When the seven teenagers and one woman all went to bed that night in Central City. None of them were ready for the 'dream' that would haunt them. Hazily awaking in the dark room, in a circle with one another facing each other. A woman stood in the middle, strangely familiar but not quite in a way that is recognizable. She says plenty of things but whatever is running through your veins is making it muddled and difficult to understand at first. Then as things blank out again you now find yourself on a metal table, strapped to it with leather strapped buckled in. Aside from a pair of almost stereotypical looking doctors is a plastic bag containing some liquid, with its strangely bright color. As the liquid goes down a tube towards a needle in your arm. Things go blank one more time, and soon they find themselves in bed. Left to figure out just what the Hell happened.

As school was set to start, students getting their breakfast and talking in numerous groups about whatever. All the while in the cafe Paul Lambardi started putting on his apron getting ready for his first two periods of the day running the school cafe. He pulled out a white board as he started writing down a menu for the day. “Alright so for breakfast we're going to do candied bacon pancakes with an omelet bar.” Paul let out a yawn and a quick head shake before needing a moment to get back into what he was doing. “Uh for lunch, lets go with... have we done fried chicken recently? Lets go with that and mac and cheese.”

Paul frankly wasn't looking forward to the work ahead as he got the others going on their prep work for breakfast. It was strange feeling that way since usually Paul loved working at the cafe. Cooking was his passion and ever since he was given the manager role by the home ec teacher. He was able to make menus that were huge hits in school. Still the sleep before was getting to him on a level that he wasn't used too. The usual dreams he had, when he did have them. Were just usually weird and pointless. Not something that felt so there, in the moment. Still he had work to do and it was giving him something to take his mind off of things.

As he opened the cafe and started serving Paul was back into the swing of things. Serving up plates, handling customers, hitting on the usual girls who came in, in a way that could only be described as hopelessly cute. “So I mean if you want to go out again I wouldn't mind. I think though I might be a bit busy these next couple days.” Paul was telling another girl as he was making her omelet with sauteed mushrooms, crumbled sausage, and cheddar. “But still I'm sure we can make something happen in the next couple days.” Paul truthfully didn't have a lot going on, but he was just not feeling like going out. No real reason, but he didn't want her to feel like he was rejecting her.

"I had a dream last night. I dreamed I was in a dark room in a circle with others facing each other and I think I recognized at least one of them from my misfits group. There was a woman standing in the middle, strangely familiar but not quite in a way that is recognizable. She says plenty of things but whatever it is, is muddled and difficult to understand. Next I find myself on a metal table, strapped to it with leather strapped buckled in. Aside from a pair of almost stereotypical looking doctors is a plastic bag containing some liquid, with its strangely bright color. As the liquid goes down a tube towards a needle in my arm. Things go blank one more time, and the I wake up."

Thomas was sitting at the walnut table over a plate of eggs over easy on a slice of toast as he described his dream. Mom and dad exchange glances as dad gestures to mom to do her thing. She finishes her bite of breakfast before speaking up.

"Well, you are in an unfamiliar place but with people you recognize and this calms you. Next is an authority figure who speaks about stuff you do not understand, not surprising in dreams. Then you find yourself being held down against your will and being filled with something you don't understand or fear... Sounds to me like a typical high school dream about being forced to learn subjects against your passions and accept things you don't understand, like responsibility. But, as bad as it it, you are not alone with the others in the circle and you should seek solace in your friends."

"So, sounds like mid-term stress. I'll see what we can do about taking this weekend off and get out of the city for the weekend. Maybe if you can find these people in your dream we can invite them with us for the weekend. Suburban seats seven so us three and four of your friends. I know Sani would love the chance to get away from her mom, I'll ask her at the next coven gather tomorrow."

Thomas bit into bread to hide his smile, Sani was a Punjabi-hindu girl in the coven who had the typical protective parents. She went to a different school than CCHS, a Modern Orthodox college preparatory Jewish high school for girls, so they usually met once or twice a month. He grew up with her like a cousin once they came here from New Orleans and she helped shave his accent off a bit before school started his first year so he wouldn't be picked on too much. Unfortunately, as much as his parents were trying to 'ship them together, Sani REALLY likes going to an all girl high school. Her secret was safe with him as he finished breakfast and got ready for school.

