The following weekend was when my great-aunt Annabelle finally broke the news to Abigail and I. "The boys can't stay in this world much longer."

My heart sank. "Why?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"The spell you cast was a powerful one, dear. But you're a novice. You just don't have the skill to make a spell like that permanent yet, so..."

"So it's only temporary," I finished for her, "and when it wears off everyone will realize where they're all really from. And we'll all be screwed."

"Quite right," she nodded.

"How long?" I asked, feeling my throat close up with anxiety. I dreaded having to tell the others, especially Lana. She'd be crushed. After all, she and Dallas had finally gotten together a few weeks ago after spending even longer being attracted to one another.

"You have until the beginning of July to send them home, and even that's a bit generous," Aunt Annabelle finally told me, breaking through my thoughts. "Oh, and one more thing...when they return home they will lose all memories of what they experienced in this world, and of who they met. Which means anything they brought with them must return with them to prevent the story changing."

I buried my head in my hands. How in the hell am I going to break the news to her?

I decided that I wouldn't - not yet at least. I'd let them have some time to be together without worrying about how much time they had left...and then I'd tell them.

I also figured that the best time to send the guys home would be some time after the festival, since that would be happening in a couple months anyway. And I wanted them to be there for it.

I should at least tell the rest of the guys and Jessie, though, I decided mentally. They deserved to know in case they knew of a way to break the news to Dallas without setting him off. Even if he did get angry, though, he'd be able to handle it. He was tough. As for Lana, she'd be heartbroken no matter how I went about it because of how far she'd fallen for Dallas at this point.

"How do I send them home?" I asked, realizing I still didn't know the answer to that.

Abigail seemed to be thinking of something. Then, she made a subtle motion with her hand, conjuring what appeared to be a little key. "It can open portals," she said, "You just have to open the book - doesn't matter what page - and place the key inside as if you were putting it into a lock. Then turn it, and a portal should open. It'll only take them back, though; it won't bring any of you with them. Also, you really have to concentrate while doing this, Alex. I'll even help you."

"I'd appreciate that, Abi, thanks," I replied sadly, taking the key from her.

Abigail's gaze softened. She knew how I was feeling. "She'll be okay, Alex," she said, "I don't blame you for wanting to put off telling her, but she's a strong girl. Just like you are."

"So you're saying I should just tell her now?"

"I'm just saying...don't wait too long, okay?"

I sighed. "Okay."

I'll wait as long as I think it's safe, I thought. Now, time to tell the others.

Everyone was gathered in the park when I told them. Everyone except for Dallas and Lana, that is. I made sure to tell them everything my aunt and Abigail told me, including how the portal key worked and how much time they had left with us.

"They'll lose their memories?" Jessie was shocked.

I nodded. "Yeah. But we'll still have ours."

I knew she was thinking about how she'd been teaching Soda and Two-Bit how to play Minecraft, and I could also see her thoughts slowly shifting to Lana as mine had before. "I don't think we should tell Lana and Dallas just yet," I told the group, and when I explained my reasoning they understood completely.

"So you'll let us know when you think we should?" asked Ponyboy.

"Yeah," I said.

The next few days, I tried my best to push this whole thing to the back of my mind so I could focus on school and the band. At first it didn't work so well, but after awhile I managed to pull it off. Band practices were continuing to go well, and while I was writing new songs like crazy we were choosing not to start working on them until after the festival was over. We wanted our current set list to be as good as possible before turning to new material.

The rest of the band could sense something was wrong with me, but since I was putting so much effort into not dwelling on it, they all refrained from finding out what was up. I was really thankful for that, because it wasn't as though I could tell them if they did ask me about it.

I tried to put all of my focus on the festival, practicing on my own as well as during band rehearsals. Not too much, though - I wanted my throat to be working properly, after all, and not sore from over-rehearsing.

Something else I was working on was what I should wear onstage. the others would probably wear a lot of dark colours to go with our image, so I would do the same. I also checked our website regularly to see what feedback we were getting on our music. Most of it was positive, but we did get some hateful remarks here and there. I chose to brush those off since in my mind, they really didn't matter.

There would come a time where distracting myself from the inevitable would no longer work, but for now I did what I could, hoping that when I did finally reveal the truth to Lana, that she wouldn't be too angry with me.