Chapter Two: Unexpected Friends

Over the next week Matti met many different people. A lot of the kids on campus wanted to get to know her because she was from New York and in their opinion very pretty. She even met some people who gave her the creeps. Yet these people, who seemed to have animosity toward Vanessa, Catty, Serena, Jimena, and Tianna, all seemed to want Matti to join a cult of some sort with them.

On Saturday, Matti was heading home from Catty's house when she ran into Tymmie. He wanted her to follow him. Matti had a bad feeling about it, but she followed anyway.

They went to what looked like an abandoned building. She followed him inside and they were hanging out in the downstairs of the building. All of a sudden, Tymmie got all weird.

"Look into my eyes, Mathilde."

The force of hearing her full name threw Matti's focus off. Still she did not listen to him.

"No."

"I want to show you my life. I know you can get into my mind."

"Actually I can't. I think you have the wrong girl. I need to go."

"You will look into my eyes Mathilde."

"No, I will go home."

At that moment, Tymmie grabbed Mathilde and trapped her in his memories. She couldn't have been in there long, because she did not feel completely drained. All of a sudden she looked up and there was a gorgeous guy with blonde hair who looked dangerous standing over her and Tymmie. He had pulled Tymmie away from Matti.

"Leave me. She is mine."

Tymmie did not seem to want to disobey him. He got up and left.

"What is your name?"

"Matti."

"Why are you here?"

"Tymmie asked me to come with him."

"Why would you follow him? I know that you can sense it is dangerous."

"I felt compelled to follow him. Why do you care?"

"I just do Mathilde."

"How did you know my real name was Mathilde?"

"You do not need to know that right now. You will know when the time has come."

"What's your name?"

"Stanton. No more questions. You must go. Go straight home. No diving into people's memories and don't let them do it to you. Just go home."

With that, Stanton disappeared.

The following day, Matti got to school early just so she could find Jimena before class started. She found her outside the school waiting to be checked by security.

"Jimena!"

"What is it Matti?"

"Can you ditch with me? I need to talk to you about some very weird stuff that happened last night."

"Come on, I'll drive us to my house. We can talk there. My grandmother is out for the day."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

"No problema."

Half an hour later, Matti and Jimena walked into her apartment.

"What's got you creeped out Matti? You don't seem the type to scare easily."

"I'm not. You understand me more than the others. You grew up on the streets. With the gangs and everything. You've seen death and how it can tear a person apart. We are very much alike Jimena. I was in a gang back in New York."

"So, again, what's got you flipped out?"

"Do you know a guy named Tymmie?"

"Yeah, he's not un chico that you should hang with. He's peligroso."

"I followed him to an abandoned building last night and he tried to trap me inside his memories."

"Are you sure he didn't get you?"

"I'm sure. A guy named Stanton stopped him."

"Stanton stopped him? That's weird."

"Why?"

"Because Stanton is the leader of the pack of weirdos that Tymmie is part of."

"Do you think they're gonna try to hurt me?"

"Not with me around. Why? You scared?"

"Nope, just trying to figure out if I need to manipulate them to find out their weaknesses."

"I knew there had to be a reason I liked you."