After leaving me alone for several hours, Cathy brings me a small suitcase, which easily holds all of my possessions.

No one bothers me as I pack. Cathy's probably been shooing them away.

I can't tell Jill. I can't.

Cathy says I don't have to. That she'll figure it out. But that feels wrong. Still, it's what I'm going to do.

I just can't believe this is happening. I don't even dare to hope I'm dreaming.

---------------------------------------------

Cathy weeks me up about two hours before the usual 8 o'clock. She says she'll deal with Jill, and I'm grateful.

Everything is a blur. Disbelief has clouded my senses. Yesterday the thought of leaving didn't even cross my mind. This was on such short notice. Stupid time. It can do so much to a person.

Cathy and I eat a small breakfast silently. She does tell me that Stephano and Susan are leaving today too, but I just nod.

The doorbell rings and Cathy has to go through a few different rooms, with me following her, to answer the door.

Standing outside the door is a woman - probably in her twenties - with blond curls pulled up into a ponytail. She wears a navy blue suit identical to Susan's.

"Hi Cathy!" she says, and then looks at me. "I'm Wendy! You must be Natalie! I'm here to take you to your new family!"

New family? Guess I never thought of how the agency was supposed to adopt me.

Cathy pushes me through the door. "Natalie," she says, "this is what you were meant to do."

I turn around to look at her and see a tear glistening on her cheek. I give her one last hug before turning myself in to Wendy.

Cathy hands her the stack of papers from the filing cabinet. She probably made copies of them this morning.

"Come, Natalie," says Wendy, putting her hand on my back. She leads me to a black car parked out front.

"Bye, Natalie!" Cathy calls. "Visit soon!"

Visit? How can I do that? How can I face Jill when I didn't even have the guts to say goodbye?

Guilt tears at me because of it.

Wendy takes my little suitcase and walks around to the trunk while I sit down in the passenger seat. Then she gets in and begins to drive.

"Questions?" she says.

"Strangely, I can't think of any at the moment," I tell her.

She smiles. "You're just shocked. I entered the agency as a sixteen-year-old orphan, too. I know how it feels.

Stephano and Susan were the ones who were sent to spy on me too. I went to the same orphanage, but it was called Madame Charlotte's."

"What happened to Charlotte?" I ask finally having a question.

"Um.... She mysteriously disappeared. We think it may have been an early case of The Red."

She looks at me and my confused face and inhales. "I'm gonna try to explain to you! All of it!

I'm twenty-six. The agency's been hunting The Red for ten years, since I was sixteen. Well, Charlotte disappeared when I was sixteen, right after I left. The agency adopted me for more recruits. The agency is twelve years old, but it's when these mysterious murders started happening that they needed more detectives. So they adopted me. But then the sticker came out, and The Red was nicknamed The Red. That's when we officially made it our main case; we hardly investigate anything else."

I decided to ask her something that never occurred to me before. "Why are they called The Red?"

"Well it's kinda funny, really. Red resembles evil, and blood. Lots of blood with these guys. But it also represents love. The figures on the sticker look like a loving family, despite the crime, you know?"

"Oh."

"Soon, you'll get the tour, and things will be explained. But this week or so is about getting comfortable with your family. Don't want to overload you."

"What happened to the other orphans when Charlotte left?" I ask.

"Oh, they were all shipped off to a bigger city. Once Cathy came along, some really young ones got sent in."

Jill. Preston. They were probably the oldest among that group.

"Are...are there other children who've been adopted for the agency?" I ask.

"We have three families. Family 1 is made up of a married couple, and two teenagers from New York, Jen and Krista. Family 2 is about the same, with Matt and Timothy. You will be in Family 3. Married couple, except they have a real kid. He's six; name's Lenny. Quite the little brat, but you didn't hear me say that. They've got one adopted kid though. Caylen. You'll like him. They've been holding your spot in that family for years. We would've picked you up sooner if your parents hadn't asked for age sixteen. No clue why, though. Just being parents, I guess."

Learning these things has gotten me excited. Excited to go after the people who killed my parents. Never mind that they've been chased for years with no luck. I'll get them. I know it.

---------------------------------------------

Wendy stops in front of a little blue house on the corner of the street. Well, not exactly the real corner. The corner house a little playground and some grass but the blue house is the next closest thing.

I pull my suitcase as I follow Wendy up four cement steps to the door. She rings a doorbell and then says "Wendy; code 14268."

She then turns to me and says, "Microphone. Need it for security code."

A woman opens the door. Her hair is as pale as cornsilk, shiny, and perfectly straight. Her skin is perfectly tan but it's not unhealthy, as if she spent too much time in the sun. Her eyes are a pale blue with that kind of scary look, and I feel like she can see right through me. She looks to be in perfect shape, but she can't be more than a few years older than Wendy. She wears a black designer dress that stops at her knees, with matching heels. One look at her face gives me the clue that she isn't an overly cheery person.

Standing behind her is - oh goodness.... It's... Rob...the man from the lake. Please don't tell me he's going to be my new dad!

"Natalie," Wendy says, "these are your new parents!"

Wow, can she read my mind?

A young boy comes up behind the woman. I don't need anyone to tell me he's her son. He has the same hair and eyes. Not to mention the stern look his face naturally possessed. He must be Lenny, the six-year-old.

"Is that her?!" a boy's voice calls from behind them.

The woman turns her head. "Be quiet and finish your mission!"

