Haha!

I read some of the 'embarrassing stories', and they're HILARIOUS. :)
Sadly, I couldn't access any of my really old ones, but I have one, my first sotry that really got me into writing, called Horror for Tow, a mystery I wrote for English in seventh grade. :]
Looking at it now, I think I forgot to save the very beginning... Ouch.
...And yes. I was still a sap for romance.

--

"What?!?" Sixteen-year-old Tara Breeman stood at her friend, Debbi Portman’s, door. She nodded.
"As I said before, my Mom’s missing." With a worried look on her face, she nervously looked around then back at Debbi.
"When did she leave?"
"Yeah, well, that’s another problem. She left while no one was at the house. No one saw her, Deb." She paused.
"And her key to the house was inside instead of on her key ring." Debbi was aghast. Why would their Mom just leave them without even warning or telling Tara and her six-year-old brother, Sameth, before she left? Did she leave forever?
"I, um, was wondering if, uh, we could stay with you for a few days."
Debbi snapped out of her thoughts.
"Huh?" Sameth, not quite as scared as he had been, answered for her.
"She asked if we could stay here with you." Tara shot a sideways warning glare at her brother, but looked at Debbi expectantly. Debbi threw her hands up in defeat.
"Lemme go get my Mom." She hurried into her house.
"Mom," Mrs. Portman appeared at the top of the stairs wrapped in a bathrobe.
"Yes honey?" She hesitated. How was she going to tell her Mom about this without her Mom freaking out first? Before she could think about it anymore, Sameth showed up.
"Can we stay here with you ‘cause our Mom’s not at our house and we’re really, really scared?" Debbi smacked her head. Tara gave her an ‘I’m-so-sorry’ look.
"Laura’s been missing; for how long?" Debbi sighed, clearly aware of the look on her mother’s face that she’d been trying to prevent.
"Well do come in! Tell me what happened!" So they told her the story. She asked them questions, too; Most of them that they couldn’t answer.
"It’s really easy." Sameth remarked when they were discussing the possibilities.
"I know what happened." All three of them turned to Sameth, surprised that a six-year-old had an explanation for all this.
"God took Mommy up to Heaven with Daddy." At the mention of her father, who’d many years ago died in a drive by shooting, Tara wanted even more to find her mother. In fact…
"Excuse me, Mrs. Portman, but where could I find John?" Debbi snorted and rolled her eyes.
"You’ve already forgotten about your Mom and now you want to hang out with your boyfriend?" Tara couldn’t think of a response that would hide her intensions, so she remained quiet. Mrs. Portman, confused, answered her question.
"He’s in his room. Should I-" Tara was already halfway up the stairs. She heard Debbi laughing at Sameth’s kissing noises. ‘So immature,’ she thought. She reached the seventeen-year-old’s bedroom door and paused, listening to him playing his guitar. She nodded along for a few seconds then, remembering what she was there for, knocked on his door.
"Yeah? Come on in." he yelled. She opened the door and he stopped playing.
"Hey, Tara! What brings you up here?" He hugged her than they both sat back down on his bed.
"I know you love mysteries," she started. "So I brought you one." A mischievous light shone in his eyes.
"Bring it on!" She sighed and his smile slipped off his face. "What happened?"
"We’d just come home from picking up Sameth from daycare and Mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. We found her key inside on the table and everything of hers is gone. That was yesterday. I don’t know whether it was her choice or if she was forced to do it, but I want to find her, John!" She wiped her tears away and looked up at him.
"You also want to find her because you’re afraid she might be, well, you know, like your Dad." She nodded.
"How’d you know?" He smiled softly.
"You don’t have to be good at mysteries to figure out that one Tara. I’ve just been around you so much and have seen how much it’s affected you." He paused. "And yes, milady, I’ll accept your quest." She smiled, too, at his attempt to imitate a knight.
"Well then, Sir Knight, we shall head to my castle at the break of dawn tomorrow to look for, um… Ah. I give up; Clues"
A few hours later, the girls sharing one room, the boys another, Debbi wouldn’t stop talking about her boyfriend. Tara was to busy thinking about her Mom, though, to hear about ‘Mr. Perfect’.
"…You think?" Tara blinked a few times.
"Huh?" Debbi rolled her eyes and started painting her fingernails.
"Never mind,"
‘Funny,’ thought Tara. ‘Just a couple of hours ago, she was telling me to keep my mind on Mom; now I can’t get her out of it.’ She laughed to herself and lazily drifted off to sleep.
"Hey, ready to go?" Tara rubbed her eyes and yawned.
"Yeah," She was so ready to solve this that she’d slept in her clothes. "Let’s get outta here."
They both jumped into John’s Jeep and sped to her house. She silently took out her key and unlocked the door. Tara shivered in the stillness suffocating the house.
"Freaky, huh?" John asked. Tara could see the goose bumps running up and down his arms.
"Yeah, let’s solve this case ASAP." John checked her Mom’s room, while Tara checked the Den. They moved on from room to room, examining everything. John was the only one who found anything.
"Her diary," He held up the pink book then opened it. "With no pages." Tara looked at it, too.
"They were ripped out. Mom is too neat and tidy to rip anything, let alone the pages in her diary." John nodded. This house was way cleaner than his house would ever be. Of course, Laura Breeman also spent a lot of her time making it that way.
"Wait," Tara remembered something; something that would determine whether or not her mother had gone by will. She stomped around on their wooden flooring until she found a loose board. She pulled it up to reveal some family photos and a large amount of cash. Tara swallowed, trying to force back tears.
"Someone’s got my Mom." She whispered. John stood, speechless. Who would break in and kidnap Mrs. Breeman? It was just so unthinkable.
After a while, John got back the nerve to speak.
"Um, does your Mom have anyone who hates her?" Tara shook her head and again, silence and sadness engulfed them. John decided not to risk interrupting his girlfriend’s thoughts anymore.
Tara, meanwhile, wasn’t actually grieving. She was trying to think of people who could’ve done this. She turned to John.
"Any ideas," John jumped.
"Uh, no." Tara looked at him, her eyes apologizing for her.
"John, are you sure you can help?" She didn’t sound to sure, and truthfully, John wasn’t so sure himself.
"Of course, Tara; I’ll always be on hand- Especially when weird stuff like this is going on." Tara nodded, too upset to smile.
"So where do we go now?" She asked. John turned towards the neighbor’s house.
"They might’ve seen her leave." They walked across the lawn and up the drive. Tara knocked on the door.
"Hello. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, this is John Portman. John; the Gordon’s." John nodded and shook their hands.
"And how can we help yall?" Tara swallowed and spoke again with a slight waver in her voice.
"Did you see my Mom leave with someone yesterday?" The Gordon’s looked pleased.
"Yep, we sure did. It was a younger fella’ with brown hair."
"Our age?" Tara asked.
"Nah, older. Maybe one of your parent’s age." Tara was already processing this, so John closed the conversation for her.
"Thanks for your time. That’s about all we needed to know." They both ran back to the Jeep and got paper out.
"Okay, brown haired guys- even if they don’t seem likely, right?"
"Right," Tara agreed. "Mr. Bodi down the street,"
"Um… Katilina, that one eighteen year old that has a guy’s haircut."
"Your Dad,"
"Mr.- What? My Dad’s on a business trip in Atlanta."
"Yeah, but remember the whole unlikely thing?"
"Oh, yeah. Fine, fine, fine. Add him on." They wrote down several more names on the list and then left. At the end of the day, they only had three people left on it. None of the people which they had visited had a clue; a total dead end. They both went home tired and disappointed. They went up to John’s room to discuss their progress.
"This sucks. We’ve narrowed it down to the three impossibilities: Katilina, Freddy, and my Dad." Tara wouldn’t give up that easily, though.
"Nothing’s impossible in this situation. Plus, if we did try to talk to Katilina, she’d beat the you-know-what outta us." John laughed.
"True; Very true." Tara sighed.
"John, I want to find her so bad. The cops said I had three days until someone takes us away and I wouldn’t be able to live through that. With Mom and Sameth gone…" She trailed off. John hugged her.
"Hey, she’s out there. And probably thinking about you right now." He had no idea how close that was to being true.

