~June 29, 2017~

"You want to go to Lake Michigan today?" Max asked.

"You sure you aren't going to get too red?" I teased. I took a cup of water.

"Shut up." He told me. I had been teasing him all day yesterday and today. "You should go pack up first, and 8:00 in bed today." I choked on the water I was drinking.

"8:00!!" I yelled.

"If you're going to get up at 4:00 AM to get ready and get there on time by 5:00 AM, you're going to bed early." Max told me as he sipped his coffee.

"Thanks not fair!" I insisted.

"But it is. May I remind you who Alice left in charge?" Max asked me.

"She's my sister." I insisted.

"But I'm older." Max said.

"And?"

"I make the rules."

"Yeah right."

"Yeah," He said. "I'm right. Now get ready, I have to drive you to the shelter." I stuffed the last of my toast in my mouth and licked my buttery fingers.

"Aok, let's go." I said.

"Aok?" He asked.

"Yeah, aok, now hurry up." I told him. What's wrong with aok? Max drove me to the shelter.

"What time am I picking you up?" Max called.

"1:00." I told him as I ran into the shelter. Ann wasn't at the front desk, but I carried on to the back room as usual. Ann was working with the cats. Only Thomas was in the room.

"Where's Minho?" I asked. Ann looked up.

"Actually, we don't know." She said. Minho would never miss a day, he took it as a job. "He didn't call in sick or anything." Ann added.

"What do you think happened?" I asked.

"I don't know, maybe he just didn't have a ride or something." Ann said. I didn't bother saying that Minho rode a bike from and to the shelter. I knew Ann wasn't saying something, but I didn't have the will to debate with her now.

•••

I washed my hands and pulled on a clean t-shirt. I stuffed the dirty t-shirt in my backpack and walked outside to wait for Max.

I stood outside waiting. I looked at my watch. 1:07. Max didn't seem the type to be late, but I decided not to call him yet. Thomas came up from behind me.

"Something happened to Minho." Thomas told me.

"Yeah." I agreed. "Something is off."

"And Ann knows something else, that she's not saying." Thomas told me.

"I thought so too." I told him. We didn't say anything for a few seconds, lost in thought. We both looked at each other at the same time.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked.

"That we're going to go to Minho's house see what in the world happened?" Thomas asked.

"Exactly." I told him. "Let me just text my ride that I'll be longer." I pulled out my phone and texted Max.

Going to stay more at the shelter today ~Me

Why? ~Max

Just cause ~Me

Aok ~Max

That's my thing ~Me

I closed my phone and put it back in my backpack.

"Don't you need to talk to anyone?" I asked.

"Nah." Thomas said. "They don't care when I get home, if I get home. Don't matter to them." I looked over at Thomas, I remember him telling me he was 12 years old. Too young even to volunteer here. Why wouldn't his parents care if he got home.

"Don't your parents care?" I asked. Thomas took a deep breath. He started digging his gym shoes in the dirt.

"My parents cared a whole ton. When they..." Thomas's trailed off and didn't say anything for a few seconds. "When they died, I didn't know what to do. My aunt and uncle, my fathers sister, took me in. They already had eleven kids. To them, if one goes missing for a few days, they won't notice. I've been gone from home for three days at a time and they didn't notice." Thomas told me.

"And you still stick around?" I asked.

"Been with them for five years of my life. My parents died when I was seven." Thomas said. I felt bad. Really bad.

I told him about the bullying in Illinois, and how I had left with Alice after dealing with it for four years.

"Coming to Michigan was the best thing that happened to me." I said to Thomas.

"I wish I had an older sibling." Thomas said. I didn't know how to answer that. None of us said anything for a good minute.

"Go to find Minho?" Thomas asked.

"Going to find Minho." I told him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note

Now there's some background on Thomas for you all. So yeah, he's still 12. Two years younger than Kyle and three years younger than Minho. (Kyle: 14 Minho: 15)

That's Albert. He also hasn't been in the book yet, but will be. So yeah.

So I realized that a few birthdays have passed, that didn't take place in the book. (nothing was written late January - May) A few birthdays have passed and I made a little chart below, so you can see that ages and birthdays. (ages are after the birthday in parenthesis)

Sorry, didn't get to 1000 words this chapter. 😔

Word Count: 883