The following days did nothing to ease Arno's anxiety. If anything, the passage of time made the problem even worse, and even with all the food in the world to fill his stomach he still couldn't rid himself of the pit that kept his thoughts in a choke hold. Curiosity had turned into a want, and the want had turned into a need to return to the old factory across the river.

Unlike Arno, Jonah seemed completely unaffected by what he'd seen. Shockingly, he hadn't said a word about it to anyone, but there was still time for him to slip up. However, seeing as how Arno had made it his responsibility to keep an eye on Jonah, he would almost always be close enough to shut him up if he did say something. Even now, Arno watched the boy flip through the papers he pulled from his backpack, sifting through them to look for one of the many assignments he hadn't even started.

"These teachers sure do like homework." He said to himself. Arno grunted in affirmation. His thoughts drifted to his own binder that he kept in his room, full of loose papers and handouts, but he couldn't keep his thoughts away from that computer. "When do you wanna go back to the factory?" Asked Jonah.

Arno jumped at the question, shooting a glare towards Jonah before realizing that they were alone.

"I don't know." He shot back.

"You want to go back, don't you?" Arno didn't respond. His eyes met the floor. "Come on, don't you wanna see what's there, what that thing does?"

"It's not that simple."

"Yeah it is! All we have to do is go back and flip that switch, and we'll know exactly what that thing does! It's simple as that!"

Before the conversation could be prolonged, the sound of a bell broke the stillness, and not five seconds had passed before students were filing out of their classrooms, and into the courtyard. Jonah shot one more pleading look at Arno, who has half tempted to resign to the boy's plea right then and there, but he resisted.

"We'll talk about this later." He said. The two rose from their seats, Jonah following Arno's lead, and they walked across the courtyard together. At this point, about a week into the school year, there were two things that the dark skinned boy was used to; receiving stares from the other students who were curious about the scars on his left cheek and lips (even if they were small, everyone could tell there was a story behind them), and the fact that Jonah would more than likely be following him wherever he went. They didn't share every class, but he'd already resigned to having his short companion tail him wherever he went for most of the day. As such, he was more able to help Jonah weave through the crowds as they escaped their classrooms, but Jonah wasn't always able to slip through the crowd without bumping into people.

"Oof!" Jonah tumbled down past Arno, who reacted just in time to avoid falling to the ground himself. He stepped off to the side before turning about and seeing the two students who had collided: Jonah, and another one he didn't recognize.

"Oh!" Cried the other student, scrambling to his feet to help Jonah. "Uh, uh, thank you!" He shouted, before seemingly scolding himself with a harsh 'no'. "Sorry, sorry!" He corrected himself, setting himself down by Jonah's side to help him back up to his feet.

This new student couldn't have been older than Arno was. He was young, seemingly energetic, and judging by his accent alone, he was American, and one who didn't speak a great deal of french. Nonetheless, he was very quick to hoist Jonah up off the ground, even spending a minute to help him balance after his fall.

"You ok? You ok?" He repeated. Eventually, Jonah nodded. Having fully recovered from the fall, he now wore his signature smile again, and thanked the other student for helping him.

"I'm ok, thank you!" He said. He gave himself a little shuffle, moving his backpack back to the center of his back, although in doing so, he used enough force to displace the contents of his pack, specifically an old looking leather journal, dusty and cracked. It slipped out of his backpack, and fell open to the ground with its worn pages now facing the sky. Arno was the first to move, panicking to pick it up before it was seen. Jonah moved next, but it was the new student who managed to grab it, mainly because Jonah and Arno's heads clashed together in an attempt to snatch it first. The boy was about to close it, and hand it to the others, but mid-motion he stopped, and his eyes quickly scanned the page as a warm and friendly smile slowly dropped from his face.

As soon as Arno managed to recover from the unintentional headbutt, he moved to take the notebook with a quick word of thanks, but the second he moved, the student sealed the notebook, and handed it over.

"I understand!" He cried. Both of the others stopped.

"What?" Arno asked for clarification, while Jonah's eyes became lit like stars. "You understand it?" The boy's head nodded, a motion that his head of short brown hair followed. He readjusted his clothes, a sky blue jacket over a navy blue and white striped sweater, and continued.

