"TRINA! Get the door!" my mother yelled at me from the backyard.

Unwillingly, I hoisted my butt off the bar stool, abandoning my smoothie and over to the door. Before I answered the door, I took a look in the mirror, making sure my state was somewhat acceptable for a box from the UPS.

My light hazel eyes looked back at me, a mixture of amber and a grass green color. Shoulder length, curly light brown hair was pulled back with a pony tail holder into a messy bun, leaving my bangs to frame my face. As for clothing I was wearing the normal randomness for summer PJs; a pair of lime green basketball shorts, a pink tank top with penguins on it that's too small, and a green and pink plaid button up shirt to cover the tank top.

I wrenched open the door, and unlocked the screen door, and stuck my head out. Well, I tried.

"Owwieee! Boxes can't be that hard…" I cried, jumping back.

The supposed box laughed at me, which made me look up. Apparently, it wasn't a box; it was a boy. A strange one at that. He was taller than me at about 5'8, which wasn't surprising, since I was only about 5'2. He looked about 16 or 17-ish, so about my age, since I'm sixteen, almost seventeen.

His hair was pretty weird, but immensely cool. It was short and spiky, and electric blue. I loved it. His eyes were a light brown color, like the color of…I dunno. Light brown. His skin was tan, like he had some Hispanic in him.

In other words; to me, he's hot.

But that's not really the case.

After he laughed, I frowned. "Sorry. I was expecting another box. Living people don't like our door."

Naturally, I realized what was wrong with my sentence.

"Err! Not...that we actually get dead people here, either! Eheh. Yeah."

I promptly turned a dark shade of pink.

This wasn't going so well. I frowned, but stopped frowning, after I realized I'd end up making my face look like that when I'm ninety.

"You're here…why?" I asked, leaning against the door.

Finally- he actually speaks.

"I'm Cade."

I sighed. "I'm Trina. Why're you here?"

"Well…I was told you like penguins."

I regarded him suspiciously.

"So?"

"Well…" he said, a smirk entering his face "…somebody told me to find you."

"Ookay. And who is that somebody?"

"My cousin's friend's sister."

I shot him a glare, and made a move to close the door. Stupid time-wasters. My smoothie was probably like hot chocolate now, minus the chocolate. Apparently, I wasn't allowed to go, though. Cade person grabbed my arm and dragged me outside.

Figuring I'd be dragged off with Cade and the penguins, I yelled to my mom,

"I'm going to Alex's! I'll come home later!" and slammed the door.

"Let go." I snapped in annoyance, prying his hand off mine, just to get both of his hands around both of mine.

"No. You're coming with me. My cousin's friend's sister told me to find you, and she said it was really important."

I glared at him.

"Messing with people's minds isn't nice. I'd rather you told me exactly why I should go with you."

My statement got me pulled off the porch and onto the hot sidewalk.

"Ow! You're stupid- it's hot outside! My feet burn!" I whined childishly.

"Then come on!" he snapped, rolling his eyes.

An unknown voice from who-knows-where called out "Pick her up!"

Cade considered the person's idea. He grinned, and flipped me over his shoulder like a little kid, or a puppy. Of course, I'm the height of a Smerf, so apparently it didn't look so stupid; it just felt stupid.

The mystery voice popped out of a bush; a girl my age, at about 5'4. She had hair about my length that was pulled back into a ponytail. It was black and very straight, which was completely unlike my light curly hair.

"Shall I blindfold her?" she asked, skipping over. She was wearing leather skinny jeans and a yellow dress with a huge pink and green flower on it, the whole strange assembly completed with yellow flats.

"Hi!" she cried, and threw a purple sequined scarf over my eves and tied it to where I thought my brains would pop out.

"Is it tight enough? I think there are a few brain cells that didn't survive." I muttered, poking around with my free arm for yellow girl.

"That's Annie, my cousin." the Cade guy told me.

"Oh. So…where are we going? And where are the friend and her sister?"

"I can't tell you, and I don't know. They probably moved."

After about ten more minutes of feeling absolutely ridiculous, I started hitting Cade on the head best I could. It was hot, I felt a bit light headed, and I wasn't really enjoying myself.

"Let me go! It's hot. I'm tired. I want a smoothie." I complained, stopping my futile abuse.

After I stopped my abuse, the walking stopped. It grew kind of dark, so I figured I was either in the shade, the sewer, space, or dead. All were much better than what my previous condition had been. I was set on something hard- a counter, maybe? And the scarf was untied. My eyes were still adjusting while I sat, and when they finally adjusted, I was sitting on a counter, with Annie and Cade next to me.

"So. How about I ditch this scene and go get my smoothie?" I asked, trying to hop down.

Naturally, I fell instead and ended up taking Annie and Cade down with me, as we apparently were handcuffed together.

Fun.

"Where are we?" I asked, sitting up.

Annie untangled herself from Cade and me and tried to stand up.

