As those simple words left Philip's mouth I felt a chill down my spine despite the hot weather. His tone was much more harsh and cold, it made me realise that Tobias was definitely someone important, way more important than I could have imagined at the time. Rudsolav's reaction to me talking to him now made me even more unnerved. It felt like I did something illegal and I've been caught.

Tobias turned back to me, almost ignoring Philip, and gestured to his table again: "Lola wanted to talk to you."

"She can do that later.", Philip quickly replied for me.

Clearly neither of them was backing away which left me in the position to pick a side. Great. Lola was the one that I wanted to ask some stuff anyway, and although Tobias was weirding me out and Philip's reaction even more so, it wasn't like he was going to hurt me in the middle of lunch. Philip would have a clear view of Tobias' table. At least these were my excuses at the time.

"Fine, I can talk to her."

Rudoslav and Philip glared at me, like I was some kind of traitor. I just wanted to yell at them that it was going to be a quick chat and not even with this Tobias guy but with Lola, a fellow club member. At the time I really didn't see the big issue.

I stood up and followed Tobias, his smug look at Philip probably felt like a gut punch. It's fine, it's just a chat, I repeated in my mind as we walked over to the table.

Everyone there seemed to recognise me. It was then that I noticed Lola, sitting there with her summer dress. The bright white dress with pink flower patterns contrasted with the dark and black clothes the others at the table had on. She seemed totally out of place. Like a small kitten in a pack of wolves.

At first I didn't really want to sit at their table but after Tobias sat down next to Lola and everyone stared at me I felt like I had to.

The air around the table felt similar to the one in the abandoned building, cool and very surreal. Everyone had this weird smile, their eyes hidden behind their sunglasses. It was also really hot but most of them wore dark clothes with long sleeves and pants. Everyone besides Lola.

"You invited her over?", Lola gave Tobias an awkward smile.

So, she didn't want to talk to me? Was that his trick to make me come over to them? Before I could start getting a bit creeped out a girl sitting next to Tobias seemed to silence everyone as she leaned forward.

"We heard you found something in the abandoned factory.", she smiled.

I glanced over at Lola. I haven't told her to not talk about what we've found, but I also didn't tell her to go and spread the word around, and it was as at that moment, when I looked over at her, she realised just that. 

I didn't exactly know how much she had said to them so I decided to keep my cards close to my chest.

I nodded: "Yeah. Why? Are abandoned buildings so interesting to you?"

She ignored my comment, while tucking away her short light brown hair she just clarified: "We hang in there sometimes. Hearing about two teeth being found there creeped us out a bit, you know?"

Lola told them about the teeth, of course. Her explanation seemed reasonable, although if not a bit convenient. Even though I couldn't see her eyes through her sunglasses I still felt her stare at me, almost like she was reading every single tiny move I did.

Tobias suddenly wrapped his arm around Lola and wondered: "You didn't find anything else weird in there, did you?"

At first ignoring his arm around her I quickly replied: "No."

I stared at Lola and she gave me a look that told me enough. She wouldn't rat me out for lying. 

Going back to his move I finally realised why the name Tobias seemed so familiar to me. Tobias was Lola's new boyfriend. The one she was talking about daily, even if I zoned out every time she started talking about him his name must have stuck in my mind.

Everyone at the table seemed to focus on Tobias as he discussed with the short haired girl if they should go there anyway or not. Their decision didn't really interest me so I looked over at Philip's table. He seemed... well, pissed, just chewing on his lunch not even looking up. Rudoslav shared a glance with me before quickly looking away. Not out of anger, but out of nervousness.

Just as I was about to stand up and leave the weirdo group the school's doors swung open and my eyes immediately focused on the person walking out.

There she was, Nathalie. Not noticing her presence seemed impossible. With the way she carried herself, her flats ever so gently moved across the grass. She wore what I should have expected. A white buttoned shirt with light puffy sleeves to her elbows, along with a long flowy cream skirt. Very classy, very rich, very Nathalie. Unlike every other girl outside her hair wasn't tied, her locks ever so gently moved with every step she took. That girl knew how to secretly gain attention.

Philip seemed to be just as focused on her. As I watched her walk up to him it was like something clicked in my brain; I was staring again. I quickly looked away, it would have been weird for me to stare at her longer than Philip.

Me and the girl at the table shared a look. Please don't tell me she saw me staring at Nathalie. She probably didn't, I hoped she didn't.

"Tell Philip we said hi.", She smiled.

Lola quickly snapped: "Clara."

I wasn't sure if she snapped at her for basically kicking me out or for telling me to talk to Philip, but that didn't really matter. I took my change and quickly stood up and walked back to Philip's table. I could still feel Clara's eyes following me all the way there.

As I finally arrived at the table I basically slumped onto the picnic bench. Somehow talking to them exhausted me, it felt like I just ran a marathon or something, and it only just hit me when I got far enough away from them. Must have been the stress.

All of them looked at me for a moment before Rudoslav finally said something: "How did it go?"

I rubbed my forehead, slowly a headache was creeping at me. I could feel it. Nevertheless I tried ignoring it.

"They just wanted to talk about what we found in the factory.", I huffed.

Nathalie put her hands on her hips, I thought for a moment that she wanted to say something but she didn't, instead Rudoslav continued: "Did you tell them?"

"Me? No, Lola did. Well, she only mentioned the teeth. At least now I know not to trust her with secrets."