Even with eggs and toast, he was still hungry and sat at the front of the school waiting for some of the other misfits to arrive before grabbing second breakfast like a hobbit. He stood on the corner of the school grounds and stared down two of the streets intersecting, watching for anyone getting picked on before school started. He had his skateboard and was fooling about with tricks on the curb to keep himself busy until anyone he knew showed up or someone he didn't know needed help.

Cia had gotten very little sleep last night. She had fallen asleep grading some papers and making lesson plans. There was drool over a good bit of the papers she was grading. When the dream started she seemed to be the only one in the group who was older than the rest. She was also the only one to be drooling through the whole thing. One the Scientists had managed to slip on the puddle of drool below her. They didn't fall but it was a close call.

Cia entered the school with the normal bags under her eyes. Many of the students had given her the nick name of the Zombie teacher due to the way she normally shuffled into the school. Cia made her way to the cafe and slammed her fist down. "I hope you got the coffee ready today." Cia said with almost slurred speech as she spoke. She could hear a few students talking about her calling her a zombie.

Cia turned around and glared at the students calling her a zombie. "What did you just say?" Cia asked looking at the students. They got a shiver down their spine from Cia's glare. "S-Sorry Ms. Velmont!" The Students said before hurrying away. The Dream was still in Cia's head, when she looked at the manager of the cafe and got a rather sour look on her face. "Kid, anyone ever tell you ya got one of those faces that always look familiar?" Cia asked him.

As usual, Dani was awake before the rest of the family. She liked to get in an early morning run before school and had set out this morning when it was still dark. But her run took her further than she intended to go. She had kind of zoned out for a while and moved on autopilot as she thought about that creepy dream she had last night. It had weirded her out. Being strapped to a table like some kind of medical experiment was weird enough but the fact that it felt so real made it even weirder. And the less said about the cast of her dream the better. She recognized a few of them from school. She remembered she had once seen a book in the library about the "secret meaning of dreams" or something. She had never really put much stock into things like that but this dream had freaked her out and she wondered if that book was still there. Maybe she'd stop by the library and check it out.

By the time Dani stopped thinking about the weird ass dream and snapped back to reality, she realized she was in the middle of the woods. Much further than she had intended to run. She didn't even really remember the journey here. "Crap!" she muttered to herself as she looked at her watch. Her eyebrows rose as she realized she must have been running faster than she had ever run to make it all the way out here in such a short time. All that time on the track must have been paying off. Pleasantly surprised with herself, Dani decided she had better head home. She took a moment to look at the rising sun through the trees before turning around and heading back.

When she arrived home, the rest of the family were still sleeping but she heard a rustle coming from her parents bedroom. Probably mom, who tended to wake earlier than dad who seemed to love his bed more than kis kids. Dani snuck past the door and into the bathroom. She took a quick shower...OK, maybe not such a quick shower because she heard her older brother, Scotty, banging on the door, telling her to stop hogging all the hot water. When she finally finished showering, she got dressed and quickly skipped downstairs where she found her mom waiting at the bottom step with a plate full of toast. "Good morning sweat-Hey!" said mom as Dani scooped up the toast and planted a kiss in her mother's cheek.
"Thanks mom!" she said with a smile as she quickly shuffled out the front door. She could practically hear her mom roll her eyes as the door closed behind her.

With a slice of toast lodged in her mouth, Dani walked towards her car, her beloved Dodge. She tried to balance her toast in one hand while trying to wrangle her keys from her pocket with the other and when she finally managed this most complex of tasks, she smiled. The smile was gone as quickly as it had appeared though once she spotted the flat tyre. "Oh come on!" she complained to no one but herself as she wrenched the toast from her mouth. She sighed and gave the tyre a quick kick. She didn't have time to change a tyre now. "Guess I'm walking." she grumbled as she took another bite of toast and shuffled off down the street. Mood thoroughly ruined.

The toast was all gone by the time she arrived at school, yet she was still hungry. Oddly so. Maybe she would stop by the cafe and get something else to eat. Maybe she'd even see Paul. He was cute, if a little weird. Speaking of weird, Dani noticed that weird goth kid, Tim, sitting by the school entrance. He had always been weird but the fact that he was in her creepy dream last night just made him even weirder to Dani. Now she would have to walk past him to get inside. She hiked her backpack further up onto her shoulder and headed towards the door, trying not to make eye contact in the process.

