Izzie's k-pop ringtone woke her up. It meant that morning came and she had to get ready and go to school. But this time without her brother.
The morning didn't feel right without him falling out of bed because of the changed ringtone. It didn't feel right without some kind of a comment because of the different alarm sound. No "Izzie, stop messing with my phone!" or "I take it back, I love k-pop!"
She didn't even have to call dibs!
Izzie looked to the side, her brother was laying lifeless, pale, like a statue. And if they didn't do anything he might stay that way forever. That scared her.
No one to talk to about her problems, no one to relate to, no one to have sibling fun with and no one to comfort her when she wakes up from nightmares!
Everything felt so empty. Even though Mateo's body was still here.
She took a deep shaky breath, got up and walked over to the bed of her brother.
He looked so at peace, it was unusual. What was she going to tell dad?
"OK. Calm down. You'll get through this! Mateo will be back! I hope…" Izzie couldn't give up, not now. But… Even if a day still hadn't passed since Mateo was pretty much declared a monster, she missed him very much.
Then she looked at the clock, Izzie had to hurry.
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…
"Oh! Hey Izzie! How'd you sleep? Where's Mateo? It's pretty late even for him. Did you two oversleep? Nevermind, don't answer that. Do you want pancakes?" That's how most mornings began here, at the Garcia's.
"Uh… Dad?"
"Yeah? What's wrong?"
"Mateo's…"
José turned around with a hint of worry in his eyes.
"What's wrong with Mateo?"
"Mateo's sick. Badly. He looks very pale and even didn't wake up to the k-pop ringtone." Izzie fidgeted with her fingers out of stress for lying to her father. She felt so guilty, but what else could she say? "Hey, dad! Mateo's locked up in a Dream realm that apparently exists and he's about to be never seen again!" No one would believe that, even family!
"What?.." It looked like he thought for a sec and then said: "Stay here, Isabel. It might be contagious, I don't want you getting sick. Better yet, grab a few pancakes and go to school, you have better chances of not catching Mateo's cold. Meanwhile, I'll call Jasmin to watch Mateo."
Izzie felt better now that Mateo would be safe at least out here.
"OK. Bye dad." And she left the house.
She got outside and took a breath.
She nearly got a heart attack when Zoey, Logan, Cooper and Nova were standing right at the door step.
"Guys! You nearly gave a heart attack!"
"Sorry! I… Heard what happened back there and I thought that I could help." Nova said.
"Okay. Thank you. But we should probably go to school or we'll be late."
"Oh! I forgot! We're writing a test from algebra and classical music!" Logan face palmed his head.
"Really? You forgot again?" Cooper gave a little light glare to Logan.
"OK! OK! We can have this talk later now we have to get to school, pronto! We don't want any suspicions raised! Especially by the Night Bureau. And it also means that we have to run to school in five minutes." Zoey interrupted their little chat.
"Five minutes?! But that's impossible!" Nova complained.
"Not if we start now."
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Lunch
"Luck must be on our side today!" Cooper cheered all of them got here on time.
"Let's just hope that luck applies to the Dream world." Zoey said. She was looking down to her hands.
"I'm lucky 24/7!.. But… What are we doing in the library? It's lunch! Not-… nerd lunch!" Izzie saw that Logan seemed pretty confident today.
"I managed to contact Mr. Oz to come here." Nova replied.
"Why do we need our science teacher?" Logan asked.
"Me and Cooper were thinking and remembered that Mr. Oz and Albert were inside the facility this night, so it's possible that he knows the inside and could help us." Izzie explained.
Soon, Mr. Oz came in, looking distraught.
"No, Isabel. I will not help you and that is final!" And he came out of the library, just like that, but he seemed to feel a lot more… Guilty.
"How did he know we were going to ask for his help?" Logan pointed out something pretty important.
"My guess? The Night Bureau's spying on us, and forcing Oswald to work for them." Zoey responded.
"We'll find out tonight. Mr. Oz is what the plan depends on."
"And the fighting power! But do not worry! Me and Zoey, we have found a cavalry." Logan said.
"Cavalry?" Everyone except Zoey and Logan looked confused and even a bit worried.
"Yeah! We've got the Never Witch, Astrid, Night Hunter, Z-blob, Zyan, Phil, Ms. Castillo, Dizzie, Susan, some Night creatures, and many more!" Logan said confidently.
"Wow, we might actually get Mateo back." Cooper was pretty surprised.
"We are going to get him back, Mr. Oz or not." Izzie was determined like she never was before.
She was not going to lose her brother.