II. 1.02 'THE CONSEQUENCE OF HAPLESS  INNOCENCE' / MOTHER - CHILD REUNION 2

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Late evening dawned, and Arlee found herself lazily laid against the duvet of Emma's warm linen sheets whilst her and Manny assisted in reviewing all the emails Emma had reccieved from Jordan in the last two to three weeks.

What JT and the new guy they'd picked up at school had said at the park stirred something in Emma. A plighting urge to prove to him, as well as herself, that her new online beau wasn't the creep that he'd been hinting he might be.

"Okay, we've gone through all the emails." Emma drew her keyboard away from herself in accomplishment. "No video stores, and no mention of missing teeth."

"Any mention of where he's really from?" Arlee couldn't feign oblivion for much long. There were a lot of misconscrepensies that cropped up in a couple of the messages they mildly skimmed through. And, generally, everything about Jordan had become more and more evasively odd since his relationship with Emma blossomed into what is was now.

A back and forth of cutesy comments about how he'd save an 'entire rainforest full of endangered animals just to see her smile' and asking her what her favourite food was multiple times.

Emma exasperated mildly at the news of her doubt, swirling around in her spiny chair.  Unbeknownst to her, Arlee's twined doubts about Jordan had started long before JT and Toby had opened their mouths at the park. She just hadn't mustered the inner courage to really say any of her thoughts out loud yet. "Not you too."

Arlee rolled from her back to her front, a couple of knick knacks and her old stuffed koala tumbling down to her rough carpeted floors. "I mean, I never take anything JT says seriously, but he may have a point."

"—He knows nothing."

"JT's just worried about you." Manny was next to pipe up, sitting forward slightly from the slump position on the mounds of pillows she'd situated herself on top of, her legs crossing together.

"JT's just immature" Emma retorted back in jest, making both of them let out low chuckles. She wasn't wrong. JT Yorke majored in the class act of sensible immaturity. And quick whit...bountiful humour. There was a reason why Arlee liked to call him 'the Pint Size Version of Jim Carey'. But even if he had an aptitude for being unserious half the time, he still wasn't wrong. And neither was the new kid.

There was a dangerous prose to meeting a complete stranger with fully unknown intentions. There were stories on the news about girls vanishing into oblivion after going on a ventures to meet with the guys they had formed bonds with over chatrooms, and AOL message boards. 3 months gone, and 3 months later they're rotting bones  in the woods from a deadly meet-up gone terribly wrong. A girl from BC, another from the inner city, two snatched in the same month as one another somewhere in Calgary.

Not all online friendships ended in bloodshed and dispear though. Just the ones Arlee's dad had chosen to show her and her brother through the newspaper bulletins he got through postal commissions as weapons to deter them away from excessively using the computer.

"That Toby guy seems okay."  Manny brought up, scooting aback slightly so her back was comfortably leaning against the spine of the bed's frame.

"He's alright, I guess, young. Jordan though, he's so much more mature than the boys our age." Emma's eyes practically dilated into bountiful love hearts. A serene backing track would've probably bellowed out in the background too if they were in some slapstick cartoon. "That's why I like him, I've never had a boyfriend so smart, so thoughtful—"

She let out a breathily dramatic sigh, as Manny nodded. "Exactly."

Arlee arched a brow, a ghosted smirk soon coiling on her lips soon after. "You've never had a boyfriend at all,  Em."

Emma finally stood from her seat infront of her computer, making her way over to the side of her bed. "A girl just knows, Lee. And he's my guy."

"Maybe...." A look of clear complancy ran amuck on Manny's features when she started to properly asses the situation for herself.

She stopped in her short spell of pacing back and forth to face Manny. "What?"

"—What Toby said, about meeting strangers on the net being dangerous?"

Emma still didn't share their same underlying concerns. "I can take care of myself, you don't need to worry so much. We'll meet somewhere in public"

"Maybe you should just talk to your mom. She's cool, she'd understand."  Manny suggested in a last attempt effort to help Emma inch towards a plausible solution. It was quite obvious her mind was more than set now, way more than it had been before when she'd initially gotten the email from Jordan confirming his visit.

"She's not cool." Emma took her place at the edge of the bed where there still was available space, her frame slightly ajar from her two friends.  "Are you saying you don't think I should meet Jordan?"

"She's saying you should think about it properly before going to meet up with him." implored Arlee, dropping the pillow she'd been fiddling with onto the floor. "Like, okay, so he's not some smelly drooly dude who has no teeth....but what if he's an axe murderer. What if he tries to kill you."

The lack of seriousness in her voice made Emma shake her head in mirth. "Now you're just being ridiculous."

"What if he comes in with a Ghostface mask from behind you and goes like..." Arlee slowly coiled her hands around Emma's lean shoulders suddenly for added effect, but also as a way to genuinely get her overall arching message across.

"Arlee, stop!"

"Never Say 'Who's There?' Don't You Watch Scary Movies?"

Making a quick break for it, Emma scooped one of her pillows from off the ground and lightly wacked Arlee upside the head with it, sending her on a dramatise tumble back down onto her sheets next to Manny, the latter of the two trying to suppress her laughter with her cupped hand. "Remind me not to rent a horror film with you ever again."

Faking offence, Arlee grabbed another one of the millions of soft props that were currently in her peripheral. She ducked, and what ensued for the next 30 minutes was a whirlwind catastrophic spree of chasing filled pillow fight around the bedroom till it ceased when all three girls toppled to the comforter in fits of guttural laughter.

Returning back from her enamoured fun-filled night over at Emma's, Arlee was immediately struck with a host-full of chores and little to no energy left in her. Only 4 more days, and she'd be swept into a whole new reality with new hallways and a host of interesting personalities to match. That was the worst part about reaching the tail end of summer, knowing your free trial period of a lengthy somewhat earned vacation was realising there was more you could've done with it.

She'd gone on mall escapades with Emma and Manny, around the begging of summer. Then watched a plethora of classics with them, as well as JT at her place till the marmalade dew of the sun set and a sheet of bisked darkened navel orange replaced the skies instead.

