Mountain Brook High School

“Hey Natalia, are you coming on the graduation trip to Aruba? You did graduate, right?” said Ashley. Natalia Hallaway wasn’t the sharpest tool in the toolbox, and everybody joked with her about her common sense.

“Duh I’m going, I may not be the smartest person but I still have a 3.5 GPA.” responded Natalia.

“Are you sure you graduated Natalia, I thought you got a B- on your chemistry final?” questioned Rob. Rob and Natalia had been going out for two years now, everybody knew they knew everything about each other. “Besides, you have common sense like a turtle has speed .”

“ROB I told you not to tell anybody that”!

“Sorry, you’re the one that told me in the first place.”

“Whatever…. Oh there’s my mom. She’s here to pick me up early so I can pack for the trip. See you guys at the airport.” As she walked off to her mom’s car, Natalia started thinking about all the fun times her and her friends were going to have on this trip. “I just hope nothing goes wrong on this trip.” she whispered to herself. Little did she know that the only awful thing that would happen, would lead to her disappearance .
Aruba, hotel

The excited bunch of young adults stormed into the hotel. They were elaborated to be in Aruba. All they talked about during the plane ride down to the Caribbean Island was what they were going to do and where they were going to go.

“We should go to the mall, there are probably a lot of exotic merchandise there,” said Crystal, another person on the cruise, “and if we’re lucky some cute boys.” She was always trying to find Mr. Right.

“No, I say we just stay at the hotel and go to the pool and go to the beach every day.” remarked Brittany.

No way. Why would we do that when we can do that at home in Florida?” replied Jackie. “No girls I have a better idea.” After she had said that she had everybody’s full attention, but she hesitated to tell them.

“Well are you going to tell us or not?” Crystal was speaking for all of the girls with her anticipation. “Come on tell us!”

“Ladies….. we are going to bar!”

“YEAH! This is going to be so much fun!” all of the girls replied with enthusiasm, all except for one girl.

It was Natalia. “Wait guys, isn’t that illegal? We’re all under 21, I’m the oldest and I’m only 18?” Natalia was very concerned about this situation. She didn’t want the University of Alabama, her future college, to see got drunk under the age limit.

“No, no Natalia. Don’t you know the rules are different in the Bahamas?” replied Jackie, very calmly.

“What rules are different?”

“Well, here you only have to be 18 to legally drink. So it’s legal for us to go the bar.”

“But what about Brittany, she’s only 17, if she gets caught she will go to jail in a foreign country?”

“Actually my birthday was on graduation day, I just didn’t tell anybody because it would have taken away from graduation.” answered Brittany.

“Ok, then,” said Natalia, “I will go on one condition.”

“Well what is your one condition?” all the girls replied curiously.

“We must all promise not to lose sight of anybody while we are there, deal?”

“Deal!” replied everybody.
Bar, Aruba

As all of the girls entered the bar, they figured out a buddy system so no one would get lost. All of the girls knew they would be in trouble if somebody got lost. Right after they figured out the buddy system, all the girls sat down and order kamikaze shots, except for Natalia.

“I’ll have a strawberry yard, please.” Right after she ordered she heard everybody giggled.

“Natalia, you do know they call it a yard because it is a yard tall filled with daiquiri?”

“Yes, I do. Why don’t you guys worry on what you order and stop worrying about me?”

“Ok, but as long as you don’t go wondering off after you drink that yard?” Everybody laughed and started drinking. About 2 hours passed and the girls were felling it. They were starting to fell dizzy. And very giggly, about every single thing. Yet they kept drinking.

“Hey, when in Aruba, drink as much as you can.” said one of the girls.

“I don’t think that is the saying.” replied the other girls.

Later , about 8:30 at night the girls started to go back to the hotel because their curfew was at 10:00. But before they did that, everybody had to be with their buddy.

“Um, guys….. where’s Natalia?” as Brittany said these word all of the girls went into frenzy. Nobody could find Natalia.

“Natalia where are you?” screamed all of the girls.

“She’s gone.” announced Jackie.

“Wait, I found her footprints. There are footprints right next to hers too. She has been kidnapped!”

“Hurry, follow her footsteps. We can still find her!” said Brittany.
“Yeah, we can still find her, if we stay focused.” agreed Jackie . All the girls started off in a dead sprint down the path of the footprints.

“Oh no, the footprints lead toward the beach, hurry!”

“Natalia, where are you Natalia?”

“There, she’s in the water quick pull her out.” Once the girls pulled Natalia out of the water, they checked her pulse. They checked her neck and her wrist, but nothing happened. Her skin was already pale white, and she was cold to the touch .

“She’s dead.” announced Brittany. As all of the girls started crying, they had no idea the killer was still on the beach, waiting for one of the girls to be separated, waiting for his next victim.