To say that Oliver had gotten a restful nights sleep would be a gross overstatement. He hardly slept to begin with, but, beyond that, he had one helluva weird dream last night. He vaguely remembered himself and six or seven other kids, and maybe the math teacher? They had been injected with something, and he had felt different since the injection, but couldn't describe how it was different. He shrugged and read the note from his parents at the table.

Honey, we're sorry that we had to work this morning. You know how crazy it's been at the office lately. Anyways, we hope you have a good day!

He sighed. They always said they were sorry for not being home on a particular morning, but they really weren't home any mornings. He packed his lunch in a brown paper sack and tried to pin down what he was feeling. It felt like his mind was...faster almost. Stronger, maybe. He couldn't understand, and eventually he gave up. He got on his bike and pedaled the short distance to the school. He wished that he had time to stop by the cafe, but alas, he did not. The cafe was among his favorite places to frequent and, as such, he had become acquaintances with most of the workers. Among those was a kid named Paul. Paul was in his year, but he'd be damned if he had ever seen him at school. He enjoyed talking with Paul, but they weren't like best friends or anything. It's hard to bond with someone when the only thing you have in common is the place where they work.

As he pulled into the school on his bike, he nodded at the people he hung out with. He didn't have any super close friends, the only person he ever regularly hung out with had moved away at the beginning of last year, but he had a lot of people he made idle conversation with. He sighed again as he walked towards the front doors of the school. Despite being exceptionally smart, Oliver really didn't give two shits about school. It bored him, and as such he had B's across the board. Oh well, he thought, it's not like I have much of a choice.

---

Derek's eyes shot wide open as he turned to his side only to be blinded by the sun's rays that poured into his bedroom. Lately he had been getting night terrors that woke him up in drenching sweats. When he had reassured himself that he was safe at home, he closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them and getting out of bed. Lately he had been having these strange dreams or were they nightmares? Either way, they were weird and it always involved the same people and strange experiments. Derek wasn't really into dream interpretations so he normally just shrugged it off as nothing. That or he had been watching too many Sci-fi movies. I guess it was time to watch more happy things before bed.

"Aye dios mío..."

Derek yawned and scratched his head as he made his way to the bathroom to get ready for the daily grind. And by daily grind he meant school, practice, and other activities that normally kept him away from home. He never complained though because he loved what he did between being on the school cheerleading team, being on the student council, or running the GSA club. He had a lot on his plate and he knew it would look great on college applications. After he had gotten ready, he grabbed his cheer bag and his backpack and headed out to his car to drive to school. His parents had already gotten up and went to school so he didn't have that stereotypical 'parents already in the kitchen cooking breakfast' experience like most white kids had. They were by no means poor, but his parents were very hardworking. Something he inherited from them.

After arriving in the school parking lot, he took out the flyers he made the night before pertaining the pep rally that was after school today. During the rally, the council was also going to talk with the students about measures they were going to take with getting a new gym made. Something like a fundraisers of sorts. So not only did he have to cheer, he had to help the president give a speech.

"Hey guys, pep rally after school! Please come!" As usual he got mixed responses. Some enjoyed the flyer while some gave him the stank face and threw it in the garbage. Sometimes he had a habit of coming off too chipper and nice. Or as the dumb straight boys say "too gay." He wasn't flamboyant in the slightest, he was just enthusiastic all the time. He never really enjoyed pessimism. However he did understand that people could get too uncomfortable with someone who was just too happy. Eventually he made his way into the school cafe where he had seen some familiar faces. He didn't know where he had seen them from but he had a sense of deja vu that kept nagging at his very core. As usual he shrugged it off and continued to pass out flyers.

"After school pep rally! There's going to be free refreshments!" After handing out a few more flyers, he gave it a rest and took a seat to get his usual Non-fat caramel latte. As he waited, he took out his Macbook to scroll through his emails.

Given what Carol had been through she didn't really think much of the dream she had. The people there were probably from school, two of them she knew for sure were. The tables and injections, well after being in the hospital as long as she had they weren't the most welcoming thing to imagine. But she'd thought that she was past it already. Apparently not. Dreams were weird. It must have been a pretty disturbing one because she felt more tired than usual.

Waking and getting ready for school early was something of habit. It took her a while longer to get ready than most. But it was routine even when half asleep. The bus that came to get her also arrived a little later than the ones that everyone else rode. Of course it accommodated her wheelchair. The ride was uneventful and she leaned her head against the window. Her head was killing her right now and she barely noticed the time pass. Before long she could see Thomas keeping watch outside the school. Ever vigilant, if not a little odd at times. But his heart was in the right place.