"We're in the secret room, in the secret hotel, in the secret city, in the secret state, in the secret country."

"Nice."

"What's your last name?"

I frowned. "Umm, it's Forsythe."

She giggled, "Wow, that's a mouthful. I like it."

"So, what exactly are we doing?" I asked, nudging them to stand up at the same as I did. We stood up and I leaned against the counter.

"Oh. It's time to go." Cade said, and grabbed the scarf with his free hand.

Annie grabbed one end with her free hand, and he grabbed the other with his, and I was back to being tied up.

See- the unfortunate thing about being kidnapped by people that look about your age is that everyone suspects you're just friends hanging out, being weird. So as I was lead from the 'Secret room in the secret hotel in the secret city in the secret state in the secret country.' people thought nothing of our weirdness.

"My brains are falling out. It's hot. My head is being squeezed into nothingness. I think it's about 103 degrees outside." I said, as we walked around in the sun, back outside.

Some clicking was made, and I was un-handcuffed from both sides. Regrettably, I was picked back up like a little kid, and slung over presumably Cade's shoulder.

About five minutes into the walk, another voice greeted us, this one male.

"You found her!"

"Yeah. It took a while though."

"I can see. Is she asleep?"

I looked at where the voice probably was coming from.

"No, my brains are just falling out. It tends to make a person tired."

"Okay... I'm Jude."

"Cool name. I'm Trina."

"I know."

I frowned. Were all these people stalkers? I mean- seriously. Way to freak somebody out.

"How?"

"My sister."

Figures. So now all there is to figure out is the sister.

"Do I know her?" I asked, sighing as we continued our trek through town.

"Not at all." he replied confidently, probably grinning at me.

"So…I am being stalked. Right?"

"Right-o!" he said, and Cade started laughing.

"How is this funny?" I demanded, flicking his head.

"It's funny, because everything. All this. Don't worry- I'll tell you later. Or somebody else will."

"I'm hungry!"

"Be quiet."

"I want a smoothie."

"Shut up."

"Or a pretzel."

"No!"

"I'M FREAKING HUNGRY, IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOU KIDNAPPED ME IN THE MORNING!"

After this statement, I was splashed into something and my scarf fell off.

"Hey! You dropped me into a fountain!" I accused, glaring in annoyance at Cade.

"No. I set you in the fountain, but a little hard. But see? It got you quiet- PLUS you're cool. Two in one!"

He left the scarf for Annie to pick back up, while he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.

"Almost there!" he said, and as I looked around, it seemed that we were in an apartment complex, and I'd been "set" in a wishing well type of fountain.

As they walked, Annie started grumbling about how her silk scarf was now wet with chlorine water, and how it was going to ruin the texture.

We reached a set of stone stairs, and Cade and Co. started walking up the flight. We reached a landing with about five apartments, and another set of stairs. They headed to a door labeled K7. Annie pulled out a key and unlocked the door, opening it and allowing us to come in.

Jude followed behind Cade and me, and closed and locked the door behind us. He stayed there while Annie disappeared, and I was set down and given a Batman towel.

"I love Batman!" I cried, as I quickly put it to use, towel drying my hair, my shorts, and everything else.

Cade grinned, and said "I do too. You're using my favorite towel."

Now it was my turn to smile, "Well you know what? I'm using it. So…ha?"

Despite having been dragged off with some crazy people my age, against my will, I was happy that I'd gone with them. I think I was making friends. Good ones; ones that understood the meaning of crazy, and were totally random, like me. But still, I was a bit wary of them. After all, they could all be psychotic old people in costumes.

I sat on a cushiony chair on top of the Batman towel so I didn't make the cushiony chair wet. Cade sat next to me on another cushiony chair, and Jude made his way over to the couch. We were sitting in a living room.

"Here she is!" came Annie's voice.

"Trina, this is Mackenzee! Well, actually, just call her Zee."

Zee appeared in front of us, smiling. She was about eighteen, like Jude, and looked a lot like him. They both had light skin, shocking blue eyes, and black hair. Jude stood at about 5'10 while Zee was at about 5'6. She was wearing a pair of blue basketball shorts and a purple and black zebra striped tee shirt. She had socks on with penguins. Jude, on the other hand, had on a pair of board shorts, which were black, lime green, electric blue, and white and a plain white tee shirt. For shoes, he was wearing black flip flops.

For the first time, I looked at Cade's attire. He had similar attire to Jude's; electric blue, white, and black printed board shorts, black flip flops, white tee shirt. It looked awesome with his blue hair.

Apparently my staring didn't go unnoticed; Zee and Annie were kind of giggling and Jude was smirking. Cade didn't really do anything, he just smiled as I realized that I was staring, and his smile grew into a smirk as I turned pink.

"Stop laughing at me." I mumbled, as Zee and Annie's giggles grew louder.

Zee stepped forwards, and Annie went to go sit by Jude.

"Okay! So, we're here to disguss…"