30 years before:

Katie let out a long sigh as she sat in front of her laptop. Researching this stuff was going nowhere, probably because it didn't even exist. Katie had been searching for days at this point about some video game character named Jibanyan, but came up with no results. She came to the conclusion that she was lied too, but why? Why would Nate lie about something like that? The girl with the ponytail tried to wrap her brain around the lie Nate told her. He had to be in something, he wouldn't just disappear, or rather, be replaced by something without reason. At least, she thought Nate was replaced by something. Examining his behavior and weird attitude the past few days made Katie realize that this wasn't exactly Nate, as weird as that sounded. It was like someone pretending to be Nate, like a mimic. This version of Nate felt like a mimic of him, and Hailey was keeping it under control. This all sounded like the plot from a sci-fi game, but this was what she had gathered. Hailey was involved with Nate acting strange, she just had to be. With how she was talking to herself all the time, like Nate was talking to himself on the last day of school. How she was constantly around Nate like a mother tending to her child, it made her think that Hailey had some sort of involvement in Nate, the real Nate's disappearance. The Nate that was around right now must be to keep up appearance. At least, that was what she thought. All of this sounded crazy, even for her. But her suspicions would be tested tomorrow morning, where she was going to do research on Hailey herself, asking her friends about her and her weird behavior. Yeah, that would work. Hailey seemed to be into something, something that had to do with Nate acting so weird, or being replaced by something.

Katie closed her laptop and looked out the window, it was nighttime outside right now, she should be sleeping. A yawn escaped the girl's mouth, yeah, sleeping was the right thing to do right now. She was thinking really hard into this, Nate being replaced, what a funny thing to think about. Katie got under the covers of her bed and turned off the lamp, resulting in the room going dark. She stared in the darkness for a few minutes before closing her eyes and falling asleep. It didn't take long for her to start dreaming. The dream started off with her at the sink of a fancy house, it almost looked straight out of a movie set. Katie was washing strawberries in the sink before moving over to the cutting board and cutting them in halves. As Katie was cutting the strawberries, she realized something. She wasn't in her pajamas anymore, rather in something blue. She looked down to find herself wearing a dark blue skirt and a light blue long sleeve shirt which was over a pink shirt. She also noticed that she was taller, and her fingers were longer, or at least felt longer. The girl's brown eyes were filled with confusion as she looked in the sink, the water was clear enough to see her reflection. Her hair was longer, and the bow in her ponytail was gone, being replaced with a ribbon to keep the ponytail up. A frown was evident on her face, and Katie realized that she had grown up into an adult. Yep, had to be a dream.

"We're home!"

Katie looked up to see two children walk into the door… her children. "What a day, I'm starving." the girl said, her hands behind her head. "Hey… kids, how was your day?" Katie moved a few of her bangs out of her face as she walked forward. "Hot, we spent the day at the beach." the boy said, "Yikes, on a day like this, I hope you guys were in the shade." Katie told them, the two children took off their shoes and walked into the house. "Most of the time, yeah, I didn't really go in the water." the boy continued, with the girl chiming in. "That's because he was scared of the current." she said teasingly, to which Katie giggled at. "That's not true! At least I wasn't worried about the sand being too hot like Na-" the boy turned to his mom, to which Katie cocked her head to the side. "Like who?" she asked, the girl gave the boy a glare while a drop of sweat rolled down his cheek. "I'm… going to get some water!" the boy ran off to the fridge, completely avoiding the conversation. "The heat really got to him." the girl said, playing with one of the braids in her hair. "Anyway, do you need any help making dinner?" the girl asked, turning to her mom with a smile. "N-no, I was just thinking of ordering a pizza and putting on a movie for the four of us to watch." Katie said, scratching the back of her head. "Oh really? What do you have in mind?" the girl asked. "I was thinking of some home videos." Katie said, walking towards the kitchen to see her son at the counter, drinking some water. "Please don't! It'll be embarrassing to relive the memories from first grade." the girl said, sitting at the counter with her brother. "Oh come on, I think they are sweet." Katie said, in her mind, she wondered what she was saying. She sounded so cautious at first but now she sounded fluid in speaking to these children that she knew were hers. It was just a dream though, so she should be waking up soon. "Come on, let's just watch that old Space Wars movie dad said he wanted to rewatch." the girl said, pulling an apple from off the basket in the middle of the counter and taking a bite. Space Wars… they were talking like the series was a thing in the past, but that can't be true, a fourth one was planned to release soon, right? "I'm home!" a dark, almost eerie sounding voice said, "DAD!" both children screamed. Katie looked up, to see a man walking in, decked out in an average looking suit. She couldn't see his face yet, she was expecting someone sweet and kind. She blinked a few times and looked up to see-

DING!