Getting off the bus she wheeled herself up to her friend. "Do you ever get tired of sitting out here day after day? Do you get breaks?" Smiling slightly she stopped and turned herself around. She had a little time before they had to be inside.

So far Eric's day hadn't been great. First there was the nightmare about the dark room with the strange but somehow familiar woman talking while he felt drugged, as well as the other people he felt he had seen before. He kept thinking he might recognize them all, if he could think straight and if he wasn't busy trying not to freak because well he was in a dark and unknown room.The next part of the dream was even worse because at that point he was also strapped to a table while some weird fluid was being injected into his arm. Too make matters worse when he woke up he felt unusually hot.

After he got up and dressed Eric checked the thermometer and found he had a slight fever, since it wasn't bad enough to stay home from school for he headed for the kitchen to make himself breakfast. Of course his mother had already left for her job but he was used to that.

When he was done with breakfast Eric left the apartment building and after grabbing his bike rode to school. When he got there some kid he didn't know gave him a flyer about the pep rally he really wasn't interested in so after parking his bike he threw it in the trashcan, unaware that the paper had caught fire.

Nightmares. Normal dreams. Both things that Jefferson was almost entirely detached from as someone who either had lucid dreams or none at all. Which lead to his immense surprise at the dream he had last night. So real, yet he had no control. As he sat in bed, staring at the ceiling, he thought over the 'dream' in attempts to recall anything. Only a few watery faces, melting together under what he could only assume to be the effects of whatever it was he had yesterday. Whatever it was that was in the dream made him wake up in a cold sweat. Gross.

It was at that particular moment that he heard the light rapping at his bedroom door and groaned a bit. "Yes, mom, I'm awake now!" The knocking stopped promptly and scuttling footsteps could be heard moving from the door, as if scared off by his presence. Finally getting out of bed, he scratched the side of his head.

"Damn I'm sweaty."

After a ridiculously uneventful half of an hour spent getting himself ready and dressed for school, Jeff headed out. His mother attempted to offer him breakfast, but he waved it away. "Nah, don't wanna weigh myself down too much today." After stepping outside, he slipped a loose cigarette from one of the pockets of his messenger bag and attempted to strike it lit with a lighter. Unfortunately, it wouldn't work no matter how many times he sparked the flint.

"Damn.. cheap, cheap." He flicked the cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, wasn't even worth keeping. Jeff stuffed the lighter into one of his pockets. With a swift motion, he hiked the messenger bag back onto his shoulder and grabbed the long-board he typically rode to school. He slid it onto the ground, carefully, those wheels were wearing thin. With a light step, he got onto the board and began to kick himself forward. Perhaps he'd stop at that one cafe, the one someone in band said was pretty cool.

Taking a moment to remember where it was, he then rode to the establishment.

Upon reaching the cafe, he noticed a few people that he somewhat recognized from school but no one that he'd kick down a wall to talk to. But he DID hold open the door for a girl that he noticed was entering. D-something. Or maybe it was an A..?

Ain't important, Jeff. It's just a courtesy, you're not gonna make friends or any shit like that.

Lyra’s dreams consisted of sounds and smells and feelings, so her dream (or maybe nightmare was the better word) wasn’t unusual in that regard. But usually, she was more coherent. She remembered being seated someone, and a woman talking. Lyra remembered the sound of her voice well but not what she was saying, something had made it hard for Lyra to understand anything. Then the next thing she knew, she was lying on something cold and metallic, like an examination table. Lyra could smell…bleach? It was that kind of smell that only a hospital could have, sanitized and overly clean. Lyra couldn’t move either as she felt straps hold her down and the most concerning of all was the needle she felt poking into her arm. She wanted to ask what was going on but nothing was coming out. But soon, though, Lyra was waking up in her bed, confused and slightly disoriented.

At first, the disorientation was just from the really weird dream, but as Lyra sat up she entered a whole new world of confusion. Because she could see. She couldn’t really see well, but she could make out very faint outlines of things. She brought up her hands and watched the outlines moved as she moved her fingers…what was going on? Lyra didn’t get much longer to ponder this mystery though as Lyra heard her door open and the click of the light switch and suddenly the outlines were gone.