But whenever they weren't available for reasons that either had to do with other family affairs or just a simple conflict in schedule, Arlee was normally always forced to resign back to her and her siblings shared bedroom to drown out the noise of Federico and his two other 'friends', Gavin ( or as he so diligently liked to be called, Spinner ) and Jimmy either getting too caught up in video games, or a match of basketball that they took way too seriously.

There was the occasional occurrence where Arlee would strike conversation with Spinner when they crossed paths in her hallway. Although, it was less of a conversation and more of him lightly teasing her till she gave him the reaction he wanted. It'd started when they'd first met at 7 and 9 respectively. Over time, he'd kind of cooled down with the jabs, and chosen to just not engage or acknowledge her existence at all whenever her brother was present.

Currently, Arlee's house was a tranquil hollow shell filled with the soft hums of an old school telenovela and pots clanging together from her Aubelita's hour long session in the kitchen. Old crafting card splayed over the available walking space left in her already boxed living room, each one massacred with glitter and stickers that stunk of artificial blueberry.

The perpetrator? Her little sister Talita. And of course, as the druid middle child, she knew she'd probably have to clean that up. She was always stuck cleaning up her and her elder brother's messes. Which was rather ironic considering that older kids in a litter of siblings normally took on the role of responsibility, well at least, they were supposed to in her father's perspective.

Arlee rounded the couch, gently dropping the duster and pan she'd been using to clean the bottom of the bathroom floor with on a stray cushion. "You got glitter all over the bathroom floor."

Talita didn't break her concentration with the card she was trying to perfect. Scrawled across it was the name of one of her friends, Mia. A girl who was a year older and a part-time member of the mini's skating team at their local rink. Arlee could only guess that it was her birthday, or her sister had just really missed her friend over summer.  "I missed the sink."

"Yeah, well start sweepin'." She huffed out as she headed towards the kitchen door, though that still didn't encourage her to shift in the slightest bit. In the Barbero household, there was a pecking order. Not a bad and cruel one per se, but a more uniformed line that was supposed to keep everyone in everything in check.

Arlee did the dishes, mopped the floors, and vacuumed. Federico scrubbed down their dad's car from any traces of dirt when he was short spare for the car wash, and occasionally mowed the lawn. and of course, Talita did nothing. She was still too young to be ordained with such horrific tasks such as folding her clothes or putting her toys back onto her bed.

Talita beat her hands together to rid her palms of the sticky glitter fuse bomb that had detonated all over them. "Daddy's at the grocery store, he said he's bringing back a frozen pizza."

That made Arlee halt in her tracks, her back still pressed against the oak of the door. Her dad normally always made his reappeances back from work around 8 or a little over 7, even though his office hours normally drew to a close at 6-ish every weekday.

When he did come home, he'd pass around mummified greetings to all those who were still up, scold someone for something, then trudge his way back up to his office and not remerge again till dinner. Her Abuela always called him a 'adolescente en un cuerpo de hombre viejo' behind his back. Secretly, she was starting to agree with her. "Pepperoni?"

"Mushrooms".

Arlee's nose scrunched immensely, mushroom on pizza wasn't exactly up there with her most desired toppings. But, in her eyes, it still ranked over anchovies or pineapples. When she turned and finally opened the door to the kitchen, she was immediately overcome with an overwhelming amount of steam and a thick density of bur-lapped heat from whatever she'd been hunched over the stove cooking. From the current smells permeating in the air, Arlee's guess were either stew or Sanchoco.

Just to check, Arlee waltzed her way over to the cluttered cooking station and delicately curled her fingers around the temperately hot metal of the pot's lid to lift it ajar. To her satisfaction, she'd been right. Sitting untouched was a small helping of food that nobody had helped themselves too yet.

Biting back the tiny smile that had canvassed her features at the sight before her eyes, Arlee reached for a spoon to scoop a portion for herself, but before she could a hand came swooping in to lightly slap her own away from attempting to gourge on it in secret.

"Ah, no, no para ti."  Pilar Montoya, with her air of all things grace and authority, gestured for her to step away.

"But I'm starving." Arlee wined, she lifted her shirt up slightly and jabbing at her ribcage with the numb of the ladle. "See, you can literally see bone."

Her Abuela didn't spare her a second glance as she lifted the chipped pot from the and dunked it into the sink. "Tan dramática"

"—Worst babysitter ever." Arlee mumbled to herself. The wall phone chimed in amongst the continuation of shrieking hisses of steam meeting their fate with the cool essence of cold water, and the low murmurs of her Abuela humming an old song to herself whilst she singed out the extra broth.

When Arlee picked it the phone, someone who vaguely sounded like Emma sighed in relief. "Finally."

"Sorry, I was in my room trying to distract myself from the smell of my grandma's cooking." apologised Arlee serenely, fiddling with the black cord against her pinkie and forefinger. "She only made lunch for one, think it's her not so subtle way of saying she doesn't like babysitting anymore."

"Really?" Manny's voice wormed into the conversation from that proclamation. This was a three way call, which only meant one thing. Higher minutes. Her dad was probably going to get mad, but then again, there wasn't a time in the day when he wasn't. "—Because I'm still trying to digest all the rice my mom made me sit down and eat for lunch. Four helpings."

"Lucky." Arlee marvelled maybe a little too much. Her grandma had a thing about never letting them leave the table before finishing every single last bit of food that still sat untouched on their plate. Contesting wasn't even an option, since it would only be met with two endings. A lecture or a lesson. She wasn't mean, she taught discipline. Did all the things that a ghosted household could not.

She still loved with all hear heart though. Late nights camped infront of the television screen shouting at the dumb actions that a soap character made with her were nights well spent for Arlee. Without their Abuela, and Araceli, they would've gone bezerk like those kids who got stuck on a deserted island. Call of the Wind? Lord of the Flies? Absolute Carnage.

"Guys."

"Sorry." They both apologised this time, all hushed and muttered.

Manny proceeded to pick up the conversation from where they'd presumably left off about Emma's plans. "So, have you made up your mind?"

She stalled for a minute, but then, with all her grit and might, Emma finally came to a conclusive decision. "Yeah, I'm not going."

