"Detention?" Kasey wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly. He nudged Christy's side grinning one of his mischievous grins, "You little hypocrite, you!"

Christy took a miserable bite of her fig bar. Kasey laughed and leaned over next to her, brushing his hand against hers. "Oh come on, Chris! It is a little funny!"

Christy didn't seem to agree. She sighed and buried her head in her arms. She probably would've successfully suffocated herself in the extra fabric of Kasey's sweatshirt had he not stolen the bar from her grip.

"Kasey!" Christy moaned, "Give it back!"

Kasey waved it in air, "Not until you admit it is a little funny!"

"Fine! It's a little teeny tiny bit funny."

"Great," Kasey cheered her, holding the protein bar out of her reach, "Now say "Kasey is the best person in the world and I love him so much"!"

Christy scoffed, "Just give me my snack back, Jones!" She threw herself against him causing his chair to squeak. Kasey laughed happily and as she leaned in close, close enough for him to smell her natural coconut perfume. Dang she looked beautiful, even when she was pouting.

Then, all at once, her lips brushed his.

Kasey had never really dated a girl before. He was kinda that wingman guy. The one that everyone liked having around for his jokes and nothing more. Girls weren't ever a priority for him anyway. But meeting Christy changed all that. She was different. Special in a way Kasey couldn't explain.

And when she kissed him it sent his brain into a power outage. She was electric. And Kasey enjoyed every moment of it.

Christy leaned back with her fig bar in hand and smiled a smile that left Kasey breathless. The other students around them had stopped talking but their of them paid and mind.

"Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words." Kasey shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I think you mean a demonstration is better than an explanation." Christy puffed her cheeks out.

"Would you like to demonstrate again, Chris?"

"Oh good God, please don't." The kid in front of them snapped. Kasey barely even remembered his name, James? Justin? Maybe it was Jacob. But he glared them both before returning to playing a retro racing game on his phone. Kasey stuck his tongue out at the back of his head.

"Kase, don't be immature!" Christy chided, smacking the back of his head with a handful of her flashcards.

Kasey pouted but he couldn't keep the smoke off his face for long. He shrugged around in his chair so he could lean next to his girlfriend while she finished more flashcards for that ridiculous history class. "But really, though, you got detention? The one day I actually put forth effort to not get detention?"

She crumpled the wrapper of her fig bar and brushed a blond strand of hair from her face. "Yeah," she replied lamely. "I'm sorry, I....it's just...."

Her eyes slanted to the side. Kasey didn't have to follow her gaze to know she was looking at the empty seat behind them. A cold chill seemed to settle over the both of them and without meaning to they took a moment of silence in the loquacious classroom.

Kasey nodded, "I got you, Chris. I'm worried about her, too."

More worried than you know.

Kasey hadn't told Christy about yesterday, just like she neglected to inform him she was being a hypocrite about detention today. Kasey didn't think he could bare to tell her about how he'd gathered enough courage to check on Lucy's mother. How she'd opened the door with a blithe expression and upon recognizing him, Mrs. Maverick had beckoned him inside with promises of cookies. Kasey didn't think he could explain to Christy how Lucy's mother had set him up with a soda pop and a plate of her mint chip cookies before rushing to the staircase.

Kasey swallowed hard on the lump that gathered in his throat when he remembered the look on Mrs. Maverick's face when she called for Lucy to come down and greet their visitor and no reply came.

Kasey had only met Lucy's mom twice. Both times she had come off as a lofty, consistently happy person who always saw the brightest side of things. She had broken down crying in the middle of the foyer with wretched sobs that Kasey couldn't get out of his head.

He shrugged his backpack over his shoulder as the final bell rang. The wild conversation burst up volume as everyone raced to get out. Kasey was sure that their teacher, Mr. Miller, was saying something important but no one was paying attention.

Christy hasn't replied to him. She did, however, cast her blue eyed gaze to her school bag as if it contained a bomb. "Kasey, I-"

"You know what?" Kasey decided, suddenly, "I'll join you."

"What?"

"I'll join you in detention. What are they going to do? Kick me out? Even if they do I'll flick one of them off then they'll have choice but to let me in." Kasey grinned and pulled Christy into a side hug.

He'd never been so thankful for when she melted into the hug, allowing him to freely frown.

How do I tell her?

