Chapter 2

Cara ran through the doors to her school moments after the first bell rang signaling the time for students to start heading to their classes before they were late. She leaned over hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breathe. "I, need, to, get a car soon." She panted out between breathes.

A pair of black vans walked up stopping in front of her, and following his arrival a familiar voice reached her ears. "Decide to get in a morning jog in before coming to school? Since when have you been so interested in physical education?" Cara craned her neck up to see Aiden standing in front of her. She had known Aiden since they were in the fifth grade, and the two had been inseparable since they met. He was one of the few things that made going to school every day a little bearable.

"It's a long story, I'll key you in later." Cara pushed herself back up, stretching her back out in the process.

"Oh, I'm excited to hear what got you to run all the way here. Come on, we should probably get to class before we're late."

He turned and headed in the direction of their classes, and Cara followed alongside of him. She quickly tuned out as he began idly chatting about his weekend, her mind wandering back to the woman she met moments ago. 'What was her name again? Ester, who was that woman anyway? She seemed weird.'

"Cara…..Cara, are you even listening to me?" A voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked over to see Aiden staring intently at her. "I said have you even heard a word I was saying to you?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening."

"What's on your mind, you don't typically tune me out like this."

"Nothing big I don't think. I met this woman while I was walking, and she mistook me for someone else, which isn't weird I'm sure everybody has a doppleganger out there. The weird part comes in when she asked if she could talk to me again, basically hang out with me. And for some reason, I didn't tell her no, and I don't really know why. She seemed familiar in a way, not like I actually knew who she was, but like I'd seen her somewhere before or something." She gave a small shrug of her shoulders before continuing, "I don't know maybe I'm overthinking it, maybe I should just tell her no if I see her again. I mean she didn't get my number or anything so I doubt I'll even see her again. What do you think?" She asked turning towards him.

"Hmmm, I don't know, that's kind of weird. All I do know is that you don't have to make any decisions about it right now, you can think on it, and besides like you said it seems pretty rare that you'll see her again. So you definitely have a bit of time before you have to make any real decisions."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm thinking about it too much. I'm sorry, I should have been listening to what you were saying earlier. Enough about my issue, tell me about your weekend." The two came to a stop outside of their classrooms across the hall from each other, as he was about to respond the bell rang letting them know they needed to be in class.

"I'll tell you at lunch."

"Okay, see you in a few hours." Cara gave a small wave of her hand before disappearing into her classroom to get the day started. She slid into her usual seat in the back of the class by a window, and almost immediately her mind returned to Ester tuning out her teacher who had begun the lesson for the day. She couldn't get the thought of that woman's eyes out of her mind, determined to remember where she'd seen them before.

Cara had spent the first half of the morning absentmindedly wandering from class to class thinking of the same green eyed woman from the morning, her mind had finally exhausted itself to the point that she had become agitated whenever she thought of her name. So when the bell rang signaling that it was time to head to lunch she let out a huge sigh of relief. She followed the crowd of students as they made their way to the cafeteria.

It didn't take her long to gather up the daily slop the school had decided to serve them today, literally, Monday always meant that sloppy joes could be expected. Which weren't inherently bad, but with all the food byproducts that the school implemented, they might as well be eating mystery meat.

She made her way over to a table she knew her friends would be sitting at and slid in the seat across from Aiden, and Bree, a small hispanic girl with honey brown eyes, dark chestnut hair, and more tattoos and piercings than anybody else she knew their age. Despite all the body modification the girl had decided to add to her body, it didn't hide any of her beauty and if anything amplified it giving her a cool unapproachable edge. It was actually one of the first things that had drawn her to the girl when they'd first met two years ago, albeit her piercings were more modest back then.

"I really have to start packing a lunch on Monday's." Cara commented a grimace turning up the corner of her lips.

"You do realize you say this every Monday, and still don't do anything about it." Bree stated reaching over to poke at her food with her pencil. "Gross, I don't know how people eat this slop," she chuckled, "Get it, slop? Sloppy joe?" She glanced between her two friends who returned her look with a perplexed one of their own. "No? You guys are weird, that's funny stuff." She shrugged wiping her pencil against her jeans before returning it down to the page in front of her to continue her work.

"No, you're just usually corny." Cara replied pushing her food to the side, Aiden nodding along with her with.

Bree looked up at them long enough to roll her eyes, "Whatever," Before leaning down to fish through her bag at her feet. She pulled out a bag of cheez its and a zip locked sandwich and slid them across the table towards Cara. "Here."

Cara looked upon the food with wide eyes before grabbing it and tearing open the bag of cheez its. "I take back everything back I ever said about you."

"Wait a minute, what have you said about me?" She questioned looking up from her drawing placing her pencil back down to the table.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all."

