Chapter 1... 3 days ago
It was raining hard when Tessa reached school. She was soaked through to the bone. Her jeans, a whole shade darker than they were when she left home two miles ago, were ripped in the knees from wear, and her old worn out sweat-shirt stuck to her like another layer of skin. Luckily she had packed extra clothes in her backpack for when she got to school. Her chocolate colored hair hung from her head like a black blob, and her baseball cap was soggy and not doing much to protect her from the rain.
Tessa, the only child of the Callaway family, was turning 16 next month. Her family lived in a very humble home on the corner of Palmer Drive and Ellington in South Windsor, Connecticut. It had one bedroom, a kitchen and a family room where Tessa slept on the big fluffy couch they had gotten from a tag sale.
As she walked up the road to school her friend Ben joined her. He was about a head taller than her and had dark brown hair. He was a knight in shining armor to Tess, in his black jacket and dark blue jeans, with his hair in the usual spikiness. Tessa had liked him since the day they had met, 5 years ago. They had been fast friends, even with their different social class. His parents had never been happy about their friendship, but they could do nothing, even Elizabeth was friends with Tessa, and she had higher class then BEN! He was carrying an extra umbrella which he said was just a mere quincedence but Tess knew better.
“Oh, Ben you don’t have to do this. Keep your own umbrella. I might get one for my birthday.” She told him.
“But that doesn’t have anything to do with right NOW. You still are soaking wet. Having an umbrella next month isn’t going to help you be dry now.”
“Ben I’m used to this. Besides we’re almost to school anyway!” He looked at her but wouldn’t take the umbrella back.
“Tessa, I’m not going to have any friend of mine just walking to school in the rain getting wet when I can get them something to help them. Take it or leave it on the ground but I’m not taking back.” He told her. Of course she took the umbrella and that was that. Except that as they were walking she realized he was looking her over to make sure she was fine.
“Man! I am FINE!! Don’t worry about me! What is it with you?” He looked really embarrassed that she had noticed he was looking, which made her wonder.
“Sorry… I really don’t like it when you walk to school in the rain and get soaking wet! It really worries me!!”
They may had walked to school the rest of the way in silence, but Tessa’s mind was at work. She had an odd feeling about school today, an odd feeling indeed! They no sooner had walked into school when Julienne Carson stepped in front of Tessa.
“Hand over your lunch money Tess. I think I need it more then you!”
She mumbled back, “You know I don’t have any Julienne…”
“What was that? You don’t have money? Oh… so your family is so poor they can’t afford any lunch for you? “she mocked “Listen up everyone Tessa here doesn’t have any money for lunch cause her parents can’t afford it!” Everyone looked and her with her soaked jeans and all. Some looked at her with disgust. Others just passed by. Either way Tessa tried to look dignified.
“You really should learn to beat up a bully.” A voice said from behind them. Elizabeth walked past them turned around and smiled. She was the type who never had a hair out of place. Her jeans were barely wet. Saying how her butler drove her right up to the school’s door and she had this aura around her that always made everybody like her, she had never had a problem with bullies!
“Really Tess, Goodness! I would even use my allowance to pay for karate lessons!” she seemed to be seething at Julienne now, her face was bright red and her eyes were darting from one face to another in the crowd.
“This isn’t the Karate Kid Liz… Plus, it isn’t like she beats me up… just makes fun of me with words! Though I wish she would. Then she would get in trouble!” Elizabeth- who loved to pretend about things- wasn’t ready to give up though.
“What about this… you start dating her boyfriend? That would be good!” at this she got the most skeptical looks from both her friends.
“NO WAY I am not going to date that freak… whoever it is! He probably is hideous any way.”This caused a great laugh throughout them, but then the bell rang and the three friends all went to their 1st period and the day had begun. Tessa then remembered that she was soaking wet when she got to class, and asked if she could go change into something dry. Mr. Cox allowed her to go but told her to hurry up because something important was happening in class today. She walked to the girls’ bathroom just down the hall and opened the door. There was writing on the wall…
Help me Tessa! 1776! – Grandma
R o d j I o n k n k U j g l n m !
E x L k o x I o n j r j e h t l

