The weather here really was strange. Yesterday was thunderstorms and fierce rain. Today it was sunshine and rainbows and daisies and butterflies and pretty much everything happy. Nya smiled a little to herself. Yesterday she'd been on edge with Kai about his whole master plan about rising to the top, and today he was relatively quiet about it all and she was much less annoyed with him. Though of course, he was still the same Kai and as annoying as usual, just not as much as the previous day.

As soon as they were off the bus, he was scanning the crowd. "Who are you looking for?" she asked, standing on her toes to try to see what he was seeing.

"Just a few friends."

"A few? You really are moving up, aren't you? Yesterday it was just one," she teased, nudging him playfully.

"Found them!" Kai said, as if he hadn't really been listening. "Later, sis!" And he ran off.

Nya began to wander away to try to find a place where she could sit alone and think, but before she could find a place that wasn't overridden with chattering people, she felt someone tap her shoulder. When she turned, she immediately recognized him as the boy in class yesterday, the one who hadn't been mesmerized by the storm like everyone else. She thought she noticed something different about him today, but couldn't put her finger on it. He was smiling at her silently.

"Hi," she said. "We have a class together, don't we?"

He nodded, and opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but the words didn't seem to come out.

"What?"

The boy put a hand to his throat and looked at the ground. Two other boys came up behind him, and Nya saw that one of them was her brother. Before she could say anything to him, the tallest one said to her, "He cannot talk, but he wants to know if you like blue."

"Oh." Nya smiled and looked at the first boy, who was nodding frantically. "It's my favorite color." Then she looked up at Kai, who seemed to only just now notice her presence.

He smiled awkwardly. "Um, yeah. Nya, these are my friends, other than Cole. I haven't seen him yet. Zane—" he motioned toward the tall one in white, "—and Jay—" the silent one. "Apparently he's not normally this quiet." Jay shook his head when Kai added the last bit, and Nya couldn't help but let out a tiny giggle.

"Well, I guess it's nice to meet you all. You guys are really the only people who have—" she paused and looked at Jay, who seemed to be very fascinated with his shoes "—tried to talk to me." She thought she saw him smile.

The entire class looked bored to death now that the lightning was gone and the sun was out, but if Jay sat up all the way and didn't turn his head too much, he could just barely see Nya over the heads of the rest of the class without getting caught by the teacher. There were only a few minutes until class was over, and he'd been hoping beyond hope that his voice would magically come back by the time the bell rang so that he could jump up and talk to her. But so far no luck. He'd tried everything he thought might help, but nothing had worked. One last idea had come into his mind a few minutes back, but he'd shoved it away. It would never work.

When the bell rang, Jay was the first to stand up, attempting to mutter something to himself as he wandered in Nya's direction. Still nothing.

According to this strange schedule of events in the past few days, there was bound to be a fight during passing period, which Jay would probably be involved with, then half an hour at lunch talking to Zane. Or at least trying to talk.

But apparently today at last the repeat had broken; there was no fight, and it was a relatively normal lunch, save for Jay's absent voice. Ever since it had been knocked out of him, the conversations during lunch hadn't been quite as enjoyable. It was hard to write out everything he wanted to say, and he hated his handwriting anyway. Plus Zane didn't do much to help out, staying mostly silent as always.

And then suddenly he heard someone behind him, "Hey, guys."

He turned around. "Nya!" he tried to say, but all that came out was a rasp.

She giggled and he felt himself blushing. "Mind if I sit with you guys? Kai's being a pain in the ass again."

Jay nodded, and she sat down next to him as he grabbed the nearly blank paper back from Zane. What's up with Kai?

Nya shook her head when she saw the paper. "He's my brother and he's annoying. Nothing extraordinary."

He wanted to say, Oh, and almost wrote it down on the paper before realizing two letters probably weren't important enough. And anyway, Nya wasn't done yet.

"He won't stop going on about how the school has some kind of hierarchy, and how he's determined not to stay in the bottom. He's all excited about having a friend on the football team and how good that'll be for his reputation." She looked down at her hands, folded on the table. "And…he said the two of you were lucky you had met the two of them. Something about the system of popularity or whatever again."

Jay had already been furiously scribbling on the paper by the time she was finished, and wasn't done writing before Zane spoke up.

"Your brother is right. If Cole had not been there yesterday to step in and defend Jay, there would be no way he and Kai would have even spoken to Jay and myself."

"Why not?"

At last he was finished, and shoved the paper toward her again.

Kai's right about the system too. The jocks in general are at the top, along with tall their cheerleader girlfriends. Then there's just the people that want to be popular, the preppy people with fancy clothes and whatever. Then there's the guys who do nothing in class just because they think it's cool. Then the nobodies, the people in between who no one notices because they're just normal people. Then nerds. Then people like us. I mean Zane and me. We're outsiders.

"Do you two really believe in all that garbage though?" Nya asked, sliding the paper back to Zane.

"Jay, you forgot a group, just under the jocks maybe."

"Who?"

