The man stepped into the alleyway. Discarded newspapers lay at his feet, and the dumpsters produced their usual vile smells.
Something had happened here, and he'd almost been here to witness it. Admittedly, he had had more than a few drinks this night, but this was no hallucination. Something had just sparked and burned out the streetlamp to his left, and it came from the alley that had been to his right.
Something had happened. He just wanted to find out what.
He stepped past a dumpster, eyes squinted looking into the dark depths of the alley.
"What in the godda - aagh!"
Robin concentrated on the battle. The battlefield was a blood-soaked landscape, covered in the corpses of both her and her opponent's soldiers.
She moved the knight and took her opponent's bishop.
The coffeeshop was never crowded. The big brands had moved into town years back and the shop had eked along on its regulars. Every last one of them agreed that the small, local shop had the best atmosphere for the enjoyment of coffee.
Cordelia glanced at the board. With her pale and slender fingers, the upperclassman picked up the white queen and took Robin's pawn. "Check...mate."
"Damn it," Robin said, her eyes scanning the board for anything she'd missed.
"You learned from the best," the upperclassman said, smoothing her skirt. "Doesn't mean you are the best." Cordelia gave an unnaturally wide smile.
"Hey, I've improved a lot!" Robin half-yelled, leaning over the chessboard.
"You're a natural, I'll give you that," Cordelia said thoughtfully, leaning back on the sofa. "I've never seen someone improve so fast in such short time. But I've been doing this for years."
The two cleaned up the chess game and set it back on the windowsill.
"There's not much more I can teach you," Cordelia said, double checking her messenger bag. "I can teach you techniques and methods, but I can't teach you how to think like a tactician. That's something you have to learn on your own."
"Big help," Robin said, her hands in the pockets of her slightly oversized jacket.
"Hey, it's true," Cordelia said, holding the door open for the younger girl. "I can't teach you how to think. All you can learn from someone else is technique."
"It feels like we've had this discussion before," Robin said, stepping out into the spring air. "Geez. 'Blah blah, blah, you can't be taught how to think. You learn that from experience, blah blah blah.'"
"There's a difference between me telling you, and you understanding it," Cordelia said.
Robin gently shoved the red-haired girl for the remark.
Gently, however, would not be how Cordelia would describe it.
Home for Robin was Uncle's disturbingly large apartment on the thirteenth floor.
Uncle worked in a corporate office half the time and the other half of his life was spent flying cross-country on business, reporting in on car accidents. It was fairly rare that the two of them would see each other, and an even rarer occurrence was the two of them eating together.
Tonight was the norm rather than the exception. Robin spent the night alone, doing homework and reading, a stereo system alternating between classical or jazz depending on her mood.
At ten, Robin prepared herself for sleep.
Robin had somehow obtained the larger of the two bedrooms. Uncle's room was spartan and had only a bed and a desk, and he gave her the larger room simply because she had more things.
Her room wasn't even that decorated. A single poster hung in the room, a reminder of Robin's favorite movie - a particularly motivational flick about a baseball manager and his dysfunctional team.
Robin climbed into the bed and slept peacefully.
The shrill tones of her alarm clock let Robin know the morning was upon her. Half-asleep, she tossed the covers aside and stepped out of bed.
An hour later, she arrived at the high school. Just in time for class.
Several hours later, she walked out into the courtyard.
"Yo," she said to the sitting red-haired upperclassman. "You going for coffee?"
"Nah," Cordelia said. "Sumia and I are working on a project for Chem - it's a presentation and we want to be done before tomorrow, so we're going to head to the library today."
"Hey, Cordy!" Sumia said. "Hey, Robin! Haven't seen you in a while, how're ya doin'?"
Robin shrugged. "Okay, I guess."
"Just 'okay', huh? Hmm...hey, this Friday you should come out with us to Julie's party!"
Cordelia raised an eyebrow. "You know Julie hates sophomores," she said. "Doesn't invite them to her parties."
"Yeah, yeah," Sumia said. "Well, if she points it out, I bet you ten I can knock her out with one punch."
"You're on," Cordelia said. "Ten bucks says you can't." She turned to Robin. "Meet us at the Sev on 36th at eight, tomorrow."
The phone call came in right as the water in the pot was getting hot. Robin was ready to dump the noodles in, but the phone's obnoxious ringing pulled her out of the kitchen.
"Hello," the man said.
Robin cursed internally. It was her father, whose other contributions to her life included a monthly supply of the bare minimum in child support and the birthmark on her hand.
"How's school?" Validar asked.
"Great," Robin growled. "Fantastic."
"That's good to hear," the man on the other end said calmly. "Do you, ah, have a lot of friends?"
"Yes." The answers seemed to be more guttural growls than words. "Loads."
"Is everything alright? Are you sick?"
And so the conversation did not stop. At least, it didn't until Robin gritted her teeth and informed her father that she was in the middle of cooking dinner, and that the water was boiling, right now.
That ended the conversation.
The night passed without any further incident.
Friday.
Eight o'clock, on the dot.
Cordelia and Sumia waited in the car - an older model, slightly rusted and battered, with a rear view mirror that was perpetually threatening to break off.
Cordelia munched on the energy bar - a small stock of the bars were kept in the glove compartment, regularly refilled by the redheaded junior. Sumia grabbed one out and began unwrapping it.
"Think Robin's gonna show?" Sumia asked.
"Don't know," Cordelia said, chewing the bar and swallowing. "Don't think she's the type for parties, even if Julie hosts really tame ones."
"Well, for all she knows, we could be going to a hardcore rave," Sumia said. "Hey, you're the one in a black and blue miniskirt. Oh, hey, there she is!"
True to Sumia's words, Robin was walking up to the car.
"Come with me if you want to live," Cordelia said as Robin climbed in the back. Within seconds, the car was puttering away from the convenience store.
