Revamped!

[I love how nobody (as in you, the readers) cares that Jacin ran away from home since Iko and Kinney's first appearances matter more. Honestly, same here because when I first planned this arc, they weren't going to be in it.]

Forming Clay Soldiers: Part Three

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

The next day at The Rampion, Scarlet works her shift and serves some food to the circular booth containing her friends. Wolf, Cress, Kai, and Thorne give their thanks as they salivate over their food. They were about to dive in and eat but hear the bell on the door of the diner ring. When they look over, they see a dead-looking Winter walk inside followed by Cinder. (It's a concerning sight but if anyone can make a zombie look work, it's Winter).

Winter hasn't slept all night. The thought of Jacin somewhere in Luna after having escaped school was loud in her mind. It's not that he was kidnapped, he chose to leave without telling anyone. It haunts her that she doesn't know what's going on in Jacin's mind nor can she or anyone pinpoint where it is. She's tried to call and text him so many times with no success.

"Winter," Kai says as she and Cinder sit down in their booth, "are you okay?"

"No…" Winter mutters.

"What happened?"

"It's my boyfriend."

Unsure if whether to keep asking questions or not, everyone sitting in the booth remains silent yet inquisitive. Scarlet scurries off to get Winter and Cinder some food and drinks. Winter fidgets with her fingers to distract her nerves but when it doesn't work, she starts playing with Kai's hair to give herself something new to do, and he lets her.

"Did your boyfriend dump you?" Scarlet asks as she hands them their food. It may have been blunt but it was necessary to start the conversation.

"It's worse…" Winter replies. "He ran away from school and nobody knows where he is, where he's going, or why he did it."

Cress gasps, almost choking on her sandwich. "Your cadet boyfriend ran away from military school?"

"That's not even legal, is it?" Wolf says. "Don't cadets have to go through a lengthy process just to visit their parents?"

Winter shrugs. She doesn't know what to think about any of this.

"Which military school is it?" Thorne asks.

"Andromeda Academy," Cinder responds.

Scarlet snorts a laugh. "That's the school Thorne went to when he was fourteen for, like, a year."

Winter and Cinder look at Thorne newly after learning that fact. Their faces are wide in shock. To think that their contact name for Thorne in their phones is Captain Thorne when in reality, he was an ex-cadet. And the girls aren't discrediting the validity of Scarlet's statement in any way (especially since nobody else including Thorne denied it), they're just amazed that Thorne was in their hometown at one point and at that school out of all places. To think that Carswell Thorne was in Artemisia at one point.

"My parents shipped me off when I was fourteen, hoping that the structure would do me good," Thorne explains to them. "I wasn't a good boy so what better way to discipline me than send me to a military school in a different country? In all honesty, my parents wanted me out. My experience was horrific because it was too structured for me so I wanted to get out. The only way I could go home was to be kicked out so I purposely got expelled after my first year. I didn't have a care in the world about grades or discipline. I had no plans and no interest in finding any at that point."

"We know that Thorne," Kai says, "we just want to know what you did to get expelled."

Now, everyone's intrigued. That was the part of the story that nobody knew since Thorne kept that detail to himself. Rumours have been circulating but none have been denied or admitted.

"The details as to what I did will be shared another time," Thorne says sheepishly. "Just know that it was an all-boys school and I almost died without female attraction and selfies for the majority of the day, so I really needed to leave. We should be focusing on Winter's missing boyfriend."

"You may know him," Winter says. "It's Jacin Clay."

Immediately, Thorne spits his milkshake. Everyone jumps a little at that reaction, especially the ones who got spat on. Scarlet distributes napkins to everyone, giving an entire pile of them to Thorne who wipes his mouth and lays them flat on the table to soak up the mess.

"Sorry…" Thorne mumbles. "I just can't believe that Jacin Clay would run away from school, especially a school that his parents are at. His dad's still the dean, isn't he? Not to mention that Jacin is that guy whose first words were probably the rulebook."

Cinder laughs a little. "I see that."

"I fell asleep during his mom's classes on imperial literature during colonialism."

"That's not useful information at all."

