Peter shook his head, causing the back of his short, wavy hair to touch the top of his neck. He flipped the page of the magazine and whistled. Then, he put the magazine down and got out his books. "Okay, ready to practice our skit again?" He ran a hand through his hair, letting it fall around his forehead.

"Lawyers.. lawyers..." Brad closed his eyes. "I know of one," he finally said slowly. "She once defended a co-worker of mine." He paused. "She won the case, by the way."

---------

Ally texted Stacey. New boy alert! Never seen him before, saw him entering 3104 Oak St.

--------

Zach opened the door to shoo--er, allow Stacey to leave when he squeaked and slammed the door shut. "Larry," he whispered to Stacey.

---------

Airports. So busy and crowded.

Johny's thumb and forefinger pinched the long edges of the boarding pass together. His eyes floated down the paper canal, through the clusters of numbers and capital letters printed in an angular type, in ink with white streaks from a choppy, hurried printer. E6. 14FEB. 505. 3:50. DL2. ZONE 3. 26C, most likely a seat on the aisle. He was glad for that. The majority of the flight would be spent above the clouds rather than below them, and the aisle proved much more interesting once the plane leveled out above the horizon. His fingers straightened without precedent and the card stock of boarding pass popped as it flattened on instinct. It floated down an invisible little spiral staircase and settled into a wrinkle in his pants.

"Attention passengers of Flight 505, nonstop service to Denver:
Due to a sudden need for some minor runway maintenance, the scheduled departure of 3:50 will be delayed about twenty minutes. Once again, Flight 505 has been delayed and will be boarding at approximately 4:10. thank y- " the woman behind the podium droned in a practiced voice, releasing the button to her microphone half of a second too soon as she hurried off to her next task.

A few people stood up, and then with a sigh settled back into their seats again.

Johny took a sip of his coffee as the lady next to him struck up a conversation. "What's waiting for you at Denver?" she asked.

"Another plane," Johny replied, enjoying her annoyed look. "Out of country," he stuck in. "Excuse me, I'm trying to read this book," he said quickly.

"You don't have a book."

"I mean... I'll read... this ticket a few times," he sighed for the hundredth wondered what was wrong with him.

Justin smiled. "That's great. How much does she charge? What is her number?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stacey looked at her text message from and laughed. She texted: Ur a SPY rnt u? lol. Is he cute?

Then, when Zach freaked out and shut the door on Larry, she said, "Zach, do you think he would hurt you?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miley furiously texted Johnny. Can't believe you're gonna be in the MIlitary! You told me you weren't WHY DID U CHANGE UR MIND

"No idea," said Brad. "Go google Sue Yoo Ditto Virginia, you'll find her."

----------

WHOA, LIL SIS! NO, I'm just going and collecting information for the government! Johny texted back.

---------

"Heck, YEAH," snorted Zach, peeking out the window.

--------

He was too far away. Ally texted back.

Justin typed the name into the computer. "Mhm." He found her email and copy and pasted it, so that he could email her. "Thanks, man." He was relieved Brad did not turn his back on him and emailed the lady. "how's the baby?"
~~~~~~~~~~
Miley felt a sigh of relief, when she saw Johnny's text. She forwarded it to Justin, and sent him one, asking if he found a lawyer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stacey said, "He really hasn't been bullying that much."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miranda texted Stacey and Ally: It was your fault Peter's hair got pulled out and the whole school will know

She went on her facebook page, saying that Stacey and Ally WANTED Peter's hair to be pulled out at the dance, and they wished more would be pulled out and that he would look much better if he were bald.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After practicing the skit with Jen, Peter gave her a hug, then went home. He found Nate playing on his drums. "Did you find Lyn?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jen got on her facebook, and gasped. Miranda's parents did not care about their daughter being exposed to the world, so Miranda never set her profile to private. After seeing what Miranda wrote, she called Stacey. She and Stacey were not friends, but after the dance they really were not enemies either. SHe called Stacey to tell her what happened.
Stacey gasped, "Oh no! She did send me a warning on text message. You know I did NOT want your dad to pull out Peter's hair! Besides, it's starting to grow back anyways and I'm glad for it. I know it's still really thin but there is not bald spot anymore and it looks a little thicker. It looks nice, but don't worry you can totally have him."
Jen smiled. "Thanks."
Stacey said, "Gotta go. "
JEn answered, "Okay, Bye."

"My name? It's...uh...Chrissa," Chrissa forced herself to stutter out, hoping her voice wasn't squeaking. "So, are you from around here?"

Diane snickered. "Totally! I guess we should go with the two CDs and those paper rings, then." Suddenly her mouth opened wide and she stopped for a moment. "Uh, I just thought of a kinda important question - where are we having the party?"

Amanda giggled. "Oh yea! Let's have it at my house! We can watch a Narnia movie!"
~~~~~~~~
Peter saw the sad look on Nate's face and decided not to press him any further. He looks at some sheets of paper, with words written on them. "Writing Christmas songs?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miley saw Ryan in one of the stores. So, she let Chrissa and the boy talk and caught up with Ryan. "Hey, are we still going ot the dance together?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter picked up one of the pieces of paper Nate had written on. "You should play this one. Can you play it for me first?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stacey rushed over to Ally's house as soon as she could, to find Ally still on the street, spying on some boy. "Hey, he looks about 17 I don't think we stand a chance." She showed Ally the text message Miranda had sent her. "It was sent to you also. She says what happened to Peter at the dance was our fault! I didn't want that to happen, did you? I didn't want his hair pulled out!" She wanted to slam her cell phone to the ground or throw it at Miranda. How could Miranda betray them like that? She looked at Ally. "Please tell me you did not want that to happen." Somberly, Stacey said, "You should have seen what she wrote on Facebook. It was awful! Jen told me all about it!'

