We walked slowly back towards the school, my arm around James as he supported my weight. At first he was speaking nonsense, in a faux old time-y accent and spoke of lynchings or what have you. Soon he calmed down and he seemed to be normal once again, but I still prayed that he didn't change while we traveled back to the school. Cameron, Angelina, and Clara muttered to one another in the front of the group. I couldn't make out their words exactly, but they didn't sound pleased. I also began to notice little people floating around us, like Teris was floating around me. I must have lost my marbles.

We made it to the school court yard once more, and I still felt like crap. My arms felt so heavy, and it took all of my willpower to keep my eyes from closing. James sat me down on at a table across from Cameron, who folded his hands on the table and leaned forward towards me, his eyes staring me down and his face almost scowling at me. "Well, in light of recent events, it looks like you are going to stay with the honor society."

"Could…I…get a little more info…please…?" I panted.

"Of course…allow us to explain." Cameron sat back and a small person in a navy blue suit stood on the table. "Alicia, if you will?"

Alicia cleared her throat and spoke in a very over-the-top fake British accent. "'All children have an egg in their soul, the egg of their hearts, their would-be-selves.'"

"So what does that mean?" I asked after gulping for air.

"When a child determines their dream or wishes for something deeply. They form an egg in their hearts, known as their character egg. This is who or what they want to be in life." Clara clarified. "With some people, their eggs can come out, and they can give birth to an outer character egg, which can hatch into a character or chara for short. When this happens the person becomes a guardian."

"Guardian's protect people's dreams from being destroyed." James nodded. "It's our goal to make sure that no one gets hurt."

"By people like that girl, right?" I asked.

"Not exactly." James answered. "While yes it is an important job of ours to protect people from others like Katy, it is also our job to defend people against X eggs. X eggs are made by people who become sad. Normally when their dreams are affected, people punish their own eggs, revealing their weakness to others, and some people, like Katy, can use that weakness to create X eggs, evil things that harm other people, powered by someone's despair."

"Why…would…someone do…that?" I wondered out loud.

"We…don't know…" Angelina admitted. "We don't have all the details ourselves. It's been used before to find something…of importance, but it's a known fact that that thing is not here. We think it's for another purpose, but we don't know what that purpose is. Whatever it is, we know that they need the keeper's weapons, and that's why we need to protect the wand."

"The keeper was the first person to develop a character egg, and he used weapons like the wand to defend the dreams of others, and he left one of those items here with us." Cameron explained. "Only a chosen few can wield the items. You happen to be one of them."

"So…what does that mean?" Brandon asked. "And…why am I so…tired?"

"You unlocked your heart." Cameron said in a matter-of-fact tone. "When a chara and a guardian really need to, they can fuse together and become very powerful. This takes a long time to learn to do properly though. Clara believes that because you were wielding the wand, you were able to use some of the energy from the wand. Sort of like a battery, and when you changed you began sapping the energy away like it was nothing. Clara theorizes that you lost all that energy from…well…thinking…"

"…I can't…think?" I asked.

"Well not when you're unlocked with Teris." Clara nodded. "After talking with him, Teris seems to be skilled in tactics. So by thinking, you're using his power. The connection between a chara and a guardian takes a long time to master, and until then you will use energy for everything you do. Eventually you'll be able to do everything with no trouble, but that might take…oh…maybe a year or two?"

"Oh…lovely…" I muttered. "A year or two just to master the art of thinking."

"So…Teris is a new born?" The little man in the navy blue suit asked.

"Yeah, what of it?" Teris said threateningly.

"Apparently he isn't very nice either…" The little woman with the clipboard said.

"Aye, but he is a skilled warrior." Another little man wearing chainmail said. "He will be a great comrade as we fight against the darkness of despair!"

"Guys, look!" Called another little voice, causing everyone to look over. Carrying the white egg from my bookbag was a little woman wearing a school girl uniform. "He's got another one."

"Don't touch that!" I called out rather emotionally and grabbed for the egg. Everyone looked over at me, and stared as if it was the most ridiculous request I had ever made. I'm not sure why I felt so emotional about the egg, but I guess since I gave birth to it, I must have some sort of fatherly instinct about it?

I also began to notice that the egg looked different than it did this morning. Now there was a sort of design on it, like it was a well painted Easter egg. There was a black middle now in the center and a bit of white was left around it, revealing a top hat. What did that mean exactly?

"You have two eggs, then?" Cameron asked. "Well this is certainly interesting."

"Interesting?" I asked.

"Well, it isn't unheard of for someone to have two chara's, from what I've heard the others happen to have a couple of members with twin chara's too."

