Tris and I were walking home together after school, when she came to a sudden stop in front of me, causing me to bump into her. The tip of my shoe got caught on the back of hers, and I flailed in place for a moment before regaining my balance.

"Look, a cafe that sells bubble tea!"

"Ehhhh?" It was still hard for me to put words together, even though the day was over and I was only with my sister now.

"We should get some. We had a successful first day at a new school, so we deserve it."

"Mmm-mmm." I shook my head no. I wanted to get home as soon as possible, to change out of my school uniform. So people wouldn't be able to look right at me and know where I went to school, which seemed super counter-intuitive for literal ninjas. And so the button that was still straining would be less likely to pop.

"I know, I know, we don't need it, but I didn't say we needed it. We deserve it."

"Mmm-mmm." I shook my head again and tugged at my crisp white uniform top.

"Yeah, I guess we could go home and change first," Tris said, shrugging. "But after that, we're definitely coming back here to get bubble tea." I was glad she always seemed to be able to tell what I was trying to say, even if I was physically incapable of saying it at the moment. Well, she should be able to by now, having been a voice for me long enough.

We finished our walk to our apartment, a compact little one bedroom place in a tall apartment building not far from downtown. I rushed into the bedroom to change. We had divided the room right down the middle with a long piece of painter's tape, so it was clear which side was Tris' and which was mine. This had been Tris' idea, and while it might seem a little petty, I totally understood why she wanted to do it. 'Cause her side was always immaculately clean, and mine looked like a tornado hit it. The door was on her side, so she didn't have to walk through any of my slop.

Really, everything on her side was packed neatly on shelves or into clear labeled bins. But I never had the mental energy for any of that. Mine was chaos. But organized chaos! I knew exactly where everything was based on the last place I put it. If I wanted to pick up the next fantasy comic book I'd planned on reading, I could pull it out of the towering stack of books in a second, even though all the young adult novels and the slice of life comic books would be on top of it. If I felt like playing with my slingshot, I could grab it out of another giant pile without even having to look. If Tris was in the other room and I wanted to snag some of my hidden marshmallows, from the bag I didn't want her to know about because she'd either steal them or get on my case for keeping food in the bedroom... yeah. Shush. She doesn't even have room to talk when she lives on cookies.

So it didn't take me long to find one of my favorite t-shirts, in the clean clothes pile, after stepping past the dirty clothes pile and the worn-a-few-times-recently-but-clean-enough-to-wear-again pile. It was a faded grayish green, with a weird symbol on it consisting of a minimalist red bird and a yellow triangle made out of three smaller triangles. I wasn't sure where I'd even gotten this shirt, but something about it seemed... familiar and comforting. Maybe if I wore it, it would soothe me enough that I'd be able to string words together at the cafe. Or maybe not. I changed into it, and a pair of plain but equally faded jeans. She'd changed into something similar, except her t-shirt was blue with a cartoon cat eating pizza on it. Always with the cat stuff...

And with that, we headed back to the cafe, leaving me in awe of Tris' mental ability to know where it was. How'd she remember what street it was on or what store it was next to or anything? That's the kind of stuff I'd need to write down... and still have trouble finding it again even with the necessary info... A lot of stores look the same.

The cafe was surprisingly empty for the end of a school day. You'd think a bunch of students would come right here after class let out. Well, maybe they'd already come and gone, since we'd taken the time to go back to the apartment to change clothes. Right. Duh. Anyway, there was only one girl sitting there, a blonde girl our age, taking her time with her coffee while having a loud conversation on her phone. She had on a school uniform of her own, but a different one, long sleeved and all grey with black stockings under the skirt.

Tris charged up to the counter, ignoring the other girl's presence in pursuit of bubble tea. I followed behind her, but slower. Trying to be more aware of our surroundings.

"They have Nutella bubble tea!" Tris squealed, before turning to the guy at the counter. "Um, hi. One blended Nutella bubble tea please, with the plain tapioca boba, and one blended matcha bubble tea, with some plain boba and then some strawberry jelly." Yeah, that was a pretty expected order. She had always been a huge chocoholic, with hazelnut being her second favorite flavor, and if she could combine them, you bet she was going to. And what she ordered for me was exactly what I wanted. Matcha was always my favorite, the way chocolate was hers. Its earthy grassy flavor felt so healthy and natural, even if I did ruin it with all that sugar and milk. Combining it with strawberry jelly just kind of gives you the beverage form of... being in the woods or something, enjoying nature and picking berries? Which is weird that I always think that, because I've never lived anywhere near woods.

We got our teas and sat a couple of tables away from grey uniform wearing loud phone girl. It was probably rude of me, but I basically straight up eavesdropped as we sat there. I mean, if she can't tell I'm eavesdropping, it's not rude, right? And it's not like I was going to do anything with whatever I found out about her. It was just practicing an important ninja skill.

"Yeah, I like the new transfer student we got today. She's, like, really nice. She's from some rich family too, like, I think her dad has even more money than mine ever did. But he, like, doesn't even give her his credit card to use whenever she wants, so what's with that? That's, like, totally not even fair. What's the point of making a whole bunch of money if, like, you're not gonna let your own daughter spend it whenever she wants, right?" She slurped from her cup. "But, like, she says she doesn't even mind. Like she's gotta be all responsible and shit. I mean, like, I like her, but biiiitch, like, live a little. I even, like, told her. Steal your dad's credit card and go shopping with me, biiiitch."

"That's so weird," Tris said. Apparently she'd been listening in on phone girl too, but maybe it was involuntary, since phone girl was so loud anyway. It was kind of hard not to overhear her. "Some other school got a new transfer student today too? I mean, we're—"

I stomped on Tris' foot. Did she not realize what she almost said? We're ninjas. We can't be letting random cafe phone girls know about our business.

