BEING DRIVEN BACK TO HER APARTMENT IN A POLICE CRUISER AND SPENDING THE NEXT HOUR ANSWERING QUESTIONS WASN'T HOW SOLAN EXPECTED HER NIGHT TO GO.

But it was what went on in the Martez's little apartment.

Aunt Maria was thoroughly shocked when her niece came back ten minutes later than she expected, with two GCPD officers escorting her. She listened to the seventeen-year-old's recount of the events as she repeated them to the cops.

It was clear that Solan was fairly shaken by the events, as she kept shaking her head and repeating, "What even fucking happened?" every ten minutes.

The status of Aunt Maria's car had yet to be revealed, but both Martez girls figured it was probably best to just call the insurance company and get a payment for another one. Apparently, the burglars managed to out-maneuver its tail of following cops somewhere relatively far. Solan felt bad that they had gotten the car because of her letting them, but she also knew that Aunt Maria would probably be more angry if she stayed to keep the car, with a gun pointed at her head.

After an hour of questioning, a full sixty-minutes of giving the same answers to questions that were basically the same, just worded differently (no, I didn't get a look at their faces. No, I didn't recognize them, etc.), the officers finally left Solan and Aunt Maria alone, and headed back to, presumably, the GCPD.

After Aunt Maria showed them out, she immediately turned to her niece, who was tiredly sitting on the couch.

"Are you alright?" She asked, walking over and sitting next to her. She wrapped an arm around her niece's shoulders and pulled her into her side.

"I'm fine. Just tired." Solan said back, rubbing one of her eyelids.

Aunt Maria gazed at her with sympathy. She ran a hand through her niece's dark locks. "Go get some sleep, honey." She said gently.

Solan just nodded in response. She pushed off from the couch and told her aunt a goodnight, then walked into her room, shutting the door behind her.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, she yanked off her shoes and hoodie, throwing them in each of their respective places. She didn't bother to change out of the same jeans and shirt she picked that morning. She just laid under the inviting covers of her bed and drifted off into a dreamless sleep in no time.

The next morning, Aunt Maria woke her much kinder than she normally did. She had already made breakfast, and told her niece it was waiting for her whenever she decided to arise.

Solan sat up in bed and noticed that the sun was shining more behind the gray expanse that was the Gotham sky much brighter than it normally did when she woke up for school. She checked her phone on her bedside table and realized it was ten in the morning, two hours after school started.

"No school today?" Solan asked when she entered the kitchen.

Aunt Maria was eating her own breakfast, and Solan noticed she looked better rested. She took a sip of her coffee and placed it down on the counter. "No, I thought you could use the day off."

Solan smiled and sat down at the counter. "I'm fine, but I love having no school today. What about you? Shouldn't you be at the restaurant?"

"No car, remember?" Aunt Maria said. "I called in and explained the situation to my boss, and she totally understood. I have the next two days off of work."

The seventeen-year-old was really glad to hear that, as Aunt Maria almost never took days off. Every Sunday she had off, but any day that she was scheduled to work, she would work.

"Did you sleep in the same clothes?" Aunt Maria asked.

"Yeah, I was too tired to change before bed last night." Solan said with a sigh. "My legs feel constricted. Skinny jeans are only meant to be worn for so long."

Aunt Maria chuckled. "I don't know if you need to hear this, too, but you could also use a shower."

"Rude, first of all." Solan said, raising both her eyebrows. "I've been through a tragedy, Aunt Maria. I reserve the right to be lazy."

"Reserve the right to smell like shit." Aunt Maria said, making Solan gasp. Her aunt laughed as she slid off the stool and walked her empty plate to the sink.

"Have I made the news?" Solan asked.

Aunt Maria walked over and took her plate to the sink for her. "Technically, yes. But I asked the cops to leave your name out of the report."

Solan understood that decision, and actually appreciated her aunt for thinking of it last night. It would bring a lot of attention to her at school, even if it would probably fizzle out after a few days. But as long as they didn't know one of their classmates had anything to do with it, Solan figured they probably wouldn't even talk about it. People were always getting robbed or held at gunpoint.

After breakfast, Solan sat through a bit of the news. The morning news anchor talked more about the actual museum robbery than they did the car stealing. Apparently, the four burglars managed to get away with almost a half a million dollars worth of history. A fact that made the museum owner gravel and complain to the reporter, whining about the GCPD's failure and declaring Batman himself should be out there looking for the lost artifacts.

Solan spent the rest of the morning taking a shower and finally changing into new clothes. After her hair had dried and she ate one of Aunt Maria's lunches, she sat on her bed and texted Eli. She had waited until he would be going to lunch until she responded to his few texts that asked her where she was.

