[A/n: Nobody corrected me on Jay saying screwed instead of hooped? I fixed it now, but I guess I'm my own worst critic when it comes to keeping everyone in character. Then again, this is an AU.]

"Can I see that?"

I handed the folder over to Cole, where he pulled something else out.

"Did you realize there was a note under that picture of you?"

"No," I answered, shaking my head, "What's it say?"

" 'Find Cole Hence, Zane Julien, Nya Flamy, and James Walker. Your name is included, since I'm not sure which of you will receive this. I have also attached photos in case you don't recognize the names. Hopefully you've seen them, as you go to the same school. When you have them, take this to the museum and ask for Mrs. Misako. All will be explained in time.' And the rest is in chicken scratch." He looked up. "Okay, what the heck does an old man want with us? Think he's just plain crazy or a pedophile?" [A/n: Hope I didn't lose too many readers with that comment...]

"Don't even go there!" I shouted.

"What is a pedo-"

"Trust me, Zane, you don't wanna know."

"How long ago did he give you that?" Nya asked, once again changing the subject.

"Just a minute ago."

"You talked to an old man in the five minutes since you ran off, and he's somehow disappeared since then?"

"I must agree with Miss Nya. It seems unlikely that an elderly man such as you've described would be capable of moving fast enough to be out of sight, especially when factoring in that we are surrounded by grass."

"He was never up here. He pulled me underground, I think, with a trapdoor."

"A trapdoor...?" Cole repeated, "Wouldn't it be easier to put it in your mailbox, or even just hand it to you without going to all that trouble?"

"Wait a second, back up. Did Zane just call me 'Miss'?" Nya suddenly asked.

"He called me mister when we first met," Cole told her, "Zane's always really polite."

"To be honest, Zane's kinda weird." Cole gave me a slightly threatening look, but I couldn't tell if he was joking. "Um, getting back to that folder, do you think we should go to the museum or not?"

"No way," Cole asserted.

"What's the big deal?" Nya asked him, "I've met Mrs. Misako, she's nice. If we go during the day nothing that bad could happen, right?"

"Yeah, Cole. What're you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid. In fact, nothing in this world scares me!"

"Brother, was it not just the other day that you said, were you ever to see one, you would be scared of dragons?"

I snickered. Zane probably wasn't trying to be funny, but it definitely came out sounding at least a little like that.

"Dragons aren't real," Cole argued.

"They're as real as my hand!" I interjected. Zane nodded in agreement.

"Your hand's fake?"

"If that was a joke, it was pretty lame," I muttered, shaking my head slowly as if I was disappointed.

"Um, the museum?" Nya said softly.

"Why do you two keep taking the topic back to that?" Cole asked, "If you wanna go to the stupid museum, go ahead. I ain't stopping you."

"The note said all of us. Come on, Hence, aren't you even the least bit curious?" (I could say I took a risk calling him by his last name, as I had never done that before.)

The quarterback silently turned around and walked away.

Nya sighed. "Tomorrow, right after school. I know Jay'll come, but what about you, Zane?"

The blonde nodded. "Perhaps I could convince Cole as well."

"This is definitely not free cake!"

Zane and I quickly blocked the exits while Nya watched with an amused smile on her face.

Cole's obsessed with cake. I went to his birthday party a few years back, and he ate the whole dang thing himself. I guess he can do things like that more often than I can because he works out and he's all sporty, if that makes sense.

"It was necessary in order to convince you to come with me." (Now that I think about it, this was the first time I'd ever seen Zane lie.)

"Zane, Jay, I don't wanna hurt you, so move away from the doors."

"No!" I shouted. The few other people in the museum looked my way, so I smiled awkwardly and waved.

"Look, there's Mrs. Misako." Nya pointed out a woman as old as the guy I'd seen yesterday. Her braided silver hair trailed down her back and on her nose perched silver glasses.

"You just couldn't come without me, huh?" Cole asked accusingly, "Whatever, let's get this over with. Hey, Misako!"