We quickly walked through the commons to her table and sat down with our packed lunches. All of her friends looked shocked to see me.

"Is this the same Alek as this morning?" asked Drew.

"He was feeling a little down back then. Let me introduce you properly," she answered.

She pointed to Drew. "This is Drew, we've been friends since middle school. She's really good at soccer, and plays on the team with me." Drew waved hello.

Sitting next to Drew was the small boy. "This is Noah," she stated, "He's a little shy, but he's brilliant." Noah blushed at the compliment and tried to hide in his shoulders. His dark blonde hair was messy and fell over his face in chunks.

She pointed to the tall girl with huge blue eyes. "This is Natalie, she plays basketball. We don't have too much in common but she's super nice and friendly." Natalie flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave a little wave.

"This is Jack," she pointed to the dark boy. "He's from Equadan and just moved here this summer."

Jack ran his hand through his curly black hair and smiled. "It's hard to adjust to such a cold place," he mentioned.

"Does the snow really melt during the summer there?" I asked brazenly.

He grinned and nodded. "Sometimes, it's warm enough to go outside without a coat,"

My face must have been ridiculous, because they all started cracking up.

Amber moved on quickly. "Finally is Kali. She's been over to our house before, so you probably remember her."

I nodded and smiled. I could hardly feel the seat under me, my attention was focused completely on the new friends I was creating. Perhaps logically I wasn't thinking quite straight, but in the moment it didn't matter.

We all talked for a while, and I surprised myself by contributing to the conversation every once in a while. Amber seemed stunned at my sudden change in behavior, but it made sense to me. After all, I was just in a good mood.

The only person who didn't talk very much was Noah. He laughed and made small comments, but he never was the center of attention. Although, at one point in the conversation he tried to talk to me.

"So um... Alek?" said Noah in a quiet and soft voice. "Amber told us you like engineering and things, what do you think of this design?" he slid a piece of paper over to me.

I picked it up and looked at it for a second. It was like I had forgotten everything I know. I could tell it was a blueprint for a machine of some sort, and I could recognize shapes, but I couldn't name them or make out what they do. It was like a word on the tip of your tongue, I couldn't quite place what the paper was saying to me. I slid the paper back to Noah quietly.

"Looks great Noah," I said offhandedly, hoping it was the right response.

"It does?" he asked, confused. He muttered something under his breath and stuffed the paper in his bag. It was strange, but my attention was soon taken away by the force of conversation.

Eventually the bell rang and we all scuttled to class. I stumbled my way through the halls, finding it very hard to move accurately. I had limitless energy and a spring in my step, but I couldn't really control where I was going. Eventually I made it to my final class, Jordish.

Jordish was the language that the people of Jorde spoke, and it was extremely complex. So much that we still learned grammar and vocabulary in high school.

I read lots of books, so I never had a problem with grammar before. However, walking into class, I had a sudden aversion to anything knowledgeable. I couldn't remember anything I had learned.

I sat down in my assigned seat and started working on the worksheet the teacher had given us for class. It was like my brain wouldn't think about anything useful, all of the facts were stored away.

The teacher showed a brief instruction explaining the worksheet and set us out on our own to complete it. I sat there, pencil in hand, just staring at the sheet. Normally I was the first person done, but I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't stop thinking about lunch, and the new friends I had made, and how much we laughed. The worksheet didn't seem that important right now.

I zoned out until the end of class, and just brought the worksheet home to do later. It wasn't that important.

I was smiling and skipping along to the foyer to meet Amber when my body grew heavy again. My face fell, and I slowed down. The feeling had worn off again, and so suddenly. My mood returned to normal, and I felt a stab of anxiety as I remembered the blank worksheet in my bag. I was stunned. How could I not remember this? I looked at the worksheet, and I knew all the information, it was easy, child's play.

I shook my head and headed to the foyer, waving to Amber. She waved back, smiling brightly, as she always did.

"Hey Alek, still feeling good?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, I was great until the end of Jordish. It's really strange actually, I couldn't remember any of the grammar rules on this worksheet," I held it up to show to her, "but it's so simple," I scoffed.

She looked at me strangely, a little confused. "Alek, this is high level stuff, don't be embarrassed just because you blanked for once."

I groaned. "No, I didn't blank, well, I guess I did in a way, but it's like I wasn't in my right mind—"

"What's going on?" she interrupted me. "You're acting really strange, changing moods from one second to the next, being social. Have you been taking substances?"

