The Story

Chapter 25 (Part 2)

"Oh, hi Julie" John greeted awkwardly; his face turned slightly red. Julie hadn't noticed this; she was too busy trying get control over herself.

"And I'm Ed" said the red haired boy, sensing the tenseness; "You guys know each other?" he asked John, trying to break the ice.

"Well, not really, I accidentally ran into her during the exams" said John, smiling; "she tried to kill me"

Ed laughed, taking this as a joke; "Well, you do look scary"

"If I wanted to kill you," Julie smiled, "you'd be dead by now."

They laughed; John nervously. He glanced at Julie, something about her seemed... different; 'did something happen?' he wondered.

"Well that's morbid." Came a voice from behind them.

The three acquaintances turned to see a tall girl with long silky black hair slung back. Only one lock was hanging perfectly over her left temple. Her eyes were light blue which contrasted quite a bit with the darkness of her hair. Her eyebrows were of normal size and were just as dark. Up close, her complexion looked quite pale.

"You're the first girl they called on stage right?" asked Ed.

"That's right" joined John, "Abigail was it?"

The girl gave a bright smile; "that's right! It's a pleasure" she said, giving a slight bow; "and you are?"

"Oh, sorry about that, um, I'm Ed, this is my friend John, and this is Julie" he said, pointing his thumb at each person he was introducing (including himself).

"You can call me Johnny if you'd like" said John awkwardly, for some reason, nothing was coming to his mind at the moment.

Abigail smiled; "so what are your guy's results? I'm curious!"

"Why do you want to know?" asked Julie suspiciously, she was always trained to not give out information to strangers if not necessary.

"It's always good to know more about your classmates" replied Abigail cheerfully.

Julie did not expect this cheerful personality. From the way she walked, Abigail looked to be a prestigious rich kid. However, her personality couldn't be more different.

"Well, here's my card" said Ed, showing his paper to Abigail.

She looked at it; "you didn't get a name like we did?" she asked.

Ed furrowed his brow; "what do you mean" he glanced at the paper; "it is written right here, my full name and my rank. What are you talking about?" he asked, pointing at the piece of paper showing only a black line within a brown hexagon.

John and Abigail looked at each other, than at Ed; they were all confused.

"It must be a Marishka paper" said Julie glancing at Ed's parchment.

"What's that?" the three asked at the same time.

"It's a paper that only allows a person with certain memories to see what it says" explained Julie; "The rest see what is actually written down on it by a normal pen," she paused, then added, "or a pen made to be seen by all."

"Wow, I've only heard of these things" said Ed excitedly; "never actually thought I would see one" looking at his paper with newfound wonder; "I heard these are quite rare!"

"Really?" asked John; "I've never heard of it"

"C'mon, show me yours" Ed asked the rest; "I'm curious too"

John and Abigail pulled out their papers enthusiastically. Julie pulled hers out reluctantly after watching the others with hesitation.

"What's wrong?" the three asked her.