I woke to a loud, annoying, buzzing sound that would stop. Obviously, it was my alarm clock.

It was Monday, which meant that Kat and I had school today. See, in Omega City, we don't really have a five-day school week, which everyone liked. We were only required to go two days a week. By whom, I have no idea. Add that to the list of weird things in my life.

Anyway, I rolled out of bed and stretched. I was impressed on how little time it took me to get ready, because I usually stay in bed until it's five minutes before it's time to leave. But today was different. I wanted the day to be over as soon as possible so that I could head over to the hospital to get some answers. I had been plagued all night with dreams of what the pills Renee gave me might do to me if I took one, and when and I hadn't sleeping fitfully, I had been staring at the roof and thinking about the events of the day.

I dressed in a pair of sweats and a large T-shirt. I pulled my hoodie over my head and combed through my knotted hair to put it up in a ponytail. After brushing my teeth, I came out of the bathroom and went into Kat's room. She was just pulling on her shoes when I arrived.

"Did you forget how to knock?" she said, though she didn't sound very upset. Kat was pretty easy-going.

She was wearing a blue shirt and dark jeans. She wore a light black jacket over her shoulders and her hair was pulled into a ponytail.

She glanced up at me from her shoelaces. "Hey, you're dressed, and it we still have fifteen minutes 'till we leave. Nice job."

I rolled my eyes and looked around her room. Her twin-sized bed had a navy blue quilt on top and a lacy skirt underneath. The carpet was white and plush, and a white dresser and nightstand were pushed up against the wall. A white bookshelf was piled with books of all size and color. The walls were painted light blue with a plain white trim at the top.

"Are you hungry?" Kat asked as she secured the knot on her foot. I nodded. "Come on. I think I saw some leftover pancakes in the fridge."

After our meal, we walked out the door with our book bags in hand. We walked in silence, but for once I didn't care about the awkwardness of it. My mind was still trying to wrap itself around the bazaar events of the day before.

~~~~~

As the bell rang to signal the start of the day, I walked to my locker and saw people staring at me through the corner of my eye. As I opened my locker to gather my math text book, I heard someone whisper, "Wasn't she the one they found in the lake?"

I closed my locker and walked to my first period, trying to ignore the stares and whispers.

I sat down in my chair and pulled out my iPad. Well, technically it was the school's, but at the first day of every school year there's a large cart stocked with iPads. Yet another thing on my This City Is Strange list.

I was tapping around, not doing anything in particular when Lyra sat down next to me and said, "You little twerp!"

My head shot up and I looked at her. "What?" I asked innocently. "What did I do?"

"You didn't think I wouldn't hear about Lady of the Lake?"

"The what, now?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "The Lady of the Lake. That's what everyone's calling you."

"What? Why are they calling me that when it was Renee-"

"Who?"

"Renee," I said. "She's the one they found in the lake."

"What? How could you not tell me something like this?" Lyra shouted, claiming most of the attention of the students in the room. "You didn't call, you didn't text. Did you think I was worried?"

Now, when Lyra gets nervous or angry, her voice tends to get a bit... loud. Soon, every person in the room was staring at us full on. They had glanced our way a few times before, but now they were glaring at us like a herd of deer caught in mega-sized headlights.

"I'm sorry, Ly," I said softly. "I was kinda... preoccupied."

"Is that so?" she shrieked. "Well, what was so important that you couldn't even send a quick text?"

"Shh, Lyra, keep it down," I said.

"Why?" she demanded. "What's the big secret?"

Rolling my eyes with a sigh, I stood and grabbed Lyra's arm, dragging her out of the room behind me.

"Look," I said, but I was interrupted by the bell that started first hour. I waited impatiently for the bell to finished its wailing, and then started again, "Look, something happened yesterday with the girl, Renee."

"You talked to her?" Lyra said, minding to keep her voice down a bit.

I nodded. "And... some weird stuff happened."

"Such as?"

I quickly explained to her about the necklace, Renee claiming to be my sister, and the pills, though I kept out the part about the one I kept.

When I finished, Lyra's face was so funny I almost laughed out loud. Her mouth was slightly open and she kept opening and closing it like a fish out of water.

"Well, I guess that changes things a bit," was all she said.

"Yeah, you think?"

She smiled slightly at that. Then feigning a stern voice she said, "Fine. You are forgiven. But next time 'you' show up out of the lake, I expect a text within four hours of the event."

I laughed. "I'll be sure to do that."

~~~~~

School could not have been any longer that day. The clock didn't seem to move at all, and the people around me were oblivious to it. I got weird looks during all my classes, but I just ignored them and looked up stuff like the World Wars and electrons on my iPad. There were never any assignments; we just looked up what we wanted on our iPads. Lyra's words came back to me again and again through the day, about how we don't have any teachers or adults or anything, but we all have memories of them, if not memories from experience. I guess that most of what we know of the normal world we all got from movies.

When the bell finally rang for the end of the day, I ran through the halls, grabbed my book bag, and rush out of the building in less than half a minute. I headed right for the hospital with a firm determination. I didn't care if I had to wear one of those nuclear protection suits that make you look like an overgrown banana when you put it on- I was going to see Renee and I was going to get some answers.

