“Lexa! Honey! Are you done packing?” Mrs. McCarthy yelled from the kitchen downstairs while making pancakes with blueberries. 
“Yeah, I’m almost done!” I responded, opening my book which was next to the empty suitcase. I wasn’t very enthusiastic about moving to some place called Hailing Cove, but I knew that mom was trying to lighten my mood because I smelled my favorite breakfast from my room. They moved there just because the thought it would be nice to get out of the ‘city scene’, whatever that means. I set the book down, inhaling a huge scent of pancakes and blueberries, but before I could exhale, my nose cause a wiff of something horrid. My face crinkled in disgust as the smell got stronger along with running footsteps from the hallway. In no time, my little brother,  appeared at my door in his green dinosaur pajamas with a broad smile on his face. His pajamas were covered in mud and stains.
“What happened?!” I exclaimed with huge eyes awaiting an answer.
“Well, Cooper came in yesterday from playing outside and I guess he was playing mud fight with his doggy friends, and then he slept next to me when I was asleep and now I’m covered. And I spilled some of my soup on myself yesterday and I was too tired to change my clothes so I just went to sleep.” he explained and then quickly added, “ Also I haven’t showered in a week. Please don’t tell Mom.” he whimpered.
“Fine, but go to the shower NOW or I will tell Mom.” I warned.
“Ok, ok jeez.” he muttered while rolling his eyes. I turned back to my book that was resting in my lap. I was currently reading Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This book is pure mystery, which is how I like my books. My hobby is solving mysteries and reading so mystery books are the perfect thing for me.
“Lexa, the moving truck is here, so bring down your suitcase and a jacket for the ride there!” My mom called from the stairs. I moaned in my mind thinking, wouldn’t it be great to be a part of a mystery? But life doesn’t work like that I was stuck now moving to somewhere I didn’t even know existed. Wait … maybe that can be my mystery, the mysterious town of Hailing Cove. Wow, that actually sound pretty interesting. Once I’m in the car with my luggage-
“Oh shoot!” I murmured after glancing at the empty case beside me. I shot up from my bed and scurried to the closet. I opened the two doors and scanned across the row, thinking of what to bring. I decided it would take less time to just stuff everything in. I first put in my headphones, then I grabbed everything I saw and started shoving them in the compact suitcase. I started to panic when all my stuff didn’t fit in so I ran down stairs and got another suitcase my Mom put out in case. I went into my room and shut the door shut and when I reached my bed, I threw the blue polka-dotted duffel bag on the bed and constantly threw clothes into the bag until everything was packed into the bags then I zipped up but of the bags and headed out the door to put my luggage in the truck. During the car ride there, I was reading my book as focused as possible and tried to block out anything else around me. Once the car halted to a stop and everyone was getting out the car, I looked around with anxiety of what Hailing Cove is like. As I looked around, my perspective changed. I always thought that the world is a bright, happy place because I lived in a different place than here. Hailing Cove looked very gloomy compared to Los Angeles, which was where I lived before. When I stepped out of the car, I felt like I was in a whole new universe. The sky was dark and looked like was about to rain.
“Ok, now that we are at our destination, let’s get inside because it looks like it's about to rain.” My mom shouted trying to get the voice heard over the strong winds of the storm approaching. When we got inside, I immediately hated it there. The house we were staying in smelled like onions. My Mom split the rooms so that everyone get the fair share but honestly I thought that there isn’t anything fair about this trip. I mean, we were doing absolutely fine in LA but apparently my parent thought it was ‘unhealthy’ for a child to live in a busy city. I thought we were doing fine, but nope, not to them. The moment I had a peek at my room, I groaned with anger. My room looked like it was a sewer. The wallpaper was tearing off and in almost every corner of the compact space was filled with cobwebs. There wasn’t even a bed, there was only a tiny arm-rest chair, sitting in the corner of the room with a tarp over it. I carefully walked over to the chair and slowly lifted the tarp. Under it I found the most cobwebs I would hopefully ever see in my life clumped together with a dead spider next to it.
“AHHHHHHH” I screeched with disgust and astonishment. I could hear my call for help echoed across the hallway, being quickly followed by quick footsteps towards my door.
“What happened?” I heard my dad asked from behinds me.
