𝗜𝗧𝗖𝗛 ✔

𝟎𝟑. 𝐁𝐔𝐒 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄

Cara and her mother got to the diner fifteen minutes later. It was crowded, but they managed to find Charmaine and her mother sitting in a booth not far away.

"Char! Am I glad to see you," Cara greeted her friend. "My mom's been stressing over everything. Bit annoying, really."

"You'd think that our parents would chill a little now that we're fifteen," said Charmaine, examining one of her acrylic nails that had broken.

"You're going to have to take those nails off before we get to school," Cara told her pointedly. "Headmistress really likes rules, for some reason."

"Reason is," Charmaine replied with a roll of her eyes, "she's just paranoid about losing her job."

"Girls! The bus is leaving in thirty minutes. We have to leave here," Mom said with an air of her normal paranoia before the terms started.

"Don't worry, Amy. We'll be fine. Come on, girls," Charmaine's mom said.

The lot got to the bus station around ten minutes later. Unfortunately, they were drenched in salty water because Mother Nature had decided to bless them with the tears from the very bottom of her soul.

In other words, it had started to thunderstorm.

Cara, Charmaine, and the two mothers were now standing there in the storm, waiting for the bus to come, because the bus that was in their area didn't exactly have a waiting area.

Cara looked over at Charmaine, who was using this time to scroll through her streaks on Snapchat.

Finally, the bus came.

Of course, Cara's mom had to ensure that she had everything: lotion, Benedryl, undergarments, clothing, and a bunch of other stuff that Cara reckoned she learned how to properly pack around ten years ago.

"Bye, darling!" her mom yelled as Cara struggled out of her checking zone and got onto the bus with Charmaine.

"Bye, Mother," Cara said under her breath as she settled into a comfy seat next to Charmaine.

The bus ride to Roseboro was around five hours long, give or take a few minutes, since the driver also had to pick up a bunch of other students along the way.

Charmaine's way of entertaining herself was taking off her acrylic nails. However, the vinegar she was using smelled like piss.

Cara scrunched up her nose, taking out her phone.

A news alert popped up.

"Hey, Char, have you checked this out?" Cara nudged Charmaine.

Charmaine looked over at Cara's phone and read the headline of the article. "ABDUCTED! TWO TEENAGERS HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED! Who has been taking the children? It still remains a mystery."

"Seriously? Must be a fake," Cara scoffed. "Yannavin's the safest city around."

Charmaine gave her an ominous look. "In my grandma's age, a bunch of mysterious robberies and kidnappings were happening. Yannavin's not that innocent."

Cara rolled her eyes. "Sounds like bull to me. Your grandma is crazy."

Charmaine laughed. "Eh, true." She leaned in to continue reading. "Around the same time the children disappeared, reports that their families, after eating dinner that night, experienced itching and rashes similar to the outcomes of the skin condition, eczema.."

What?!

Cara knocked the phone out of Charmaine's hands and took it from her, reading the line that the latter had just read. "Eczema?"

"Yeah, so what?" said Charmaine, shrugging and taking the phone back.

"No! See here. Right after those children were kidnapped, and right after the families ate, they came down with symptoms of eczema. And they didn't have it before," Cara said, starting to get more and more horrified.

"Cara, it's fine. Probably just something they were allergic to in their food. It doesn't have to do with anything. You should stop thinking about your condition; it's making you paranoid. Because of this, you're just overthinking," said Charmaine.

Cara took a deep breath. "Maybe you're right. But -"

"Approaching Roseboro Private School," the bus driver, Lennon, announced, interrupting her thoughts.

"Oh, look, they're renovating!" said Charmaine, pointing to the side of the school, which Cara saw had construction paper covering it.

Cara, however, was not thinking about the renovation.

Maybe Charmaine is right. Yet.....Someone is giving these families eczema. Why?

A/N: this is the edited version. It gets better as we go on, I promise.