Chapter Text
6 months ago
Andi Mack, Cyrus Goodman and Buffy Driscoll aka the good hair crew were inside a track. A one who was moving, and also happened to be very dark.
"I can't do it, I can't see anything!" Cyrus complained
"Maybe because it's dark here, cy?" Buffy retorted
"We have to open those barrels, it's the closest we'll get to a proof!" Andi said
"Wait a second, I want to film it all." Buffy said as she dagged her phone out of her pocket.
Buffy clicked at the camera and started filming, showing Cyrus trying to open a barrel, with no much success, and then moved it to show Andi near him, encouraging him to open it already.
"Can you two let me focus, please?" Cyrus grumbled
"Move, let me try." Andi said and took Cyrus's place near the barrel as he moved to stand next to Buffy.
"I think there's a problem with the lid." He said
"Trust me." Andi said and started trying to open the barrel, Buffy's phone camera now focused on her face. "Cyrus, help me, it's hard."
"I told you." Cyrus said as he moved next to her to help.
Andi let out a low scream as the truck shooked and all three kids fell down, the lid finally falling down too.
Buffy's phone hit the truck floor and she quickly pressed the 'stop' button and put the phone back in her pocket.
"Are you guys ok?" Cyrus asked his friends
"Where's the bottle?" Buffy asked without answering the question
"Here!" Andi handed Buffy an empty bottle. The girl took it and got up, putting the bottle inside the barrel.
"Don't touch it! Your hand might melt!" Cyrus squeaked
"Do you feel anything, Buffy?" Andi asked curiously
"I feel..." Buffy took out the bottle, now with a liquid in it. "That we have a proof!"
The truck shooked again and Buffy fell back down, Andi and Cyrus caught her.
"Shit." Buffy said
"How are we getting out of here now?" Cyrus was obviously nervous and concerned
"I'll call Jonah quickly!" Andi said as she dagged her phone out of her pocket with shaky hands. She looked for her boyfriend contact and quickly clicked it when she found it. "We need help from the outside."
"Shit, he doesn't answer!" Andi grumbled after a few rings, and then hurried up to leave a message on voicemail. "Hey Jonah, this is an emergency. You have to call me as soon as you can. I know your probably mad at me, but..." The truck shooked again.
And then it suddenly completely stopped.
Andi put a finger on her lips as telling the others to keep it quiet.
They were quiet for a few seconds and then Buffy whispered: "I think he's gone."
The door to the truck then opened and the trio screamed.
Today
Amber and Tj Kippen were inside a car, two hours into the ride, only four more hours to go.
Amber was looking at the road thorough the window- obviously bored- and Tj was texting his best friend from home, Reed.
That was the day they were moving from New York to Shadyside.
Of course, neither of them wanted to go and leave their friends behind, and there was also the fact that no one they knew seem to know about this town existence. God, the only reason they knew about it was because their parents were originally from there and that was the oh so wonderful place where they met.
But their parents insisted they needed to move to 'quiter, more peaceful and home-like' place. But the twins had no idea why the hell now.
Neither of them was there since they were two years old, and they knew their parents hadn't visited the town ever since they moved away.
So why the hell where they going to live there now?
"Ok, who wants sweet and who wants salty?" Tj's and Amber's mom turned away from her seat to look at them, smiling, a plastic bug fall of candies in her hand.
"This bribe doesn't work at me ever since I was five, thank you very much." Amber said bitterly and their mom frowned at her
"Well, it still works on me. I'll start with something sweet, thanks." Tj looked up from his phone smiling.
Their mom returned the smile and dagged the bug for a chocolate which she quickly tossed to Tj who caught it. Amber rolled her eyes at her twin.
"Amber, if you decide from the beginning you won't have a good time then it's going to be really hard for you. We still have a long drive in front of us, I'll suggest to use it to open your mind a little bit. Have a more positive attitude!" Their mom adviced. Amber just rolled her eyes again and didn't say anything.
~~~~~
"Do you realize it's actually happening?" Amber whispered to her brother about an hour later, when their parents were too busy talking about what mast have changed since they where there to hear her.
Tj looked up at her from his phone suprised, but the suprise look quickly turned into a grin.