Katie's eyes fluttered open slowly, her phone was dinging, meaning that the group chat must have had a text message or something, what was everyone doing up this early? Katie pulled herself up to check her phone. "GUYS! You won't believe it! I just got tickets to the biggest baseball game ever! It's around noon, and I got four tickets. Who wants to go?" Alex started the group chat, Sarah had been next to respond. "Can't, I'm going to Flower Road to see my Grandma, have fun though!" she said. Katie blinked, and unlocked her phone. She was going to mute the group chat for a little bit and get back to her dream about… her dream about… what was her dream about? Katie let out a small groan, now she was wide awake and she didn't remember her dream. She looked at the group chat to see Nate respond. "Sounds like fun! I'm in!" he said, it didn't take long for both Bear and Eddie to decline because both of their families were having a barbecue out in Harrisville. "Maybe I can bring Hailey, would that be okay?" Nate responded. Katie blinked, Alex responded with a thumbs up, another chance to get closer to Hailey Anne and investigate her odd behavior. "I'll go!" Katie said, quickly typing. "Awesome! See you all at two thirty!" Alex texted. Katie closed her phone, she had a few hours, time to make the most of those few hours. Within the hour, she got herself dressed, did her hair, brushed her teeth, ate breakfast, and got permission to go out to not only the baseball game, but to go outside for the day. It was another beautiful day outside, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky. Katie breathed in and out, she began to take a walk like nothing was wrong, but she stopped a few meters away from her house.

How exactly was she going to find Hailey's friends? She didn't exactly know them, and they didn't exactly know her. Come to think of it, what did Katie know about Class Five One outside of well… Hailey Anne was in that class last year, and she's friends with Nate. That was about it, was she able to do this investigation right now? She pondered in thought for a little bit, before shaking her head. What was she doing? Hailey had some sort of connection to Nate, and possibly that weird invisible thing that was in the park. The ponytailed girl decided to first check the school, most kids went over there during summer break since the school's field was always open during the summer. As she got there, she noticed a lot of kids were out, some of them were playing soccer, others were holding bug nets and were catching bugs. It would be next to impossible to find someone from Class Five One, but she had to do it. For Nate's sake. "Hey Katie, whatcha doin here?" Katie almost jumped back, whipping her head around to find one of her classmates, Lucas. A nice kid, although shy and reclusive. "Hey Lucas." Katie greeted with a smile. "I'm just… Can you do me a favor?" Katie asked, the boy had a small blush on his face, Katie didn't seem to notice. "Sure, what's up?" he asked. "I'm looking for anyone here from Class Five One, do you know anyone here from that class?" Katie asked, Lucas nodded. "Isabel over there is from that class, do you need to talk to her?" Lucas asked. "Y-yeah, I'm doing an interview for a… kid newspaper going around, yeah." Katie lied, she hated lying so much, it made her mouth taste weird. "Alright then, take care." Lucas jogged off to join the soccer game. Katie let out a sigh and walked over to Isabel, who was busy being on her phone, talking to someone. It was nice to see someone talking on the phone instead of them just talking to themselves. "Isabel!" Katie called out, the girl turned, her phone still to her ear. "Hang on, I'll call you right back." Isabel hung up and smiled at the girl with the ponytail. "Can I help you?" she asked, smiling. Her dirty blonde hair was exceptionally curly today and there was a turquoise bow in her hair. She wore a blue shirt with a white collar and had a smaller turquoise bow, she had purple leggings and a white skirt. "You might not know me, but I'm in the class above you." Katie said, Isabel put a finger to her cheek and examined the girl with the ponytail. "Katie Forester, right? One of the most popular girls in school." Isabel said with a smile, Katie smiled weakly and nodded. "I know about you, what can I help you with?" Isabel asked. "I need to talk to you about Hailey Anne." Katie said, Isabel's smile disappeared.

"Is she okay?"

