Coincidence

"So what's the plan." Julie slams her lunch on the table, as the trio flinched. Staring at her, shocked by her presence.

"Plan?" Amelia squeaked on her seat, Julie raised a questioning eyebrow. Wasn't this why they needed her? A plan for something stupid she guesses.

[WAIT, what plan?] Celine had her face furrowed in confusion, her thoughts flying here and there. As so was every other student in this cafeteria.

[LUNCHHHHHHHH!] Julie winced at the random student's thought, there's a reason why she doesn't eat in the cafeteria. This is the prime example of why.

The cafeteria was filled with hordes of students, Every table was filled, with everyone interacting there were bound to be people thinking. With the cafeteria full of the whole high school, Julie was definitely prepared for this kind of scenario.

[OMG I can see Ethan from her-]

[Can short people 'talk down' to tall people]

[FUU- I spilled lipstick on her Valentino white bag]

Okay, maybe she wasn't prepared. Julie could see Ethan hiding a smirk beneath that so gentle smile of his. She groans as she picks on her boiled broccoli on her tray. "Plan? Ethan? You said it will be today" Julie said munching on her bland broccoli, honestly, the school needs to up their game for the food.

"Ah yes, the plan." Ethan went quiet for a bit. "So there's this senior, Celine you might know him. Noah Reed" Celine nodded at his statement, "yeah I know him," [who was he again] Julie internally face-palmed.

[oh rooftop boy!] Celine smacked her fist onto her left palm. "I bump into him sometimes, he likes the rooftop for some reason," and so on Celine started rambling about said, senior. With only Amelia paying attention to the hyper blonde.

'Rooftop boy huh' Julie thought to herself. From what Julie was rambling, he was said to have dark brown hair, tall stature, and purple eyes, a year older than them. Other than that, Julie didn't pay any attention. She glanced at Ethan, who was also talking in between Celine's rambling.

Julie pondered it for a moment. There's no way that she's talking to the dude anytime soon. She already had enough trouble even making a conversation, and asking her to talk- no SPY? On the dude? Over her dead body.

Suddenly Ethan coughed, making the rambling blonde freeze, all of them looked at Ethan who had a serious face. Celine only laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. [what did I do now?]

"Yeah, Noah Reed, the eldest son of one of the big families. He knows something about the rogue killer. The Reed Corporation has been one of the top awakened families. So try to be as subtle as possible near him. If I can remember the Reed family has the power over metals, so-"

"Like Walmart version of Magneto?" Julie cuts him off. Ethan had rolled his eyes. "Yes Julie, but still the Reed family has been one of the top five families in the awakened world, Just don't underestimate anybody."

"Oh, and Afterschool, don't go home, both of you." He points at both Celine and Amelie. Before Julie could retort back he had already continued. "Julie, you're not needed, because of your ability but the two of them, have no control over their powers."

"Where are we going?" Amelia had her hand raised a little. Ethan folded his arms, and let out a breath. [uh, God, why was I put to this job]. Julie could only sympathize a bit, being 15 with some kind of weird powers, and having to explain to a new batch of weird teenagers? Exhausting.

"In the Awakened world, there's an organization that handles everything, the rules, the authority, everything. No name is given, it's just called "the association". I'll explain further details later." He said as he took a bite of his sandwich. "Julie you can just go home or something."

That sentence annoyed her. Fine, maybe her powers weren't something cool. Like who would want to mind reading? (Maybe a desperate kid would want it, but you get the point.) This is just downright telling her that she has no power other than getting information.

Celine has been giving her concerned glances. Julie could see she was concerned by the intense foot tapping. "Celine, calm down." What she needs to do now is not to act like a jealous kid. Julie sighed, as Celine has stopped her foot tapping. But Julie could still see the worry etched into her blue eyes.

"Would you quit it? Don't worry." Julie reassured. Celine who had her mouth opened ready to argue, Julie manages to interrupt her. "You can come by after, and eat cookies."

Not even a second, Julie could see Celine's eyes sparkle at the mention of cookies. [Cookies? As in Aunt Jude's cookies!]

"Yes, Aunt Jude's cookies." she sighs as she saw Celine making air punches. [Hell yeah]

Julie eyed the trio for a bit, as she scooted to Amelia a bit, and whisper out. "Take care of the idiot and the weird guy over there, ye?" Giving a small smile, the brunette rapidly nodded her head. "H-hey chill."

Lunch break continued as if their conversation never happened. With Celine rambling about how great her basketball club was, and Ethan made random questions here and there. Amelia on the side sometimes gave a retort or two. Or sometimes laughter breaks out.

Julie pursed her lips, eyed the group carefully as she stood up, tray in her hand. Her movement had made the group glanced at her. "You okay? There are still a few more minutes." Celine asked. [There's still like 15 more minutes?]

She had only sighed and said that she had other things to do. In which the group had nodded and dismissed her, went back to their conversation.

Julie walked away from the group, away from the loud and boisterous cafeteria. Her head was ringing again. She had propped her tray on a random table, as she left to trudge up the stairs.

Why did she leave the group? She asked herself that. The only answer she could come up with was that everything was too loud, yeah that was definitely the answer. But suddenly the image of the trio came up to her mind, as she felt her heart clenched. Smacking her cheeks repeatedly, she had furiously muttered out 'stupid' underneath her breath.

There was nothing to be jealous of. She should be glad that there are some like her, and Celine made a new friend. This was a good thing, Celine wouldn't cling to Julie that much, and her days wouldn't be so loud anymore.

