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2 days later~

• m o n d a y •

I tapped my pen on my desk, patiently waiting for class to be over. Mrs. Warren had already finished her lecture and allowed us to do whatever. None of my friends were in my special robotics class, so I just sat in my seat.

Not even 23 seconds later, one of the girls in my class walks up to my desk. "Hi! You're Alice Foreman, right?" She says. "Uh, yeah, hi. Can I... help you?" I said awkwardly as I met her gaze. "Yeah, I know you don't really talk to people much, but you obviously seem like the smartest one in this class. Can you help me with this? I can't figure out how to get the head to rotate." She said, holding her robot in front of me. The coding was written on the smartboard, yet she herself couldn't figure it out. "Show me your code." I said with a defeated sigh. I stood up and walked to her desk where her computer was. After reviewing her work, I fixed a few errors and entered the code she needed help with while explaining how to do it. Once I plugged her robot in, we tested it. She cheered once she saw that it was working properly. "Yay! Thank you so much." The girl whose name I still don't know, smiled. "No problem. If you need help again, you can either come to me, or actually pay attention." I said playfully and walked back to my desk. When I got there, I saw an envelope. It was addressed to me from...

Laura Wilcox

I grabbed the envelope and shoved it into my pocket for later. I thought about who put it there, when I remembered that Laura had a daughter who went to this school. I never met Nancy, but from what I hear, she's actually really nice and hates her mother. The other girl must have taken me away from my seat so Nancy could place the note. I scanned the classroom and saw a girl who I assumed was Nancy looking at me from across the room.

Okay, I have to see what's in here. Just as I was about to ask to go to the bathroom...

The bell rings~

I stood up and bolted out of the room with my stuff. I placed my things in my locker and closed it before heading to the library. I am so glad that school is over. I went back to my usual spot, so I could open the note.

'•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•<▪>•°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••'

Dear Alice,

I saw what happened at the convenience store. It was wise of you not to chat with him, otherwise I would make his communication ban longer. I want to talk to you about something, meet me at The Moonlight Café tomorrow at 6PM. Go alone.

Love,

Your stepmother Laura

'•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•<▪>•°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••'

That witch! She put my father under a communication ban, that's why he hasn't been talking. She is NOT my stepmother and never will be. I crumpled the note and threw it in the trash. Should I go to the café? My eyes searched around the room, hoping something would tell me what to do. I didn't even know what I wanted to find. After a pre-determined defeat, I sighed and fell backwards into the chair. "Troubled much?" A familiar voice came from the chair next to mine. "Yeah.. life's really decided to pick on me." I said to Amelia who handed me a bar of chocolate. "To make you feel better. I'm not sure what's going on in your life right now, but I thought it would be best for you to speak when you're ready. So, here." She said with a sweet smile. I took the chocolate from her and grinned widely as I opened the package.  "Thank you, Elia." I said as I hugged her tightly. "No problem. By the way, I thought about it. The whole camping thing, I mean. I decided to help out a bit and found a great spot with an awesome view. Apparently, it was a part of the forest that wasn't discovered yet. I asked the ones in charge of the site, and they said they'd keep it untouched until we got there." Amelia said with a slight squeal. My eyes widened and I felt a wave of relief rush through my body. If I'm going to be honest, the whole camping idea was just something I pulled from the top of my head. I felt bad after hearing Levi's story, so I thought maybe us getting to know each other better would be better on all sides of our friendship. After hearing that someone had made an effort to help me out, it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. "Elia, oh my God. You're the best." I said with a smile. "Just helping you out." She said sweetly. I took one last bite of the chocolate before storing the package in my pocket. "We can't get caught snacking in the library." I commented with a small laugh. "We are very lucky this side of the library has no cameras." Amelia replied playfully. We both stood up and walked out of the library still laughing. I had almost completely forgotten about the note. We walked outside together when Amelia spoke. "Hey, us girls should hang out together sometime. Just the 3 of us." She suggested. I raised my eyebrows, intrigued. "Where should we go?" I asked her as we walked out of the gate. "The Moonlight Café. They have really good coffee and..." her voice started to fade. I looked at Amelia and saw that she was still talking, but I couldn't hear anything. The Moonlight Café. The note. "So I was thinking we'd go there tomorrow." That was all I heard when I came back to reality. I thought it was a sign that I should go. "Good idea. How does tomorrow at 6 sound?" I said, faking a smile. I was nervous. She smiled and nodded. After spotting our friends at the park across the street, we jogged over to them. "What took you so long?" Walter questioned. I looked up at him blankly and replied. "We chatted a bit at the library."

They shrugged off the question and continued chatting. It wasn't long before Amelia brought up the Moonlight Café. Lucinda immediately agreed and the boys, feeling left out, made plans of their own. "You know, as quiet as we are at school, we are a lot more outgoing than I thought." Walter commented. I laughed and looked at the others who were also laughing. As we were chatting, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I checked the notification and my eyes widened as I saw who the text was from. A name I hadn't heard in years.

Lucas Foreman...

'•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•<▪>•°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••°•••'

Author's note:

Well, well. Looks like we have a new character entering the picture. I wonder who this Lucas is? Find out in the next chapter hehe.

And that damn number in the title hasn't moved one bit. Trippy, I know. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm sorryyy. This chapter was really short, but hey, at least we got somewhere. Thanks for reading!

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