After she sent only one message, saying she was staying home today, her friend's name appeared on the screen with the word 'calling' underneath it. Solan chuckled and pressed the little green button, then held her phone up to her ear.

"You have literally not missed one day of school since I've known you." Was his greeting, disbelief behind his words.

"Yeah, it's kinda a long story. Or, a complicated one." Solan said warily, leaning against her propped up pillows. "Did you hear about that museum heist last night?"

"The one at the museum around the corner from your house?"

"Yeah, that one. Well, did you hear that they used a stolen car to get away?"

"Yes?"

"Well, that was my car, and I was in it."

Eli's reaction was cartoon-worthy. His voice immediately jumped several octaves and raised to a shout. "What? Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Solan grinned at his concern. "No, I'm fine. I got out and just told them to take it. We are out of a car, though, which is a pain."

The boy on the other line breathed a sigh of relief. "At least you weren't hurt. Did Batman come? I've heard he'll sometimes show up at, like, crime scenes."

"It wasn't really a crime scene." Solan said, tilting her head in thought. "But no, Batman was not there. Hey, did you hear about Robin?"

Another sigh crackled over the speaker. "Yeah. You don't think -"

"He's probably fine, Eli." Solan said before he could finish his sentence. She knew his worry without even having to be next to him.

"I just hope new Robin doesn't, like, die or anything."

"I still don't understand why you think this is a new Robin." Solan said, shaking her head. Eli always had several theories that had something to do with Batman and his sidekick, and most of the time, they were centered around who he was under the cowl. He had a theory that when Robin disappeared about a year ago, then showed up after two months, that it was actually a whole new person. He cited the fact that when he came back, he was at least a head shorter and had different fighting styles.

Solan could understand the shorter part, but it was relatively difficult to tell, as there weren't any close-up photos of either Robin or Batman. Most were taken from security footage, or from a distance, or even from the press or crowds outside a crime scene that they did show up to. She guessed he did look a bit different, different hairstyles and such, and one time, although she couldn't be sure, she could have sworn she saw a different eye color under the green mask the sidekick wore.

"We've been over this, Solan." Eli said in a tone like a scolding parent.

"I'm just saying that it's impossible to tell if he's shorter when there's pretty much no photos of him." Solan said, smirking as she judged his reaction.

"Yeah, maybe, but I'm telling you, he's fighting way different now." Eli said. His voice grew more excited as he talked more about his favorite topic. "The rates of people Robin normally sends to the hospital went way up. I swear this is a different one, and I think he's a lot more aggressive. You and him would probably get along."

Solan rolled her eyes. "Either we would get along, or we'd hate each other. Such is the way of things like that."

Eli laughed. "Right, Dr. Seuss. The bell is about to ring, but I'll stop by after school."

"Alright, I'll be here." Solan said, then said her farewells, hanging up the phone afterwards.

"Solan!" Aunt Maria called excitedly from the kitchen, making her niece jump up and run out into the room.

"What?" She asked, putting her phone into the pocket of her jacket.

Aunt Maria had her own phone in her hand, and she was leaning against the counter with a smile.

"That was the GCPD. They found the car."

Solan's eyebrows rose in surprise. As annoying as the museum owner was on the news, he was correct in saying that the GCPD practically let it happen. It was a known fact that cops in Gotham that were actually good at their job were low in numbers, and most of the force were lazy, corrupt, or both.

"Let me guess, they only found it because it was, like, abandoned, or something?" Solan asked, crossing her arms.

While Aunt Maria normally tried to make sure her niece's manners were in check, especially to authority figures, she couldn't help but nod her head a bit to say, "Well, you're right."

Solan snorted. "Well, are they bringing it here?"

"No, I'm going to go pick it up from the lot." Aunt Maria said. "My boss is going to give me a ride."

"Nice. Eli's gonna come by after school."

Aunt Maria sighed in relief. "Good. I didn't want to leave you here by yourself."

While Solan understood her aunt's concern, she knew it wasn't supported by any reason. It wasn't like the burglars from last night were going to track her down and shoot her for not giving them a ride.

"Aunt Maria, I am fine." She said slowly. "I don't need a babysitter."

"Solan, I don't care." Aunt Maria said mockingly, using the same slow tone. "I would feel better if you did."

Knowing that it was pointless to argue, Solan huffed and chatted with her aunt while they waited for her boss to arrive. After about ten minutes, Aunt Maria's phone rang with a message, and she kissed Solan on the cheek. With about three variations of 'be careful', Solan's aunt pulled on her shoes and jacket, then went outside to meet her ride.