-SOMEWHERE DARK, SOMETIME-

"Don’t worry. I’m sure your children are okay now. DHS takes good care of their kids." Laura screamed. Or at least tried to. There isn’t really much you can do when a guy has you tied to a chair and gagged. He smiled.
"Tara, John: Meet stage two."

-BACK AT JOHN’S HOUSE-

"Mornin’ sunshine," Tara opened her eyes to see John sitting right beside her.
"Mmm…"
"Yes, breakfast is ready, Tara, but no; it’s not served in bed." Tara yawned, looked at John, sat up, and smiled.
"One of these days, I’m going to be the first one up." He laughed.
"Well, just let me know when so I don’t die of shock." They were in a much better mood than they had been in yesterday. They chatted happily through breakfast, but then when they were done, it was back to business.
"Three more," John reminded her.
"Yeah, we should probably go to your Dad’s last, since we’ll have to go up to Atlanta."
John groaned. "Again, I don’t see why we even need to check."
She ignored his comment and they jumped into the Jeep. "Okay, so I guess we better get going if we want to get this done before my Mom disappears forev…"
She felt something pressed up against her back. John stopped the car.
"What is it?" She shook her head and unfolded the sticky note that had been closed with a large clip. She took it out and her eyes grew wide. John peered over at it, then seeing what the words said, leaned his head back up against the seat and sighed heavily.
It read:

John and Tara-

Tara- Your mother is safe. If you’d like her to stay that way, than you must leave five thousand dollars- Cash- On the yacht named "Fishi" at the lake closest to your house. I must have the money by midnight tomorrow; Or else.
John- I would stay away from this family if I were you. Though Tara’s Mother is in trouble, you need not be a hero, lest you too be in a worse fate, as is Tara.

