He's Not There

Molly smiled at me. We’ve been hanging out a lot lately, well since Julie’s accident.

“So, what’s been going on between you and one George Standford?” Molly winked.

“Since he told me all we’ll ever be is friends? Nothing much, really. I haven’t even seen him in a few days. He’s been out of school.” I sighed.

Molly stopped dead in her tracks. “Julia.” She started.

“What?” I asked.

“I think you need to come with me.” She had a sad look in her eyes, and began to pull me to the center of town.

“Where are we going?” I asked, looking around.

“Look.” She pointed to a billboard.

My.Jaw.Dropped.

“No. No, no, no, no, no.” I kept repeating the word ‘No’ as I looked up at George’s face under a big, bold word that I never thought would be written above his, out of anyone’s face I knew.

Missing.

“Oh, Julia.” Molly pulled me into a hug. I sobbed in her shoulder, outside, in public, where anyone could have seen me.

That’s how much George means to me.

“Where’s the police station?” I asked.

“Just around the corner. Why?” Molly asked, but then paused. By the look on her face, she understood what I had to do.

“Let’s go.” We nodded to each other and bolted to the Police Station.

As soon as we entered the station, I began fearing for my life.

Thugs, thugs, and more thugs.

Molly looked pale. I began to shake, but still, George needed me.

I defiantly walked up to the first Police Officer I saw.

“Excuse me, Sir.” I tried to get his attention.

“Yes, Miss?” He asked.

“Do you have any information on the disappearance of George Standford?” I asked.
”Yes.” He nodded.

“Where could I get that?” I asked.

“Oh, sweetie. Don’t worry. The police have all of that under control. You just go home and play with your dollies.” He smiled.

“Excuse me?” I asked, my temper getting the better of me.

“We have it under control. In fact, we have a whole search team looking for his body.” He explained.

OH.MY.FKJGFGJKJHBGHYUJKMJNHBJK

“WHAT?” I yelled, drawing attention to myself.

A woman with curly black hair, who had puffy brown eyes, came up to me.

“Julia?” She asked.
I immediately realized who it was.

“Oh Ms. Standford, I’m so sorry!” I explained, hugging her. George’s mom must have been in hysterics, and by the look of her, she obviously was.

“My baby. He’s gone.” She sobbed in my shoulder, stroking my hair.

“My Harrison, he’s gone.” I whispered to myself, hoping no one could hear.

“We’ll find him, don’t worry Ms. Standford.” The officer smiled.

“I will worry, thank you very much. George is my son. We need to find him.” She sniffled and looked at him.

“Alive.” I added. Molly nodded.

“We have all of this under control.” The police officer wouldn’t stop.

“If you have everything ‘under control’, then why haven’t you given me one of your ‘hourly updates’ in five hours?” George’s mom raised her eyes.

“Uh…” That sure shut the Police off.

“Come on, Girls. I’ll take you home.” She turned to Molly and I.

In the car, we got all of the details out of Ms. Standford.

“He was walking home a couple of days ago from the park. A person in a van approached him, and he’s gone.” She sobbed.
”Wait, so that means he still has his phone, right?” Molly asked.

“Oh my. MOLLY, YOU’RE A GENIUS!” I exclaimed.

“I never thought of that!” Ms. Standford exclaimed.

“Call him!” Molly urged me.

“Okay.” I said and pulled out my phone and punched in his number.

It rang, and rang, and rang.

“Hello.” George picked up.

“GEO-“ I yelled, but was interrupted by.

“It’s me, George. I can’t come to the phone right now. But leave a message and I’ll get back as soon as I can, bye.” His voicemail stated.

I slowly shut my phone and began to cry.

“He didn’t pick up, did he?” Ms. Standford asked, staring blankly ahead at the road.

I shook my head, no words came out of my mouth.

“This isn’t fair!” Molly exclaimed, then her eyes grew.

“What are you thinking, Molly?” I raised an eyebrow. Molly’s plans have always been known as………….. risky.

“How many people know about George’s disappearance?” Molly asked Ms. Standford.

“Not enough, especially if his best friend doesn’t know.” She stated.

“Perfect.” Molly rubbed her hands together.

Ms. Standford and I shared a confused expression. It got weirder when Molly pulled out her Flip video Camcorder and began recording.

“Hey everyone. I have some really bad news.” She began.

“George Standford has gone missing. I know what most of you are thinking, ‘why should I care?’ Well, imagine if he was your brother, or cousin, or son, or even your boyfriend or best friend, because, he’s that person to a lot of people. If we join together, we can find him, and all of the other people that have gone missing. So please, pray for George. Thank you.” She pushed the ‘save’ button and sent it to all of her websites.

