"You have no idea how thankful I am," Dream said, wearing a white hoodie and black leggings. She stretched out her legs. "For the first time in several days, I'm not dressed like a snowman."

"Yeah, definitely," Chloe said, coming out of the bathroom, having just changed. She was now wearing a striped pastel colored sweater and a pair of pink sweatpants. Chloe was always going to just be Chloe.

"I don't understand you girls bundling up," Zac shrugged. He hadn't changed at all since they arrived at Savannah and Sawyer's house from the ski resort an hour ago. "I was pretty much fine."

"If I remember correctly," Dream teased, "You were complaining about the weather back at the ski resort. And we all fell unconscious because of the cold."

"I was wearing shorts," Zac defended.

"Like a total idiot," Dream retorted. "Who the heck wears shorts in snowy weather?"

"I do, too," Axel said, jogging into the room, kicking a soccer ball in front of him. Like Zac, he didn't change either. "Don't discriminate."

"And you're just as much an idiot as Zac," Chloe smirked, seeing his annoyed expression.

"Quit bullying me," Axel whined, sitting down on the couch and turning on the television. The news automatically popped up, probably a result of both teenagers in the house being gone for the past five days.

"Three months ago, Lili Robinson, a student from local school Pebblebrook Creek High who had been reported missing for six months prior to this incident, was found by two fellow Pebblebrook Creek students in a stream near their school. She was unconscious at time of discovery and stayed in a coma for three months before waking up two weeks ago," the news anchorwoman said.

"Cool, Dream and Savannah are on the news," Axel commented.

"Also two weeks ago, the bodies of two deceased teenagers were found in the same stream. They have been identified as Gregory and Frederick Lanton, brothers who were reported missing around the same time as Miss Robinson."

"I think Savannah told me that a while back," Dream said. "But what's it doing on the news?"

"Upon questioning," the news anchorman continued what the anchorwoman had been saying previously, "Miss Robinson identified the two brothers as her fellow classmates from history class, further adding that their history teacher is Mrs. Woods, the woman that Miss Robinson is pressing charges against for several counts of kidnapping and abuse."

Zac looked at the screen, intrigued. "I thought it was the Sinclair guy who was doing the kidnapping. But I knew it. I knew all along that Mrs. Woods kidnaps her students."

"The court case has been postponed until January, and until then, out of consideration for the safety of their students, Pebblebrook Creek High School has made the decision to shut down until the case is closed. The amount of time that will take is yet uncertain."

"Wait... what?" Dream said, looking at the television in shock. "They're...shutting down Pebblebrook Creek High for an indefinite amount of time?"

"What's going on?" Savannah said, coming downstairs to the living room where everyone else except her brother were.

"Took you long enough to change," Dream commented. "And Pebblebrook Creek High is being shut down because of safety reasons related to Mrs. Woods."

"Tell me it doesn't take a long time to shower, shampoo, condition, then pick a good outfit, and then do all that glam, and blow dry my hair," Savannah defended. "Also, Pebblebrook Creek High is shutting down? What?"

"Yeah, speaking of that, your outfit is a little excessive," Chloe said. Savannah was wearing a light grey turtleneck sweater dress that did wonders to compliment her dark complexion, and black heeled boots, whereas everyone else - literally everyone else - was wearing plain sneakers.

"Um, excessive? No, I just want to look good," Savannah retorted, sitting down. "Now, why exactly is Pebblebrook Creek High shutting down?"

"Maybe because, er, students are being kidnapped by teachers?"

"Oh yeah, that is...well horrible," Savannah said. "What can we do about it?"

"I guess...win the court case?"

"What a great idea," Zac said sarcastically. "How?"

"Um, I don't know, evidence and such?"

"Oh come on, nerd, I thought you were smarter than that."

Dream shot him the nastiest glare her eyes could make. "Well, I've never attended court or studied what happens in court, it's not like I want to become a lawyer or judge or whatnot."

"Uh, hello? Haven't you watched any tv shows or movies or that kind of thing that feature court cases?"

"No, although I thought that kind of thing would be considered too 'nerdy' for your tastes," Dream shot back.

"Oh, I'd choose watching that over reading for fun."

"You guys are weird, quit bickering like old gossipy grandmothers," Savannah snapped.

"Looks like someone's finally realized how annoying it is to watch two people argue all the time," Axel said, trying his best to keep a straight face.

