Two girls were sitting on a picnic table outside of their favourite café, munching on their lunch. It was a little out of place for their age, seeing as most people were whispering about what had happened to Lydia Martin the night before. They didn't seem very bothered by it. One of the girls sitting on top of the table, Indian style; sandwich in her lap as she stared disinterested at the few people who were eating outside. Her face kept contorting in annoyance every time her long hair blew into her mouth as she attempted to take a bite. "GAH!" she cried out, shaking her fist in the direction of the oncoming breeze. "I really hate the wind sometimes."

She received an absentminded pat on the knee from her friend, hand almost fully hidden beneath the worn sleeve of her hoodie. "Nana, you only say that whenever it isn't in your favour. Any other time, you're gushing. 'Oh, I love the wind so much!'" her friend mocked, clasping her hands beside her jaw, gazing off longingly into the distance. Until she received a shove and it turned into a smirk, tossing her bangs out of her eyes with a shake of her head.

"Oh shut up Cassie, I don't look like tha-" she suddenly stopped mid-sentence, her muscles tightening, her mouth screwing into a grimace. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she seemed to not breathe. Her petite friend swiveled naturally to look in the direction the wind was coming from, watching a tall, curly-haired boy disappear around a corner.

"Isaac's gone. Is it really that bad?"

The response was delayed as breaths were exaggeratedly taken in, shoulders rolling as if trying to shrug something off that wasn't there. Her dark grey eyes looked up to the side in thought, fingers tapping on the table. "I don't think I can explain what he smells like. It's kind of acrid, and stings, but also kind of like…just sad. I'd say he smells like despair? I don't like it; it makes me depressed, knowing someone is feeling like that, you know?" she replied, chewing her top lip in thought. "It almost makes me want to cry. But I can't tell if it's the feeling or the smell itself…"

Her freckled companion nodded solemnly, looking back at the door. "That must really suck. My sister may be an asshole, but at least she's never made me feel like that. Definitely not since you moved here," Cassie said, slipping an earbud into her ear.

"I should hope so…" the dark haired girl responded, her eyes squinting to just slits. They relaxed as her thoughts wandered, finally biting into her sandwich. "Should we go see Lydia in the hospital?"

She received a stare through heavy red bangs. "The girl who never looks at us twice? Or if she does it's a judging look? That Lydia? The one who is also unconscious. Or perhaps," she quipped, a sly smile crossing her lips as she slowly, almost unnoticeably took her legs out from under the bench. "You just hope you'll bump into the guy who is practically obsessed with her? Although, you're basically equally obsessed with that awkweird guy!"

Her voice trailed into almost a squeak as she jumped from the table as her friend lunged at her, almost falling off the table.

Four days later, they were back in school. Now filled with whispers of where Lydia had been, naked for days. The girls were at their lockers, not invited to any whispering, although they would have declined to participate. "Well," Cassie sighed, closing her locker with a definite bang. "My sister will be happy to steal Queen Bee status from her, now that everyone thinks she's a nutjob. Though, I never understood how a junior was threatened by a sophomore, but whatever."

"I don't know, I don't pretend to know how High School works," the tall girl replied, shrugging her shoulders and turning on her heel to walk to class – right into a person.

"Oh jeez! So, so…rry?" she started, looking up into a familiar face. "Isaac?"

He nodded his curly head, looking at her quizzically. "Sorry about that…Naja? That's it right? I wasn't really paying attention."

It took her a minute to stop staring at him, lip curled in confusion. A quiet kick from a booted foot brought her back to reality, a sheepish smile trying to cover her weird expression. "No, I normally am really good at knowing when people are behind me, it's my bad, don't worry about it. Sorry, again," she apologized, waving a hand over her shoulder as she forcibly dragged her friend away at a fairly fast pace. She didn't stop walking until she was halfway down the next hallway. "What the hell was that?!" she whisper-shouted, eyes wide, craning her neck to see if Isaac was within earshot.

"I dunno, you couldn't smell him? Normally you smell him like…thirty feet away," the shorter girl queried, adjusting her plaid shirt which was slightly pulled out of shape from being dragged.

"That's just it – he didn't smell like anything, not fear, not sadness, not despair. Nothing!"

Her confused tirade would have continued, except she was now looking past her friend, to a couple down the hall. The guy walked away, smug as anything, and the girl looked as if she were on the verge of tears. Before she could be stopped, she marched over there, attempting to make it look casual, and plucked her purse's strap like a bass line as she tried to comfort the most popular girl in school. "Hey Lydia, I'm sorry he's such an asshole. Nobody deserves to be treated like that, especially after what you just went through…whatever that was…exactly…"

She had started off strong, but had faltered when the strawberry-blonde female stared at her like she had seven heads. "I'm sorry, do I even know you?" came the retort, lips pursed as the welled tears in her eyes disappeared.

"Well, I thought you might kind of remember me. I've been in most of your classes just after the start of the school year…I had like, an introduction and everything. Naja Dinan, from Africa…" Naja began, winding up for a full rant about how just because she didn't like to party, people didn't remember her. Thankfully she was stopped when her friend walked up behind her.

"Lydia," she greeted with a nod, otherwise expressionless.

"Cassandra," a nod repeated, as well as a change in posture. "How's your sister?"

"Still a pain in the ass," Cassie replied, shrugging her shoulders and tugging Naja's bag. "We should get to class."

The two girls walked away, one still steaming, the other chiding her for drawing attention to herself; leaving Lydia with an odd smile on her face.