Cara glanced up to see an unwanted yet familiar face approaching their table. The undisputed queen bee of the school, Olivia Johnson. She was a grade above her, and everybody knew who she was, she was gorgeous and looked like she'd walked straight out of a magazine. She was tall, always had a beautifully applied tan on, flawless windswept blonde hair cut into a bob and piercing brown eyes. Your average everyday pretty girl who peaked in high school that everyone either wanted to date, be, or be friends with. Captain of the varsity girls field and track team, she was coveted by everyone at the school.

Following close behind her was her "second in command" Grace Stanley, she was just as pretty as Olivia, if not prettier, but Olivia knew how to flaunt it a lot better than she did. Grace was a meek, sweet girl that Olivia had taken under her wing when she first came to this school, and the girl has followed her around since. Grace was pretty, but more in a traditional way. Where Olivia seemed to work for her appearance with fake tans, hair bleach, makeup, etc. Grace was pretty on her own without all that. Her skin was unusually pale like it rejected every form of UV light that came her way and was littered with freckles most noticeably on her shoulders, under her eyes, along her nose and above her right eyebrow. She was a natural redhead, the color seemingly reflecting orange in the sunlight and was much longer than Olivia's reaching closer to the middle of her back, and she had these brilliant pale green eyes that shone when the light hit them.

The pair sauntered right up to the them Olivia putting her hand on the table on the opposite side of Aiden, while Grace stood a small ways back from her. "Hello Bree, Cara," she said with a significant amount of disdain in her voice before returning her attention to him. "Hello Aiden, how are you doing this morning?" She asked running a hand through the bang of his short hair.

"I'm fine Olivia," He responded jerking his head away from her hand.

"What do you want Olivia?" Bree sounded tearing her attention away from her work.

"Oh nothing from you peasants, the only reason I ever come over here is to talk to this lovely man right here. I mean just look at him, tall, muscular, sparkling baby blues. What girl in their right mind wouldn't want him?" She ran her hands over his shoulders as she spoke, but he was quick to shrug her away.

She wasn't entirely wrong though, Aiden over the years had really grown into his own. No longer was he the awkward scrawny boy she had come to know and love. He'd really grown into his height and bulked up so he no longer looked like he would fall with a strong breeze. His scraggly deep brown hair had finally been tamed into something short, manageable, and fingerswept, and his chocolate brown eyes matched. She knew exactly why he had girls trying to get his attention at the school left and right, it was plain to see, but it agitated her to no end that Olivia could have basically any guy in this school she wanted, but just to get under her skin she constantly went after Aiden.

"Hey you ever thought that maybe he, and anyone else for that instance, doesn't want to talk to you?" Cara questioned relishing in the look Olivia had on her face.

"She's not wrong you know." Aiden chimed in.

Olivia made a grunting noise clearly perturbed by their comments. "Whatever, I'm so out of here." With a stomp of her foot she turned around and sashayed away.

It was at this time that Grace finally decided to walk up to the table and speak, a solemn expression on her face. "I'm sorry she came over to bother you all."

"It's fine, not your fault," Aiden responded, "But why are you always around her if all you're going to do is apologize behind her?"

"She may be mean sometimes, but she's my friend, and you stick by your friends right?"

"But you don't have to stick behind friends that are like that if you don't want to. You can make other friends Grace." Cara chimed in.

"I-I don't know.." Grace began but was cut off when Olivia yelled for her.

"Grace! Come on."

The girl jumped the slightest bit before stammering out, "I'm sorry I have to go." She quickly turned and raced after Olivia who was leaving the cafeteria. "Coming!"

Bree gave a shake of her head as she watched the pair leave before sounding, "I don't understand why she hangs out with her, she's way to nice for someone like her."

"Fear maybe?" Aiden guessed with a shrug of his shoulders, "I doubt if she said it Olivia would just stop being her friend without doing something in retaliation, that's not the kind of person she is."

"Fair point." Cara mused as she returned her attention to finishing her lunch.

The bell rang signaling the end of the lunch period, and Cara grabbed her bag, said goodbye to Bree, and headed into the hallway Aiden at her side. "So, you never told me what you were babbling on about this morning."

"Oh yeah! I'd nearly forgot. Guess who finally put together the game room?"

"You and your dad finished?"

"Yeah! We painted last Friday, so over the weekend we moved everything into the room and set it up. It looks amazing, you have to come see it soon. I'm so excited to break it in, we put so much work into." He exclaimed, with a smile as wide as his face.

"Are you working this weekend?"

"Nope, well I work Sunday, but that's it."

"We should see if Bree is off this Saturday so she can come too, if not I'll come over Friday after school."