"That we're moving? We had three goodbye partys and we're packing for about two months. What did you think will happened?"
Amber shrugged. "That the town will suddenly collapse or something."
Tj chuckled. "Maybe it will."
"While we're there? I hope someone good will get my cute party's outfits, then."
Tj chuckled again and then held up his phone. "Stuck in the car selfie?"
Amber shrugged. "Sure." And then she grabbed his phone, ignoring his pouty 'hey!' "let me. You're not good at taking selfies." Tj scoffed but didn't said anything, knowing she was right.
Amber held up the phone and did a peace sigh. "Say cheese!"
"Brie cheese! Because it's the best cheese." Tj mirrored his sister peace sigh, ignoring her rolling her eyes.
They both smiled at the camera as Amber clicked the button. She immediately tossed the phone back to Tj after, and he immediately went back to texting Reed. Amber went back to looking out of the window.
~~~~~
"Here we are!" Tj's and Amber's father said excitedly three hours later as they arrived. "Welcome to Shadyside!"
"Isn't it pretty?" Their mom asked
"Do you see the house over there, the round one?" Their dad pointed at an old yellow round house "that's where I grew up."
"Oh!" Their mom exclaimed and pointed somewhere "and that's where Ace's grocery store was. Remember?"
Their dad laughed "of course!"
"Oh! And the pool is still here!" Their mom pointed at the sign that said pool
Amber suddenly straightend in her seat. "And that's where three kids our age disappeared half a year ago." She said bitterly and pointed at the big wood sign in front of them.
The sign had three pictures of three different kids: a girl with brown eyes, tan skin and black pixie cut with hair clips, and she was smiling and wearing a red shirt. Next to her, in the middle, was a picture of a guy with brown hair, brown eyes and he was smiling widely, although he had a bit mud on his face and on his blue shirt. The last one was a picture of a dark skin girl with a shoulder-length black curly hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a blue shirt and had a little smile on her face, she looked amused.
Under the pictures there was a date: 3.3.18- the day they disappeared- and above it it read: Andi, Buffy and Cyrus- forever in our hearts.
"A terrible tragedy." Their mom shooked her head as they passed the sign
"Yeah, and the fact they didn't found their bo-" their dad started but cut himself at their mom's glare "them."
"Hey." Their dad's face suddenly lit up after a few seconds
"Oh, that's our bunch." Their mom said as she saw what he was looking at
"Kids, I want you to pay attention. This bunch witnessed one of the best, if not the best, first kisses ever." Their dad said
Tj rolled his eyes and then they widened and he yelled "dad!" As they almost crashed into a little tractor attached to sort-of-a box with a lot of water in it.
"Hey, hey! What the hell are you doing?!" The guy driving the tractor screamed as he got off the tractor and started walking through them
"I am so so sorry-" Tj's and Amber's dad started as he rolled down the window, but he stopped as he saw who it was.
"Matt?!" The guy said just as Tj's and Amber's dad said "Elia?!"
"I can't believe it!" The guy- Elia- said "Rebecca!"
"How are you?" Rebecca replied, smiling
"I'm good. Are those the little ones?" Elia pointed at Amber and Tj in the back
"Yeah, yeah. Amber, Tj, this is Elia." Rebecca introduced
"So what are you guys doing here? A little roots trip?" Elia asked
"Actually, were moving here." Matt smiled
"You don't say! Well, welcome back." Elia
"Thank you!" Matt called back as he rolled the window back up and started driving again
"He's one thirsty man, huh? How many bottles does he have?" Tj furrowed his brows
"What? Oh, no no, there's a problem with the water here, you're not allowed to drink water if it's not from a bottle, so he's probably the one giving water to people." Their dad replied
Amber furrowed her brows "what do you mean problem with the water?"
Their mom shrugged "toxins in the groundwater. It's been like this for years. Just make sure not to drink from the faucet, huh? It's not a joke. Only drink from these bottles we'll get, ok?"
Amber looked at her like she's crazy "we're not allowed to drink from the faucet here? Where the hell have you brought us?"
~~~~~~~~~
The next day, Amber and Tj went to their new school. As soon as they walk inside the building the other students looked at them and whispered to eachother, wondering who they were.