Arlee's back collapsed to the vibrant tiled wall behind her, a waver of relief washing over her system. Manny most likely exhibiting similar emotions from where she was on her side of the phone. "I'm so relieved, Em, seriously."

"Yeah." Emma mused passively. "Maybe I'lll meet him when I'm older, right?"

"Or you might meet someone even better." Arlee noted, her head tilting. Junior High was a big place, with even bigger and more unique characters from what she'd heard.

Obviously she wasn't personally looking to find people to fall head over heels for right off the bat as a whimsy freshly new Grade 7. But she'd seen how the comeuppance of newly formed friendships could start. And there was no doubt in her mind that they'd be meeting people they'd grow to like along the way.

Emma, however, wasn't all that on board with her notion. "I highly doubt it."

"The possibilities are endless Em." She further encouraged. "Plus, we're gonna be in a new school in about....four whole days from now and stay there for the next two years. Who knows? You might meet about 4 Jordan's in there."

Emma tsked. "No way, remember that one rule, always date up?"

A deep furrow formed between Arlee's thinly twined brows. "Nobody says that"

"No, my mom does. Date a guy that's the same age or less, and there's no maturity. Date up, and there's a proper balance." Emma recited. That didn't necessarily sound like something Emma's mom of all people would say to Arlee. From assumption, she'd always seemed like the more 'care-free' type. The one that lets children have their own opinions but isn't afraid to ground them back down to reality when things got out of hand. "—That's why I was keen on Jordan before, I want balance in my first relationship."

"My mom and dad won't even let me shake hands with a guy." Manny voiced . "If I ever went on a date with one, I'd probably get grounded till my graduation day. No, my wedding day."

"And could you think of the options there'd be at our new school, all those bigger Grade 8's." Emma added. "I mean, I know they're a year older and everything....but that still doesn't stop them from teasing. Making us feel small."

The big bad wolfs of their new stomping grounds. The ones Arlee was supposed to be looking out for, who'd stuff her in a garbage can, kick her down a flight of stairs, or insult her unprovoked for being a insignificant speck in the glacier of their societal kingdom. You're a speck of larva till the all mighty ruler says you're not. Or when the next summer rolls in and those big scary Grade 8's are now ironically kicked back down to the bottom of the pecking order in the adjacent high school. 

"Trust me, Grade 8's are the least intimidating people"

As if by cue, her living-breathing proof came striding into the kitchen. Federico. He stunk of Axe body spray and agave watermelon. Two combos that definitely didn't mix well on a teen boy's...musk. He turned when he saw her standing idle at the phone, arms crossing like he was some sort of an authoritarian. Classic. "Times up, Bitsy."

Arlee lowered the landline from the shell of her ear. "I'm talking to Manny and Emma."

He couldn't have cared less. "And I need the phone for....more important things."

"Why, missing your boyfriends?" A smirk brimmed on the horizon of her glossed coated lips.

Federico stepped closer, his hand flying to take the phone. "Give me the phone."

Arlee pressed a hand against his chest to lightly push him off. "Give me some personal space."

In an instant, both their heads were snapping over to their grandma to act as mediatior for whatever back and forth was about the climactically commence. "Abuèla!"

"No me estoy involucrando." was all she could musted in the gulf of their argument, picking up her plate soon after full of food and heading out the kitchen door without looking back again. Ultimately giving up (for now), Federico sneered and walked away to scavenged the pantry for something to snack on.

Arlee reeled the phone closer to her ear again, realisation dawning quickly that Manny and Emma were still there and had most surely heard everything going on in the background. "Is everything okay?"

"Fine, just trying to swat this annoying fly out of my kitchen." Arlee huffed, Federico emerged out of the crammed pantry with two packets of Cheezies and scowled. She glared back, just as playful, twice as friendly. They didn't hold any true animosity towards one another, regardless of what the average person might think if they walked in on them bickering for the fiftieth time. This was sibling love. Catatonic, lovely, and spatful.

"Uhm...there's this show on tonight about the wildlife refuge and I really wanna watch it." mumbled Emma, sounding rushed. "You know, for Jordan."

"Oh, we could always help you with some extra research on that if you want." volunteered Manny.

A pause. "It's okay....I really need to concentrate."

"Oh, ok."

Arlee tucked a lingering strand of whipping curly hair behind her ear. "Are you—"

"It's about to start, so I'll call you guys tomorrow" Emma cut in hastily. Her rushed persistence now melting into full blown urgency. "Okay?"

"K."

"See ya."

Emma then hung up abruptly, the humming of the cord line from her end buzzing into obscurity. Arlee couldn't shake the sudden quell that had remerged in the caverns of her stomach again.

If there was one thing she knew about Emma Nelson, besides her love for wildlife and being outspoken to anyone who would listen, it was that she had an affinity for telling white lies. As harsh as that sounded. And luckily, she'd managed to master the art of seeing through them long ago.

"So see ya as in I'm hanging up the phone or see ya as in I'm gonna hang up and call another one of my friends?" Federico lamented from behind Arlee, ultimately breaking her out of the second long trance she'd fallen under.

Arlee couldn't help but roll her eyes at how persistent he was being. Any other day, and he wouldn't even go near their landline. But the one time she needed it the most, and he was itching for it. "Ugh, you're such a nag."

"Who are you fighting with?" Manny questioned curiously.

"My dweebo brother."

Manny paused briefly from the other side of the line for a beat. "I haven't seen him in awhile...does he, uhm, go to Degrassi or that other school called Lakehurst?"

"Degrassi." Arlee held the bulk end of the telephone closer to her ear, trying her ever loving best to ignore the hawk eyed stare her elder brother had on her as his patience drew thin. They'd only recently gotten a new home phone after their old one went bust, or more so, fell off the wall from its hinges. "—He's one of those less than scary Grade 8 kids that I was talking about earlier."

"He was nice before to me and Emma that one time after your birthday party. Remember?" Manny reminisced. "We talked about Friends. And then he said he thought I had good music taste, me. I thought he was kidding."

"Yeah I guess, but he's only like that when he's not in his weird possé of bullies."acknowledged Arlee, her tone growing softer and quiter whilst Federico was still present in the room. "It's annoying, and I know that he'll probably pretend we're not related once school starts."

