The unfortunate adventures of Sarah Richards

Chapter seven ~you must be some kind of genius~

After church the next day i ran home without waiting for my family. Perks of city life, you can walk practically anywhere. I sped up to my room and slipped out of the little black dress i'd worn. I put on my black skinny jeans, a muscle shirt with a collage of supernatural scenes on it and then my flowing black sweater. Warm for summer, i know. At least i could remove the sweater if i needed to. My parents finally came home just as I was putting on my converse. "And where are you headed young lady?" My mother asked and stood in the way of the door with Orwell on her hip. "Suburban station. Remember? I'm meeting Thea there." I told her. Thea had conveniently called me earlier that morning asking if i would like to spend some time with her after church. This was extremely convenient for me as watching strangers in a station gets rather lonely after a while. And having someone to talk to about all this research i'd been doing would be ever so helpful. "Right." My mother pursed her lips, nodding so slowly you could hardly see it. "I want you back by five." She said. I looked at my watch. One. So that gave me four hours with Thea. I mean, four hours to gather information on the necklaces! I grabbed my laptop bag which had my laptop and phone in it, "be careful!" My dad called as i scooted out the front door before my dog could follow. I don't know why my dad is always so worried about me being careful. I have lived here for nearly eleven years now and don't really remember my life before moving to Philadelphia. I walked for about ten minutes to get a few blocks away from my house to where the nearest train station was. When the train pulled in, i boarded and bought a one way ticket to suburban station. Thea lived in center city so we had arranged that she'd be waiting at the platform which my train was due to arrive on. This was going to be great! I couldn't tell if the stirring in my stomach was over getting a bit closer to finding the meaning of these necklaces or over seeing my new friend again. It had to be the necklaces! Thea was just another girl. Why would i be so excited to see her?
The train car i had unfortunately chosen was filled nearly halfway with a family of screaming children occupied by a seemingly absent mother glued to her cell phone. Finally getting off was a relief in more ways than one. I stood dumbfounded for a moment with my laptop bag slung across my shoulder. Where was Thea. "Sarah!" A familiar voice called from a bench amidst a throng of people boarding and leaving the trains. I turned quickly towards the voice and saw Thea standing as tall as she could and waiving her beanie in the air. For a few seconds i couldn't help but stand and stare at her. Her long golden hair was done up in a tight bun except for one strand that fell about her face. She was wearing very short jean shorts and a hoodie from masterman highschool. She'd worn high top converse for shoes. I shook my head a little to snap back to reality and walk over to where my friend was. "Hi!" Thea chirped and jumped down from the bench. "Glad to see you made it here." She giggled a little. "Me too." I couldn't help but laugh with her. "Were you waiting very long?" I asked as i sat down on the bench and pulled my laptop out, starting to connect to the station's wifi. Thea looked at the clock on her phone before sitting down next to me. "About, twenty minutes." She shrugged and then looked over at my laptop screen before looking up to make eye contact with me. "So what exactly are you doing?" Thea asked. I took a moment to stare at her again, pretending i was thinking deeply on how to explain this 'difficult subject.' She was so beautiful. Every time she spoke or moved closer to me or held eye contact, it made me feel warm inside. Safe. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, this is what it had felt like every time i'd gotten a crush on a boy from school. No, that couldn't be right. I didn't have a crush on another girl. I- Thea's gentle voice snapped me back from my thoughts. "Yes?" She prompted whilst trying not to laugh. "See these?" I began and pointed to my necklace. Thea nodded quickly. I noticed that she kept hers tucked in her shirt but i said nothing about it. It was not my placed to ask about it or judge her. "What do you know of the theories on them?" I asked as i pulled up several saved articles from google and a few notes i'd taken. "Well, i know that my parents believe it is some divine intervention. God, to be exact, putting them there. I don't really have an answer as to what i think they're for but the soulmates theory sounds awfully nice." She replied, a slightly worried frown furrowed her brow. "And both you and your parents are probably right." I started getting a little excited at this point. "What?" Thea asked. I sighed deeply and looked away from my screen to make eye contact with her again. "Do you really want me to explain it all?" I laughed. Her response was a vigorous nod. "Okay, here we go..." I launched into a long speech. First i explained the appearances, then the phantom pain, hearing and sight, and the story of Andrew Burrn and Alexander Laughlin. I even told her about Finn and Britney. And how all the other theories didn't make sense compared to the soulmates one. I even checked to see if more matches had popped up. None yet but that didn't discourage me. "...So i'm here where i know there will be a lot of people. What i'm going to do is; if i see someone with a necklace i'll take note of it's colour and any features or mannerisms about that person. There's got to be some sort of connection between hues. Like say for instance, all people with a necklace that has a dominantly red hue, are warm and friendly and usually heavy set and or very tall." I finally finished explaining. Which probably had eaten up a large chunk of our time there. Thea was wide eyed and her head tilted a little thus indicating that she had ben listening thoroughly the whole time. "You must be some kind of genius!" She declared and ran her fingers over her crystal through her shirt but did not pull it out. "I doubt that." I laughed and began jotting down the necklaces i could see. A tall, thin boy with streaky blonde hair. Dominantly green necklace. "No really, who else could have figured out this much!?" Thea was getting just about excited as i had when i rambled my findings to her. "Anyone. I haven't done much except read what other people have already written." I replied rather glumly and kept jotting things down. A shorter, more heavyset girl with light brown hair. Dominantly pink necklace. "But you're making connections. I bet if you take them to the press or city hall or something, that people will hear you. Maybe you or somebody else would be able to close the case." Thea sounded so sure that i was going to solve this. "Maybe." I shrugged a little and kept looking around for more people who bore crystals. "Do you see any?" I asked after i finished typing something up. Thea looked around, seeming unsure for a while. "Tall, thin, long blonde hair. Female. Pastel blue necklace." She said. I couldn't see who she must have been referring to. But it didn't matter. "Oh, and there's you! Tall, pretty, long black hair. Female. Baby blue necklace." Thea laughed. I began taking down more data as the hours ticked past...