Nothing's changed. The hierarchy, intact. Seraphina still trusts him. He's still a "cripple". But for how long exactly? John wakes up from the worst nightmare of his life only to find it wasn't just a nightmare. Now he must put aside differences and...
"If there's one thing I'm sure of, whatever happened in that nightmare of a vision isn't good, and if I don't intervene, it might actually happen."
❃❃❃
Seraphina considered herself a pretty observant person. Especially when it came to people she was close to, of which there were few. John hadn't been acting particularly different, but she'd started noticing the little quirks in his behavior. When he thought he was alone or that no one was looking, he seemed far more nervous. Seraphina hadn't pointed it out to him yet, but his eyes wandered and seemed clouded over whenever they spoke. John was distracted but whatever it was that kept his attention must have been important. She walked through the crowded hallway and students shuffled aside making way for her as they always did. A certain tall blonde walked past her and for a brief moment, they made eye contact. Seraphina glared at him and opened her mouth to say something but decided against making a scene in front of all the students.
She quickened her pace, looking for John. She didn't see him at his apartment when she woke up and he wasn't outside the school gates either. It was unusual for someone like him. "John!" she exclaimed, seeing him in the empty classroom. "You're... early. Really early." He seemed dazed for a moment but blinked and looked up at her.
"Ah, Sera-" he said, shaking his head. "Sorry for leaving you without saying anything," he replied, standing up to walk to her.
"Where were you?" she asked, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorframe.
"I wanted some fresh air. I've just been a bit tired recently. Sorry to worry you." he said, gesturing his hand to show that he was fine. He was trembling a little.
Seraphina straightened her stance and took his hand in hers. "You're shaking, John. Look, if you aren't feeling alright, you can tell me. You seemed a bit off lately."
"Well, I've been feeling under the weather this past week. I might be sick but that's all, okay? I don't want you to worry about me!" he said, giving her a reassuring smile. Seraphina had a feeling that he wasn't being completely honest with her but didn't push any further either. "Uh..." John trailed off, looking at his hand which she was still holding.
"Oh, sorry." she muttered awkwardly, looking down. "Let's go up to the rooftop. Class starts soon and if the teachers find you here you'll have to stay for the class."
"We're skipping again? I have a quiz today!" he protested.
"And you're actually gonna take it?" she said, a laugh hidden in her voice. He rolled his eyes. "Come on then."
They turned the corner around one of the lockers and John collided with a student that was running. They both fell back while Seraphina stood next to him. The pink haired student who'd just crashed into John rubbed her head and started picking up the items she'd dropped. "Ah, I'm sorry! I was just in a hurry and wasn't paying attention. Are you hurt?" She asked, standing up. "Oh, Seraphina! Good to see you." Remi flinched slightly, from some kind of pain and then extended her hand to John who took it gingerly. Seraphina took notice of the small movement.
"Hey Remi, nice to see you too." Seraphina replied, bending down to pick up the last few belongings the two had dropped when they ran into each other. "If you don't mind me asking, what's the rush?" Remi hesitated a little.
"Uh, well I have to visit Doc before class starts to get a small injury healed up, though at this point I'm already late." she answered, laughing.
"Turf wars?" she inquired, handing her the rest of the items.
"...Yeah." Remi responded. "Well, sorry again. See you!" she waved to the two of them and took off down the hall. Seraphina turned to John just as the bell rang.
"Remi's always like that. C'mon, let's get up to the roof."
❃❃❃
"So what, are we just gonna call him? We don't even have his number anymore, and even if we did, what makes you think he'd want to talk with us? After everything that happened, it would make much more sense for us to, I dunno, stay away from the crazy bastard that hospitalized us?"
"Adrion," Claire said. "You seemed pretty serious about this whole thing back at the cafe. All that about getting to know more about my visions. What's with the change of mind?" She asked, sitting next to him at the desk in her apartment.
"Well I still want to help him, obviously. It'd be pretty awful if we let something dangerous happen to him. That doesn't mean I wanna see him, or talk to him, or even hear from him." he said nervously. Claire rolled her eyes.
"How else are we going to warn him and help him. My visions are only going to get us so far, and it's kinda scary having someone pop into your dreams and tell you that you're in grave danger. So even if he got the vision I sent him, I doubt he got a clear idea of what to do. We have to speak to him." Her fingers skimmed the keyboard, typing away. The Wellston Private High School homepage was open on her laptop. Adrion leaned over her shoulder to take a look at the screen. The elite high school had a website befitting it's prestige. The slideshow of pictures fading in and out on the page radiated and depicted the kind of preppy snob behavior Claire would expect from a top ranking school. She scrolled down, looking at club pictures in search of the familiar black hair and burnt golden eyes.
"You think he was a club kinda guy? He didn't join and extracurriculars here at New Bostin did he?" Adrion pointed out.
"Probably not. But he's a high tier! A level seven or something if I remember correctly. He's gotta have some kind of recognition. Didn't he rank pretty highly in our region?" She found the subsection with the school's Turf Wars team photos. They were a few years old. In it was a tall smirking blonde and a girl who's purple hair was pulled into a long wavy ponytail. Her face was hardened and expressionless.
"They look pretty scary." he commented. "Doesn't look like John does Turf Wars though. Maybe he got sick of beating people up."
"We haven't seen him in years. Do you think he's changed? It was hard to tell from my visions since they were so ominous, but do you really think he's gotten better?" Claire asked softly.
"Maybe. I hope so." Adrion replied. "It's crazy how for a guy as strong as him, there's nothing on him at Wellston. He doesn't seem to be important there."
"He was always being talked about here in New Bostin. I wonder why it isn't the same there, especially since that school is known for having crazy strong students." Claire remembered.
"Yeah, he hasn't been this insignificant since he was labelled a cripple." Adrion remarked.
"Since... since he was a cripple."
Chapter 13 (1202 words)
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anna's A/N: heyy :)
I didn't get corona luckily, but I did catch something and I was sick for a while which really sucked. I'm kinda feeling better though. I'm gonna try and do a double upload, so one tomorrow as well but I'm terrible at keeping to my goals so we'll have to see.
also, thank you to @Tigeressyyy for sending me the image I used for the end card ^^
