POV ARIES

I hear the sound of the bus door opening. I stand up and swing my red backpack over my shoulder and saunter down the aisle behind the rest of the students. Right behind me is Taurus and in front of me is Pisces who has been acting strange. She was wearing a new necklace I never noticed before, but it didn't really matter since I don't really notice anything like that about anyone, anyways. But besides that she was really out of it, and didn't even turn around to say hi to me or Taurus.

When I stepped off the bus, Pisces ran off towards the school doors, even though we had at least 20 minutes before the bell would ring. I turned around and found Taurus had left me too. "Why is life so cruel?"

I hear a giggle coming from beside me and see Aquarius standing there looking at me. "What?" I ask her.

She shrugs. "Nothing. I just find it amusing how you are ranting about life to yourself."

This time I shrug. Aquarius walks forward and nudges my shoulder. "Are you okay? You look worried."

"I'm okay, but have you noticed Pisces has been acting weird?"

"Well, I haven't seen her recently..."

"She won't talk to me or Taurus and she just seems really sad."

"It must be Rosa." Aquarius said her name with utter disgust. "I'm going to show her what happens when you mess with my friends."

Aquarius started sprinting toward the courtyard muttering to herself. I thought about just letting her go, but Aqua is probably going to hurt herself if she's left alone.

I start running after her. "Aqua wait. You can't just attack her at school! At least wait until 3:30!"

Suddenly, I'm being pulled back and I turn around to see Libra holding onto the handle of my backpack. "Hi." I say awkwardly. Libra smiles. "Hey, Aries. I was wondering if you would come with me after school to the new ice cream place across town."

"Sorry, Libra. I got to, hang out with the family tonight. You know game night and whatever. Besides my mom won't let me go out until I pack for the trip. After all we are going to Paris after the weekend is done, in three days." I lied.

"Oh, okay." Libra turns around and walks toward her friends.

Now this is why I lied. Libra and I were a thing, or are a thing. It's complicated. We are the most off-and-on couple the students have ever seen. We took our 'break' right before Aquarius came to school which was about two weeks ago. But the thing is, as much as I thought I loved Libra, I want to start something serious with someone. And not have to be held back by someone who isn't even my full-time girlfriend.

Anyways, I'm chasing after Aqua and see her at the side of the school. The students have created a semi circle around her and Rosa, and I push myself to get through the crowd. Aquarius has Rosa against the wall and an arm beside Rosa's head. Rosa is pale and slightly shaking. I find myself standing next to Sagittarius.

"Hey, man. What happened?"

"Well Aqua came up to Rosa and started yelling at her about leaving Pisces alone and stuff. Then when Rosa laughed and said something like 'you don't scare me'" Sagittarius made a high pitched voice to imitate Rosa. "Aquarius pushed her against the wall and no ones has moved since.

All of a sudden Rosa breaks free and runs away with her friends behind her. When they get a reasonable distance away she turns around. "Fine! I'll leave Pisces alone, but that's only because I've found a new target!" Then she laughs and walks away.

The crowd disperses leaving me with Sagittarius and Aquarius, who is still frozen at the wall. Sagittarius moves forward. "Are you okay, Aqua?" Then she collapses and Sagittarius manages to catch her. I hear small parts of their conversation.
But the one that bothers me is that Aqua was scared and she didn't know what overcame her. Apparently she was usually calm in these types of situations and wasn't in control when she pushed Rosa.

Eventually, the three of us managed to calm down and we entered the school right before the warning bell. In class, it was as if nothing had happened. Aquarius was back to  joking around, and even Pisces had heard of what happened. It didn't really cheer her up but she started talking to us agin.