“Huh? Oh, I just found a dead spider next to a bunch of cobwebs on this chair and it startled me.” I shyly replied, not wanting my dad to see me as a wimp. He chuckled softly and started walking to the chair which I was shivering beside. He took a look and his face turned to an immediate grim face at the sight of the dead spider.
“How about we give your room a bit more personality to it? How about we can call some decorative companies to come over and spaz up your room?” he offered.
“Oh, sure, thanks Dad!” I answered, hugging him with delight as I thought that the day is looking up.
“Wednesday is your first day at school. So you should prepare a backpack,” he insisted.
“Ok, can we go to a nearby craft store so I can make my backpack a bit more decorated?” I asked when looking around for a backpack to use. “Also I need a backpack.”
“How about we go today, after the storm clears up.”
I look outside and see that it was raining very heavily. “Ok.”
Once the rain had to stop, I started to prepare for going to the store. I took a shower with a half working shower head. The water was greenish, which was disgusting. I had to get my parents to convince me that the water wasn’t toxic. At the craft store, the people there looked very… interesting. One woman looked like a rainbow, she was wearing a red hat, an orange coat, yellow pants, and a pair of shoes which had one shoe that was green and the other was blue. The other man was wearing a suit but with clown shoes. I quickly walked over to the bag lane and got a white messenger bag. I went to the decoration lane and bought a bunch of rhinestones, markers, and felt letters.
At home, I laid out my bag and flattened it out. I started with the base pattern by drawing and coloring it out with markers. Then I added the felt letters to spell Lexa, my name. And then I out lined the letters with rhinestones to create a final product which I was really proud of. I love art, my mom is an architect and my dad was the executive designer for Apple. But since there is no Apple here, he got an job as the CEO of the biggest company here, C-Co. C-Co controls the whole city’s needs. It’s sort of the mayor, except a company. So kind of my dad's the mayor, but not really… I don’t know. When Wednesday came, I had a bunch of butterflies in my stomach which didn’t help much. My dad dressed in a fancy suit when he was dropped me off. He was going to go straight to work after this. Dad didn’t seem scared, probably because he runs the place, but that would make me even nervous because what if they are disappointed in what I appeared to be? Anyway, as we were approaching the office, a lot of kids were staring at us, or probably at my dad. He opened the door for me and we walked in, the office people at one time said, “ Hello, Sir.”
I felt so awkward when that happened, but I kept going. I knew that my dad smiled that smile that he pulls when he feels awkward. So I dug my face into his coat and whispered, “ Let’s hurry up.” he nodded in agreement and spoke.
“ Hello, uhh, I would like to get my daughter’s schedule.” When he said that, everyone stared at me, so I smiled. The office lady with red hair in a bun, handed me an orange envelope with a huge white sticker on it that said Lexa McCarthy on it.
“Thanks.” I stammered. My dad nodded at the lady and then at down next to me. I opened the envelope and looked at the first class I have. I have science with Ms. Sattw at room 15, Mrs. Krap at room C, Ms. Ycal for P.E,  Ms. Sniktaw for my elective band at room 27, Mr. Redyns for language arts at room I, and Mr. Areugon for social studies at room 23. I walked to room 15 with my dad. The classroom looked pretty big when we walked in. Immediately after we stepped in, everyone was staring at us which was super uncomfortable. The teacher motioned me to sit down so I sat down in an empty seat and waited for when the teacher to tell me to introduce me, which is the worst part. My dad nodded at the teacher with a smile, she in the same in return. She turned to the class as my dad came over to me and said good luck and kissed my forehead. He waved and I waved back when he exited.
“ Ok, class we have a new student here. So say hello”
“ Hello!” The class blurted. I smiled in return to the class.
“ How about you come up here and introduce yourself and say where you moved from also what you are interested in and your hobbies, sweety. And maybe even your favorite type of book.”
I slowly walked to the front of the class.
“ Um, my name is Lexa McCarthy. I moved from Los Angeles. I like reading and solving mysteries. My favorite type of book is  mystery books.”
“Wonderful. Do you guys have any questions?” At that moment, more than half the class raised their hands. Ms. Sttaw called on the girl in the front with green-framed glasses.
