Silent Stars
Chapter One
Sad Returns
Kento yawned as he leaned against his rusty old jeep. For some reason he didn't get much sleep last night. Now he was just standing there waiting for his friends and wishing he just skipped classes today. Feeling so sleepy was strange to him. He was on edge. Not edgy like standing in the middle of the Dynasty, but still. Something didn't feel right. His spirits lifted a bit when his best friend appeared in view. Kento waved to the sandy brown haired boy and headed towards him.
"Good morning, Kento," Cye chirped with his usual high spirits.
"What do you mean, 'Good' morning?" Kento piped out without meaning too.
"Whoa! What's with you?" Cye asked noticed something bothering the bearer of Hardrock.
"Oh, nothing. I just didn't get much sleep last night," Kento gave his best friend an apologetic smile. Cye eye balled him. He was going to say more but Ryo.
"Hey, guys," Ryo greeted as he joined his friends. "What's up, guys?"
"Not much," Kento shrugged as he looked for his two missing friends. He suddenly wanted to see Rowen. "I wonder where he is."
"Who?" Ryo asked.
"Uh?" Kento looked at Ryo. "Oh, um, Rowen. I need to talk to him."
"You know him," Ryo chuckled. "Sage is still probably trying to wake him up."
"I guess," Ryo and Cye exchanged worried looks. Usually Kento can't miss an opening like that and starts joking about Rowen always sleeping in.
"What's up, Kento? You look so serious about something," Ryo asked. Kento just shrugged.
"Really, Kento? You never take thing so seriously," Cye said.
"Look guys, it's nothing! Really!" Kento snapped then stormed off. "Can a guy just want to see a friend of his? Sheesh!"
Ryo and Cye stood there completely confused by they're friend. That wasn't the Kento they know and loved. Something was getting to him. Just then Sage walked over with a strange look on his face and a, surprisingly, wide awake Rowen following close behind.
"What's up, Sage?" Ryo asked. "What's with the face?"
"Him," Sage pointed accusingly at Rowen.
"What about him?" Cye asked.
"He's awake," Sage replied. "Awake! Him! Early!"
"Huh?" Cye and Ryo started blankly at their blonde friend. Nothing made sense this morning.
"Snap out of it, Sage," Ryo said with a snap of his fingers. Sage just continued to look strange. The snap he never noticed.
"Never mind him," Rowen finally spoke up. "He's just surprised that I was awake when he got to my place this morning."
"You were awake?" Cye asked.
"Never went to sleep really," Rowen nodded. "I couldn't for some reason."
"First Kento, now Rowen?" Ryo asked.
"What's wrong with Kento?" Rowen asked.
"He was acting strange this morning too," Cye looked to the school. Kento was long gone out of sight. "He couldn't sleep last night either. He said nothing was wrong, but some is. Wouldn't say what."
"And he really wanted to see you, Rowen," Ryo added.
"He did?" Rowen perked up at this. Could it be that we both felt that...? Is it possible that sh...? "I need to go find him!"
Before anyone could ask, Rowen was halfway to the school. The remaining ronins just exchanged confused shrugs and wandered towards the building.
Rowen first went to Kento's locker. He wasn't there. He was about to go to the only other spot Kento could be, the snack machine, but the sound of the bell forced him to head to class instead. Rowen had no choice but to wait and see Kento at lunch. Darn his stupid advance classes. He only had one class with his friends and that was at the end of the day, which was Art class. Kento was the one who pushed them all into take it. Why? They didn't know. For the fun of it they guessed.
Rowen sighed and headed for his first class, which was english. He sat down and slumped in his chair. Cheerful laughter of his classmate barely reached his ears as he sat there. He heard a couple vague snotty comments about him so smart and such. It didn't bother him. It never did. Outside of the ronins, Mia and Yule comments like that didn't bother him.
Soon the teacher walked in with a new student. Or new to everyone but him. That skinny, dark tanned, straight midnight blue haired, dark purple eyes was unmistakeable. Even though he and Kento haven't seen her since they were about seven or eight years old. Everything about her was the same. She still wore boy clothes, thanks to her father who wanted a boy. The only thing different about her is that she was wearing a red choker around her neck that was about an inch and a half to two inches wide. I was right! She is back! Kento must have felt it too!