"There are others?" I asked. "Like…this is a common thing?"

"Oh yes." Alicia said. "America, England, France, Japan, we have 'honor societies' all around the world! Although some of them are a little different with the tier system, I heard that some use cards to determine their pos-"

"Nevermind that." Cameron interrupted. "I'd like to officially congratulate you for being admitted into the Honor Society."

"Um…right…about that…" I started. "Look, could I have a couple of minutes to think about it? It's not that-"

"Wait, hold the phone." James said. "Are you trying to back out of the club?"

"I just want to think about it." I clarified. "Especially since…you know…this all seems crazy. Little people floating around, eggs and dreams, all of this seems rather silly…"

"That's fine." Cameron nodded. "Can you walk yet?" I stood up just to show him I was perfectly fine. Well, fine enough to walk, but arms were still a bit sore, but I think I managed to recover pretty well. "Good, you may take a minute. Don't worry about class, the honor society has a few special privileges when it comes to that sort of thing."

I started to walk away when Cameron spoke again. "No matter what your decision is though, you don't have a choice. You will join us." I didn't look at him, but I could tell his expression darkened. "You're the only one able to wield the wand, and you have charas yourself, you have no choice but to join."

I kept walking forward till I entered the beige halls again and once I was out of eyesight, I sighed in relief. "Oh my god…what have I gotten myself into…"

"Man, screw them." A little voice said, scaring me half to death. I jumped to see that the source was Teris. "Using fear to try and bully us, why can't we just get a break, huh?"

"What even are you?" I asked. "Why are you following me around?"

"You and I, we're stuck together, like it or not. You can keep thinking I'm a trick of your mind, or you can keep thinking that we're something else, I'm good with whatever." Teris said with a deep breath.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Listen stupid, here's the deal. You can believe in us or not, I don't care. You don't, I disappear, you do, great, but you don't gotta yell at me."

"I…" I needed a minute to take that in. Did he just say he'd disappear? "What do you mean by that?"

"Disappear. You know, blam, splat, kick the can, die." Teris said nonchalantly, but there was something in his eyes that said something else and suddenly I felt like a complete jerk. Was thinking all that stuff before, hurting him? When I thought I had just gone crazy? When I said this all seemed silly? Was all of that hurting him?

"I'm…I'm sorry…" I said quietly. "I…I didn't…"

"Yeah…I kinda got that…" Teris said, looking away from me. "Just…whatever, I don't care…" He kept looking around as if he was trying to focus on something else. "But it's…nice to know… that you…care…"

I couldn't help but smile at that. It seemed like such a childish thing to say, and it was coming from what was pretty much a fairy of reality, that made me a laugh a little.

"Hey wipe that-" Teris stopped in the middle of his sentence as a sob was heard from somewhere. He looked at me, and gave me a quiet sign as we headed towards the sob.

Down the hall, and traversing a little, we made our way to where a group of girls surrounded another girl. They didn't look that much younger than me, maybe sixth graders? I couldn't tell. I just knew there was a girl in the middle crying her eyes out. I never got why, but something about that just bugged me. "Hey!" I called and marched up to them. "Get away from her!" I clenched my fists and something seemed to make them scatter. I'm not sure if it was the surprise of something getting caught back here, or if it was just my good intimidation skills. I bet I looked so cool right-

"Over here, Mrs. Hall!" Called a familiar voice and I turned to find James. So, he was the one who scared them off. That made me feel a little…less cool. "I love that trick." He muttered and kneeling down, which I mirrored.

Kneeling on the ground was a girl with thick glasses. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, mostly; a lot of it seemed to have gone loose, during…well, whatever happened. Her clothes also looked a little roughed up to; she wore a short sleeve grey shirt, but one of the sleeves seemed torn, and her pants, black leggings, seemed crazy too, one pant leg was shorter than the other, which looked odd. Her face was beet red, and her eyes looked puffy, like she had been crying for a while.

"Hey…it's okay." James said soothingly. "They're gone now, no one's gonna hurt you now."

"It doesn't matter!" She yelled. "They're right, I should have never gotten up today!" She sobbed into her hands. "I'll never be…I'll never…"

Something clicked in my head, and I knew something bad was going to happen. I looked at James who stared at me. "Get back." He handed me something wooden, the wand. How did he know that it was going to change? I just did as I was told and backed up. The girl's eyes got really wide and she stood straight up. There was a flash, like the lights went out and when I saw her next a dark black egg with a white X on it floated next to her, radiating an aura of purple.

"Brandon!" Teris called, at my side.

"Right…" I said hesitantly and pulled the wand to my heart. "I hope this works."