“Are you the daughter of Steve McCarthy?” she questioned as she tilted her head. When she asked that, everyone else put their hand down probably as a sign that they all had the same question.
I nodded my head  as an answer to her. A gasp went through the crowd. I wondered why that was so important.
“ Does that mean that you’re the richest family in town?” the same girl asked. I shrugged and walked to my seat. The same exact thing happened for the rest of my day.
The walk home was very weird because whenever I saw someone from my school, they stare at me.  As I was approaching the ice cream store, there was a rustling sound coming from the dark alley way. I halted waiting to hear more. I sneaked a look and saw that there were two men holding shimmering masks. One of the men were handing the other a black suit case with a curious symbol on it. The symbol looks like sword going through a skull. The suitcase looked like it contained some kind of weapon or ignition judging by the locking sequence that looks like the ones in the mystery books she read. Instantly the two men turned sharply towards me. I flushed red and looked the other way while walking past.
“Uh oh” I muttered under my breath. I quickly ducked into the café and hid under a table. I saw black shoes walk by the table I was hiding under. I felt a trickle of sweat drip down my face as I saw the dark figure pass by. Looks like he put the mask on. He walked to the cashier and put a hand out. The cashier lady sigh and gave the man the money from the cashier. Thats weird because my dad told me that the taxes are due at the beginning every month. Why is this man taking the money? I waited until he left and went to take to the lady.
“ Excuse me, but why did he take the money? The taxes were already collected.” I asked.
“ Honey, that man is part of the society of Cataclysm Union. The Cataclysm Union is a secret society whose plan is to make the town go into debt and then use the money they stole to take over the town. Their uniform is black suits with the golden masks. If we don’t cooperate, then they will take everything from us and in the worst cases, our life.” she answered staring deep into my eyes.
“Uhhhh, ok, I’ll go now…” I declared.
I have to find out what is happening. I go home and start researching the symbol. For weeks I couldn’t find anything, until one day, I look outside my window at the water tower and I see the symbol spray painted on it. How could I have missed it? I called to my parents that I was going for a walk.
The closer I got, the more chills I had. What was I going to find? I’m certain that I got myself into a very bad situation.
When I arrived, I climbed the ladder and knocked on it. A bunch of dust came flying out which caused me to cough. The water tower sounded hollow, so there must be something in there. I opened the door and stepped inside. It was freezing cold in there so I reached into my bag and pulled out my jacket. I slowly walked through the water tower while keeping a wide lookout for anything suspicious. I stumble across a huge file cabinet. I search through it but there is nothing there so I keep on looking. Finally I get too tired and take a rest. I lean down on a stone wall, when I sit down, I suddenly fall backwards, I turn around and see that there was a secret compartment and I reach in to find that there was an old scroll. I grab hold of it and unravel it. Inside, I find all the plans of the Cataclysm Union. I hear the water tower open again and I quickly duck for cover. The man comes along and when he sees that the compartment is open, he squeals, surprisingly, and runs back to the door. I shove the scroll into my bag and make a run for it. I slip down the ladder and run home.
I sat at my desk and read the scroll. I find out that they are planning to not only take over the town, but to also blow up… the world. I have to warn everyone! I run until my legs are numb to the newsletter office. I negotiate with the writer, showing him the scroll. He starts typing with fast finger stabbing at the keys. But when all seemed to go to plan, I hear this.
“ Young lady.” A deep voice bellowed, “You must come with us. You have seen and know too much for us to let you live. You too newsletter guy.”
Those words ringed into my ears as I turn around to see a man standing in the doorway, in a black suit with the golden mask on.                 
                        
*Later that day on the 6pm news*
  Hello, I am Suzanne Rocksford and this is Rabbit News. Reports coming in on American citizen Lexa McCarthy who was found dead and at the newsletter office, along with the newsletter guy. Multiple reports are coming in from the lower east side. She is 15 years old, brown hair, and sources believe that this is the work of Cataclysm Union. But before she *gulp* died, she was found with what is believed to be the Cataclysm Union plans. We have got input that their plans were to take all the money from us and that would make us surrender to them for our money back. Currently, the police has been looking in the water tower for more details. The water tower was where the victim and suspects were last, before going to the newsletter where the police are investigating the crime scene.