chapter 7

The rest of the day was pretty normal. We at dinner watched a movie and then went to bed. It was different with all the little kids gone. It was very relaxing . I could tell that mom was more relaxed than usual too which made me happy. Sunday morning, Mom was trying to find a church for us to go to . She finally found one and we were on our way to the city. It was amazing , not as grand as New York City but it was nice. When we arrived I was shocked to see Emily there arguing with Casey, Emily threw up her hands twice , until we sneaked up behind Casey.
    " Casey! Hey how are you?" I said tapping her on the shoulder .
    " Hi ! It's cool that we ended up going to the same church!" said Casey. She sounded agitated. but I wasn't really paying attention to her ... I was paying more attention Emily.   She was giving me dirty looks , then she looked at her watch and walked away. With a jolt I realized that was my watch that was missing . Then I also realized that I hadn't heard the voices last night.   I bet Emily was scared to enter our house again since she figured out that  I was catching on .
     " Mary, I have to go to the bathroom do you?" I said winking at her to let her know that there was something I had to tell her in private.
    " Oh yeah I do have to go !" she said. After we were safely inside the bathroom .
    " Mary! Emily has my watch !" I exclaimed.
    "Really? Are you sure ?"
    " Yes of course !" I said.
    " Do you think she stole it ? How could she now where our house is ? The only people who know where our house is besides family is Al, and oh my gosh .....Casey!!!" said Mary  sounding really scared .
     " Do you think it is her ? I mean it could be Al . but there has to be two people involved....Right? " I asked.  " Maybe Emily is sending them out to do that for money ! Or controlling them I bet she's controlling them because Al, and Casey don't seem like the type to be stealing things . " said Mary.
       " I don't think they are being controlled , that's fairy tale stuff ." I said .
   " Mary ?  Julia ? Are you guys in there? The service is starting!" said Mom's voice coming out from behind the wooden door .
    " OK Mom we will be right out!" I said. " Let's go."
During the service , Emily kept giving me dirty looks until I started doing them back, Then she started giving me really mean faces until Mary started  laughing so hard she snorted a couple of times . After that a whole bunch of people were giving us dirty looks which made Mary laugh even harder till she started sounding like a seal . I jabbed her in the arm with my elbow in a friendly way . After the service mom was so embarrassed  that she left before the cookies and tea .
    I am so Sorry Mrs . Stuart , but you should have seen the stupid faces that Emily and Julia were giving to each other. It was so funny. Julia you are really bad at giving dirty faces ." said Mary, starting to laugh .
     " You guys totally screwed that up! Mary you need to learn how to stop laughing when you need to !" said Rachel. I could tell she was kind of joking around , but I could tell she was mad too.
  " I 'm sorry but the nerve of that Emily, oh my goodness did you see her smirk after the service? " I said. " It made me so mad!"
    " It's okay honey I didn't really like that church anyway." said Mom but I could tell that she did. " do you guys want to walk around a bit? I would like to see the mall."
    "Sure Mom I would like that." said Rachel.
    Right before we entered the mall , a black hooded figure  rushed out and darted past us .. Then a blood curdling scream pierced  the air.

Chapter 6

I couldn't sleep for a long time because we or maybe just me , heard the muffled voice again . Here's the story. After everyone was asleep I heard the voice again and it sounded very close . I heard it again so I went to the window to see if everything was okay. right when my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw a figure dart across the lawn and into the street. Mary was right I thought it was just a kid running about our yard , a really tall kid . but just in that moment I heard a door quietly close , it sounded like the front door.  That's strange I thought , but I didn't think to much of it until I turned around and saw that my diamond necklace was missing, but then again , I could have misplaced it , I will look for it in the morning,I thought to myself.
     "Julia, Julia, um your diamond necklace is missing, I looked everywhere for it but I - "
    " What ? listen I saw this weird thing last night!" I said as I started to open my eyes.
  I told them what I saw Casey looked very interested which I found a little strange .
     " I'm guessing that the voices were used as a diversion so someone could sneak in and steal things, is anything else missing ?
    " now that you mention it my watch is missing but I could have misplaced it." I said doubting that I did misplace it.
   " maybe we should see if we can see anyone at school wearing your necklace and if we don't than we can file a report in the newspaper or something." said Mary.
  " I don't think we should put it in the newspaper , lot's of people would like to have a diamond necklace , did you see all those poor people on the bus?" I asked.
   " Right , sorry"
  " It's okay."
  "Hey guys , we should probably get going to that meeting pretty soon?" asked Casey.
  " Oh you're right , okay , I am going to go get dressed ."Casey? Are those you're clothes or your pj's?" I asked seriously thinking that they were her pj's because she looked a circus clown. She looked hurt so they were probably her clothes.
   " NO, these are my clothes, do they look bad? "
   " No , they're great!" I lied I didn't want to hurt her more than I already did. Mary was cracking up which didn't help much .
   " Casey , would you like to borrow some of my clothes? You might fit in better at the school." I said
   " Ok sure,thanks !"exclaimed Casey.
  Pretty soon Casey looked like a normal New Yorker so we were ready to head to the meeting. Mom let me borrow her car since we were running a little late. I was driving.  At the school conference thing , we were given a tour of the school, we were handed our school schedules and were shown where our class rooms would be. Casey , Mary, and I all had the same schedules because we were all seniors , unfortunately we ran into Emily Grant.
    " Oh , you again , do you have your schedules? "  she looked at our schedules and then said a word that I can't repeat." dang it we are going to have to spend the whole day together !" she said sounding very frustrated. That's when she looked up and I saw that she was wearing a diamond neclace   , it was exactly the same as mine!I saw that Mary saw it too.
     "Emily ? where did you get that necklace? " I asked trying to sound as calm as possible but it was really hard because anger was building up inside of me.
     " Oh, you know......... the jewelry store ." she said nervously her hand jumping to the necklace.           " Really ? Are you sure you didn't steal it ?" I asked still trying to sound calm.
   "  What? I hear my Mommy calling I better go , Bye." she said as she ran away down the hall. I decided I was going to ask her more questions later.  Pretty soon we were at home again . We said hi to mom  .   She told us that dad had gone back to New York    because all the kids were getting out of hand so he will stay there with them, now it's just me , Mary, and Rachel. She asked where Casey was and it was then that I realized she wasn't  behind us anymore.
    " I guess she went back home Mom."I said. " If you need us we are going to be upstairs so we can rest okay?" I said.  When we were upstairs we started talking again.
     " Well at least now we have Casey working on the mystery also we might get it solved a little bit sooner now."said Mary.
     "  Yeah I suppose , but she's kind of a mystery herself."