"We'll help you find your boyfriend," Scarlet says, "despite us not knowing him and him not knowing us."

Winter looks up at Scarlet in gratitude.

"Yeah," Wolf adds, "we're all teenagers. We could attempt to understand Jacin although most of us have never met him."

"Maybe Jacin has some pent up anger against his parents," Cress suggests.

"I know I do," Thorne murmurs.

"Nonsense!" Winter exclaims, throwing her hands in the air. "Garrison and Clarissa are some of the sweetest people I know. Jacin would've told me if something was happening them. I just - I don't know what to do."

"Same here," Scarlet agrees, "but I actually did run away so it all makes sense."

"Don't worry, Winter," Kai reassures. "If you have no strength, I'll give you some of mine."

Everyone else agrees. For the first time in a while, Winter feels a bit relieved. At least she can share her worry and be calmed down at the same time.

-o-

Andromeda Academy, Luna

Iko sticks a bobby pin into the lock of Jacin's dorm. According to cadets who saw Jacin's mom walk by, Jacin left the door unlocked when he left but it got locked again afterwards. Kinney stands behind her, constantly looking around to make sure nobody comes to bust them. None of the other cadets could be bothered since they're preoccupied with Jacin's disappearance, a fact that became known after security measures were tightened on campus. Iko and Kinney want to try and find their friend or at least make sure he's not going crazy. Once the door opens, Iko and Kinney see an ordinary dorm room with not one misplaced item in sight.

"Even when he runs away, he's neat," Iko comments.

Iko heads over to Jacin's bed and nightstand as Kinney closes the door. He walks over to Jacin's desk and bookshelf to investigate. Even then, nothing screams out to them as suspicious. It's just textbooks and novels. He truly left nothing for them to find - not even a scrap piece of paper with a snippet of a plan or coordinates on it.

"There's no picture of me on his nightstand," Iko says, looking at the framed one of Jacin and Winter that was dust free. "I'm offended … unless Jacin took it with him."

Kinney cringes. "Your photo would be the reason I run away."

Iko ignores Kinney, knowing that he's probably offended that Jacin doesn't have a photo of him in sight either. She sees his phone still charging and picks it up. There are a lot of missed notifications from everyone but no wonder he didn't bring his phone. Also can't be tracked. Iko manages to unlock it since Jacin's passcode was Winter's birthday. Instead of snooping through texts or notes, she opens the camera and starts taking a round of selfies on it.

"Iko!" Kinney yells in a hushed tone. "This is a crime scene!"

"Maybe your selfies are a crime but Jacin's room has superb lighting," Iko replies. "Must be a perk of being the dean's son."

She continues to take selfies, using many filters and even getting Kinney in the background of some. Iko isn't worried about Jacin's phone being investigated since it probably already was swept for clues. As if Jacin is dumb enough to leave evidence lying around. The boy left his phone here.

Kinney brushes past the bookshelf and the desk, seeing nothing unusual. All that rests there are some textbooks, novels, and stationary. His notebooks are empty or just contain class notes. His closet is full of his uniforms in the front of civvies in the back.

"Iko," Kinney says once she's done her selfies, "I'm scared for Jacin."

"Why?" Iko questions as she plugs Jacin's phone back in. "I didn't think you were capable of human emotions."

"If Jacin never comes home, that means I'm stuck with you."

Iko rolls her eyes, not having seen that coming when she should've. "You're already stuck with me."

-o-

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

Winter looks out the window and sees the mailman walking down their driveway and onto the sidewalk. She gets up from her windowsill seat and heads out to the mailbox. There's nothing much there: just the usual junk mail and mail that Levana will throw away. Then, something catches her eye. It's a letter for her. Her heart instantly goes to the thought that it's from Jacin, but the sender's address is her old address in Artemisia but the sender's name is Iko.

Saddened, Winter walks back in the house and leans against the door as she closes it. Once the door clicks, so does her mind:

None of this makes sense.

Iko wouldn't write a letter, let alone put that address. She would call or text. Winter looks at the envelope and realizes that this isn't Iko's writing but an attempted impersonation of it. Then, Winter realizes that Iko didn't write or send this letter.

It's from Jacin.