River's POV
I woke up to feel something, or someone rather, next to me. I was shocked to see none other than Les. Her hand rested on my stomach- she looked so peaceful when she's sleeping. I was about to get up when Corey burst into the room. Her hand instantly was pulled away and she rolled off the bed.

Leslie POV
I woke up to Corey bursting through the door, he was shirtless, his fluffy hair sticking up at odd angles, with the end of a telephone dangling from his hands. I chuckled groggily at the peculiar sight.
"What on earth Corey?!" I bit my lip to try to contain my laughter. I snuck a quick look at River's reaction, and unsurprisingly it wasn't that different to mine.
"School starts in like 10 minutes!" He untangled himself from the wire of the telephone, he started trying to brush his hair with one hand, whilst rummaging his drawers for what I presumed was a shirt with the other.
"If we leave now we can-"
"Corey-"
"And then I won't get told off again and-"
"Corey!" I grabbed his bare shoulders. "Relax! Let's just skip school and go to the park or the mall or something!"
"My teacher said if I skipped again I would get months detention."
"Well can we at least ditch school after lunch, then we'll be signed in for the whole day, so if we leave, it says we're still in school." I tapped my nail to my head mischievously.
"That was the long way of saying it but sure."
"Yay! Let me go get my bag from home and I'll meet you guys at school."
"Where'd I put my shirt?" I heard Corey say as I hurried out the door.

"Once I got to my house, I saw a police car outside and my mom, Ralph and Seb talking to a couple of policemen who were taking notes. As I immediately ran to hide behind one of our neighbours houses, I vaguely heard my mother describing what I figured out to be me, my name was mentioned and the word 'missing' came up several times. She pointed down the road to Corey's house, suggesting that they were going to search it. I decided it would be best if I just left my bag at home and caught up with Corey and River- not wanting to deal with the police or get involved. In hindsight I would just make this situation worse, but I really didn't want to deal with it this minute. I got to them just as they were coming out of the house. I ran up to Corey.
"You went for the white shirt huh? Original." Corey just playfully glared at me before swinging me over his shoulder. I giggle-screamed as he just started to run a bit. My head was bobbing up and down so much I began to feel nauseous. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw River staring at us both with a disgruntled, almost envious look.
"So Les, I decided, since you're in such a good mood, I don't want to ruin it with hell, so we can just skip and go get some food or something." Corey smirked up at me.
"You'd get a month's detention just so my mood's not destroyed? You are the sweetest!" River's head snapped to us at that.
"Well, I'm sure I can come up with an excuse, get my dad to tell them I was sick or something."
"Aw yay! Thanks Corey."
"No worries, so where do you wanna go?"
"The arcade?"
"Sure, is that okay River?"
"What- oh, uh yeah." He flicked his golden hair out of his eyes.
"Then let's go!" I shimmied off Corey's shoulders and jumped on his back. I struck my fist in the air- grinning.

About halfway to the arcade, Corey stopped.
"The arcade's so far! Can't we just go in my car?"
"No, because A, we are already halfway there, and B, because you're parents will notice your car's missing."
"A-" he mocked me, "That woman is not my 'parent' and B, they don't even give a shit about me or where I am, as long as it's in the country and not jail."
"Lets just go."
"Fine, but I need a break, River was the cause of me losing my sleep, so he can carry you. I don't know why you need to be carried though." He threw his arms in the air dramatically.
"Princesses need to be carried," River piped up. I smirked at Corey.
"You just lost this princess," I jumped onto River's back. He placed his hands under my my thighs and pushed me up. I turned to Corey who just stuck his tongue out at me, I grinned- sticking my tongue out back at him. River chuckled and carried on walking.

"Wait, Les, I thought you went back to get your bag?" Corey asked.
"Oh yeah, um...Well, there were sort of policemen there." I fiddled with the end of a curl.
"Why?" River and Corey both asked at the same time. Corey stopped dead in his tracks and River strained his neck around to look at me.
"I think they think I'm missing."
"You should really go back," River stated.
"I know, but I just can't face by them at the moment, what with my recent outburst and Seb hating me and him being beaten up at school, and Ralph always filming and-"
"Les." River slung me down from his back and gripped my shoulders. "Breathe." I attempted taking a deep breath, but it hitched and I gave up.
"You know you're only making it worse by staying away."
"And ditching school probably isn't helping, if the school doesn't know where you are... you should've told me and we wouldn't be at the doors of an arcade, when no one knows where you are."
"Look, I'm just not ready yet. It's fine for now, let's just have some fun."
"Well I can't say no to that," Corey replied- rubbing his hands together.
"But you've got to go home soon, okay?" River ran his fingers through his longish hair. I had always liked how it fell into place neatly.
"Les?"
"What? Oh yeah. Yeah sure." I presume he was satisfied as he ran in with me after Corey- who had already ran in. I swear, sometimes that guy acts like a little kid in a candy shop. We played a killer air hockey match, it ending with Corey and I beating River. It was nice to just hang with River, instead of fighting. It really seemed like he'd changed, and once I got to know him, he wasn't that bad. Apparently he also used to have problems at home and that was part of the reason he had problems with me- I reminded him of home and how at that time, he was afraid of his home. I guess that's somewhat understandable.

