The Mysterious Brown Package

Melanie was awakened by the trilling of the alarm on her phone, was it on her nightstand or somewhere on her bed lost in the covers like so many others, including her laptop, television remote and I-pad. She rolled over checking her phone, she had five text messages and one missed call from Marcie, the President of the Geek Squad club at the Melanie's school. "Mel, where are you?" did you forget that we're cleaning graffiti off the girls bathroom wall today, for extra credit on our Community Project?". Melanie quickly texted back, "Sorry, on my way, with a smiley face and heart emoji". She only joined the GSC because she had a crush on Marcie since they we in elementary school, but she never told her because she knew Marcie only saw her as a friend.

Melanie jumped out of bed, checked her daily horoscope, pushed all the items in her bed to the opposite side, and pulled the covers in an effort to make her bed, then she rushed to the bathroom, brushed her teeth and hair , got dressed and bounded down the stairs. She could hear her Mom on the phone speaking with the neighborhood gossip, Mrs. Dawkins, the elderly lady who lived five houses down on the corner across the street from the Larsons who recently moved in. She was explaining to Melanie's Mom that they posted a for sale sign on the front lawn and moved out, without leaving a trace, and she even peeped in the window and everything was gone. "Yes that is strange Mrs. Dawkins" replied Melanie's Mother, but I don't think calling the P0lice would help at this point they would probably just file a report, since there aren't any signs of foul play. Audrie, Melanie's Mom told her to be careful then hung up.

Melanie kissed her Mom on quick kiss good morning and asked her what was going on. "Do you know the Larsons honey" Yes, Melanie answered, their son Eddie just joined the joined the Geek Squad at school. He told us that he hacked into the Principals account because his friend said she was suspicious of him spying on girls in the gym shower, shortly after his parents moved here. Audrie explained what Mrs. Dawkins told her about them suddenly moving and just thought it was very strange. Melanie agreed, then hugged her Mother, "see ya later Mom gotta go do Geek Squad stuff, back in a couple of hours". "Grab some breakfast honey we'll go shopping later when you get back, and please be careful".

Melanie jumped on her bike and started riding toward the Larsons house, because she had to go past it to get to the main road, when suddenly she heard a car door slam and a tall man dressed in a long back cloak and a wide brimmed black hat got out and began emptying the mailbox as he cautiously scanned his surroundings. Melanie pulled back hoping that he didn't see her, then he looked up and stared at Mrs. Dawkins house across the street. Melanie decided to see if she could take a picture of his license plate, but she was too far away, but she managed to snap the picture before he pulled off.

After arriving at the school and exchanging greetings with the rest of the GSC, they went to the girls restroom and began to clean the walls. The group members, Randy Masters, Adrian Mendoza, and Danielle Dawkins along with Marcie were quietly working when Melanie asked them if they heard that Eddie and his family suddenly moved out of the neighborhood, and she thought it was pretty strange, adding that she saw some creepy tall guy dressed in black emptying their mailbox. Danielle, or Dani, for short, mentioned that her Grandma Mrs. Dawkins had been talking about it all week. "Oh Dani, your Grandma is sooo dramatic" Marcie said, "She's suspicious of everything.

"She might be right" said Randy, "you guys know I help out in the Library after lunch? Well Eddie used to come in there almost everyday at the same time, "he would use one of the laptops and start frantically typing, once, I peeked over his shoulder and saw all this encrypted stuff, like he was doing something on the Dark Web, he quickly closed it when he noticed I was snooping. Then he left the table for a second and I turned away to shelf some books, I turned around just in time to see someone dressed in black just like Marcie described walking away from the table, but he left something, a small package wrapped in brown paper. When Eddie got back to the table, he quickly picked it up, grabbed his things, and left, and I haven't seen him in class or the Library since."

"I'd bet you twenty dollars that Man dressed in black was the same guy I saw at their mailbox" Melanie said, "Guys we have to investigate, whatever happened to Eddie and his family started when he got that mysterious brown package.