Yes, I know I suck for making you wait long. Here you go. I don't have much else to say in this little bold section at the beginning of every one of my chapters thus far. So just ignore these things and keep reading. Enjoy.

p.s. this chapter might be slow if you're more into Nico's POV...

p.p.s. future chapters might require some suspension-of-disbelief... warning...

Chapter 7

Posy's POV

Getting back into routine once I'm back in school was the hard part; I'd spent so much time at home that I had almost completely forgotten what my schedule was. One Saturday I'm in the church having a funeral service for my dead grandfather, and the next Tuesday I'm back in Mr. Johnson's math class feeling stupid because I don't know the distance formula because I wasn't here to learn it. You'd think they'd have a little more compassion for a girl like me. It's madness.

I remember when I was younger, my family used to have a vacation home in New Jersey, so every Winter break we would go there. We'd have so much darn fun having no school and no homework, and then after New Year it just suddenly ends, like someone's pulled your chair back as you're about to sit down and instead you bang your tail-bone on the hard floor. Long story short, adjusting back to normal life was hard.

I woke up around 6:30 or so, and since I had slept in until 10 everyday I wasn't in school, waking up four hours earlier drove me insane. It was a Friday, the only upside to my morning. I could sleep in tomorrow. Anyway, the usual: I got dressed, ate breakfast and soon I was on my way to Knox Prep. I thought about Nico while I walked there, after all, I had a little "date" with him on Saturday, and I thought about how stupid I was for suddenly asking him like that.

Of course he would get ideas! He's a boy, after all! It reminded me of that time, way back in third grade, when I gave Tommy Dodson a cupcake (it was my birthday and my mom brought cupcakes for my whole class) and he ran around the playground yelling "Posy got me a cupcake because she loves me!". In truth, I just gave him a cupcake because, well, I was supposed to give one to everybody. But he made a huge deal about it and even asked me to marry him during recess the next day. I said no.

Even if I didn't have a crush on Nico, I at least liked him, right? I liked hanging out with him. And even though I didn't appreciate most of his name-calling or insults, I kind of liked it because I knew he had to be near me in order to do so. It all just felt really natural and effortless, being friends with Nico. He wasn't like any other boy I'd ever met before, and it wasn't just because he was a half-blood. He was different. I've liked other boys before, just like any other teenage girl. But Nico was definitely different.

The walk to Knox Prep took longer than usual, the length of the time it took to get to school just seemed to depress me. The sun wasn't out yet, which only further added to the depression I was already feeling, and it had nothing to do with Grandpa. For some reason my thoughts wandered to Peter. I wondered what he was doing now. He had already started school, in fact he was the first one to bounce back to normal after the death. No more sad and droopy mourning for him, he went right back to bullying me and Frankie and playing football at school and dating his girlfriend, Evangeline, taking her to fancy restaurants and stuff.

I was never really friends with Evangeline. Not so much because I didn't like her, mostly because I never got the chance to talk to her much. She came over sometimes but she'd go right to talking with Peter and so I never really knew a lot about her. She was pretty, though; she had long curly blonde hair and she played volleyball, and she looked good with Peter. One time, she came over to our house for dinner. This was a while back, Peter and Evie have been together for three years now, but I remember this night particularly. It was the night Peter introduced her to us.

He was a sophomore back then, and Evie was a freshman in high school. It was the night of the Homecoming dance and freshmen weren't allowed to go, so instead, Peter brought her to our house for a "special" dinner. It's only special because Mom used her "nice" plates. Anyway, during this night, Peter and Evie were having a conversation with Mom and Dad that was supposed to be funny since they were laughing their heads off, but I didn't see what was so hilarious. We had a good time, I guess; Mom made spaghetti and Dad told Evie his jokes and she laughed (probably just to be polite).

The night wore on, but what I think made the night special was at the very end. Evie lived just a few blocks away, so Peter offered to walk her home. Mom and Dad said yes and then ushered me and Frankie off to bed. On the way up the stairs, I looked out the window. And I saw Evie and Peter on the sidewalk, hand-in-hand, just looking at each other and talking. Then Peter leaned forward and kissed her. And they were happy. They just looked so... happy. Just Peter, and Evie, the sidewalk, and holding hands. And me looking through the window.

Something inside me clicked after that night, and I can't quite put my finger on it, and sure, maybe I was 11 back then, but there's no denying it now. There's was something really special about that night. Something deeply special.