The only thing that bothered me was Libra staring at me from her desk. Under her gaze I felt a little guilty, but I knew I made the right decision; the decision to let her go.

~~~

It's last period and I have science with Gemini and Aquarius. I was hoping to get through class and hurry off to a football practice that was scheduled at the last minute. But Gemini just didn't seem to get it. She was talking non stop with her desk partner and ignored the teacher the entire time. It didn't help that a ton of students were laughing along with Gem. I swear, Ms. Kale was going to hold the whole class back if everyone didn't stop fooling around. Normally I'd be joking around with them, but I missed the last football practice, and I don't want to know what coach would do if I missed this one.

All of a sudden I couldn't take it anymore and I leaped out of my chair. "Shut up Gem! Can't you stop talking for just ten minutes!"

She fracked a grin. "You're joking, right Aries?"

"I'm serious. What? You don't think I care about school?" Okay to be honest, passing science isn't my main priority but the teacher was glowering at me, and I figured if my outburst was because of my love for school, then maybe she wouldn't punish me.

Ms. Kale put down the science textbook she had been holding. "Thank you, Aries. I can take it from here."

I sat back down trying not to make eye contact with anyone in the room.

"Ms. Gemini, I agree with Mr. Aries, stop talking during class. Detention after school for an hour." I tried not to smile. I mean I don't enjoy my friends getting into trouble but as long as it isn't me, right?

"Stop smirking Mr. Aries, you also have detention. For interrupting me and yelling in the classroom."

I threw my hands up in the air hut didn't say anything. Gemini turned around in her seat and stuck her tongue out at me. I stuck mine out at her too. I turned to my left, and just a few seats away was Aquarius. She was surprisingly good in school, but she never rose her hand. Almost no one noticed her, but for some reason she was only the only thing that I could notice.

Her brown hair cascaded down her shoulders, as she hunched over her desk taking notes. When she did look up to nod thoughtfully, I could see in her face that she was actually enjoying the fact that she was learning something. After a few minutes I realized I was staring and looked away. Unfortunately Aqua noticed me looking at her. When I glanced her way again, she gave me a small smile and shrugged her shoulders to say: too bad you and Gem got detention.

I shrugged back as if to say: whatever.

We did this for the next ten minutes, our silent conversation. Suddenly Aquarius widened her eyes and tapped her wrist. I checked the time on my phone: 3:29. One more minute till schools out. One more minute to he football practice I won't be able to attend. I groaned and put my head in my hands. The bell rang and everyone grabbed their papers and stood to leave the room. When I looked up, only Gem and I were left on the room. Us and Ms. Kale.

Our teacher put a finger to her lips as if to say: no talking.

I rolled my eyes. That was when I noticed Gemini hunched over her desk. What was he doing. In an attempt to get a good look at her face, I knocked something off of my desk. It was a slip of paper. I didn't remember having a tiny slip of paper sigh me when I entered the room. I picked it up and say back in my chair. I opened it up, hiding it in my desk. The paper was a note. It was in purple ink, and signed by Aquarius.

It read: meet me in the parking lot, behind the big oak tree. Gemini will be there too. When the distraction happens, run out with Gem and hide there. Wait for me.
-Aquarius

I made eye contact with Gem and we waited. I started to think about how angry my coach would be. Leo probably won't be able to make an excuse to make up for my absence, but Sagittarius might. But even if they did, it wouldn't help. I'll be kicked off the team, or worse; benched. Benched for everyone to see. I'll be humiliated.

I kicked my desk in frustration causing it to move and make a loud screeching noise. Ms. Kale sat up from her desk and started to make her way towards me. I started praying for a miracle to happen. And it did.

Aquarius ran into the room limping, sweaty and crying. Sagittarius was right at her heels. Aquarius was speaking gibberish and looked completely terrified. My stomach plunged in thought of what could have happened to her.

Ms. Kale turns around to look at her. When she sees Aqua's state she rushes to her side and demands Sagittarius to tell her what happened. "What happened was, well.......she was mugged."

"Mugged!?" Ms. Kale cried out. She looked like she was going to faint.

"I was at football practice when I heard a scream." He looked down at Aquarius and she nodded, as if telling him he said the right thing. This is when I realized this was the distraction. Nothing bad had happened to either of them.

"I heard a scream and turned the corner towards the front of the school. I found Aquarius on the ground crying with a figure in a black cloak ruffling through her backpack. So, I ran up to the figure and fought for the bag back. Luckily I hit it back and Aqua wasn't that harmed but the man got away."

"Oh dear, well we should get Aqua to the nurse and we will go talk to the principal." Ms. Kale turned to look at Gem and I. "You two stay here, and don't move."

When she walked out the door, she made sure Aqua and Sagittarius were following her. When I stopped hearing Ms. Kale's high heels echoing in the hallway, Gem and I got up from out seats and took the school's back door, out to the big oak tree, where we hid for at least half an hour.

Finally Aqua met us there and she looked fine. Gem stood up immediately. "OMG Aqua, what happened? I saw you come into the room and I was so worried. Then Sag explained what happened and I was ready to give that mugger a kick. Then when-"

She stopped talking when she saw that Aqua was laughing hysterically.

"I'm sorry I gave you such a scare." Aqua pauses to wipe her eyes. "None of that was true. It was the distraction I was talking about in the note. It took a lot of convincing, but Sagittarius finally gave in to helping me. I was going to ask Leo, but ever since he was little he wasn't very good at lying, which he won't admit; so I turned to Sag."

"But won't you guys get into trouble? You know, because people are going to figure out that there wasn't really a mugger." I said. I got a strange stare from Gemini. It's as if I can't be serious, but I can. I can be worried if I want to be.

"Oh, don't worry about that. Sag and I just gave the principal and Ms. Kale the least amount of information we could give. And since this 'mugger' didn't take anything, we won't know where to start looking for him/her, which means that the police and the school will just have to be 'more careful', and just start looking for people trying to attack high school students." Aquarius said.

It shocked and amazed me that she was able to outsmart not only the school, but the police as well. I am not the kind of guy that is afraid to get into trouble, but I do have a policy against lying to the police.

"Anyways, let's get a move on before anyone notices we're gone." Gemini says standing up from her crouched position.

"Yeah, who's up for ice cream? Not on me." Aquarius suggests with a smile.

"Sounds good to me." Then I led the two girls out of the school gate and down the street to our local ice cream store: Three Scoops.

