"Mommy?"

I heard my little brother say that name in a whine. God, he can be so annoying at times. But he's ten; it has to come with the age. Though I swear I was never so annoying. And being at a mature almost twelve, I can have my own personal opinion about it all.

"Yes, Charlie?"

My mom is so cool looking. Her brown hair is always shiny and long and it just always looks great. Her face is even better, it's creamy white, and she has these large dark blue eyes. It's amazing. Me on the other hand, I take after my dad. My hair is like this dark-blonde color, and my eyes are a mix between his and hers. Which leaves me with dark blue-green eyes. My brother says it's because I get the best of both my parents. He may have some usefulness to him after all.

"Can we have ice cream?" He asked hopefully.

Ugh, the brat just scarfed down two hotdogs at the vender's… how can that pint-sized squirt still be hungry? "Didn't you just eat?" I asked darkly. He doesn't know the money situation, but I do. Mom makes the money, and us kids spend it.

"I did." He replied sticking his tongue out at me. "But that was a meal, I'm talking about dessert."

My mom smiled indulgently down at him while I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him as well.

Hey, I said I was mature for my age. I'm only twelve, jeez.

"Why don't you two stay here why I go to the store down the street and bring some back?" She offered smiling brightly at us both. "It'll be ice cream to go?"

I don't know. I didn't like the feeling I got from that proposition. But my brother took it, and of course, since he's the youngest, that brat gets his own way. Reluctantly I agreed, and went to hang out with some girls on a park bench near the swings that Charlie is playing on now. I recognized one girl as Jackie from my grade… but the others I weren't so sure of.

Cautiously I stepped up to them and Jackie recognized me instantly it seemed.

"Jenny!" She said grinning. "Come sit down. Meet Carrie and Ana."

Ew, I hate the name Jenny. You can call me Jen or Jennifer, Jenny sounds too… third grade... at least, that's what Mom says. I just agree with her about it. But I sat with them of course! I mean come on; this is my chance to get some popularity going on for me. It's bad enough I have the American family thing going on.

See Charlie's dad is not married to my mom; he's in prison. So he's really only my half-brother. And my real dad… well he ran off with some doctor eleven years ago, and died last May with the doctor lady in an airplane crash. He was flying it. I would say I'm sad about it, but I can't, I didn't even know him. However, I did end up with an older half-sister. Though I wouldn't call that a consolation prize. I've never met her either.

Sitting there and talking to them was cool. They were interesting, a bit shallow, but aren't all young girls? Anyway, I kept checking my watch, and Mom wasn't back yet. It's been almost thirty minutes already… how long does it take to get ice cream from a store that's not even half a block from here?

Okay, fifteen minutes later, Mom's still not back yet, and I wanted to kill these girls. There's only so many times you can here the names Hanson, Moffatts, Brad, and OHMIGOD! Sighs, okay, maybe I'm even more mature for my age than I thought. And maybe I'm just getting a bit paranoid…

Twenty more minutes have passed, it's getting dark, and I'm getting scared. Mom should have been here a long time ago. But I guess she may have her reasons. One being, she won a million dollars and was freaking out in the store. Also, Jackie says that she knows Hanson. I don't know if I believe her yet. Though, by what she says about their family, I envy them already.

It's way past sunset, Charlie is gripping my hand in a death grip, my heart is pounding way too loudly to be considered normal, and Mom is still not here…Now with the persistence of a scared ten year old, I am walking towards the grocery store. The one Mom was supposed to go to.

"Yes, was there a woman, about so high, brown hair, that came in here?" I asked shakily. Describing your mom to see if anyone has seen her around is a bit too much for me. My eyes scanned around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her, say it was all a mistake to this worker and laugh a little… no such luck.

"There hasn't been anyone in here like this all night, little lady." He answered sympathetically.

I swallowed hard. "Mind if I look around to see if she's still here?" My voice was weak, and I felt stupid. But I was more scared, so it balanced out good enough.

He gave his consent. I don't think he would have denied me. Especially since my brother has this lip action going on right now. He keeps sucking his bottom lip into his mouth, to keep it from trembling noticeably, and to keep himself from crying.

I scaled that whole place three times! And she wasn't anywhere to be found. The worker even paged her for five minutes. After that, he called the police. This is great. Just great, because my brother is totally terrified of policemen. So when they get here, I know I'm going to end up having to pick him up and keep him calm. Do you know how heavy this kid is?

I was right. Once that squad car appeared my brother was hiding behind me. And the second they stepped up to us he started bawling. And no matter what the two nice policemen said, it had no affect on him. His hands were up and waiting for me to pick him up. When I refused for the first few moments, he started stomping his feet then he was climbing on me. Eventually I had him in my arms and calming him down. With absolutely no help from the cops.

The conversation I had with them was not good. They had someone check out our house… my mother's stuff was gone. At the moment I'm having problems thinking straight and paying attention to the questions everyone seems to keep asking me.

Before I even noticed it, I was standing outside a large house, and a couple came out and was being all nice to Charlie and me. It was explained that we would stay with them to find out what happened to Mom. I just want this day over with. This by far has been my worst day in my entire life.