“Good morning honey.” Lyra heard her Mom say, then heard her tone change as she asked, “Are you okay dear? You look a little pale…”

“I-I’m fine Mom. Just had a really weird dream…” Lyra told her, not sure how she could explain what just happened. “I’ll be down for breakfast in a few minutes.”

“Alright dear. If you want to talk about it, just let me know.” Her mother told her before she closed the door to let Lyra get ready for school.

Lyra’s mind was busy thinking as she got ready. She hadn’t been able to see since she was a little girl, over eleven years. But now suddenly, she saw something? Was this normal? Maybe it was just a product of her dream or imagination. Yeah, that was probably it. Lyra didn’t have to worry about this. Her day would go on like usual.

So convinced that her vision was back to how it usually was Lyra finished getting ready and headed downstairs and ate breakfast with her mother, who then took her to school. Along the way, though, she noticed more a few more patches of outlines, not very big and when she did see them it was kind of random, at least to her. And she could kind of make out what they were outlines of sometimes...Well, this was getting to be way too strange for her liking. The outlines didn't appear at all if she kept her eyes closed, so that's what she did, hoping that when she did open them again things were going to be back to normal completely, or else she was going to have to tell her parents about this.

Lyra said goodbye to her mom when she pulled up to the school and hopped out of the car, using her cane to find her way into the school, even though she pretty much knew the layout already. She went inside and headed to the school cafe, perhaps some coffee would help her get back to normal?

The sights and sounds of the school were all the same. The place even smelled the same. It was all the same. Yet it didn't feel the same. Something felt odd. Dani couldn't put her finger on it but she knew something was different. She hadn't felt the same since that damn dream. Maybe she was coming down with something. She hoped not. As much as Dani wanted to be a doctor one day, she hated actually being sick herself. She had felt weird ever since that dream.

She tried once again to push the memory of the dream to the back of her mind as she entered the cafe, the door being held open for her by some boy who looked familiar. She had seen him around but couldn't for the life of her remember his name. Was it Dave? It was probably Dave. She gave Dave a halfhearted smile in thanks and then promptly forgot all about him as she laid eyes on Derek absentmindedly looking at his phone. She dropped down into a chair beside him and snatched up his coffee, taking a long drink of it. "Mmmmmm" she moaned as she took the cup from her lips. "Thanks, I needed that." She knew full well that it was Derek's coffee but maybe if she pretended otherwise, he would just let her have it. She took another sip, relishing the caffeinated goodness.

As Oliver sat down for his first-hour class, blazing his way through the homework he had failed to do the previous night, he began to get a pounding headache. He was the only person in the class, as school had not started yet. He asked to go to the bathroom, figuring that a little water splashed onto his face would do him good.

He felt worse with every step he took towards the restroom. His head felt like hundreds of pounds of pressure were attempting to escape his skull. And whatever had been happening with his mind earlier that morning had increased ten-fold. It felt like his mind was racing at a pace he had never seen. And he ould hear voices, incomprehensible whispers that he swore belonged to the other students. As he stumbled into the restroom he looked at himself in the mirror. He was shocked to see that his eyes were almost bloodshot with a strange cyan color. He gasped and stumbled back as the pressure in his head came to a boiling point.

He shouted and threw back his head the pressure leaking from his skull and shattering the mirrors above the sinks. He felt exhausted immediately afterward. He held his head in his hands for a moment, the pressure feeling as though it was now in invisible tendrils snaking out from his mind. The whispers had become louder and louder still. He could hear the thoughts of everyone in the school. He whispered under his breath.

"Shut up!" And the voices ceased. Oliver was quite shaken up by these events. He walked out of the bathroom with pale skin and shaking hands, hoping his eyes weren't still looking freaky. Since he still had some time before school started, he headed to the cafe. The homework could wait, he needed some soda. On his way there he said "Hello!" to the wheelchair-bound girl, Carol. They played soccer together, or more correctly he tripped over his own feet while she played. Until her injury, at least. They had grown distant since then, and it bothered him. They had never been friend per se, but she seemed pretty cool. Whatever deity was listening knew he needed some friends.

Paul on top of getting Ms. Velmont a cup of coffee got a rag to toss onto his shoulder for the small puddle of drool forming on the counter. “Well I should, I'm in your 5th period class...” Paul noted with a raised eyebrow while he slid her the coffee across the counter to her. Still though he was considering asking her the same thing. Wasn't sure why exactly, maybe just to see if sleepy brain dead teachers were a common occurrence.

