Disconnected by Lisa M. Cronkhite

details.”
    â€œOkay…so here’s the thing. Jenny Stevens said that Matt’s party’s this Friday.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo this Friday starts our Spring Break.”
    â€œYeah, but I still don’t get it.”
    â€œWell I guess this time, since his parents will be gone, he has the whole house to himself. Which means he is inviting like the whole senior class. Which means us, Milly. Us. So you wanna? Oh, please. Say you’ll go?” She looks at me with begging puppy dog eyes. All Beth’s interested in is hooking up with Lance Sunderfield, Matt’s best friend. And I know what she’s thinking too. If I get Matt to go out with me, then she’d be able to go out with Lance—like a chain effect. Man, now it’s becoming all too clear. We would be a foursome and everything will be happy, happy . Oh, please !
    But to keep Amelia from exploding, I comply. “Sure, let’s do it.”
    ***
    The bus ride is long and boring and something foul smells in the backseat area. It’s packed with people of all different types. There’s a black woman and her two little children sitting across from me and a white older lady in the front of the bus, standing waiting for her stop. When that is, I don’t know. She’s been standing ever since I got on, which is about twenty minutes now. She’s probably a pickpocket, Milly. If she’s still there when you get off, she’ll get you. Watch your back , Amelia says.
    I try to relax her thoughts and mine as I have another ten to fifteen minutes before I reach my stop. I think again of all the things that have been happening. It bothers me that I don’t know how the fire at Grandpa George’s house started. And it bothers me that I can’t find my phone. You’re never gonna find it, ha ha, too bad for you.
    Amelia taunts me with her childish ways. I don’t know whether to believe her or not. She is so often wrong. Again I try to remember when I had my phone last. Images of seeing it in a shoebox come to mind, I don’t know why. Somewhere dark. A closet maybe? Or a darkened room? Was this before or after the fire? God only knows what messages could be on it by now—that’s if Amelia’s using it. But that seems so far-fetched to me. Why would she be hiding it in the first place? And who in the world would she be calling that she wouldn’t want me to know?
    We come to a stop and my eyes catch sight of the girl with the black hair with blue flecks in it. When the door opens, she gets on and looks straight at me. I’m sitting in the middle and off to the side, but she takes a seat right behind the bus driver. She’s dressed in plain clothes with shoes on this time, little flip-flops actually. She continues to stare, and I glance down at the floor. Amelia suddenly freaks out and wants off the bus. Instantly I get up and tug the wire for the bus driver to stop at the next stop. Milly, just get off the bus now! She’s staring at you. She wants to hurt you. She knows all about you.
    Amelia’s really making my heart flutter. Quickly, when the bus stops, I hop off and start walking down the street. The bus drives away and I try to calm Amelia and myself. I am about fifteen minutes away from Aunt Rachel’s—about a half an hour if I walk, which I decide to do—but I am not quite sure how to get there.
    You really did it now, Milly! Now we’re lost and someone will grab us and cut us to pieces. “Please, Amelia,” I say out loud as I walk in the brisk air. “When will you ever stop?”
    While I torment myself with her worries, a black car pulls up.
    â€œHey! Milly, right? You need a ride?”
    It’s Blake. He slows the car and comes to a stop just as I do. Milly, don’t do it, he will carve you to death and eat you for dinner, then dump the rest of your dead body in the lake.
    â€œUmm…yeah, but I don’t think I