But what are we supposed to do about it? Just because I love watching mystery movies and TV shows doesn’t mean I’m qualified to find actual, real-life missing people.

Potentially missing people.

“What do you recommend we do, Hazel?”

“Duh. We can try to find them.”

Oh, simple as that. “How?”

“By acting like average teenagers.” Lifting her eyebrows, she looks at me in triumph. “We’re going to go to parties and hang out with them…wherever they hang out.”

“I’m not following you here.”

She rolls her dark brown eyes. “To find teens, we need to live like teens. Stereotypical ones, I mean. I don’t think we count.”

Hazel has a good point. Neither of us are extroverts. We spend most of our time hanging out at my house or hers, watching rom-coms after creepy mystery and thriller movies.

“We definitely don’t count,” I confirm.

“We’re going to change that.”

“Why? I mean, why are you deciding to try and figure this thing out, Haze?”

Tilting her head to the side, she replies, “What else are we going to do all summer?”

Well, nothing. Maybe we won’t find anything, or maybe we’ll discover where these people have run away to.

But either way, it seems like a maybe we’ll end up having a decent summer instead of spending the whole time indoors.

The call of even a smidge of social life is too loud to ignore. It might actually be nice to get out. We might be missing something by staying inside and by ourselves all the time. “All right, I’m in.”

“Yes,” Hazel cheers. “Ooh, do you think we’ll uncover some sick serial killer’s lair?”

“No, I think we’ll find nothing, but we’ll end the summer with the knowledge that we have soaked in some vital vitamin D and aren’t total losers. So that’s a plus, right?”

Hazel’s shoulders sag. “Is your glass half empty today, Pipes?”

“No. I do believe something more is going on than teens skipping town, but I don’t think we’re going to find ourselves in the middle of some crime drama. We don’t know what we’re doing, and if the police can’t find anything, there’s nothing to suggest we’ll be able to.”

“I’m going to need full commitment from you here. We go into this with nothing but positivity.”

“Fine. Whatever. Let’s go catch a killer,” I say to appease her.

“Yay!” She picks up another fry. I have two pastries and a coffee. Hazel has fries and a cup of tea. “Where do we start?”

“The lake?” I offer.

Her eyes widen like she’s suddenly realized what this whole social life thing will entail. “Can we go there?”

“It’s not private property. Why couldn’t we go?”

“We’ve never been there. We’ve never been asked to go there.”