“Thank you, Molly.” Ms. Standford smiled at her.

“No, Thank you Ms. Standford. For giving the world George.” Molly said the words for me.

“Let’s get you girls home.” Ms. Standford smiled, and drove us home.

George, we’re going to find you.

And I am going to beat the person who took you to a bloody pulp.

-Julia*-

Just Friends With Flashbacks

Julie looked up at me. I looked down at her.

She shouldn't be in that hospital bed, she should be up and running around, and harassing me about my crush on George.

Not.In.A.Hospital.Bed.

If I had remembered the asthma she had and how bad it was, I would have never agreed to that stupid race we had right before she passed out. It's all my fault.

As if she read my mind, she shook her head.
"Stop reading my mind." I replied with a soft smile.

She's conscious, and she can barely talk. I don't know how that is the case, but as long as she's conscious I'm happy.

"You'll get through this. We Albright's are tough cookies." I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
She smiled softly.

At that moment, a ton of flashbacks were thrown back into my mind.


-F L A S H B A C K-
"JULIE, I'M GOING TO CATCH YOU!!" I yelled in a squeaky little voice. I was about six years old and so was Julie. We were racing in the park, as we always did back then, but then, out of nowhere, she collapsed.

"JULIE!" I yelled and bolted to her side. "G-G-Get Mommy." She was having trouble breathing. I remember running home (Thankfully, our house was really close to the park) and getting my mom. I remember the tears rolling down my face in the car ride there. I remember how shocked I was when we found out she had asthma. I remember how I promised myself that I wouldn't let Julie get hurt.


-END OF F L A S H B A C K-

"Well I failed at that. I failed you, Julie." I whispered, unwanted tears welling in my eyes.
She slowly grabbed my hand and squeezed it. She shook her head as she did so.
"No." She whispered.
All I could do was smile, half-heartily of course. I didn't want my sister's last words to be part of a pointless fight.
"Day." She whispered again.
"What?" I asked.
"Day." She repeated, a little louder this time.
"How my day was?" I asked, hoping that I understood.
She nodded.
"Oh, my day was okay. Didn't get a lot of homework. Ryan said that he's going to visit on Friday and he's going to be here everyday next week because it's break." I filled her in on everything.
"Sisters." Julie whispered.
"Mine or yours?" I asked with a smile.
"Both." She mirrored my smile, only her's was a bit weaker.
"Liz and Rebecca miss you like mad. Well, you obviously know that, they're here everyday. My sister's are fine. Becca's still conceited, Callie and Cindie are still best friends, Molly's still a rock star, Pru's getting better, Felicity's still climbing trees. Same old, same old." I smiled.
"Good." She whispered.
"They wanted me to give you these." I pulled out a bouquet of perky, white daisies.
"Daises." She giggled. But it didn't sound like a giggle.
"You're favorite." I added, putting them in a vase next to her hospital bed.
"George." She had a mischievous grin on her face.
"No." I folded my arms.
"Standbright." The danged grin grew.
"Nopes." I shook my head.
"Georgie." She giggled.
"FINE! I will tell you." I smiled, secretly, I had been dying for her to ask about George.
"Standbright." She smiled. If she weren't in the hospital, I'd give her a witty remark.
"We went out for ice cream today." I smiled.
"Dating?" She asked.
"No, we're not dating, it was just a friendly thing. Well, anyways, we went to Icie and he got......." I stopped mid-sentence because, as soon as I looked down, I saw Julie sleeping soundly.

I'll tell you all about it though.

"Hi, welcome to Icie, how can I help you?" The cashier asked with a smile.
"I'll have the...." George trailed off. He looked at all the flavors and decided on one.
"Mint Chocolate Chip." He stated.
"Okay, coming right up. And you?" She asked me.
"I'll have a Cookies and Cream, please." I smiled, politely.
"So polite and posh." He whispered to me as the cashier was scooping our ice cream.
"Shush." I laughed.
"'Hello, I'm Queen Julia Albright the Seventh.'" He acted like he had a Posh British accent and did the queen wave.
I erupted in giggles.
"Here you go." She smiled as she gave us our cups of ice cream.


Fifteen minutes later, George and I were sitting on two of the swings in a nearby park and we were high on a Sugar Rush.
"And I was like, OH NO YOU DIDN'T!" He said like a Valley Girl.
"OHMYGAWDDDDDD! THE NERVE OF HERR" I yelled, like Becca.
"I KNOW RIGHT." He yelled back.
I got off my swing and ran to the slide.

It's warming up now, but still no one was at the park.

