Jon didn't see Zoe after school ended, and she wasn't there when he got home. Most days he wouldn't think twice about this, but on this day he felt a tugging need to see her that he didn't understand.
"Hey Mom, where's Zoe?"
"Oh, she texted me that she's going shopping at the mall with a friend," Linda replied.
"She's going shopping with Athena?" As much as Zoe wasn't really the 'mall' type, Athena was even less so.
"No! I was surprised too, but she said she made a new friend today who has a car. Do you know anyone at school named Sarah?"
Jon's brain didn't even consider for a second that Zoe's new friend might be Sarah McMillan. It just wasn't a connection he could make. Jon sorted through the kids he knew who were in Zoe's grade and made an attempt to figure out which ones had their licenses, but Lake Point was a pretty big school. "I can't think of anyone. Maybe she's new in town."
Linda and Jon exchanged casual shrugs, and Jon retreated to his room to work on his homework until dinner time. Zoe still wasn't home. "Well," Roger sighed as he put away her place setting, "as long as she keeps checking in with text messages."
Jon returned to his room after dinner and started a furious session of Cuphead on his computer. He was so locked-in that he almost didn't notice the sound of the front door opening and shutting, and the sounds of four feet stomping up the stairs with giggles following in their wake only briefly caught his attention. There were some muffled noises coming from Zoe's room, so Jon put on his headphones, and then eventually there was a loud hollow 'thump' against his bedroom door.
"Be careful out there!" Jon called without getting up from his seat. He stayed there another hour before going to bed.
