Looking ahead at the tan stranger coming into to visit you, you realize getting her to talk about this seemingly epic adventure she just so happens to casually mention will not be nearly as easy as you originally imagined. Your eye has started to twitch in annoyance. Why won't this girl talk?!

Courtney glares at you. Your eye twitch has been caught. You really shouldn't be surprised, this girl looks like the has an IQ of 300. Yet still, the glare annoys you. Maybe you should stop and just stare back until she talks. You tilt your head as you ponder this.

Whatever.

Sighing in exasperation, you decide to give it a try. Don't respond to anything she might say, don't do anything. A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

After about five minutes of this, she just groans and says, "Fine. I'll tell you what happened. It's a long story though, so be prepared for seeing me a lot," She sits on your white sheeted bed. "And tell me if you need to sleep." She sighed. "This will take a while."

You get comfy, prepared for the long story.

"It started," She began, "About nine months ago, beginning of Junior year. Nothing particularly special about that day, to be honest. Just your average, 'welcome back to school!' stuff, you know, no homework, introductions, speeches, that kind of thing. My class schedule, if I remember correctly, was homeroom, to math, to science, to history, to law, to lunch, to psychology, to art. Is it alright if I give details like that?"

"I'll take all the info I can get." You respond, just eager for the story.

The brunette nodded. "Alright. I had homeroom with Duncan, who was pulling some lame prank on the teacher, like he normally did. Ugh...I had to sneak him out of so many detentions you honestly wouldn't believe it. I really wished he'd stop." Courtney rolled her eyes when you gestured to elaborate on the prank. "He set up a water bucket above the door that would go off when the teacher opened it. It actually was kind of funny…"

"I'd probably help with that." You admit, laughing at what the teacher must have looked like. "Sounds fun." Cocking your head as you imagine the mechanics most likely necessary to accomplish that.

"I guess." Courtney chuckled. "My friend Gwen helped out, setting up the door mechanism. She was pretty smart, and the best in robotics. She was also an artist. But she seemed to be unable to make a list!" She shook her head. "The teachers knew she was smart, but she never admitted to it, and almost never turned in her homework. Same with that day. She had detention, and because I really had nothing better to do and I didn't want to go outside, I joined her during lunch. Naturally I had packed an intricate three course lunch to share with her, she never packed her own." Her eyes went down a bit. "I should have started seeing the signs right then, and realized she always knew what was in my bag before I had pulled it out, celebrating about the spaghetti she shouldn't have known I made."

You tilt your head in confusion. "The...signs?"

"I'll get to that. But for now," Courtney grabbed a pencil and paper, "We're still on detention. My first initiative when looking for something to do was grab a piece of paper and start making a list of where we could go to celebrate the first day of school with the rest of Gwen's friends, and some of my own. From Gwen's group, there was Trent, LeShawna, Bridgette, Cody, and Noah. From my friend group, there was Duncan, Geoff, Owen, Harold, and Dj. Gwen of course didn't even give a second thought to my list and just said 'the cafe we always go to'. Now, I'm not saying that didn't make the most logical sense, I'm just saying that was a simple answer."

"Sometimes simple is better, you know." You say, not to necessarily contradict her, but just as your two cents given. "Like, it's better to have a small amount of a dessert and want to come back to it, than to have a large dessert and never want it again,"

Courtney sighs. You have a point. "That is very true. We did end up going to that cafe anyway. The twelve of us always went there, even though we were technically different groups, we got along...ish. We didn't spend much time together honestly. At the cafe, there were even more...notices that I didn't catch at the time. The person who ran the Cafe, Zoey, had firetruck red hair, but all of us assumed it was dyed. That was, until Gwen went up at one point and was about midway up to the counter when Geoff, who wasn't even looking at her, said 'it's not dye'."

"So…." again, you tilt your head. It might as well be permanently tilted at this point. Maybe you're a reincarnation of the leaning tower of Pisa. Courtney giggles, for reasons unknown. "What does that mean?"

"You'll find out later." She says simply. "Anyway, I forget most of what happened, mostly because it was nine months ago. I know we ordered our usuals, mostly coffee and coffee cakes, but Bridgette like to get hot chocolate, and Harold pie. After, I went with Gwen to her house and spent the night, since my parents were on a business trip and I was out of food to cook with. Cody came too, since his parents had died and he was sort of adopted by Gwen's family. Her mom was very nice, and she didn't really talk about her dad, so I don't know if he's dead or something. I generally assume he and her mom are divorced."

You nod in understanding. No one really likes the idea of dead parents.

Except anime creators who need an excuse to allow the characters to do just about anything ever.

"I went over to Gwen's often, so often in fact I had basically claimed the guest bedroom as my own. I had repainted the walls and everything. I didn't really have a harder time than usual sleeping, unlike normal stories, which start off with 'I sensed something was wrong, and had a hard time sleeping', no. The story itself hasn't even started yet. But this is important." She says, gesturing to your pout. "Trust me."

You really didn't trust her, but lying in a white bed, in a white room, surrounded by white, there wasn't anything else to do. Why were you even here?

"I don't know," she sighs. "but I know what you'll be thinking. Something like, 'wow. That's OBVIOUSLY never been used before,' not now, but in a second. I had no trouble sleeping, but I did have a dream." You can feel your eyes narrowing, while thinking the same thing she said a minute ago. "In the dream, I was surrounded by white. No, not the white here, far less boring." She laughs and your disgruntled face. "In front of me there was a woman. She had long hair blond hair, golden eyes, and pale skin, and looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. She said to me, 'It has begun'. Weird, right? Also total ex machina, so I just rolled my eyes. Yeah, bad idea. Especially when I woke up and saw Gwen on the couch, watching the news. She didn't even acknowledge my presence. And the moment I started watching the TV, I understood why."

Quick note- I'm making a lot of changes in chapters as I go along, so I'll probably re-release different chapters for changes I didn't notice before. That's all.