"The hell was that for—oh."

Shit. The other girl had just finished her phone call, and so she'd noticed us. She looked up at us, and stood up, and was approaching our table. I had half a mind to grab my tea and charge out of the cafe, but that'd be suspicious. So it looked like I was about to have to endure the worst thing.

A social situation.

"Hey, I've, like, never seen you two around here before. Are you, like, new? That's totally weird if you are, 'cause, like, I just got a new transfer student in my class too. Must be, like, the time of year, right?" She gave a fake laugh. "My name's Shiki. Who are you two?"

"Uh, my name's Tris. And this is my sister Linkle." She was careful not to volunteer any extra information this time.

"Yeah. So, like, where do you guys go to school? 'Cause really, I haven't seen you around here before. And, like, I know everyone in this town. So spill it."

"We go to Hanzo Academy," Tris said, her voice sharp and impatient. "Why not tell us where you go to school, Shiki?"

"Oh, yeah, duh, I forgot. I go to Gessen. I mean, like, if you were from around here, you'd know by the uniform, but since you're new, like, you wouldn't know. But now you know. So, like, Hanzo, huh? I know some girls from there. They're pretty cool. We... used to have some beef, but now we're like, over it. So, like. What do you like to do? Do you like going shopping, 'cause we could go shopping."

"We don't have much money," Tris said. "But, I mean, I like shopping. If we had money, we'd go with you, I guess. It would be nice to have some friends in this town."

"Yeah, it totally sucks not having any money. My family was really rich, but there was... an accident, y'know? So times are tough. Still, like, I can give you my cell number, so if, like, you wanna hang out, we can hang out, y'know?" She pulled a sticky note and a purple glitter pen out of her purse and started writing it down. "Why doesn't your sister, like, say anything?"

"She..." Tris hesitated. I nodded at her, indicating she was allowed to tell on my behalf. "She's got selective mutism. So she can physically talk, it's just mentally hard for her. She gets all anxious. She's really nice though. You'll like her." I nodded again, giving Shiki a smile.

"Oh, like, sorry. I didn't mean to be, like, judgmental."

I nodded and shrugged to let her know it was okay.

"So, like, when was your first day at Hanzo? Was it today? 'Cause that'd be totally crazy. At Gessen we just got a new girl today too. Small word, huh? I wonder if you know her. That'd be, like, even more totally crazy."

"Yeah, that would be crazy," Tris said, although I could tell by her body language she wasn't nearly that enthused about it. "What's her name?"

"Oh, it's... something weird. It's, like, really cool though. I'm trying to, like, remember..." Shiki tapped her chin in thought. "Oh, yeah, it's Zelda. And she's super rich, too. But her dad won't even give her his credit card—"

"We don't know her," Tris said, cutting Shiki off from telling the exact same story we already heard her tell to her friend on the phone.

But, uh... I wasn't so sure about that. The not knowing her thing. Because in those weird dreams I had, the weird fantasy ones with fairies and stuff, where I was a guy for some reason? There was always a girl in those dreams too. A girl I always seemed like I was... tied to with an invisible string. Whenever shit went down, it was her and me, working together to fix it. And, yeah, her name was always Zelda. So for us to be transfer students on the same day? That didn't feel like a coincidence.

Of course, I didn't say a damn thing. Like I ever did. I just sat there, sipping my bubble tea, like I wasn't having some kind of mind blowing deja vu freak out inside my own head. Because I felt like I had to go meet this girl now. Like it was destined. Or, more accurately, even if I didn't actively try to meet her, like by asking Shiki to invite us both to hang out or something, I'd end up meeting her anyway. When shit went down.

And speaking of shit going down? There was always a third element in those dreams. Another person it was like we were tied to with an invisible string. A guy who was always the epitome of evil, the one that was always causing the problems we were left to solve. He was bent on conquering the world and sowing absolute destruction. And all the dreams were like that, no matter how they were different in other ways. It was like a cycle that repeated and repeated again.

"Are there three?!"

Tris and Shiki both stared at me, eyes wide, slack jawed. At first I wondered why. But then I realized I did the words. It was a thought in my head at first, and then I just blurted it out. And now they were wondering what the hell was going on.

"Three... three..."

` "Three what?" Tris asked.

"She okay?" Shiki asked.

"Maybe not. Maybe we'd better head home..." Tris shook her head.

"Schools," I said, blurting again. "Three schools."

"Well, yeah," Shiki said. "There's Hanzo, then there's Gessen, then there's another weird school called Hebijo. But, like, don't hang out with them. Those are, like, the wrong side of the tracks girls. Like, seriously, don't."

A third school. Apparently a bad school. The wrong side of the tracks girls? If evil incarnate had to go to a high school, that sounds like where they'd go. So, yeah... I wondered if they got a transfer student today.

"Don't worry, we'll watch out for them," Tris said. "We'd better go, right, Linkle?" I nodded furiously. The anxiety was rising inside me like bile rising up in my throat. Could've been both at once for all I knew. Probably was.

"Aw, that's no fun, but if you gotta, you gotta." Shiki pouted. "But, like, call me later, would you?"

"Uh, yeah, bye..."

I don't remember much more about the way home, because it was definitely one of those instances where my body was one place and my mind was somewhere else entirely. All I knew was that, at some point, I had to get Tris to call Shiki again. I had to get them to set up a day where we were hanging out, all four of us. Me. Tris, Shiki, and that Zelda girl from Gessen. Because I wanted to know what I was dealing with before shit went down.

'Cause, like, I could totally tell something was going to.

Damn it, Shiki. Listening to her talk like that made me start thinking like that too.