"I'll see her in my next class," He proclaimed with a snap of his fingers. "I'll let you know what she says when school's over." Cara came to a stop in front of her classroom.

"Alright, I'll see you after class." She called as she watched him walk down the hallway for a moment before walking into her own class.

Much to Cara's relief the remainder of the school day when by in a blurr, and before she knew it, it was finally time to go home. Her fingers turned the dial of her locker before sliding the metal door open. Returning anything in her backpack she didn't need for the night to it, and replacing it with everything she would need.

"Cara!" She closed her locker door and looked over to see who had called out to her.

"Hey Aiden, where's Bree?"

"She already booked it, said she had to be at work right after class, what about you? On your way to work?"

Cara shook her head in response. "No I took this week off, I wanted to give some more time to my extracurricular this week, and I could really use the time to study and get ahead so I can work as much as I want to next week.. You not headed to work?"

"No, I'm off today, I go back tomorrow. Want to walk home together? We haven't been able to do that in a while."

"What you didn't drive today?"

"Nah, I've been trying to save a little money on gas, it's not like we live that far away anyways. So might as well walk when I don't have work after school."

"Well, ready to go then?" She asked slinging her bag back onto her shoulders.

"After you." He replied gesturing towards the doors. She headed for the front doors and he followed alongside of her.

"So what all did you and your dad put in the game room?" Cara asked as she pushed the doors open to the school, a hand going up automatically to shield her eyes from the sun as they adjusted. It was still hot out, but thankfully no where near as hot as this morning.

"Oh you know the normal stuff, pool table, darts, cards table, and some other things."

"Some other things like what?"

"Well my dad put a bar in the room too, but seeing as how we can't legally drink yet, it does little to nothing for us, but outside of that, you'll just have to come over to see for yourself. I wouldn't be doing it justice if I just told you what it was."

"Oh come on, don't leave me waiting like that, you know I hate cliffhangers. Just tell me."

Aiden shook his head, "No, no, no, no something as special as this must been seen with the human eye. But trust me, she's worth the wait." He grinned tapping her with his elbow. "So I'd meant to ask, where did you meet that weird lady anyway?"

Cara glanced around their surroundings before turning her head towards him, "Um I think around here actually I wasn't too far from the school."

"Huh, don't think we'll run into her again do you?"

"I doubt it, I mean that would definitely give off stalkerish vibes."

"So, have you made any decisions about what you're going to do about her?" He inquired.

"No, I thought about it most of the morning, but eventually it just made my head hurt, so I figured I could just figure out later, and like you said. There's a possibility I won't even see her again, so I may be stressing for no reason."

"Fair, well I'm around if you want to talk about it or anything."

"Yeah, I know, thanks." She responded a small smile turning up the corners of her lips.

"Anytime C, anytime."

The walk back always seems shorter than the walk to, especially when you aren't stopped by some random person. So it was no surprise that Cara's house was coming into view down the street. "This is me Ai, I'll see you tomorrow." Cara sounded as the two split paths and she continued down the street to her house, and he turned down the adjacent street to get to his own house.

"See you tomorrow," He called out as he waved her off before disappearing around the corner.

Cara walked up the front porch checking the side of the house for the car but found none. 'They must still be at work.' She mused to herself as she opened the front door making sure to lock it behind herself. She walked down the hall to her room, closed the door behind her and threw herself onto her bed with a hearty sigh.

She laid there long enough to feel herself begin to fall asleep, and finally pushed herself up before she actually did. "Alright time to get some stuff done." She hasn't taken off all that time from work for nothing. She pulled her chair up to her desk, turned on the light, and started pulling materials from her backpack.

Hours tick away, and before she knows it day turns into night. She turns in her chair when she hears the door open and her mom peaks her head in to check on her. "Cara, you're still awake at his time?"

"Yeah, I was just getting caught up on some homework and studying. What time is it anyway?"

"It's nine o'clock, don't you think you can relax on the studying for night? It's getting late, you should probably go to bed soon." She pushed the door open farther and leaned against the frame.

"You're probably right," She turned back around long enough to close her books and slide everything back into her backpack. "How was work?"

"Same as always long and arduous, how was school? Anything happen today?"

"No, not really. Aiden told me that him and his dad finally finished their game room and he wants me to come see it, but other than that same as always." Cara responded deciding not to share the information about her new "friend".

"You sure? Nothing you want to talk about?"

Cara shook her head, "No, not really? Why?"

"I don't," Dana shrugged, "Mother's intuition I guess."

"Dad still at work?" She asked wanting to change the subject.