~~~

"I can't believe you got us lost." I said shaking my head. "The ice cream store was literally just three blocks away."

"Ugh. So-rry! But three blocks is such a long walk away." Gemini groaned. "I swear, the route we took was the shortcut I took to the ice cream store last summer."

"Well, it must have changed since then!" I raised my voice at her, annoyed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know the concrete picked itself up and rearranged itself!" Gemini countered.

"Well then maybe you should be keeping up with the news. Last week they had a segment on how fire hydrants were trying to learn to fly." I said sarcastically.

I could see Aquarius rolling her eyes, through my peripheral vision. I tried to calm myself for her sake.

"Okay, fine. Thanks for trying to help. Let's just figure out where we are, so we can get back home." I said.

"Okay, well there's houses. Ooh, and a  few trees... Does anyone else think that mailbox looks familiar?" Aquarius said pointing out obvious things about the street.

"We get it! It's a typical street. Nothing you've mentioned is helping." I told her. She shrugs. "Just trying to help."

"Wait, she's right." Gemini said walking toward the mailbox. I rolled my eyes.

"Well of course, all mailboxes look the same. Besides a few flyers."

"Well then, if one mailbox has a flyer, and another one doesn't, then the two mailboxes don't look the same, do they?" Aquarius said as she passed me and joined Gem by the mailbox. I didn't have an answer to that.

"So, what looks familiar then?" I asked Gem.

She pointed at a flyer. It was a picture of a dog, and had the words MISSING under it, along with the details of where to return it if found. "This flyer looks nearly identical to the one I passed when I went to Pisces's house."

Still upset with before, I decided to mess up her theory. "Well, the owner of the dog probably put the same poster on all the mailboxes all over town."

"That's true." Gemini said. "But just to be sure." Gemini starts running up the sidewalk and was soon out of sight.