As it was only mid-day, and school got out at three, Solan spent the rest of the time waiting for Eli to finish her homework. Having the day off was fun for the first part of the day, but now she was bored, and the Martez's TV didn't get a lot of channels. Around that time, the only things that came through on the antenna were the news, old cartoon reruns, and court shows. And Solan could only watch so many rounds of Hot Bench before she felt the need to do something else.

She had completed the work she was meant to do yesterday just as Eli got to her apartment and gave her another small stack of assignments.

"I collected it for you." He told her, explaining that it was today's round of homework.

Solan warily looked at the sheets of paper. "They're punishing me. They're angry I didn't go to school and this is their revenge."

Eli rolled his eyes and dropped his backpack next to Solan's. "Dramatic. But you are probably right."

After putting her new wave of homework aside, the pair walked over to the couch and talked through a rerun of Paternity Court. Eli talked about Ella mainly, saying that she was by far the hottest girl on the cheerleading squad, but dumb as a bag of rocks. Solan scoffed at that, as even though she was angry during her first meeting with the girl, she found her to be one of the sweetest.

He also told her about a new rumor circulating around the school, centered around Mr. Rameiz. Apparently he showed up to school with a bunch of bruises on his face, and the rumor was that he was some kind of underground fight club runner.

"Are you kidding? Have half of these people even met the man?" Solan laughed, as the prospect of the man she had her session with being involved in anything dangerous was laughable.

"You have. You really don't think it's possible? I mean, he looked pretty fucked up." Eli said, then turned to the TV as the DNA results on the show proved the man was the father. "Ha! I knew it! Take care of your kid, you piece of shit!"

Solan rolled her eyes. "No, I definitely don't think it's possible that the therapist who spent twenty minutes trying to help me can be any form of aggressive bag guy."

She just couldn't fathom the smooth-talking, office eye candy, therapist who went by a different title than he earned because he didn't want to seem boring could ever be a part of something dangerous and illegal. Solan might have hated him, that was true, but she did so for her own personal reasons. She figured he was probably a good guy when he wasn't roasting his students.

"Well, still. It's weird for a therapist to look so fucked up. Unless he got robbed last night, too." Eli added thoughtfully.

"Maybe he did. I mean, this is Gotham, it's not like there's only one crime a night." Solan said with a shrug.

"Well, turn on the news, let's see if anything else got reported last night." Her friend said, but quickly held up his hand to signal her to wait. "Wait, I wanna see what this guy's gonna do with the kid."

Solan waited, looking at Eli with her eyebrows raised, as the man on the TV proudly and emotionally exclaimed that he was going to be a part of the baby's life. She sighed and switched the channel to the news.

The same news anchor flashed onto the screen, holding papers in his hands, and droning on about some gala Bruce Wayne was throwing to celebrate one of his charities reaching the goal of donations.

"In other news, no word on the museum heist that took place last night at Gotham Museum of Natural History, but we received confirmation that the car the thieves used to get away has been found."

Solan frowned, and turned up the TV.

"GCPD officers searched the vehicle, but no clues were left behind to help their search. Commissioner James Gordon gave a statement today on the heist."

The TV news anchor was switched from the screen, and a video of James Gordon standing behind a podium flickered on.

"The GCPD is doing all they can to find the culprits behind last night's heist." The man said, wary and beat-looking. Evidently, being the Commissioner of a city that was only known for its freaks in weird costumes was just as exhausting as it seemed. "We recognize that these priceless artifacts should be held in a place where they can be enjoyed by everyone, and we are offering a reward for any knowledge that can be shared with the GCPD. Thank you."

"He sure looks tired." Eli commented, raising his eyebrows.

Solan voiced her agreement, telling him about the museum owner that tore into the GCPD earlier. They sat through another round of the mystery of the missing Robin, which Eli gave a ten minute rant about, before the news switched to more boring stories.

"Well, muggings in Gotham are hardly news anymore, anyway." Eli sighed, resting his head on his propped fist. "What are you doing this Saturday?"

Solan shrugged. "The usual, probably."

"Eating takeout with your aunt and spending the night in front of the TV?" Eli snickered, making Solan smack his bicep.

"Fuck off." She said, then added in an undertone, "My aunt works on Saturdays."

Eli nodded sarcastically. "As fun as that sounds, there's a party at Michael Brekin's house this Saturday."

"How many times are you going to try to make me go to a party?" Solan asked with a scoff. Despite having passed on every party Eli had tried to force her to go to since she knew him, he still tried to make her come.

"As many as it takes." Eli answered, giving her a look like something akin to a challenge.

