The poor excuse for bread disintegrates in his hands. White pasty bits cling to his brown fingertips forcing him to nibble away at his own skin. Well, he's not technically breaking through, but Jake's still staring at him like he just took a chunk out of his own flesh like a human piranha.

"What? It's not my fault they're feeding us playdough bread." Marco says as he peels off a white clump from the tip of his pinkie.

"Dude, that's gross." Jake frowns as Marco licks up a piece of loosened paste. Jake's own white gunk disguised as a sandwich sits untouched next to the obligatory wilted vegetable of the week.

Now, Marco isn't sure how they decide what to feed the masses at this fine school... No, he's absolutely certain that it involves a spinning wheel of chance. The cafeteria ladies must all gather around it in the wee hours of the morning while waiting with bated breaths to see which two items come up first so that they can use those for the daily lunch experiment. And for today's special, lettuce and peanut butter sandwiches, folks! The kids will sure love this one!

Marco pauses in his current attempts to clean off his fingers. If he finishes his peanut butter sandwich first, then the aftertaste of lunch will be...lettuce.

With half a sandwich in one hand, Marco grabs the wilted greens and crushes them into a ball that he then pops into his mouth and swallows whole.

There, barely tasted the slimy gunk that slides down his throat and he gets to finish his lunch with a peanut-buttery flavored paste.

Jake squints at him in disgust before shaking his head.

"Cassie, I was talking to you about Cassie."

Like he had tried to do before and after the second class of the day when Marco had led him right to the cafeteria.

"Cassandra?" Marco takes another bite of peanut playdough.

"What? No, her name isn't Cassandra. Cassie isn't short for anything."

"Cassandra from Troy." Jake stares blankly at him, so Marco swallows the glue in his mouth before trying again. "Cassandra from Troy. You know, that ancient Greek chick who prophesized that everyone one was going to die. Come on, this was one of the cool stories in ancient history. You have to remember this."

Jake pales before glaring at Marco. "This isn't a joke. She's really convinced that we died. And Tobias had a weird dream too."

Jake's right. It's not a joke. Cassie is Rachel's friend, and no-nonsense girl would never put up with any other lady acting like... It's just convenient that the day of Jake's basketball tryouts happens to be the same day that Cassie has some huge mystical drama. Maybe the flawless Rachel read her friend wrong when she picked her out in kindergarten or whenever.

Or maybe Cassie's gone looney over wanting Jake's attention. Can't really blame her. What girl wouldn't go a little crazy over the only sensible guy in the school?

Marco shrugs. "So she had a weird dream where everyone died, that happens." The last few words tumble out before he can stop them.

Jake stays silent for a beat too long. He's giving Marco that serious look, the one that's thankfully devoid of pity even if it still makes his skin burn.

Marco charges on "It's not like that means people are going to die just because of a bad dream. Maybe she ate something bad last night or—" Reaching for the words for an excuse brings out a glimpse of that picture of Cassie on Jake's desk. The one where she's stuffing some medication down a badger's throat.

Or maybe the vet's kid did have something die on her.

"—she had a bad day or something. You should go sit by her and find out." And leave Marco to scarf down his lunch while stewing over his thoughts. He doesn't condone cruelty to animals, but something had better died on her watch instead of this being a look-at-me dramafest.

Rachel's probably not wrong about her friend, then. Tobias on the other hand...

Marco glances out at the kids eating around them. Even the boy's shabby clothing wouldn't stick out among this mixed crowd of the latest fashions and the worn-out-soles kids. But knowing Jake's new fanboy, he's gotta be lurking close by.

Now, that kid's clinging, but Marco really hadn't expected him to pull an attention-grabbing stunt like this. You don't just piggyback on someone else's claims to freaky dreams. That's just too low, even for a kid who gets his head swirled in the toilets on a weekly basis.

