Author’s note: Happy new year! I’m so sleepy, and perhaps drunk, but I’m not sure cause I didn’t drink much and alcohol just makes me sleepy and my legs get drunk, but not my brain. I’m really sleepy so it’s a miracle that I finished this chapter today, so weee! Hope you enjoy it, no reviews yet, I know I’m not that good, but I try.

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Lost Souls

Chapter 4

I was dreaming. A different dream now. There were bodies all around me, but they had no skin. Bodies made of a blue light. I looked at myself and I was just like them. As I walked past them, they stood unmoving and I noticed there were others as well. All different, but the blue ones were a good amount, almost like the red ones, not many black ones, some strange deformed orange ones and a lot of gray ones. I didn't understand it at first, but as I stopped moving I saw the sky above me turn from white to blue and the colored bodies started to look real. People from the school, some of them from the town. I saw Donny and I noticed that their feet were still colored for some reason, like the beginning. They were gray. Then I saw a girl stand in front of me. I knew her. Well, not really, but I knew of her. She took all of our classes with me, except the last one. If I wasn't mistaken, she was in charge of the school newspaper. She was kind of nice given her job as the editor. The last editor was snobby, nosey and annoying. This one was calm, but not to be underestimated. She usually ended up finding some good information without even letting you know. Her name... her name.. what's her name again? I remembered it was Japanese, since she was Japanese American. Suddenly a memory of her name being called out came to me within the dream. 'Keiko Kohana Shina' as I looked down I saw her feet and they were blue, like mine.

I woke up literally having my heart jumped as I saw Lily jumping on my bed.

"What the heck are you doing?"I asked with a groan as I looked at the watch. It was 6:45am. "What happened? Why didn't the alarm ring?"I asked quickly sitting on the bed and looking for my sandals. I looked over at Lily who had stopped jumping and noticed, she slept in her underwear.

"I turned it off, I was making breakfast and I wanted to surprise you"she said with an innocent smile as she threw herself on my bed.

"You know how to cook?"I asked a little surprised.

"Why do you think I wanted to learn Spanish? Shuamar, that was her name, was really good at cooking and cleaning, and I wanted to learn. If it was up to my mom, all I'd learn was to make money and drink martinis in the morning"she said. I grinned and took my towel from the wall.

"I'm taking a shower"I said.

"Won't you have breakfast?! I put so much love into it"she said with a puppy face.

"After I take a shower please"I said as I headed out of the room and sighed looking at myself in the bathroom mirror. To think I was starting to complain about my everyday usual schedule. As I finished I dried my hair as best as I could with the towel, Lily came in and stared at me.

"I have a blow drier"she said.

"I don't use those things"I said, well, I just didn't see much use. I mean, I was going to school, not a beauty contest.

"And that's why your hair looks like hay. You have beautiful hair, short, but still. It's such a nice brown, it's almost golden brown you know and you don't have one wave in that hair. Blow dried, it would be beautiful. Look at that"she said pulling out one of my hairs making me yell "you have little hair, and really thin"she said. I glared at her.

"And I'll have none if you yank them all out"I said.

"Ok, that's it, I'm blow drying your hair"she said.

"No, no and no"I said covering my hair with my hands.

"Think of the hair drier as a gun right now. Either I use it to help you, or attack you, as in hit you with it. Come on, let me help you. First of all, wash your hair, and fast"she said.

"But we're going to be late for school!"I said.

"Not if you hurry up, besides it's a Friday, they can take it"she said. I sighed finally giving up and doing as told. As I finished, doing it as quickly as I could, even Lily complimented me since I only took around 10 minutes which she said must be a world record. I felt the hot hair graze my scalp. She hit me a few times telling me to stop moving as she used little clips. She didn't take long, about 20 minutes. I did have short hair and it wasn't really that much. I looked in the mirror. It looked strange. The brown color didn't look so dark as it usually did when it was wet, it actually looked golden and just a bit fluffy, but not so it resembled a poodle. She grinned.