Katie didn't know how to respond, she was okay physically, but maybe not mentally. "Well… she has been talking to herself a lot." Katie said, scratching the side of her head. "Oh, Hailey's always been like that, for as long as I can remember that is." Isabel explained, Katie looked back at the dirty blonde with a bit of surprise. She sounded so calm about it, why? Wait, Hailey's been doing this for longer? How has she not been busted by someone or asked if she was okay? "R-really?" Katie asked, Isabel nodded. "Yeah, Hailey's always been like that from what I can tell, she's the kind of girl to make fake scenarios in her head and act them out in real life, y'know?" Isabel said, Katie slowly nodded. She was about to ask another question but then two girls slid into the picture, both figuratively… and literally. "That's because Hailey Anne belongs in the loon club, unlike Isabel over here." A girl with brown hair said. A girl with black hair continued, "You said it Chloe, but her in the loony bin with Nathan Adams, keep them away from Isabel." the black haired girl said. "R-right." Isabel flipped her hair and shuffled over to Katie, whispering in her ear. "I might not be the one to go too for Hailey Anne, maybe you should ask her best friend Jessica, she should be over by the lake today." Isabel said with a smile, before going back over to the two girls. "Come on Isabel, let's go shopping!" Chloe said. Isabel turned to her, shrugged, and walked away with the two girls.

Katie blinked for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. Asking Isabel seemingly got her nowhere outside of a girl named Jessica. Now, she was off to the lake, it was actually kind of far to get there, would she even have enough time to make it there and talk to Jessica before the baseball game started? Still though, Katie found herself walking a fair distance from the school all the way over to the lake where Jessica is. How would she even know who Jessica is? Would she just go around asking for Jessica and then finally stumble across her? How long would that take? Katie let out a frustrated sigh as she continued her walk to the lake. It took her at least an hour to get there and by the time she got there, Alex had texted her. "We're going to meet up at Hailey's apartment before the game! Meet you there in an hour or so!" Katie sighed, she didn't expect the game to start soon. The ponytailed girl looked around the lake, the water was clear, she could almost see the fish swimming in the lake. There were a few people out jogging, walking dogs, and having a picnic. Something that caught Katie's attention was a girl skipping rocks across the lake. The girl had dull blue hair in a plaited ponytail, unlike Katie's ponytail, which was more free. She had a yellow hairband holding up her ponytail as well as a yellow dress with a white collar. She had white leggings and brown sandals on. She kept skipping rocks across the lake, and Katie slowly made her way down to the girl. "Jessica?" she asked, the girl turned over. "Do I know you?" Jessica asked, her black eyes had confusion behind them. "I'm in the class above you, my name's Katie. I need to talk to you about your friend, Hailey Anne." Jessica stopped skipping rocks and blinked. "Is she alright?" Jessica asked, a bit of worry in her voice.

"Well… I've noticed that she's been talking to herself a lot." Katie began, Jessica let out a sigh of relief. "I was worried there for a second, but she's always done that." Jessica waved her hand. "R-really? It's just… so weird for her to have a full blown conversation with herself." Katie said, her voice getting a bit quieter. "I guess, but she's always been the kind of girl to do stuff like that. She likes playing pretend I think, always talking about this Usapyon or Champy thing." Jessica continued to skip rocks across the lake. "Is there anything else to note? What about her watch? A friend of mine has something with the same pattern on the inside." Katie explained, Jessica turned back to the brunette girl, blinking. "Now that I mention it, she does fiddle with it every now and then, I think it's just a flashlight though." Jessica said, putting a finger to her chin. "A… flashlight? Why would they install a flashlight on a watch?" Katie asked, were you going to check the time in the middle of a dark basement? "Why give a pen a flashlight? It doesn't need to make sense I guess. She calls it a spacewatch and it's used to communicate with aliens or whatever. She's always been into that stuff." Jessica said, Katie thanked Jessica for her time and started to walk away. Alex had just texted the group chat a map to Hailey's Apartment building. It wasn't a far walk from the lake actually, she was the first one there. Maybe she can talk to Hailey while she was here, get a bit of information out of her and… tell her the truth. Katie was just worried for her friend, and Hailey seemed to know a lot and she just… wasn't telling them.

Katie made it to the floor Hailey was on and found the apartment, it was all in the text. She knocked on the door, there was some sort of screaming behind the door, and it sounded like Hailey. It took a few seconds but the door opened… by itself. "Huh?!" Katie rubbed her eyes and blinked, the door… opened on its own. Hailey seemed to rush over and grab the door. "Hey! I didn't expect you to be here so soon!" Hailey laughed with worry. "Y-yeah…" Katie walked into the apartment, looking back at the door. "P-please, make yourself at home. I just need to take care of something." Hailey said, running off into her room. "Okay…" Katie was pushed into the Living Room of the apartment. It was a nice and spacious apartment with a large living room, a TV was hooked up by the wall near the kitchen and the balcony appeared to be huge, not in size, but in length. The kitchen had an island that was not far from the dining table, which had two chairs on each side of the table. There were a few couches on the other side, making it almost look like a Living Room. He had dark hair and wore a gray shirt with green pants. He was busy playing a handheld game, and didn't bother to look over at Katie. She assumed that it was Hailey's little brother. She sat down on the couch across from him and listened to him playing his game. Maybe… maybe he knew about Hailey's strange behaviors. "Hi." She said with a smile, the boy looked over at her before returning to his game. His eyes then went wide and he paused the game, sitting up. Katie noticed a bright blush on both of his cheeks. "Hi there! Can I get you anything to drink?" he asked. "No thanks, although, I would like to talk to you about your sister." Katie said.

