"So where are we sleeping tonight?"

"You can't be thinking of sleep already."

"Just tell me what to tell my parents."

"Sleep is for sissies. I'm gonna soak up all the action."

"So I used the wrong word, tell me already."

"You can sleep when you get home tomorrow."

"It's Brie's place tonight. Her mom's on muscle relaxers."

"Why?"

"Her back," Brianna Marie Fairchild answered, letting the typical Friday morning conversation swirl around her. She knew enough about the plans that she didn't have to listen closely to the girls. It was their routine, normally fun and comforting, today she was restless and the routine felt overdone. Boring even.

Austin Patricia Kelley always had to be reminded what she was supposed to tell her parents.

Lana Louise Richmond lived life 24/7. No one had actually seen her do anything resembling sleep since Kindergarten naptime.

And Claire Taylor Sullivan was the perpetual smoother.

If you asked Brie to pick a favorite, she'd die trying, they were all so wonderful in their own way. Together they'd faced tragedies ranging from indoor recess to failed geometry finals with the trials of cramps, driving, and dating scattered in between.

While Austin confirmed the evening's details once more, Brie opened the instrument locker they shared, reaching past the flutes, piccolo, and text books to find her brush. Checking the small mirror, she tucked away the platinum blonde wisps already working free of her barrette. When the first bell sounded, the four girls walked as a unit from the band room, toward their respective homerooms. Brie sighed, relieved she'd dodged an inquisition when Claire asked, "Where's your necklace?"

"Oh!" She patted herself where the pendant should've been. "Must've forgotten it." The second bell sounded, momentarily saving her from the slew of questions dancing in Claire's vivid green eyes. "Later," she mouthed.

The pendant she'd won for outstanding service to the band program in junior high had been around her neck every day since. Until that chilling moment today, when she'd found a cut and paste 'ransom' note stuck to her dresser where she always placed her necklace at bedtime.

Putting it out of her head, Brie focused on her class work. The school day marched on, much the same as all those before it, except her restlessness grew exponentially with every hour. What she was anticipating she couldn't put into words, though Claire tried desperately to draw her out during lunch.

"Brie, what's crawled in your head?" she asked between bites of raw baby carrots. Her dark red curls and the freckles dusting her nose bounced with each crunch.

"Just thinking. No--"