Naomi -

“You look stressed.” Carter mumbles through a mouthful of cheesy garlic toast. I roll my eyes at him before closing them in exhaustion. He sits down beside me on the cool leather couch, ignoring literally all of the social cues I was giving off. When I realize after a while that him and his loud chewing weren’t going away, I sigh and respond.

“I’m just worried about Yuki and Will. They haven’t responded to me in a while. They’ve been gone the whole week. I don’t know them that well, but their auras were so-” I stop myself, not even sure where I was headed myself.

“I think your anxiety is just getting the better of you.” He says, before grabbing my hand so examine the raw skin around my thumb. Old habits die hard.

“You read like an open book you know.” I only nod in response as he runs to grab the medkit from the kitchen before returning to me. In any attempt to get me to talk about something to help get my mind off everything, he begins to ask how my day was. In his own special way.

“Spill the tea sis!” He shrills in a fake valley girl voice, and I admire his acting.

I giggle before answering, “Besides what happened with Will and Yuki, I’ve also had quite the few run ins with bad aura girl. The one who uhm, slapped me?”

“Ohhhh, that girl. Yeah. Don’t like her.” He responds, laying across my lap dramatically.

“So what were these said run ins?”

“Well…”

~

Yuki, Will, and I had finally -after missing quite a bit of class time- to go to class. Shocker. But we, being the lazy beings we were, waited until the end of second period to do it. Will parted ways with us, a kiss on the forehead as he left. I loved him, and I hardly knew him. His aura was so… kind.

Not too long after, Yuki drops me off in front of the orchestra classroom, not bothering to question why I had both band and orchestra. I hug her goodbye, the hug lingering longer than intended. I didn’t want to let go.The second bell rings and we part ways. I stand in front of the doorway to orchestra, shivering as my body chills the second she leaves it.

Finally, I sit by the inside of the door in something or other-like chair, trying to figure out the layout of the classroom. I was surprised at how quiet the students were being, as I didn’t have to worry about their noises affecting me.

No teacher seemed to be giving a command, so i close my eyes and try to pinpoint a student to launch onto.

Loralei Benjamin.

She was warm, and her aura felt like vivid colours of oddsome neon colours mashing and combining. Like fireworks of the fluid in glow sticks.

I felt kind of bored, so I dug a little deeper.

A memory materializes in front of me, slowly but surely, like a mist turning into a solid cube of ice.

It was a sunny day, warm and shining bright. A cheerleader uniform adorned her. Those around bouncing and cheering, the game had just ended. A tall strong muscular girl walks up to grab a sip of water from the cooler nearby, and their eyes meet. A complete stranger.

The stranger reaches towards her, an odd shock in the air.

She looks at the hand, and finds an all too familiar mark adorned on there. Loralei pulls at her arm, down to behind the stairs of the stands before moving the hair on her neck to reveal a matching mark.

I blush and pull out of the memory as they begin to familiarize themselves with each other.

As soon as I find myself back in the classroom, I feel a presence right in front of me.

“Quite an interesting memory for you to dig up.” The voice rings, and I mumble an apology before reaching out to shake her hand.

“It's fine. I do it too, you know. Except I’m not as skilled as you… However, it does help me detect when someone is doing it.” She giggles before sitting next to me and laying her head across my lap in a familiar way.

~

“Wait, wait.” Carter interrupts, and I groan. I hated when he did this.

“Wait what?” I mumble, rolling off of him and onto the floor.

“I thought this story was about Monique!” He complains before laying down next to me on the floor.

“Fine, I’ll skip ahead a bit.” I run my hands through my hair before continuing, trying to make sure I had every detail down.

“Okay, so after a little while of Loralei and I discussing her girlfriend, Amiya, and how she could tell it was me who dug through her mind, we were approached by two girls.”

~

“Hi! Oh my god, I told you it was her Britt!” She squealed, and I wince.

“Wow, it is! Oh my god girl ,Monique Silvers like totally called you out on snapchat! She slut shamed you and took a picture of you hanging out with Will! I don’t even know how she like even got it, like you know what I mean?” The other girl, who I assumed was Britt, says, and I wince.

“Yeah, totally.” I murmur, and Loralei shifts beside me. I think she was mind looking them, the name she and I came up with for it only ten minutes ago. What I wouldn’t give to be living in ten minutes ago instead of now.

“Her name is Tiffania.” Loralei whispers, and I try to restrain myself by laughing.

“I can totally like understand if you were upset, but if you are, you have to tell me!”

I kind of decided to ignore her at this point in time, not really paying attention to what she’s saying.

After a while of a one sided conversation of her and her clearly submissive quiet friend, she finally calls me out.

“Is she ignoring me? I think she’s fucking ignoring me. Look! She’s not even looking at me!” She reaches over and knocks on my head as if it were a door, and I scrunch up my face and try to ignore it.

“Stupid bitch, hey! I’m talking to you!” Loralei leans over to do something, but I hold her back, hesitating for a second.

I didn’t want to do anything to affect her in the long run, so I decide to do something a bit more well mannered than scrambling with her brain.

I smirk, winking at Loralei who, judging by her facial expression, knew what was going on.

Tiffania blinks back in shock, and I swear in that moment I saw the cogs in her mind slowly turn.

She gasps and walks out, ignoring the teacher calling for you. I can’t help but giggle to myself as Britt calls out to her before following suit.

“Well, you really have to show me that one.” Loralei muses, before asking for a high five. I hold my hand out, and she slaps hers against mine, nearly missing.

~

“So, Monique is spreading rumours about you, then.” Carter pauses for a moment, weighing this information.

I sigh before nodding, and we sit in silence for a bit.

We both knew what was going to happen. I was going to ignore it, make sure they back off a little bit if they get too close, and just try to live my life.

I wonder how Yuki would have dealt with the situation.