"Next deed, make up"she said.

"Na-ah, excuse me, this is not prom night and I'm not your Barbie"I said quickly walking out of the bathroom.

"Party pooper. Come on, just eyeliner"she said.

"No"I solemnly stated.

"Fine, you still have natural beauty so I don't feel so bad. Here, take this clip so you can put your hair back when it bothers"she said. I muttered a thanks and we walked to the kitchen.

"Food's kind of cold so put it in the microwave"she said, but then took the plates herself. It was pancakes, with fried eggs (sunny side up), fries and she even had a dish with cut fruits.

"Ok? How did you get food into my fridge?"I asked inspecting the refrigerator.

"Oh, I didn't tell you that, did I? I kind of stretched the bargain I made with mom and dad a little more. I'm getting a car, but more like next month or I don't know when and since they felt sad I was leaving they kind of gave me $1000 which I know they only did to kind of say 'we don't owe you anything else'"she said. I gave a light smile.

"Well, at least you got food. Who helped you move so fast anyway?"I asked.

"The gardener and the driver. They were so happy mom and dad were moving, since that means they won't be working for them anymore, that they would've shined my shoes if I asked them too"she said taking the now steaming plates out of the microwave. I sat down at the bar, since I didn't really have a table, just an imitation of a bar which I had turned into a kitchen. It was an open kitchen too, connected to the living room and I liked it.

We started eating. I stared at her. At least I was in my bathrobe, but why was she walking in her underwear?

"Interesting clothes to sleep in"I said.

"Oh? This, I don't like clothes much, I don't like to be naked either, well maybe from the waist down but my boobs bother me"she said.

"Don't you feel... embarrassed?"I asked.

"Why should I be? We both have breasts, only thing is that mine are bigger"she said.

I sighed. "Rub that on my face why don’t you?"I said sarcastically.

"Hey, don't worry, it's actually one of the few good things my family gave me"she said.

"You really don’t like your family, do you?"I asked.

"Oh no, I love them, but I just have to admit..."she said as she pondered on something.

"What?"I asked.

"the problem with the gene pool, is that there is no lifeguard"she said with a grin.

"Oh geez, the things you say"I said with a light chuckle.

"What? You have to admit, it's funny"she said. I grinned as we both finished, I washed dishes and we both got dressed. As we arrived together people looked at us weird, but I paid no mind to it. What was I going to do about that? The dodge ball incident. It's not like I could say Daniel did it, cause I wasn't really sure what he really did do or how he did it. And the fact that he kind of stated that I could do it too didn't really help matters. As we entered the empty classroom, it was still a few minutes early someone else came in which was surprising, yet I felt like I expected it. It was Keiko.

She looked ok for a Japanese/American. Although she looked more Japanese than American, having the Japanese height, hair, shape of eyes, just not the accent, and her eyes were dark green.

"Hey Soluna"she said formally, in a respectful tone. Lily raised an eyebrow looking at her. I smiled looking at Lily, sometimes I felt like she was my bodyguard.

"Hey Keiko, how can we help you?"asked Lily not even letting me speak. She probably suspected she was going to ask me about the dodge ball scene.

"Oh, I'm just here to ask a question. The thing is I heard that Lily made the dodge balls stop in mid air and then sucked out the air by looking at them"said Keiko. Lily groaned, but I signaled her not to say anything.

"First of all, I wasn't even looking, I was too busy crouching on the ground avoiding any heavy pain from all the balls being thrown at me. Second, I didn't do it, I didn't even know the balls fell down until Lily told me so. And third, don't you think if I could've stopped balls in midair, I would've done a lot of other things too?"I said trying to cover and lie as best as I could. Even Lily gave me a look of credit.

"Sorry if I bothered-" she said, but Lily interrupted her.