"Which two other people argue all the time?" Savannah asked.

Everyone else in the room burst into laughter.

"Seriously? That's something you need to ask?" Axel snorted.

"Anyways, back on topic," Dream said, "What is your marvelous plan, Zac?"

"Er, well," Zac scratched the back of his neck. "This particular case is about Lili Robinson, right? The fact that she was kidnapped and abused for, like six months. We were kidnapped too. Also, you and Savannah are going to testify that she was saying the word 'woods' even in her sleep."

"Yeah, so?"

"Is there some way to get in contact with Lili's lawyers? Because otherwise, Dream won't be able to testify anything unrelated to Lili and I won't be able to testify at all."

Savannah spoke up. "Actually yes, I'll see if I can somehow contact Lili and maybe she'll connect us to her lawyers."

"All right," Dream agreed.

"I think I have her number somewhere...they gave it to me a while back," Savannah frowned, looking through her phone. "Ah! Here it is," she dialed the number. A moment later, the person on the other end answered, and Savannah put the person on speaker phone.

"Hello?" the person said. It was a feminine voice.

"Hey," Savannah said chirpily, "I'm looking for Lili Robinson?"

"Oh! I'm her aunt, I'll go get her right now. By the way, who are you?"

"I'm Savannah Jameson? My friend Dream and I kind of pulled Lili out of a stream and saved her life."

"Oh my gosh," Lili's aunt said. "I cannot thank you enough! You and your friend saved her life!"

"No problem, we were glad to help."

"Okay, here's Lili. Lili, this is one of the girls who rescued you," they heard Lili's aunt say from the other end of the phone. A few seconds later, Lili's voice came through.

"Hello?" her voice was slightly hoarse.

"Hi, is this Lili?"

"Yeah. Are you Savannah or Dream?"

"I'm Savannah. Dream is in the room with me right now actually."

"Oh," Lili said. "Thanks for saving me."

"No problem."

"So why did you call me?"

"Um, I just wanted to check if you were okay, the last time I saw you, you were well, unconscious."

"Yeah," Lili said.

"What exactly happened?" Savannah blurted out. "Out of curiosity," she quickly added.

"Well...I was organizing my locker. They said that before me, the locker had been unused for a year or two? But the person who had the locker before me left a note that said something about my history teacher Mrs. Woods being a kidnapper or something like that, so I got suspicious and made a horrible mistake of ditching detention to follow Mrs. Woods after class."

"Oh my gosh," Savannah breathed, "What happened?"

"She went into this dark alley and paid these two men? They were dressed in black and hooded. I'm not sure what happened, I just ran away but I think she saw me. The next day I was walking home from school and got shoved into a van, then they took me to this cottage in the forest.

"I don't exactly remember what happened after that but I remember not eating or drinking anything for a really long time, and I still have bruises and cuts all over...at some point I got tossed in a stream. Everything is really blurry and confusing."

"But you think Mrs. Woods did this?"

"I know Mrs. Woods did this."

"Oh. Okay."

"By the way, could you give me your lawyers' contact information? I'd like to talk to them about the upcoming case next month."

"Sure, I'll email you their phone numbers and email addresses."

This was going to be a lot more serious than they thought.

A lot. More serious.

---

Dun dun dunnnnn!!!

Okayyyy now, storytime, as promised!!

If I could use one adjective to describe the original Mrs. Woods, it would be "comical". Why? Well, Mrs. Woods was mostly a funny character XD. Sure, she was a horrible teacher, but her crimes were hilarious. For example, she kidnapped a boy so he could be her chicken nugget slave. Meaning, he was forced to make her chicken nuggets all day long, because she loved to eat them. 

Oh and also, Mrs. Woods was supposedly the villain in every story. Meaning, she shape-shifted and time traveled into different universes to play different villains in every story. She was the witch in "Hansel and Grettel", Cinderella's stepmother, the witch who kidnapped Rapunzel, and so many others. (This is hilarious XD) And, her original name was Grettel instead of Gretchen, until we realized that if she was the witch in Hansel and Grettel, but her name was also Grettel...yeah, that didn't work lol.

Anyways, that's all I have for today! I hoped you enjoyed the chapter! It was a real game-changer lol ;) Please consider voting, commenting, and sharing if you're enjoying the book so far!! Love you all!

Next update: Friday

💙, Stella Rose