<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/WYEK6.jpg)</div><strong>Name</strong>: Elizabeth Goetz<br/><strong>Location</strong>: Home, then Parking Lot of McKinney HS (Go Lions!)<br/><strong>Wearing</strong>: White sheer cami top patterned with red flowers over an opaque white tank, jeans, brown calf-length boots, sunglasses on her forehead.<br/><strong>Tagged</strong>:  Lance Maxwell (upon arrival)<br/><br/><strong>At Home</strong><br/><strong><br/>"Mommy?"</strong>Her knuckles hovered over the door to her parents' bedroom, then withdrew.  Slowly, so as not to disturb her if she was sleeping, Elizabeth opened the door and peered around the corner.  Mommy was still asleep, as Elizabeth had thought, but the weird thing was Daddy was too.  He was never at home when she left for school, having usually left at least an hour before to make it to his firm in North Dallas before traffic got bad.  Well, they had been out late last night at the DSO.  Elizabeth couldn't recall what the symphony was, only that she was glad Mommy let her skip it in order to study for her AP Economics exam.  Maybe they'd been out really late, like on a date, and had decided to sleep in.  Elizabeth shut the door as quietly as she'd opened it and went downstairs.<br/><br/>Another oddity.  The housekeeper hadn't shown up yet either and hadn't set out Elizabeth's breakfast.  Whenever Mommy slept in, which was about half the time, the housekeeper would make Elizabeth's breakfast instead.  What was going on?  Elizabeth scavenged a fruit bowl and half a package of S'Mores Pop-Tarts and ate quickly standing at the island.  On the way out she grabbed her cell, her backpack, and car keys.<br/><br/>Elizabeth's car was last year's Volvo XC70 station wagon.  It was entirely not cool, but there was a lot of room in the back for her and her squad's cheer bags and Daddy said it was safe and made him feel better about letting her drive.  So far she'd only had one wreck.<br/><br/>Well, two, but hitting the drive through pole at Chick-fil-A didn't count.  Not really.<br/><br/>Almost clipping the side of the mailbox as she pulled out of the circular drive, Elizabeth headed to school.<br/><br/><strong>McKinney HS Parking Lot</strong><br/><br/>Things were, like, totally weird.  Scary.  None of the janitors or assistant principals had showed up to open the building and the students were milling outside.  Well, those that drove.  A lot of the freshman who didn't drive were missing, as were all the bus kids and everyone who usually had their mom drop them off.  Probably less than half the student body was present.  The whole thing was just...weird.  Then Michael said what he said.  Elizabeth still felt the goosebumps on her arms that his words had raised.  Somehow she knew, knew it in a deeply felt way that defied logic and common sense, that he was telling the truth.  She felt...<br/><br/>Numb.<br/><br/>Mommy and Daddy weren't dead, but they would be.  So would Gramma and Granpa Goetz and Grammy and Grandy Myers.  And all of her teachers, including Mr. Golden.  That made her feel something closest to an emotion, but even then it was as if the world was wrapped in cotton candy and she along with it.  Elizabeth felt like screaming, only she was afraid she'd drown on the syrupy sugary stickiness of reality.<br/><br/>Looking around, she spotted the tall, dark form of Lance Maxwell.  He'd been a great basketball player and Elizabeth could still remember cheering her heart out when she was on Frehsman and JV Squad at his games.  He'd quit hoops though, she wasn't sure why, but he'd always been one of her favorite players.  He was low drama too, which was different from most of the athletes and most of the black guys.  Something about that calm seemed important right now, so she angled across the lot to stand beside him.  She waited a while, then spoke, twisting her head over and up to look at his face.<strong>"Hey.  Do you think it will hurt?  Our parents, I mean, and Mr. Golden.  Will it hurt or will it just be like they don't know it because they're asleep?"<br/><br/>"I don't want it to hurt."</strong>Her eyes and countenance begged him to lie to her and say it would be painless, that they'd never know.<br/><br/>