The next day, Isaac was back at Rain Wilde, walking by himself down an empty hallway. Besides the teachers, everybody else was gone. Isaac was the only student left in the school.

  Today was a half-day, so all classes ended just before lunch. Everyone got to leave early, everyone except Isaac, who had to go talk to his consular.

  Alone in the hallway, Isaac’s hand drifted to his pocket. Inside was the key from last night. It felt strange, having that extra weight in his pocket. He constantly felt it thumping against his leg.

  He just couldn’t get it off of his mind. It’s already eleven, and he’s barely taken his hand off this thing.

  This key supposedly belonged to Granpa Jaime, but no one knew anything about it. Last night, his mom called family and old friends, asking if they recognized the key. But as far as they knew, he never had a key like that.

  It hadn’t been in the will, and it wasn’t on him when he died, so where did it come from? The only thing that they do have is questions.

  He doesn’t know what it’s for, who gave it to him, or even why they gave it to him. He doesn't even know why he brought it with him.

  The only thing he knows is that he wasn’t just gonna leave it at home.

  Because, according to the box box, this key was his Grandpa Jiame’s.

  A gift from beyond the grave, how cool was that? It would be nice to have something that he could actually use, but he didn’t mind. It was a nice-looking ornament if nothing else.

  The note was weird, though.

  What Tower, and why couldn’t he trust them? Was Granpa part of the Illuminati or something? That’d be hilarious if he were.

  Just the thought of his Great-grandpa, dressed in some black robes with a giant Pyramid on his head, made Isaac laugh.

  “Hehehe-ack, ow.” Isaac started laughing only to be quickly reminded about the bruises on his ribs.

  Hah, that guy really got me with the table, he thought, and it wasn’t just his back, either. Isaac’s whole body was covered in cuts and bruises from yesterday's lunchroom brawl.

  He looked like an old banana.

  And he loved it.

  Fighting for Isaac was just supposed to be a way for him to stop being so bored. Get his body moving, shake off that slump.

  Who’d have known it’d be so much fun?

  Ever since he was in third grade, he’s been getting into fights. Most of the time, he wasn't even trying to, but after years of finding new ways to get into fights he’s almost got it down to a science.

  It's not even that hard with most people. Just shower them with his charming personality, and they’ll throw the first punch within five minutes or less.

  Have you ever been on a roller coaster when the lights go out?

  When there are no lights, you feel everything on the track, your gut starts anticipating the drops, and your ears go deaf from the noise around you. That's what fighting was like for Issac, and he couldn’t get enough of it.

  It's too bad no one else feels the same way. If they did, then maybe he wouldn’t have to come down here so often.

  He’s been to the consular’s office so many times that he can walk here blindfolded. He doesn't even need to be paying attention, and his feet will still bring him here

  Speaking of which-.

  " Hello, Isaac, come on in- oh dear, did you get into another fight."

  " Hey, Ms. Margrave." Issac smiled as he waved at her.

  " Now, none of that. Come sit down, you must be so hurt. Also, I told you to call me Anna; we've known each other for so long that we are practically family." She said, smiling as she held the door open for him.

  Mrs. Margrave, or Anna as she liked to be called, had been his consular ever since he’d been in sixth grade. She was a large woman, filling out more than some of her colleagues. Her darker skin almost contrasted perfectly with her greying hair.

  She was actually one of four other counselors in the school, each one assigned a group of kids to work with by their last name.

  It just so happens that Mrs. Margrave got the group that ended in, among other things, M.

  Hugging the door frame, Isaac squeezed past her larger frame into her office.

  "- Ok, Anna." Isaac had to stop himself from saying anything else. He knew from experience that she wouldn't take anything but Anna. And frankly, he just didn’t want to argue with her. He’d learned the hard way that that never got anywere.

  Mrs. Margrave closed the door behind him, her hooped earring jingling as she pulled up a chair and sat beside him, instead of behind her desk.

  " Well, now that I have you here, tell me how you have been doing. What's new? Is your mother still taking care of that flower I sent?" For the next twenty minutes, Anna talked like this. Chatting with him like they were old friends.

  Asking him things like “What has he been up to?” and “How were you after yesterday? I hope you're alright ”. And man, it's just so hard talking to her.

  Not that he had anything against her personally. No, she was a nice lady.

  She’s just too nice.

  Isaac didn't know how to deal with nice people. He could handle rough, sarcastic people; those people are fun to talk to. Say a snappy comeback and a few jokes and soon you got a group of friends to laugh with.