June shivered as they walked into the convention building for the FBI. "Brad, can you get my sweater, please?"

"I left it in the car,” muttered Brad, heading back out. He stepped out into the cool air and started walking across. Something clicked and two blocks of city streets were knocked out. “Hello?” he called, and in retrospect, that was a pretty silly thing to do.

He looked up and down the streets, but it was silent. He shrugged. Kept walking. A car started in the distance and Brad could see his own car a few yards away.

Then a van careened out of nowhere towards him.

“Hey!” he yelled, jumping to the side. He heard the blast, and then felt himself thud into the wall. Gripping his arm, he took a look at the blood. Brad started to run back to the building, where there would be wine and cheese for the adults, cookies for the teetotalers, and now plenty of blood for everyone.

“Out!” someone yelled and he heard footsteps running close behind him. Too close. Too fast. “Get him!” the voice yelled again, this time more urgently. Brad slipped on the street on his own blood, coming from his arm. There was an awful lot of it, or maybe he was just overreacting since it was, you know, HIS blood.

“This,” the voice said again. Another blast. This time he stumbled and fell flat on his face.

“OMIGOSH!” June was running outside. He wanted to tell her to go back inside, call the police, and forget about him because he was done for, but he couldn’t. She was running towards him. So fast, so strong, so BEAUTIFUL.

“Brad!” she screamed, but it sounded lower, more a guttural Braaaahhhhhhhddddd.

June couldn’t go fast enough. Brad was too far away, she thought dismally. So… far. Someone grabbed her waist. “No!” she yelped, trying to break free and run back. There was a sickening smell and something went over her mouth. She gulped for air and then tried to break free again. Her head burned as she tried to concentrate. She kicked as furiously as she could and the arms released her momentarily.

As she ran, it occurred to her that although her mind was speeding up, she seemed to be running slower and slower. Her legs never felt heavier. “Brad!” she screamed, although it sounded closer to a gurgle. His body was completely still on the dark ground. Someone came outside yelling “FBI!”. More shots. More yells. But all that mattered was Brad.

He saw Maralyn, and Justin there, too. No, that was impossible. He saw the wedding, he saw Ronia, and Joe Mason. Dead. NO. Because that was the worst four-letter word in the world. De- STOP! He almost thought he saw June leaning over him, like his life flashing before his eyes before he…

----------------

When the men stepped out it was unusually dark. They saw the van, and someone started to call the police. In the middle of the sidewalk a woman was leaning over a limp body on the dark ground. She was sobbing. Sobbing because she knew that it was too late. Someone called out to her but she didn’t get up.

June felt someone behind her, but it didn’t matter. The arms grabbed her again and she uselessly clawed at his face. Falling. She was falling, and the ground was rushing up so fast. “No---” she said, reaching out to stop herself.

She crumpled. She felt herself fall to the ground. But the arms didn’t reach for her. They reached for something else. She gasped softly, but no one heard her. But now it was over. She didn’t wait for it. Didn’t anticipate. June just closed her eyes and - for once in her life, did it gracefully - left.

After emailing the lawyer, Justin turned on the TV to see the breaking news. Brad and June had died in the city. Tears filled his eyes, as he buries his face in his hands. His friends, who he shared a wedding day with were dead. He froze in place, unable to think or do anything but atre at the TV.