The blush disappeared and he frowned. "What do you want to know?" he asked, his voice slowly falling to a mumble. "Your sister… have you seen the way she acts?" Katie asked, the boy raised his eyebrow. "You need to be more specific." the five year old boy said. "I mean… have you seen her… talking with herself a lot?" the ponytailed girl asked. The boy's eyes widened. "You've seen her do that too?" he asked, to which Katie nodded. "I've seen it happen a lot in the past, it got so bad that investigators came over for some file called FBY." Hailey's brother said, Katie gasped. It got so bad that investigators for some file came over? What could the file be for? "I've been worried about her for a long time now, but she's my sister you know, I didn't want her to go away, she's nice to me." Hailey's brother looked down at the floor. "But…?" Katie asked, the brother looked up at her. "I don't think she's crazy, I think she may have some sort of superpowers." he said, to which Katie raised her eyebrow. "That's… crazy, she just talks to herself." Katie said, her eyebrow still raised. "No! I've seen it! She was at some building and she opened the door, moved a chair, and made a cup float!" the brother said, before he ran off into another room. He had to be pretending, right? Hailey didn't have super powers… but then again, the door did open by itself, and Hailey seemed to be rushing over to get the door. Hailey's little brother came rushing out, holding some sort of journal. "The investigators took my old journal, so I had to copy everything down into this new one. Look!" he said, opening the pages and showing everything off. It showed Hailey in crazy situations, but they were drawn very well for a five year old. Katie looked at all the pages, but one that she came across was about the watch on her wrist. "Do you know where she got this watch?" she pointed to it. "No, I don't. All I know is that she just had it one day and hasn't taken it off since." the brother said. The brunette frowned and was about to press further when-

"JOSHUA!"

Joshua jumped and turned to find his big sister, a tick mark on her face. "I'm so sorry Katie, my little brother has such an imagination, you know how little kids are." Hailey said, pushing Joshua out the door. Katie simply frowned, "He was just showing me some… art." she said, to which Hailey gave her a cold stare. "The art isn't the problem." she pushed her brother out the door, and then said "Please, come make yourselves at home, I'll be ready in a minute." Hailey said, rushing off once again. Alex and Nate walked in, "It's spacious in here." Alex said, doing a turn before noticing Katie on the couch. "Hey Katie! Excited for the game?" Alex asked, to which Katie put on a smile and talked with her friends. Hailey let out a sigh of relief. "Who knew someone like Katie would be so stubborn about all of this?" Hailey said silently, closing the door gently. Usapyon stretched, "Must be catching on about Mimikin and is probably worrying herself sick about her friend. Let's just go to the game and have a fun time." Usapyon said, to which Hailey nodded and ran to the end of the hallway to grab her shoes. It didn't take long for the four to begin walking to the baseball stadium. Once they got there, the line for the stadium was long, way longer than any of them expected. "Ugh, we're going to be here for hours!" Alex said, getting into the line with the four of her friends. Katie looked back at Hailey and Nate talking, thinking back to Joshua, was Hailey really someone with superpowers? No, that was silly, she was just a normal girl, well, normal in the sense that she didn't have superpowers.

But still, Katie couldn't help but feel like there was something more to Hailey than met the eye. She needed to keep pursuing Hailey to find out what her secret was.

A/N: A new chapter in the books for y'all to read. Not much action in this one mainly because I did not feel like it haha. It's nice to get a break from all the action and just focus on certain characters, cause the next few chapters will be action packed so take this as a little breather. I wanted to focus on Katie mostly and this was planned to be longer (which I may update in the future if I feel like it) but I ultimately scrapped that because it just felt like filler than anything else. As I mentioned, I may update it in the future if I feel like the ideas I have can be incorporated into the plot and not feel like boring filler. The next few chapters are going to have a lot of action and are going to introduce the big bads of this "AU" I guess. I did call this an AU and we'll be getting to why that is in the next two chapters, maybe even the next one if I think about it. Thank you all so much for reading and I hope to give you the next update soon! Take care!