The newspaper crackled as Kevin opened it in his hands. A chill October wind bristled the hairs on the back of his neck and tried to turn the pages.

The movers were emptying the U-Haul truck in the front of Kevin's new house. Leaves rustled by, carried by the wind. Even though it was Saturday, it might have been Sunday, because the coming week would bring with it all new teachers, all new kids and and all new school with new work. And above it all, Kevin was starting late to the school by about a month.

Kevin looked at the newspaper and saw that it was from last year. Almost a year ago. It must have been a newspaper that was from the previous owner's subscription, left at the house and never read.

The headline from last year was:


"A Summer of Missing Kids: LAPD Investigates Scores of Cases"

Originally, when he first heard about the move, Kevin was excited. Now that they were here, however, and thinking ahead to Monday, it just left him with what felt like a weight in his stomach. Thankfully, the newspaper has an interesting story! One that might need investigating, if the police haven't already solved it since this paper came out.

Moving off around the side of the house a bit so he's out of the way to avoid interruption — the last thing he wants is his parents worried about kids going missing — he reads the story with interest.

Kevin read the first few lines of the paper. A brisk wind caught the edges and he had to smooth them back down. In the air, there was the peaty smell of falling leaves.

A Summer of Missing Kids: LAPD Investigates Scores of Cases

Police have reported that Ron Williams, an 11 year old who lived on Main Street is officially missing. Ron marks the seventh child in one neighborhood to have gone missing Since July. Ron was originally from Kansas City, and his disappearance has created speculation that string of recent cases are related to children who have recently moved to the Los Angeles area.

"We have nothing to confirm at this time that these cases are related, and certainly nothing to confirm that children new to Los Angeles or who  have recently moved to the Main Street subdivision are being targeted." Officer Dawson, an LAPD officer said.

"We have no further comments as this is an ongoing case." he finished.

"Okay, kinda extra scary," Kevin says to himself, biting his lip. But, where was Main Street? He wasn't even sure, yet, of the street he was now living on. He hadn't been paying attention to street signs on the drive when all the new sights were more interesting. Well, I wanted to take a look around anyway!

Folding up the newspaper page with the article and stuffing it under his jacket, he carries the rest out to the street as if looking for a recycling bin. Or, at least, that's what he tries to act like, in case either of his parents or his older brother spot him. His desire to explore is probably pretty obvious.

As Kevin headed towards the curb, a chilly breeze ran through his hair. Straining against the Autumn breeze he caught sight of a girl across the street. It was the first kid that he had seen on the block and she looked about his age. She wore enormous glasses that magnified her eyes. Kevin remembered his Mom one day pouting out an older man who wore glasses like that. At the time, his Mom said the man was ‘Legally Blind’, whatever that meant.

Now she stood there with long stockings on a top a bike that was perhaps too small for her. She stared at Kevin and gave a small smile.

Kevin smiles back and walks over towards her instead. His plan going to look for street names is totally forgotten, at least for the moment.

"Hi, I'm Kevin," he greets her, cheerfully. He'd been to far too many chess tournaments to be shy around other kids — even girls, as alien as he still found them to be. "We're just moving in," he adds, indicating the movers behind him as if it wasn't obvious.

The girl smiled at him. As Kevin approached, he saw that her bike was pink and had long, sparkly streamers dangling from head handle.

"Well I'm Penelope." The girl said with equal cheer. "I like to break stuff. You ever break stuff? I moved in last year. I'm not from here really. I don't live on this side of the neighborhood. But Halloween is coming and where I'm from we break stuff on Halloween. They call it Devil's night. I mean, that's what they call it the night before Halloween."

"But I live on Main Street, not on this street that is Rodeo drive where you live. So yeah, I'm Penelope." She finished, eyes very large under those Mr. Magoo glasses, her speech somehow conveying a type of story arc, even though the thoughts were not always fitting together in a coherent fashion.