"I'm sure that's not true." Manny reassured softly. She always had a way of seeing the bright side of everything and anything.

"But forget him...." Arlee sharply moved on from her own personal feelings about her brother's inconsistent personality to a matter that had now propelled to new heights on her bothered scale. "I need to talk to you about something more important."

"What is it?"

"I've got this gut feeling that's she's lying about Jordan." Arlee's merry go round of suspicions came crawling back not too long after Emma had dropped to watch her 'show' about some wildlife refuge.

"But she sounded pretty sure about her choice." pondered Manny.

Arlee would've, and probably should've, taken that into consideration. But that panging guttural feeling had grown ferocious, and it was pointing her to signs of her friend lying about what she was actually up to.  "She's Emma, Manny."

Manny seemingly didn't swoop in to deny that bleating statement. "—I dunno"

"I think you should call her back, but just, be a little bit more upfront about it." Arlee instructed without an actual plan. "But like, not entirely straight forward."

"Okay?" Manny responded with a swelter of unsurity in her tone. She couldn't really blame her. Everything about this...about Jordan, was confusing. The advent of internet perverts had only grown to be more of a reoccurring problem in the last 5-6 years or so. Which meant the rules of stranger danger had only been taught to apply to people who were there in the outside world. Those older, burley, individuals who walked up to kids promising rides or candy when they really had other intentions in mind.

A shallowed sigh parted from between her lips.
"Just don't make her feel like we're onto her."

Manny delayed again. A probable response to the gravity of what was currently happening. "I'll try my best."

Once Manny had hung up the line, Arlee lowered the phone from her ear and sprung into action, dialling JT next. It cut a couple times, but when the line finally connected, she found all her boiled over frustrations and worries with what was currently going rolling off her tounge right there and then. "Why'd you take so long to pick up, dingus?"

"Arlena? Is that you?"

Arlee's breath hitched in her throat. A gasket breeze of embarrassment willowing her movements at the sugar voice of JT's grandmother. "I...uhm, yeah, it's me. Is JT there?"

"No, sorry sweetie, he's been out for at least half an hour." informed JT's grandma serenely. That only made her embarrassment double over.

Arlee bit at her lower lip. "Do you, uh, know where he might be by any chance?"

"Did he miss another movie night?"

A brazen, rather forced chuckle, jotted out. She had to laugh. Not laughing meant JT grandma would probably start asking what the issue was. And Arlee couldn't lie to her. Julie Cooney was probably up there with one of her favourite adult figures. "No, not this time. It's about something important."

Crap. Arlee's head looked backwards a bit, the harsh  flickering kitchen lights beaming bright down below. A beat broiled over for a second before JT's grandma gave her the answer she was looking for. "Sounds like it. He's at a boy named Toby Issacs home, a friend from camp."

"Cool, thanks." A crooked smile enveloped Arlee's face like JT's grandma had the ability to see her. "And about that dingus comment earlier——"

"I understood that wasn't directed at me, dear."

That was something at least.

"Oh, okay, cool. Uh, bye then." Arlee bid farewell rather rapidly, cutting the call.

She placed the phone back on its origin spot and Federico instantly dropped the first bag of Cheezies he'd opened and headed over her way. "Finished?"

Animatedly, Arlee stepped aside for him to take his free rein on the home phone. Federico, with a bout of elatedness, dusted his orange coated fingertips onto the base of his white Nike shorts ( yikes ) and gleefully picked up the line when it rang out again. Expecting it to be one of his two friends on the other end.

"Arlee, your gut feeling was spot on. She's lying"

His face fell, fingers pinching to the bridge of his nose with slight discernment. "What?"

"Oh, uhm, is Arlee——"

Before sticking around to hear the rest of Manny's stammered request, Federico surrendered the phone over to his sister, who had already been in awaitance for it with his bag of Cheezies in hand. "Here."

Blissfully giving him the bag back and dusting her hands off, Arlee took ahold of the phone, Manny waisting no time in picking up where she'd so awkwardly left off. "Arlee, you were right. Emma's lying about not meeting up with Jordan."

Her heart sank to the abyss of her stomach. Arlee had an intuition for some time. But even she'd hoped to be wrong in some way. "Uh, okay, okay. We can go to JT....he's over at what's-his-face's house."

"You mean Toby?"

"Yeah, Yeah, Toby." Arlee corrected herself. "We can meet at your place then go to his together."

"Sure thing." agreed Manny. "Wait, you don't know where Toby lives though."

"Hold on." Arlee lowered the phone from her ear and turned over to Federico, who had his head stuck in the fridge in search of something to use a dip to his cheese sticks.  "Do you know where Ashley Kerwin lives?"

"What's the information worth?" Federico bargained without looking up.

"This is serious, Fede."

Heavily sighing, he shut the fridge door and placed a bottle of ranch dressing down onto the kitchen table. "Alright, Alright...chill. Uhm, think it's like a block away from De Grassi Street, Rosemund something? You know, close to where World Peace's house is at."

"Okay, I know that area." Arlee reeled the phone back to her ear, her heart tremering  with the wrong kind of adrenaline. "Manny, I'll see you soon"

"Got it."

And just like that, they were in the tail of a hot pursuit to save their best friend. Arlee rushed out of the kitchen, and bolted up the steps to slip on her sugar glittered stripper sneakers the best she could. The downside was having to kneel to wedge her two fingers between the crevice behind her heel when it refused to budge, a task that was the worst under pressure. Thankfully, she managed to strap them up and raced back down her creeky steps out into the living room.

"Woah, where are you running to?" Pilar whipped her head around from the tv screen over to the coat rack.

Arlee mind was on high-alert auto pilot. A disparaged combo of being totally zoned out whilst also primarily focused on one goal at the same time. "Emma, needs help, I'll be back before dinner."

"Not before you help me first."

"What is it?" Arlee replied a little too sharply. When she caught the pointed look of her Abuela, her instinct to apologise instantly kicked in. "Sorry."

"¿Podría ayudarme a cambiar el canal a algo que valga más la pena? Estoy cansado de esta basura televisiva diurna." Pilar requested, gesturing the remote over to an episode of a scheduled morning talk show that had come on after the previous she'd left running in the background.

