It was a little bit later in the afternoon when we all met up again. Kevin had picked up Gwen first before he came to get me, and when I loaded up into the backseat as usual I saw that we were short one more. We had started back down the street when I decided to question it, leaning forward against the slight restraint of my seatbelt. "So where's Ze?" I asked, "Because I don't think we can trigger any memories if she's not here to have them triggered."

I saw Kevin's dark irises flicker to the rearview mirror and my reflection in it, a small smirk pulling at his lips. "Believe it or not, she said she'd meet us there," he responded.

All the hope that I felt earlier swelled to an unmeasurable size within my chest. I didn't need to say it - both Gwen and Kevin seemed to have made the same connection. If Zeke said she was going to meet us, then that most likely meant that she remembered something. Mr. Smoothie's must've triggered something in her head, something that would drive her to take her own course of action in figuring it out.

We pulled into the slightly crowded parking lot of Mr. Smoothie's, high schoolers hanging about with their friends and slurping away on their drinks while they talked. The three of us climbed out of Kevin's car, lingering around the hood as our six eyes flickered over each individual person there. For a moment, I thought I saw Zeke standing with a group of guys, but this girl in particular was wearing a varsity jacket and getting all friendly with one of them. So it was quite clearly not her.

Gwen crossed her arms over her chest, concern forcing her lips into a mild pout. "Maybe she got lost..." the redhead wondered aloud. "This isn't the only Mr. Smoothie in Bellwood - maybe she went to a different one..?"

"Or maybe she led us on," Kevin suggested with a shrug, "I mean, she probably remembered all the weird, nasty flavors Ben kept getting us and wanted no part of it. Can you blame her?"

Naturally, I was offended. Whatever dread I felt from Gwen's thoughts dissipated at once as I reeled around to face the taller (and stronger) male. "Hey!" I snapped, "My taste in smoothies is impeccable! Besides, today I was gonna get us a much more tame flavor for you guys to try."

"Yeah, Tennyson? And what's that?"

"Wheatgrass and peach."

His face distorted into an expression of disgust and he shivered, clearly put off by the sheer thought of it. Then again, he didn't have the greatest experience with wheatgrass flavors. One time, he got a blade of it stuck in his throat and claimed he was going to die. Which of course didn't happen, but that didn't mean Kevin Levin couldn't act like the drama llama queen he was from time to time.

Gwen turned to me, one arm uncrossing and lifting to gesture. "Shouldn't you get a smoothie flavor that Zeke has had before?" she asked, "Wouldn't that trigger her memory better?"

This made me smile, recalling the occasion as I started to explain. "No, see, she has had it before. One time after we raced - one of the few times that I actually lost-" I snapped Kevin a quick look, just daring him to say something. "-we came here for smoothies and tested that one out. It's actually her favorite. I think... Pretty sure."

I looked around once more, skimming the crowd for some sign of her. It had been a while.. Well, not too long, but when someone who doesn't remember much chooses to wander off on their own, there's always reason for concern. As my gaze turned to the street, I saw her crossing from the sidewalk to the car-filled lot with her hands in the pocket of her jeans. Gwen's choice of clothing to lend her was kind of relaxing, as it didn't feel like something my classy cousin would wear but instead felt like the casual taste of Zeke; it actually stumped her original, more complicated choice of attire with that one sleeve and the blues and whites.
What she wore was a natural, earthy brown crew collared long-sleeve that appeared to be a little bit large on her, light blue jeans, and, surprisingly, the boots from her time on Galvan Prime.

She came to a stop in front of us, and I noticed something a little concerning around her neck where her scarf used to be. It didn't seem like something to be worried about, I just didn't know what it was. From a distance, I hadn't even noticed it, but now that she was closer, I took notice of the discoloration in her skin. It took the shape of a considerably thin ring around her neck, its dark, heavy bruise-like color fading gradually back into her more consistent skin color.
I pointed at my own neck as I spoke, raising my eyebrows in question. "Have you had that for long?" I asked her.

"Ever since I woke up," was her response, removing a hand from her pocket to drag her fingers across it. "It was much more prominent before, so it's still healing. Whatever it is.."

'She's more talkative today..' I took note, letting a friendly smile stretch across my face. I then dismissed myself from the group, eager to start working on those repressed memories of hers. Rushing over to the window just as the last current customer in line stepped away, I ordered the four smoothies and bounced on my toes. To tell the truth, I was sort of confident in this working out well. It was bound to start something, to get the ball rolling and making this work out for the better. Rushing wasn't good and I knew that, but it was hard to not try to rush.

The usual employee gave me a smile as they handed over the cardboard takeaway tray that was loaded up with the smoothies. I thanked them much more extensively than usual before turning on my heels and practically jogging back to the others. They seemed to be talking, Kevin with a look of suspicion and Gwen with a look of thought. Zeke, of course, with no look at all.

"Wheatgrass and peach smoothies for everyone!" I announced once I was close again. Just those words alone were enough to make a brief spark come to the blonde's eyes. As I passed out the drinks to Gwen and Kevin first, I was sure to keep Zeke in my peripherals, pleased to find that there seemed to be some kind of recognition on her face as she watched. When I turned to her, the emotion stayed.

Smiling, I held the smoothie out for her to take. There was some hesitant before she actually reached for it and took it, but it didn't seem like the reluctant kind. If anything, I think it was more of a curiosity thing. From an outside perspective, it was bound to be creepy how I was looking at her so intently, but I was just waiting for a reaction.

Slurp.

A moment of hesitation, yet the straw never left her mouth.

