Headphones in, Kris leans her head against the window as the school bus slowly passes through a small neighborhood. She stares blankly at the glare of her transparent reflection in the glass, a row of houses passing by behind it. She's listening to a playlist her newfound internet friend had sent her, a nice composition of mostly indie rock and alternative songs. Already being a music addict, she recognizes most of the artists and songs for the most part and this guy's taste in music is amazing. She's always believed that you can tell a lot about a person just by the kind of music they listen to.

The bus eases to a stop between two houses on the corner of the street, where a small group of students stand waiting. Her gaze drifts past her reflection and onto the students, watching while they one-by-one line up to get onto the bus as the doors open. She notices Taylor standing among them.

Taylor is one of the last of the group to get on the bus and, as she walks down the aisle, she looks around both rows in search for an empty seat. No luck.

"Taylor?" Kris peeks her head up from behind one of the seats, a friendly smile on her face. She pulls her headphones out. "Hey."

"Oh hey, Kris right?" Taylor smiles back. She stands still, holding her backpack at her side. "How are you?""

"I'm good. I didn't know you rode the bus."

"I normally don't." Taylor sighs. "Let's just say my car is not working with me today."

Kris laughs and gestures at the empty spot next to her. "Well you can sit here. If you want."

"Thanks." Taylor says as she approaches the seat and sits down next to Kris, setting her backpack on the floor between her legs. She glances up at the emergency exit mounted on the roof and takes a deep breath.

Kris wraps her headphones with her hand and buries them in her sweater pocket. "So how've you been?"

"Oh, not bad. Just been busy with stuff."

"You're a photographer?"

Stunned, Taylor turns to her. "Yeah, I am. How did you know?"

Kris peers down at Taylor's backpack, which she had forgotten to zip shut. Shoved between her laptop and notebooks is her camera case.

"I'm not a professional or anything. I guess it's just a hobby." Taylor says modestly.

"Neat! You should show me some of your work sometime."

"Sure thing."

Kris' phone buzzes in her hands and she glances down at the screen, almost forgetting it was there. She smiles as she types on her keyboard. Intrigued, Taylor cocks an eyebrow as she glances down at the phone.

"Who's that?" She asks nosily.

"Nobody." Kris blushes. "Just somebody I'm talking to."

"A boy?"

"Maybe."

Smiling, Taylor lightly nudges her arm. "What's his name? Spill it!"

Kris sighs, still not used to opening up to people, or even having friends for that matter. This is new domain for her... but she likes it. "His name is Ian. Um, we just met online."

"Oh." Taylor's smile fades. "Are you going to meet up with him? In person?"

"He wants to, but I'm not sure if I do. He actually lives in Duncanville." She stops typing and looks over at Taylor. "But he seems really nice. I don't know. What should I do?"

Taylor thinks of a piece of unsolicited advice Casey had given her one day. "That's the thing about meeting people online. They can seem really nice, but you never really know the person until you meet them and get to know them. Then they may be completely different than what they seemed."

Nodding, Kris sees her point. "Yeah, but the same thing goes for people that you can encounter on the street. Or even family and friends. Sometimes someone can seem really nice and trustworthy but you find out later, when you get to know them, that they're completely different."

She turns to Taylor—who gulps, feeling as if Kris is talking directly about her—and continues. "I guess it's all just a risk, huh?"

"If you do it, just please be safe. Meet in a public place with a lot of people around." Taylor says, showing genuine concern. "What app did you meet this guy on?"

"YouTube actually."

Taylor makes a puzzled face. "Oh. Is that a new thing? Meeting people through YouTube...?"

"No." Kris laughs. "He actually commented on one of my videos. Then one thing led to another and, well, here we are."

"Videos? What do you post?" Taylor asks curiously.

Clicking a few buttons on her phone, Kris opens up the YouTube app and opens up a tab she has for recordings of her singing covers. She flashes the screen at Taylor.

"You sing?"

"I do. But I'm not a professional or anything. I guess it's just a hobby." Kris playfully mocks Taylor.

Taylor smirks. Touché.

The bus dramatically slows down, almost coming to a complete stop as it eases to a mere ten miles per hour. The two girls both glance out the window, expecting to be at the school already, but instead see that they are about a block away. Vehicles fill the street from both sides, traffic so bad that it would be unusual to see on their small town's freeway during rush hour. The street leading to their school is up ahead, the school no more than five minutes walking distance once you turn that corner.

"What's going on?" Kris asks, noticing a glare of red and white lights flashing off of the cars as they turn down that street.

Concerned, Taylor peers out the window. "I don't know."

A few minutes later the bus turns down that street, their school only a half a mile up on their left. As they approach the building, the passengers climb onto the left side of the bus to join Taylor and Kris in looking out the windows. Pulled alongside the curb are several news vans, reporters and their cameraman standing outside them with the school in their backdrop as they talk to the cameras.

Taylor and Kris look at each other, neither of them really sure of what is happening. But whatever it is, it's clearly not good.

Suddenly Taylor's phone begins to ring from her pocket and she pulls it out. Morgan's name and picture pop up on her phone.

The reporter stares at the camcorder as she waits for the cameraman to count down with his fingers. He pulls back the camera slightly, to get a better view of the school's building behind her, and steadies it. And three... two... one...

"I'm here at Riverside High, where a mutilated body of a teenage girl was found early this morning in the school's locker room. Neither the time of death nor the victim's identity have been confirmed as of yet, but we have been notified by the fire department that they were dispatched to the school's location Friday night due to a false fire alarm. The call was dismissed when they saw there was, in fact, no fire. Could that have been this poor girl's last cry for help?"

♫ ᴛʀᴏᴜʙʟᴇ / ᴄᴀɢᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇʟᴇᴘʜᴀɴᴛ ♫