Gently, Arlee took the remote from her, and scrolled through each station at the speed of light till she came across one that looked like something her grandmother could enjoy. "Está bien, uhm.... Grace Under Fire, eso está bien?"

Pilar took a couple seconds to fully grasp the program. To Arlee, it felt like a lifetime. "I can settle for that."

  With an immense amount of relief, the girl bent down to press a gentle kiss against her grandmother's sable skin. Propping back up soon after to head towards the front door. "Love you."

"Don't do anything stupid!" Pilar called after her lazily, propping her now empty dish platter onto the vacant table next to her designated recliner.

"I won't!"

Just as the door heavily slammed shut behind Arlee, Federico ascended into the living room as well with his coat and his rolled up bag of Cheezies. "I've gotta go too."

Pilar beelined her gaze over to Talita, then over to her eldest grandchild. "Where?"

"Spinner, we're working the reunion, remember?" Federico adjusted his collar. "He said he's gonna meet me up at the front of the school in about 15 minutes from now. Or in Spinner time, 10 years. So I'll probably walk."

Once again, Pilar was trying to wrap her head around an arsenal amount of information that had just been spearheaded at her full on. Meeting Friends. Going Out. Reunions. Look-Outs. She liked keeping things by the book, not being ambushed. "You never told your father."

"I did, he forgot." A not so subtle coldness iced over Federico's tone, a hand scratching at his head.

"How long will you be out?" Pilar further questioned, her attention now drawing back to the screen before her.

Federico reached for the door knob, cracking it open slightly. He'd only taken this gig as a way to deter away from finishing his summer reading assignment. And since the event ran till late, it would be the perfect excuse to use once the new school year dawned in a couple days from now as an explanation.  "Probably till the adults are too drunk to stay in the gym."

"Okay, go on."

Arlee and Manny pratically barged through the door and poured out into his quaint kitchen when Toby's dad opened the door for them. He briefly alerted Toby that he had visitors, then disappeared back up the stairs afterwards to give them some privacy.

Upon entering what Arlee could only assume to be their pre-furnished living room, JT stood from his position on the couch sporting massive joke glasses. Their surroundings were also covered from top to bottom in an array of different prank-related items too. "Manny, Lee. What's up?"

"We're at a point of crisis." Arlee stopped at the arch of the threshold that existed between both rooms. Just to catch her breath for a millisecond after the journey both her and Manny had just taken just to try and find Toby's home with the vague directions her brother had given her earlier.

"You spilled your nail polish all over your camera again?" JT feigned sympathy, taking his seat again. "How tragic."

She ignored his teasing, for now. They had much more serious issues to attend to. "Way less cliche, actually."

The room got quiet in awaitance, as Manny let out a drawl of breath. "I've got a bad feeling. We went by Emma's on the way. Not there. I tried to call her again. Didn't pick up."

JT's brows knitted together in pure oblivion, still not understanding the full scope of what was going on. "So.....?"

"So, she told us she was staying in tonight to watch a show on wildlife refuge." Arlee tried to properly clarify, sitting upright.

"But it's not on, I checked."  Manny continued on.

Toby pushed away a couple of the toy gimmicks in his vicinity off the couch. "Well, she didn't go meet that Jordan guy, did she?"

"I have no idea. But, she was acting really weird. Arlee's still pretty positive she went though"

"Because she did! I know it Manny." Arlee exclaimed vehemently. There was no other point that couldn't direct to that being the case. As hard as that was to stomach. "What if she met up with him and he's actually from Scarborough and a total creep with a machete? She can't outrun a serial killer."

JT leaned into the couch cushion behind his back, legs propping against the ancient flaxen oak table infront of him. "Wow, sounds like the plot to a great cheesy horror classic."

"But it can happen." She firmed with a swelter of sheer confidence.

"No, it can't."

"No, actually, it can." Toby contested JT's dismissal in Arlee's favour. "This girl from BC met up with this guy online, they hit it off, she goes out with him and days later and then they find her dead.....like in pieces."

"That was some physco." JT plucked his joke glasses from off his face and placed them down. It wasn't that he didn't get the inclination of what was currently going on, what might've been happening to Emma, it was more so his underlying want for it to not be true. None of them wanted to think of their friend being in such egregious harms way. Feeling so helpless. "Emma's way too smart for that. She get's like practically straight A's."

"So? This isn't school." fired back Toby incredulously, casting his gaze over to both girls. "Where would they go"

Arlee ran a hand through her tousled locks, mind running completely amuck. "No clue."

JT absentmindedly fiddled with a loose thread sticking out of the couch. "Well, we can't call her, we can't email her"

An invisible lightbulb suddenly omitted within Toby from the prompt. "Why not?"

The next thing Arlee knew, all four of them were rushing back to Emma's partially empty home and were crowded around her desk, with Toby at the helm of the operation. His plan was to try and hack into her messages and dig for a subtle clue from the thousands upon thousands of conversations the pair had gotten into. What he'd failed to realise was that she had everything password protect. "That's probably why."

Toby didn't let that bleating fact deter him though, and went into full throttle with his stress inducing task to crack the code. All of them watched tentatively from behind the desk chair at each attempted plausible passcode he guessed. Animals,  Wildlife, Nature....EnviromentLover101.

Wrong Wrong freaking Wrong

When he realised that he was getting nowhere and ultimately slowing the process, Toby sought answers from the rest of the group. Specifically, from Arlee and Manny. "What's her mom's maiden name?"

"Nelson." said Manny swiftly. "Same as Emma"

Toby nodded and applied her answer to the password box, but was only met with a beeping buzz to indicate that it didn't work. One more try and he'd most likely be restrained from trying to gain access again. "Okay, that's not it either. Does she have a dog? A fish? Anything?"

Arlee shook her head. "No, she's never had a pet before."

With a lapse of determination, Toby scrolled down to another section of the home page and zeroed his attention to a part that listed a series of various different rememberal queries. Hints for a lost password, or in their case, a clue to gain access to a password protected account. "Ah, here we go. Secret question, What's your mom's favourite rock band?"