Signed- Viadd Tmanorp

"Who in the heck?" Tara shook her head, tears winding that familiar path down her face.
"I don’t care who this maniac is. I need to get five grand; now."
John looked at her, shocked. "Tara, do the words ‘worse fate’ not kinda’ freak you out?"
She looked down at the Jeep floor. "I don’t care. I want my Mom back."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"He said he was here," John was telling the lady at the check-in counter in the hotel. They’d just finished talking to the other suspects two without success. "David Portman?" The lady shook her head. "I’m sorry, sir, but he checked out three days ago. He left a contact card…" "Yes! May we have it?"
The lady passed them the card, relieved to get rid of them. The examined the card outside.
"2447 S. Testewart? That doesn’t exist!" "No," Tara moaned. "Again?" They pulled over at the nearest gas station, and Larry, the gas pump guy, was examining the unknown name and street.
He pulled out another piece of paper, along with the card and sticky note, and glanced back and forth, from one to the other, writing things down.
"Can’t get the name," He scowled. "But I did fig’re out the address. It was in a smartish-type of code."
He happily handed the two shocked teens the decoded address. "Good luck!"
Tara and John raced out the door and back into the Jeep. John gunned the engine and they sped all the way to 724 W. 4th Street.
"He had us completely fooled!" Tara remarked in disgust. "And who is he?"
They pulled up to an old farmhouse, not more than a shed.
"You’re sure this is it?" John asked. Tara shrugged and got out with John following suit. When they got to the door, John opened it, half expecting to see a robber or something, but alas, nothing except a lot of hay scattered over the wooden boards of the barn.
Tara sighed when she saw the empty room. "Let’s go back home."
John stayed put. "Hold on." He mimicked her steps like when she’d been looking for that loose board on the floor at her house until he heard a hollow noise from under him. He bent down and moved the hay and sure enough, a trap door was found.
Smiling he opened it. "So, Tara-" BOOM! BOOM!
The smile slipped off his face. Tara looked horrified.
"That could’ve been my Mom!" She whispered as she began hurriedly climbing down the steel ladder.
John almost stopped her. ‘…you too be in for a worse fate as is Tara.’ He recalled. He opened his mouth to warn her, but instead came, "You can do it. Tara!" In fact, he crawled down the ladder right behind her.
They hid behind two bales of hay and sure enough, there was a man pointing a gun at a screaming Laura Breeman, the bullets just missing her head. "Viadd Tmanorp is actually…"
John couldn’t help what he did next. Something inside him had known it all along.
"DAD, STOP!" He yelled. David Portman turned around, pale. "John… Tara…"
John came out from behind his shelter. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!?" He screamed. David put the gun down to his side and begged to his son. "We really needed the money. This was the only-" "No it wasn’t!" John cried.
Tara, using this extra time as a distraction, went to her mother and started working on the knots that bound her.
John was now face to face with his father. "You could’ve done so many things, Dad. So many good things." He shook his head. "You were just too much of a show-off jerk to even try to get something that you need by legally asking one of your friends." His words were muffled with sobs.
"I hate you."
David, looking distressed and horrified, pointed and cocked the gun. "NO!" Both Tara and John yelled together. But it was too late.
David Portman fell to the floor, a bullet hole in his forehead. John knelt over his body and wept. Tara, crying too, unbound her Mother.
John wiped his eyes hastily when he saw Tara standing next to her Mom. He took Mrs. Breeman’s other hand and led her to the ladder…


-AFTERWARD-

(One Year Later)

Tara and John sat down on the Breeman’s front porch with their latest case in front of them.
"So, Kourtney’s dog was stolen," John nodded. "And her window was broken; supposedly how the dog thief entered the house."
Tara pulled out a list of the suspects names. "Hmm… Most likely suspects." She scanned through it for a moment, and then let the wind take it away from her. John didn’t question her; she’d done it in every case since her own.
"Okay, so let’s start with Alynn Redman, that one friend across the street." John smiled slyly. "You sure you don’t want to interview her friend’s parents first?" She smiled. "It’s a dog, John. Not a murder or better yet, a missing person case. I have a feeling that the parents aren’t involved in this one."
For a while after that, they examined more information on their case, currently titled The Case of the Missing Dog. Creative, no? Anyways, they sat there for a while, looking at all of this stuff; how the dog looks, it’s name, the house floor plans, and everything else that had to do with this girls dog.
Tara looked up as John put the papers in a folder neatly, and then kicked it down the front steps.
"Ice Cream?" He asked. Tara rolled her eyes. "Alright, but if you spill it all over me again, I swear I’ll show you the many other uses ice cream has." John put on his best ‘oh-I’m-so-innocent’ look. She gave him a friendly glare and he broke.
"Fine, Okay, Whatever."
"Ohh," she exclaimed. "Maybe we’ll run into Alynn!"
John looked at her quizzically. "But hopefully not. Anyways, what are you on?" They laughed and jumped into his old Jeep.
"Wait…" said Tara, scared. John took his hand off the wheel. "What?"
She pulled a sticky note off the seat, folded up like the last one she’d encountered. "Ohmy- JOHN!" He laughed at his joke and kissed her. She smiled and stuck the note to her shirt.

"I love you too."