“Plan the race and race the plan.” That’s the quote I’ve been living by for the past two years: For school, for the school paper, and my part-time job at the library. Work. Work. Work. That’s all I have done. That’s all I want to have done. My parents tell me to just slow down and smell the roses, to take time and enjoy life. I don’t.

My name is Rose McArthur, a sixteen-year-old girl living in the classy streets of New York City. My story begins on October 13, 1994 on a chilly morning of waiting, waiting, and WAITING for the bus to pick me up for my interview with a student from my school for the newspaper.
“Miss, are you getting on?”
I looked up to see Mr. Lemon (LOL, sorry, I just HAD to do it!), the bus driver for the public bus, looking at me expectantly with bright blue eyes and my own reflection blinking at me on his shining forehead. I nodded and, shoving my bus pass to him for a look, climbed inside to sit in one of the available seats.
The ride didn’t take long before I had got off the bus and was rushing down the sidewalk. As I hurried past crowds of people, my thoughts ran wild with the questions of the interview swarming my mind like a busy beehive.
That was when I felt it.
A hand grasped my shoulder out of nowhere and pulled me into the dark alley. Another hand clamped down onto my mouth to stop a scream from escaping my lips. Strong arms crushed me and shoved me into a brick wall. I yelped but the sound wasn’t heard. My eyes wildly flickered to see a man in long trench coat and hat grasping me with an evil glint in those steely eyes. Before I knew it, I was on the hard ground and everything went black….
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“We’ll get good bucks out of this one, boss.” A male voice announced, clearing my head a little.
“Yeah, this will be interesting. Cannot wait to have the cash too. I can finally get that flat screen we’ve had our eye on for the past two years.”
Again, everything was getting a bit lighter and louder. My fingers twitched and grasped something cold to the touch. My eyes heavily fluttered open to find myself on the dirt in a forest. Two men, one of them the guy that attacked me, stood over me, talking in gruesome tones. As I attempted to lift my head, it throbbed horribly so I let it fall back down. I groaned aloud, squeezing my eyes shut to feel cool tears ooze down my cheeks.
“I hope this is worth it, boss. The McArthur girl is important. I mean, kidnapping Daniel McArthur’s little girl? THE mayor’s daughter? Don’t you think we’ve gone a smidgen too far?” The first male voice said uncertainly. “I don’t wanna go back to prison.”

“Eh, we won’t. There’s no way she’ll get away.” A lower, rougher male voice said nonchalantly.
“We’ll just see about that!” I thought, narrowly avoiding screaming it aloud. I moved my fingers once again and quietly pushed myself up, ignoring the horrible throb in my head. I glanced up to see that the two men were busy and slowly crawled a few inches to my left. I looked up again, they were busy, and so I crept along again. I did that for what seemed hours until I was about a couple yards away. Then, I dived into a log to hide.
“What am I going to do?” I thought panicked. “It’s obvious they’re holding me hostage! I got to get out of here!” I wildly looked around and felt my pockets for my phone. Drat. They have it! Grimacing, I gazed up at the ceiling of the log and lied there, listening to the men’s conversation.
“So… What do you want to do? Wanna play poker?” The timid man asked quietly.

“Nope.” Replied the rougher man with a popping ‘P’. “HEY! Wait a second! WHAT THE HECK? WHERE DID SHE GO?”
“Uh oh!” I thought. “Now, it’s definitely time to run.”
The other man gasped. I heard footsteps pound against the dirt as the two men searched for me. I closed my eyes, holding my breath, hoping desperately they wouldn’t hear me.
“Crap!” Groaned the timid man. “Well… I guess this means we’re not getting that flat screen.”
“Shut up Bennie!” The other man snapped. “She can’t have gone too far.”
Bennie sighed and trudged closer to my hiding place.
My heart pounding, I prayed. Prayed to no one in particular, but prayed. Prayed that these men wouldn’t be smart enough to look in the log.
“Hey! What’s that?” Bennie exclaimed in wonder.

