Darren is reading the newspaper, keeping up with all the news that is happening around the surrounding area of Clare Point View. He was on the bus with his friends, heading to a concert in Rockwick in the evening. First, the bake sale, then meet an  old school friend living there, and finally, go to the concert. Darren sat in his seat surrounded by Jesse and Chantel chatting along during this hour-long ride. Darren took deep breaths as his attention turned back to the newspaper.

He didn’t tell Jesse about what Chantel and him talked about earlier in the week. Chantel and Darren decided that it was best that they didn’t tell Jesse about this Supernatural mess. As much as he hated lying to his best friend, this secret may be too dangerous to let him in on it. Back to the newspaper, he looked through the newspaper and spotted a tribute article to a musician named “Millie Horne.” Darren reads the article to himself:

Performers pay tribute to Rockwick and Clare Point View’s local artist, Millie Horne, who is a musician and a former member of the famous band, Midnight Force, passed away two years ago.

His eyes moved from line to line,  absorbed by reading the article. Darren took a glance at the picture of a young woman with dark brown hair as her face showed a bright smile and eyes in the black-and-white photo. He remembers the girl from when he was eleven. This was his brother, Mark’s former band mate from his band, Midnight Force. Other than his friends, Millie was the only person nice to him and was mainly the reason he got into music.

Darren’s mind wandered back in his memory of when Millie introduced a guitar to him during that same age. He scoffed her encouraging him to learn how to play an instrument and believed he would be bad at it. Then Millie told him, “You’ll never know that you suck at it, if you don’t try it.”

So Darren tried to play the guitar. To this day, that was the best decision he ever made and still was. If it was not for Millie, he would have still felt like he could do nothing worth other than being a damn excellent chess player. Music was the reason he moved his focus off of magic, since he couldn’t get damn better at it, anyway. Why should he even bothered to try? That day that Millie passed away was a sad day for him; he knew she lost the fight to battle with her “demons”: Drug addiction.

Breaking his thoughts, Chantel waved her hand in Darren’s face to get his attention. His eyes bolted up at her and Jesse..

“Darren, are you alright?” Chantel asked.

“You look out of it.” Jesse spoke as Darren put the newspaper down, then hands it over to Chantel, showing the article to her.

“Oh… Millie…” Chantel’s tone changed to a sad tone when she skimmed her eyes through the article.

“It sucks that our band wasn't able to get booked at the Millennium Concert Hall for that event. Millie lived in our condominium, jeez. It would've been a nice way to honor her.” Jesse sulked, since all of his friends knew Millie as an old neighbor from their condominium community.

“Robert wasn’t too quick on getting us booked, which was disappointing since Linda and I had the perfect tribute song for her. Looks like we have to scrap it.” Chantel puts the newspaper aside, then she suddenly holds her head. “Ow... That damn headache again.”

“J-ia….” Darren saw Jesse move his hand into his backpack to get a bottle of water to Chantel, then handed it over to Darren.

“Give her water, D.” Jesse stated as Darren nodded in response and gave Chantel the water bottle.

Darren watched Chantel grab the water bottle from him, then gulped it down. If only he was good at magic, he would cast a damn healing spell to numb Chantel’s headache. Alas, it is not worth the risk to perform magic on his best friend, especially when they are in public. Darren saw an old, plump, curly haired lady, who sat across from the other side of the bus. She witnessed him patting Chantel’s back to help her in between her coughs.

“Aw, aren’t you two such a cute couple!” The lady spoke up then Chantel and Darren’s eyes went wide when she said that comment.

“Ew…. No.” Both of them said at once in disgust with the fact that people assumed they were dating. This wasn’t the first time that people thought Darren was dating his best friends. Every once in a blue moon, people thought he was dating Chantel or Jesse was dating her. Other times, they believed Jesse and Darren were into each other when it comes to fans shipping his bandmates.  Darren hated these assumptions.

Darren looked back at the lady, then reply in a rude tone, “Um, it’s not like that, lady....”

“Darren, don’t be so rude to her!” Chantel scolded.

Finally, the bus stopped at the Rockwick bus station, where the group of three friends got up from their seats. They walked off following a crowd of passengers into a bright-lit station with neon light signs that listed every bus platform stop. Signs told passengers where the bus is traveling out to and what type of bus it is. Darren, Jesse, and Chantel headed into the bus station lobby where the bus ticket booth, a couple fast-food joints, and a big screen TV, where it had all the arrivals and departures lists. Darren and Chantel sat on a black, metal bench in the middle of the lobby as Jesse was standing next to them.

Darren looked around to see the hustle and bustle of people coming and leaving on a busy Saturday morning. Rockwick is an odd mixture of a city and suburban town. The NorthEasters had gigs in the area sometimes, but they could never secure a gig at the Millennium Concert Hall.

Watching the crowd in the lobby, Darren sometimes hated  being in the crowd, but not because he hated people. As a mage, he had to endure constantly feeling other people’s Aura. Darren knew damn well about the hidden Supernaturals everywhere he went. Some Auras were powerful enough to knock you off your feet and others were so faint that it didn’t bother him at all. It overwhelmed him but for a damn good nineteen years; he was used to all that magical sensing ability he had.

Darren’s eyes watched people, who were arriving and departing in the marble, pearl-white lobby. The lobby’s lights are at least well-lit compared to the Clare Point View Train and Bus Station which that station is still under construction in some areas.

He watched as Jesse left Chantel and him to get something from one of the fast-food joints for breakfast. Jesse asked the two if they wanted anything, but they declined the offer. Darren checked on Chantel, who is still reeling over from her migraine, but now she seemed to be less tense. He saw Chantel fidget with the ends of her long, black hair as he sat closer next to her.

“You okay?” Darren asked.

“In the book, they said, Aura is like energy and most Supernaturals can feel that right? I think I can feel their Aura everywhere and this isn’t the first time it happened.  I am feeling overloaded! What do I do? Am I going insane?” Chantel answered in a low voice to avoid others from hearing her.

“Wait? You can feel Aura? I thought  that device would keep you from sensing other Supernatural’s Aura!” Darren spoke back to Chantel, then he saw her stop fidgeting with her hair for a moment.

“I don’t know I could! That’s why I am asking you why I am feeling it?! If I am, how do I stop feeling this shit?!” Chantel snapped at him.

“Chantel, the best thing you could do is to ignore the people around whenever you feel it. I don’t know how you dealt with it before, but that’s how I learned.” Darren looked around to find someone that the group were waiting for in the lobby. “Where is that Sung-Hyun? He’s late.” Darren muttered while he twists his head in different directions to find the person.

“Darren, I texted Sung-Hyun earlier. I told him where we were and you can relax. I don’t think he would be late.” Chantel stands up, then assists Darren for the search for the guy.

“Hey, guys! Guess who I found!” Jesse walked up to them with a bag of food in his hands.

He is being followed by a guy who has short, light purple, dyed hair and bright brown eyes. The boy wore an athletic jacket and a black muscle shirt with matching black jeans. Chantel smiled at the boy as she ran up to hug him, then greeted him in Korean. Darren took a deep breath in relief when they finally found Sung-Hyun.

“Hey, Sung-Hyun.” Darren smiled.

Suddenly, Darren’s day got better after the long bus ride to Rockwick.