Sluuuuuuurrppp.

She had completely forgotten about us.

I was hoping that the smoothie would serve as a foundation for the memories she needed to recover, even if it didn't trigger anything directly. Something direct would great and all, but I couldn't be picky. Zeke was totally absorbed in her wheatgrass and peach smoothie, her moss eyes - which I found that I was quickly growing used to - were wide and alight with a sort of child-like wonder. As if the blended beverage was the greatest thing she had ever experienced.
A bit cockily, I looked over at Gwen and Kevin, pleased that my choice of smoothie was CLEARLY the correct one. Kevin returned the look with a murderous one, and Gwen rolled her eyes a bit playfully. Despite that, they both seemed a bit relieved that there was some kind of hope.

Zeke lifted her gaze then, noticing our own, intense stares. The light appeared to briefly leave her eyes, yet there was still this highlight to it that suggested that it was still there. This was progressing so much faster and so much smoother than I expected.. "What?" the blonde asked, raising an eyebrow, "What are you all looking at?"

It was better to let stuff like this trigger naturally - other stuff, we had the power to encourage - and Gwen simply shook her head. "Nothing," she responded. "Do you like it?"

"Yes... It's really good, actually."

My cousin smiled, taking a sip of her own smoothie but not having the same, positive reaction. Which, of course, was fine. At least she tried it out; Kevin wasn't even tasting it, leaving it on the hood of his car and out of his reach. Gwen then turned to the other, crossing one arm over her chest and gesturing with the other. "Listen, Zeke," she started, "we are going to help you remember as much as we can, but what do you know right now? What can you remember?"

We all looked at the girl in brown, waiting for her response. After all, it did no good to try to remind her of the stuff she knew, but at the same time... What if she couldn't remember anything about her life before Bellwood? Then what would we do? She cut all ties with her mother - as much as she could, at least - and going back to...wherever she came from would kind of be crossing lines we had no business crossing.
Then I started to worry about whether or not she would even tell us what she remembered. Didn't she want to remember? Couldn't she trust us? Okay... Maybe not. It would be stupid to trust someone randomly like that, especially when you have no memory of who they are.

Thankfully, however, any previous hostility that she had from the previous night or reserve from before seemed to have dumbed down a bit. Zeke placed her cup on the hood of Kevin's car, her brow furrowed with thought as she attempted to sort through her thoughts. "I know where I come from," she started to say, "It's this mountain town called Pickford. My name is Melody Dawson, I've gone by Zeke Dawson ever since I ran away from a loveless family-"

As heavy as that record was, what was a little peculiar was that Zeke was now claiming to go by her original last name. I may have been wrong, but I could've sworn she went by a different name..."

"-my great grandmother passed away and gave me a scarf which, apparently, was the disguise of an ancient alien species." She shrugged at that, as if she didn't get the point of knowing that. I figured it was something Azmuth had told her. "I'm fifteen-"

"Wait," Kevin suddenly interrupted, "I thought you were fourteen?"

Zeke wore an annoyed expression, crossing her arms over her chest as she practically glared at the older male. "I think I turned fifteen, like, a few days ago," she argued, "I would know when my own birthday is, Kevin."

And boy was that crushing... I felt a little sad knowing that she had turned fifteen during such a horrible time. She probably didn't know or understand how horrible it was - it may not have even been that horrible from her perspective, who knew - but it sucked that any type of normality was interrupted by some kind of stupid alien-involved incident. It always sucks... Hell, it sucks that Julie's normal life was ruined during our first date. I tried to keep my face up, to keep from appearing as heavy as I felt, and was a bit surprised when the conversation switched to what she had been told.

"I do remember your guys' names," the blonde admitted, "but only because Azmuth told me about you guys a little while before you came to Galvan Prime. He told me about the Omnitrix, and about the World Pool, and about Plumbers.." She reached into the front pocket of her jeans, pulling out a partially scuffed Plumber's badge. "I had this with me when I first woke up.. It's weirdly familiar, so I'm assuming that it's mine."

That seemed to be it, though I didn't know what the "World Pool" was. Zeke lifted her gaze, looking between the three of us a bit expectantly as if she was expecting us to have some kind of additional input. I looked her over for a brief moment, took note of the increasing amount of emotion in her features compared to even a few moments ago. It was as if she was growing more and more use to the stretches of expression that her face naturally seemed to fall into. Letting out a small breath, I scratched the back of my neck. "So, you don't remember much of Bellwood," I determined. "We can drive you around and get out in the places where we've done stuff."

I looked to Gwen and Kevin for some input, unsure of what I was doing or if it would even work. We could go to the desert where Addex's ship had been burned to ash, or the garage where we'd hang out a lot. The dock couldn't hurt either... There was also the school, and, hey, she's spent a good portion of a Sumo Slammers marathon in my room, so that was definitely something to try.

Gwen nodded, smiling between myself and Zeke. "I think that'll be good," she agreed, this time focusing more attention on the blonde, "There's also meditation techniques you and I can do. Maybe you'll be able to uncover some of it on your own instead of trying to solely find triggers, and if at all possible, I could try to figure out why your memories are so blocked up."

It seemed fool-proof. Zeke voiced her O.K with the idea and we were all set to load up into Kevin's car. I held open the passenger door for her, standing to the side so that she could go first when I looked at her once again. All of the hope that I had placed in these plans working only seemed to fall to the dirt; what emotion she was allowing herself to show made it clear that she just didn't care. I hoped to God that it was just her expression, that her face didn't know what to do with itself, but the proof that her energy wasn't with this was trapped in her dismissive gaze.