“NO.” I screamed in thought. “No. No. No. No. No. NO.”
“OOOF!”
My eyes opening, I saw that Bennie was rolling around on the ground, yelling in alarm. A skunk was on top of him, a foul fountain spraying out of its behind. I wrinkled my noise in disgust as the other man ran over to help.
Something told me to run. I crawled out of the log and leaped to my feet, sprinting away as fast as my legs could carry me. The men’s words were echoing in my head as I ran. The next thing I knew, there was a bright light and a horrible ear-piercing screech. I clamped my hands over my ears and fell flat on my face after tripping over my feet. Something hot and loud rushed over me.
“Oh my gosh, what the heck was that?” A girl’s voice shrieked.
More footsteps thundered around me and then a hand poked me. I coughed and opened my eyes. I couldn’t believe my eyes! My best friend, Lily Andrews, was standing over me with a look of utter shock in her bright green eyes.

“Rose?” She gasped, scrambling to pull me up. “You okay?”


“Oh yeah. I’m just bleeding for fun.” I slurred grumpily, trying to pull myself up. I winced as she helped me up and put my arm over her shoulder. She dragged me as she replied worriedly.
“Don’t be sarcastic to me! I can’t believe you’re out here!” She heaved me into what seemed to be the passenger’s seat of her scarlet Porsche. “Wait till I call the police! They’ll be so relieved!” She set me down gently, buckled me up, and closed the car door. I was vaguely aware of her jumping into the driver’s seat, slamming the door, turning the ignition, and driving down the road.

“Don’t worry Rose, help is here. I’m here.” She said to me softly. “Oh, hello! Yeah, this is Lily Andrews. I just found Rose McArthur outside of the city. Yes, I am on the way to the police station. No, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. She’s barely coucious right now. Yes, she is hurt badly. Got a bad gash on her head and everything.” She paused, glancing at me worriedly. “Yes, she is looking at me. I don’t know. She looks pretty sick though. Yes, I know! Hey! I’m her best friend! Do not go accusing me of kidnapping her! Why would I?” She angrily grinded her teeth as she snapped. “Yes, she is still coucious. She’s bleeding really bad. Okay, okay. I’m about ten miles outside of New York. Yes, yes.”
I turned my head to gaze at the road. It was dark, the headlights on Lily’s car barely illuminating the road. My head ached. I turned my head again to gaze at Lily. Squinting my eyes, the speed dial told me that we were going about eighty miles an hour. The alarm on her face told me that I was in deep trouble. But I didn’t know why.
“Okay, I will stay online; I’ll talk to her to keep her awake, alright?” Lily sighed after awhile. “Yes, yes, GOODBYE.” She put her phone down on the floor and mumbled something that sounded like “Stupid people” and looked at me. “Hey Rose, how you feeling?”

“Just peachy.” I grouchily replied.
She rolled her eyes then continued to glare at the road. I looked at her and noticed a small light shining eerily in the forest. I stared at it and noticed it was gradually glowing brighter. Soon it was almost blinding me.
“Hey Lily, what’s that?”
She glanced over her shoulder, as she picked up her phone, and her eyes widened in horror. “Oh no. Crap. Crap. CRAP!” She slammed on the brakes but she was too late. The light turned into two lights and it rammed into us. I heard Lily scream. The impact sent us spiraling. At first, I saw the starry night, then the forest, then the moon, and then solid asphalt. Pain seared me. My red hair hung over my eyes.
I was hanging upside down.
“Lily?” I called softly. “Lily?”
No answer.
“Lily?”
I struggled to turn my head to see no Lily. The windshield was shattered into bits. Blood was everywhere. I closed my eyes, realizing what had happened.
“Lily! NO!” I hiccupped between tears, searching wildly with watering eyes. “Lily!”
There, not too far away from the car, was a limp body that reminded me a lot of a rag doll. In its hand was a silver bloodstained phone.
“Lily!”
I hung there for what seemed to be years. My eyes never left the pale doll in the middle of the road. The thought of Lily was overwhelming. I hated those men. I knew it was their fault. No, it was my fault. I was stupid enough not to do anything. To tell her about the light before it was too late.
I stared at the limp hand clenching the bloody phone and thought of my newly formed plan.
The plan for the race and to race that plan.



THE END….

(OR IS IT?!?!?)