My walk to went on and on and on, and it seemed it would never end. When I looked up from my thoughts I saw that I was completely lost. I recognized the streets and the buildings, I was able to tell right away that I was absolutely nowhere near Knox Preparatory School. In fact, I was nowhere near anywhere that was near my school. I checked the time; 8 o'clock. Classes had started by now.

By now, I was panicking. I was caught between frantically trying to find the way to school, trying to calm myself down, and thinking up an excuse as to why I was late. There was an old man near a fruit stand.

"Excuse me!" I said, walking up to him. He turned and looked at me with expressionless eyes. Then he smiled a toothless smile. I tried to smile back.

"Umm, I'm kinda lost. I go to Knox Preparatory School and I kinda took a wrong turn somewhere. Think you can help me out? Please? Just point me in the direction."

He nodded at me as if he understood and then pointed South. "Thank you, thank you... er, Gracias, muchos gracias!" I started walking in that direction. Admittedly, it was kinda nice to get out of class and just take a stroll around the city; I was able to see much of the city that I had never seen before. I even enjoyed the long walk. I was, however, not excited about having to face my parents or the dean of my school.

I was beginning to guess that the man had given me bad directions, and I instead found myself farther and farther away from where I was headed, and it was already nearing nine o'clock. My new worry was: what if I didn't get home in time? It hadn't occurred to me that I probably should have just called my parents or Peter or Frankie.

Since the idea had now just come to me, I whipped my cellphone out and started dialing Mom's number. That's when I heard someone's voice behind me.

"You look kind of lost," it said. I jumped at the sound. It didn't sound like anyone I would immediately recognize; Mom, Dad, Peter, Frankie, Ariel, Lauren, Min, Robbie, Nico, none of them. I turned around and laid my eyes on Landon Hunter.

"Landon!" I said, surprised. He gave me a smile, something like a cross between a nervous grin and a glossed-over movie star smile. God, his smile is so perfect; just the right balance of shyness and confidence and it was hard to tell if he practiced it in a mirror or if it just came naturally to him.

"The one and only," he said. "You look kind of lost. Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

I bit my lip. "Yeah, I am, but like you said, I'm really lost right now, I have no idea how to get there." I explained to him, and suddenly it dawned on me that Landon wasn't in school, either. "What are you doing out here?"

"Ditching school, of course," he said. My jaw dropped, and I quickly shut my mouth again. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, nothing, it's just that... I didn't have you pinned down as the ditching type."

"Oh? Well, what did you have me pinned down as?"

"The staying-in-school-non-ditching type, I guess." Landon laughed a little. "Seriously, though, what are you really doing out of school? Because I don't think you would really ditch class, even the ones that you hate. You're on student council, you'd get kicked off, you know."

"I know," he said. "i'm not really ditching class. I got excused from school today because I'm recovering from a cold. The symptoms are pretty much gone and I feel great and stuff, but my mom's making me stay home one more day; she's scared I might have a relapse if I go back to school right after getting over a fever. We ran out of salt, bread, and mayo so I'm kind of on an errand right now. Fancy meeting you here."

"Oh, you too, I guess" I said. "I didn't you were sick."

"That's probably because you weren't in school at all for the past week. Speaking of which, how's your family?"

"Ah," I shifted my weight over to my other leg. "They're fine. They're just, you know, getting back into routine and stuff, but everything' all good."

"That's good to hear. You wanna go for a walk or something? Well, that is if you're still not worried about school and stuff."

Honestly, I had a hard time deciding. If I ditched school, my parents would skin me alive, and if the school finds out I never arrived, they'll call my parents, who, in turn, will call the police and they'll probably arrest Landon for kidnapping me or something and it'd be starting school off on the completely wrong foot. Plus, my chances with Landon will die since he'll probably hate me for landing him in jail, and his friends will hate me, who have friends everywhere else, who will hate me. Pretty soon the whole school will hate me.

"School," I said. Landon made a scoffing noise.

"We can fix that," he said.

"Hello, Mrs. Dunn? Yes, this is Mr. Felrose, I'm Posy's father- Yes, I'm calling just to say that Posy's still feeling very upset and- Oh, yes, I see- Well, she just doesn't feel ready for school, yet, Mrs. Dunn, so I would really appreciate if- Oh, yes? Alright, thank you- thank you very much- You have a good day, too. Thank you. She'll probably be up to it tomorrow- Oh, yes, I see; tomorrow's Saturday- Monday, then- Thank you, goodbye."