The thought had kept him up for nights on end. Ever since Lucy had gone missing. Christy should know this time. He should tell her the truth. She could help.

But every time he looked into those promising blue eyes some inconvenient emotion bubbled up in his chest.

How do I tell her I was the last person to see Lucy?

The hallways were jammed packed with other human beings. Everyone seemed to have injected sugar straight into their bloodstream by the obnoxious screaming and shouting of friends seeking each other out again as if it had been decades instead of an hour and a half.

Kasey led Christy through the maze of bodies giving half hearted waves to a couple of his friends. It was strange not to hear the blithe chatter of the girls behind him. Christy was quiet and out of character, making the absence of Lucy seemed graver.

No one waved to her. No one even acknowledge her clinging to Kasey's hand like he was going to disappear into thin air just like Lucy had.

Kasey tugged them down a less crowded hallway. He knew every way to the detention room by heart. Kasey Jones was the proud owner of the highest number of detentions ever seen in school.

And a surprising number of them weren't even his fault.

"Kasey," Christy said suddenly, "Why do you think Lucy left?"

Kasey stopped. He turned to look back at Christy, wondering if he looked as nervous as he felt. "What do you mean?"

Christy started stiffly at the floor, "Never mind."

Kasey felt like she'd punched him. She wouldn't ever actually. But as she brushed by him towards the nap room, (conveniently, Christy also knew by heart where detention was held) Kasey found himself winded. Did she know?

"Christy, I-" Kasey stumbled after her into the closet sized room for delinquents.

She set her bag down with a thump that echoed in the confined quarters, "I found Lucy's notebook."

Kasey forgot was he was going to say. It must have shown on his face too, because Christy stood up straighter. "You, What?"

"Well I didn't find it. It was in some other girl's locker. She freaked out over it. It got us in detention." Words flowed from Christy's mouth so fast Kasey didn't know if she was speaking English or Flashcardian which she tended to do when she got flustered. "Lucy's notebook, you know? The one she writes in all the time and takes everywhere? Kasey....why she leave it in someone else's locker?"

"That's not possible," Kasey stuttered, "Lucy...She had it with her..."

Kasey swallowed the rest of his sentence. He remembered it. The brown leather book had been clutched her hand, her pen sticking in the curls of her bun. That fierce look in Lucy's eyes...He remembered everything. How she glared at him with betrayal.

"Had it with her, when?"

Kasey cursed himself. What a stupid thing to say. But what if Christy finally knew the truth? The big secret they'd been keeping?

The door burst open and last never thought he could ever be luckier. A girl strolled in, glancing nervously at a horribly obsolete phone that looked like it belonged back in 2006. She made eye contact with Christy and pursed her lips.

"Don't talk to me," She snapped. "You're the reason my parents are going skin me alive when they find out about this!"

Kasey sat on one of the wobbly desks, sighing contently. "I remember when I was that innocent." Christy snorted with disbelief. "Hey, Greenie," Kasey snapped his fingers to get her attention, "Why don't you just lie?"

The girl got this look of horror on her face. The type of thing that was usually reserved for when people suggest that you run over your grandmother with a lawnmower.

"Why would I ever do that?" She gasped.

Kasey shrugged, "I don't know, to get out of trouble? Oh come on! Just tell them you're hanging out after school with some friends. It's not even a lie!"

"You are not my friends," but she sent the text message anyway.

Kasey put a hand over his heart, "Ouch I'm hurt."

Even though he meant it as a joke, it did hurt when Christy elbowed him hard in the side. "Stop being a bad influence!" she scolded like that was possible. "What did you tell your parents anyway?"

Kasey raised an eyebrow, "Well since Mom thinks I'm at Dad's and Dad thinks I'm at Mom's and neither of them talk so I don't think it matters." He shrugged nonchalantly ignoring the bitterness that had seeped into his voice. Sage got that look, again. Bye bye, grandma!

"You...you actually-"

Kasey smiled, "Yep! I haven't actually seen either of my parents in two weeks. I'm running an experiment to see how long it'll take them to notice." His grin faded to a scowl, "My bet is two months."

A silence fell over them as both Christy and the girl tried to figure out how to reply. Kasey didn't exactly care. He'd been staying at a good friend's house. Mitch's parents had no clue, but Kasey had been assured that no one ever even used the in the guest room.