"Alright class, settle down," The teacher spoke and they got quiet, but for a few whispers about the new girl. The girl was staring down at the floor, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. "Class, this is Re..."
"Rena!" Rowen suddenly shouted and stood up. Rena instantly knew him from the color of his hair and his eyes. She blushed and looked back down to the floor. Giggles from his classmates made a bright red creep across his face. He scratched the back of his head and looked sheepish.
"Ah, I see you two know each other," The teacher gave him a humorous but warning glare. "Since you two know each other, Rena, why don't you take the empty seat next to him. Feel free to ask him any questions you might have. Please, take your seat, Rena."
Rena slightly nodded and made her way to the empty desk. Rowen smiled at her as he watched her walk to him and sit down. He didn't notice that she was refusing to look at anyone. She sat down, keeping her hands and her eyes in her lap. "Hey, Rena. It's been a while. I'm glad to see you."
Rena still refused to look at him. Blush reappeared on her face as she looked like she was about to cry. "Rena?"
Rowen wanted to question her. She never was the shy one. If someone wanted to be her friends she'd accept. And they were friends. Them two and Kento have been friends for years. Sure when they were about eight years old Rena's dad moved them to the U.S. for some reason or other. But they always wrote to each other. This was when Rowen realized he hadn't received a letter from her in a while. But then he hasn't wrote to her either. With all the ronin stuff they had been through. Something was different about her now. Rowen had no choice but to let it go as the teacher began their lesson.
Thought the entire lesson Rowen kept glancing over at her. He really wanted to talk to her but couldn't. He thought he would get his change to talk to her after class but the second class was over her had her stuff gathered up and was out the door. By the time he got out into the hall she was gone. "Dang! She's fast."
Rowen just headed to his next class. No way he'd find her now. He's just have to wait until he saw her in class or at lunch.
Rowen walked into the lunch room and started scanning for his lost female friend. Nothing. She was no where. "Rowen!"
Rowen turned to the sound of his name. It was Kento. "Rowen! Did you..."
"She's here, Kento," Rowen replied.
"What?"
"Yeah. She was in my advanced english class, but I haven't seen her sense," Rowen explained.
"Advanced english, huh? That's not surprising. She always loved to write fantasy stories. What's wrong, Rowen?" Kento asked noticing the weird look on his friend's face.
"I don't know," He replied honestly. "Something wasn't right."
"What do you mean?"
"She wouldn't talk to me."
"She who?" Ryo asked as he, Cye and Sage appeared.
"An old friend of ours," Kento replied. "Rena."
"Rena? Isn't she the girl you wrote to in the states?" Cye asked.
Kento nodded. "That's her. She's here. Somewhere. Rowen said her in his english class."
The group grabbed a table as Rowen and Kento filled them in more about her. She was just an old friend of theirs. Rowen and Rena were friend before Kento came in the picture. But they were still all close. They also explained that Rena's dad wasn't the best dad in the world and would do crazy stuff for no reason. Like moving to America.
"That's kind of odd that she wouldn't talk to you," Ryo said.
"Maybe she didn't recognize you," Sage offered. Rowen shook his head.
"No. She did recognize me. I know. I could see it in her eyes."
"Doesn't she..." Cye started but was interrupted by Kento.
"Yuki!" Kento screamed as he leaped to his feed.
"Huh?" Everyone looked at him.
"Yuki, her cousin. He goes here too!" With that Kento ran away from the table. Rowen soon followed. The three remaining ronins exchanged looks. They weren't sure if they should follow or not. They decided not. For now anyway.
It didn't take Kento and Rowen long before they spotted the boy they were looking for. He was sitting at a corner table in the lunch room surrounded by his own group of friends. Kento slamming his hands on the table made everyone jump, including Rowen. "Where is she?"
"Huh?" Yuki looked up at the rather large boy.
"Where is she? What's going on?" Kento demanded. Some of Yuki's friends looked like they were about to cry from the sudden outburst.
"Forget him. He never thinks before he speaks," Rowen apologized for Kento's behavior then took control of the conversation. "Yuki, I saw Rena this morning."