"Small, but I know. Computer talk!" He said, becoming excited as the words escaped him. "I read, write, learn! You?" He pointed first to himself, then to Jonah, who nodded vigorously.

"Well," he corrected himself, "my dad is a software engineer, but I picked up a little bit!" He then extended his hand. "Jonah, Jonah Dun!"

"Maxwell Vike." Said the other student, catching Jonah's hand and giving it a few very firm shakes. Max then reached out to Arno, who (after a moment's hesitation) reached back and shook his hand.

"Arno Luma." He said.

"Thank you!" Said Maxwell. He then turned his attention back to Jonah, and to the book, which Arno still held. "What for?" He asked. "I major in computer."

"Really?" Arno said. "I thought you were majoring in french." Biting as the comment was, Maxwell's shoulders shook with a good chuckle.

"I speak good english, but french is difficult. Can I look at the book?"

Arno's first response was a firm and harsh no, but no sooner had he opened his mouth, did Jonah pat his side, and offer a pleading look.

"Arno." He said, as a soft scolding. He looked down at Jonah, whose eyes were open wide, his lips turned downward in a highly emphasized frown.

"I'm gonna kick myself for this." He spat under his breath. He waited, but then offered a single wave of his hand, a gesture that said 'do what you want'.

The boy was ecstatic, but only for a moment, as his excitement quickly faded. He took the book from Arno, extended his arm, but then drew back as he came to a realization.

"Hey," he said, "Max, why don't you meet us at the Old Factory across the way?" Max raised an eyebrow.

"The factory?" Jonah nodded.

"The factory!" Arno felt the hairs on his neck rise.

"The factory?!" He hissed through his teeth, grabbing Jonah's shoulders. "Jonah, why?!" At this display, Max tilted his head, another sign of confusion.

"Is the factory bad?" This question put a halt to Arno's aggression, but he didn't release Jonah's shoulder.

"No." He finally resigned. "It's just very out of the way, and there was plenty of mold, and bugs, and dangerous equipment the last time we were there, right, Jonah?" The boy nodded.

"But it was still fun." He replied. The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip.

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say." There was a moment of silence between them all, until Max spoke up.

"So, what time at the factory?" He said. Arno was silent, but behind pursed lips he was grinding his teeth.

"How about 5:30?" Jonah asked.

"5:30!" Max confirmed, flashing the two of them a wide smile. Then, there was another bell, a warning that classes only had a few minutes until they started. He gave them a quick wave. "See you!"

As he walked away, Arno could only growl under his breath, just barely loud enough for Jonah to hear.

"Jonah." He said, slowly, with a rising tone.

"What?" The boy broke away from his grip, and spun around to face him. "He said he understands the notebook! He could help us figure everything out! Just imagine, he could help us both understand what all of that is about!"

"Why do we need to do that?! Aren't you studying the notebook?"

"Oh, so NOW you're trying to make sure that I'm on top of things?" Jonah shot back, stunning Arno into silence. He held his tongue for a moment, but narrowed his eyes. "That's what I thought." Jonah continued. "Look, we find this super computer, and just days later, we meet someone who can actually help us understand it? Whatever this is all about, is it really something you want to pass up? When were we even going to go back, if I hadn't asked?" Again, Arno couldn't find a response. Instead, he looked down at the phone he pulled from his pocket. It was almost time to get to class.

"Come on." He said. "We'll finish this later."

"Will we?"

"Yes. We will. Thanks to you, we don't have any other option now." Just as Arno, followed by Jonah, was about to move, the two of them were called out by a tall and lean looking man.

"Get to class you two." He said, with a tone far less than a scolding, but a little more than just an instruction.

"We were just about to." Arno replied. He looked the man up and down for a moment before the two of them left. He recognized him as the gym teacher; tall, slightly muscled, and wearing a pair of slim black pants and matching colored tank top. His hair, the same shade of brown as his eyes, was swept off to the side, and his olive skin shone with the sweat he'd accumulated over the classes he'd already taught that day.

"Glad to hear it." He said, before the two students turned to leave.