"Check her page, you might probably find a clue there somewhere." suggested Manny.

Doing as he'd been instructed, Toby clicked off the first tab he was on and re-opened another that directed to Emma's public forum page. She had her whole life on it. Days at the park, birthdays old and new, collages of her favourite animals, a warm snapshot of her and Manny from summer last year. Seeing that quenched something ugly in Arlee. A looming surging forlorn tension. This was real. This wasn't a delirious nightmare that was going to end when she snapped her eyes open.

"There." Toby stopped scrolling when he came came across an old photo of Ms.Nelson. "A picture of her mom, what does her t-shirt say?"

JT leaned in closer to the pixilated image of Emma's mom. "Pouges...Who were the pouges?"

"Think they might've been an 80's thing? Her mom's really been into punk rock since she was a teenager. But I doubt she'd really make her password that obvious." Arlee indulged, narrowlingly spectating Toby's concentrated efforts at putting in the right passcode. And to her delightful shock, it worked. He had made it in. "Nevermind."

"If I can do it, so can Jordan." muttered Toby allusively. "Sorry...Emma. We're going in."

There were hundreds of them. Piling. Sugar coated conversations and serene compliments lapsed in promises dating back to the beginning of June. It didn't look like much at first glance, because without the current underlying context, it was nothing more than an innocent friendship blossoming into...a relationship? No, even that sounded off.

Manny tilted her head in pure perplexity at what exactly Toby's game plan was. "I don't get it."

"See? Look here." Toby directed her attention to an email that he'd clicked on. "You, Emma, and Arlee rent Chicken Run. The next day? She mentions it in an e-mail to you."

"So?" Manny responded monotonously, reeling away from the screen.

He scrolled down to the reply of it. "Jordan's next email?"

Everything seemingly clicked for JT right there and then. "He likes Chicken Run too—"

"Big deal." Manny dismissed passively, however unlike her friend, Arlee was slowly starting to catch onto what he was trying to highlight. Though, another fervent part of her still wanted to live in slight denial. Comfort knowing that Emma wasn't in alleged periled danger. 

Toby clicked off the message in rapid succession and dragged over the link to another with Jordan's handle under it. "Coincidence, right? The next day, Emma emails you and Arlee about some garbage about how great fresh air is. Jordan's next email?"

Arlee bent to get a better view of his email from over Toby's shoulder. "I love hiking. Being out in the fresh air makes me feel so free." She sprung up, the tremor in her heart splintering in two. "Oh no—"

"Emma writes to you or to anyone, he echoes it back to her. The guy's not looking into her soul, he's reading her email."

Something akin to anxiety wrapped its ghosted ghastly hands around her. All her worries, all her what-if's, conclusions that she once thought were nothing more than great grand delusion...were true.

Arlee found herself stepping back from Emma's desk, Manny plopping down onto her bed wracked in shared fear. But then, something from Jordan's final email to Emma caught the former's attention. "Stop. Scroll to the top of that." She quickly beckoned for Toby to act with pace, something he thankfully abided by. When he reached the top of the message, her pointer finger landed on the directions he'd sent Emma. "There, his last message. He's at the Bartley Valley, room 1409."

"Bartley?" Toby questioned, shooting up from the spinny chair. "Where is that?"

"My dad's company does like, buisness parties there sometimes." briefed Arlee. "It's 35 minutes away from here."

"35 minutes?" JT exclaimed rather loudly. "How'd she even make it all the way there by walking."

Arlee chewed on her inner cheek. All her prior knowledge about the Bartley Valley was from the conversations she'd overheard her dad have with hopeful clients and his other colleagues. You go to Bartley for a quick rest stop or an emergency meeting in their over budgeted conference rooms. But this? This was a happenstance that occurred in nightmares...and on the news. She couldn't bare to think of Emma potentially becoming the next girl. The next fabled story. "By tram, I think? I've only been there once or twice."

Toby adjusted his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. "We need to get Emma's mom, fast"

A cursory dizziness guided Arlee's stride as she and everyone else raced up the stairs into Degrassi's brightly lit halls. The freshly coated wax smelt stronger. The atmosphere more dense. Outward perspective seemed a lot smaller when the weight of world and a crushing bolder of panic was crushing your shoulders.

"Toby, come on!"

After running helter skelter, they reached the heavy doors of the gymnasium. JT was the one to shove them open with a light grunt, but was sorely back out by the one person Arlee had least expected to see at the reunion. Her own brother. "Don't think so."

She'd remembered him vaguely mentioning something about volunteering over the weekend to their father. But, like most things, he'd kind of just brushed it off without really asking for further information.

Federico leaned against the post that was waring on the doors outer frame, JT cleared his throat. "We need in.....please."

"Yeah, sure..." He portioned space for them to filter through, but placed his hand against the door again before any of them could spill inside. "—In about ten years when you're about an inch taller and have your own reunion to celebrate."

Arlee lightly budged her way forward. She could take his kind to be cruel shtick most times, because she more than anyone knew it was nothing more than a simple act. A ruse that he turned on and off like some flimsy light switch to appease other people. But, she wasn't people. And this was a whole lot bigger than a sibling twister back and forth. "Fede, seriously, this isn't a game."

"It's literal life or death." JT emphasised in tangent.

Federico's faced shrewd immensely, his once guarded nature simmering a level. "Life or death?"

"We just need to talk to Emma's mom, we're not here to do anything bad." Manny was the next, and hopefully last, to reason. Her tone honeysuckle as ever. "Please Fede."

Federico kept his molten darkened eyes on Manny for a minute. That managed to unfasten him. Then, his glance swooped over to meet his little sister's own. That was the final push. He nodded in understanding, and without instigating any further interrogation, the boy let them finally past. Upon entering, a blaring lumiesence of blinding coral blue and piercing silver disco lights, overlayed with a record track of hits from an era in which 70% of the adults in there still probably wished they lived in.

Most were decked in mink suits or sharp yet casual attire. A sea of bodies fuled with rambled back chatter about a merciful four year period of their lives, included with punch and a board of finger foods.

"I don't see her anywhere." said Manny with frustration.