Still Paul kept up a friendly facade dealing with customers and all the manager duties. The whole day he just felt... weird. Sometimes his clothes would feel tight on him, other times seriously loose on him. Even to where at one point his pants, which normally fit him fairly snugly, almost fell off of him. At this rate he was starting to wonder if he was still dreaming and soon someone would show up in their undies talking about penguins or something.

Cia took a sip of her coffee before going off towards her first class. "Yeah, that could be it." Cia said, on her way towards her fist class though she bumped into Sven Putin. Sven was the resident history expert within the school. He was also advisor to the History club. "Oh! Ms. Velmont! As tired as ever huh?" Sven asked him with a kind smile.

Cia only scoffed at him before walking past him. Cia never did like Sven just something about him always seeming too nice. "You have a different smell about you today!" Sven said before walking off towards the cafe. He really was an unnatural presence to be around, he was a favorite teacher among the students though, the complete opposite of Cia.

Once in her classroom Cia took another sip of her coffee feeling a bit more at ease. Though as she felt more and more relaxed it felt like her skin was starting to get looser, to others who looked at her it looked like she was having a stroke, except it wasn't just once side of her body, but her entire body that was loose. A student walked into her class then left screaming down the hall. Quickly after that Cia's face tightened up. "The hell is her problem?" Cia asked as the student went outside screaming that Mr.Velmont was melting.

Sven found his way towards Lyra as she entered the school and give her a smile. He had a calming aura about him, she would feel incredibly at ease around Sven. "It's good to see you this morning Lyra, I was just thinking about you actually, your recent grades in history have been starting to fall, is everything alright? Are you having trouble understanding the material?" Sven asked Lyra with a concerned look on his face.

He was still waiting for a few moments more while tricking on the corner when he saw one of the reasons he stool out here walked by. It was one of the cheerleaders who chose just then to heft her book bag up in front of her face as she passed him. ~Feet pue tan!~ He didn't say creole out loud as he didn't want is accent to be another thing to be made fun of but it helped when he took french freshman and junior year with Japanese in sophmore as well as this year. She was striking that familiar chord with him, but it must just be because of who she was, a cheerleader, Carbon-copy-cookie-cutter-clueless-clique.

His moody brood vanished as the bus he recognized pulled up and Carol came down off the lift. As she came up to him, she turned herself around and he took the offer to push her by setting his board in her hands before taking the handles and pressing forward. "Do you ever get tired of sitting out here day after day? Do you get breaks?" He lowered his head down to the side of her head and did his best overly dramatic voice. "I'm the hero this school deserves, but not the one it needs right now."

He laughed and cleared his throat as he steered towards the school caffeteria for some late breakfast, maybe just a thing of Hashbrowns, he was feeling kind of light and deeded something heavy to weigh him down. "Hey Carol, not to sound weired, But I had a dram about -FIRE!" He pointed to the trash can licking with flames and looked around for the nearest fire extinguisher.

Lyra had gotten her coffee, had taken a seat and took a good long sip of her coffee before she finally opened her eyes again. And what she saw...oh boy. There weren't many outlines where she was at, that she could see, the but the ones that she could see were bolder and...there was color. She could see color now as well. What was going on? Was she going crazy, or maybe she was just hallucinating...could blind people hallucinate visually? But this wasn't a hallucination, she had seen her own hands move back at home...or at least, she thought she did. She could just keep her eyes closed and try to wait the problem out some more, but what if it went from visual to auditory as well? What if she was sick or something? Lyra was really starting to panic as all the possibilities of what could possibly be going on when she heard a voice.

She recognized it as Mr. Putin's voice and strangely (and thankfully) Lyra started to calm down though she didn't know why. She listened as he asked her about her grades in history and if she was having any trouble. She looked up to tell him that she wasn't great at memorizing dates but froze. The way that Sven was looking down at her caused a shadow to fall over his face, not a really dark one, but it was just enough for Lyra to make out certain features, like his nose and mouth, and even the color of his skin and eyes. Suddenly the anxiety that Lyra was feeling before came back and she quickly put her face in her hands. As she did that, all around her the shadows started to move slightly, twitching, and the longer this went on the worse it got. Some shadows even started to have tendrils appear out of them. But Lyra didn't notice, she was too busy trying to calm down again.