"Of course not, you're crazy!" I whisper yelled. "Let's just go home, alright? Forget this ever happened." I put on the rest of my outer wear and headed out the door, nearly losing her in the crowd behind me. It didn't really matter, we both knew the way home, but it was a rude move. She caught up and signed that we had something to discuss when we got home. Wow, I could never guess what.

When we stepped into our home's foyer she threw down her mask and goggles in a flurry. "What the hell was that about?" she yelled, red in the face.

I pulled off my mask and goggles too, and ran my hands through my hair, massaging my temples. "I don't know, I'm just not in a good mood," I replied.

"Alek, what is going on. You're acting like a completely different person!" she exclaimed.

"Amber, I don't know! Today, I just was light-hearted and happy and it wore off, okay? You should be glad that I was even close to social, with you pushing me to hang out with your friends every day."

"That doesn't make any sense," she groaned.

"I know it doesn't, okay?" I yelled back. "Just, I don't know what's going on, but could you please, just back off for a little."

She looked at me with a glare, taking off her boots and heading inside. "We're talking about this at dinner," she informed me.

I sighed and buried my face in my hands. What was going on? I tried to recount the events of the day. I had woken up and I was weirdly happy. On the way to school, it wore off. Sometime before lunch, it happened again, and I actually talked to people I didn't know. What did I say? Everything was such a blur. I hope I didn't say anything embarrassing. Then in Jordish, I practically forgot everything I knew.

I went upstairs to my room, waiting out the time until dinner started. There wasn't much to do except homework, which I just so happened to have for once. I spent a good 20 minutes finishing the worksheet, then decided to think about the train again. Well, I didn't really decide, it just happened. I mean, it was really bizarre. There must have been a structural defect in the metal, perhaps it was triggered because of the excess of passengers? I do remember there being a lot of passengers that day.

I quickly dropped down to the second floor and grabbed a book on insulation types. There weren't any that could be set off by an excess of people, at least not obviously. Insulation technology was improving rapidly in the last few years, and it was unlikely that was the cause, especially with the research right in front of me.

The only other options were that someone forgot to close a door, or there was a hole in the side of the train. Both of those were unlikely, but I'd bet on someone forgetting to close a door, or not latching it properly.

I heard a knock. "Time for dinner!" called out my father. I shoved my pencils into a jar on my desk and bounded down the stairs to eat, my stomach growling.

I slowed down a bit when I saw Amber, sitting solemnly in her spot at the table. In my vigorous search for the cause of the slow train, I had completely forgotten about my moods. I gulped and sat down.

My mother was already seated, and my father was bringing out the final dishes. We were having a nice potato and carrot stew tonight.

My father said a prayer and then we all dug in. My father's cooking was delicious, as usual, so no one was speaking, too enraptured by their food.

"Mother, father, can I talk to you about something?" asked Amber. There it was.

"Sure sapling, what is it?" asked our mother.

"Alek was acting really weird at school today. He was light-hearted and happy and actually talked to my friends."

"That doesn't sound bad," replied our father.

"Yes, but then after school his attitude completely changed! He went back to his moody anti-social self in less than an hour," she insisted.

My parents looked to each other with a confused look. "Well," started my father, looking at me, "teenagers can have strange moods sometimes, I wouldn't worry about it. You should've seen me at 17," he chuckled.

My mother put her hand on Amber's. "Don't worry sweetie, it's not your responsibility to look over your brother all the time."

Amber sighed, giving in, but didn't look completely satisfied with that conclusion. We all finished dinner quickly, not talking about much else.

After dinner, Amber pulled me aside before we went to bed. "I'm not going to be able to walk you home anymore, I have kick boxing now. Alek, are you sure you're going to be alright? I'm really worried," she said, concern covering her face.

I was upset I was worrying her. Sometimes Amber cares too much about me. Yes, I pretty much completely rely on her, but I still don't want her to know that.

"I'll be fine, I swear. You heard dad, I'm just moody," I reassured her. "Good night," I said, rubbing her shoulder a bit. It was awkward because she was much taller than me, but I think she appreciated it.

"Good night," she smiled. 

A/N: Hello! Hope you're enjoying! Please vote and comment if you are, and make sure to enter the contest in the first chapter!