I took a deep breath, and then I took the plunge. "My heart!" I called and pointed the want at the center of my chest, just like before. "Unlock!" Once more everything blacked out. I was in a blank room, the walls, floor, and ceiling glaring a brilliant eggshell white color, except for the spot in front of me, which was the familiar green pool-like thing. It seemed bigger than it was before, which I thought was odd but maybe that was just my imagination. I took a step forward and fell into the water, where my eyes instinctively shut and when they opened again, I was back in reality once more. My clothes once again changed into the green hoodie and the black jeans that I had on before, and I felt my voice wanting to shout something out. "Solitary Unlock!"

"I don't have Excalibur with me…" He yelled towards me. "I won't be able to fight with you."

"It'll be fine." Teris said in my head. "Let's just smash it and be done."

"Smash it?" I asked and tried to keep my thoughts rather blank, though I did wonder what would happen if we did smash the egg, and Teris' thoughts pretty much told me it wouldn't be good. We'd help our situation, but we wouldn't help the girl. "No, there has to be another way."

"I'll never be able to design anything…" I heard the egg mumble.

"What?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"My dreams are stupid!" It yelled with a feminine voice and a large purple ray shot out of the aura and fired towards me, making me have to step to the side to miss it. Unfortunately, it seems that my depth perception was just as terrible with Teris as it was normally, as the side of my arm got hit with the ray. It felt a lot like boiling water was poured onto my arm, making the skin burn.

"Brandon, we have to smash it!" James yelled to me.

"We can't smash it!" I called to James. "We have to find another way!"

"There isn't another way!" He called. "She'll be fine, don't worry!"

"No…there has to be another way…" I muttered.

"There is!" A small voice called from below. I looked around before finding the white egg with the top hat, my egg, rolling towards us. The egg was cracking, and then there was flash, and a little man wearing a white dress shirt, black dress pants and shoes, carrying cane, and wearing a top hat floated towards me. "You need to calm her, assure the girl that her dreams aren't stupid."

"And you have to throw in some more energy." Teris said. "Energy that we don't have. I'm not even sure if we have the power to cleanse the egg."

"We gotta try…" I whispered to Teris and turned to the egg. "Hey…uh…your dreams are not stupid…there…uh…"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" The egg said and shot another ray towards me, that I luckily managed to dodge this time.

"You have to mean it!" The little one in the top hat said. "You need to believe in what your saying, it's the only way!"

"I…" I started. "I'll try…" I said and took a step forward, clearing my throat. "Yes, I do know what I'm talking about. People will look down on your dreams…and you need to hold onto them or you'll lose them forever…if you don't…you'll…you'll never be able to accomplish anything!" Whatever I said, I guess it must have been enough because suddenly my entire body felt like it was acting on it's own. "Negative egg, lock on!" I shouted and pointed the wand at the egg. "Open heart!" A white beam shot out of the wand hit the egg, causing it to change into something to happen with it, but I couldn't see it, the white beam was really bright and I had to close my eyes as it did it's work. When I opened them back up the x egg was gone and I was back in my normal clothes again. I was tired, not as tired as I was before, but still extremely tired. James kneeled down next to the girl and Alicia came running in towards the girl.

"Did she-" She started to ask.

"She was." James confirmed. "But Brandon cleansed her egg. It's still there…I think…It was a pretty flashy way to take care of an egg but it still worked."

Alicia walked towards me and put a hand on my shoulder, I noticed that the little school girl chara was hanging around her. "Thank you." Alicia said. "Hey…your other egg hatched!"

"Yeah…this is…um…" I started.

"My name is Gentus." He said with a bow, kneeling before the chara in the uniform, grabbing her hand and kissing it. "How do you do, my lovelies?"

"Oh god, knock it off romeo." Teris sighed.

"Hey Alicia?" I asked. "These x eggs…do we deal with them a lot?"

"Yeah, they're the biggest threat we have, even bigger than people like Katy. We need to protect people's eggs, especially from themselves." Alicia said. "That's our job."

I thought about it and nodded. "Alright, tell Cameron I'm going to go back to class, and…I'm glad to be a member of the honor society."

"Yes!" The girl in the uniform said. "I knew we'd get some new friends!"

"Vorpa!" Alicia laughed. "Alright, I'll tell him. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." I said. "See you tomorrow."

"Brandon." James called. I turned towards him and he smiled. "I'm glad we'll get to work together." I couldn't help but smile at that. I guess now…I had friends and that felt…that felt wonderful.

