"Wally, why aren't you friends with Kuki anymore?"

Wally took out an earbud. "You're talking to me again?"

"Don't make me regret it," she mumbled.

"I don't know. I guess we just grew apart. Why? Why aren't you friends with her anymore?"

"Same reason, I guess. But we're talking again." She sighed. "How come everybody I knew in elementary school has grown apart from me?"

"Because you yell at them?" He blinked when she gave him a nasty look. "Was I not supposed to be honest?"

"Like you're one to talk. You don't talk to any of them anymore."

"Ouch."

They approached the exit of the school. But both of them stopped.

"Do you ever talk to Nigel Uno?"

Wally shook his head. "He moved to England or something. Haven't heard from him since."

"Weird. Doesn't that seem weird?"

"It's not like ten-year-olds have a cell phone or email address."

"But it's just weird, right? How everybody suddenly stopped talking to each other?"

"It seems pretty normal to me."

"But…" Fanny frowned. "I don't know, it's just weird. I can't even remember what we used to do together."

"Oh well. The past's in the past."

"We must have had something in common, right? We wouldn't just be friends for no reason."

"Same age, same school. Sounds like enough of a reason to me."

"Hey, guys!"

They turned around. Kuki was beaming at them. "Are you going to the football game tonight? It's going to be super fun!"

"Oh! Um, I'll ask my dad!" Fanny smiled back at her.

"Yay!" Kuki jumped and hugged her. "What about you, Wally? I haven't seen you in five-ever!"

"I can't," he responded curtly.

"Oh." Kuki pouted. "Maybe next time!"

"Yeah, maybe." He pulled out his phone to check the time. "Crap, I've got to go. See you guys later." With that, Wally was gone.

Kuki frowned. "Too bad. I haven't talked to him in forever."

"He's been annoying me for weeks." Fanny sighed. "My dad's picking me up. I'll ask him to take me to the football game tonight."

"Yay!" Kuki's face brightened again. "It's at 5 o'clock, and the theme is superheroes!"

Fanny gave a small smile as she left.

At 5 that night, she was back at school, sitting alone in the stands with a bunch of hyped-up fans. She'd never really cared about sports, especially ones that were just a bunch of sweaty guys tackling each other, but this was what high school was about, right?

She looked around. She saw Abby off to one side with her friends.

Abby was nice, right? She moved her way through the crowd and sat a row above her. "Hey, Abby," she said quietly, almost hoping Abby wouldn't notice.

Abby turned around. "Hey, Fanny! What's up?"

"Hey." She didn't even know what to say.

"Didn't expect you to show up to a football game," Abby said, but it wasn't in a rude way.

"Yeah, Kuki asked me to come."

"Ah. Yeah, she's all into the school spirit stuff." Abby smirked. "Abby's not into that stuff as much as she should be, considering she's in student government."

Fanny smiled.

Abby sighed. "It seems like all of us used to be such close friends."

"Yeah." Fanny looked down. What had happened? Why couldn't she remember anything?

"I'm kind of surprised Wally's not on the football team. Doesn't that seem like something he would do?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Masculine and fighting. Just like him." Abby snorted. "Except he's short."

Fanny smirked. "Yeah. Growing, but short."

Abby chuckled. "Man, it feels like forever since we all hung out. We should do that sometime. Relive old times."

"Yeah!" Fanny smiled.

They exchanged phone numbers and chatted periodically throughout the game. When their team won, they cheered.

"You know what?" Abby said. "We should go out for ice cream. Us two, Rachel, and Kuki."

Fanny beamed. "Yeah!"

"Let's go find them." Abby and Fanny walked down to the field. Kuki noticed them immediately.

"Hi! Hi Abby! Hi Fanny! You made it!" She grinned. "Can you believe we won?"

Abby smiled. "I was thinking, we should go hang out. Catch up and stuff. Wanna come?"

"Oh my gosh! Yes! We should do that! I'll go tell Rachel!" Kuki rushed away, only to return moments later with a very stunned Rachel, and they all walked down the block to an ice cream shop.

Fanny sat next to Abby in the booth across from Kuki and Rachel.

"Just like old times," Abby said, sipping on her milkshake.

"In old times, we'd have Nigel, Hoagie, and Wally causing chaos," Rachel pointed out.

Abby smirked. "True, but it's nice how quiet it is now."

Kuki sighed. "I kind of miss Wally."

"Because you had a huge crush on him," Abby retorted. "I don't miss helping him with his homework every night."

"I hear he's a disaster," Rachel said, leaning in to share the gossip. "Like, we've only been in school for three weeks and he's already failing classes."

"Of course he is. That's just how Wally is." Abby sighed. "In a way, I feel bad for him. Something's not right with that kid's head."

"Well, you used to have a crush on Hoagie!" Kuki said, finally getting payback.

"Did not!" Abby looked away. "And even if I did, at least he's smart. He's on the robotics team and in all of the advanced math and science classes."

"But he's so cringey!" Rachel said. "Every time he opens his mouth, I have to roll my eyes."

"I know, but he's got a brain. Can't say that about Wally."

"I have a drawing class with Wally," Fanny said, trying to fit into the conversation wherever she could.

"Drawing?!" Rachel started laughing. "Wallabee Beetles, drawing? What a joke!"

"Oh, man! Does he torture that poor teacher?" Abby asked.

"Kind of? He usually knocks it off after she yells at him a couple of times, but you can tell she wants to slap him upside the head."

"What does he draw?" Kuki asked. "Is he any good?"

"Actually, he kind of is. It's so weird. He'll refuse to do work until the teacher threatens him with detention, and then he'll knock out something that looks semi-decent in, like, five minutes!"

"Absolutely bizarre," Abby said. "But at least he's not picking fights with random people just to prove that his height doesn't mean he's weak." Suddenly, she turned to Rachel. "So, how's your childhood crush doing?"

Rachel turned red. "Nigel? I told you, I haven't heard from him in years."

"Do you regret having a crush on him?" Abby asked, smirking.

Rachel frowned. "Honestly, I don't really remember too much about him."

Kuki nodded her agreement. "Yeah, I guess it's been too long."

"Too bad. You get out of this one easy." Abby turned to Fanny. "And Patton?"

Fanny turned bright red. "What? I- No-"

Abby grinned. "It's okay. I don't remember a thing about Patton."

"Me neither," Fanny admitted. "Do you guys feel like you don't remember anything about your childhood? Like, I remember we were all friends, but I don't remember anything we did together."

"Yeah!" Kuki suddenly sat up straighter. "It's weird! My parents said we hung out all the time, but I don't really remember anything!"

Abby shrugged. "I mean, we were just kids. A lot has happened since then."

"But weren't we all friends just last year? That's pretty recent." Fanny frowned.

"Guess we grew apart," Rachel said lowly.

"Like, did something happen?" Fanny asked. "Did we have a fight that we all forgot about or something?"

Abby shrugged. "I guess it wasn't too important if we can't remember it."

"Yeah," Fanny said. "Must not have been important."

Something didn't feel right to her. But if nobody could remember anything happening, then nothing must have happened.

Why was her mind telling her that there was something else?