"Well, as fun as that sounds," She said mockingly. "Even if I wanted to, Aunt Maria is getting protective. I don't think she'd let me."

Eli huffed. "Fine. But now you have to buy the alcohol for the party."

Solan scoffed. "Excusez moi?"

"Yeah, it's your payment for continually ditching me. We're all supposed to bring some kind of alcohol. I'll give you the money, but you gotta buy it."

"I am not going to buy alcohol for a party I'm not going to." Solan argued. "Besides, I'm seventeen. I couldn't if I tried."

Eli gave her a look of disbelief. "We both know you have a fake ID, Solan. As for why, I have no idea, since you don't go anywhere."

"Just in case." Solan said, neglecting to mention that you needed to be over eighteen to hold the puppies at PetCo. Despite her harsh feelings towards people, Solan got along great with animals, and weirdly enough, children.

"You're doing it." Eli said, smirking.

"I am not." Solan challenged back.

Her friend rose to his feet, holding out a hand to pull Solan from the couch. "You are. Right now, let's go."

While Solan really didn't want to walk to the closest convenience store, which was about a ten minute walk through the nicest part of the Narrows, Eli wasn't giving her a lot of choices. She groaned and put her hand in his, letting him pull her from the couch. After they both put on their shoes, and Solan left a note for Aunt Maria to tell her where they went, they began their trek to the store.

"So, Robin." Eli started, being cut off by a loud groan from Solan. "Hey, if you had any interests except for sarcasm, I would listen to you talk to them."

Solan sighed pointedly, but waited for him to go on.

He grinned. "Right, so Robin. You know how he said that whole Titans thing before he went missing?"

She nodded and hummed boredly.

"Well, you know what they are, right? The Titans? Right, so, I think that the new Robin joined the original Robin in San Francisco, and that's why he's not here anymore."

Solan frowned. "I thought you thought the original Robin died?"

"I did, but if you factor in the whole two Robins thing, it doesn't seem right." Eli explained as they walked down the sidewalks, both shivering slightly in the growing colder air. "Now, I think the original Robin actually left. Because, remember how there was that weird thing with that Maroni guy before he went missing? I think something bad happened with that, and he decided to leave."

"But why would he leave?" Solan asked, shaking her head confusedly.

"I don't know." Eli said with a sigh, signaling that he probably spent some time pondering that, and hadn't come to a sound conclusion yet. "Maybe he got tired of Gotham?"

"Maybe." Solan echoed, shrugging. "And how does that connect to the new Robin?"

"Well, how else would new Robin know the Titans?" Eli said as if it were obvious, growing more excited about the topic. "He hasn't teamed up with any other heroes, at least not by himself. So, the only connection he would even have to them is through the original Robin, who was one of the founders of them."

Solan really didn't find superheros interesting, at least not enough to follow their careers like Eli did, but she had to admit that it actually made sense. "I guess that makes sense. You're still a dork, though." She said, smirking at her friend.

Eli laughed. "Maybe, but I'm not the only one. There's this kid at school, Tim Drake, who has an interest in them, too. Batman and Robin, that is. I was talking to him today about them, and he said he has this idea who they actually are. "

"Maybe they're not even people." Solan suggested with a smirk playing on her lips. "I mean, Batman's gotta be at least forty or fifty now. How does a human fight like that when they're pushing seniorhood?"

"Because he's a badass."

They spent the next few minutes debating on the levels of badassery Batman had achieved, and even Solan found herself in slight awe of Eli's stories. Not enough to begin fangirling over the caped crusader, but enough to be impressed.

"What kind do you think?" Eli asked when they made it to the convenience store. He was referring to Solan's opinion on what kind of alcohol they should buy.

Solan shrugged as they walked over to the tall refrigerators filled with the various types of drinks. She walked to the soda section and grabbed a bottle of Dr. Pepper, earning an annoyed look from Eli.

"Yeah, make sure everyone knows we're under twenty-one, Solan." He hissed, throwing looks over his shoulder as if he were expecting people to start crowding around them and tell them off.

"Because people twenty-one and over don't drink Dr. Pepper?" She raised an eyebrow with the flat tone in her voice. "And they will if you keep talking about it."

Eli huffed and threw more worried looks around them. "You look like a narc." Solan commented, walking over to the racks of unrefrigerated alcohol.

She reached a hand out and wrapped it around the neck of a bottle of whiskey, pulling it off the shelf and inspecting it. She didn't know anything about brands or anything, since she never really drank those kinds of things, but she did know that a party of high schoolers would probably overdo the alcohol and with whiskey, it would probably be hilarious.

