Tessa felt warm tears sprout from her eyes as she looked out the window from Lukas's house, staring at the empty streets. It'd been five whole days since the day the adults disappeared. In the meantime, she hadn't heard from anyone besides Lukas and his girlfriend, Amanda. She rarely saw anyone leave their house. The last time she'd seen a large group of people was the day it all began. It was after the group saw the railroad, when news spread around the town that they were completely trapped.

Tessa never actually got to see what happened, nor did she want to. All she knew, that it was bad. Lukas had gone out to the store the day after, only to find 80% of the store still stocked with food. Tessa was worried that if they didn't find a way out, they'd run out of food and starve to death.

"Hey," Lukas said as he knocked on the door, slowly entering the room, "Tessa, It's me."

Tessa turned away from the window to glance up at Lukas. "Hey," she replied, "what's up?"

"You've been up here for a couple of hours, I'm just checking up on you." Lukas said, sitting down next to Tessa by the window.

"I don't feel like going downstairs," she grumbled, hugging her knees.

"You need a hug?" Lukas questioned.

Tessa scotched away from Lukas, rolling her eyes softly, "fuck off, Luke."

Lukas laughed softly, standing up from his spot on the floor next to Tessa. Lukas headed towards the door but stopped directly outside the door and turned back to look at her, "Just letting you know, Amanda is asleep and Lonnie texted me about meeting up."

"What?" Tessa asked, "what'd he say?"

"He wanted us to meet up with some people he knew, and said they'd be able to help us figure out what's going on," Lukas replied.

Tessa tilted her head before staring down at the floor. Tessa shook her head slowly, "that's a load of bullshit. There's no way we'll be able to figure anytime out."

"It's worth a try.."

Tessa glared softly at her childhood best friend, Lukas smiling softly back at her. Tessa let out a loud groan, standing up as well and walking over to him. "Fuck you, Luke." She replied rudely, "Last time I do anything for you,"

Lukas chuckled nervously at her 'joke' , "we'll see about that."

Tessa smacks Lukas's chest as she sticks her tongue out at him, "I mean it."

"Sure ya do," Lukas replies, picking Tessa's jacket up from the ground, handing it to her before he headed downstairs, Tessa following.

—

Tessa kicked a rock on the street as she wandered down the street, Lukas tagging behind her. "Where are we meeting them?" Tessa questioned, looking back at Lukas.

Lukas pointed to a red and blue painted building, "auditorium. the school."

"Who the fuck chose that?" Tessa replied, not wanting to relive her high school memories again. Lukas shrugged as they entered the building, walking down the once filled halls to the auditorium where they were being waited for. Tessa pushed open the door, her eyes widening at her high school crush sitting on the auditorium stage. Suddenly Lonnie stood up auditorium chairs, rushing over to them.

"You guys actually came!" Lonnie exclaimed, smiling at the both of them.

"It took Tessa some time, but she decided to come," Lukas said, grinning, Tessa flipping him off.

"Uhm," Lonnie said, "I think you know most everyone in this room, but if not I'll remind you." Lonnie rushed over to a Mexican male with brown curls, who Tessa knew as Fox. "This is Fox," Lonnie said happily, resting his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Lon," Tessa replied, glancing over at Daniel, "I know who he is."

"O-Oh!" Lonnie replied, suddenly becoming flustered. "Well..uhm..That's Jia!"

Tessa looked over to a short, brown haired girl who smiles widely at her, sitting directly next to Daniel. Tessa nodded slowly, waving awkwardly at her. "I think I've seen her around a bit."

Lonnie nodded before he began to list the names of the rest of the people in the room. "Uhm..there's Mia..Grey..Izzy....uhm...Marcy and then there's Daniel."

Tessa slowly looked over at Daniel, making eye contact with him. Daniel grinned towards her, raising his eyebrows. Tessa ripped her attention away from him before she got too flustered, looking at Lonnie. "I think we should start." Lukas suddenly said as he made his way over to the girl Marcy. Tessa nodded slowly, deciding to sit the farthest away from everyone.

Izzy, who was Tessa's next door neighbor, stood up from her chair. "Well, i don't know if it's just me, but I've been feeling weird for the past month."

Marcy snickered, leaning back in her chair, "I think you're just insane."

"I swear!" Izzy replied, yelling slightly.

"Yeah?" Mic asked, not believing a single word Izzy spoke. "And what weird shit have you felt?"

"My parents.." Izzy replied, "they'd been acting strange. Everyone been acting strange! And— well, last year I built downright for the science fair, something that was supposed to detect radioactive energy. The day everyone disappeared, it was insane."

"What are you suggesting then?" Daniel asked, looking over at Izzy who looked like she was about to explode.

"Aliens." Izzy simply said, trying not to show too much emotion, though it seemed like she was excited by the idea.

Tessa scoffed, "Aliens? Really?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Izzy asked, turning to Tessa. Tessa went quiet, looking down at the floor. "How do you explain what they saw at the railroads? The forest? The fricking forest!"

She was right. No matter how much Tessa hated Izzy, she was right about the railroad. None of them could have come up with a scientific or realistic explanation. So maybe Izzy was right, maybe some crazy, movie shit was happening.

"Maybe we're part of some government experiment," Jia suggested, looking at Daniel for his feedback.

"Possible," Daniel replied, "but it's also unlikely.."

"I've got an idea," Fox suddenly said, everyone turning to look at him. Once he had everyone's attention, he spoke again. "Maybe this is a Parallel universe that we all just happened to wake up in. But what if they are mistakes— details that are out of place. We can check old town photos and such to see if they are things that are different. I don't hate the idea of something paranormal happening to us."

"I agree with Fox," Lonnie said proudly, smiling at him. "I think that it's a great idea."

"I agree with fox as well," Lukas said, "but in the meantime, we have to figure out some plans on what we're going to do now. You know how hectic it is right now."

Mia shrugged, "I guess somebody's gotta take charge."

"I think Tessa would be great for that," Daniel said softly , winking towards Tessa.

"M-Me?" Tessa stuttered, "you're joking..I can't do anything a leader can. I'm nowhere close to being a leader."

"What about Lonnie? Or Daniel?" Jia asked, her heart fluttering at Daniel's name.

"I think Lonnie would be a good leader!" Fox replied, making Lonnie blush.

"No way, I'm with Tessa, I can't be a leader." Lonnie said, still blushing.

Suddenly, as Mia was going to reply, the doors to the auditorium doors bolted open, Jasmine hurrying inside. "Guys," she said, already beginning to panic, "we've got a big problem.." 

WORD COUNT: 1247

UNEDITED AND RUSHED 

                                                             AUTHOR NOTE

                                                                    .·:*¨ ¨*:·.

is this rushed? Yes.

Do I hate my writing? Yes.

Is this crappy? Yes.

Hotel? Trivago.

I HATE THIS SO MUCH YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND MY HATRED FOR THIS

ALSO LONNIE AND FOX ARE MY FAVORITE DONT @ ME BITCHES

OK BYE I HATE MYSELF BUT I UPDATED