"Well yes you are bothering us, now go and try to dig another story cause this one is empty"she said. I gave her a disapproving look. "Oh fine, sorry Keiko, didn't mean to be rude. I guess madness takes its toll and I didn't really have exact change"she said. Keiko blinked not really getting her. "Geez, people these days, no sense of humor"Lily complained. Before Keiko could leave I remembered the dream I had. She was standing in front of me.. her feet blue, like mine.

"Hey Keiko, why don't you stay? Unless you have somewhere else to be"I said. Lily quickly shot a curious look at me, but I just made a gesture with my shoulders.

"Well, that's kind of weird, you two are 'The Untouchables'"she said sitting besides us.

"What do you mean?"asked Lily.

"Because you always hang out with each other, people don't like that, call it abnormal"said Keiko.

"Well, not our fault there's not a lot of people worth hanging out with. Not that we're proud or snobby, it's just that everyone here is so blind sighted by a whole lot of things, I don't have the patience to stand a syllable of what they have to say"said Lily.

"Well, now I understand why the call you that.."said Keiko with a grin.

"Call me what?"asked Lily.

"They call you, 'The judgement day' cause you judge a lot and when you judge people, you judge to kill"said Keiko. Lily laughed.

"Not really, I just have my opinions, they don't have to change though. I don't care, I don't live with them and even if I did, wouldn't care, as long as they stay out of my personal life, I'm happy"she said.

"What do they call me?"I asked out of curiosity. Keiko looked at me with a small smile, more like a sympathetic one.

"The silent witch, well now, because then they used to call you the silent victim for some reason.. Hey, I like what you did with your hair by the way, looks nice"said Keiko. I gave a light smile and said thanks.

"I did it, next step, curling"said Lily. I stared at her.

"Don't EVEN think about it"I said.

We kept talking, small things. Keiko wasn't so bad, and Lily didn't hate her, but didn't speak to her very trustingly yet which I found normal. Eventually Mr. Hernandez came in and the class was started. He gave some homework for the weekend which made everyone's face twist except mine. As we were leaving he told me to stay behind again.

"I heard about the gym incident"he said.

"What gym incident?"I asked.

"The one where balls mysteriously stopped in mid air.. do you think that's possible?"he asked.

"Well, anything is possible, all I know is I didn't do it"I said.

"I believe you, I believe you... but then.. who did?"he asked and for a moment he looked serious, like he really believed me as he kept taping his fingers together.

"I don't know"I simply muttered as I kept thinking of Daniel.

"All right then, go or you'll be late for class"he said and I quickly left. Lily waited for me and this time so did Keiko.

"What did he want? Did he threaten you not to give me the results this time?"asked Lily.

"No, just wondering how the tutoring was going"I said.

In Lit I convinced Lily to tell the teacher of her idea. The teacher loved it and demanded a script by Monday. Which was a big task, even for Lily. As we sat in lunch Keiko sat with us making a lot of heads turn. Keiko didn't really have any friends, or enemies, she talked to everyone, but liked to be alone most of the time since everyone was hypocritical with her.

"My mom called in the morning, I don't know how she got your number. She wanted me to go with them"said Lily.

"Really? Changed her mind so soon?"I asked.

"Huh? I'm lost"said Keiko glancing at us both.

"My mom and dad are going to move, I didn't want to so I told them to let me go and I'm staying with Sol"said Lily.

"Oh right, I forgot, you live alone. That must be so cool, no one bossing you around or giving you a curfew"said Keiko.

"Yeah well, I've gotten used to it. It's kind of simple when you have to be working, cleaning and studying at the same time"I said.

"I never had a curfew, except when I learned Spanish. The maid told me to go to sleep and this time I couldn't pretend to ignore her because I didn't know Spanish"said Lily with a grin.

"Yeah well I have a curfew, at nine"said Keiko.

"What? You're 17! Aren't you?"asked Lily.