  He could talk with those kinds of people for hours…or at least until they got tired of him.

  That's how his family was. His Tios and Tias, Grandpas and Grandmas, sisters and cousins all acted like that. The Cantor family was loud and rude, and they liked it that way.

  But you put him before a genuinely nice person, and he clams up. He can't joke with them; he doesn’t know what’ll upset them. And if he upsets them, then he feels like he’s the bad guy.

  Nice people also don’t get into fistfights with other people, so he can't connect with them like that either.

  It's just so hard, talking to a nice person.

  "- Oh, before I forget, the reason why you're here." That made Isaac's ears perk up. Finally, this hell would end.

  " Yeah, the schools-."

  "I'm supposed to be talking to you about where you'll be going to high school, right?" Getting up from her chair, Anna reached around her desk and pulled out a folder.

  " Yes." Isaac said. There were supposed to be at least a few schools that wouldn’t mind him attending, so he needed to look them over before his Dad had a heart attack worrying about where he’d end up.

  "Good, good. Now, there are a few options that you can choose from. They might not be the most popular, but I can assure you that they are just as good as Lubbock High or Monterey." Mrs. Margrave said, putting her curly hair into a messy bun with bits of grey hairs sticking out.

  Getting her hair out of the way, she went back behind her desk and started pulling out multiple folders, each one having the name of a school on them.

  Sitting back down, Mrs. Margrave explained, "These are the schools still open for you to explore. Now, don't be intimidated by their size; they're mainly the school's history, notable graduates, and just any interesting facts that you might want to know."

  “ This first one is to Mathews, a nice school down by Levelland. They’re well known for their track team, and many people that go there can get good scholarships for South Plains.” Handing the folder to him, she quickly moved on to the next one.

  “ Next, we have Talaho; they’re smaller compared to the rest, but they're here in Lubbock, just off of 19th actually. We also have Danak and Andrews; those two are over in New home.”

  One after another, she kept handing him folders, not even giving him time to look them over. Already, four of them were in his lap, and more were coming.

  For the first time, Isaac was surprised that there were so many schools that still felt comfortable letting him attend. And they weren’t just these either; there were ones from Buffalo, Midland, Shoot and Short ( and wasn’t that a surprise, why is a town with only one street sending him a notice), and even down to Brownsville.

  But the last folder made Mrs. Margrave pause.

  “ Finally, we have this one…Oh, I’ve never seen this school before.”

  A school that she doesn’t know about? Now that got his attention. Because, whether they liked it or not, Isaac and his family were kind of imortant figures here. The Cantor family were basically the royals of Lubbock.

  That meant that whatever school he went to was going to have a lot of attention thrown their way. So you better believe there would be some not-so-great people trying to get him to go to their schools.

  Every single one of these schools had to call, email, and send letters, all with their information before the city would even consider mentioning one of them to Isaac.

  They probably had to spend weeks verifying all of this information.

  Can you imagine the type of publicity if Isaac got sent to a fake school? Or, God forbid, a Bad one.

  Not to mention what his family would do to them. They would think they were trying to pull a prank on him, and you don’t prank a Cantor without starting a war.

  But somehow, an unknown school ended up here. Coincidentally, right after, Isaac gets a present with a cryptic warning inside.

  Putting the pile of schools on the floor, Isaac took the folder out of Mrs. Margrave’s hand. To him, it didn’t matter if it was real or fake. If it was real, then it’d probably be more interesting than these other schools. If not, then the Cantors were going to have a great summer.

  Either way, it was going to be fun.

  The name on the folder was Garden Academy, not a school he’d heard of before. But he also can’t remember some of his relatives' names either, so that's not a big surprise.

  Holding the folder in his hand, he was surprised by how light it was. There were only like ten pages inside; the others had at least thirty.

  And the ones they did have didn’t tell him much either. They didn’t say where it was or what they taught. They just had the address for their office and a list of notable graduates, which he guessed they must be really proud of or something.

  The other schools only had a few lines of celebrities and historical figures that went to their school. Here, besides the first page, the other nine were about their graduates.

  They listed people that he’d never even heard of before: Mathew Macd, Olivia Greane, and Jelee Uyl. Not only that, but they also put in some fake names.

  They had Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, as one, which made no sense. Jackson went to school in North Carolina, and that was back in the 1900s.

  There was Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, Carrie Nation, that crazy woman from the Prohibition, and Edgar Allen Poe, the poet.

