Evan

Hours after Evan came barging into Kae’s room, he yelled at her from the kitchen. “Come on, Kae, I don’t want to be late on my first day.”

“Relax, no one cares on the first day, dork.” Kae yelled from inside her parents’ bedroom, trying to find her dad’s car keys. “Have you seen Dad’s keys?”

“Check his pants pocket in his closet…and hurry up.”

After a minute Kae made it to the kitchen with his keys in hand and her bag slung over her shoulder.” If they just let me have my own car this wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Yeah, because you’re so responsible.” Evan cracked, as he watched her dig around in the closet looking for something to eat.

“This is me ignoring you.” After locating a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. She pulled a slice out and quickly tossed it in the toaster.

“Seriously?” Could she ever be on time? “First bell rings in like five minutes and you’re making toast? What have you been doing for the last two hours?”

“Oh, I went back to sleep.” She gave him a sly smile. “Six is too early.”

“You went back to sleep, seriously?” Why was he even surprised? “Was your goal to try and make sure we were late?”

Zarg came in from the living room and sauntered over to Evan and started to nudge him with his long head.

“Did you feed Zarg?” Kae said, deflecting his barb.

“Yes.”

“Then why is he up? He never gets off the couch before noon.” she said, staring at the toaster as if trying to will it to pop.

“Probably missing Mom and Dad.” Those words hurt. He turned his face away as his eyes started to ache. “Do you think they are alright?”

“They’ve only been gone for one night. I’m telling you, they’re just out partying at a magic club.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah, when was the last time they went out? They’re probably having the time of their lives.” The toaster popped. “Finally.” She grabbed her toast and smeared an extra thick layer of peanut butter on it.

“Come on, we’re going to be super late.” Evan complained, heading towards the door.

“Chill, it’s the first day.” She said, right before taking a bite of her toast, but after a few seconds of Evan staring at her, she acquiesced. She put the toast in her mouth to free her hands to grab her bag and then a bottle of water from the refrigerator. This was followed by a mumbled, “Come on” with the toast still hanging in her mouth.

On the way out Evan armed the alarm system.

“Oh my god, you’re such a dork.” she said, still trying to hork down the toast.

He didn’t care. He was being extra cautious. “Better safe than sorry.”

As they pulled out of the driveway, a utility truck pulled up to the house and two men got out wearing yellow construction vests and grey hard hats. They waved to get their attention, but Kae drove on without stopping.

They approached Clear Lake High School, a large, recently remodeled campus and parked in the student parking lot. They hurried to the entrance to the school where a large menacing woman who looked like she could have made the NFL, studied them as they approached. She looked down at her watch and then back at them, her face full of disapproval.

“Hi Mrs. Montroy, did you miss me?” Kae said, with fake cheer in her voice.

“Helloooo, Miss Harper. Getting off to another good start this year, I see. This must be your little brother, and what is your name?”

“Evan,” he said, not making eye contact.

“Well, welcome, Evan, it’s great to have you here. Hopefully we won’t get to see each other as often as I see your sister.” She said, with a tight smile. “And already it looks like we are going to be great friends again this year, aren’t we, Ms. Harper?”

“Oh, I plan on being perfect again this year, Mrs. Montroy.”

“Evan, did you know that your sister is the only honor student that I constantly get to visit with? I haven’t figured it out yet, any ideas?”

Kae’s didn’t let him answer. “That’s easy, the smarts are from my mom being a scientist and the need to rebel is because my dad is a cop.” Evan could almost see devil horns start poking out through the top of her head. She did not like authority. Any kind of authority. It was almost nice watching her go after someone else. “Isn’t that in your assistant principal manual somewhere?” Kae put extra emphasis on the word assistant because apparently, Mrs. Montroy had been passed up for the principal’s job last year.

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She glared at Kae but refused to engage her. Smart woman. She looked down at her clipboard. “Now, do you know where you’re supposed to be, Evan?”

“No, Ma’am.”

“Wow and such manners, are you sure you two are related?” She said, not bothering to look up from her clipboard. “Miss Wilkinson, down the hall on the right. And what about you Miss Harper, do you know where you are supposed to be?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

Kae let out a sigh. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Gooood. And I assume then you also know when you are supposed to be there as well.”

“Yes.” Mrs. Montroy gave Kae an annoyed head tilt before Kae finally gave in. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Gooood. Then I expect you two to be here on time tomorrow.”

“Yes, of course, I wouldn’t dream of missing a second of school.” Kae said, with a large dose of sarcasm.

Mrs. Montroy waved at that like pesky gnats. “Well, go along then, get educated.”

Kae stomped off with Evan following behind. “Good friend of yours?” he said, catching up next to her.

“Yeah. So hey, meet you here after school. Okay?”

“Okay.” Evan said, rushing off towards his classroom.

