A few hours later, Josie woke up and found herself back in the same room that she had tried to leave a few hours earlier. A quick glance at Moira’s watch said the time was now 4:30 PM. She frowned, as she needed to get out the house immediately before anyone knew that she was gone.

“Josie?” Seth also woke up and saw her. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” said Josie, “but what I do know is that my uncle is going to be home soon. I don’t think he’ll like it if he catches us up here.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Seth.

Moira also woke up, saying, “What’s going on, guys?”

“We need to get out of here!” Josie cried out.

“Why?” said Moira.

Just then, a strange girl approached them. She had a fair skin tone, curly golden-blond hair in a short ponytail, and hazel eyes. She was of average height, heavy, and was dressed in shorts and a sweatshirt.

Trixie Stebbins slowly got up off the ground and stood up. Upon finding three kids lying unconscious at the foot of the stairs, she carried them to her room and shut the door leading to the stairs and her room. She then sat in a corner, waiting for them to recuperate.

“So, who are you and what are you doing here?” Trixie said to the three intruders who dared to sneak into her room.

Josie said, “Well, I’m your cousin Josie and this is Seth Burke and Moira Downing. I know you're Patricia Leigh Stebbins. Am I right?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” said Trixie. She was shocked to know that after all the years she spent in the top room of the Stebbins house, she still had a voice. She had not spoken a single word in five years.

“Indeed,” said Josie. “Now, how would you like to be free from this place?”

“Free how?” said Trixie.

“Well, you were kind of locked up in this place,” said Seth. “And from what it looks like, you were in here for a good while.”

“I was locked up in here?” Trixie cried out in surprise. “I had no idea I was shoved in here. When did this happen?”

“You’re 16 now, or close to it, and you came to live with your father when you were 9 years old,” said Josie. "According to him, you were in a bad car accident. You were badly hurt, and your mother died. Your father didn’t want anyone else to know you existed, so he hid you here.”

Trixie gasped in horror, but Josie’s ears turned red. She knew the truth about Trixie and why Rajasthan hid her from her family (and the world), but she couldn’t bear to tell her cousin the truth yet. Josie knew that the truth would crush her.

“You must join with us,” said Moira. “Join us and help us crush the evil in our school that is Sheila Baines.”

“Why should I go to school?” said Trixie.

“You need to be at school, and school is a place to get an education,” said Moira. “Not to worry, as we’ll sort out everything about you later.”

“I do hope you guys know what you’re doing,” said Seth. “Sheila is dangerous and she owns the school. She won’t take too kindly to newcomers, especially those who show up at the school and are just as old as she is. We’re taking a huge gamble here.”

“I've heard of people like this Sheila Baines that you speak of,” said Trixie. “I heard about the things she does from the boys. I think she’s in dire need of a strong hand to slap her down so low she can never rise again.”

“Indeed,” said Moira.

“Now, we must invent a new name for you and make sure that no one knows who you are,” said Josie. “We can’t have everyone around here knowing that you’re Trixie Stebbins, or my cousin Trixie for that matter. That would be a scandal.”

“A scandal indeed,” said Seth. “Maybe you could go by the name June Tempest? That could work.”

“Maybe,” said Moira, who was jealous as she watched Josie and Trixie nod in agreement. “We need to leave quickly. Who knows how long we have until Josie’s uncle returns.”

“And the cops are still watching the house,” Seth said with a quick glance outside the window. (Of course, he had no idea that the so-called “window” was fake.)

“Yeah, and that too,” said Moira.

“So what now?” said Josie. “It’s not like we couldn’t go out the window...”

As she spoke, her hand touched a button that was next to the window. The window that could never be opened swung open, revealing a door and a secret flight of stairs. The stairs led to another part of the house, which had long been forgotten. That part of the house had a living room, a kitchen, and a parlor for entertaining guests.

“Is this what I think it is?” Moira said as she looked into what appeared to be a bathroom.

“It is,” said Josie. “I bet this place was built during the late 1800s. Most of these houses have had secret chambers built in them; those chambers were used during the 1920s during the Prohibition Era. I bet my uncle’s house was among those houses that hid beer and the people who liked to drink beer illegally.”

“Indeed,” said Seth. “I think we may have found our new hiding spot. The cops will never find us here.”

“You think?” said Moira.

“Well, they won’t,” Trixie said as she stared out the window. “They’ve already left.”

The other kids rushed to a window and stared out of it; Officer McCleary and Officer Olson had left the area without seeing anything or anyone. Josie said, “So now that we’re here, I say we go back to school and break some rules!”

“We should,” said Moira. “I’ve had enough with Sheila Baines and her crap. We have a right to learn and she has no right to try and stop us!”

“With Trixie here, we’ll be unstoppable!” said Seth. “Though parents, other students, and even death will make us fall apart as individuals, no one will tear apart the Teen Rebels!”

The kids cheered, not realizing that their union would change not only their lives, but also the lives of the people in Montagne Beach, California...