  This had to be a joke. Most of these people have probably never even set foot in the U.S., much less Texas. Why would they go to a school here?

  As he went down the list, Isaac barely noticed as his hand drifted to his pocket. Grabbing the key, Isaac didn’t know what to think. Nothing here should be true, and yet, he couldn’t help but feel that it was.

  But when he got to the last name, everything stopped. There must be a typo or a cruel joke being played. He knows jokes, and Isaac will be the first to say that he and his family can sometimes take jokes too far.

  But even they know when things go way too far.

  Because the last name on the page was his Great-Granpa’s name.

  Jaime Cantor.

  Isaac doesn’t know how long he sat there staring at that name. Hundreds of thoughts were going through his mind at the moment, and he wasn’t sure that he’d even notice a bomb going off.

  Jaime Cantor went to Lubbock High when he turned sixteen in 1957. He didn’t graduate, but that's where he went. Everyone in the family knew that, so why does this school have his name?

  After he finished going through his thoughts, Isaac closed the folder and stood up. Then, without saying anything, he took the folder and left. He didn’t say goodbye to Mrs. Margrave or stop for the other folders.

  He just got up and left.

  Isaac doesn’t know why this school had his Granpa as one of their graduates, just as he doesn’t know how he got this key. But one thing he does know is where he wants to go to school.

  Any place that can write something so outrageous is either too stupid to know how to lie, or they're telling the truth, and you just can’t accept it. Either way, they got his attention now.

  Let's just see if they can keep it.

  Now, all he had to do was get home and let his parents know.

  ***

  The next day, Isaac was in the car thinking.

  Garden Academy.

  A school he's never heard of, that his dad has never heard of, but, for some reason, his mom has.

  Oh, she didn’t say that; no, she, like his dad, said that she’d never heard of it. But she didn’t have to.

  When he brought the folder to his parents, telling them that this was where he wanted to go, he expected them to be surprised. And they were.

  Or at least his dad was.

  His mom, she was quiet. She didn’t laugh about the graduates or find it weird that they didn’t tell where the school was. She definitely wasn’t surprised that Granpa Jaime’s name was there. Barley gave it a second glance.

  She acted like it was a joke that she already heard.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  His dad was surprised. He was surprised enough for the both of them. He thought it was a joke; in fact, he still thinks it's a joke. And he definitely didn’t like that this was the school Isaac chose.

  He tried to get Isaac to change his mind, to “stop playing around, and choose a real school”. There were so many schools to choose from, and Isaac was lucky enough to get half of those offers. Now, all he had to do was pick one of them.

  But nope, Isaac wanted to go to Garden.

  And when his wife didn’t back him up like he thought she should, Patrick was, understandably, upset.

  Soffia just told him to let Isaac do what he wanted. Let him try out this school; even if it was fake, that didn’t mean they couldn’t choose another.

  Patrick was confused; if anything, he thought she would be furious that these people used her grandfather’s name in their joke. But instead, she was oddly ok with it.

  Looking between the two of them, Patrick could see that they weren’t going to change their mind. Knowing that he was outnumbered Patrick decided to back down. But he made sure to let them know what he thought about this school.

  Later, he realized it wasn’t a big deal. If the school was real, great; if not, Isaac would choose another, preferably one he selected.

  With that out of the way, Isaac then had to make an appointment to meet these people. Calling the number that they left on the folder, Isaac was able to talk to some guy named Keal—nice guy, had a real quiet voice, made it hard to hear anything he said.

  Keal told Isaac that he could visit their office whenever he wanted. Just let them know in advance, and they’ll set up a consultation for him with their “new student coordinator,” whatever that was.

  Not wanting to wait, Isaac scheduled himself for nine o’clock the next day. Now, here he is, in the car with his mom, wondering if he should ask her or not.

  She clearly knows what this school is; that’s obvious. She didn’t even ask him where their office was. She just got him into the car and started driving.

  Kind of sad how bad of a liar she is.

  He should ask her, but he wasn’t. If she wants to tell him, then she’ll tell him; if not, then he’ll just have to find out for himself.

  Looking out the window, Isaac watched as the new building they were driving past slowly turned into older, more run-down buildings.

  The Garden Academy Office was in the downtown part of Lubbock. You know, that weird area where the streets turn from black asphalt to red bricks. Don’t ask him why they did that, he doesn’t know either.