"Yup, I am. You'd be surprised really. My mom doesn't let me go out at night, or with guys, unless she knows them for like a year or so. I don't know how to clean, I don't know how to cook and I basically do nothing.. which isn't as good as people think it is"said Keiko. Lily dropped her fork.

"And I thought Japanese people were really tidy"I said.

"Well, my dad is the Japanese one and I think he's bitter because he only has one which is me and has two stepdaughters which are mom's, no guys and because he has a good wife, but as a mom, my mom is a very stubborn case"said Keiko.

"Really? How come?"asked Lily taking a mouthful as Keiko stared at her. "Sorry, it's just that my family is really dysfunctional, it's a change for me to hear about someone else's"said Lily with a half masticated cow in her mouth.

"Heh, well, since my mom was 'poor' she wanted to give us everything she didn't have. Well, eventually she grew annoyed with my sisters once she got divorced and made them do chores, but since I was the one with a dad she spoiled me too much. She set my plate, washed my clothes, cleaned my room, everything and never ever asked for help. And now here I am, a spoiled lazy brat. Now she wants me to clean since my sisters are gone and no one can help her, and I do clean, but I'm not Mary Poppins cause she raised a spoiled brat, even dad tells her, but she refuses to listen. I tell her 'Tell me what to clean and how to clean it and I'll do it' and then she says 'Do I have to tell you to wipe your ass when you clean it?'"said Keiko as she sighed and took a sip of her juice. She went on.

"Really, sometimes I want to ask her what does she want from me? One day she's saying how Im her only hope, how she's proud of my achievements and stuff, then the next day she's screaming at me because I don't clean, telling me I'll betray her like my sisters and that I'm just like my father. Really, I don't get it"said Keiko.

"Damn, you have it bad, at least mine were predictable and I always had perfect ways of ignoring them"said Lily.

"How about you, Sol?"she said, and then there was silence, Lily didn't say anything and I only gave a light smile.

"Oh, I know your parents died.. but.. I mean if you don't want to talk about it, it's fine, but I just thought.."I didn't let Keiko finish, I cut her off nicely.

"It's all right.. I'm kind of in a phase of moving on, so it might help to talk about it I guess.. My mom and dad were fine, they had their bad habits. My dad liked too watch sports too much and sometimes ignored mom, and they fought over that but then the next day they'd be all over each other, so I stopped thinking of it as hypocrisy and just thought of it as normal. There was one funny thing that my mom did, I was never sure if everyone did it, but with mom it was a tradition she made herself. On new year's eve we'd wake up early and start cleaning. We cleaned everything, the whole house, the car, the pets, everything. Then we made a big feast even if it was just the three of us, and made sure every dish was clean, everything spotless. She said it was a way of starting the new year clean and we did. I complained a lot about it, but thanks to that I became an expert on fast cleaning and cooking. To do all that in a day, well it's a challenge"I said with a grin as the memories flashed by. Dad hosing the car outside while mom cleaned the ceiling fan and I swept the dirt she threw. But at the end of the day things were clean and we were eating like starving maniacs. Even if it was almost at the ring of midnight, we ate, we welcome the new year and we crashed on our beds. We didn't make a huge thing, but mom and dad did put some dance music from time to time and I would just sit and watch them.. Sit and watch them.

No one said anything, though Keiko was smiling me, which made me feel better. Then I felt a shadow over me, Lily glaring at it and Keiko just biting her lip.

"Hey Sol, your hair looks nice today"said Donny. I groaned as he stood at the head of the table so we could all see him.

"Thanks Donny"I muttered.

"Can I talk to you?"he asked.

"Sure"I said kind of biting my tongue for saying that.

"In private"he said.

"Anything you have to say to her, you say it to all of us"said Keiko. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, because if you don't, she'll tell us later and it'll be worse for you, MUCH worse"said Lily. Donny just ignored them and I just sighed.

"I don't really feel like talking to you alone..."I muttered feeling the snakes crawl inside my skin.