Kae

After the final bell rang, Kae ran into some friends she hadn’t seen since last school year. After what felt like a quick catchup with old friends, she rushed to the agreed upon spot to meet Evan. But the little shit wasn’t there. She noticed that the hallways were almost empty. For the first time all day she felt uneasy. Up until now the day had been a dream. She was in charge and could do what she wanted, get up when she wanted, eat what she wanted, and even had her dad’s car to drive where she wanted. The best part of this freedom, of course, was she could see Kyle after school without scorn. But the responsibility that came with this freedom was not where he was supposed to be.

She dug into her bag for her phone. Her hand searched past a bottle of perfume, a wad of highlighters, pens, cosmetics, and a thousand other unused items. Panic started to grip her. She dumped the contents of her bag on the floor. Finally, below a large chemistry book, she found her elusive phone. With a swipe it was open, and she saw a wall of texts from Evan spanning almost thirty minutes asking where she was.

She started hammering away at her phone asking him where he was. She waited. Her phone refused to respond, every second seemingly longer than the next, when the reptilian voice of Mrs. Montroy jolted her from her gaze.

“Doing a little spring-cleaning, Miss Harper?” She was now standing over Kae staring down at the contents of her bag which were scattered across the floor.

Kae snapped out of her panic, not wanting to give Mrs. Montroy the satisfaction of seeing her in a moment of weakness. “No, I, uh…thought I lost my code of student conduct, but we can all calm down because, here it is.” Kae grabbed the pamphlet from under one of her textbooks and waved it in the air. Neither of them said anything for a long and uncomfortable pause until Kae felt a faint hand pressure on her back.

“You know that if you ever need anything, I am here, right?” She said, in a noticeably less reptilian tone.

Kae looked around, unsure what to say. “Uh…thanks, but I am good.” Kae said, taking one last glance at her phone.

“Where’s your brother?”

“Oh, he uh…got picked up by my dad,” she lied, as she started to shove the contents randomly back into her bag as fast as she could. Today was not the day for an emotional connection with her nemesis.

After the last book was awkwardly forced in, she saw that Mrs. Montroy had already moved on to harass another student. She got up in a hurry and jogged to the car which was now an inferno from baking in the heat all day. After starting the car, she rolled the windows down to release the hot air trapped in the car before cranking up the air conditioner. Now roasting in the car like a baked good, she had no idea what to do next. Her panic from earlier started to put its cold hands around her as she looked around in vain hoping Evan would miraculously appear in the empty parking lot. She pulled out her phone to make sure she hadn’t missed a text message.

She hadn’t.

A few frustrating seconds later she called him. No answer. Not sure what to do next she went into autopilot and backed the car out of its spot. She slowly rolled through the parking lot in a fog of uncertainty unsure what to do other than go home. She passed the agreed upon pick up spot one more time to make sure he hadn’t materialized before continuing towards the exit when her phone chirped. She slammed on the brakes, stopping the car in the middle of the parking lot exit. It was a text message from Evan.

I got a ride with Barrett, home now

Where the hell were u?

The relief washed over her as she quickly tapped in a response.

I got held up! Kae replied, now realizing about how dumb she was to panic. Next time, tell me u left!

“Texting and driving.” Mrs. Montroy’s reptilian voice invaded her moment of relief through the open windows of the car. “And here I was worried my first detention of the year would get cancelled.”

“Sorry, I just—”

“I don’t need your life story, Miss Harper, just put the phone down and drive.” She slipped a pink detention slip into her window. “We’ll catch up tomorrow morning.” She gave Kae an evil smile as she walked away. Kae rolled the window up and drove off screaming her favorite curse words.

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When Kae arrived home and pulled into the driveway she noticed the same two construction workers had dug a hole in their front yard between the curb and the sidewalk. They waved at her as she pulled into the driveway. She got out of the car and walked out to investigate. “Hey, is everything okay?”

The closest worker wearing a white hardhat said, “Hi, yeah, we noticed a drop in pressure on the gas line, so we’re just trying to find it before it becomes an issue, nothing to worry about. But you won’t have gas for another couple hours.”

“Okay…well do you have a work order or something?” Kae said, as real concern started to take hold after almost a full day with no word from her parents. She found herself examining every detail of the scene to make sure it was authentic but didn’t get any Sov vibes off the two workers. They had friendly brown eyes.

“Sure,” he said, a little annoyed heading back to his truck. He came back after a minute with a clipboard. He pulled a yellow sheet off and handed it to her. “Here’s a copy.”

“Thanks.” Kae said as she looked at the paper, which seemed official.

“Is your dad home or someone I can speak to about your shutoff valve?”

“Uh, I’m sure he’ll be home any minute.” She lied, before turning to head back to the house at a quick pace.

The house had an eerie calm to it. There were no parents, no TV, no Zarg wandering about, no nothing. She walked in through the kitchen to the living room, but it was empty.

“Evan!” she called out. There was no response.

She went down into the basement expecting to find him playing video games, but it was also empty. She looked upstairs in his room as well as hers, but they were both empty.