What is the perfect recipe for a mystery?
Step One: Start off with a group of unlikely friends.
Step Two: Hangout all the time, but be reluctant to reveal your deepest secrets.
Step Three: Play a simple game of Truth or Dare that will lead you all...
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Chapter Two
"Finley James Cook!" I can hear my sister Raven's voice raging through the parking lot. I just sit back with a satisfied smile, knowing that I beat her to school for the fifth time this month.
"What's the matter? Did your air intake manifold gasket break down again?" I ask in mock pity, exposing my lower lip to make her even more antagonized. She shoots me a look that says 'you better shut up or I'll slap you', but I ignore her and continue to bask in my success. My trusty bike may not be the most attractive vehicle to drive around High School, but I've proven numerous times that it's faster than Red's black 2008 Dodge Ram.
Last year for the school science fair I made an extravagant bicycle out of old automobile parts that I found in the junkyard a few streets down from my house on Raven Boulevard. Needless to say I won first place overall. I was pretty proud. I want to get a degree in thermodynamic mechanical engineering. Of course, I would need seven years of college for that, but I am well on my way.
I am seventeen years old, and a senior at Woodland High. I bumped up a grade, because the student administrator said I was five times smarter than the average teenage boy. I guess they have a point, considering the fact that I'm taking five advanced placement classes this semester. Most people call me a nerd, but I like to consider myself as an 'overstimulated intellect, who suffers from severe anxiety and has slight obsessive compulsive disorder.'
"You better shut your mouth Finn, or I'll slap you." Raven calls over her shoulder. 'Called it', I think to myself.
"I bet a cheetah is faster than you, boom roasted." I fire back, while pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose. I have to admit, I'm not the best when it comes to insults, but I try to keep things as positive as possible with my lousy jokes, because humor is something my home life is seriously lacking.
I park my bike in the same spot as usual, next to the oak tree near the front of the school, and chain it up. Red accompanies me moments later, sporting yet another one of her, wildly inappropriate, graphic t-shirts.
I gave her the nickname Red when we were younger because of her short temper. Whenever Raven gets angry her face turns bright red and smoke comes shooting out of her ears. Then in Junior High, she dyed red streaks in her hair which made her nickname even more appropriate. I find her nickname "Red" absolutely nonsensical. She didn't at first, but now she uses it more often than her real name.
As much as I love my sister, she drives me insane! For one thing, she is the most disarranged person you will ever meet! I on the other hand; am a neat freak. I need everything to be in an orderly fashion or things get complicated. And another thing, whenever we are out of the house Red puts on this counterfeit rebellious act. She goes around doing things that I would never expect her to. For example, last summer Red snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to go vandalize Mr. Crenshaw's house just because he annoyed her. It wasn't his fault though! Red skipped school on a daily basis and had missed all the lectures! That's another thing that bothers me about her. She isn't doing well in school. Dad doesn't care though. He spends most of his days passed out on the couch instead of doing work to support our financial needs. But, despite all of that, she is actually a remarkable sister. She supports our financial needs when my father can't, stands up for me when I'm bullied, and is the most caring sister a boy like me could ask for.