"Whiskey? You sure?" Eli's voice finally stopped sounding like someone was going to suddenly point at him and ask to see his ID

"Are you kidding? A bunch of kids under eighteen trying to outdrink each other with whiskey? Just send me a video of it." Solan said, snorting as they made it to the counter. Eli grabbed a chocolate bar from the side and threw it next to Solan's Dr. Pepper. The cashier looked at the whiskey, the Dr. Pepper, the chocolate bar, then to Eli's nervous grin, then at Solan's bored expression.

"That'll be $ 20.78."

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"I can't believe he fell for it." Eli was grinning like the Cheshire cat, holding the plastic bag concealing the bottle of cheap whiskey in it's hold. Solan was taking long sips of her Dr. Pepper, and when Eli said his words, she scoffed.

"He didn't." She said, screwing the maroon lid back onto the bottle. "He didn't even ask for my ID He just didn't care."

"Still." Eli stated, opening the dark wrapper of his chocolate bar. The pair strolled past another row of ancient and decrepit looking buildings, former homes or places of business that fell victim to time and were abandoned to the Narrows. Most of the area looked like that, but the Martez's and Eli's family were lucky enough to live on the best side of the worst part of town.

Solan and Eli, who were in possession of alcohol they still had to wait four years to drink, were not expecting Aunt Maria to be outside the apartment building. She was standing on the sidewalk, next to her newly found car that was parked in the street. The two seventeen-year-old's stopped in their tracks, Eli hurriedly hiding the plastic bag behind his back.

"Aunt Maria!" Solan exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise. "You're back!"

"What's behind your back, Eli?" Aunt Maria asked, only having to take one glance to understand that they were hiding something. And a white plastic bag being thrust behind someone's back was a tell.

"The Bible." Eli said hurriedly, forcing a worried grin on his mouth. "Nothing like that after school, reading the Lord's message, right?"

"Is it drugs?" She asked, ignoring Eli's terrible lie, and finally turning to look at the two teenagers with her arms firmly crossed across her chest.

"No." Solan said nervously.

Aunt Maria turned away from them. "Then I don't care." She was intently combing her fingers across the driver's side door, gazing at seemingly nothing, but Solan knew her better than to think it was pointless. She knew her aunt was making sure there was no damage done to the shit car from the early 2000's. She was making sure there wasn't even the slightest of new scratches across it's chipping paint.

"So you got her back." Solan said, strolling up to the car and patting it's hood affectionately.

"Clearly." Aunt Maria said, not glancing up from her work. "Those GCPD officers got her all scratched up."

"How do you know it was the GCPD? It could have been the burglars." Eli said curiously.

Aunt Maria scowled in thought. "When we got to the lot, they were leaning up against her."

Solan pulled the door handle and crawled into the backseat. She wasn't sure what she was doing, but she felt like being there, where the other three burglars were with the other duffle bag. Part of her hoped in vain that maybe if she went back there, she would find some kind of clue. Like she would get some kind of answer as to why they picked her car to run into. She knew it was just out of rushed convenience, but deep down, she expected to find some kind information as to why it happened to her.

"And the GCPD didn't find anything?" Solan asked from the backseat.

Aunt Maria sighed and frowned. "No. Apparently, she was abandoned somewhere about ten miles from here."

"Did they check the secret compartment?" Solan asked, tracing the handle of the hatch that would lift up one of the seats in the back.

Eli raised his eyebrows. "I'm sorry, what?"

Solan grinned and beckoned him to watch. Part of the reason she and her aunt loved the car so much was because of all the charm the relic held in her rusting walls. Eli leaned over by the open door and waited for Solan to demonstrate.

Solan's hand pulled the little hatch and lifted the seat on the far right, expecting to find some years old pieces of trash and crumbs, but instead found a small stack of invaluable artifacts stolen from the museum last night.

The teenagers both gasped in shock at the several pieces of history lying with shreds of torn paper and wrappers. Aunt Maria asked them what was wrong, but neither teen could bring themself to answer. She got annoyed with the lack of answers and decided to check for herself, walking over to the right side of the car and swinging the door open. Her reaction was similar to the other two's, stopping in every action and mouth flying agape.

Solan numbly reached out to lightly drag her fingers across a necklace made of ancient gold and beads of brown and blue. They crinkled under the weight of her fingernails, and for some reason Solan felt surprised that the beads moved and made noise. She half-expected them to, well, she didn't even know, really. To be some kind of untouchable stone or something such as that. She was entirely surprised that it was just a normal necklace.

"What..." Eli said. "What the fuck?"

"I don't believe it." Aunt Maria awed.

