I remembered it like it was…well, yesterday.
“Reni!” I shouted, opening drawer after drawer. “Where’d you put my keys?”
“Huh?” my sister piped, poking her head in my room. “I never took it.”
I whirled around and gestured to my desk. “It was right there like five minutes ago. I went downstairs, and what happened when I came back up? Gone.”
“Well,” she mumbled, “it wasn’t me.”
“Oh, you’re right. The cat took it.”
Perfect timing, too, because our spotted black-and-white cat strolled in the room, head up high like he was trying to prove me right and say, Yep! It was me alright!
Reni waved her hands out in front of her in defense. “I wasn’t even around! I don’t even know where you put your keys.”
I sighed in defeat and slumped down in my chair. “Then forget it. I’ll just keep my permit and not get a license.” I leaned my head over the top of the chair for extra effect.
The cat—which wasn’t even ours to begin with; he’s just a wandering neighborhood stray that seemed to love our house—rolled over and meowed.
“I’ll help you look for it if you want,” Reni offered.
She was only saying that because she was the one who wanted me to get my license in the first place. We were sick of always relying on our never-home uncle for driving us around, and, well, there had been more than one too many times where I was almost caught driving around with only my permit. And Reni, well, let’s face it—she sucked at driving. She also sucked at cooking. And playing video games. She was good at being a sister, if you counted a sister as someone who never bothered you and gave you free money when you needed it.
“No, it’s alright,” I said, collecting my thoughts. She didn’t take the keys. Of course she didn’t. It was just, there was no one else in the house, and I knew I left it there…
The doorbell rang. We both exchanged glances. We weren’t expecting anybody.
“I’ll get it,” she said, racing downstairs.
I looked back at my room and sighed once again. Perfect summer day, perfect timing, and perfect opportunity—wasted. School will start in, what? A week? I looked out the window, half-expecting to see our pesky college student neighbors over at the door to chat, when really, all they wanted to do was leech on our food. They were really weird, and we both knew it, but we never said anything. Or maybe it could be that one older guy who swings in our house sometimes to mow the grass. Or maybe it was Erin who—
Erin! I completely forgot. She texted me yesterday saying she needed to talk with me. It sounded urgent, especially since she never used her cell phone. I answered back asking what she needed to talk about, but I got no reply.
Maybe she was at the door right now. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I didn’t know why, but I got a feeling I wouldn’t like the news she was going to tell me, whatever it was.
“Chance!” Reni called. “Someone wants you.”
I hesitated, but then rushed down to the door, thinking it was Erin the whole way. What’s she going to say? Maybe she’s going to explain why she’s been ignoring me lately.
But, two strides away from the front door, I realized Reni said someone, not Erin, like it was some stranger who wanted to see me. Odd, Erin was her best friend. Why would she say that?
And then I knew: It really was some stranger.
I slowed my pace and stared at the guy in front of me. He was about my age—fifteen, give or take a year—with sandy hair and a tall stature. He had a yellow sticky note in his hand, but he crumpled it up with his fingers once I laid my eyes on it.
“Hi,” he said, “I’m guessing you’re Chance?”
I wasn’t sure whether I should be honored that he knew my name or really creeped out.
“Uh,” I began awkwardly, “yes?”
“Oh, it’s just, I was sent to, uh, give—”
“Hey, Mateo!”
We both looked up to see who called him out. It was Catherine, one of the college student nuts.
She was at her van, carrying one of those big artist canvases out. She claimed to be majoring in art, but I’d never seen any of her work. Funny, I looked out of the window a minute ago and she wasn’t even there. “Already messing with other people’s business?” She laughed like she just made a joke, then locked up the car and turned back around to go in the house with the empty canvas.
The boy, Mateo, pretended he never saw her. “As I was saying…”
“You know Catherine?” Reni asked behind me.
“Well…yes,” he said, fumbling for words. “I know her and her brother Josh—”
“They’re really weird,” Reni interjected.
I jabbed her in the stomach. “Let him talk,” I murmured.