Jake's looks over his shoulder. Probably about to follow Marco's advise like the knight in shining armor that he is. But Rachel's blond head isn't visible rising above the crowd behind them like it usually is. The laws of best friends dictate that where she's sitting, Cassie should be right there with her, so wherever Rachel...isn't anywhere, Marco notes.

He's scanned the whole cafeteria, yet that gleam of golden hair is nowhere to be seen.

"They should be here. We were supposed to meet at lunch." Worry weighs down Jake's voice.

"To talk about dreams?" Marco asks even if he's still surveying the cafeteria for a girl who's never missed a lunch period in her life.

"Yeah, to talk about dreams. Marco, you didn't see what they were doing to her. There was something seriously wrong with Cassie."

Like what, she was fainting. Barely able to stay awake from a bad night. Been there, done that. There's nothing wrong with it except that it's a painfully normal response to terrible things.

His eyes almost sweep past the open doors, but there's Rachel marching right through them and into the cafeteria. She stops. Those blue eyes of her pierce through Marco as her gaze catches on him and then tears past.

She saw him and Jake, but for some reason she doesn't head towards them.

A boy with scraggly white-blond hair flopping into his face near skids to a halt besides her as a short waif-like girl steps into place on Rachel's other side. Both shorter kids survey the crowd with less sheer intensity than Rachel, but the boy still jerks franticly as he searches over the other kids.

When Tobias's look catches on Jake, it latches on.

He looks like he's about to shout, but Rachel beats it him to it.

"Hey! You!"

Following her gaze, Marco spots another white kid. The brown-haired boy stares right at Rachel before shoving himself out of his seat as she tears forward. He moves back before twisting around and hightailing it right for the other doors across the large room.

In Rachel's wake, the waif-like girl follows while Tobias hesitates long enough to watch Jake push himself out of his chair and rush forward.

Marco hurries after his best friend. It doesn't take long to catch up with Tobias and the waif-girl, even as Rachel runs down the hall after the boy who skids around a corner.

"What's happening?! Where's Cassie?!" Jake slows down enough so as not to race ahead of Tobias.

"Cassie," The skinny kid gulps in air. "Cassie wasn't at the nurse's. The teacher, Ms. Hana, lied to us. She said she was taking her to the nurse."

Teachers lie all the time. But it's the stuff everyone lies about, like things will get better. Or take as long as you need to, kid.

The thing is, they don't lie about where they're taking kids, whether that'd be to detention or the nurse's office (or both in opposite orders).

"She wasn't there, Jake. She just took her off someplace and we can't find her."

It comes out later. The nurse lied too. As soon as they mentioned that it was Ms. Hana who brought in the girl who wasn't there, the look of confusion on the nurse's face cleared right up. She "remembered" Cassie coming in then. Poor girl had to be sent home.

Funny thing, you know, to temporarily forget the student who was having bad enough problems to be sent home.

"We tried to find Melissa's dad, but he wasn't in his office—"

"GET BACK HERE." Rachel roars. The boy ahead puts on speed as Jake rushes out of Tobias's explanations and races to catch up to Rachel. Besides Marco, Melissa and Tobias try their best to run faster. But the girl's legs are even shorter than Marco's, and Tobias's skinny but he sure as hell isn't lean enough to be able to put on speed.

Far ahead, the boy doesn't take off down the hall leading to the outer doors. Instead, he scrambles up to the janitor closet and yanks the door open. Without glancing back, he slams it shut behind him.

What's he going to do? Lock himself in there and pray that a pissed off Rachel and Jake don't bust down the door.

Rachel crashes right into said door with a thud. Slowing enough not to slam into the wood, Jake reaches past her and grips the doorknob.

As the door swings up, Marco winces in almost sympathy as he looks at the rigid stances of the two cousins. Whatever role that kid has in Cassie's disappearance, he's in for a world full of hurt now.

Marco skids to a stop. His heart crawls up his throat as he stares at the gaping doorway.

Beside the brooms and buckets, the closet stands empty.