Kevin looks a bit weirded out at the idea that she likes breaking stuff, and he answers her question just a bit hesitantly, "Yeah, sometimes… A lot, I guess, but never on purpose! I just forget to look where I'm running, sometimes. Don't you get in trouble a lot?"

He grows more excited again, however, when she says where she lives. Suddenly, he's talking fast, "Really? You live where the kids were disappearing? I just read about that in this old paper! Did they ever solve it? Were you even one of the kids and got rescued? Or did you know anybody who got taken? Did you see anything?"

In his hyper excitement, he forgets just about everything his father taught him about doing interviews. Like, for example, giving the interviewee time to answer. He does, at least, still have to breathe so he does finally pause.

Penelope sat there nodding her head when Kevin started to speak. She nodded her head at the fact that he didn't break stuff on purpose and she nodded her head when he asked if she go in trouble. Her fluffy and frayed locks of hair spilled about her shoulders with each nod, a goofy awkward smile on her face.

"yeah." She responded when asked if she lived where kids had disappeared. But she whispered so faintly Kevin barely heard her.

Penelope swallowed a dry swallow. Here large eyes were magnified, but now they grew wider than ever with the change of conversation towards the subject at hand.

Penelope cleared her throat. "I did see some stuff and...." she trailed off. And then there was a long pause. Really long. Penelope just started at Kevin and then the ground. Then after about ten seconds she said.

"I don't want to talk about it right now, OK?" she said with slight anger.

And then, her smile resuming. "Where are you from?"

Kevin's eyes widen a little at the unexpected anger, but then looks down for a moment as well, "Sorry. I… I talk too much sometimes."

He looks relieved when her cheerfulness returns at the next question, however, and he looks back up. "Fresno. It took us three whole hours to drive here! My coach must've been doing that every week! He lives here, so he won't have to anymore, and I'll be able to get lessons more often now. But we moved here because my dad got a job in the paper here. He's an investigative reporter."

“Lessons? Lessons for what?” Penelope asked. “Wait, are you one of those actor kids?” She asked, as if she had some familiarity with those types of kids and that her experiences weren’t pleasant.

“There’s skid that lives on my block on Main Street who is named Shawn and he’s been in a few movies. He has a coach. An acting coach.” She clarified. “Do you know him?” She asked with suspicion in her voice.

Kevin shakes his head quickly, his eyes widening a little as if the mere thought of acting was scary. "No, chess! I have a chess coach. I don't like acting. I was in a school play once, it was awful! Chess tournaments are way more fun. Most of the time."

There is a split-second pause, and then he says, "Do you play?"

“Chess?” The girl  said, surprised.

“My name is Penelope and I only know how to move the pieces. Hey, you really interested in those missing kids, or are you just trying to cause trouble ?” She asked

Kevin nods quickly to her surprise reaction, but then pauses. Slightly confused that she said her name again, but her next question distracts him from that as well.

Nodding again, he says, seriously, "Yeah, I'm interested. I want to help find them, or at least find who or what is doing it so I can warn everybody how not to get taken. If it hasn't all been solved already, I mean."

"mmmmmm." Penelope said, rolling the words that Kevin had spoken in her head as if thinking about them. Then she smiled.

"Hehehe." She gave a sort of awkward, nerdy laugh. "I don't think anyone has figured it out. And I don't think they're going to." she said cryptically, as if she knew something Kevin didn't.

"Do you know why? Because it isn't normal. Its more about ghosts and demons and stuff. That's why." She explained.

"Well, I don't know really if I'd say ghosts. I mean, I really don't know how to explain it. You kind of have to see it. Do you know what I mean?" She asked Kevin.

She was tightening her grip on each handle bar, her knuckles turning white from the tension those fingers had on her bike. She swallowed once before continuing.

"It's kind of like explaining Mr. Roger's Neighborhood to someone who's never seen it before. You can say that there's this guy and that he throws one of his shoe's from one of his hands to his other hand and that he sings a song when he does it. But, it's like, that doesn't mean anything if you haven't watched the show a bunch of times. Do you know what I mean?"