  The road isn’t even flat; it's all bumpy and curved, and it just feels weird to drive on.

  But yeah, it's right across from the old Mahon library. Isaac loved that library; it’s the best one in Lubbock, or at least it's the biggest.

  In the summer, his mom would bring them there to pick out books to read during the break. And if they were good, they got to rent a movie.

  They had a collection of some real old movies right near the front desk. Not the most thrilling thing to watch, but it was fun.

  Driving around Mahon library, Isaac tried to see where this office was. He already knew what most of these buildings were for, but he had seen their office before, so he was curious where it was.

  Going around the bend, though, Isaac started to get confused. There’s no buildings back here, just an empty parking lot. But when his mom parked the car, Isaac couldn’t believe his eyes.

  Because right in front of their car, where there should be just an empty parking lot, was a big orange-bricked building.

  Isaac wondered how they had never seen this place. Mahon Library was literally across the street.

  “ Huh,” Isaac said out loud. “ How long has this thing been here?”

  “Hm?” She asked, not paying attention as she put the keys in her purse. “ Oh, this thing, it's been here for a long time. Your Granpa Jaime helped build it, you know.”

  No, no he did not. Maybe if she had told him, he would. But he wasn’t going to say that. It’s a long walk home, after all.

  “ That’s so cool.”

  “ Yeah, come on, let's go inside.”

  Getting off the car with his mom, Isaac looked around. There wasn’t any sign telling them this was the right place, but his mom seemed pretty confident that it was, so he just followed her.

  He will say one thing though, their office was huge. The place nearly took up the whole lot, and this place was almost as big as a football field.

  It’s a nice place, obviously. His grandpa apparently built it. But it wasn’t just that; it looked brand new. The bricks weren’t even faded, and stained wood accents looked like they were just put on.

  He’ll say this, his grandpa went all out when he built something.

  In the front were these two canted bay windows, framed by stained wood and topped with red-tiled shingles to block the rain. Hanging from the window sill were planter boxes filled with bluebonnets.

  The front door was nice too. It was put in an arc way between the front windows, with frosted glass on both sides of the door. And there was even a half-circle of stylized glass above the door. The image on the glass looked like a rising sun over the door.

  Looked nice, gave it an old rustic look with some style.

  Opening the door, a little bell rang above them. Inside, dozens of desks filled the entire floor with people working endlessly all around. There was a constant buzz of noise from phones and computers filling the gaps as Isaac stood in the entryway, not really knowing where to go.

  Thankfully, he didn’t need to, as his mom was already walking to one desk.

  “ Hello, my son is here for an appointment, he’s suppose to meet a coordinator.” She said, talking to a lady behind the desk.

  “ Yes, one moment.” the lady said, typing on her computer. “ And what is his name.”

  “ Isaac Cantor.” That got the lady's attention.

  “ Oh, another Cantor, well he can go ahead and on up; our coordinator isn’t here right now, so he’ll have to wait a little bit.”

  Another Cantor?

  Now, where has he heard that before? Oh yeah, that’s what every teacher says on the first day of school when they see his name.

  What the hell, Mom?

  How many Cantors have been to this school?

  Isaac looked at his mom, wondering if she was going to say anything. But nope, she just kept talking to the front desk lady like everything was normal.

  “ The stairs are just over there.” The lady says to him. “It's the second floor, last office down the hall on the left; you can wait in his office until he comes back.”

  Now what? Isaac didn’t want to go and wait in some guy's office, probably get bored out of his mind in a minute.

  He wanted to stay and ask some questions, but not only was the lady at the desk looking at him, but so was his mom. They were both waiting for him to leave, their eyes basically telling him to get moving.

  Sighing, Isaac realized that he was going to have to find out everything himself.

  There was one upside to heading to the second floor. The second floor was much quieter.

  The first floor was like a reception area, a place where people could do their work while also interacting with anyone coming in. The second floor was more upper management. Up here, everyone has a personal office.

  There was another reception desk on the second floor, but Isaac ignored them. He already knew where he needed to go.

  Going left, Isaac started counting every office he passed. Most of the offices were empty, but some of them had people working inside. The last office, though, was the only one that had its door open.

  Like the lady at the front said, he wasn’t here. The lights were on, but no one was sitting at the desk.

  The nameplate on the wall said, Henry Perez but no one was inside. Like the lady at the front said, he wasn’t here. The lights were on, but the office was empty.