"We should probably go after her." Aqua said, and the also ran after our friend. I sighed and ran after both of them. I am a pretty fast runner so I quickly passed Aqua. I offered her a hand so that I could drag her as I ran, and we would go faster, but she refused and sped up.

Five minutes later the three of us are trying to catch out breath as we stand in front of a quaint little two story house. Well, technically speaking, I'm standing in front of the house. Gemini is sprawled across the front lawn, and Aquarius has collapsed a few steps away saying things like, "Go On without me."

What a trio we are.

Finally when we were all able to calm down, Gemini explained to us that we were standing in front of Pisces's house. "And so, that means we just need to go back the way we came, turn a right, then a left, then a right, and then go down Creek Road until we make it Three Scoops."

"I don't think I can make it that far until we go to the bathroom." I say. "This is Pisces's house right? I'll just go in there."

Gemini shrugs as if to say: go for it. So I do.

As I'm walking up to the front door, I'm distracted by a flash of light from the corner of my eye. I turn to ask the girls if they saw it. Gemini is frozen into place, with a pale face. Aquarius is shaking her as if to wake her out of her trance, but Gem is unresponsive.

Ignoring my bladder, I walk back to the two and help Aqua in her attempt to bring Gem back to this world. "Gem, what's wrong? Does it have to do with the light?"

That statement is what wakes Gemini up. That, or my statement had perfect timing. She shakes her head vigorously. "What light?"

"That light. You know, the one that just flashed five minutes ago. What is it?"

Gemini pales again but starts walking toward the source of the flash. I follow her and Aqua walks beside me. She gives me a look: what's going on? I shrug. I really don't know.

Finally we make it to a window and Gem gestures for us to crouch down under it. We do, and I'm half expecting her to climb onto of out backs but she doesn't. We peer into the window and see Pisces kneeling with a man in a long black cloak standing in front of her. I give Gemini a questioning look, but she just points toward the window and I continue watching.

I hear Pisces mumble a few words and the man disappears. Then Pisces stands up and I'm sure we are about to get caught, but she simply holds her new necklace and disappears as well. But before she goes, I can see a tiny tear slip down her cheek. I stand up shaking, and the two girls seem paralyzed.

"Gemini what is going on." I ask firmly. "I know you know, tell me."

Finally she answers. "It's kind of a long story."

~~~

I walk home with a dripping ice cream cone in my hand. As I kick a tiny stone I think about what Gem told us.

The man was someone named Corvus. Last time Gem went here, Pisces called him the constellation of the crow. Apparently she has been summoning him for a while, and he has been giving her 'advice'. She thinks he is helping her, but he's obviously bad. He told her that we weren't good friends to her; and he is the spitting image of what Virgo described as the figure who followed her home. The fact that he took her means she has given in, and that she believes he can do more for her than we can.

I kick the stone so hard it flies across the street. What are we supposed to do? She disappeared, with no trace. We don't have a single clue as to how we'll find her, and we're leaving for Paris in three days!

I throw my ice cream in the trash can and sit down on a park bench. After ten minutes of frustrated sighing I feel two warm arms lean up against mine.

"Hey." Leo says, from my right. I look to my left and Sagittarius gives me a 'manly' nod, which was ruined by his childish grin.

"What's up?" I ask. Sagittarius sighs. "Well, practice was good even though coach was fuming. You're one of our best freshman players, do you know that?"

"Anyways, coach said that to make up for missing today you have to do some training with him on Sunday." Leo said.

I thank them both and they get up to go.

"Wait." I call out. They both turn and so much in sync, I couldn't tell if they had practice that. "Yes, what is it?"

"Pisces has disappeared and I think the twelve of us have to go after her."

~~~

Hey everyone. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The zodiacs are finally starting their mission!!!

I feel like I should go to a writing workshop just to learn how to cut to the chase when writing a story.😂

I would like everyone to vote for which cover should be the cover of this book.

1)The current cover

2)

3)

4)

Anyways, thank you for reading, as always, don't forget to comment and vote!