I ran up to the top of the stairs on the slide and yelled.
"WE STOLE A BALLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" At the top of my lungs too.

George ran up behind me and pushed me down the slide.
"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" I screamed like a little kid. I fell off the slide and landed on the pebbles.

"OWIE!" I yelled.
"JUWEA!" George yelled, running to my aid.
"What?" I asked, half of me was still in a Sugar Rush, and the other was normal.

Well, as normal as I am.

"You okay? I'm really sorry." He apparently went through the same thing I did.
"Yeah, it's fine. What did we do?" I asked, rubbing my head.
"Ran around town yelling the words to random kid songs." He smiled.
We erupted into a round of loud, obnoxious laughter.
"Ah, you're my best friend." He smiled.

I don't know why, but his words were engraved in my heart.

"You're my best friend too." I smiled half-heartily.
His phone rang, he picked it up.
"It's my mom, she's probably wondering where I am. I'll see you later, Seashell Eyes." He winked at me, then got up and left.

"And the Academy Award for Best 'I-Like-you-more-than-a-friend-but-i-won't-let-you-see' goes to Julia Albright." I muttered then began walking to the hospital.


Ughhhhhhhhhh.
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

-Julia*-

To Miss A Single Thing

PRUDENCE IS ALIVE! Well, all of you who read Chrissa's blog already know that,
but for those of you who don't...

My sister, Prudence, was in a coma after getting hit by a car. She just woke from
the coma and is chattier than ever.
....Then again, my name now to her is 'Juweea.'

When she came back from the coma, I had to go to Chicago with Julie,
Rebecca, Becca, Elizabeth, Callie, and Molly for Chorus Sectionals.
Which is where I am now. It's so NICE here in Chicago.
"JULIE!" I yell.
"Yeah, Julia?" Julie comes in the room, we share a room here.
"Remind me to move here." I smile.
"With George and you're little Standbright children?" Julie jokes.

Excuse me while I go kill my sister. >.<
"WHATCHA TY-Meanie." Julie narrows her eyes at me.
"Look who's talking." I joke.
"I wasn't mean, it's called 'Predicting the future.'" Julie puts her hands up in
surrender as she goes back to the bathroom to get ready for the Celebration
for us winning Sectionals.
Oh yeah, I had to fill in for my sisters, Prudence, Charity, and Chrissa at
Sectionals.
Our set list was;
Carrie Underwood's 'Cowboy Casanova,' sung by Rebecca, (who was
AMAZING at it!)
John Lennon's 'Imagine,' sung by Callie, (not a dry eye in the place)
'You're The One That I Want' from Grease, sung by Lizzie and Jake, (ADORABLE!
Their voices go really well together)
and lastly, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' 'Empire State Of Mind' which everyone sang.
Have any of you ever seen the show 'Glee?'
Well, if you have, our whole performance of that song was inspired from when
THEY did it. Except Nationals aren't in New York City, but Regionals are.
Which we are going to!
"JULIA! TIME TO GO!" Julie calls out.
I will come back and tell you about the celebration when I get back!

-x-~IN THE TAXI~-x-
I hopped in the taxi which already had Mrs. Hodge, Molly, Callie, Elizabeth,
Rebecca, Becca, Jake, Nathan, Matt, Ryan, and Keith.

Don't worry.
It was a big limo.

"Hey everyone!" I greeted.
"Hey Julia." Everyone replied.

We started having a conversation about how nervous we were before
performing for sectionals. Then we started talking about how nice Rebecca and
I were to fill in for Chrissa, Charity, and Prudence.

"We're here!" Mrs. Hodge beamed from the front of the taxi. We all got out of the
car, Mrs. Hodge paid and we all looked around.
"Where the heck are we?" Julie asked.
"In front of a big building that has a lot of big space in front of it." Mrs. Hodge
smiled.
"Yeah, I see that. But WHY are we here?" Julie asked.

Everyone shared confused expressions with each other.

"You are going to perform a song for all of these people! You're going to New
York in 4 weeks, in front of a BIG audience. Consider this your assignment for this
week." Mrs. Hodge smiled.
Everyone who was in the chorus groaned. Apparently assignments take a lot of
work.
"You don't have any instruments, so you need certain people to imitate them for
 a few times, and everyone needs to have at least two seconds of solo time."
Mrs. Hodge smiled.
"Where are you going?" Callie asked as Mrs. Hodge began to walk away.

"I'm going to give you 1 hour to get ready for your BIG PERFORMANCE! Don't let me down, kiddos." Mrs. Hodge waved then walked inside a Subway.

