Carly

It nagged Carly all morning that KP knew something. She knew there was something to know about them and he had that information. Her gut feelings were never wrong and it was time to figure out Nathen's mysteries. She quickly went to her locker to exchange her morning books for her afternoon ones to hurry to the lunchroom to find KP. After closing her locker, she was startled seeing a girl on the other side of the door that she didn't notice.

"Uh, hi."

"Oh, sorry, did I scare you?" The girl asked frantically.

"No, you didn't. You just surprised me." Carly told her. She studied the strange girl that stood before her. Her clothes were plain. Her short black hair was straight. There was nothing that screamed dangerous about her, but her suddenly showing up was very odd.

"Sorry about that. Hi, my name is Lodia. We have class together and you always sit alone. I saw you at your locker just now and I wanted to talk to you since you were new and didn't seem like you had anyone to talk with."

"I've never seen you in any of my classes before." Carly told her. She thought back to all her classes, and her face didn't register to any of them.

"Really? Well, you sit in the front and I sit in the back. You probably never noticed because I usually blend in and keep to myself. I'm kind of new here also. I came a couple weeks before you did. I hope you don't think I'm weird. I was just hoping that maybe we could be friends."

Lodia seemed innocent enough. She was forward like Nathen which kind of rubbed Carly the wrong way. She was the first person to ask if she wanted to be friends other than him. Having another girl to talk to would be nice.

"Um, sure. I don't see a problem with that." Lodia's face lit up with excitement.

"Where are you headed?" She asked.

"I was on my way to the lunchroom. If you were on your way too, then you can come with."

"I was! If you don't mind, sure I'll go with you. It beats walking in there on my own."

"I know the feeling." Carly said and they headed to the cafeteria.

"Oh, your bracelet is so pretty! Where'd you get it?" Lodia was looking at her wrist. Carly almost forgot she even had it. Seeing as its so-called magic didn't work, she hadn't been looking at it.

"A friend gave it to me."

"Your friend must be great. It has such a pretty glow to it!" Lodia said still looking at the bracelet. Carly took another look at it.

"It does? It looks kind of dull to me. It's just black and white."

"What do you mean dull? It has such a nice glow to it. Is this one of those lucky bracelets?" She asked.

"Yeah it is. Have you heard of it? My friend said it's supposed to bring peace or luck or something. I don't think that's really true though."

"Oh, I believe it's true alright. I've seen these before and they sure do work like magic. You just have to wait and see." Lodia told her. "I wish I had one to see if it will work on me."

"Well if it's as magical as you say, I guess you can put it on to see."

"Really? I promise I won't steal it or anything." Cary took it off and handed it to Lodia. She watched as she slipped it on and they entered the cafeteria. Carly looked to the back and saw KP standing in his usual spot. Then looked to where Nathen and Tom usually are. Nathen happened to be looking up at the same time. He waved motioning her over.

"Hey, sorry that we had to split like we did this morning," Nathen said as soon as she walked over. Usually, Carly leaves to find KP, but today, he told her to go ahead and they took off.

"It's fine. I always leave anyway."

"So, who's your friend?" He noticed Lodia standing next to her.

"Oh, right. This is Lodia. And Lodia, this is Nathen."

"Hi Nathen, nice to meet you." She said all smiles.

"And this is Tom— oh, sorry!" Carly's hand accidently hit Nathen's head when she pointed. Nathen flinched back.

"Did I hurt you?"

"Uh, no you didn't. Just a little over reaction. But it's nice to meet you Lodia. Carly's always talking about how she doesn't know anyone. Seems you've been holding out."

"That's not really the case," Lodia started, "I just talked to her at her locker. I knew that she was kind of new and so am I, so I thought we could be new buddies."

"You're new?" He asked.

"Not completely. I've been here a few weeks longer than she has so not new new, but old new."

"I see. So where you from?"

"R.C.." She told him.

"R.C.? Never heard of that place." Carly said.

"R.C. is just short for River City. It's not far from here actually."

"Isn't that the run down city KP's from?" One of the others sitting at the table asked. Cary couldn't help but notice Tom and Nathen exchanged a look.

"Who's KP?" Lodia asked.

"He's the one who gave me that bracelet. I'll see if he'll come over." Cary said. She looked for KP and caught sight of him throwing something away. He noticed her looking his way and signaled him over.

"What's up Carly?"

"Do you know who Lodia is?" She gestured to her. KP looked at Lodia carefully.

"Mmm no, can't say that I recognize her. Although I might've seen you in the halls before." He said.