Right now, we were at the basketball toss and the score was 23-21-12. Guess who the twelve was? That's what I get for thinking about things too much. River took a glance up at the scores and abandoned his post to come over to mine.
"Want me to throw some to help you catch up?" he asked- taking me aback by his kind gesture.
"I don't really wanna cheat River."
"It's not cheating if you're touching the ball." He winked as he placed his hands on the ball over mine. The warmth from them spread through my hands and I felt my whole body begin to tingle. He moved my hands and threw the ball. It went in. I could feel myself begin to blush. I thanked god that he couldn't see my face, but Corey could. He was grinning ear to ear at me and kept wiggling his eyebrows. I smiled bashfully, rolling my eyes as I faced back to the game. Before the game timer finished, I managed to score ten extra points, with the help of River of course.
"Thanks River. Good game Cor." We all shook hands with jokingly sincere faces. He nodded back at me and we headed over to the video games. I finished my game of pacman and took a bathroom break-splashing my face with cold water to rid it of sweat from the almost uncomfortably humid arcade.

When I stepped out, I witnessed Ralph and Seb approaching Corey and River. I quickly hid behind the bathroom door. Ralph narrowed his eyes at River.
"Why aren't you at school?" Ralph asked.
"We're ditching, genius," Corey said, causing me to roll my eyes at him. I assumed Ralph did too, I don't know though as they had turned their backs to me.
"Don't be a smart ass," Ralph patted Corey on the shoulder. Phew, that meant he was just playing with him.
"You're not in school either," River stepped in.
"Shut up, dipshit. My tutor's not coming till tomorrow, and anyways, we're looking for our sister, you wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?" That's when River caught sight of me- since he was facing me- I instantly started to shake my head vigorously. He glared at me, before reluctantly opening his mouth to speak.
"What? She's missing?" He was acting. He's a good actor like that.
"Did you not know?" By now, Ralph was inches from River's face. I saw him gulp nervously.
"No, as Corey said, we ditched today."
"But you guys walk to school together."
"We told her we were ditching today." Ralph gestured towards the drinks cups River and Corey held.
"Then why do you have three cups?" he sounded almost triumphant, as if he'd caught them out.
"What? I wanted to try the blue raspberry and the cherry!" Corey attempted to defend himself.
"I don't believe a word you say buddy, but if you're even slightly involved in her disappearance, you're gonna wish you were dead." They stormed to the door.
"Bye little buddy!" Corey shouted to them.
"I'm fourteen!" Seb shouted back. I walked casually back into the arcade.
"Corey. Get your brother to pick us up in your car."
"Wh-"
"Just do it." Corey sighed, but went to ask the guy to use the phone.
"I didn't like lying to your brother, Les. He already hates me enough."
"That's your fault he hates you." Corey ran back up.
"He said he'll be here in five." I grinned at him.
"Thanks Cor."

After a lot longer than five minutes, a black convertible pulled up- Corey's, to be exact. I got in the back with River- Corey swapping seats with his brother.
"Heyyy Julian!" I fist bumped him.
"What's up lil homie? How was the arcade?" he smiled at me.
"Pretty rad, I beat Corey in basketball as usual." I flipped my hair over my shoulder as a joke.
"In your dreams Macchio!" Corey chuckled as he carried on chatting to Julian.

It felt like no time before we got to Corey's house. I ran out the car and got to my bedroom window- Corey and River by my side. I started climbing up to it. River gave me a foot up and I sat just outside it. I was arguing with myself whether or not to go in. However, I stopped when I heard someone singing and playing guitar inside. I peeked in and saw Ralph sitting playing guitar and heard Sebastian singing. It was the song for the new movie he was in where he had to sing to his love interest.
Half the world away,
I've been lost, I've been found, but I don't feel down
Something about the lyrics spoke to me, I felt like they applied to the situation. Giving a thumbs up to River and Corey below, I slid open the window and climbed inside. The lyrics swimming through my mind.
I clambered over to my bed and buried myself under the covers. Less than a second later, I felt two figures plop either side of me. They turned sideways, and sandwiched me between their bodies- enclosing me in a tight hug- considering my bed was so small. It hurt, but a good kind of pain. I turned to face Ralph, muttering into his chest.
"Piss off Seb." Ralph heard this as well and pulled me up and sat me down.
"Right, niceties over. Where the hell were you?"
"I fucked off, like Seb asked." Ralph snapped his head to Sebastian now.
"You?"
"You should've heard what she said to me!"
"But you hate me now and that's worse in a way." Ralph grabbed me by my shirt.
"You set the entire family off, if you thought that running away was a little game, then you're wrong. The police were looking for you, mom was looking for you, and Seb and I trekked as far as the downtown arcade looking for you." Every word got more intense.
"I..." By now I was terrified of my brother. "I...I just-"
"You j...j....just, didn't you?" Ralph mimicked. By now, I had burst into tears. His face softened and he hugged me to his chest.
"Sh, I didn't mean to make you cry, El. Seb, can you get over here, you're better at this." I looked up and saw Seb reluctantly come over- climbing in next to me. I turned my head and body to face him and I hugged him.
"I'm so, so sorry Seb. We never fight like this and sometimes, I feel like you're the one of the few people I have. I regretted what I said after, I didn't mean any of it, really." I spoke through tears. I felt my shirt shoulder get wet, meaning that Sebastian was crying also.
"I love you Les."
"Love you too Seb."
"Doesn't old Ralph get a hug?" Ralph opened his arms wide.
I grinned and jumped into them- instantly clasping my arms around him.
"Love you Ralph, but I gotta go now." I jumped out of bed and slid through the window.
"Tell mom I'm home, won't ya?" And I climbed down and made sure River was directly below me before dropping into his arms. He caught me by my waist and took my hand to steady me.
"Is everything ok?" Corey asked.
"I guess so."
"Lets just hang at my place."