  Stepping in, Isaac looked around, wondering if there was anything that’d let him know when Henry would be back. But he found nothing, not even an calender with his schedule.

  He would say though, Henry had kept his office kinda empty. There weren’t any pictures or posters. All he had was his desk, a window, and a bookshelf. There was a few little nick- nacks on his desk but nothing that was interesting.

  There were a few chair against the wall while two more chairs sat right in font of the desk. Taking a seat, Isaac wondered how long he was going to wait. The lady didn’t say what Henry was doing; all she said was that he wasn’t there. For all he knew, he could be having lunch.

  It was barely nine-twenty, so probably not, but who knows maybe he takes his lunch early.

  All Isaac knew was that he was stuck here, waiting for this guy to come back.

  Taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, Isaac thought about what he was going to do. Because he was already starting to get bored, and he just sat down. Usually, he’d at least have his phone to look at, but his dad grounded him.

  So he’s got nothing.

  Seconds ticked by as Isaac looked around the office, looking for anything to focus on. But the only thing that he could find was a Newton’s cradle on the desk and that got old real fast. Only so many ways you can slam those balls together before you get bored.

  Well, this was terrible; Isaac was going to lose his mind before he meets this coordinator. If he was going to have to wait for this guy, then he’s going to have to find some way to make it fun.

  And since this guy got nothing in his office, there was only one thing left to do.

  So, after getting comfortable in his chair, Isaac let go of his mind.

  Not in the crazy kind of way, no, it's just what Isaac calls it when he starts daydreaming. He says, “letting go of his mind” because when he starts daydreaming, he stops paying attention.

  It's a trick he learned in school. When things started to get a little too boring, he’d just look off in the distance and start daydreaming. He’d start imagining dragons and kingdoms, underwater adventures, and spies toppling governments.

  And when he woke up, class was done.

  When he realized that he could do this, just ignore everything and imagine something better, he “lost his mind”.

  He started doing this whenever. In classes, on the ride home, during dinner. Whenever he felt bored by everything around him, he’d just shut off his mind and go off to his own world.

  He apparently got so good at it that people had to actually touch him to get his attention.

  One time, a teacher wanted to see how long he would stay like that, so he told everyone to leave him alone. He sat there for hours, sitting perfectly still as he stared off into the distance. He was so still that people thought he was dead, but they still didn’t touch him, too afraid to break the spell.

  He only woke up cause his mom slapped him across the head, telling him it was time to go.

  That teacher taught his first period, first thing in the morning.

  What can he say? Sometimes, he just gets lost in his own head.

  But then, one time, while he was away in his imagination, he missed something. Apparently, one of his teachers was doing something illegal under the school's nose. So the cops came during class and took her away.

  From what people have told him, she made a pretty big scene; she even tried smashing through the window to escape. All classes were forced to stop as everyone left their classroom and watched as this teacher got dragged into the back of a squad car and taken away.

  Not Isaac, though. No, Isaac was too busy imagining living through a giant bug apocalypse.

  So he tries not to lose his mind so often. In case he misses something.

  But seeing as there is nothing here-.

  If anyone saw Isaac right now, they might have thought that he was a statue. Because right now he was just sitting there, alone in an empty office, starring off into space.

  But if they saw what was going on inside of his head, they’d have a seizure.

  Comparing Isaac’s mind to everyone else's is a little bit tricky. All brains move along the same path; Isaac’s just a little bit faster. If a regular person's mind is walking, Isaac’s is skipping- going faster while also moving weirdly.

  If we go along with that same analogy, then right now, Isaac’s mind would be running.

  It doesn’t take much to daydream; you just sit down and imagine something. What’s harder is ignoring everything else, ignoring it to the point that they don’t even exist.

  Monks spend years meditating to empty their minds, ignore worldly delights, and even ignore their bodies' hunger.

  Isaac can’t do that.

  His mind just moves too fast. So, instead, he makes it go faster.

  Isaac imagines so many details that his mind can't notice anything else. He’s imagining so many things at once that he’s practically building an entire world inside his head.

  And right now, that world is built entirely around this key in his pocket.

  What is it? What does it do? Is it a key to a safe of his Granpa’s? Does it open a secret map to treasure?

  It could be a key to a castle for him to inherit or a hidden relic. Maybe it’ll show him a secret that’ll lead him to a long-lost family inheritance where he’ll take up the mantle of king.

  And then-.

  “ OW!” Isaac screamed out in pain.