Jay grabbed the paper back, suddenly remembering. I don't know what to classify them as. They're like the powerful nerds I guess. They call themselves Darkley's something or other. I don't know, I try to ignore them. If it's not the jocks beating up some poor kid in the hall, it's the Darkleys. A few of them are really smart, and they'd all be at the bottom of the food chain if they weren't pure evil.

"And you just let all these guys dictate how things go around here?"

Zane nodded. "What else are we supposed to do about it?"

"I don't know. Stand up for yourselves. Fight back. Something."

What about Cole and Kai? We've pretty much partnered up with them, right?

Nya sighed. "I'm not sure about Kai these days. He's so impatient about things, I don't think he'd actually be able to pull through with you guys. And I've never even met Cole."

"Cole, get up! You were supposed to be in the shower fifteen minutes ago!"

He groaned into his pillow, and without leaving his bed, Cole shouted back down, "I'm not going to school today, Dad!" Or the day after that, or the day after that. Not until next Monday, thanks to that stupid fight. He hoped the bully who had started it was getting yelled at by his parents too.

"Why not?"

"I was suspended!"

There was a pause, and a few seconds later he heard footsteps coming up the hall. His door flew open, flooding in light around the silhouette of his father. "What?"

"I was suspended," Cole said again. "There was a fight."

"You were part of a fight?" The disappointment was practically tangible.

"I was trying to help. There was a kid getting beat up, and I stepped in. But of course I got in trouble because I was part of it. They suspended me for three days, but my third day is Friday so—"

"So you're out until Monday." His father gave a heavy sigh. "You'll have to look after yourself. I'm meeting the other three this week for practice."

"Yeah, sure okay. Can I go back to sleep now?"

"You can't sleep all day. Call if you need anything, but don't have a fit if I don't answer."

"Whatever." Cole laid back again, ignoring anything else his dad might have to say before he left.

The "other three" were the remaining members of a quartet his father was part of, the Royal Blacksmiths. It was so embarrassing sometimes, the practicing at least once a week just down the hall, the stupid outfits, the things he heard from the stands during football games that could have only been from his father's mouth, the constant music playing in the house. Cole figured he would be less annoyed if it was good music, not the bouncy harmonies all based off the same basic pattern. What made it worse was that he knew things about music, and sometimes it was hard not to sound like a total nerd when he said something about music.

Unfortunately he couldn't get back to sleep after he was woken up, and a few hours later, Cole decided to get up and shower, maybe watch some TV and make breakfast. The day went by so slowly, and it felt like the hours were stretching beyond their regular length. It was just like a day off, why wasn't he enjoying himself?

Cole sighed after watching two movies in a row. There had to be something around here to entertain himself with. His backpack was at his feet practically begging him to read ahead so maybe he wouldn't be so far behind on Monday. "Fine," he muttered to himself and pulled out a book at random. "Time for some Japanese, apparently." When he opened the textbook, a little note fell out and landed in his lap. He carefully unfolded it, and read the fancy writing inside. Thank you for your help in the hallway. If you don't mind, I'd like to speak to you about it in person. Meet me after Japanese class next Monday. Cole rolled his eyes. There wasn't even a signature on the bottom, why should he trust some random person with really nice handwriting who had somehow slipped this into his book? Anyway it might have been there for years, from a previous user or something. It didn't look very old though, and he was sure it hadn't been there before. Whoever it was must have known he was suspended for what had happened, because they had witnessed the fight, and they somehow knew he wouldn't be at school. Or maybe it was just coincidence. Strange. Well, Japanese was his last class of the day, it wasn't like he'd be missing much if he just talked to someone for a few minutes after class. And if they didn't show up it wouldn't be that big of a problem. "Fine," he muttered to himself, and stashed the note back into the front cover of the book before turning the chapter they were studying.

"Zane, can I see you for a moment?"

He looked up from his work, startled to hear his name in the middle of class. "Hai, Sensei," he said quietly, and got up to see the Japanese teacher at the front of the room. As he left, he glanced back at Jay, who could only shrug.

"Did you participate in the fight yesterday?"

"N-no, Sensei. I—"

"I'm not trying to get you in trouble, Zane. In fact it's quite the opposite. Did you have anything to do with that fight?"

Zane slowly shook his head. "I don't pass through that hall on my way to lunch."

But their white-bearded teacher seemed to just know things sometimes, and of course this was one of those times. He didn't say anything, he just watched, with a hint of a smile. Or at least that was what Zane thought. "If you ever hear of anything similar, don't hesitate to tell me." Then he just turned away, leaving to help someone with their work.

What was that about? Zane read from Jay's note as soon as he had sat down again.

"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling somehow I'll understand. Eventually, at least. Come on, let's just get back to work." As he opened his book, a little note opened with it. "Jay, it isn't necessary to put notes in my textbook as well."

He heard a short whispering noise from next to him, and looked up to see Jay frantically shaking his head.

"Well if you didn't put this here, who did?"

Jay shrugged and pointed to the note.

