Hey everyone. I'd just like to let you know, that this is the newest chapter story by me. I've been working on it for a little bit, and I swear to you, that both Lash/OC and Lash/Layla fans will enjoy this. Swear to you! (But I promise Layla won't. Teehee.)

Disclaimer: I only own any character you aren't familiar with, as well as the plot. End of discussion.

Layla spots the most unlikeliest person at the cemetery, and is resolute to find out why. When she does, she wasn't expected to be warped into this whole mess. This whole story. Why is the deceased Crystal Skye determined to make Layla know?

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I didn't take notice to the striped sleeves of the tall boy sitting crossed-legged in front of a stone, since my main goal that day was to see my dad.

Or his grave, rather.

It's been five years since he died - and my mother refuses to see him. It's been hard on us both, but I'll never call her a coward for it. I couldn't. He was her world - and the first week that he had gone, the first few days he was gone, my mom had stayed here every night. She brought herself a pillow and a blanket, and just stayed with him.

And it hurt to drag her away from the cemetery, tell her that he was gone forever and wasn't coming back. She yelled at me that day. Told me that life was a joke, life wasn't right without my father around. It's not something you'd tell an 12 year old little girl.

Now I sit in front of his grave, and sigh loudly as my eyes scan over the chips in the stone, my mind screaming to me - telling me that this wasn't my dad.

And the earth - oh God, the earth. The silence around and beneath the ground always gave me chills. Even the trees were quiet. Maybe it was a rule - they couldn't live and thrive around something so…dead.

What was worse, though, was the only sound I could hear. A solid tap. Tap. Tap. And I had no idea what was causing it.

"Dad?" I whispered, slowly bringing a finger to my right ear to try and cease the stupid tapping. "It's…me again."Tap. Tap. My eyes closed in slight irritation, but I kept on. I haven't talked to my dad in about a week, and whatever was tapping wasn't gunna be the thing to stop me this time. "Things are a bit better than last week." I tucked a strand of my red hair behind my ear, sticking my other finger into the other one. Tap. Tap. "I got a 92 on my test in Mad Science."

I sighed again, and removed my fingers from my ears to play with the lilies I brought him last week. I was ignoring the tappings that were coming even stronger as time went on. Coming in more like a strange drum beat. But it was odd - and slow…

"Mom's gotten better, but she refuses to come still." I murmured, scratching my face to find a tear had already dared to stain it. "Dangit, every time."

I sat and talked to my dad for another ten minutes, now clearly aware of the drumming. I decided to say my goodbyes, and I stood up to leave. I couldn't see perfectly, but the boy I passed when I first showed up was still sitting in the same spot as he was the last time.

And his fingers were pounding the dirt. I growled, and began to stomp my way over to him. So he's been the one interrupting my time with my father. How rude.

"Excuse me -" I called, running past many stones to reach the boy below a birch tree, the grave he sat across from glossy and relatively new. Almost a year, maybe. The grass hasn't grown in yet. "'Scuse me, would you mind? I…I could hear your tapping from across the yard."

Yeah. And I knew it was stupid. My words were stupid. But how else was I supposed to say? 'Hi, I have superpowers and I can hear you abusing the ground from waaay over there'? No thanks. I'll enjoy my identity while I can.

"What - you've got supersonic hearin' or somethin'?" He asked me, not looking my way, but lower towards the ground.

I knew that voice. Hell I knew who it was. Stripes. Stretch. Bully. Livingston. "Lash?"

His name in the wind caused his eyes to finally look at me, and he practically fidgeted where he sat. "Hippie?" Lash's brown eyes went wide as he tried to choose between looking at me, or the stone in front of him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same for you." I whispered, but then thought it over as I stared at the grave before us. "Without, the derogatory language, and such."

Lash raised an eyebrow as a scowl wiggled its way onto his face. "Why I'm here is no business of yours."

"Well would you stop with the tapping?" I wondered, my hands on my hips. "It's going to give me a headache."

He laughed to himself. "No." I held my breath as I gripped my purse, walking away silently to the entrance of the cemetery. "Yo, Williams!" he called, making me turn around, stretching a leg to stand in front of me.

"You aren't supposed to use your powers outside of school." I hissed, but he was clearly ignoring my words.

"I was never here. You never saw me."

I sent him a quizzical look as he raced past me. "What?" But he disappeared into the darkening afternoon, the black and white stripes of his sleeves gone from my sight.

So I decided to check out the grave he was at only moments before. And it sucked cause I couldn't remember where…exactly…

The birch tree was near a family of stones, I knew that. And…and the stone wasn't really small, but it wasn't giganti - found it. My knees cracked as I crouched down to read the tombstone. Yet I couldn't see, really, what it said yet, because the face of a girl on the rock had caught my attention. What stunned me more was the details in her eyes. There were jewels. Blue ones - crystallized into the stone. I pouted as my fingers slid down them, knowing that grave robbers would have a field day with those jewels. They looked so perfect. So…so natural, though.

And it made me want to cry, really. Could you imagine?

The girl in the picture, other than the decorated eyes, looked amazing. And young. So familiar. Probably about my age. Looking at the date, I confirmed so. She was born in 1991. I shivered against the light breeze. And died in 2008. Poor girl. Just celebrated her 17th birthday just a few months ago.

Her name was the last detail I collected in my head. And it made my breath falter. There was a harsh pain in my chest as I let a sob into the air.

Crystal Skye.

I knew her. Not well, but I knew her. She was a unique person, and had a lot of friends at Sky High. My hand hit the top of the rock as I breathed deeply. How I missed this, I'll never know. I'll never be sure. "Oh, I feel terrible." I whispered, looking away to the blue jewels. That's why she looked so familiar - the light blue rocks. Magenta told me once that that's why she was named Crystal.

Her eyes.

I had to stand. Had to leave. It was getting dark, and I needed to be home.

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Like it? Hopefully - since it's going to be the newest chapter story by me.

It gets better, believe me. Seriously. Just watch.

Review and you shall receive!