"Yeah, that's probably it," Julie muttered out, as she continued her walk. Head face down, as she dwelled on it for a bit. She didn't notice that there was somebody in front of her, as she bumped into them.

*crash*

Julie fell on her ankle, as she tried to get a grip on the wall next to her. Realizing what she had done, she gawked at the papers scattered, and the taller male on the floor.

"Oh shit, sorry man." Julie winced at her words, she could have said it better, than that. Julie hastily gathered the scattered paper across the floor. "S-sorry let me help." She stuttered, as the boy in front of her was also up and gathering the paper.

"It's fine, don't worry about it." The boy smiled, as Julie squints her eyes. It was a blinding smile she had thought. If this was any other person except her, they would have start combusting.

Not even a few minutes later, the papers were already set on the boy's hand. Julie sighed in relief, as she starts to take in who she bumped into.

"Thanks for helping!" Dark brown hair

"Honestly people these days wouldn't even give a glance." Julie had mindlessly nodded. The boy in front of her was also tall. It couldn't be.

"Uhm, no problem," Julie replied, waving her arms indicating a small help is not a big problem.

Purple eyes

"Hey, you alright?" Julie snapped out of her thoughts, she had been eying the boy. 'Stupid, now it's awkward!' she had smacked herself, which brought out a yelp from the boy.

"Wha-"

"Sorry for bumping just now, My name is Julie, can I get a name?" Julie needed confirmation. No way this was a coincidence. Sure having purple eyes is very rare. But surely not.

The boy had chuckled. "Interesting, The name's Noah, Noah Reed. Nice to meet you. But I gotta go now, see you later!" [Julie, huh interesting]

Noah walked away, as Julie stood there frozen on the spot. But before she could say anything the bell had to ring. Which a horde of students was now barreling throughout the hallway. Julie struggled to keep with the boy, but alas Noah had disappeared in the crowd.

Slamming her fist on the wall, which brought some attention. She packed it up and ran back to her classroom. Julie was in no state of gaining attention, especially a crowd. She huffed angrily, as she pulled out her phone.

Pulling up Celine's contact number, she dialed Celine. The loud beeping sound, made her even agitated. She brought her finger near her lips, as she nibbled on it. A bad habit, she had thought. But habits don't disappear in a day.

"Hello? Jules, you ok?" Celine's voice rang through her phone. "Celine, give the phone to Ethan!" Celine protested on why, but this wasn't the point. She just met the so-called "eldest-son of the Reed family"

"Julie? What's up."

"Don't what's up to me, I just met him!?" Julie whisper-yelled, she had glanced at her surrounding. 'Tsk too many people.' she had thought.

"Julie, what are you talking about?!" She pinched between her eyebrows. Maybe explaining on the phone isn't a good idea. Yeah, after school or even tomorrow. No, need for disturbing them. She had thought as she ignored the loud voices coming from the phone.

"Jules?!" Celine yelled through the phone. "N-nothing, anyways gotta go-"

"Don't you dare hang up on m-" But Julie had slammed her finger to hang up, and shoved into her pocket. As much she wants to talk about the matter, being late is not on her schedule.

"Damn it" She muttered.

***

It was already 3 p.m, and Julie wasn't thrilled about what's going to happen. Waiting at the front gate, she could see the students scattered students amongst the road. Her head kept getting that same migraine she as every single day.

Julie starts to think about her powers. Mind-reading, was it all she could do? There must be something else she could do right? Or at least have an off button for the mind-reading. Soon, she starts concentrating, trying to keep the voices out of her head.

Everything slowly started to turn dull, like blurred words. Julie felt the sweat dripping on her neck, as she gritted her teeth, trying to concentrate more. It went on for a minute, but she can't make it to fully stop, it just turns to blurred words.

"JULIE!!" Julie flinched at the loud voice, which made her lose all the concentration she had. Making all the thoughts come flooding back into her head.

Stumbling a bit, she slowly walks towards the group. Glaring at the innocent blonde. Celine titled her head, "what?" [did I do something wrong?]

Julie sighs and waved her arm, dismissing the thought. "No, it's nothing. You gotta get going right?" the trio nodded, as they bid their goodbyes. In which Celine jumped to give a hug, Julie could only accept it. "You're sure you're not going to be jumped by someone?" Celine asked, still latched onto her.

Julie smiled, at the giant koala on her. "Yeah, I mean I can always call you or something." Judging from Celine's stare, maybe calling isn't something that can help much in a fight. But Julie was 98% sure she wasn't getting jumped. Especially she doesn't stand out much.

"Oh and Julie?" Julie hummed replying, "You're going to meet someone tomorrow." Ethan walked away from her, as he followed the group. Which the two girls had already started their walk.

"What do you mean?" She asked, tilting her head. Why is she meeting so many people? By the end of sophomore year, Julie would know more than ten people at this point. Ten, yes, ten is a big number for her.

"Fine, going home I guess. " She slowly walked away from the group. As she walks to the familiar road towards home. But what she saw in front of her made her heart dropped.

A kid was getting beat up right broad daylight.

Julie didn't waste a minute as she drew a punch over a delinquent. Which was a bad idea to provoke a bully. But whatever her life was already bad.

"Get away from the kid!"

"What the- what are you doing you bi-

Julie felt her hair getting pulled, but she kept kicking and punching. If only she had super strength or speed to get her and the kid out of trouble. But alas, the universe seems to hate her guts.

But if it means she can help a bit, risking it wouldn't matter.

She gripped the kid's hand, as they started running away from the pack of bullies. " GET HER!" "DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!"