance. "Though I'm straight, as far as I know."

"Okay, well unless you wanna pretend to be bi for the rest of the time I'm seen as guilty, then we'll have to keep this a secret..."

"Or you can tell the truth about being a girl," said Lance. "You don't have to admit anything else. You can even say you're transgender and have become a girl if you want to."

Pidge stayed silent, probably considering the idea. However, she did not seem to have decided yet when he pulled into the driveway at his house.

He brought her stuff and his inside, and Pidge followed him. He remembered that he probably should've brought her to her alleyway, but he didn't feel comfortable leaving her there alone. They went inside, encountering his mother.

"Hi Lance," said the woman. "Who's this?"

"He's a friend of mine," answered Lance. "His...parents are out of town, so I was hoping that he could stay over?"

Lance's mother sighed. "Fine. But don't do anything stupid. I have work to do."

Yes!

Lance brought their stuff to his room, where he put it down in the corner.

"So," said Pidge. "Where will I sleep, if I'm sleeping over?"

Lance had originally thought of her sleeping in his bed, then he realized that was a bad idea. "Hmm...how about I set up a sleeping bag for me to sleep in while you sleep in the bed? You deserve the more comfortable option."

"Aww, thanks!" said Pidge. She laid down on the bed, where she stayed as she watched him try to find his sleeping bag. When he finally found it, he looked at his bed to see that Pidge had fallen asleep.

Pidge looked peaceful when she slept. He was tempted to hug her for the rest of the night, but decided against it. He set up the sleeping bag and fell asleep in it.

~•~

Lance woke up to sirens outside. There was a knock on the door, which was opened by his mother. He heard them talking, but he couldn't tell what they were saying.

Suddenly, a police officer came into his room. Lance looked at him and saw him pick up the sleeping Pidge, handcuff her, and start to carry her away.

Lance got up and tried to stop him. "What are you doing with Pidge?" he demanded.

"This kid's name isn't Pidge," he said. "This is Katie Holt, who recently escaped prison. We are talking her back."

"No!" yelled Lance. "She did nothing wrong! Leave her alone!"

"I'm sorry, son. She has too little evidence of being innocent to stay free."

The policeman took her away. She was still asleep, unaware of what was going on. "No!" Lance yelled. "NO!!!!"

~•~

Lance entered the prison as a visitor. He went to the glass visitor area and picked up the phone. Soon, someone came to the other side of the glass and picked up the phone.

"Prove my innocence, Lance," said Pidge, the love of his life.

~•~