"You did?" Yuki asked, a bit shocked and worried. Yuki exchanged looks with his girlfriend.
"What?" Rowen asked.
"If something happened you better tell us, now!" Kento threatened. "Or I'm gonna..."
"Come with me," Yuki said as he quickly got up and lead the boys out of the lunch room.
"Well?" Kento asked as he impatiently tapped his foot.
"I was hoping to have more time to figure out how I was gonna tell you about this," Yuki mumbled as he struggled to find the right words.
"Tell us? Tell us what?" Rowen asked.
"Well, there's really no easy way to say it but to just say it," Yuki said but paused.
"Well? You gonna tell us or not?" Kento crossed his arms and stared down the boy.
"Rena...can't talk...anymore," Yuki replied quietly.
"What?" Kento and Rowen screamed, which earned a few looks from passing students. Kento glared harshly at a few who would walk on. After they were gone he turned back to Yuki.
"What do you mean 'she can't talk anymore'?" Kento demanded.
"Just as I said," Yuki replied with sadness in his voice.
"What happened to her? Why can't she talk?" Kento's whole body began to shake.
Yuki sighed as he ran his hand through his hair and gathered his thoughts. "I really don't know the whole story...but...she was in a car accident. A piece of glass went through her throat and completely severed her vocal cords."
Both Rowen and Kento felt like something slammed their bodies into the ground. They stood there completely shocked. Yuki gave them a minute to process that information before continuing. "Her mother was killed on impact. Rena almost didn't survive the crash. Her father tried to deal with Rena but she's...well...you know her father. When my mom heard about her she immediately contacted my uncle and asked if she could come back here to live with us. He instantly agreed and put her on a plane as soon as he could."
"That stupid coward," Kento clenched his fists as rage began to build up inside him. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so angry.
Rowen was taking this pretty hard as well. Though he didn't show signs of anger he clearly showed signs of worry about Rena. That's why she wouldn't look at him. It had to be. Maybe she was embarrassed about it? Yuki studied Rowen's face. Rowen looked up when he sensed Yuki looking at him. "Where is she?"
"She's probably found herself a quiet place to hide from people. She didn't want to come to school today but mom convinced her it wouldn't do any good to sit around the house and brew about the accident," Yuki reported.
"When did this happen?" Kento asked.
"About four months ago, I think," Yuki replied thoughtfully. "She spend almost two months in the hospital."
"We should go find her," Kento said.
"That's probably not a good idea," Yuki said.
"What? Why not? She's our friend!" Kento screamed.
"I know that. But you know how stubborn she can be. She feels really vulnerable right now. I was actually hoping that you two could help her. She loves you both and I know how close you three are. Which is kind of surprising. I didn't think people could really keep up such a strong relationship with such distance between you. Yet you did. It's kinda like magic," Yuki gave a humorous laugh about the magic part. Kento stiffened at the remark. He never thought of that. But there was no way they could be connected through their armors to her.
She wasn't even in Japan when they received their armors. But still, he had to admit his long distance relationship with her was a bit magical if they were still friends. It didn't surprise him that Rowen and her were good long distance friends. Rowen was good at being a pen pal. Kento wasn't really that responsible about stuff like that. So how did they remain so close? They told each other just about every detail about everything day and thing that happened. Except for stuff about their armors. Both Rowen and Kento agreed no point in telling her about that.
"But, if we are such close friends wouldn't she was to see us?" Kento asked.
"I think she's a bit afraid that you two would like her anymore if you knew about her... disability. You know people with disabilities are treated different by society," Yuki replied.
"We would never do that to her!" Kento yelled.
"I know. Just give her some time to settle down," Yuki smiled as he looked at them. "In a few days I'm gonna invite you two over for supper. She'll be more comfortable there and might talk to you. Until then just keep reminding her you two are still her friends."
With that, Yuki headed back to the lunch room, leaving the boys with their thoughts. Yuki was right about Rena. She did find herself a nice quiet place to hide. She was sitting under the bleachers. It was dark under there and she felt safe. She was sitting in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest and hiding her face in her knees. A soft green glow surrounded her as she silently cried.