Solan still couldn't even make words come out of her mouth. She moved her hand to a hefty statue, not tall, but wide. It was a fat, sculpted heap of bronze, shaped to form some kind of deformed pear. She felt immediately enticed by the emerald green markings carved along the sides, and began to trace them absently while she admired the statue.

As if the situation couldn't get any weirder, it did exactly that. Solan had traced across the green waves across the shiny bronze for about ten seconds, alternating between lines, when she suddenly felt like her bones had somehow hollowed themselves out. It was only for a moment, as another sensation overcame her. She didn't know how to describe it, but it was like the empty spaces in her bones were being slowly filled.

Solan gasped at the feeling and dropped the statue back into the pile, but the sensation didn't go away. It didn't feel bad, on the contrary, it felt like drinking hot chocolate on a cold day, feeling warmth spread throughout your body. It was the weirdest feeling. Not normal, but not uncomfortable. Not filling, but she felt every space being crammed.

She could have sworn that when she dropped the statue, it flashed emerald green, bright as the sun, and slowly faded away. But she was pretty sure only she saw this, or imagined it, as when she tuned back into the real world, she realized that Aunt Maria was scolding her for dropping a heavy statue on delicate artifacts.

"You know what? Out. Get out of the car while I call the GCPD." Aunt Maria said, gesturing for her niece to move out of the car.

Solan lightly shook her head as if she were shaking herself out of a trance. "Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I just ... I don't know. Wasn't thinking."

"Are you alright? You look as though you've seen a ghost." Aunt Maria asked, noticing that Solan had paled and was frowning at the car door as if she were trying to figure out a riddle.

"Yeah, I'm cool. Just ... nevermind." Solan said, shaking her head more firmly and getting out of the car to stand next to Eli.

You imagined it, Solan. You imagined it. She thought to herself.

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For the second time in two days, Solan found herself being thoroughly questioned by GCPD cops, with little answers to give them. She explained the secret hatch, gave them back the small stack of priceless artifacts, and that was it for their questions. They were a little more prolonged this time, with Solan, Aunt Maria, and Eli spending almost two hours answering what they could, but eventually they came to the same conclusion they did yesterday. That none of them had any involvement, and would probably not be a lot of help.

The rest of the night carried on normally. After Eli went home, Solan and Aunt Maria watched old reruns of Tom & Jerry over their dinner, Solan finished up her homework, showered then went to bed. The weirdest part of her night was that she had a dream that felt too real for her liking, it bordered on a nightmare. She couldn't remember any of it except for a piece, which was the cat and mouse from Tom & Jerry, the mouse unintentionally walking directly into the trap the cat laid out for him.

The following school day was just as usual. School droned by, Solan barely tuned into half of her lessons, and by three in the afternoon, it was a day of school like the other ones.

The day afterwards went by, the Martez's slipping back into their routine as if Tuesday and Monday hadn't happened any way other than expected. Solan had the exact same dream as the night before, but she shrugged it off. She wasn't an expert on the secret meaning behind dreams, but she figured it was just the stress of the past few days getting to her.

But Thursday night, when she had the exact same dream, detail for detail, she decided maybe it was time to get an opinion.

So on Friday, Solan used Mrs. Mattis' concern for her to manipulate her into letting her go to the front office and ask to meet with Mr. Rameiz again. She really didn't want to go and talk about her problems to someone she disliked so much, but she was getting confused and annoyed at the same panicky dream that she could only remember one part of.

Mr. Rameiz accepted her request immediately, and seemed very surprised when she strolled into his office and sat down in front of his desk.

"I must say, I am thoroughly shocked." Mr. Rameiz said, leaning back in his chair and placing his fingertips together.

Solan smiled sarcastically. "Not more than I am."

"So, what have you come here to talk about?"

Pausing, Solan wondered how to answer that without sounding paranoid. She tapped the tips of her fingernails together. "I've been having the same ... weird dream for the past three nights."

One of Mr. Rameiz's eyebrows quirked up. "Weird dreams?" He didn't sound skeptical, though, so Solan continued.

"Yeah. It's of Tom & Jerry." Solan ignored how crazy she sounded. "I can't remember any of it except for the mouse walking right into a trap set by the cat."

The counselor frowned. "Curious. I'll admit, I don't have much training in interpreting dreams, but I'll give it a go. Have you been feeling particularly stressed lately?"

Solan scoffed humorlessly. "Yeah, you could say that."

Leaning forward, Mr. Rameiz grabbed a pen and positioned it atop a paper on his desk. "And what kind of stress? Anything you care to talk about?"

"No, not really." She said, then sighed when she realized the point of coming to the guidance counselor was trying to work through whatever was bothering her. "Well, unless you count that museum robbery that happened a few days ago."