The house was at the edge of a suburb - a fairly upscale neighborhood without many residents. Julie and her parents had moved in a year ago, and Julie often hosted parties while the parents were out on romantic dates or sometimes vacations. She'd quickly became very popular, and it was mostly due to the parties.
This information came from some reliable sources, or so Cordelia had been told.
"Now, you have to know one thing," Cordelia said as they pulled up to the house. "Julie hates having 'uncool' sophomores at her parties - so try not to stand out. Just relax, have a good time - and remember, we leave at 12 on the money."
Robin, her arms resting on the front seat, her head resting on her arms, nodded as much as she could in response. "12. Got it."
"Let's do this," Sumia said as Cordelia put the car in park. The pair hopped out, Robin following shortly afterward.
Julie was at the door, holding it open. "Wait," Julie said, looking at Robin. "Did I invite you?"
Cordelia nodded. "We can vouch for her. She's cool."
Julie nodded, eyes narrowing.
The party had begun already. A pair of brothers, both seniors, were moving away, and Julie had decided to throw a party for them. The two were jamming out in the living room, a pair of acoustic guitars dueling for dominance.
"Come on, come on, we're - in - love," the darker haired brother sang.
"Come on, come on," the lighter haired brother sang.
Robin watched the scene unfold. Cordelia and Sumia had already left her, off to go chill with the other partygoers.
"Yo," an upperclassman said to her. "You look a little lost."
"Yeah," Robin said. "I don't go out to many parties."
The blue-haired upperclassman passed his soda cup to his left hand and held out his hand for her to shake. "Well, I'm Chrom. This is my first party, too."
"Haha," Robin said, shaking Chrom's hand. "Well, I'm Robin."
"Nice to meet you," Chrom said, his mouth widening into a smile.
A girl in an oversized jacket brushed past Robin. "Excuse me," the girl said before disappearing into the crowd.
"That's weird," Chrom said. "She has the exact same shade of hair as me."
"You have any long-lost sisters?" Robin asked, smiling.
"Nah," Chrom said. "Just two regular sisters, and they're both blonde."
Cordelia leaned up against the banister. "Hey, look, listen," she said, nudging Sumia. "Our little one already caught a fish."
"Cool," Sumia said, "Who's the lucky guy?"
"I-It's Chrom," Cordelia said, eyes widening. "Holy shit."
"Dude," Sumia, sitting up. "Are you serious? Is his posse around?"
"No," Cordelia replied carefully. "The guy is without Fred or Vaike? There's no way, those guys follow him around like he's the second coming of Christ."
"How in the goddamn hell? That guy's always running around organizing teams and being captain of a bajillion clubs," Sumia said. "I heard his parents are always disappointed in him 'cause his older sister is some kind of übermensch, so he always tries to get out of her shadow or some shit."
"You speak German?" Cordelia asked, glancing to the girl sitting on the ground.
"A tiny bit," Sumia said. "Du bist ein dummkopf."
"This is actually kinda funny, but I usually don't get out much," Chrom said, leaning up against the beige wall.
"Really?" Robin said. "You're so sociable and...nice!"
"I'm in, like, a billion clubs and I've got a bunch of hard classes," Chrom said. "It's a wonder I was ever able to make it out to one of these things."
"What kind of classes?" Robin asked, head tilted in curiosity.
Chrom laughed. "Well, Em - my older sister is a genius, and my parents kinda pushed me along her path. So I had to take as many honors classes and as much foreign language as possible and all that," he said, waving his hand back and forth with his words. "It's exhausting."
"I can imagine," Robin said.
Chrom pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Aw, crap," he said. "I don't know how, but they found me."
"Who?" Robin said.
"The Libyan terrorists pursuing me," Chrom said. "Actually, just Fred and Vaike. Well, they'll barge in momentarily, which means I'm off to go find a back door. Ah - hang on." Chrom pulled out a piece of paper and scrawled a bit on it. "Here's my number. Call me up sometime, maybe we can hang out or something." Robin took the paper from the blue-haired upperclassman. "Well, see ya," Chrom said, rushing off.
Robin turned around -
- and Cordelia was right there with a huge grin on her face.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Cordelia said, looking down at the paper. "You met him accidentally, chatted him up, and got his number?"
"I...guess?" Robin said, unsure of what to say. "What's so awesome about that? You probably get a ton of guys' numbers."
"No, this is different," Cordelia said, moving Robin to a nearby couch. "That was Chrom."
Robin nodded. "Yeah. It was. And?"
Cordelia shook her head. "Kid, you gotta a lot of nerve. Listen up! Chrom is insanely popular. The guy is, like, like, a, ah, uh..."
"A legend," Sumia supplied, emerging from behind her friend.
"Yeah!" Cordelia shouted. "He's a legend. The guy's always followed by two of the biggest cockblockers you've ever seen, so he never gets chatted up like you chatted him up."
Robin nodded. "So he gave me his number."
Cordelia nodded. "You're probably invited to some exclusive nightclub now," she said, staring at the paper. "Gah, I need a drink. I just missed chatting up Chrom."
"Aw, come on," Sumia said, wrapping her arm around Cordelia's shoulders. "Let's get some caffeine in you." She turned back to Robin. "If you're actually allowed into some exclusive nightclub, you better take me sometime."
As the pair walked off to refill their drinks, the girl in the oversized jacket sat on the couch next to Robin.
"Hello," the girl said. "My name is Lucina."
"Ah, I'm Robin," Robin said, extending her hand for a handshake. "It's nice to meet you."
Lucina hesitantly accepted the handshake. "It's nice to meet you too, but we have important business to discuss. This is a matter of life and death. But first -" The girl produced a syringe in a steel case.
"I'm going to inject you with this."