Arno was careful not to open his mouth until he was out of the teacher's sight. He didn't want any information getting out to the other students, but if there was anyone he didn't want to tell about the discover he and Jonah had made, it was the teachers. They couldn't possibly understand what they'd found, and how could they? It was a once in a lifetime discovery, after all.

Elisabeth watched the two students leave for class, up until they vanished behind the cover of the dorm building. There was, as usual, mountains of papers on her desk, all of which needed to be finished by the week's end, but she took a few more moments to bask in the view of Kadic Academy. Although her outfit, a very serious looking black and soft pink suit worn above a pencil skirt and high heels with a headband to keep her hair back, might give off the look of a very serious woman, in moments like these she was anything but.

She took in a long, drawn out breath, closing her eyes, visualizing the courtyard full of students. It was that vision that made her remember why she became a headmaster in the first place. However, peaceful as that vision was, it couldn't afford to last.

A knock on the door broke her concentration, and she was quick to respond to it.

"Come in."

The door creaked open, and in popped the head of the teacher she'd watched speak to the two students before.

"You wanted to see me?" She turned around, smiling at him as she stepped away from the window, and closer to her desk.

"I did. Thank you for coming to see me Ulrich." She pulled out her chair, and took a seat, and Ulrich did the same.

"What's this about?" He asked.

"That student you were talking to. How was he?" Ulrich shrugged.

"I couldn't tell. He was just talking to his friend from what I could see. Why?" In response to his question, Elisabeth leaned over, pulling a sand colored folder from a drawer in her desk. On that folder was the name "Arno Luma".

"His name is Arno." She explained, handing the folder to him, but pulling it back slightly as he extended his hand to meet it. "And if anyone asks, I did not show you this file, understand?" Her expression was enough to make a flower wither, and to send a shiver down Ulrich's spine.

"Sissi, I'm not going to go around bragging about having read student profiles." He said, taking the folder.

"Really? Because I have told you to stop using that name, and that hasn't happened yet." Ulrich flashed Elisabeth a smile.

"And it will, one day, I promise." She rolled her eyes at him, before reaching forward to straighten the name plate on her desk. The dark oak triangle block was dressed on the front with a golden plate, inscribed with the name "Elisabeth Delmas".

"I'm sure." She said. "I called you in here, because Arno is a bit of a," she paused, placing the curve of a finger on her lips in deep thought, "troubled, student."

"How many detentions has he gotten? Odd and I have a record to keep."

"None, yet. I'm talking about his potential." Ulrich thumbed through the pages. It looked like he was a transfer student from Pakistan, and he was able to reach pages worth of academic numbers and passport information, but he stopped dead on the last page, where a vast majority of the information was blacked out. He leaned back in his chair.

"Now do you see what I mean?"

"I see a lot black, that's for sure." Again, Sissi rolled her eyes.

"All of that, is information that school board doesn't want anyone to see. It's details about his family life and home. All I was told was that he lived with his grandmother for a few years before coming here, due to," she paused again, "complications with his father. They didn't give me anything else than that, so I had to assume that he didn't have a mother for most of his life."

"Yikes." Said Ulrich under his breath. "That's gotta be rough for the guy."

"I know. I mean, even having parents who are divorced is hard enough, but I imagine that she's a bit more out of the picture than that."

"What do you suggest then?"

"Well, right now, I would just ask that you keep an eye on him. I've seen kids like this before, and I'm shocked that he managed to find a friend, especially this early in the year. If the issues with his parents are half as bad as I think they are, he could have some real issues going forward. I'm hoping we can mitigate as many bad effects as possible."

"And why reach out to me? We have school psychologists, and Yolanda has a psych degree, doesn't she?"

"Yes, and yes." Elisabeth answered, as Ulrich handed her hack the file. "But the main reason that I called you, as opposed to the others, was because you, Ulrich, have a bit of a history with troubled students." She sat back in her chair as Ulrich shot her an amused look.

"I don't follow." He said, coyly.