"Now I realize how feel a monkey in a zoo..." Amber murmured
"Especially a new one." Tj whispered back
"Hey!" They heard someone say and looked up to find a girl with straight long brown hair and brown eyes "you must be the new kids."
"That's us." Tj nodded as he and Amber walked through the girl
"Hey, I'm Iris, nice to meet you and welcome to Grant high. The principal, Steve Metcalf, asked me to show you guys around school." The girl intredoced herself
"Thank you, it's nice to meet you too. I'm Tj, that's my sister... Amber." Tj replied and just when he intredoced Amber she started walking to the wall behind Iris.
Iris turned around to see what Amber was looking at and a sad expression replaced the happy exited one that was there a second ago.
On the wall was a poster with the same pictures and writing the twins saw on the wood sign the day before. Attached to it were also a picture of the lost trio when they were younger and letters their fellow students write for them.
"I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't planned for us to the start the tour here." Iris said sadly as she walked through Amber, Tj following behind.
Amber turned to look at Iris "you knew them?"
Iris nodded "Cyrus was my boyfriend. I didn't know Andi and Buffy as well but we talked a few times, had some classes together. They were really nice. People called them the good hair crew. Cyrus started it, he was so proud when he finally made it a thing. It doesn't feel real to start the school year without them."
Amber pointed at the locker next to the poster, who had no other lockers near him and was darker then the rest of the lockers. "And that?"
"The student council didn't know what to do. They eventually decided to paint this locker and put some of their stuff inside as their memo-" Iris's voice died out and she cleared her throat after a few seconds "memorial box."
Amber and Tj exchanged looks
"We heard on the news that they drowned." Amber said
"Yeah. It was on March 3rd. They didn't say anything to anybody. Not where they're going, not... Anything. In the night all of our parents got a phone call that they drifted far. Their clothes were found on the beach."
Amber looked at the photos again "they seem nice."
Iris smiled sadly "they were amazing." She walked forward and pointed at the girl with the short hair "Andi was such a sweet and friendly person. She loved crafts. Everyone loved her. She was pretty, smart and brave." And then she pointed at the other girl "and that's Buffy. She was pretty sassy, and she loved playing basketball. She had a big heart, but she didn't let just everyone see it." And then she pointed at the guy "and that's Cyrus. He always made me and everyone else laughed- definitely not on purpose tho. He was just funny with how dorky and careful he could be about some stuff. He was such a dork and he just loved dinosaurs. And muffins. Such a sweet and nice person." She sighed and whipped away the tears she just noticed she had
"Hey." Amber said softly and rubbed Iris's arm confortly
"I thought I run out of tears, but apparently..." She shrugged and let out a bitter laugh
"It's ok." Amber said, again softly.
The trio waited there a few seconds before Iris started walking forward, the twins after her.
"And I thought I had a sad story..." Amber murmured
Tj rolled his eyes "oh no, don't start again."
Iris looked confused "you? Why?"
"I just don't want a new place and a new school. I liked New York. All my friends are there." Amber shrugged
"And she started again." Tj rolled his eyes
"I'm sure you'll have a great time here. It's a good school, and now you met the janitor's daughter, which is really, the most important thing." Iris smiled at her "I know everyone in this school, so if you need anything, talk to me."
Just then, a guy with brown hair and dark brown eyes run through the hallway and accidentally knocked Amber down.
"Hey! Watch where your going!" Amber yelled
"Sorry, sorry." The guy stopped running and offered Amber his hand. She rejected it and got up by herself
"Marty, meet Tj and Amber. It's their first day here so... Let's welcome them nicely."
Marty held up his hands and titled his head "sorry, geez. Just accidentally run into her. It happens."
Iris sighed "just... Make sure it won't happen again today, ok?"
"Talk to him slowly, not everything works right in his head." Amber spat
"Excuse me?" Marty walked forward
"Let it go, Amber." Tj hissed
Iris put her hand in front of Marty "ok. New year. Let's start it good. Ok?"
Marty looked at Amber and Tj and then back at Iris and rolled his eyes "whatever." Then he run again and shouted "welcome to Shadyside!"