Landon hung up the pay phone after calling Mrs. Dunn in attendance with an overly deep voice in order to sound more like my dad. The conflicting feelings inside me were having some kind of war; I was giddy and excited because that meant I could spend a whole day with Landon, but at the same time I was terrified. What if Mrs. Dunn saw right through Landon's fake phone call? What if she recognized his voice? What if he got kicked of the student council? At the same time, I felt free and new and adventurous, like I was living wild and dangerous, in the fast lane, you know?

"Problem solved," Landon said, clapping his hands together like he'd just finished putting together a dinner table. I wanted to yell at him "problem NOT solved!" but I stopped myself from doing so. Besides, this should be interesting. I'm very lucky, you know.

"So how about that walk?" he said. I tried my best to put on a pretty smile, but I have a feeling that I just made a fool of myself. If I did, Landon didn't make a big deal out of it. He's not the type of person who wants to make you feel uncomfortable on purpose, which I love about him. He was a lot easier to get along with after I got past my being nervous in front of him.

"Sure," I said.

"Alright," he said. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, stood with his legs shoulder-width apart an then sighed. He then tilted his head up and looked me in the eyes. I kinda froze for a bit, but I quickly shook myself out of the stupor. "Where do you wanna go?" he asked me.

I really hadn't thought about it, where I wanted to go. It was a quick spur-of-the-moment decision to even go on the walk at all, I took a risk. There wasn't time for me to think about where I would want to go on this walk with Landon.

"Well, aren't you running errands? Maybe we should take care of that, first, before we do anything else."

"Ok," he said. "If you're sure about that, I don't need to be home for another hour or so, we can do something else." I chewed on my lip again, thinking of someplace I knew that wouldn't make me look like a fool or anything, but before I could say anything, I just said: "Why don't you decide."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Alright," he said. "Let's go." He started walking and I ran to catch up and then fell into step behind him.

It's a hard feeling to pinpoint, the feeling you get when you walk with Landon. He was taller than me by at least three or four inches, and his legs were longer, as well, but he didn't take long, dignified, stomping strides like any other self-satisfied boy would. He strolled casually, like a man aimlessly walking through a crowded street with nowhere really important to get to, but knew where he was going.

It was easy to walk with him.

He kept his hands in his pockets, mostly, but sometimes he left them out and let them just swing on either side of his body. His shoulders were back and straight and he kept his head high, although he sometimes glanced at me when I talked to him.

We didn't talk about anything in particular; we switched topics frequently during our walk. We talked about our classes and then suddenly the focus would switch over to TV shows or serial killers, even more personal topics, like our families and our childhood. I learned a lot of things about Landon that day, and somehow I felt closer to him in a way that no one else was.

"You got a boyfriend, Posy?" he asked me once we got to Times Square. I admit, my heart skipped a beat once his words reached my ears and my girl-mind immediately squealed inwardly and started trying to analyze the "hidden meaning" behind his question.

"No," I said. He smiled again. What does that mean?

"What?" I asked.

"What 'what'?" he repeated.

"You were smiling! What was that all about?"

"What? Nothing! Forget it!

"Nuh uh! Tell me!"

"Ok, fine. Just that, I coulda sworn you had one."

That confused me. "Coulda sworn? What are you talking about, Landon?"

"I don't know," he said, shrugging again. "I always see you disappearing after school, going to that one public school down the street. So I figured maybe you had boyfriend you were going to see or something. Was I wrong?"

So he'd seen me sneaking off to confront Nico. That explained it. It was sort of interesting to me that so many people were mistaking Nico and me for boyfriend and girlfriend, and while most girls would probably just straight out say 'no' to that question, I didn't confirm it but I didn't deny it either. In fact, I didn't know what I had with Nico. What we had definitely didn't have anything recognizable that could be tied with friendship; no texting, IMing, no casual talks, no friendly teasing, nothing like that. But whatever we had, I didn't see it as enough to be labeled "boyfriend/girlfriend". We just had a sort of mutual understanding. I knew one of Nico's deepest darkest secrets and... he trusts me, I guess. And I trust him, too.

"Yeah, you're wrong," I answered Landon's question.

"Ah, well my bad, then." he said. We continued walking, until I felt compelled to ask him the same question.

"What about you? Got a girlfriend?"

"Nah," he said.

That sparked my interest. "Why not?"

"I don't know. I've just got a lot of stuff going on, I guess, and I don't really miss it."

I smiled at him. "Ever had one?"

"Of course, I have."

"Oh yeah, of course you have. When was this?"

Landon looked up at the sky and crinkled his brow, thinking. "Last year, or something like that. But we kinda just went separate ways after a while, just didn't work out. I've got baseball, student council, school, family stuff, my dad, I was just too busy and she kinda understood that."