Arlee squinted beadily, searching through the crowd till she was able to make out the distinct silhouette of Araceli waving off another man who she'd been in the midst of a conversation with. "There's my aunt, she'll know"

They didn't hesitate to race over to Araceli and bombard the poor woman head on.

"Araceli ! Araceli!"

Cladded in a strappy chartreuse dress that only aluminised brighter in the lights,  Araceli spun around sharply at the sound of their high pitched rambling and placed her drink down on the cossesions stand.

"Woah, hey. What's going on...what're you guys doing here? This is adults only, meaning no gate crashers." She lightly teased, still not sensing their tension. When the guy who she'd been chatting with earlier came back with two glasses from his table,  Araceli pointed over to Arlee. "Yick, this is the niece I was talking about. I've got another and my nephew was the one working the door."

He threw over a tiny friendly surprised smile at her like he was shocked she at the concept of her having relatives, a hand reaching to adjusting his slanting tie. "Is your Mom the DJ?"

Araceli jotted out a pacified chuckle, picking up her cup to take a small sip of whatever beverage lined it. "Gosh, I wish. Maybe she'd add some variety to the set list." She took another sip and shrouded at either at the aftertaste of the cheap punch she was drinking, or the visual of her mother working a turntable that had just flashed before her very eyes. "On second thoughts, nevermind."

"Araceli!" Arlee sternly, but also very respectfully,  interrupted. Trying her utmost best to draw their urgent conversation back to the relevant topic at hand.

Once it finally dawned on her that her niece's presence was more serious then she'd presumably assumed it to be, Araceli turned to her friend. "I'll...talk to you later, Yick. Call maybe?" He nodded and silently took his Araceli's cups to another table.  When he was out of the way, she lined her undivided attention to the four of them. "What's the matter?"

"It's Emma, she's in serious trouble and we don't know how to get to her." explained Arlee, her voice fraying immensely.

"Trouble?" Araceli repeated. "What kind of trouble?"

Manny faltered, but decided to not bite her tongue about the whole truth. They'd done all they could, but it just wasn't enough. "She met this guy on the net called Jordan—"

"Except Jordan's a complete fraud and a creep who's been stalking her emails for weeks." JT wistfully, making sure to throw his fingers into firmed bunny ears around the guy's false name.

"And she went to meet with him at Bartley Valley on her own." explained Arlee. "She's been gone for an hour."

Panicked dread set on Araceli's glossed over features in an instant. "Oh my god. Um, stay right here. Okay?"

Arlee watched as Araceli hurriedly migrated over to the table where Ms.Nelson and Mr.Simpson were idly sitting at. She couldn't distinctly tell what her aunt was revealing, but from her constant pointing over to where they stood, it was obvious she wasn't holding back.

Reluctantly, Emma's mom finally made her way over to where they were,  Simpson striding behind a couple paces. "Guys? What're you doing here?"

"It's Emma!"

All four of the their voices blended with one another, lapping first to try and get to the point quicker. Help their friend faster.

    "She hasn't been——"

"We can't reach——"

"We didn't know what else to do!"

Each second agonisingly ticking by the decibel. Ms.Nelson rubbed at the temple of her head. Her eyes shooting over from the kids, then back to Mr.Simpson simultaneously in sheer confusion. "Woah, wait a minute, one at a time."

They informed both adults of everything that had occurred right from the start. All the deplorable nittty-girtty, hard to swallow details. Mr Simpson was the first to bolt out the double doors, Ms.Nelson and the others charging in pursuit afterwards with Araceli hightailing it right behind them all.

Federico watched everyone rush out in pairs and politely abandoned his conversation with one of the girls in his class who'd also volunteered to help man the reunion too.

"Whoa, what's happening?"

Ms.Nelson fumbled for the keys to her car erratically. When she finally retrieved them, she handed them over to Mr Simpson. "You guys go home, I'll call your parents."

"Come on, I'll drive you guys." Araceli woefully volunteered. "Okay? There's no need to walk"

Toby was already starting to back away. "No, it's okay, I think I need to, my house isn't that far."

"Same." Manny's response came with hesitance, her voice hushed and small.

Toby departed first of the two, and for what it was worth,  Araceli was a little perturbed that she hadn't been more insistent on convincing them all to let her drop them off. But then again, she couldn't force them in her car if they sincerely didn't want to go.

Beseechingly, Manny approached Arlee, scuffing her trainers against the aged asphalt. "If you hear anything—-"

"I'll call, promise." Arlee stated surely, sticking out her pinkie. With a withering, anxious smile, Manny intertwined her own. Their soul binding contract. And then, she too swirled around and made her way into the dimly lit evening down the sidewalk.

Araceli slung her clutch purse from her barebone shoulder, attention trailing onto the last remaining member of Arlee's friend group. "JT?"

"Uh, sure, yeah." He lightly nodded in agreeance for a ride. And so, with that confirmation, the three headed over to the parking lot just behind the basketball court where Araceli's old beaten up Toyota Corolla was parked. On the way, JT couldn't help but pick up on how silent Arlee had suddenly become. It was understandable given everything they'd just entailed. "Are you okay?"

Truthfully, there wasn't a word in the world to currently describe Arlee's splayed emotions. She was satisfied knowing, hoping, that Mr.Simpson and Emma's mom were going to come her rescue before anything highly dangerous occurred in that hotel room. But, a paled sense of trepidation still hindered her capability to be fully sure of that. "I dunno...not really"

"Emma's gonna be alright, if that's what you're worried about" JT reassured, his eyes concentrated out onto the vacated court.

Arlee swallowed thickly. "I've heard about how these things end before, and I just don't...."

A calamity of calmness swaded JT's ability to paint a bleak picture about the outcome of Emma's situation. "She won't get hurt."

"Yeah, I know." Arlee rested her back against the shell of her aunt's car, whilst the latter flicked through the bulb of keys attached to her keychain. "I just can't believe they're sick people out there who'd do something like that, it makes me want to burn my family's computer."

JT immediately sneered in disagreement, inching closer to stand near Arlee. "Yeah right, you'd rather die than do that."

Arlee scoffed in jest. "I can live without the net, it's not even that fun."