I'm going to skip over school and getting home because honestly, do you really want to hear about what I did in science class? I didn't think so. Now for the rest of the day nothing really happened, until right before bed, when I had just gotten changed after a shower. Now my room wasn't all that interesting. I had a cream colored carpet, with large mahogany dresser. On top of the dresser was a big TV, and I don't mean big as in large screen, I mean big as in it weighs more than I do. I had a twin bed with a blue bed sheet on it, a grey blanket and two white pillows. Off to one side of the bed was my laptop, which currently sat with a blank screen. The walls were sort of an orange color, which reminded me of sherbet ice cream for some reason. I had a bed side table near my bed, which currently held a black alarm clock, and two eggs, Teris and Gentus'.

I described how Gentus' egg looked now, but Teris' egg was also different. It was green on the tips, leaving about an inch in the center bare white, and a green coffee mug sat on the center of the shape. I don't get why I'm starting to see things differently, but Teris mentioned that normal people can't see chara's, and even guardians take a little time before they start to notice how different things are. Teris and Gentus sat in their eggs talking with one another. Next to them was the wand, lying there on the table. I made a note to keep it close, especially since the thing seemed to be unbreakable.

"So, now we're defenders of justice, champions of light, Protectors of-" Gentus started.

"Gentus." Teris interrupted. "Knock it off."

"You, my friend, need to lighten up." Gentus noted. "Going through life seeing the cup half empty is boring, you gotta be positive."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that-" Teris started.

"Guys." I said, wearing a black cotton T-shirt and blue shorts. "Don't fight. Come on, it's bed time."

I was about to get into bed, when I heard a knocking at the window. I got up, and walked towards the window. Maybe there was a bird or something? Nope. I opened the curtains and found Katy staring at me through the window. I gasped and backed up. She tried to say something, but the window blocked out what she was saying.

"Guys…Katy's back…" I said.

"A lady?" Gentus asked. "Well let her in!"

"Gentus, this is the girl that nearly killed us over the wand." Teris said. "She's the bad guy."

"So…don't let her in?" Gentus asked.

"If she's here, she's here for a reason, and she doesn't seem to be forcing her way through. I think we should let her in." Teris suggested.

"You guys are confusing." Gentus sighed. "I'm going to bed."

I walked towards the window, unlocked it, and lifted it up. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Jeez, leaving a lady out in the cold like this, you have some nerve, Brandon." Katy said with a smile, and pulled the mesh screen between us down and walked into my room.

"First, it's summer, it's not cold. Second, I'm waiting for my answer." I said. For the first time in my life, I had a girl in my room. I didn't know whether to be pleased, or if I should grab the wand and prepare for a battle of my life. Why did girls have to be so confusing?

"I just want to talk." Katy said. I noticed that she had a chara next to her, a little woman wearing leather armor, like some I had seen from a video game, and carried a sword on her belt. "Listen, I know they told you about everything now, probably about chara's and X-eggs and everything but there is one problem. I'm not your enemy."

"Seemed like that. I mean, I don't normally swing swords at my friends." I said coldly.

"Right…look…I'm sorry about that. I just…I need the wand to find something else. Something I think is important, but because I want to find it, the honor society thinks I'm working against them, but we both had the same agenda, we both want to stop the X-eggs." Katy said earnestly.

"They said you caused X-eggs." I told her.

"They also said I'm the bad guy." Katy said. "Look, I don't want to be your enemy. I want some help." Katy took a deep breath. "I'm looking for the sword of dreams."

"The…what now?" I asked.

"I thought they told you everything." Katy smirked. "Well, a long time ago, there was a guy who was called the keeper. He used several weapons to fight against despair and depression. He left those weapons all around to help people. The weapons each help guardians by using things that help Charas develop. I know that the sword of dreams is around here, and the wand can help find it. I know that if we have the sword and the wand, we can fight off almost any attack against us! I can't do it by myself though, I need your help."

I thought over it for a second. It didn't seem like a bad idea. Especially since it seemed like we could really use the help. "Alright. I'll help you."

Katy attacked me with a big hug. "Oh thank you so much! I'll find you when I get closer to finding out where it is!" She walked towards the window and turned back towards me. "Good Night, Brandon." She jumped out the window, and flipped up. I was sure I heard a thump like she landed on the roof.

I myself didn't really know what to do then. I closed my window and noticed that Teris was studying me. "You sure working with her won't lead to any trouble?"

"I'm not sure." I said. "It's a risk, but it's worth it, right?"

"If you say so." Teris said and floated back to his egg.

I know it seemed odd to trust her, especially since she tried to kill me earlier, but she seemed to earnest about it. I was sure she was lying, or at least, I think she wasn't lying. Whatever happened next, I'd have to wait until tomorrow to find out.