"Aww, ok. Do you still talk to her?"

"Sometimes."

Our walk went on, and soon it was 2 o'clock and I was supposed to be getting home soon. I suddenly wondered if this little walk I had with Landon was enough to be called a date. I then remembered my own "date" with Nico tomorrow.

"You should probably start heading home now," Landon said to me. "I'm not trying to get rid of you or anything, I'm just saying."

I nodded.

Landon walked me home, and by the time I got back, it was 2:30... right on time.

"See ya," he said. He then turned around and walked away.

Nico's POV

It's rainy. It's very rainy. Looking up, I can see that the sky is gloomy, gray, and dark, and angry, and unforgiving. There are no stars; everything that gives off light seems to be veiled. Every drop of rain is as big as jawbreaker, as heavy and unbreakable. The big drops of rain seem to explode as soon as they hit the floor. But when I looked down at the ground, it's not wet. In fact, I can't see what the ground looks like at all. All I see is a misty haze that fills my eyes when I look down, and I can't see anything after that.

Strangely, I'm not scared at all. I don't feel anything, or at least not yet, although there is something deeply sinister about the setting. Something that's awake and stirring, and will never let me sleep as long as it's around. And suddenly I begin to fear the haze that's only growing thicker around me. Soon, it swallows me up, and I'm filled with the sensation of drowning.

The silence only adds to the unsettling emotions springing up around me as the haze continues to surround me. It seems too quiet. Even in the silence, there's the prospect, the idea, the potential for noise. But in this vacuum, it feels like sound never existed at all, and if you dared disturb the silence, everything could shatter, pulled right from between your fingers.

But still, I felt like I should have known this place. It seemed recognizable, and it pulled at my memory, like the beginning of your favorite song or the smell of an old house you once lived in. De ja vu.

My thoughts are interrupted by an ear-piercing bloodcurdling scream. It lasts only a moment, but the sound definitely existed, and it continued to bounce around in my head and it only grew louder as I replayed it in my own ears.

"Hello!" I yelled. My voice echoed around in the haze. I stood still and listened. Nothing. But suddenly...

"Ahhhh!"

I covered my ears to shield it from the sound of that scream. It was louder then, and it made my blood run cold. I pressed the palms of my hands against my ears trying to block the noise out, but I couldn't. It was imprinted my memory. It was with me now. It would never die, like a deep sadness that just never goes away no matter how many happy things have happened.

It screamed again, and it was closer now. And then I remembered it.

"Bianca?" I whispered to myself.

Another scream.

"Bianca!" I yelled, with my hands still on my ears. After the next scream, I dropped my hands and started running. Running. Fast than I had even run before toward the sound of my sister's anguished cries.

"Bianca!" I yelled again.

"Nico!" I heard my name called... from the other direction. I skidded to a stop and listened again. "Hello?" I yelled again. I heard another scream. It was definitely Bianca. It was her. I started running toward her again, hoping and praying that I would get to her in time. I wasn't about to let her die again. Tears started filling up in my eyes, but I kept running.

Suddenly another scream... yet again, from the opposite direction. And this time it wasn't Bianca.

It was Posy.

I stopped. And I stood, facing the direction Bianca's scream came from. Slowly and unsure, I turned and faced the opposite direction, where I heard Posy scream.

"Posy?" I said with disbelief.

I heard her scream again, and then Bianca from behind me. I felt like a brass bell, resonating with screams and having nowhere to go. Staying in one place, and not doing anything... only listening. I turned and looked back where Bianca was screaming, my sister who I loved. I really did love Bianca. I loved her as my sister, and it killed me that she died. And now it killed me that she was screaming and I had no idea what to do.

And then I looked toward where Posy screamed. I've known Posy only about a month or so now, and weren't even that close. But over this month, I can't deny that we've gotten close. And that she trusted me. Would I betray that trust by leaving her?

I turned to look at Bianca's side again, but instead, I saw, in my path, the tall brown-haired boy from my past dreams. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. I was filled with both overbearing fear and a righteous sense of fury at him. He took a step forward, and turned and ran toward Posy's scream.

"Hurry, Nico..." I heard Bianca's voice in my head. "Keep running..."

Keep running...

Keep running...

I was getting closer. I felt it. But then I saw the tall boy in front of me again. He ran at me. And somewhere in the middle we collided. And I woke up with a jolt.

TBC...

OK, ch.7 done... thanks for reading.. please review, that is if you don't hate me yet...