"Where is Lalaine?" Matt asked Danny at lunch the next day. Danny shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe she's sick. She was fine when we dropped her off," Danny explained. He was confused on why she wasn't there as well. And at that exact moment, the principal ran into the lunch room at intense speed, knocking over someone's tray in the process. The lunch room went silent when he seemed not to notice. He was in a state of panic.

"Uh...Danny? Can I see you a moment?" The principal tried to put a sense of calm in his voice, but it didn't work.

"Uh...ok..." Danny said and stood to his feet. He looked at the rest of the guys at the lunch table. They shrugged. He could have sworn that he didn't do anything horrible to get in trouble about. He walked away from the table, the lunch room completely silent. Danny stood next to the principal, and he began to whisper to him.

"I wonder what's going on..." Aaron thought out loud. Everyone was watching the two of them. Danny's eyes widened and he backed away from the principal. He then shoved him lightly out of the way and ran out the lunchroom.

"What's going on?!" Angel screamed to break the silence.

"Lalaine...and her parents...have gone missing," the principal said.

"What?!" everyone at the table said at once.

"There were puddles of blood in the house. That was it," the principal added. The group looked at each other and ran out of the lunchroom after Danny. They knew he was on his way to Lalaine's house. As soon as they got in the parking lot, the red Corvette pulled off in a rush and tore down the street with a skid from the tires.

"Let's follow him," Francisco said. They all ran to their separate cars and hopped in.

~~~~~~~~~

What the hell happened? Danny thought to himself. He couldn't think as he drove. He was speeding down the street, passing red lights here and there. He wasn't concerned about the law. He was concerned about getting to Lalaine's house. Getting by her side. He couldn't comprehend that she would not be there. Her parents were missing. And so was she. They were no where to be found! All that was left was a puddle of blood in the kitchen. Danny knew that no one was aware who's blood that had been. And they wouldn't be able to find out. Not at the moment. But Danny was not a patient guy when it came to emergencies.

Finally, he pulled up next to Lalaine's house. The police had just pulled off, and the yellow police tape was stretched about the yard. Danny left his car running, and door open as he hopped out and ran over to the tape. He ducked under it and went into the yard. The door was unlocked. He pushed it open and ran into the house. The sight was familiar. He knew where he was. He knew where he was going.

He ran straight down the hall and made a right. He was in the dining room, and right next to that he knew was the kitchen. He walked over to the slot in the wall where the country doors marked the entrance into the kitchen. He looked at the police tape strapped to the wall and ripped it off. He pushed the country doors open and was immediately greeted by the puddle of blood he had heard about. He backed away from it so he did not step inside of it and ruin a perfectly good clue.

There was a footprint in it. It looked about Lalaine's size. He then noticed that there were footprints leading across the floor, out of the dining room. A black glove was hidden under the dining room table. Danny ran to it and picked it up, staring hard at it. A clue! He held it tight and followed the shoe-print out of the dining room and into the hallway. It led up to the staircase, and since it was covered in carpet, the steps disappeared. Danny knew where these steps would take him. He sprinted up the stairs and ran into Lalaine's room. There was a broken chair on the floor; one of the legs had somehow been shattered. He saw the closet door, broken, and leaning toward the floor. And he looked over to the window. It was shattered across the floor. Glass was sprawled on the carpet that was Lalaine's bedroom. Danny looked over at the computer desk. The phone was laying next to it. The purple phone she had used plentiful times to call him and talk about absolutely nothing.

Danny looked away from the room. What was this? Exactly what had happened? And when? He slammed his fist on the door of the closet and it fell to the ground. Steps were coming! The police had returned! He looked around the room. No exit. No undetected exit. He just stood there and shoved the black glove in his pocket.

To his surprise, there were not police at the bedroom door. Instead, it had been the other 8 of his posse. They looked at him, saw the rage in his eyes.

"I-I'm sorry..." Tom said quietly. Danny looked away and walked over to the shattered pieces of glass.

"I should have stayed with her," Danny said with anger, "I should have protected her!" He slammed his fist into the window pane, small pieces of glass making a home for themselves on his fist.

"It's not your fault!" Kelly comforted him. She ran over to him and put an arm around him, holding him tight.

"There is nothing you could have done," Kelly continued, shaking her head. "You couldn't have known it was her time to go."

"She may not be dead," Hilary piped up, "They said her family and her are missing."

"But there is BLOOD downstairs!" Francisco pointed out.

"Shut up! You're not helping," Angel whispered to him.

"We don't know who's blood that is. She may just be hurt. We may be able to save her," Aaron agreed with Hilary. He smiled to her, but she looked away from him over to Danny and Kelly.

"Well, she's hurt badly to make that big of a puddle," Danny growled.

"Maybe it's her parent's blood. Maybe she's fine," Mary Kate forced a smile to make Danny feel better. He shook his head.

"No...she's gone..." Danny said, a single tear strolling down his cheek and falling from his face. It fell on the window pane and rested there.

"Don't say that! Don't give up hope!" Kelly encouraged him. She always had been the one to make the group feel better. Danny smiled at her and nodded. She was right. When he gave up hope on finding Lalaine, he'd give up hope on her staying alive.

"She's right. The police will find her," said Tom.

"I found something," Danny said. He had just remembered. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the glove he had found under the table. Kelly looked at it, then back to him, and gently took it from his fingers.

"A glove...maybe that's what he was wearing!" Kelly exclaimed suddenly. She looked inside the glove to find the tag. She pulled it out and read the back. "Michael T. Weiss."

"That's his name?" Matt asked her. They were getting some hope...finally.

"Maybe," Hilary said.

"We should tell the police," Danny said.

"They aren't planning on taking this case seriously. It was on the radio. With the recent bank robbing that have been happening as of late, they aren't too concerned," Angel said. Francisco lightly hit her with his elbow.

"You're not helping!" Francisco repeated what she had said to him a while ago.

"Then we're on our own," Matt said to them.

"Let's go back to my house," Hilary said, "School is over in 2 hours. We have a reason to have left. Maybe it's still bad that we did, but we have reason. We'll go to my house and see if we can find this ‘Michael T. Weiss.'"

"Ok...let's go..." Aaron said. Everyone walked out of the room. Everyone except Kelly and Danny. Danny stood still, looking around the room. Wherever Lalaine was, he prayed she was ok.

"We should go," Kelly said to him. He nodded, and the two of them left the room.