I walked through the front doors of the white building and walked right up to the receptionist, who looked no older than me. She had dark hair pulled into a tight bun, and her eyes were dark as beetles. She was wearing a blue blouse under a formal jacket and one of those skirts that don't let you move your legs. Again, weird.

"I need to see Renee," I told her.

She looked up at me. "Do you have an appointment?"

"I'm here to visit someone," I said.

"Really?" she said with a fake smile. "How nice. Patient name?"

I held in a groan and took a deep breath. I had been waiting all day to get here, and now that I was, I wasn't going to let anyone get in my way.

"Renee," I said, mustering as much pleasantness in my voice and I could.

She typed something in on the computer in front of her and said, "I'm sorry. Miss Renee cannot be seen by anyone other than her friends and family. And of course her nurses and doctors."

"But I am family!" I said. I felt kinda bad for lying, but if Renee believed it, then maybe I could use that to my advantage.

"Really?" the girl said in disbelief. "She doesn't have you on her friends and family list."

"Ask her yourself, then," I said.

She smiled sweetly at me. "You know what? I think I will." She picked up a phone and dialed a number.

"Put it on speaker," I said.

"What for?"

"I want to hear her say it, that way you can't pull a fast one on me."

I thought that it was perfectly logical, but she was somehow offended by it, and she mumbled grumpily to herself while she pressed the speaker button. The phone rang once, then was answered by Renee's voice. "Hello?"

"Miss Renee, there's a girl out here in the lobby who wants to see you," the secretary said.

"Who is it?"

The secretary looked up at me. She started to speak, but I was so tired of waiting I grabbed the phone from her and said, "Renee, it's me."

She seemed to recognize my voice, even over the phone, and she said, "I thought I might see you soon. Come on over."

I started to feel relieved, but then the girl took back the phone and said, "But, miss, she's not on your friends and family list!"

"Well, put her on there, then!" Renee's voice was harsh and commanding, leaving no room for argument. "Come on in, Rhea."

"Thank you," I said. I turned to the girl. "What room number?"

She looked grumpy, but she pointed to a pair of doors and said, "Down the hall, first door on your left."

"Thanks," I said as I walked away from the desk. I stopped for a moment in front of the door. It was the same one that my friends and I had gone through the first time. The same black letters wrote the words ASYLUM WING across the doors.

I pushed through, and walked briskly down the hall until I came to the first door on the left. It was closed, so I knocked once, and Renee's voice called out, "Come on in!"

I slowly opened the door. Now that I was finally here, my heart thumped loudly and adrenaline rushed through me.

Renee was sitting up in bed, tubes and needles in her arms. She looked better. She had more color in her skin and the dark bags under her eyes weren't as visible. Her blonde hair was brushed and pulled back into a ponytail. As soon as I entered the room her electric green eyes were glued to my face.

"Hi," she said. "I thought I'd be seeing you.

I walked up closer to her bed and took a seat in one of the plush blue chairs by her side. I looked at her face and said, "I need answers."

She smiled slightly. "I know. But I told you, I can't give them all to you right now."

"Well, then tell me what you do know!" I shouted. My nerves were taut and I was just about out of patience.

She didn't seem shocked by my outburst at all. She just nodded. "Alright. Well, I already know you don't believe me, so I don't think you'll believe anything I have to say."

"Right now, I don't care if you say the world is run by a purple llama. I just want an explanation."

She sighed. "Alright. I don't have a whole lot of things to tell you. In fact, I think you only need one thing."

"And what's that?" I asked.

She looked at me. "In your spare time, trying Googling 'Project Omega'. That will give you some answers."

"Project Omega?" I repeated. "What's that?"

She said something very quietly to herself and I said to strain to hear it. I'm not sure if I hear correctly, but I could have sworn she said, "Your life."

"What was that?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Nothing. Just Google it when you have the chance."

I knew I wasn't going to get anymore answers from her about that, so I changed the subject. "What about those pills you gave me?"

"They took them away, did they?" she inquired. I nodded. "Well," she said. "I expected as much. To find out what they do, you'll have to take them." She must have read my mind, because she said, "Don't worry, they want kill you."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Renee, but I don't have them, so even if I wanted to take them, I can't."

She smiled at me. "But they don't have all of them, do they? You kept one."

I stared at her, my mouth open slightly. "How could you possibly know that?"

Her smile widened. "I know you."

"No you don't." It came out harsher then I meant it to, and she seemed a little crest fallen.

"Yes, I do, Rhea," she said softly, her eyes on her hands in her lap. "You just don't remember."

This just made me more mad. I had waited all day to get some answers, and all I got were more unanswered questions. This mysterious girl was driving me insane!

"Look," I stared to say, but then a knock came on the door and it started to open.

Doctor Matty Boy was standing there, his pristine lab coat over his body and his dark hair in his face. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. "Out!"

I was so surprised by his outburst that I actually obeyed, which is not like me at all.

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to update.... again. Anyway, sorry for the short chapter. I will try to update more on everything this week. Predictions? Sorry for any grammar errors or stuff like that.