  Right as he was imagining himself ruling the world on top of an epic pyramid, someone came up behind him and donkey-punched him in the back of the head. It hurt worse cause he wasn’t even expecting it.

  Who hits someone for no reason?

  Not only that, but who wakes someone up like that? They destroyed such a beautiful dream.

  Now Isaac was mad.

  He usually doesn’t care if someone hits him; he usually deserves it. But to wake him up when he’s dreaming?

  It doesn’t matter who it is: his mom, his dad, even a little kid. If you wake him when he’s dreaming, then you're getting punched in the face.

  Turning around, Isaac looked behind him. But before he could even say anything, he stopped. Because he knew who hit him, he just wasn’t expecting her to be here.

  It was Luci, who, on the list of people he was expecting to see behind him, wasn’t even on the list. And she was just standing there, in the doorway, with her arms crossed, glaring down at him like he was the one in the wrong.

  He didn’t know what to say about this. Why was she here? Wasn’t she going to Lubbock High?

  This completely blindsided him. He didn’t know what she was doing here. He hadn't talked to her since the fight in the cafeteria.

  After he left the principal’s office, Isaac…kind of… forgot to call Luci. Usually, he calls or texts her, but with the whole key thing and not being able to go to school thing, everything kind of slipped his mind.

  So he was kind of off his game right now. But benign quiet wasn’t helping, especially when she was glaring down at him, waiting for him to say something.

  First things first though, finding out why she’s so angry.

  “ Oh, hey, Luci, what are you doing here?”He asked.

  Thought he’d start off like that, get a feel on her.

  Apparently, that wasn’t the right thing to say because her glare went from “ talk” to “shut up”. Without saying anything, she walked up and hit him again.

  “ OW! What was that for.”

  “ That was for leaving me to clean up your mess. Again!” She screamed.“ Do you know what it feels like explaining to the teachers and cops that you had nothing to do with what you did? Let me tell you, it's not nice!”

  Yeah, she was mad.

  “ You didn’t have to talk to the cops! I did! You just get to go off like nothing happened!” Now, she was practically leaning over him as she screamed. “ And then you have the audacity to ghost me! Not a single world in two days!”

  Oh, now he’s starting to feel bad. He didn’t know that not saying anything would be this big of a deal. Whenever he talked to her, it was mostly just him doing the talking. While any text he sent would be left unread for days, while calls would be unanswered.

  Honestly, he thought she’d be happy not to hear him. Plus, he thought that he’d never see her again, so, to him, it didn’t matter if he stopped talking to her now or later.

  Guess she cared about him more than he thought.

  “ Hey!” He said loudly, trying to get her attention. “ Hey. I’m sorry I didn’t think about that. I’m sorry.” He was trying to be sincere and he hoped that she understood that. But really, he just wanted her to stop hitting him.

  She looked at him for a while, not saying anything. For a second, he thought that she would start screaming again, but she just signed. Walking around him, she sat down in the chair next to him.

  “ Whatever. Why do I even bother.” She muttered. She turned away, looking out the window while resting her chin on her hand.

  They sat in silence for a while before Isaac started getting bored again.

  “ By the way, what are you doing here.” He asked.

  “What do you think?”

  “ I don’t know. I thought you were going to Lubbock High.”

  “ Huh...I was. But then they sent me a letter in the mail asking me to come here. So I thought, might as well go check it out. Plus apparently they help you get into college so that got my parents happy...Didn’t expect to see you here, though

  “ Huh? Good for you, I guess. It was pretty much the same for me.”

  “ Yeah? Wonder why they want both of us though. I mean, you nothing special.” She smirked. Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

  “ You know Luci, you say some pretty mean things.”

  As they talked, they waited for Henry to show up. Talking with Luci was nice. He was scared about what she’d do without him next year, but it looked like he was worried for nothing. They were still going to be together, them against the world.

  Oh, but before Isaac forgot.

  Checking to make sure that she wasn’t paying attention, Isaac quickly whipped out his hand and punched Luci in the arm. It wasn’t a nice little tap either; he hit her hard enough to send her out of the chair and onto the floor.

  To Luci’s credit, she didn’t make a single sound as she crashed into the floor. Not even a shout of pain escaped her lips. All she did was glare at him from her spot on the floor.

  Just because he deserved getting hit doesn’t mean that he wasn’t going to get back at her.

  What kind of person would he be that didn’t hit a girl when she hit him first?

  A boring one, that’s right.

  “ For the record, that's for waking me up.”