My experiments had been going fairly well and as predicted. I'd been spacing them out over a few days to not draw attention to my late-night activities. But the frost burn I'd managed to give myself with dry ice that I may or may not have stolen from the Science office at school had fully healed. Not even a red spot where I had held the dry ice to.

I glanced at the very spot I did so on my ankle in slight awe at how it remained unblemished. It most certainly was not a very human thing to do, which – as I thought it in my head – made me scold myself. I was being ridiculous.

I pulled my sock over my heel and tied my sneakers up before getting up and pulling my bag over my shoulder. School was what mattered at the moment. I had been right to think I wouldn't get flirted with as much. Granted, that could've been because there were less students, but it was still, and improvement and I would take it.

I had been attending Nangidon for a week and a half, and I didn't think it was that bad. I was taking Cul Ed, and Woodwork like I'd wanted to, but unfortunately the Business class – as they had called it – was full and so I was instead taking a class called Currency. Currency was essentially a class to teach us about responsible spending. Not quite what I'd had in mind, but it worked, I guess.

Zak was in Caretaker Ed, and Ciara was in Phys Ed. That left me, pretty much on my own in Currency. Or so I thought. There was a knock on the door just before Mrs Tsocratmin, or Mrs T as she asked us to call her, called the roll.

"Gabriel," she said in an annoyed tone. "Are we late again? Because punctuality is important for success."

I looked over to see Gabe standing in the doorway. "Who knows," Gabe shrugged. "I might break a world record for most late notices. That would make me pretty successful."

The class chuckled and Mrs T told him to take his seat. "You're lucky I hadn't called the roll yet."

The desks had been lined so that there were rows of computers. I sat in the middle row, facing the outside wall so that I was able to see out of the windows. Windows that literally had bars on them. Gabe sat in the seat behind me so that our backs faced each other and logged on.

Everyone by that point had gotten used to hearing my name for the most part, and so I had pretty much met everyone in my year. The eshay's, the netball girls, the game obsessed or anime obsessed people, the footyfucks – Zak's words, not mine – and the people that didn't fit into any of the above. I don't know why Zak nicknamed the footyfucks what he did, but the whole school called them that, so maybe it wasn't Zak that came up with the name. He said it was because they were completely fuckwitted at the best of times and for some reason a bunch of them had mullets. I don't know what that had to do with the nickname, but Zak insisted that it solidified their fuckwittedness. Also, his words not mine. Bit weird, but I got used to it. Mostly.

I glanced at Gabe. He looked like he had fallen out of bed and hurriedly put his clothes on while trying to get to his parents car. Although, his face was red, and he was breathing heavily.

Mrs T went on with the lesson after calling the roll. We were looking at the bucket system. And I mean she literally had three buckets on her desk.

I let out an annoyed sigh. "This class is prison," I mumbled under my breath.

I heard Gabe stifle a laugh. "And what makes you think that?" He whispered.

"The bars on the windows," I returned with a smile. "Seems very prison esk if you ask me."

"Can't argue with that," Gabe shrugged.

I had begun to warm up to Gabe. He wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be. We'd been sitting next to each other in Math for a few days, so we'd had to get along to avoid causing a ruckus. But I was pleasantly surprised by him. He'd reminded me a little of Triston, as much as I didn't want to admit it.

Triston and I had met when we were twelve. Addison and I had gone to Primary School together and he was the only kid from his own. When I'd first met him, I thought he was going to be a total douchebag. But I'd been surprised by his extroverted kindness. It was actually the reason we became friends. The three of us had quickly become inseparable and it was unlikely to see any of us out without one of the other's.

Triston and Addison's relationship would have ruined that. I hadn't talked to them since the move. I actually went as far as to delete their numbers from my phone. I actually deleted everyone from my old school's numbers. I just didn't want to deal with their pity.

Although if I were to call anyone at this moment it would have been Triston. He was a believer in the supernatural. Had all these crazy theories about ghost's and otherworldly beings. If I could call him, I'd have been on the phone as soon as I woke up from that first dream bawling my eyes out to him. He'd probably come up with this crazy theory that I've actually been some immortal creature this whole time. Most likely vampire because he didn't really know much about the supernatural creatures, he loved other than the basics.

But that couldn't happen. Because calling Triston would mean we'd have to talk about a lot more than just my strange dreams. We'd have to talk about things I had no control over and didn't want to cry about anymore. And he'd be forced to keep my freakish new self a secret from Addison. Either that, or he'd tell her, thinking she'd be okay with everything. But Addison was quite the opposite to Triston when it came to those sorts of things.

I could imagine what would happen if I called Addison about it. She'd be screaming all sorts of things and ending the phone call as soon as I finished. Maybe even before I finished. It wouldn't matter that we'd known each other since kindy, she'd flip out and pretend I never existed. Even if my healing didn't hurt anyone.

It made me angry to think about them, and how much they couldn't know. I wasn't even telling my family. If I told Samara, she'd react one of two ways. By saying it was a Fickle family thing or by saying I was a freak of nature. And I didn't want to know the outcome.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I was handed a worksheet. A worksheet with nothing but a table on it. We were told to sort the expenses into the three buckets. Splurge, smile and mojo. I ducked under my desk and retrieved pen from behind my water bottle.

When I sat back up, I glanced out of the window and saw an aconite. I shook my head. You're being ridiculous, I told myself. This doesn't mean anything. But I was having trouble focusing on my work after seeing it. It had appeared in my dreams, multiple times over. It usually appeared just before something terrible happened. As though trying to warn me. And it's meaning was a warning.

I tried my hardest to shake it from my thoughts as I worked my way through the table, but every time I wrote a word, my mind travelled to the purple flower. It was outside the window, and every time I looked up and gave it a glance, there seemed to be more appearing.