“Actually,” Mateo began, “I came here looking for Erin.” He gestured over to the neighboring house on the right. “That’s her house, right?” He pulled out an envelope from his pocket. “She’s not home now, so would you give this to her when she is?”
I didn’t get a chance to answer. He shoved it in my hands and ran off.
Why did my neighborhood attract weirdoes?
---
Later that afternoon, the doorbell rang again. I went up to get it, and lo and behold, there was Erin who still gave out that kind of little-girl vibe with her thin, wispy black hair that curled over her shoulder.
The letter grew heavier in my pocket.
“Hey,” she said wearily. “I need to talk to you. It’s important.”
“Sure,” I said, pulling out the letter. “But this guy, I think his name is Mateo, he came over and told me to give this to you.” I offered it out to her. She had no idea who hard it was for me to resist the urge to open it.
She stared at the letter looking shocked for a moment, then slowly took it out and opened it. I watched as she read through it, her face getting paler.
Reni appeared beside me. “Hey, Erin. What’s up?”
“I—I have to go,” she stammered, stepping back.
“What?” That just made me want to snatch the paper out of her hand and read it myself. “What were you about to tell me?”
“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly. “I mean, I’ll text you later.” And then she ran off.
---
I got the text later on that evening.
Erin: meet me by the back of the school.
There was nothing more, nothing less. She didn’t specify which school, exactly, only leaving me to assume that she meant the only high school in town.
“Where are you going?” Reni asked when she saw me put on my shoes.
I didn’t exactly want to tell her, but at the same time, I did. One part of me wanted to tell her to go leave me alone, and another part wanted me to ask her to come along. She did witness what happened today. Wasn’t she going a little crazy from all this? Like, really, people kept coming up to my door all, I have to tell you something! Then they leave a minute later without saying what they needed to say and it’s really pissing me off.
“I got the text,” I admitted, deciding to tell the truth. “She told me to meet her by the back of the school.”
She crinkled up her nose. “Why does she need to see you that bad?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“I’ll go with you.”
I thought about it, I really did, but I didn’t see why Erin would want her to come. Because, well, she only said she needed to talk to Chance, not Reni. She texted me, not her. It didn’t make any sense.
But at the same time, it didn’t make any sense why she only needed me to come so urgently. I wasn’t even all that great friends with her. And what was up with that letter? Did someone die? Why did that one guy gave it to me? There was something called a mailbox.
“Sure,” I said. “We’ll take the car…after I find the keys.”
---
It turned out the keys were on the top of my desk exactly where I thought I left it. Reni teased me about it and said I was getting so old, I couldn’t see or think properly. (Funny, too, because since we were fraternal twins, we were the exact same age except for the one minute I was ahead of her.) But I knew I left it there, and I knew it wasn’t there when I turned back.
I didn’t let it bother me that much. The roads were safe and here was another day of not getting caught driving around illegally.
The school was only a couple minutes away, and when we got there, there were only two cars around. I parked near them and looked around. One glance told me there was a group of people hanging out against the wall who were most likely gang members or potheads, but another glance told me that they weren’t gangsters or potheads, because I detected the familiar little-girl vibe: Erin.
I walked on over there with Reni beside me and immediately I noticed an awfully pretty girl. She had porcelain skin and long, dark, silky curls that fell back perfectly against her shoulders. She was tall and dainty, and her eyes were as pale and blue as a robin’s egg.
I wish I could admire her some more, but I didn’t because Reni poked my ribs. “It’s that guy, Mateo,” she whispered.
I looked away and saw that she was right. There he was, looking over at us awkwardly like we did something wrong. But then again, so was that pretty girl…and Erin, and…
“What is he doing here?” A familiar voice called out.
Mari. The one girl I really didn’t like. Since I was little, she had always been a bully. Then, when time broke us apart, she was always there to act like I didn’t exist, or be the one to throw a basketball in my face, or be the first one to laugh whenever I had to make a speech in front of the whole class. Honestly, I didn’t do anything wrong. She just had this hate toward me that I just couldn’t explain.
