A solar eclipse.

If the previsions were exact, Amity Park, Illinois, would witness a solar eclipse that day.

Lawrence eyed the skies thoughtfully.

The snowstorm that had buried the city under it's cold cover for the three last days had finally calmed down earlier in the night, and a pale sun was shining upon their heads, not hot enough to melt the white blanket of snow.

Because of the weather, there were less than a third of the students actually attending their classes that day, and only 5 students in his own classroom.

Howard Baxter (and would he ever understand why he was nicknamed 'Dash' ?), Michael 'Mickey' Archer, Pauline Alvarez-DeGracia, Wesley Weston and, obviously, Daniel Fenton were sitting in their respective seats - that was to say, the further away from the others students (except for Dash and Paulina, who were seemingly cooing over each other besides the window.)

Lawrence eyed the back of the class. While it was true that there were only 5 of his students, there was one more teenager in his classroom that day, sitting right besides Daniel.

'Van', as Daniel and his friends had called them, hadn't spoken a word apart from a polite, if very formal greeting when they entered the room with the youngest Fenton. The young person hadn't said anything to the others students, though he had nodded in Michael's direction, before following Daniel to their seats.

Ever since then, the two of them had stayed mostly silent (although Lawrence wasn't blind to the paper sheet they scribbled on periodically.)

Lawrence looked at the hour again, before clapping his hands together, smiling at the teenagers.

"Well, children, would you like to come outside and see the solar eclipse ?"

Michael, Wes and Daniel jumped to their feet immediately, and despite their groans and protests, Pauline and Dash seemed interested enough in the eclipse to follow their lead.

'Van', though lest enthusiastic that Daniel, had gotten up quickly too. Maybe they did like those phenomenons too ?

(Lawrence found that he was intrigued by the two strange non-Fenton children that Daniel had once introduced as 'his'. Much like Jasmine and Daniel still intrigued him to this day.)

The class followed Lawrence up to the roof, students fumbling with the glasses their teacher had ended them before they left the classroom.

Daniel and Van were at the back of the little herd, and while the taller of them was wearing a thick coat, as they should with this weather, but Daniel was only wearing a thin jean-like jacket. Strange. (Again. But not a bad thing per say. After all, their whole town was strange in itself.)

Once everyone settled on the roof, they once again parted in little groups. Wesley and Michael began to talk about the eclipse coming, and what it could imply on an astrological plane, while Dash and Paulina were watching something on the cheerleader's phone.

Daniel and Van were sitting near the fence, legs tangled together as they whispered to each other, a few feet away from the rest of the group.

Then they got up, and put on their glasses, and looked up at the sky.

The other students and teacher followed, and looked at the sun too.

Slowly, the moon appeared in the corner of their sight, and its darkness began to cut off the light from the star of the day.

His students seemed mesmerized by the sight, and it wasn't that surprising, since they'd probably never seen any solar eclipse before this day. Lawrence hoped that the students that weren't there would still enjoy this phenomenon.

After a minute, both celestial bodies finally aligned and the solar eclipse exploded in front of their eyes.

It was still, even if Lawrence had already experienced this sight, a magnificent thing to see.

If Lawrence Lancer had been anyone else, he might not have heard the whisper beside him, too focused on the sky.

But he'd always had been a little bit more attentive that most.

"It's just like us."

(Van seemed deeply amazed by what they were experiencing, even more so than the other students. As for Daniel, he did look more... nostalgic than anything else. Another weird detail.)

"Just like us, uh ?"

He didn't knew what Van meant by this. But Daniel's smile when he did answer was too weary and pained to mean anything remotely good.