I felt something brush past my foot and I quickly moved it away. I turned to see Gabe looking down at the floor under my desk and raised an eyebrow.

"I dropped my pen," he said. "Would you mind if I went to get it?"

I shrugged and moved away from the desk as he crawled under in search for his pen. I dared a glance out of the window and saw an array of tiny flowers, all from my dreams that I remember meaning death or caution. I let out a shaky sigh and heard Gabe grunt as he hit his head under the table.

"That hurt," he pouted and went back to his seat to continue with work.

I looked out of the window and the only flower I could see was a singular geranium. Had the supposed danger passed? I didn't think so. I tried to think that I'd imagined the whole thing, but there was a nagging voice in the back of my head, like the one in the dream, that told me that wasn't the case at all.

For the rest of the class my mind wandered back to the flowers and what they possibly could've meant. Even my banter about what is and isn't a berry with Zak couldn't take my mind off of them. Although, I think Ciara and Zak were too distracted by their heated debate about tomatoes being or not being berries to notice my stress. By the end of the day, I still hadn't resolved my issue.

While sitting on the bus, I finished my water off as all of the ice had finally melted. Well, it mostly melted. There must've been a small bit of ice I didn't see. I put the water bottle back into its pocket on my bag and looked out of the bus window to see the same flowers as before in the garden. The different colours created some sort of chaotic molten rainbow. And I couldn't figure out why these flowers kept appearing.

After I finished my homework, I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. I was having trouble focusing on my work with so many insistent questions bouncing around my head about those dang flowers. On my way-out Samara stopped me to talk.

"Flora," she called out. "I've got something for you."

Intrigued, I walked up to her to see what it was about, hoping it might distract me from my flower troubles.

"I got an email from your Science teacher," she stated, cutting up some carrot for a salad. "Apparently your year group is going on an excursion soon. Some overnight experience in the city. You'll be looking at how viruses mutate at some place called the Clark Corporation. Have you heard of it?"

I nodded. I've heard of the Clark Corporation through multiple sources. It was supposedly this government run building where they looked at developing better medicines. I'd tried their cold medicine and it worked just like every other medicine. But they insisted that theirs was way better. Although I would admit, their painkiller's were better than any other I'd had when I got my migraines. They were even working on their own COVID-19 vaccine.

"Right, well I printed off the permission slip and signed it," Samara took out a piece of paper and gave it to me. "Just hand it in to Mr Farsnic and you can go. God, why does that name ring a bell?"

"Maybe Zak mentioned him?" I suggested.

"No, that's not it," Samara shook her head. "Whatever, just get that to your teacher."

I nodded. This was the first I was hearing of the excursion, but I guessed that Nangidon just informed our parents over email since there wasn't enough time in class. I folded it in half and quickly went to put it in my school bag. I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to go to some overnight excursion, but it wouldn't hurt.

I stood up and went back to the front and left for my walk. I glanced around the neighbourhood I had started to grow familiar with. I'd gone on a few walks around Joondalup. The area was nice, and as by Perth standards, there were parks everywhere. There was also a shopping centre a short drive away. The houses weren't so much what I was used to, but they were a cute size and looked to be older houses that had been done up.

I had liked going on walks. I usually somehow managed to stumble over nothing, but at that point, it could've been a talent. Falling over my own feet, falling over nothing, even falling over while on the ground. It was almost as though I wasn't designed for legs. Or at least, not designed to use my legs all that often.

I looked down and saw some white carnations in a nearby garden. It unnerved me. Death of a mother. I hugged myself, hoping to whatever higher being there was that the flowers weren't trying to tell me something like in my dreams. That they weren't going to warn me. My eyes started to water at the thought, and I turned my head to see a figure walking in my direction.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and began to walk again. I followed the footpath and after a few minutes glanced back to see the figure still walking towards me. But closer. My heart started to beat out of my chest. I started walking faster, breathing heavily. I shook my head at all of the thoughts crowding my mind.

I turned a corner and continued walking. I let out a sigh of relief when I turned, and they were gone. But my peace was lost when I turned to see them a few metres in front of me. I glanced to their side and saw a lily. Death.

I was stunned when they started walking towards me again. I pivoted on my heel and ran in the opposite direction. I dared looking back to see they had started to run after me. What the Hell is going on!? I thought to myself and then it hit me. My parents. This person knew something about my parents. Only problem, I wasn't about to wait for them and ask.

I looked back and they had managed to get closer. I could tell by that they were clearly an adult, but I wasn't looking at them enough to get anything else from them. I was running on pure adrenaline at this point. I don't remember how I did it, but I was on someone's roof. I looked down to see the person chasing me just standing there, waiting for me to come down.

I had to think about this. The house was only about a metre away from the neighbouring house. I could remember the athletics carnival at school and how I'd managed to get one of the longer jumps in our year despite my short stature. Although according to them, speedy small people tended to do well in sports involving momentum.

I glanced back down at the figure and still couldn't make them out properly. They were a grey hoodie and baggy trackie's, so I couldn't get a good look if my life depended on it. I got to my feet, legs shaking like crazy and took a few steps back. The jump wasn't that long. It was just a metre. But I still pictured a splat in my head, despite only being one story off of the ground.

I began running and as soon as I got close to the edge of the roof jumped. But I didn't stop there. This figure had been willing to chase me before, they'd be willing to continue. So, I didn't stop. I kept running and jumped from roof to roof. Occasionally I chanced a glance to see the figure falling behind.

I made a sharp turn halfway down a street to climb down onto the fencing of the house I had been standing on. I carefully made my way to the roof of the house behind it, in the hopes that it didn't have a direct road to where the figure was.

I followed the street until I found myself back at Samara's house and walked in, face red and panting like crazy.