You’re Not Going to Believe This,

"Hey guys!" I dropped my stuff by the bleachers. Then, I plopped down between Amelia and Clara.

"Hey!"

"Kelly didn't show up again?" I tilted my head in confusion. "Is she okay?"

"I don't know. She hasn't responded to any of my texts," Clara replied, shrugging. "I'm sure she's fine."

I pursed my lips. Kelly being sick often isn't an unnatural occurrence. It didn't mean I wasn't concerned. The school had a strict absence policy. You were tempting fate being out more than sixteen times a year.

"So what's new with you guys?"

"Mr. Morgan assigned another quiz." Clara and I groaned as the words left Amelia's mouth.

"Isn't this like quiz number six of the month? " I put my head in my hands. "At this rate, we'll be getting quizzes from him on Teams 'til it burns!" The others nodded in agreement. At this point, I'm certain we've lost count of the quizzes he's given us.

"Is the quiz easy," Clara asked.

"Yeah, just long." There was a collective sigh of relief. Constant history quizzes can be annoying, but at least I could count on an easy A.

"Crossing my fingers that it is as easy as you said. We've got Finn, Andrew, Carl, Jake, and Madelyn in one room," Clara mumbled. I nodded. This day was going to get longer and longer, I could feel it. The thought of being in a room with them, trying to get through my quiz in piece, gave me hives. I'd sooner walk up the Stairs of Valhalla.

"Guys, I've been seeing some weird stuff lately." I turned around quickly, making sure no one was eavesdropping. The others looked at me with piqued interest.

"What kind of weird stuff?"

"Well, more like a weird thing," I explained. "There's this car that parked across the street from my house. It looks like a normal blue Chevy, but something feels off about it."

"Like what?" Amelia and Clara turned to face me.

"Well, besides the fact that the car was made in 1957, nothing I can see. I've seen it in front of the house for weeks, and it's never budged! Even on weekends."

"Maybe they have another car," Amelia asked. I shook my head.

"It's an apartment building. No garage."

"You've seen it too?" I jumped in my spot. The fear left my body when I saw it was Wade. I nodded. He sat beside us.

We all took some time to process what we were just talking about.

"It's a mystery," Clara piped up with jazz hands.

"Yeah, a mystery with a really boring premise," I added.

"This whole town is boring! I don't know what you expected." Amelia threw her hands up. I gave her that one. Not much happens in suburban New Jersey.

Wade opened his mouth to say something, but a sharp whistle interrupted. We all went to our spots for attendance.

Eventually, after all the classes took attendance, they opened up the crate holding all the balls. We all stood off to the side while everyone else ran like it was the "Hunger Games" Cornucopia. I noticed Amelia grab something from behind the bleachers. A spare volleyball.

"Where'd you find that?"

"Someone left it here, and we've been hiding it, so we didn't have to run there," Clara explained as kids swarmed the crate.

We all stood in a circle, and Amelia served the ball to Clara.

"So what was going on that you blew up on Finn in math," Wade asked.

"I did not blow up on him!"

"Yeah, you did, we are literally two seats away from each other." I rolled my eyes and blocked the volleyball.

"It's not my fault he's annoying," I snapped. Wade shook his head.

"So I've heard. You fixate on this at least once a week."

"I have three classes with him! That's half my day stuck with him!" The ball flew outside of the circle, and Clara ran to get it.

"Well, we can't do much about that. But you can't fixate on it all the time. It's not good for you." I scowled. He's right. He's always right about this. In the eyes of strangers, I look like I'm about to blow up at a minor inconvenience. Being annoyed by Finn was like foreplay to my eventual breakdown.

"I'll try," I say as Clara comes back with the ball, and we resumed our game.

Finally, gym class ended. My legs felt like they were torn apart and were begging for mercy. The four of us sat by our things.

"I thought of something," Amelia told us out of the blue. "About the car, I mean." We all turned our attention to her.

"What if we all met up at the park on Saturday and tried to find anything suspicious?" The idea was turning over in our heads.

"I'd have to ask my parents first," I said. There was an outcry of 'same'.

"It's the only idea we've got. We might as well try."

"Should we ask Kelly or May if they've seen anything?" Wade suggested.

The rest of us attested to having them know.

"The more evidence we could find that something weird is happening, the better," Clara reasoned. I hoped that her conclusion was the case. A small voice in the back of my mind mocked me for my thoughts. It could be broken, or no one was using it because it qualified as vintage, or maybe the owners were in the process of getting a new car...

"You okay?" Wade tapped me on the shoulder.

"Yeah, just thinking. What if we're going about this the wrong way and nothing is happening?"

"If they weren't using the car, wouldn't we have seen another car anywhere by the house," Wade replied flatly.

"Fair point." Still, there was doubt in my voice. Trying to find something wrong was like trying to remember the name for all the stars in the sky. As I walked to English class, I tried to find anything about the car that could qualify as off-putting. Nothing. It was as plain as the rest of this town. My brain repeated that this was a lapse of judgment— that it was just going to be a hoax and lead to my downfall. The mindset common in fallen heroes made so much more sense.

There was some hope mingling with my doubt. This wasn't just a strange thought anymore. It was a mystery and we were going to get answers.

We weren't leaving clueless without a fight.