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Chapter 14

“So, where do we start?” Brian said.
They were all sitting in Aj’s living room, discussing what to do to find Cassidy. The guys had decided to stay at Aj’s place until they started recording again. Leighann and Brian had decided to take the two weeks in Florida as a vacation, as had Kevin and Kristin.
“Why are we even doing this?” Aj asked popping down on the couch next to Howie. “Because Nicky has a crush?”
“No.” Nick said, “I mean, yes… I don’t know man.”
He stood up from the chair he was sitting in and started pacing around the room. “I mean, I like her. But somehow I have this feeling that she needs my help or something. You didn’t see her when she was talking to me yesterday. Every time I asked her to tell me something about her, she changed the subject. I don’t know, I just want to see her again and make sure that everything is ok I guess.”
“So this has got nothing to do with you liking her.” Aj asked with doubt in his voice.
“Well, of course it has. But that’s not the main reason. Now are we going to get started here, or what?” Nick stopped pacing and looked over at the other guys. They all nodded.
“Yea, sorry bro, didn’t mean to sound doubtful or anything. Just checking, you know.” Aj said apologetically.
Nick nodded. “Yea, I know.”
“So, again, I ask. Where do we start?” Brian said.
“Well, I thought about this on our way back here, and I think we should at least look around malls, café’s and stuff. You know places where people her age hang out.” Howie said.
“And I think it would be a good idea if some of us went to a few local colleges and looked through the year books. I mean, we know how old she is, so there aren’t that many books to look through.” Nick said, sitting down again.
“Well, what if Aj and D go and look around the area and the rest of us can visit one of the high schools today.” Kevin said.
“Yea,” Howie agreed. “Aj knows most about the area.
“Ok, then. Let’s go.” Nick said, as they all got up and got ready to leave.

“It is so nice of you to let me stay here, Mary. You have no idea how grateful I am.” Cass and Mary were sitting in Mary’s kitchen having a cup of tea. Cass had been released earlier that day, and had spent the next couple of hours getting to know her new room mate.
“Oh sweetie, it’s no problem at all.” Mary smiled and reached out to touch Cass’ hand.

Mary lived in an apartment just outside the city. It was nothing luxurious, but it was cosy and warm, and very English. Cass liked it from the moment she walked in.

Cassidy was slowly sipping her tea. Her thoughts were drifting off to where she didn’t want them to be. She found herself thinking of a pair of blue eyes belonging to Nick. She hated herself for letting her thoughts drift in his direction, but she couldn’t help it. He had made her doubt what she had always believed. The fact that all men were jerks, and that she couldn’t trust them. She hated to admit it, but deep down she knew he wasn’t like them.

“Are you thinking of Nick again?” Mary asked.
Cassidy smiled a little and nodded. “Yea, I guess so… I just can’t seem to get him out of my mind. And I don’t even want to think of him.” Cassidy said
“Well, you know what? We need to take your mind off this boy for a few hours. You need some clothes. I’m taking you shopping!”
“But I don’t have any money.” Cass said looking down.
Mary smiled. “Don’t worry about that honey. Money isn’t important.”
“But at least let me pay you back as soon as I get a job. I was looking through the paper ads and I think I’m going to apply to some of them.”
“We’ll talk about that later Cassidy. Now, let’s go and get you some new clothes.”
Mary stood up, grabbed Cassidy’s hand and walked towards the door.

Nick, Brian and Kevin had arrived at one of the local high schools and had gotten permission to look through the archive that contained all the year books from 50 years back. They had decided to concentrate on the ones from the period 1999 – 2001 based upon Cassidy’s age. There weren’t that many books, but they wanted to take their time and make sure that they didn’t miss anything.
“Man, some of these kids look so young.” Kevin said as he was looking at the pictures.
“I know,” Brian agreed, “and the girls all look the same.”
“Don’t look at the pictures Rok; it’s the name that we’re interested in. We might not even recognize her on the picture. People change a lot now days you know.” Nick said.
“Aj would have been in heaven looking at these pictures. Some of these girls are pretty man.”
Nick shook his head. “The names Bri, not the pictures. The names.” He said, pointing at the names in his book written below the pictures.
“Yea, yea. I know.” Brian said as he continued to look through the pages.
“Hey, I found…Oh, never mind.” Kevin said interrupting himself.
“What?” Nick said, putting down his book, and walking over to Kevin.
“I just found a Cassidy, but she’s Asian, so…”
“Oh.” Nick sounded disappointed and went back to his book again.

After another hour, they still had nothing.
“Man, there are so many girls here named either Jessica, Jennifer or Sarah.” Brian said, putting down yet another book without any result.
“But no Cassidy…” Nick whispered without looking up from his book.
“Hey, light up bro.” Kevin said. “We’ll find her. You just have to be patient.”
“Yea, well it’s not looking too good right now, is it?”
“We just started Nick. We have two weeks before we start recording again. Plenty of time.”
“Did you hear anything from Aj and Howie?” Brian asked.
Nick shook his head. “Nope, maybe I should call them.”
Kevin nodded. “I think you should. Maybe they found out something.”
“I think they would have called it they did, but I’ll call them anyway.”
Nick pulled out his cell phone and dialed Aj’s number.

“Hey Bone.”
“Hey Nicky”
“Found anything yet?”
“No, sorry. We’ve been asking people in the neighborhood where we hit her if anyone knows her, or knows about her, but we’ve had no luck so far. What about you guys?”
“Nothing.” Nick said, sitting down on a chair.
“We’re headed to one of the malls now, to see if we can find her there.”
“What mall?” Nick asked. “Maybe we can meet you guys there when we’re done. We only have a few books left, so it shouldn’t be that long.”
Aj gave Nick the name of the mall they were going to, and they hung up.

“Hey Mary, what do you think of these?” Cassidy was holding up a pair of low cut jeans.
“I like them. Why don’t you try them on too?”
Cassidy nodded and went to try on the outfits she had selected. Mary had been right, she thought. Going shopping had definitely kept her mind off things. She enjoyed shopping with Mary. Cassidy had always wanted a grandmother figure in her life, and finally, she had one, or at least close to one.
“Do they fit?” Mary said from the other side of the door.
“Perfect!” Cassidy smiled to herself.

The guys were wandering around the mall, looking around.
“Do we even know what we’re looking for?” Howie asked.
“Duh…Cassidy.” Nick said looking at Howie.
“Nick, seriously. What are the chances that she’s here, at this exact mall, right now?”
Aj nodded in agreement. “Yea, Nick. Don’t get your hopes up. There are better ways to try and find her.”
“I know guys, but we just have to try, right?”
None of the guys said anything, but just continue walking.
“Hey, you guys wanna grab a bite?” Kevin asked.
“Yea ok.” Nick said. “There’s a McDonald’s right over there.” He turned around and pointed in the direction. Suddenly, he froze dead in his tracks.
“Nick, what’s wrong?” Brian asked, walking over to Nick.
Nick shook his head, as he was trying to get rid of a thought.
“Nothing. I just thought I saw a girl who looked a lot like Cass. I’ll be right back.” He said and took off in the direction of where he thought he had seen her. By the time he reached the shop, she was gone.