Since he had nothing better to do before class Eric was planning to head to his usual spot and kill some time reading the manga he had brought with him. Those plans changed with a single shout. "FIRE!" As he turned around he saw that the goth skateboarder seemed to be looking for a fire extinguisher, to put out the trashcan he just used.

"Okay, odd coincidence." Naturally Eric had no reason to believe he was responsible for the fire, but since he was close by he decided he might as well help out. He had absolutely no idea where to find an extinguisher, so he didn't waste his time on that. Luckily the fire was still relatively small, so he instead decided to try and smother the flames with his jacket.

He ran back towards the trashcan while taking his jacket off. To say that things didn't go as planned would be an understatement as his jacket quickly caught fire itself when he tried to cover the trashcan. At least Eric could consider himself lucky as he managed to avoid getting burned.

I don't think I've ever seen such a porcelain smile.

With a light groan, Jeff slid through the cafe in attempts to grab himself a nice orange juice. After acquiring a glass of the sweet nectar of the gods, he wandered about for a little while just kind of walking as he sipped his orange juice. More than twice, he found his glass becoming slippery and he nearly shattered it on the floor. Jefferson warned himself to be less careless, as the glass began to slip out his hand for the third time that morning.

Deciding that he needed to sit himself somewhere so that this didn't end in utter tragedy, Jeff looked about before spotting Lyra who seemed to be enjoying a cup of coffee. Plopping himself down next to her, all he said was: "How's it going, band-mate?"

People passed by while she and Thomas sat outside the front of the school. Someone that passed said hello to her and Carol glanced to see who it was. It took her a second to connect the dots. But finally it clicked that it was one of her teammates from when she played soccer. What was his name again? The boy seemed to be in a bit of a rush but the name finally came to her. "Good to see you, Oliver." And just like that he was gone. Sighing a bit she supposed that was to be expected. In the last couple years she didn't really talk much to the team. She should probably change that.

Time to get inside though and Thomas began to wheel her toward the school. He made a goofy comment in reply to her earlier question. Shaking her head Carol listened as he was about to explain something before suddenly yelling out "Fire!" Looking about it didn't take long to notice the flames licking out of the trashcan. At least it wasn't inside, that would be bad news. Not really thinking about what to do she was surprised to see someone else run up an attempt to smother the fire. The attempt was unsuccessful and to some extent made things worse. Yelling out she tried to stop people to doing anything else dangerous. "leave it alone. Let it burn itself out!" There couldn't be that much stuff in there from this morning. All the trash should be emptied at the end of the day.

With all the excitement Carol was feeling the fatigue from last night. And actually right now she was feeling rather warm. She wasn't close enough to the small trash fire for that to be a factor. Must have been sleep deprivation or something. The body does weird things when not getting a good night's sleep. Drinking some water would probably do her good. "The fire will go out. It doesn't have anywhere to go. Let's get to the cafe before class starts. I need to grab a bottled water." She said turning her head back toward Thomas.

@knighthawk@Duthguy

Had Oliver not been convinced that he was insane, he would've smiled at the fact that Carol had remembered him. But alas, he was convinced that he was losing his mind. He must be, people didn't just randomly have telekinetic force explode from their school, did they? Furthermore, why could he hear voices? That was a sign of insanity if he had ever seen one.

He walked towards the cafe and sat down, ordering a Dr. Pepper. Coffee was too fickle for him, he had to have just the right amount of sugar (no cream, cream is for the weak.) or it would be disgusting. It was more work than he was willing to put into a beverage at the given time. So he cracked open his overpriced can of the sweet cola and began drinking. The caffeine helped his headache a bit, but at the same time, the whispers started coming back. He tried to ignore them at first, but they kept on getting louder. Shut up, shut up, shut up! his mind seemed to be moving faster than he could keep track of. Then he thought of a tactic he used to focus on homework. Single out one thing, focus on whatever that one thing may be. That was what his mother had told him anyways. He picked out one voice from the crowd in his mind and concentrated. It sounded like someone doing mental math. He looked around and saw a boy about ten feet to his right doing some math homework in a booth.

I can read minds? He then thought hard on silencing the boy's "voice", and it did. His breath was ragged and his face was pale from th effort, the can shook in his hands. Several people in the cafe were staring intently at him. Great.