I woke up at the sound of screeching tires.

“Maddie?” I spoke frantically, still half asleep and unaware of what was going on. I check my phone, and the time reads 3 A.M. “What is she doing leaving this early,” I thought to myself, “we have school in four and a half hours.” I drug myself out of bed and turned the light on just to find all of her stuff was still here and her charger was ripped out of the wall, but her phone wasn’t there anymore. I knew something wasn’t right when I saw that and I knew I had to figure it out. I went downstairs after already going through the rest of the house and notice that my big glass sliding door is cracked open, I know it was closed last night when we had went to bed. I walk out there with a flashlight I had found on the ground in front of the door and I see burn marks in the yard from a vehicle. That explained the screeching tires and Maddie being gon- Just at that moment a scream is let out from far away and I knew it was Maddie.

I filed a police report but the next day at school I found a note, reading “Say anything more and you’re next. -xoxo much love.” As time went on, it looked like I was going to have to find out this kidnapping of my best friend thing by myself. Word got around that it was someone in the school that envied Maddie for her looks and personality. I couldn’t trust anybody anymore, even if it was just some stupid rumor. When I got home 2 days later after school there was a note on my bed in the same writing, “9 PM. Casey’s parking lot in Republic. Come alone if you ever want your precious friend to be in class with you again. -xoxo much love.”

I still had no idea who this person could be, except now I was nearly positive it was someone in the school. Time continued to pass me by and I added several clues up to help me figure out who took my best friend. My mom tried to get me to go to counselors but that was the last thing that I needed at this time in order to focus on figuring out this case. She thought I was insane, but I knew that her taking her phone had to mean something.

Turns out I was right about the phone situation, because the next day I received a voicemail from her, “Hey Jordyn, I’m fine. I know you’re probably really worried about my white self, but it’s pretty cool where I’m at. I miss when we used to caravan to football games though. I’ll keep giving you more details about how I’m doing, as my time wherever I am goes on. Love you, bye.” I’ve read a book before about people giving clues during phone calls by changing their tone of voice, so I replayed the voicemail over and over again until I figured out the clues that she was trying to send me. All I could find was “white, caravan, details”, which definitely got me thinking.

“What do white, caravan, and details all have in common, or what message is she trying to send to me?” I was thinking for a few days, when it finally hit me… “A white caravan is what she was taken in, and she’s going to keep giving me details about her kidnapping when she can!” I exclaimed out loud at about 1 am.

I made sure to look around at school to see if I could find anyone that drove a white caravan, and sure enough someone does… but of course after I find it another pulls into a parking spot 3 spots down. I knew then that I needed more clues from Maddie to try and figure out which one it was, as well as start parking by those two vans without anyone being suspicious about anything. I patiently awaited that night for a call from Maddie, my phone’s volume as loud as I could possibly get it, but I didn’t receive a call until the next night.

“Jordyn, it’s Maddie again. This place could use a little blue paint to brighten it up, but that’s obviously not my choice. Oh and you’re always so sweet to me, almost as sweet as the candy you used to keep in the back of your car. I miss you and your compliments, especially about my blonde hair. Anyways, I only have a limited time on the phone with you, or anybody for that matter, so I have to go back to this mansion of a place. Love you, bye.” I wrote down on my notepad the clues: blue paint, and, candy, in the back, car, blonde hair, mansion. This time didn’t take as long for me to piece things together, this person has blonde hair, there’s blue paint either where she is at or in this person’s car, there’s candy in the back of their car (which is a caravan), and she’s in a mansion/huge place.

The clues have started falling together more and more, that’s when I saw her… Saphire Brown. QB1 boyfriend, captain of the cheerleading squad, huge house, and would do anything to anybody who even talked to her boyfriend. So the wheels in my head start turning and I realize that Maddie had asked her boyfriend, Jake, if he knew how to work a problem in trig the morning before she went missing. Saphire had to of gotten jealous and wanted Maddie to pay for it, lucky for Maddie and I Saphire isn’t the brightest and she won’t figure out the clues she’s sending me over these phone calls. The final call I got from Maddie included the rest of the details for me to figure out everything that I needed to know. Maddie was in the barn near Saphire’s mansion, there was blue paint near her, Saphire’s vehicle was identified, and Maddie was still alive as far as I knew.

I packed up a bag that night and went on my way after 2nd hour of the next school day. I headed to Saphire’s and figured it would be an easy thing for me to just get Maddie, maybe vandalize her house, and get out of there as fast as possible. I was wrong and I was mid-step when she showed up.

“Saphire… “ I said, hatred lingering in my voice. I had her in a corner of the barn and I knew I couldn’t let her get out. My best friend was a room over and there was no way that I could get to her when her kidnapper was cornered right here in front of me. My mind was racing, but I knew I had to stay calm and search the room for something to keep her restrained while I got Maddie and got out of there. At the same time my eyes did, Saphire’s hit the crowbar on the floor about 3 feet away from us. We gave a quick glance at each other before diving towards the crowbar in a fight for my best friend. We wrestled on the sweating, hard concrete floor of the barn until I finally fought on top with the crowbar pinned on her.
That’s when it all was over, the cops show up and we both frantically look at each other, trying to put the crowbar in the others hands. Neither of us knew how the cops got called until Maddie showed her phone to us both, it read “911” on the screen with a time on the phone showing the whole thing that had just happened. They arrested Saphire and Maddie there soon after rubbed in her face how much her QB1 boyfriend would love her now. Saphire tried to get out of the cop’s grip, but obviously wasn’t strong enough. We got Maddie out of the barred-up room she had been kept in and we ran into each other’s arms, crying tears of joy. Neither of us knew if we would see the other ever again after her kidnapping, and now that we were seeing each other we were happier than ever before. I finally had Maddie home safe and sound and everything was back to normal. I got home after dropping her off and found a note on my bed, under my pillow, “Thanks for playing my game -xoxo much love”.