Well, actually, there was that one time…
“Oh, don’t tell me,” she said, glaring me down. “Don’t tell me he’s the one.”
“He is,” the pretty girl confirmed. “I could see why they thought he was it.” She had some kind of accent I couldn’t identify.
“What?” I asked. “What are you talking about?” I was beyond confused.
The pretty girl smiled. All the more reason to be in a daze. “You will find out, but we should introduce ourselves first.” She daintily put her hand up to her chest, then to the others. “I am Lyra, and this is Mateo, Erin, and Mari. You might know some of us already—Cassiel is a small town—and we know you are Chance. But I do not think I know your…sister?”
She said sister like she wasn’t sure who or what Reni was, exactly. She is somewhere between a scarecrow and a brick, but who could she be…oh, his sister! I think.
Reni seemed to take offense. “It’s Reni.”
Lyra still kept on her confused face as if trying to translate what in the world a sister was.
“I can’t believe it,” Mari fumed. She had her short brown hair up in a ponytail, and although she was somewhat popular with the guys in school, she still scared the crap out of me. “You? You? Hah, you guys are hilarious.” She let up a fake smile, and when no one corrected her, she threw her hands up in the air. “He’s not the one! Erin, you know that. We both go to school with him! Look at Reni. The evidence is right there!”
“Mari, calm down,” Lyra soothed as she took her aside privately.
Mateo and Erin exchanged glances.
“Chance, can I talk to you? Privately?” Mateo asked, gesturing me over. Erin did the same to Reni, going off somewhere privately.
I went up to him. “What’s going on?”
“First,” he began, “I know I’m still a stranger to you, but I want to apologize. I know things must have been really strange lately—”
“A lot.”
“—and I want to apologize about the letter. It was really important, and Erin told me that if she wasn’t there, I had to give it to you.”
“You could have used the mailbox,” I said.
He pretended he didn’t hear me. “And now we’re all here to finally tell you everything, and I know it’s a strange combination of people, but, well, how should I say this…”
I waited.
“We have to only talk to you. No one else. It’s that kind of subject. If you brought someone else, we might get in trouble, people will condemn you, or, or—”
“You mean I was supposed to come alone? Not with my sister?” I let out flatly.
He fumbled for words. “Er, yes—that exactly. But, uh, no, not exactly. She let out confusion, and now we’re a little skeptical, but time is running short, and that’s something even I can’t exactly control. We—”
“What kind of subject would be so bad, not even my twin sister could hear it?” I let out again. This guy needed to get to the main point here.
The same confusion as Lyra’s crossed his face again, this time the word twin triggering it. It was like bloodline connection was poisonous around here.
He never got to answer.
The old beat-up truck in the parking lot coughed to life, and Mari poked her head through the window. “I’m done. Erin, if you want your ride, you better be here in five seconds.”
Erin exchanged sympathetic looks with Reni then went in the truck before it drove away.
“I guess that’s it,” I heard Mateo murmur.
“Wait,” I said. “You never told me why I’m here.”
Lyra strolled over. “Listen,” she said, covering my ears. “Do you hear that?”
I was too busy being lost in her eyes.
“Do not listen with your ears,” she said delicately. “Listen with this.” Her hand dropped down to my chest. “Your heart.” She lifted her free hand and made some kind of gesture. “That’s how you say patience in sign language.” She looked over at Mateo. “Are you ready to go?”
He nodded, and then they were off, leaving me only with my car and my sister and me wondering what the heck that was supposed to mean.
And when I went in the car and headed home, questions popped in my head that I didn’t had the answers to. What did that letter say? Why did Reni freak everyone out? What was Mateo about to say? Why did they leave me hanging—again? Why’s Lyra so pretty?
That night, when I went to bed, I never would have thought that it would be my last night ever in my house.
- END OF PROLOGUE -
Let's get started. 
This was pretty good, the whole prologue I mean, but it feels a bit... cheesy? I'm not sure what it could be instead, but the first line was interesting. The second is a bit off-putting.
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