The writing was cursive, practically calligraphy in its beauty, and Zane thought he saw a shimmer of gold in it as he lifted the not out of this book. He'd never seen anything like it before, and it sure wasn't Jay's straight-edged writing. There was no signature at the bottom, no name anywhere, not even his own. "How did this get here?"

Another shrug.

"You must have seen someone."

Jay shook his head again.

"Strange." Zane looked back at the note. The two of you are brave. Brave, but not strong. Meet me after this class on Monday. "Look at this," he nearly whispered and handed the note to Jay. The two of you. He couldn't think of anyone else that might apply to, besides his only friend.

There was no note from Jay in reply. He only slid the pretty writing back toward Zane, and finally gave him a nod.

After this class on Monday. It was strange, but what was stranger was that he wasn't the only one who had gotten the tiny note in his Japanese textbook with the mysterious writing. At first he thought it was Jay writing fancy notes now instead of the quick scrawl he'd had before, but when Kai ventured across the room to talk to him, he found that both Jay and Zane had also received a note with almost the exact same message. Thinking he might be seeing a pattern, Kai had shot a quick message to Cole about it. A few minutes later there was a reply. Cole had gotten a note too. He had been thinking about it, but wasn't sure if he was going to go. Zane and Jay had already decided on going.

I'll go if you go, Kai sent a message back to Cole as he walked out to meet Nya by their bus after school.

Okay. Let's do this thing.

"Looks like I'm going," he muttered to himself.

"Going to what?"

He almost jumped at the familiar sassy voice. "Nya! Um. Actually, I have no idea. Something after school on Monday. What's it to you?"

Nya smiled. "It's not like you to talk to yourself. What's this thing about?"

"I told you I don't know. All I know is someone slipped notes into our books so—"

"Our? Who else is going?"

"Cole and Jay and Zane."

"Can I come?"

"Did you get a note?"

She hung her head. "No."

"Then you can't come."

"That's not fair! Why do you get the cool friends and the super secret meetings after school, and you won't even let me in on it? Come on, what's so bad about inviting your little sister?"

"None of us know what this is about. Who knows, it could be about something really stupid, or maybe the notes were in there from past users, or maybe it's a prank. Would you want to be part of that?"

"If it meant that you were actually including me, absolutely."

"You were the one who didn't want to be part of my master plan, remember?"

Nya folded her arms. "Since when was this part of your master plan?"

"It wasn't, but Cole is my friend. If he goes, I go. And he's going."

"Everything you do depends on him, doesn't it?" Kai opened his mouth to retort, but she wasn't finished. "Have you even given a thought to what you're going to do once you graduate? I hope you know that in college none of this stuff is going to matter. You'll never see him again."

Kai rolled his eyes and began to climb into the bus. "You're so confusing. One minute you're begging to come with me to meet the other guys, the next minute you're telling me I shouldn't be so dependent on them. Make up your mind, Nya."

Lloyd tried to stay out of the halls as much as possible all day, and found himself successful after the final bell rang. No sight of the other Darkleys boys at all, and if he did happen to catch a glimpse of one, he would somehow be able to make himself invisible. But as he opened the door to his uncle's classroom after school, he realized questions would be asked, and knew that there would have to be more sneaking.

To his surprise, he found his uncle staring out the window at the crowds of teens near the bus lineup. "Sensei, you look really creepy that way." No answer. Not even a look. "Sensei?" Nothing. "Uncle?" Lloyd ignored the entire reason he'd been invisible all day, and stood next to his uncle by the window.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd. I've been watching to make sure nothing happens today."

"Like…?"

"Fights." The buses left within a few minutes, and when the grounds were empty of students Wu finally turned to face his nephew. And the questions began. "What happened?"

Lloyd suddenly remembered the bruises on his face and his arms. "Um…I met…some, um, people. Yesterday. Things went down and—"

"Lloyd. The truth."

He saw a horrible seriousness in his uncle's eyes, and was unable to try and hide anything. "My friends think I betrayed them because I didn't tell them about the fight that happened yesterday and they don't want the Darkleys reputation to be ruined and it's my fault because I didn't tell you and you didn't stop the football players from screwing up the order so after school yesterday they…" His voice faded and he found himself taking in a giant breath before saying the last few words quieter than a whisper. "They hurt me."

Sensei was silent for a moment, slowly making his way toward his desk at the front of the room. "If these 'friends' were real friends to you, they wouldn't have done this," he said at last, very quietly.

"They'll do worse if I try to leave. They're practically a gang, and you know it."

His uncle only nodded, slowly looking through papers on his desk.

"I could run away. I could go live with Dad again."

"No!" The word was so sudden, so harsh in the midst of their gentle talk. Lloyd nearly jumped. "You will not live with your father again. We'll find another way."

"Uncle, I can't stay here. What else am I supposed to do?"

The old man was silent again for a long time, lifting his head and staring out the window again. For a few minutes the two of them stood there before Sensei made his way back to the window, stroking his long white beard as he went. "I have a few students meeting me after school on Monday. I think I'll have you stay after with them."