I have to keep myself from snickering. It sounded as if she was telling him to do his homework.

The woman places a hand on her chest. "I'm Shauna, and you've met Rob, huh?"

"Yes," I say.

"Well, this is my son, Lenny, and that kid you heard a second ago would be Caylen."

I smiled and she says, "Come in!"

She acts a little nicer than she looks, I decide.

I step inside the house, and behind me, Wendy calls, "See you and next week, Natalie!"

I turn to object to her leaving, but she's already briskly walking down the walkway. So I turn back to the house and take in my surroundings.

The walls and light blue in this reasonably sized room, and the wooden floors are darkly stained. There's a leather couch and chair sitting across from a big screen TV. I see the kid who has to be Caylen sitting on the couch.

He looks about fourteen, with dark brown hair that looks like it's about long enough to bug his eyes, but not longer than his neck. He's bent over a touch screen tablet (probably finishing his "mission", however that works) but I can still kind of make out the color of his skin despite the shadow of his hair. It's a light tan. He definitely doesn't belong. I wonder if he feels left out.

He looks up at me and grins. His eyes are brown. I find them rather intriguing. To me, they look like they hide many stories. But his smile looks mischievous. He could be a prankster.

"You're kinda tall," he says.

"Really?" I say, looking down at my feet. I don't spend any time with girls my age, so I never really got to size myself up.

"Caylen," Shauna says, "are you done yet?"

"Almost," he sighs.

A small smile comes to my face. Caylen takes away some of the awkwardness in my situation.

"I'll show you your room," Shauna says. "Follow me."

Her shoes make little clicks as I follow her down the hall. I'm reminded of Stephano's computer in the middle of the night.

He's part of this too, I think. Will we cross paths again? What will he say?

Shauna opens a door at the very end of the hall. Once inside, I can see it's a rather small room. But it's big enough for me, especially coming from a dorm shared with several little girls.

The walls are white, but the floors are the same dark wood as the rest of the house. A queen sized bed is nestled in a corner, dressed in a dark purple quilt and sham. There's a bookshelf and a seat with a laptop, but that's about it, except for the large window on the wall across from the bed.

"We'll take you shopping on Monday," Shauna tells me. "Doesn't look like you have enough clothes to fill that closet." She nods her head toward my little suitcase.

"Come with me, and I'll show you the rest of the house," she says before turning away from the room.

The rest of the house has the same wood floors and blue walls, except the bedrooms, which have white walls. There are two spare rooms, as required by the agency (for reasons I've yet to learn). None of the rooms are very big, but they are all furnished exquisitely.

We end up back in the main room, where the rest of the family is.

"Also on Monday," Shauna says, "you'll be going to school."

"Public school?" I ask.

"Mmhmm."

I haven't gone to public school since I was thirteen. I'll admit - I'm nervous.

"Finished!" Caylen jumps off of the couch, tablet held in the air.

"Good," Shauna says, "now go take Natalie for a walk around the neighborhood."

"Sure thing." Caylen walks up to me and pulls me to the door, despite my lame protests.

With Caylen next to me, I see he's only a couple of inches shorter.

"So," he says as we walk away from the house and the little park. "I'm Caylen, fourteen years old, freshmen, and umm...."

"Well, I'm Natalie-"

"I knew that."

"But I already knew you were Caylen. Gosh, just let me finish."

He grins, but doesn't say anything else.

"Okay, so I'm sixteen, probably a junior by now, and...I like to run. What do you like to do?"

"Well, I do enjoy playing tricks on people now and then."

Ah ha! Natalie knows all! He is a prankster!

"Is 'now and then' quite often?" I ask.

"Yes." He gives me an elfish grin.

I laugh a little.

"Honestly," he says, "I'm glad you're here. Being the only adopted kid while Rob and Shauna pamper Lenny really isn't that fun."

"I wouldn't think so." Wendy was right; I do like this kid. "I will share your burdens."

"Why, thank you," he says sarcastically.

"So how do you complete these...electronic missions?" I ask.

"Ah, well," he starts, "it's basically just filling out a report about what you noticed from this crime scene and comparing it to the last one."

"Oh." It's really strange to think a kid like him has such a serious job.

"Where'd you come from?" I ask him.

"Down by the beach. About twelve hours from here."

"Am I the only one who comes from this town?!"

"The adults already live here," he says, "and they can't be adopted, you know, because they're adults. Your parents probably moved here once they joined and you we're put in this orphanage until you turned sixteen."

Come to think of it, I vaguely remember a different house...a different yard...a lot of boxes and a big truck.... Caylen must be right.

After a minute of quiet thinking, I bring up a new subject. "I have some friends around your age. Jill and Preston. They're really cool."

"Oh?" Caylen grins again, and I see a glimmer of excitement.

"Yeah. maybe you can meet them someday."

"Well, the agency kinda prohibits close relationships, you know, so you won't be tempted to expose the agency. You can't tell anyone anything. Stupid, in a way, but I see the point."

We keep walking and talking about light subjects for a while, but something is nagging at me. I can't tell Jill anything. If I saw her yesterday, I could've told her I didn't know anything, because in a way, I didn't. But now I can't lie to her or she'll see something's bothering me. Cathy told me to visit. I can't just let our friendship fade. And then I realize that I left Jill just like May left Elisa. I didn't say goodbye. I just rushed off without even looking at her. But now, I don't even know if someone is there to comfort her if she cries.