Mr. Rameiz looked up from his paper in confusion. "The museum robbery?"

"Yeah." Solan felt the sudden urge to get up and walk away, and never speak of anything that happened that week again. A sense of revulsion settled in her stomach. "The car that they ... used to get away ... well, I was the driver they stole it from."

"Your car?" The counselor seemed more shocked than he did when Solan first walked in the room. It was like he was suddenly seeing her in an entire different light.

"Well, my aunt's." Solan said uncomfortably. She just wanted to run and forget she had ever brought it up.

Something seemed to have switched in the counselor. He was looking at his desk, clearly deep in thought. "Tell you what, let me do some research into dream interpretation. I'll call you back in a few days when I get some more information." He said urgently, seemingly convinced of a great idea.

Solan blinked confusedly. That was it? Barely ten minutes of talking, and she was already being kicked out? "Alright ..." She trailed, frowning.

"Alright." Mr. Rameiz said, grinning.

She sat there for a few seconds, before realizing that he wasn't even going to say goodbye or anything, then she picked up her backpack and walked out the door. After she shut the door behind her, she stood there, frowning and wondering what had happened. Why he was so adamant on getting her out of there so quickly?

She sighed and shook her head, adjusting the strap of her backpack, and decided that she didn't care. The one time she chose to put some faith in someone like the counselor, and she had gotten ushered out in less than ten minutes.

She sat back down on her desk in the back corner when she got back to English, ignoring Mrs. Mattis' inquiring stare. Part of her held a bit of contempt for her teacher, for suggesting she put her trust in someone like Mr. Rameiz. Angry for making her waver from her belief that she was best just taking care of herself. If anything came from that meeting with the counselor, it was a reinforced faith that sitting in his chair and ranting about her issues was a waste.

The remainder of the classes that led until lunch went by just as they always did; painstakingly slow, with Solan's mind keeping her occupied and her focus anywhere else but her schoolwork. When the bell finally rang and released the students of the first lunch period, Solan sighed with relief and made her way outside the cafeteria where Eli was waiting, alone this time.

"Wow, you look pissed." Eli commented, eyebrows raising at the expression on his friend's face.

"Yeah, I am not in a good mood." Solan said blandly, strolling past him and leading the way to their regular table.

"Why? What happened?"

Rolling her amber eyes, Solan sighed and leaned her head onto her hands. "You know those weird dreams I've been having? Well, I went to Mr. Rameiz again, brought them up, and he got all weird and ushered me out in less than ten minutes."

Eli frowned. "That's weird. You know, that guy really creeps me out."

"Why?"

"Something about him just seems, like, off." Eli stated, shaking his head.

Solan found his opinion strange, but he always had a weirdly good intuition, so she didn't question it. She shrugged. "Well, he said something about reading up on dream interpretation before kicking me out."

Eli's shoulders relaxed, and his frown fell. "Oh, well that makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Does it?"

"Yeah. He just wants to help the best he can."

Solan frowned and slumped her shoulders in thought. Did she agree? Absolutely not. And was she one to keep opinions like that to herself? Also absolutely not.

"I still think he's a douchebag." She said matter-of-factly, opening her lunch bag. "And I am definitely not going back."

While Eli just chuckled at the first half of her sentence, his gaze snapped over to her with a slight edge. "Why not?"

Solan frowned, wondering if he had heard anything of what she told him about Mr. Rameiz. "I just told you. He's a douchebag." She repeated, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head.

"Okay." Eli said, but his voice was slow. He was looking at her curiously, like he was trying to figure something out that he already knew and didn't like the answer. "But you're going to go to another therapist, right? Or at least another guidance counselor?"

The dark-haired girl scoffed and opened her container of apple slices prepared by Aunt Maria, fitted with a little note telling her not to fail another class. "No. Mr. Rameiz was enough. I'm better off dealing with my issues like I've always done, alright?"

"You mean not at all?" Eli asked sarcastically.

Solan smirked. "Exactly."

If Solan thought that her best friend would find this funny, she was wrong. In fact, it somehow seemed to make him angrier. He threw down the half-eaten orange back onto his lunch tray. "You know, being your friend really sucks sometimes." He said bitterly, temper getting the best of him.

Solan raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"Why can't you just admit you need help? Are you that against talking about your problems that you would rather spend the rest of your life depressed?"

Having no idea where this was coming from, Solan didn't know what to say. She opened her mouth but then closed it when she found she didn't have any words. Eli glared at her while waiting for her to say something, but shook his head when he realized she wasn't.