"Oh, we were just wondering because they said you two are from the same city." KP's expression changed slightly when he heard that.

"So, you're from River City?" Lodia asked. KP didn't respond right away.

"Can't say I'm all that proud, but yes I am."

"Wait a minute. River City. Isn't that the city like close to this one?" I asked.

"Yes, it is. I'm not surprised people don't remember or talk about it much since it's no longer a real city anymore and has been left behind by the government," KP stated, "I could see why you chose to come here. May I ask what part of the City you came from?"

"Eighth Ave on the Westside. By the old stadium." She said.

"I know exactly where that is. I'm from the Eastside though. That's why I don't recognize you."

"Oh, only the elite could live there."

"I wouldn't say that. It wasn't all that great." KP said.

"It's rare to come across people still coming out of River City. I'm still waiting to see if I find any other Uptown people here." I said.

"Oh, you're from Uptown? I didn't know you were from there. You're pretty elite yourself." Lodia said.

"Not exactly, we had to leave so not so elite."

"It's still pretty cool. Oh, I almost forgot. I need to go to the library to check out a book, but I don't know where it is."

"It's in the part of the school that's closed off. But going to the library is permitted." KP told her.

"I haven't been to that part of the school." Carly said.

"I know where it is. I can take you guys," Nathen offered, "you probably have to stay here and monitor things, right? It's not a problem for me." he said to KP.

"That'd be great, thanks!" Lodia smiled. KP took a careful observation of Lodia when Carly saw him looking down to her arm.

"Is that the bracelet I gave you Carly?"

"I wasn't stealing it or anything! I just wanted to wear it to feel it's magic." Lodia quickly told him.

"I see. There's no problem with that. You all should hurry to the library though. We can't have people over there too long."

"Alright, let's get going then." Nathen got up and Tom followed him. He gestured for Lodia and Carly to go out first. Nathen took a glance back to KP as he was also watching them.

As the four of them headed to the library, Nathen kept looking at Lodia and not Carly like he usually would.

"So, how come I've never seen you here before?" He asked her.

"Well, I don't stick out. As you can see, I'm a little quiet, little in general, and I blend in easy." She said. Lodia was small and wore black like KP. But she was friendly for someone so quiet.

"Even so, I've still seen just about everyone at this school. How long have you known her Carly?"

"We've only just started talking today. I can understand that she might blend in. Your voice is soft and you are on the small side."

"Yeah. Sorry for my unnoticeable demeanor. But I sometimes prefer to keep things that way." Lodia told them.

"Here's the library," Tom said as they almost passed it.

"It's so big." Lodia went toward it. It was bigger than Carly expected it to be. They walked up to the doors the same time someone was about to come out. The alarm went off as he was exiting.

"Young man, you have to check that book out first." The librarian said.

"You okay?" Carly asked looking at Lodia.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"I'm not sure, but I think your eyes just changed colors."

"My eyes? Really? I don't think they did, but then again I can't see my eyes."

"Maybe I was just seeing things," Carly said second guessing herself, "What do you need a book for anyway?"

"I have to do a research paper and I need a book source." She started looking around. She caught sight of a book that was on a high shelf.

"Hey, do you think you could get this one for me?" She asked Nathen.

"Sure."

"Thanks. This is the disadvantage of being small." She held out her hand above her head moving it back and forth to the book shelf that stood a lot higher than her.

"Oh Carly, here. It's such a nice bracelet, but it doesn't have the same glow on me like it does on you." She handed the bracelet back to her. She put it back on when she noticed something falling out of Nathen's pocket.

"You dropped something." Carly told him. She went to pick it up, but the same strange thing that's been happening happened again. It moved backwards a little as she went to grab it.

"What's wrong, can't get it?" Lodia asked.

"It's fine I got it." Nathen said. He quickly reached down to grab it. His hand came close to hers and he snapped it back. Carly was sure she felt that same pushing force with him.

"Are you both okay?" Lodia asked in confusion. Nathen stood and carefully handed her the book.

"I know another book like this one over there. I can go get it for you." He didn't give her time to respond before he took off. Tom trailed off after him.

"It seems those two are best friends. They go everywhere together." Lodia said watching them. Carly was still alarmed by what just happened, but it didn't seem like Lodia noticed.

"They're nice though; helping me and all. How did you meet them?"

"Nathen lives next door to me. He helped me out when I first moved here."

"I knew he was a nice guy. I don't know why people are always saying bad things about them." Lodia said.

"Bad things? Like what?" Cary was surprised. Lodia thought about it for a moment.

"I just heard a rumor. It's probably nothing though."