This was a very odd thing indeed. Why was there writing on the wall from her grandma? She had died 4 years ago in an airplane accident! Some of the kids must have been playing a trick on her. She quickly went into a stall and changed into her dry clothes, Torn up jeans, with a hand me shirt down from Elizabeth. The shirt had sequins on its blue tie and its white body fit her perfectly. It was the best shirt she had in her whole wardrobe. She then ran to class. Not wanting to miss this important thing happening in social studies today. Mr. Cox had just started when she came into the room, so she pushed the thought of her note from grandma and sat down next to all the other poor kids in class.
“Ok, class! Listen up! I am going to rearrange the seats today! It is going to be boy girl boy girl. Ok?” the class groaned. “Ben you sit there” he pointed at the chair next to Tessa. Yay! She thought. Now I don’t have to sit next to some snotty person. But it was too good to be true. “Tessa you’ll be sitting in the front of the class next to Kevin.” All the other girls sighed. They all had wanted to sit next to him. He was a line backer on the football team, and he was P-O-P-U-L-A-R. Tessa slowly got up, and looked around. All the other girls were looking at her enviously. Any of them would have given anything to be in her place right now. She walked over to her new seat and sat down. Immediately Kevin looked at her and said.
“So… You got a boyfriend?” She looked at him flabbergasted. This… Boy seriously just asked her the most stupid question EVER!! She decided to ignore him and looked straight at Mr. Cox waiting for a reason why he did this. He was wearing his black and white shirt he always wore on Mondays. He looked around then said the breaking news.
“The partner to you left… is you partner for the next assignment.” There were gasps and Tessa looked to her left. “You will be studying the constitution and you and your partner must put together a presentation of how the people lived in the late 18th century and it must include a 23 page essay on one of the topics the constitution and how it has affected the United States Of America.” Tessa wrote down every word on the paper in front of her. Then she wrote her name next to the partners: then she turned to her left and asked the boy what his name was. He looked at her turned bright red, then wrote on a paper.
I’ll talk to you at lunch.
Tessa walked up to Mr. Cox after class.
“Mr. Cox?” she inquired. “Who is the boy that’s my partner? He wouldn’t talk to me just gave me a note to talk to him at lunch… what’s his name?” Mr. Cox looked startled.
“Your partner is Kevin… I thought I put him on the left of you…” he seemed thoughtful now… “But maybe I put you and John Matron together. John is the new kid from… France I think? His family moved here 2 weeks ago and he needs a friend. You should have him stay with you after school and do the project in class here.” She looked at him. Mr. Cox was in an uncomfortable position and trying not to look her in the eye.
“ok… but I don’t speak French.” she mumbled then walked out of the room.


Chapter two: lab Partners.
“Tessa, how do you get all the cool things to happen to you? I mean seriously. Some mysterious boy comes to school and won’t talk to you until lunch? Awesome, especially since he’s French!” Elizabeth was like freaking out. This was like one of her little fantasies come true! A cute boy asking her out!… but one thing was quite clear to Tessa. HE DIDN’T ASK HER OUT! And Liz being Liz, didn’t agree. “Come on Tess! Some cute boy says I’ll talk to you at lunch. That is a DATE!” She was like going off in fireworks of energy now just waiting to see him.
“Liz… I NEVER said he was cute! I mean Sure he is French. But not ALL Frenchies are cute.” Tessa saw that there was no chance to win this now. Then it happened. He walked into the room. It was like a bomb went off. Every one stopped talking. They just stopped! They went from booming noise to Silent. Then people started whispering about this him. His hair was combed nicely into place and his baggy jeans looked brand new. Not worn in like the style here in the states. Which was odd to Tessa cause the French normally knew the latest styles. She looked at him and thought about how French were normally up in style. But, maybe this will be the normal style in a few weeks here. Oh well, who cares anyway? She didn’t, no, she couldn’t care. She couldn’t pay for the new styles anyway. He looked around and found her. Tessa couldn’t help but feel like she was in the middle of a movie as he walked to her. Everyone looked at him then her and started whispering (yet again).
“Drat, this old school is horrible.” Tessa said to Liz. “The gossip chain here is like being fed to a bunch of vultures alive.” But Liz just looked at Blake Matron as he made his way towards them.
“He’s not just cute…” she started but he had reached them.
“Hey.” He mumbled in Tessa’s direction. He kept his face down as he introduced himself, then asked if he could take Tessa for a walk around the school to talk about the report. She said sure and they were off. As they walked out the doors to the stairs he said how he knows a lot about the late 18th century and that they should study the life style of Marquis De Lafayette the general that came and helped George Washington.
“How do you know about him? Isn’t he English history?” She stared blankly as he looked at her and laughed.
“Marquis De Lafayette was a French General.” He said with an overdone heavy accent. This made her burst out laughing. She had a feeling that this assignment was going to be interesting.
“Alright Mr. let’s get something straight. We are going to be studying Marquis De Lafayette and General Washington?” the boy nodded his head “Then we are going to need to go to the library this afternoon to start researching.” He looked at her then hesitantly nodded his head.
“Ok ummmm… do you have anyone picking you up today?” he looked bewildered then slowly answered.
“Yes…” then he ran into the next classroom as the bell rang. Tessa walked to her study hall and thought about things. “How odd” she wondered. This Guys seemed to be really shy. She’d have to explain to Elizabeth what’s going on. She could already feel her phone buzzing with text’s from her. Joy…
She sat down at a table and took out the school laptop she had. She put in her password and checked her email. 25 emails, mostly Junk email…except for one?

To: Tessa Callaway, blueizkool@gkinz.com
From: Someonespecial@gkinz.com
Dear Tessa,
You and I are about to become great friends. I am someone who KNOWS your grandmother. I here she has…Disappeared. But to find her you must help me first. There is a boy in your school. Find him. Bring him to ME, Or you will never see her again, Muahahahaha.



Tessa looked at the email and gasped, another note regarding her grandma? What is going on? She had in all of the four years after her grandma had, supposedly “died”, but she wasn’t so


A boy? Like she didn’t have any to choose from! Half of her grade was boys! What was she going to do, besides her grandmother was supposedly dead. But the message on the wall in the bathroom and the email had changed everything. Could it really be that her grandma was ALIVE? She had to talk to her parents about this. After all, if she was dead wouldn’t they have gotten some revenue or something?