"Fine, forget it then"he said walking away a little angry and I shrugged.

"What is it with him? I mean seriously, he needs to move on"said Keiko tugging at her food like if it was alive.

"So, you're on our side? That's surprising, everyone says that Sol is the vixen who trampled on him"said Lily.

"Yeah right, I don't know Sol very well, but I know she wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was biting her or something. Besides, I know about him, he's obsessive and no girls like him. No offense, but you did a bad thing on giving him a chance"said Keiko.

"Why?"I asked curious. What did she know that I didn't?

"You were the only one to give him a chance, his first love and now he's obsessed. You do know he's a depressive suicidal? And he has had anger problems too. Once he threw a chair off a school and he beat a guy so bad, his face was deformed. He's been involved with drugs and booze, but he quit for you"said Keiko. Lily choked on her soda while Keiko talked. I was in awe.

"Wait? All this happened here? That’s impossible, they would've sent him to a military school"said Lily.

"Not really, it happened in Puerto Rico. He was born in New York I think, but was raised there after his parents divorce, it wasn’t really good. He has a little brother too. Anyway, he's a bomb waiting to explode, it's just that not a lot of people know it"said Keiko.

"How do you know all that?"asked Lily awesomely curious.

"Let's just say I have access to student files, even the counselor's one"said Keiko.

"So that means you read mine?"I asked. There was a solemn silence now, too solemn.

"Would you be mad if I said yes?"she asked. I shrugged and shook my head then she nodded. Lily opened her eyes really wide.

"That's invasion of privacy!"she hissed.

"I know, but I'm just extremely curious I guess... I just like to know things about people, because in the paper we tend to ridicule people a bit and I don't like them to do that unless I know the facts. Yesterday they wanted to put something about the dodge ball incident, I told them no.. I don't like stepping over a boundary that I know will hurt, for the person and for me"she said. I sighed.

"So what did the long neck monster write about me?"I asked.

"Everything you've told her, that your case is a depressive one and could evolve into a suicidal mode"she said. Again there was silence at the table, all you could hear were the other classmates giggling and talking loudly around us. I sighed. So that's what she thought of me? I sighed. I did think countless of times of killing myself. I almost did it once... but my hand got a sort of cramp that my whole hand let it fall to the floor and I even stood back before it could fall on my feet.

The bell rang and I jumped startled as it woke me from my own thoughts. "All you all right?"asked Lily worried and giving Keiko a disappointed glance.

"Oh I'm fine, come on, we have to get to class"I said. I was fine... Daniel was right, I was tied up inside. Tied up by memories, haunting memories that were like live nightmares. But slowly I felt myself loosen.. I don't know, maybe it was talking about my family or the fact that Lily cleaned out the room.. That made me ponder a lot as we sat there in Lab... What would happen when all my 'knots' were undone... Would I become a freak?

Classes went by normal, except receiving more stares than usual it was ok. Finally we went to P.E. and I dreaded it.. yet at the same time I did want to see him. I put on the gym clothes and kind of felt even more shy than usual given the fact that my mind was clearer on the fact that I liked him.. Keiko came in with us too. Said she wanted to do a story on our new teachers and Daniel was one of them. Daniel didn't look at me for some reason I didn't understand and said we'd be playing volleyball and we should focus first on warming up with a few exercises. I shrugged. I walked a lot, I didn't mind exercise, but I did mind a bunch of girls watching me as I did it. Lily and I were standing side by side while doing jumping jack then suddenly a ball was thrown at me and Lily pulled me to her so it wouldn't hit me, but it wasn't going to, because it stopped. I looked around. Daniel was nowhere to be seen. Then he didn't do this. It was me. Everyone 'Oohed' as the ball fell a few inches away from me and let out the air inside of it. "Witch, witch, witch"they all chanted and Keiko herself got me out of there.