The green girls phone went off playing an out-of-date chime that broke the stiff silence. Her face flushed as she read the text made a face.

"What's up, Sage?" Christy stifled her giggles.

"My mom just asked when I got friends," The girl, Sage, said. She sighed miserably and shoved her phone in her jacket pocket with reply to the message, "Where's the teacher?"

Kasey shrugged, "Mrs. Underwood probably forgot again." he grinned, "Come on, Let's go cover her white board in bad words!"

Sage turned pale, "No way! I'm am not going to be part of anything you ever do! The last thing I need is for your idiocy to get me in more trouble!" she plopped herself in one the chairs to emphasis her conclusive statement. Kasey looked hopefully at Christy who just shook her head.

"I'm just gonna study my flashcards, Child." She opened her back pack and shuffled through the contents. Kasey watched with a bored expression. A cold chill entered the room and Kasey almost wanted to ask for his sweatshirt back. But Christy looked so natural in the oversized gray and green fabric.

His girlfriend frowned and dug deeper into her bag more frantically. Christy tossed out her rubber banded flashcards and a couple of her binders too. "Where is it?" she mumbled, "I know I put it back!"

"What are you looking for?" Kasey flipped through her biology honors notebook looking at the detailed doodles in the margins more than he was listening to her answer.

"Lucy's notebook!" Christy turned her backpack upside. Excess papers, stray pencils, a couple gum wrappers and a lone earring piled onto the desk and spilled onto the floor. No notebook came out. Christy's eyes welded up with panicked tears, "I know I put it in here!"

Sage snorted. Kasey was sure she wasn't trying to be mean about it though. "It better not magically be in my locker."

Christy grabbed Kasey's arm, "We have to go check Mr. Miller's room!" her bright blue eyes pleaded with him making Kasey feel guilty for doing nothing.

"Have fun, I'll be here, reading." Sage said like the stereotypical goody, two-shoes she proclaimed. She reached down to her own bag and unzipped the top.

And then she screamed.

Kasey leapt off the desk, rushing to her side as she kicked her backpack away. "What happened? What's wrong?"

The girl pointed a shaking hand. Christy inhaled sharply. Kasey followed their gazes to the pile of things spilling out of Sage's poor bookbag. Sitting right on top was a all-too-familiar leather bound notebook.

"Why," Sage's voice jumped up an octave, "does this keep happening?"

Kasey moved slowly steadily towards the sacred item. He stopped standing over it wondering what Lucy would say if she could see them now. Kasey knew very well what it would be.

"Don't break your promise, Kasey!" or "Touch it and I will kick you into next week, Jones!"

Kasey bent down and picked it up.

Almost immediately heat flashed over him. Kasey yelled out and dropped the book clutching his hand protectively. Steam rose from the book where it landed open.

"What the Hell!" he exclaimed without thinking, "It burnt me!"

Cold wind burst into the room drawing a squeal from Christy. The pages of Lucy's notebook fluttered rapidly shuffling through lines and lines and lines of Lucy's neat scrawl. Sage screamed. The wind tore up the room like it was it's own destructive force. The desks rattled and the walls shook.

And the only thing Kasey could do was watched frighteningly as the pages of Lucy's notebook flipped. The ground underneath it trembled. Sage dove out of the way of a chair stumbling into Kasey's legs. Textbook hit Christy in the side knocking her closer to the havoc.

Then all at once everything stopped.

Sage let out a whimper as she watched the objects in the room fearfully. "What just happened?" She barely managed.

Kasey didn't trust himself to speak lest he'd start screaming his head off. Christy held his arm with a death grip. Her knuckles had turned white but Kasey couldn't feel a thing.

All three of them stared at the page Lucy's notebook had opened to. The lines pages didn't have any writing on them. Instead a picture was drawn, in purple and pink gel pen. Across the two pages a sign post had been sketched heavily. It was the type you would see at an amusement park, with fun bubble letters and crazy trimming.

"Welcome to Lucyland!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than some invisible force slammed into his back. Defying every rule of logic Kasey's body fell into the notebook-- and kept falling.

Kasey screamed but it was lost in the screams of both the other girls. He twisted around desperately just in time to get one last look at the bright artificial lights of the school building before everything went black, Christy's terrified screams echoing as he lost consciousness.