"I can show you where stuff happened if you're interested. I mean. It isn't safe around Main Street. But if you want to know I can show you."

It was a gesture of vulnerability in a way. Kevin could tell that Penelope wasn't at all comfortable speaking in too much detail about whatever it was they were talking about. It was like some aspect of the conversation needed to remain secret in some way. Like just the idea of talking about it might be scandalous.

Kevin's eyes widen at the mention of ghosts and demons, but he listens attentively while Penelope talks, even if he has to fidget a little with the newspaper to make it through the pauses without interrupting with questions.

When she reaches the offer, he bites his lip a moment. Checking his back pocket to make sure that he still has his small notepad and pen — though, usually the only time he doesn't have them within reach is when he's taking a bath — he then nods quickly. "It sounds scary, but I want to see! 'A good reporter doesn't stop because he's scared.' That's what my dad says."

Of course, his father had said that when Kevin was afraid of going into the basement a couple of years earlier, not going somewhere where kids were disappearing. But, it seemed like good advice!

It seemed like Penelope and Kevin were about to embark on an ominous tour of Main Street to gather the beginnings of the story of what had happened. Then, suddenly, behind Kevin, there's was a crashing sound as two of the movers dropped a box. It made Penelope jump a little in her pink bicycle seat.

One of the workers said a curse word that Kevin wasn't allowed to say and then the two of them started to pick up the box and try to examine what had been broken inside.

"Uh-oh." Penelope murmured. "That was a fun sound, but I hope your Mom doesn't get mad. It sounds like they broke whatever was in there." Penelope reasoned, her tone one of cautious enjoyment at the breaking part, but also acknowledgment of the consequences.

Kevin's Mom, in fact, would be mad. Kevin knew that for sure.

Kevin also visibly jumps at the sound of the crash, spinning around to see what the source is. His eyes widen a little, and he says, "Yeah, she will be. Wow, those guys are in trouble. I hope that wasn't any of my stuff!" He stands on tiptoes for a moment, as if that would help him see inside.

Of course, this does give him a problem. He'd originally just planned to go as far as the street corners to see the nearest street signs, still close enough that he'd be in view if they stepped out to the end of the driveway. Going as far as another street without a heads up to his parents would be way worse later. But, if his mom was angry already, would she let him?

He stands there indecisively for a moment, as all this goes through his head. Then, he decides to play a bit safer, trying to catch his mother before she gets going on the movers, he yells, "My new friend Penelope is going to show me around the neighbourhood!"

Then, back to Penelope, he says, "Let's go before she says no."

"Good idea." Penelope said, and she kicked at her kick stand, bringing the bike into motion.

It didn't take Kevin long to get his bike. Luckily, the movers had just taken it out of the moving truck.

"See ya later, suckers!" Penelope shouted. It was one of those things that kid says hoping to defy adults  and in this case, it was aimed for some reason at the movers. Kevin got the sense that it really didn't matter who was there because Penelope probably would have said it to whomever they were leaving behind. In any case, the comment fell flat because the movers were too concerned with the broken contents in the box to even notice that Penelope said it.

Despite the lack of reaction from the movers, Kevin giggles a little as he wheels after Penelope. Only once they are safely away, does he start to talk again. "How far away is Main Street?"

"Main Street?" Penelope said as she peddled faster, Kevin now moving faster to keep pace with her.

"It's not too far. Maybe a few minutes. It's going to be Halloween soon." she added, as if this was important news to consider. "I'm not going trick or treating on Main Street though on my block. Not after this last year."

"What are you going to be?"

Kevin is it the most athletic boy, by a long shot, so he sounds a tiny bit short of breath as he answers when he catches up to Penelope, "I was going to do Luke Skywalker, but everybody's gonna do that, so Indiana Jones. Already got the costume, except for the whip. What about you?"

"Wait a second..." Penelope said, stopping her bike just as Kevin finished saying 'Indiana Jones.'

"Who is that?"


OOC: Kevin joins thread

Kevin: Wait a Second, Who is that?