"Yeah, he should be home in a few hours I think, but let me know if you want to talk about anything." She walked over to Cara and cupped her cheek affectionately, "Get some sleep, I love you." She leaned over and kissed her on the top of her head before walking back over to her door. "Goodnight."

"Night mom, love you too." When her mom closed the door behind her she got up from her chair and turned the light off before throwing herself onto the bed, she hadn't realized how tired she was until now, she didn't even have the energy to get under her covers so after kicking her shoes off she just curled up in a ball where she awaited the sleep to take her.

""Calla, Calla, wake up!" Calla's eyes fluttered open, and when they finally adjusted to her surroundings all she could see was black ink on white paper. The next second the book was removed from her face, and her eyes met vibrant green ones staring back at her. "You fell asleep reading again," The woman chuckled with a warm smile lighting up her eyes.

"I couldn't help it, you did leave me alone for a while you know." Calla teased sitting up, the green eyed woman held her hand out to her, and Calla when took it she helped pull her to her feet.

"What did you dream about?"

"Another life, the memory was wonderful, this time around I was an adventurer. Me, an adventurer, you wouldn't believe all of the amazing things I did, all of the things I saw, the people I met! God how I wish I had that life right now." Calla mused with a sparkle in her eye. Cara who up to this point had been watching the interaction from the eyes of Calla slipped from her body to watch on as a bystander.

Now that she was free to roam she got a closer look at woman in front of her. She had a warm honey skin tone, that complimented her cat like green eyes nicely, and her almond brown hair sprayed about her in thick curly tresses. She didn't look that much older than Cara was currently maybe early twenties. She looked ethnic like she could be hispanic, or possibly even Indiana, but she couldn't pin exactly what, and from her nose she had a silver ring hanging. The more she studied her, the more she began to realize that the woman standing in front of her was a younger version of Ester.

After studying her face, she turned to the other woman, but she had no idea who she was. Her skin was pale, and she looked like she had a bit of asian descent in her, her eyes really giving away that fact, were very dark almost black and were hidden behind large black glasses. Her hair was dark brown, dyed at the tips so they were almost white, and pulled up in a messy bun at the top of her head with her fringe framing the sides of her face. Upon closer examination she noticed the all too familiar birthmark on the side of her face that matched her own. 'What the hell?'

"You know you could have that life now if you wanted, it wouldn't be hard to go on an adventure, it's probably a lot safer now than it was then."

"True, but it does take a little fun out of it if it's not a little dangerous." Calla's face lit up and she leaned over grabbing Ester's hand in her own. "Let's do it, just you and me. Let's quit school and go traveling let's discover something, let's make something! We could do anything! Just think, we have all the time in the world to go to school, I'd much rather leave more exciting memories in my wake."

Ester started laughing shaking her head as she pulled her hand free, "Okay drama queen calm down, don't go all gunho on me just because you've gotten a few of your memories back. Your life is still precious, so don't just throw it away who knows how long you will actually be here."

Calla pouted the slightest bit, her expression dropping before sighing, "I know, I know, I just, I just wanted to be memorable. I just wanted someone to remember me, and if I did come back when I remember my life I wanted them to feel how I do now, I want them to be amazed at the kind of person I was. I just don't want to be forgotten in my own sea of memories."

"How about this, I'll never forget you? And I'll pass your story on to a friend or my kids if I ever have any so they don't forget you either. I'll always remember Calla regardless of who I meet in the future."

Calla's expression lifted and a spark in her eye appeared, "Really, do you really mean it?"

"Of course I do, you're my friend." Calla grinned throwing her arms around Ester and holding her to her.

"Thank you, when I go, I really hope you find me again. I know you'll find me again and I'll be waiting for you patiently." Ester wrapped her arms around her returning her hug.

"You know I will. Alright you win, let's plan a trip, wherever you want to go."

Calla jumped up excitement overtaking her as she looked at Ester, "Really, you mean it?"

"Yeah, let's do it." Ester nodded. Calla let out a small scream for joy before jumping onto Ester knocking the two down to the ground in a fit of laughter.

"Ester."

"Yeah?"

"You're the best friend a girl could have."

"You too Calla." "

Cara's eyes popped open and she sat up abruptly looking around the room, when she realized she was still safe in her bedroom, her breathing started to level itself and she began to calm down. Her mind began to replay the dream in her head, she threw her legs over the side of her bed and hopped up sliding back into her desk she turned the light on and pulled a notebook from her bag. She quickly scribbled down everything that happened in the dream before it left her mind hoping it would help her make heads or tails of the situation, but by the time she'd finished she was just as confused as she had been before.

She closed the notebook with a heavy sigh, turned the light back off and returned to her bed throwing herself under the covers this time falling into a dreamless sleep.

I hope you're enjoying the story so far, so be a dear and review down here.