He still wasn't the least bit convinced with her growing argument. "Sure."

"I'm serious." insisted Arlee. "There isn't even that much to do on it anyway. The only things we have on our computer are Chicken Run and LimeWire. And my dad doesn't even let us on after 5pm, he says it's for our own good.  And I never got what he meant until now."

"This looks gross"

A new, and much more recognisable voice to Arlee sprung forth from the side of them both. His sudden appearance made her posture change, her arms folding right to her chest. "Spinner."

JT let out a tiny guffaw that he'd probably made a mental note to suppress. "Spinner?"

He took a menacing step forward towards the younger boy. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Uh, nothing. Nothing at all.... that's a really nice name," JT complimented with a faux hearty laugh, shrinking. When Spinner rolled his eyes and strolled away, his happy-go lucky attitude faded. "——For a pitbull."

Spinner Mason had that affect on everyone. Intimidation. For some reason, it was something he vastly prided himself on. And in the world of the tweenhood school tundra, he was the security ruining bully who threatens to shove people into lockers on occasion and tripped them in the hallway for their lunch money just for kicks.

Arlee had known him for long enough to know better though. He had grit and a mean streak, but he was reasonably friendly when he wanted to be. Obviously, today wasn't one of those days.

"So he kidnapped her, just like that?" Federico fireballed Araceli with a fuse of questions when he finally approached the car, wadding up his slip of paper and cramming it deep inside the crevice of his pocket.

Araceli pointed her car remote to her car. "Come on, inside." She then proceeded to crank the door to the driver's side open and slide inside, which caused a new problem to crop up into to the horizon that all four of them could only solve in a matter of seconds. Who was going to sit where.

Araceli's car was a 5 seater, meaning the option to disappear into the boot and hope she didn't hit a speed bump on her travels wasn't even a consideration. Federico partially fixed the stumping issue by taking the passengers seat. It only seemed appropriate.

Spinner begrudgingly wrenched open the door
to the seat on the right behind Fede, and JT gave Arlee a pleading look to not let him have to spend the next 15 minutes stiffly scrunched next to him.

She hesitated at first, all that lack of space. Shoulder to shoulder. Next to him. But eventually,  Arlee shook off the feeling and her complacency to take residence in the forbidden middle seat. JT got inside and shut the door. "She didn't know him."

Federico arched a brow, still trying to connect the dots in his mind. "Didn't even think to ask for a name? No real photo evidence?"

"He was the one who lied about his true identity to her." concurred Arlee with a bit of assertiveness. "Moron."

"It's easy to say that when you're not the one it happens to." Araceli reminded him. "But you all take this as a lesson to never trust everyone you meet on the 'net, no matter how friendly they seem."

Spinner smirked in amusement at her sudden lecture. "You sound like a PSA."

"I'm serious boys." firmed Araceli, her eyes drifting over to the frontal rear view mirror. "Tonight could've ended a lot differently if Arlee and the others hadn't alerted Emma's mom and Mr.Simpson. Speaking of which, I may get onto your dad about monitoring what you're up to on that chatroom every night."

Federico's eyes widened with slight discomfort from the last fragment of her statement. "I don't go on chatrooms."

"So who is it that you're always giggling with in front of the screen everyday after 6:00?" She implored. Federico stayed silent, and Spinner meekly tried to stare out the car window and pretend he couldn't hear all the revealing secrets Araceli was unintentionally spilling about Federico. "I was a teenager once too, you know. I had urges."

"I don't chat to pervs on the net, and I don't giggle." The boy half-smiled, his head lolling back on the seat.

"It's not the pervs I'm worried about, it's the new uprise of sex bots that I'm more concerned with." lamented Araceli. "You're a sucker for pop-ups."

This time, Spinner couldn't ignore what he'd just heard. "Dude."

Federico deeply exhaled, his frame and seatbelt sharply turning to his aunt. "Araceli! ¿Podemos cambiar de tema antes de que digas algo que le dé munición a Spinner contra mí?"

Araceli didn't bother to take his seriousness into account. "Solo toma en cuenta mis lecciones, eso también va para ti Arlena."

Arlee weakly nodded, as did Federico. Her eyes briefly drifted over to the right, at the alit homes and the mess of old newspapers scattered amongst their untrimmed lawns. She accidentally caught Spinner's gaze in the reflection and immediately snapped her head away from that point millisecond accident, attention narrowing over to her half-asleep friend. "JT?"

The sharp nudge of Arlee's elbow launching into the softness of JT's shoulder sent him jolting up slightly. "Huh?"

"You alive?" She queried in a quiet tone, her head tilting.

"Yeah, barely." JT rubbed at his eyes. "I didn't eat before going to Toby's house. Then all of this happened..and now I just remembered I was hungry again."

"Pizza at my house?" offered Arlee. "I could always call your grandma."

JT's attention was now fully drawn on the concept. Television, free food, relaxation. It was wrong of him to think of all those things when Emma's scenario still hadn't wrapped, he was fully aware. But being in the company of a friend and colourful distractions still helped to ease the lapsed tension. "Hawaiian?"

"Gross, no." Arlee contested, her nose scrunching. "Mushroom."

Both of JT's brows spiked. "Mushroom ? That's an abomination on cheese."

"But it's nutrious".

"—And a crime against humanity."

Arlee didn't carry that squabble any further. He had a point. There were some food groups that simply shouldn't be cross contaminated with one another. Pineapple and melted cheese, per example. "My dad always gets plain cheese too, we can just steal that instead and watch something"

"Fine, but I get to pick this time." propositioned JT with a surge of surety.

She shrugged her shoulders evasively. "Cool with me Jellybean."

JT reached to shove at her shoulder harshly, making her nearly topple to the other side. Luckily, she managed to catch herself. And in the moment, they both serenely smiled at one another. "Barf breath."

ronnie speaks ! and the end of the pilot episode is officially in the books...yay 😌 a lot of new dynamics between characters are slowly starting emerge here. some may last throughout the duration, others for just a bit. any guesses? i hope y'all enjoyed this, idk when i'll publish episode 3 but i pinkie promise that I'll try and make it soon soon soooon 💋