"How did you do that?!"asked Keiko. I could hear Lily in the distance telling them to shut up, or they'd show her some bitch techniques.

"I didn't do anything! I swear!"I said throwing my hands in the air.

"But was that witchcraft?"asked Keiko.

"No! I don't know"I said with a groan.

"Hmmm.. do you know who did it?"she asked.

"No.. you're not going to write about this in the paper, are you?"I asked with a hopeful look.

"Parts of it yes, but don't worry, I won't say who it was. Good thing about journalism, lying isn't bad, exaggerating the truth isn't bad, now writing the truth is often not good"she said.

"What do you mean? Do you know who it was? Did you.. did you see someone do something?"I asked lightly grabbing her hand.

"I know who it was. It was me"she said. I drew back from her and shook my head. No, it couldn't be. What was this? What were they? Or what were we for that matter. I ran off and I could hear Lily call for me. As I ran the halls even a guy screamed after me for a hall pass. No, I didn't care about a hall pass. I cared about getting out of here. Fast. Suddenly I bumped into someone head on, that's what happens when you run with your eyes closed and the impact was so hard I fell on top of him but he quickly got off under me.

"Mss. Aurora, I guess you need a lift, no?"asked Mr. Hernandez. I heard the guy monitoring the halls come closer, I looked at the teacher, he pushed me into the janitor's closet as the boy asked him where I went. The teacher said that I ran off the school, probably on my way to run home. The boy stomped his feet and said he was going to the office. I sighed. Mr. Hernandez came in and closed the door behind him. It kind of made me feel uncomfortable.

"So, who stopped the ball now?"he asked.

"huh?"I asked a little nervous as I drew back from him.

"Don't worry, I know Daniel did the first, now who did it now? Daniel again? I told him we're not supposed to do that in public"he said.

"Wait a minute, we? Not you too"I said as I attempted to run out of the room but he stretched his arm out to stop me.

"Yes, we. You too. We're not demons. Well, at least not all of us. I can explain, if you're willing to learn"he said.

I stayed quiet for a moment.. Well, I needed to know.. I wanted to know..

"Daniel won't tell you the truth, like I will. Perhaps we shall make a meeting, for all of us. For now, let's get out of here or else they might think wrong"said Mr. Hernandez.

"I can't go back to Gym, not after what happened"I said.

"Well, you have your car keys?"he asked.

"No, I gave them to Lily, she's going, well was going to take me to art class... I guess I'll walk"I said.

"Yes, you do that, it'll help you think"he said as he stepped out and looked around. After he saw there was no one in sight he opened the door wider for me. He had his jacket in his arm and his portfolio in the other. We walked out together, but didn't really talk. I guess he wasn't the talkative type. I asked him for a piece of paper and pen so I could write a note to Lily and leave it inside the car. It was locked but we always left the windows slightly open so it would get some air. He looked at me and smiled.

"You're lucky. He never uses his powers for anyone. To tell you the truth, he hasn't been able to hear anyone"he said while pointing to his head "in his mind, since his mother died"he said and walked away. I just stood there, with no words to say and a lot of problems in my head. Now I'd definitely get it. I could feel it. I started walking to art. Nothing to lose now. At least I'd have more time on my painting.. at least.

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So, what do you think? Any suggestions? I do have some ideas set, but how am I going to get there? Only time can tell. But I do promise you this, this time I won’t forget to mention the piano in the house falls -.-; yeah it’s too late too change it now, but if you guys want to know, the piano is obviously in the living room. Ok, if you want a better picture of what Sol’s apartment looks like. Anyone here seen the movie, “Someone like you?” well, the slutty guy’s apartment, I forgot his name in the movie, but I know in real life he’s Hugh Jackman. So yeah, the apartment is kind of like that. And to tell you a little secret, subtract the supernatural and some exagerating stories, this story has a lot from my life. I wasn't going to even add Keiko into the mix, but I had a bad day and felt kind of grr that kind of created her in my mind.