Maralyn had just grabbed a snack when she wlked into the TV room to see what happened. She saw her husband, pale and with tears down his face. "Oh Justin!" She wrapped her arms around him and stroked his hair. This was not his year! "I'm so sorry, Justin. I'm sorry." She stared to cry, once the realization settled in. These were her friends too. "Poor Vicki Mae. What are we going to tell the teenangers?" She rubbed the hair on the side of his head. Finally, Justin asked, "Do you think God is punishing me for when I killed that thug?"
Maralyn held her husband's face in her hands. "He is not punishing you. Honey, that was an accident. Sure, maybe you could have done things differently, but how would anyone have known the difference at a time like that? I just wish we hung out with them more. I mean the teens are great and you couldn't ask for better kids than Peter, Miley and their friends, but still.."
Justin took her hand and kissed it.
Then, the news switched to more info about the guy Justin killed. It was found out he worked for the news reporter, which meant Justin could be in jail for life or get death. Justin put his face in his hands and started crying again. Maralyn felt tears splash down her cheeks as well. She shouted, "No! I can't lose my husband. Oh God, no don't let me lose my husband!" She felt Justin's comforting arm around her. "I'm right here, for now." His voice sounded broken. The two of them mourned for their friends and for the life Justin might lose. He sniffed. "At least I will be in Heaven, if God will take me back."

Maralyn held Justin's hands. "You know He will. There are not as many people who are as repentant and dedicated to God as you are. Not even preachers."
He burst into tears, unable to hold back emotion.

Maralyn hated seeing Justin like this. "Hey, looking forward to the Christmas Party?"

Justin stopped crying for a second, a flash of hope in his eyes. "Yeah. All I need is a get out of jail free card." He started crying again.

Maralyn rubbed his back, in attempt to soothe him. Still, she was crying also.

Justin said, "Maybe you should get some rest. This can't be good fro our baby." More tears started to from his eyes. What if he wouldn't be there to raise it? THe thought made him cry even harder. A child needs their father and this one..might not have theirs. He led Maralyn to their room, then went into the guest room and wept unconsolably.

Chuck's car pulled up to the scene and ran up to where the yellow tape barred the way. The police tried to stop him but he flashed his badge and said "What happened here?" the cop replied "We think it was a mob hit but we are not sure at this time" Chuck looked shocked, he himself had been on the same case as Brad and was only a few day's away from getting the men -who had been working for El`Paso; a Melian crime ring-who almost killed Will. This complicated things, "Did you get any of the men who did it?" he asked.

"...died in a reported drive-by shooting in town. Ditto News, I'm Sandra--"

Meghan ran to the TV. Brad and June? Hey, they weren't the ones married in August.... Meg let out a little gasp and leaned towards the TV, as if being closer would help her figure out why the gang sounded familiar.

Peter got onto his email account and gasped. On the news it said Brad and June died. He was still sitting near Nate, who was trying out Christmas music. "Oh Nate! What about Justin?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stacey said, "Ally, Miranda turned on us, don't you get it? Our actions have consequences can't you see that?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MIley said to RYan, "You know I am looking really forward to the dance. We will have fun, won't we?" SHe wondered why he wasn't answering.

"What?" Nate said as he set down his guitar, he scuttled over to the computer "Brad and June... Have I met them?"
---
Kevin was sitting in his apartment watching tv when he saw the breaking news "No!" he yelled then he saw Chuck talking to a police man in the back ground so he called him "Hey Chuck whats going on down there?" he saw Chuck move away from the police and reporters and reply "Kevin the same men who killed Brad killed you're family"

Peter brushed his dark bangs to the side with his hand. "They are friends with Justin! Oh no! This is terrible! We have to go check on him!" Something else poped on his screen about how teh man Justin killed was one of the news reporters and if found guilty, Justin could get life or the death penalty. Peter screamed, "No!" Tears ran down his eyes. "I'm going to Jen's, then Justin's! No one kills my cousins if I have a say in it!" He quickly ran over to Jen's house, probably looking silly. OUt of breath, he rang her doorbell. He missed their dynamic duo and wanted to have her with him so they could both comfort Justin.

Nate scrambled for his coat and followed after Peter on his skate board "Wait up Peter!"
---
"What!?" asked Kevin "My family died in a fire!" he yelled at Chuck, Chuck replied "It was a cover up, Kevin. Your father was about to prosecute leaders of a crime cartel when he was atacked in your home, your brother only survived because he was at a friends house and the gov covered it up with a fire"