First Sentence

"This is the worse day of my life. Starr is missing. My sister just vanished into thin air – gone. She’s got to be somewhere nearby, except I can’t control the panic that’s brewing and my hands rush to my mouth to stifle my scream. I pass through a maze of blank faces, my eyes darting, searching as I keep mumbling my woeful prayer, pleading forgiveness for my carelessness, muttering for her protection and safety. With every forced step, staring down each cramped aisle, I feel hope moving further away and dread quickly in its place. I retrace my steps through the jigsaw puzzle of CDs and DVDs with music loud enough to pop a pacemaker. Dead end. How can this tiny place swallow up my sister? I run down another narrow aisle imagining her footsteps to illuminate and shout “follow me, follow me,” or for her to just pop up out of nowhere grinning with her usual, “Hey you, Skye, surprise.” But neither happens. In just a few months I will be officially sixteen and free to date – within reason of parental law, of course. My friends and I have already had our pre-celebration party for my upcoming ladyhood. To keep it safe the mall is the place to meet my girls and our un-official boyfriends. Jeff will be there, something we’re both looking forward to. I should’ve known something was gonna go wrong as soon as Mom announced Starr was joining me. Mom. I’m so dead. I’m really, really dead if I don’t find Starr. The way I feel I may just save Mommy from killing me, because I’m about to collapse dead away. Where are you, you little brat? On some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed no matter how sunny and cheerfully spring it is outside. My perfect plan has fallen through the cracks and if I don’t find my sister soon, this may be the last day of my life."