Philip immediately choked on his lunch as I finished talking. To be honest I didn't want to say that last part out loud but it sort of slipped out. I didn't expect it to catch Philip so off guard though. Looking at Nathalie she also seemed flustered, although she hid it better than him.

She quickly changed the topic: "Anyway, my father does have some books in his study. I haven't found time to go through them yet."

"Can't I just come over and look through them?"

"You... you want to come over to my house?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Just as she was about to answer, her expression suddenly changed, she looked at me in shock before reaching into her small bag. 

Rudoslav looked over at me and blurted: "You're bleeding."

I quickly touched my face and sure enough, my nose started randomly bleeding. Even Philip looked up from his lunch for the first time. Suddenly not as angry as he was before. Nathalie quickly handed me a tissue.

"Have you been drinking enough water?", she asked.

I shrugged. I guess I probably didn't. I barely drink on normal days. She looked concerned for a moment, just a moment, before snapping back to her serious face and even though I was still bleeding she thought it would be a good time to start talking about articles again.

"I suggest you start writing your article. You don't have a lot of time left, you know."

Philip and Rudoslav nodded in agreement. Maybe because they really did agree with her, or they were afraid of what she would do to them if they didn't.

"How do you know I haven't already?", I wiped my nose.

She glanced at me, almost examining me before bluntly answering: "Because you haven't."

Simple answer but still effective enough to make me shut up. Just as lunch ended we all started walking back to our classrooms. I couldn't help but notice Tobias and Philip sharing a quick look as we passed their table.

"What's up with those two?", I turned to Rudoslav.

"What?"

"Tobias and Philip."

He paused for a moment. Maybe thinking about if he should really tell me their backstory or not. We started walking slower to make Philip be far enough he wouldn't be able to hear.

Rudoslav whispered: "Oh, well, um... they had a fight a while back and they beat each other up."

I raised a brow: "Philip beat someone up?"

He glanced at Philip and back at me: "Yeah, it surprised me too. It was kind of intense. The school had to call an ambulance and everything." He quickly added: "I don't think I'll ever forget it, especially since he had the thing."

He gestured towards his cheek. The scare on Philip's cheek. Tobias also had a scare on his lip. It had to be really intense since both of them left with scars on their faces.

This did make me wonder: "What did they fight about?"

"I don't know. Philip doesn't like to talk about it, so I don't really push much."

Once again Rudoslav's trust in Philip kept me from learning something interesting.

Suddenly, remarkably, just as we were about to go our own ways a teacher rushed into the hallway and loudly exclaimed something that every student ever wanted to hear. The school day is cancelled because of the heat. I don't think we even let the teacher finish his sentence before we rushed into our classrooms to get our bags and get out of there as fast as we could. They already kept us there long enough, especially in that kind of heat.

As I left the school building I immediately shared a look with Philip. Oh, right. Now I will have to endure a walk to his house with him.

Before he could say anything to me I put my hands up in defeat: "You're mad at me, I get it."

He looked over at me, a slight amused look on his face: "I'm not mad at you. I'm just mad at him."

"Oh, well, that's a relief.", I chuckled, a bit embarrassed about the fact that I thought everything revolved around me for a moment.

I walked over to him thinking that was the end of it. Of course it wasn't.

He had to mock me: "Worried I wasn't going to talk to you anymore?"

"...A relief because I would hate to give back all that stuff that you let me borrow.", I corrected.

He didn't seem to believe me and with a smug look noted: "Maybe you should also borrow the ability to lie from me."

He put the football hat on my head, happy with himself, probably because he finally thought he got a good read on me. I didn't bother snapping back, it seemed too nice to do so. That warm feeling I haven't felt for years finally started creeping in and the next thing he said just amplified it.

"Ice cream?"

Before I got a chance to respond, another voice behind us called out to him. It was Nathalie. For a moment that warm feeling stayed, before she walked closer to us and it seemed to suddenly disappear and turn into something different, something cold and fresh.

I didn't listen in on much of their conversation. To summarise Nathalie still wanted to print the newspapers but she needed some help or whatever. Obviously Philip offered to help her and told me to stay at the school and wait for him, like some kind of dog.

While reluctantly obliging I sat down on the grass in front of the school. Kids were scattered around, some talking, some clearly planning things to do after school had cancelled.

What was I going to do after getting ice cream with Philip? I could chill as well as I could in that heat. My thoughts lead me to an all too familiar place, Nathalie. Well, it quickly also made me think about what she said. The article. I guessed she had a small point. If I ever wanted to be finished with my article I should at least start writing it. Maybe I could have asked to borrow Philip's laptop, although borrowing another thing from Philip didn't seem that appealing to me. At the rate I was borrowing things it was only a matter of time before he would have an empty bedroom.

"Hey! City girl!", A voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked over and there were the kids from before, obnoxiously leaning on a stone wall in front of the school. If that wasn't a red flag telling me to get away from the bad kid popular group I don't know what was. Although ignoring them was pretty hard since all of them were staring at me pretty intensely, just waiting for me to come over. For some reason I gave in and walked over.

Clara had a smug look on her face, like she was already planning on doing something.

"We're driving to the farms, wanna join us?"

Why she was even talking to me was beyond me. She seemed like the popular cool type. I wasn't even sure what type of school stereotype but I definitely wasn't that. Just as I was about to decline I hesitated. I haven't done anything rebellious in quite a while, but it wasn't like I was going to agree to hang out with total strangers just because of that, that would be ridiculous.

"We have ice cream."