"Oh don't you?" Elisabeth pulled a few more files from her desk, and on the top was one belonging to "Ulrich Stern". She flipped the file up in her hands and layed it open in her palm. "Ulrich Stern," she read aloud, "evasive, troublesome, has a tie with Odd Della Robbia with the most detentions in a single school year to date. As close to a delinquent as one can get." She then clapped the folder closed with one hand and stared Ulrich down with a spark in her eyes. "Do you follow now?"

"I guess I do." Said Ulrich, cracking a smile. "Although I'll have to breath that tie with Odd one of these days." Elisabeth smiled back at him.

"Don't worry, you kept enough of your delinquent behavior that I could probably give you another detention if I wanted. But the point of all of this is that you have experience. You're probably the most apt person here to deal with whatever might bother Arno. Ulrich, can I trust you to keep an eye on him?"

"Of course." Ulrich gave her a two finger salute from his forehead. "I'll do what I can, I promise."

"Thank you." Said Elisabeth, giving off a little sigh of relief. "I don't want to overburden you, I know you're taking on everything that Jim can't do, but I wouldn't be asking you if it weren't important.

"Don't worry about me Sissi, it looks like you have way more work to get done than I do." He motioned his head towards the piles of papers strewn across her desk.

"Yeah yeah, I'll get around to it today. But in the meantime, you should probably get back to your class. I'm a little worried what Jim's up to, he was always more harsh as a substitute than an actually teacher."

"Will do." Ulrich rose from his seat with a stretch, and walked to the door with a casual farewell.

"Oh! Ulrich!" She stopped him before he had stepped out of the door. "I almost forgot to mention, I've been so busy this week that I haven't had any time to set up the administrative meetings for Jeremy or Aelita. If you see them today could you ask them to stop by? I do need to get those done."

"Of course. I'll let them know when I finish up with this class."

"Thank you Ulrich, you're a life-saver." Ulrich gave her another two finger salute, and he closed the door behind him, leaving Elisabeth once more in the silence of the mid-afternoon.

The pit in Arno's stomach was only continuing to grow. He had wanted to keep things a secret for as long as he could, but clearly that wasn't possible. He took a quick glance down at his phone, the time on which read five pm. A frustrated sigh escape his lips as he watched Jonah leave his classroom, and turn right towards Arno, who sat with arms crossed. He looked Arno up and down, and with each step it looked like his smile was growing even wider.

"Hey there." He said. "I know you're frustrated with me, but please, don't be too... cross, with me." He pointed down at Arno's arms. Arno was unamused.

"If I wasn't angry with you before," he said, "I am now."

"Oh come on, that was a good pun!"

"That's partially why I'm angry."

"Spoilsport." Jonah twisted around and shuffled onto the bench next to Arno. "Are you ready for today?"

"I shouldn't have to be."

"Hey, you're the one who said that I can't go to the factory without you."

"Would you shut it?!" Arno's head snapped over to Jonah. "My goal was to keep this a secret, just between the two of us! And now you've involved someone who we came across when you bumped into him? How do you know we're not stumbling onto something dangerous?!"

"How do you know we're not stumbling onto something awesome?" Jonah replied.

"Because this 'awesome' stuff that looks like it comes straight out of a sci fi movie, is more times than not, dangerous! And unlike you, I have a semblance of self preservation."

"Hey, I have a sense of self perseverance too!"

"Preservation." Arno corrected.

"Right, that, but if you never explore anything, then you never find anything!" At this remark, the older of the two remained silent, staring ahead with a huff until Jonah began to speak again.

"Listen, Arno, I know you're frustrated with me, but I have a good feeling about this. You don't have to come with, if you don't want to, but I really want to see this through." He turned, and without waiting for a response, he began to leave.

He stopped when his name was called.

"Jonah." He turned, and watched Arno push himself out of his seat, and take a few steps towards him. "You'd better hope that your good feeling doesn't get you killed." He growled, but Jonah's eyes lit up. He stared up at Arno with hands clasped.

"Well, so long as I have someone with a bit of self perseverance, I should be safe." Arno scoffed, turning away, but Jonah could see the softed hint of a smile. "Thanks, for coming with."

"Yeah. Just make sure that I don't regret it."

"I mean, it looks like a computer. What's the worst that could happen?"