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...
"I need you to find something about someone. A person named Claire."
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"Uh, Claire? Is that it or-?" Isen trailed off, expecting more information to work with.
"A girl named Claire. From New Bostin. Find out everything you can about her, including contact information, and give it to me. I want it done by the end of this week."
"Yeah, I can get that for you. If that's it I'm gonna... leave." Isen scurried off, visibly confused after what had just happened. "So he has an ability? And a strong one too. Very few people have been able to break my grip like that, and he did it with one hand! Arlo... you have no idea what you're doing, do you?"
John stared down at his hands for a minute. "I'm making a mess of things," he whispered to himself. John gritted his teeth. "Why won't Arlo just leave us alone?" He slammed his fist into the wall, frustrated. "This meeting with Claire better clear things up."
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Isen sat beside Blyke in the library. His eyes scanned over the New Bostin Highschool homepage but his mind was still on the incident in the hallway. The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach wouldn't leave. In truth, he was simply uncomfortable with the fact that someone like John was hiding among the students, moreover, he couldn't do anything about it. Isen moved his mouse to hover over the 'Class of 20XX' link, and clicked it. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a closer look at the picture. "Which one's Claire?" he thought, scanning the image. His eyes stopped at the frowning black haired boy in the center.
"HUH?!" he exclaimed, causing Blyke to jump, and several others around them to stare.
"Would you shut up?" Blyke whispered. "You're going to get us kicked out again!" Isen paid no attention to Blyke's words for he was far too surprised by what he had stumbled upon. To confirm, he scrolled down to the bottom of the page where the names of the students were listed from left to right. Sure enough, John's name was there, in the exact spot he had found him. And standing right next to him was Claire.
"So this one's Claire." He moved to the student directory and found the updated student information. She seemed much older and had abandoned the childish braids for a short and curly bob. "She's a fourth year? Did she skip a grade or...?" Isen moved back to the previous page with a click of his mouse and discovered that the class photo was of a first year class. He opened John's records and scrolled through until he found his graduating class. He looked meticulously back and forth, assuming he'd misread the documents. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that there really was a missing year in John's timeline.
He found it more interesting than he wanted to, knowing that meddling with John would bring nothing but trouble. "I have a job to do. I have a job to do. I have-"
Isen's thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringing. Blyke and several others around shot him a dirty look for the loud noise. Isen's face flushed and he quickly stood up to leave. As soon as he exited the library, he looked at the caller ID and gulped.
"Isen. Did you get what I asked for?"
"Uhh, what? I mean, no, um I'm really busy right now, can I call you back later?"
"*click* "
"Did he just hang up?" Isen was about to make a silent fistpump until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, with a confused expression that quickly turned to fear.
"Busy. That's not what I'm seeing."
"Listen, I uh, had some stuff to take care of it's not a big deal though."
"You've been tailing John for long enough. I expect some information." Isen gulped.
"There's nothing to it! He's just a normal cripple, that's all I found out!"
Arlo swiftly extended his arm out, holding Isen against the wall while crushing his throat. Isen hands clutched Arlo's forearm in a desperate attempt to remove them. "You expect me to believe that? How stupid do you think I am? I'll ask you one more time. What did you find?" Isen gave in.
"John isn't a cripple. He has an ability but I'm not sure what. He's definitely a high ranker, and he's much stronger than me. He-he used to go to New Bostin High School."
"Is that it?" Isen nodded vigorously and Arlo released his grip. Isen collapsed to the floor gasping and coughing. Arlo turned and left, leaving Isen behind.
"Arlo, wait! You have no idea who he is! You shouldn't bother him!" Arlo ignored Isen's warning and turned to leave. Isen sighed and stood up to return to his research. "Arlo... don't do anything stupid."
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Claire flung open the door to her room after a particularly long day of school. She'd taken two tests, back to back, and hoped she'd done decently on both of them. She climbed up the ladder to her bed and tossed her bag onto the swiveling chair next to her desk before sinking down onto her pillow. "Let's see... I only left two of the questions empty on the trig quiz, but I did the extra credit. It was pretty hard though, and I probably answered incorrectly to some other questions too." She ran her fingers through her hair and groaned. "I'm so gonna fail this one. I hate trigonometry."
She rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillows. "I wonder what John's doing right now. I hope he got my message. That vision was sort of choppy." As much as it hurt her to think about John, especially after all that had happened between them, she knew there were bigger issues at hand. "Who was that purple-haired girl? And that guy with the fancy costume?" Of all the people who appeared in her obscure vision, the only one she recognized was John.
She stretched her arms and legs and reached into her pocket to retrieve her phone. She scrolled through her social media feed, absentmindedly browsing through her friends' photos until a small notification appeared in the corner of her screen.
She clicked on the bell icon to read it. "One new person has viewed your profile" She shut her phone off and held her hand to her chest.
"John, I really hope that was you."
Chapter 6 (1085 Words)
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anna's A/N: we're so close to 5k! thank you so much for reading! have a lovely day :D