"Great. We have to sing, and she's going to get a sub." I muttered.
"Okay, anyone have any song ideas?" Molly asked.
"Why are you asking?" Keith asked.
"Because, I'm the only one who's TRYING to be a leader." Molly narrowed her
eyes.
"Keith, dude. Just give it a rest." Nathan held Keith back.
"And I got nothing." Rebecca sighed.
We all paced around, trying to think.
"WAIT!" Elizabeth called out.

We all stopped in our tracks.
"Remember how Charity picked out the last song from the Winter Dance?" Elizabeth asked.
"She used her iPod!" Jake exclaimed.

"Anybody got their iPod?" Becca asked.
"I do!" Matt smiled, pulling out his iTouch.

"Shuffle!" We all exclaimed.

"And the song is....." Ryan said.
"Drum roll please." Matt said.

We all slapped our knees to imitate drums.

"Train's 'Hey Soul Sister.'" Matt smiled.
"What the heck was that song doing on YOUR iPod?" Nathan teased.
"Oh lay off it." Matt's British vocabulary shows when he gets mad.
"It was only a joke." Nathan defended himself.
"I know." Matt laughed.

"But this is good." Molly smiled.
"Yeah, we can sing it like they did on 'Glee.'" Julie smiled.

Then we practiced and practiced for an hour. My legs hurt and my throat was sore, but it was all in good fun.

"Okay. I take it you guys have a song, right?" Mrs. Hodge came back.
"Yup! It's awesome, if I do say so myself." Molly's grey eyes sparkled.
"Then, I will just introduce you all. So go in your places." Mrs. Hodge smiled.

"Attention, ladies and gentlemen!" Mrs. Hodge called out.
Everyone seemed to slow down or stop walking completely.
"This is American Girls and Guys of the Past and Present Academy's Chorus or Glee Club. They just won their sectionals and are headed to New York City in a few weeks for Regionals. We would like to show you a bit of how they perform."
Mrs. Hodge smiled.

A light applause began and we all turned around to face the road.

All of us imitated the guitar intro with our voices while Molly took the first solo.

"Hey, Hey, Hey. Tonight." She sang melodically.
"Your lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains I knew I wouldn't forget you, and so I went and let you blow my mind" She pointed to her head.

She then turned and went back into her original position and Ryan replaced her.

"Your sweet moon beam, the smell of you in every single dream I dream
I knew when we collided, you're the one I have decided who's one of my kind"

We all slid from one side to the next while he sang. He danced back to his original position with Elizabeth replacing him.

"Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio," She pointed to one ear.
"stereo," She pointed to the other.
"the way you move ain't fair, you know!" She spun around while we sang behind
her.
"Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do..." She danced around.
"tonight" She pointed to the ground.
"Hey!" We all sang.
"Hey." She sang back
"Hey!" We sang again.

Becca walked to center stage.

"Just in time, I'm so glad you have a one-track mind like me" She snapped her fingers and swayed from side to side.

Jake walked to center stage and Becca moved back to her positon.

"You gave my life direction, a game show love connection we can't deny" He
held the last note on 'Deny.'

Rebecca swapped positions with Jake.
"I'm so obsessed, my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest
I believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna, and I'm always gonna wanna
blow your mind" She sang and we harmonized in the background.

"Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio" Nathan sang and pointed to
one ear.
"stereo," he pointed to the other.
"the way you move ain't fair, you know!" He put one foot in front of the other
and spun around.

"Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight" He sang and
moon walked back to his original position.

"The way you can cut a rug, watching you's the only drug I need" Julie danced
like they did in the fifties when she sang.

"So gangsta, I'm so thug, you're the only one I'm dreaming of" Callie walked to
Julie's side and acted like a gangster.

"You see, I can be myself now finally, in fact there's nothing I can't be" Keith
sang.

"I want the world to see you be with me" Callie, Julie, and Keith all sang in
perfect harmony.

Matt ran up to the center of the little area while Jake did a back flip across the
front of it.

"Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo," He sang solo.
"the way you move ain't fair, you know!" We all sang in unison.
"Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight," Matt sang,
then walked back to his original spot.

"Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do" I skipped to the center
and held the last note.
"tonight" I sang, sweetly.
"Hey" I sang.
"Hey." The rest of the Chorus sang.
"Hey" I sang again.
"Hey" They mirrored.
"Tonight" I slid from one side to another.
"Hey!" They sang.
"Hey" I sang.
"Hey" We all sang.
"Tonight." I sang, then we all stopped and posed.

A wave of applause rushed over us.
We all grabbed hands and bowed.


Celebration isn't always partying.
It's also practicing.


Shine On!
Julia. <3