"Whatever." Eli said, standing up and packing his things back into his bag. "Might as well get out while I'm ahead. Before everyone's giving me sad looks in the hallways."

Solan finally felt a prick of annoyance. "What, you think I'm gonna kill myself? I'm not that sad." She argued, an uncomfortable feeling in her bones. She had always hated arguing and it normally made her feel uneasy, but now she just felt like something was rattling inside her veins, shaking out some terrified feeling at levels she had never felt before.

"But you are sad?" Eli asked, stopping and looking at her expectantly.

Solan groaned. "No! You tricked me. I'm fine, Eli. You don't have to worry."

Scoffing and throwing the last thing into his bag, Eli shook his head. He swung his bag over his shoulder and glared at his friend. "You're right. I don't. Have fun being a two-page memorial in the yearbook. I'm not putting myself through that just because you don't feel like giving a shit if people miss you."

Solan remained in silent confusion as he stomped away. He was throwing such weird mixed signals that she had no idea what he actually meant. Did he care or was he angry at her?

She sighed and shook her head, packing up her lunch and putting it back into her backpack. She had lost her appetite.

━━━━━━━━━━

Solan and Eli hadn't gotten into many fights. Any ones that they did was typically because they were two very sarcastic people with not-so-great senses of humor, and they weren't sure what they could or couldn't joke about with each other. Most of their fights had happened in the beginning of their friendship. When Eli learned that he couldn't joke about Solan's mom, her aunt, or her father. And when Solan learned she couldn't joke about Eli's family, his performance in football, or his grades.

But anytime they had a fight, it was normally over by the end of the day. When their anger had run its course and they could pretend it didn't happen because they understood what they did wrong. But Solan couldn't help but feel like there might have been a bigger problem when she sat down in seventh period, and Eli was still ignoring her.

She didn't know what to do. The concept of apologizing just felt ... uncomfortable. Turning to Eli and looking him in the eye, it made her stomach feel like it was swallowing itself.

She tried to get his attention, glancing over at him a few times before the bell rang, but even though she thought he noticed her, his eyes were fixed on the front of the class.

The bell finally rang, bringing a hush over the students as they took their seats. Ms. Harris greeted them with a wide sweep of her arms and a far-away looking grin.

"Hello, future blossoms." She said happily. "Today we will be turning in our prospects. If you could be so kind as to send someone to put your completed project on my desk."

Solan turned and watched Ella immediately jump out of her seat and excitedly grab their posterboard from the back, then walk it up to the front of the room where she sat it on Ms. Harris's desk. Solan boredly focused on the hem of the teacher's deep red skirt, waiting until the rush of footsteps and voices stopped.

"Okay, since today is the last day and class of the week, why don't you talk amongst yourselves while I start to grade your wonderful projects?"

Without a word, Eli stood up from his seat and picked up his backpack. Solan could only watch as he walked over to Ella's table and sat down next to her, immediately engaging in conversation. The blonde girl turned over and tried to beckon Solan over, but she shook her head and smiled apologetically, not daring to believe that she was invited.

The rest of the class passed slowly and miserably for Solan. She spent the period scanning through her science book, trying to fill her head with the useless information printed across the page to no avail. Her brain refused to take in anything. Her eyes simply moved across the pages, reading the words but not registering any of them.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the day, Solan perked up and slammed the book shut. She looked over to Ella's table to see if Eli was waiting for her, but all she saw of him was his backpack as he left the room as swiftly as possible.

Solan's shoulders slumped as she watched him leave without sparing her a glance. He wasn't even going to walk her home? That would be the first time since he started. There were times (several consecutive days in a row) during the football season where Eli had forced the rest of the team to wait to leave for the games just so he could make sure she got home safe.

She must have seriously pissed him off. Solan sighed and packed up her book into her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She pushed her chair back under the desk and walked out the door herself, looking in vain for any sign that her best friend was waiting for her.

When there was no friendly face standing outside the door, Solan readjusted her backpack strap and started towards the front doors.

- a/n -

And that's chapter two!! Honestly, this one sort of has a lot of shit in it, story wise. Like, it's a lot to happen in just the second part, but this is the first fanfiction I've ever written that starts with my own original plot (for the most part). I've got more chapters prewritten, and they're more original, too, but I think I paced how it flows a bit better.

Idk. Y'all will  be the judge of that when I actually publish them.

Anyway!! I love Solan so much. Writing a character like her was so hard at first but now it's so much easier just because I love her and love writing her. And Eli and Aunt Maria. I just love them all so much 😭😭😭😭

I don't have much to say here except that I hope you liked this chapter!! Love y'all and don't forget to vote and comment 💕💕💕💕